How frustrating it is to look at Washington, our congress and our president and their inability to get anything done. The so called “Super Committee” has just adjourned in failure, unable to agree on any way to trim the deficit. Fingers are pointed in every direction and there is no hope of a bi-partisan solution to all of this financial trouble. The Democrats are firm in wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy, the Republicans say no to this and want to trim Social Security and Medicare. Everybody is waiting for the election of 2012 to solve this problem.
But it won’t solve anything at all. The polarity in Washington is beyond repair, the two or three or four sides simply will not compromise on anything, and new faces in the old parties will do little to create a new climate. What is needed is firm leadership to bring discipline to our politics and to lead this nation into caring for our unfortunate, and using our resources to give to the world what we all want and need so desperately: Peace, compassion and firm direction.
With the blame and finger pointing in full swing in Washington, the likelihood of this is minimal. At the moment, it is nobody’s fault that the government is in wreckage, no one is willing to take responsibility for much of anything. It is “their” fault, depending on whom you ask.
Here at the beginning of the season of Advent, it is helpful to look at what we are and what we are doing. To see what repentance might look like in our society, and how our contrition might bring us into a more wholesome place, as we wait for the return of our Lord.
In the 64th chapter of Isaiah, there are words that sound very much like a cry from the present time:
We have all become as one who is unclean,
all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
For you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
There isn’t much question of fault finding in this passage. The fault is within ourselves We are in this place because of what we have done, because of our greed, our contempt for each other, and our insistence that only our own way is correct. True community is what is missing in all of this, and the cry to our God is deep and utter. Where else can we turn when we have so terribly failed?
Advent is a time of yearning. Yearning for the hand and voice of God to come among us to provide us with what we have no ability to provide for ourselves; to move between us and bring us together in community to make this world into the Kingdom of God.
It isn’t only the debt crisis that has us in disarray. It is also our own lives, the relationships that we have with each other, and the way that we are frustrated so often in our inability to solve our own problems. Thanksgiving is a time that brings families together. It is often a time when old frustrations bloom and our ability to agree with each other around the Thanksgiving table fails. Old wounds refuse healing and our arguments blossom.
Jesus speaks words of hope in Mark’s Gospel. They don’t immediately sound very hopeful, he is speaking of the turmoil that his disciples will find on earth, troubles that we know very well. You will be hated for my name’s sake, says Jesus False christs and false prophets will rise up among you and perform signs and wonders to lead astray the elect, Jesus goes on, but when all of that happens, it is a sign that the Son of Man is coming back. No one knows the day or the hour, says Jesus, so be awake and watchful. The point of all of this is that God has his creation in hand and cares for all of us, even in our distress.
As we look at our failed legislative and family situations, know that there is a positive solution to all of it. That despite our place among the nations of the world, or our so called illustrious economy, or our difficulties with one another, we are still subjects of our God, who only cares about our love for each other, not about our economic welfare, or any of the petty disputes that we have with Uncle Charlie.
The question that we all have to take seriously is how we are treating each other. Do our social concerns provide goodness for our neighbors and are the poor and the destitute taken care of? Not are the rich taxed, or are the middle class benefiting by the way that the government is structured. Social concerns are what you and I can do something about. We don’t need legislation for this. If we spend our time and our talent as well as a portion of our wealth on those who are in need, we will be fulfilling all that our God requires. And when finally, in whatever moment our Lord comes back to us, he will discover that we are his worthy disciples, who have done what we can to take care of those in need, his beloved people. That is all that we are being asked to do.
Let’s keep the division of labor straight: It is God’s job to save the world, but it is our job to care for all of God’s family, who are loved so very much by our creator.
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