The Promise of Advent

            It is hard for me to remember when we weren’t engaged in a war.  When I was a kid, it was the Second World War.  I heard the news about Pearl Harbor while I was listening to the radio in our living room.  We had no television set then.  We had blackouts and civil defense wardens walking though our neighborhoods making sure that no light was shining out of our houses.  We had ration books and I took them to the grocery store and got food with the stamps.  At school we had drills when we huddled under our desks when supposedly German bombers were threatening our peace.

            As kids, we would play ball in a vacant lot in back of our houses.  There was a war veteran living nearby who would come out on his back porch and yell at us because of the noise that we were making.  Somebody told us that he was “shell shocked”.  We didn’t really know what that meant, but it served as an explanation for his behavior.  We now know that he had PTSD from the war and we should have been a little bit more compassionate with him.   

            There was great celebration when the war was over.  I remember VE day when the war in Europe was over and VJ day when finally the Japanese surrendered.  We were a bit worried about the atomic bombs that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war, but we were very glad that the conflict was over.

            It was only a few years before we became engaged in Korea and then Viet Nam.  The Cold War overshadowed all of these times.  Peace is certainly an elusive thing. 

            I am struck by the Gospel on this first Sunday of Advent predicting the coming of the Lord Jesus in great power and majesty in the middle of extreme turbulence on this earth.  The message is that we will be troubled beyond our understanding; that wars and rumors of wars will be constant and we will begin to wonder what was to become of us.  But God in His wisdom will send our savior to us and our redemption will be at hand.  That is the Good News of the Gospel.  What I know about that is that it is none of our doing.  We are the ones on this earth creating the havoc and the multitude of difficulties.  Our political systems simply aren’t strong enough to get us out of our misery and we need the hand of God to help us.  Our help is in the name of the Lord and he will finally, at last, bring redemption. 

            The problem with that is that it has very little to do with our own ability to solve our own problems.  By ourselves, we can do very little to make peace in this world.  We can love one another, care for one another and do our best to make this world a better place.  That is what Jesus taught us and asked us to do as his followers.  But when it comes to creating a world full of harmony, we don’t have the ability to do that. 

            There were times when we tried. After Constantine recognized Christianity, the cross marched ahead of the Roman army and we began compelling adherence to the Christian faith at the point of a sword.  That didn’t work very well.  Certainly the Crusades were an example of this.  We sent armies into the Holy Land to defeat Saladin and his armies and to free Jerusalem from those who had conquered it.  That resulted in more, not less war.  After all of the crusades were over, we had the burden of the Inquisition, which tried to impose Christianity on humankind by force and terror.  That didn’t really work very well either.  When I look at our history, it is hard for me to understand how we ever believed that we could remake the world in God’s image by force and argument.  It just doesn’t work.

            What we have been taught by our Lord is that love is the way to the human heart.  When we love each other, hearts are drawn to us.  We don’t need guns or swords to do this; our compassion and our love are what works best. 

            What our Lord promises us in this season of Advent is that eventually, God will make the world over in the way that it was always intended to be by sending his only Son back to us to be our savior and redeemer.  That good news is what we are celebrating in this magnificent season.  We celebrate Advent as a time of anticipation that God’s incredible goodness will at last triumph over the egotistical misery that our human nature breeds. 

            That is welcome news in this time of increased conflict and fear.  We wonder where the world is going and our political systems don’t seem to be able to give us much in the way of answers about what will happen next.  But when we love one another and accept each other the way that we come, there is a beauty in that that comes from the heart of God.  While we wait for our Lord to come, we can make the world much better when we love.

Loving the Refugees

             At Christ Church, when I was the rector, we always did a re-enactment of the very long Palm Sunday Gospel.  People would dress up and come down the center aisle and take the part of all of the people in that incredible drama.  I was always Pilate; somehow I thought the priest ought to take that role.  There was Judas, throwing the money at the feet of the chief priests and running away.  Someone would take the part of Jesus and cry out in agony as the cross was employed.  I always loved that long gospel because it encompassed the whole of Jesus’ teaching at the moment of his death.  It wasn’t yet time for the resurrection and we were faced with the horror of what we had all done in the name of ourselves. 

            At the moment that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey another procession was also coming into the city.  This was the leadership of the Roman Empire accompanied by an army, coming into town to show the might of the people who controlled the nation.  It was the Romans who governed everything and to whom the chief priests and the scribes owed their allegiance. 

            What has always stood out for me in this wonderfully ironic story is the cheering of the crowd and the laying of palms at the feet of Jesus as he came into the city and how those cheers were turned to jeers not long after as the crowds called for his crucifixion when he was brought before Pilate and charged.  It wasn’t only Judas and Peter who denied Christ at that moment.  The message is that we all have done that.  I have betrayed Christ by my selfishness and my fear and by my constant intent to live primarily for my own welfare.

            I think of this curious contrast in this moment as we have mourned the loss of the lives in Paris in the terrorism that we witnessed last week and the response to it by those who would blame all of this on the Muslim religion and deny the refugees who are fleeing Syria and Iraq any admittance to this country.  The negative response to the call to admit refugees has been anything but inspiring.  It is a measure of the fear and hatred that we have in our hearts that keeps us from doing anything to help these people.  I remember the words on our Statue of Liberty that says simply: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  I lift my lamp beside the golden door.  Emma Lazarus caught the spirit of America in that wonderful poem that expressed our welcoming spirit.  I have seen pictures of ships sailing past that statue on their way to Ellis Island with a cargo of refugees from many countries. Both of my grandfathers came from abroad.  My mother’s father from Sweden and my dad’s mother and father came from the English midlands.   Our nation has been populated by skilled people from Italy, Hungary, Ireland and many other places where life was hard.  Look at the names of the people that you know.  We come from many places.  We are a wonderful amalgamation of the human race.  We have become Americans.  Because of what has so gracefully happened to us, we certainly can continue to offer a welcoming hand to those who are oppressed today.

             Jesus came and taught us to love one another. It is not bombs and guns that are a good response to the hatred that we have seen; but love and compassion.  Certainly, we have shown a measure of that to the people of Paris and Beirut who have suffered; but we need also to have some compassion and love for those who have been a part of the perpetration of these tragedies.  When we can learn to love our enemies, then there will be peace on this earth.

             Jesus taught us to love one another.  He didn’t specify any conditions for that.  He even said particularly that we are to love our enemies.  That isn’t easy for any of us to hear, not in the wake of 9/11 or the Paris or Beirut bombings.  Our instinct is to retaliate, to eliminate; to strike back with the same measure of hatred that we are experiencing.  If there is anything for us to learn from human history, it is that this doesn’t work.  It simply produces more of the same.  When we can respond with love instead of hatred, we will turn hearts and minds toward peace.  A good start toward that would be compassion for that great crowd of people who are yearning to breathe free; who need a new place to start.  They bring with them their skills and their lives.  We will be blessed by their presence, if only we can get past our fear and open our arms to receive them.   May God bless us and them in this struggle and bring us all out on the side of hope and justice.

The Heritage of Children

            When I was a kid, children were beginning to be wanted, not needed.  There was a time when children were required to help on the farm or in the business and it was a great thing for a family to have a number of children.  My father-in-law was one of ten children in his family and was sent out to work on a farm as a child.  Like his brothers he was “farmed out” to work on a neighborhood farm. This was almost a norm in our society.  We had children because we had to have the hands to do the work that was so essential.  In this time, we have come full circle. 

            I read an article the other day talking about how families now have both parents working and are worrying because they don’t have the time to take care of their children.  They are making enough money with two people being employed; but the kids don’t have the full-time care that they would have with a stay at home mom or pop.  We see it in our family.  Our granddaughter and her husband have two small boys.  When their mom is working and the kids don’t have school, they need to find somebody to care for them.  Sometimes, that is Rosie and me.  We love it when one of them comes to spend the day; but I see the anxiety in their mom’s eyes.  She would really love to be home full time to take care of them.  These are good kids who have excellent, loving parents and who will grow up to be good people.  They are obviously loved and nurtured and really have everything that they need.  I have no doubt that they will be excellent adults.

            The section of First Samuel is a wonderful tribute to God who has given to Hannah a child that had been denied to her for years.  She pleaded with God to open her womb and let her have a child and when this happened and her son Samuel was born, she praised God with what looks to me like the Magnificat of the Old Testament 1 Samuel 2: 1-10 . Hannah praises God in these words:

                       

             The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap; to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them he has set the world.

            In Luke’s Gospel, after Mary visited Elizabeth to tell her of her own pregnancy and the coming birth of Jesus, and learned of the coming of the child who would grow up to be John the Baptist, Mary raised her voice in that elegant song of praise that we know as the Magnificat     Luke 1: 46-55. These are songs that come from the hearts of women who know that they are very blessed to be able to look forward to having children who they will nurture and who will grow up under their care.  That is a glorious gift.  All of us who have children know the wonder of that.  And what a gift John and Jesus were to the whole world.  Neither of them lived very long and had tragic endings.  Mary watched as Jesus was crucified and she wept bitter tears. She came to understand the power of God through the resurrection of her son.  We have all been blessed by that incredible event.

            I have also watched when something like that happened. . When a child is lost, it is a terrible tragedy in a family.  I have seen parents struggle for years with that kind of loss.  It certainly defines us.  I know one couple who lost a son who then had a terrible time for several years after that death and who finally came out of it more blessed than I could have imagined.  Grief is a way that we are healed after a tragedy.  It is a miserable time of life and we need care and comfort when we experience it; but it is possible to come through it to a time of renewed hope and promise.

            Samuel was indeed a gift to Hannah.  He went on to greatly bless the Hebrew people.  They had been leaderless for a long time.  Samuel was essentially the last Judge of the Hebrews.  He led them through difficult times when their religion had almost vanished.  Eventually, they demanded a king.  Samuel talked to God who told him to appoint Saul as their king.  He did so and Saul disappointed the people as God was certain that he would.  He then commissioned Samuel to find another king.  He sent him to the house of Jesse where God said that one of his sons would be the next king.  Samuel saw all of the sons of Jesse who were present and none of them was the one designated by God.  Samuel asked the father if that was all of his sons and Jesse replied that there was yet another who was at that moment tending the sheep.  Samuel asked that he be brought home and it turned out that this was David who was the one chosen by God to be the great king of the Hebrews. 

            This is a great story, linking the book of Ruth, who conceived Obed who was the father of Jesse and Samuel who came to anoint Jesse’s son David as the king.  It was the way that God made a new beginning for the Hebrew people. 

            Our children are always a new beginning.  They are the herald of the future and those who tell the story of the past.   My grandson, Michael is a writer.  He will chronicle all of the things that this family of ours has seen and done in our time.  He will be an eloquent voice to remind those who follow that life has a purpose, even when we can’t quite see it.  May God bless all of those who come after this generation of ours.  Our children are our future and they are indeed a gift.

Hope Through Simplicity

             The problems in the Middle East just won’t go away.  When Rosie and I were in Israel and Palestine a few years ago, there was an obvious strain in the relationship that the Israelis had with the Palestinians.  The Palestinians had different license plates and there were many check points on the roads that they could not go through.  In the West Bank, there were numerous places where settlers were reclaiming territory that they thought had been given to them by God and that the Palestinians had no claim to the territory at all.  This attitude strained relationships beyond any tolerance and there were frequent violent clashes.  In Northern Jordan, we visited a Palestinian refugee camp filled with people who had lost their homes.  Their fears and disappointments were quite obvious.

            I am intrigued by the Book of Ruth and the wonderful integration of the cultures that it represents.  Ruth was a Moabite.  That probably means little to you, but the Moabites were created when the daughters of Lot found their father drunk in a cave following the escape from Sodom when their mother was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back at the destruction of the town.  The daughters each got pregnant by their drunken father at their own insistence.  The eldest daughter gave birth to a child named Moab, who became the leader of the tribe that eventually produced Ruth.  The remarkable nature of the story is that in due course, Ruth married Boaz and they produced a baby named Obed who became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, the great King of Israel.  There was a fully integrated family that came from both the tribes of the Moabites and the Hebrews.  That integration served them all very well when the opposition was from the Babylonians and the Assyrians.  It is harder to see today when the opposition is from the God given-ness of the Jewish state and the Arab people who have lived in the area for centuries. 

             I am convinced that there isn’t much that you and I can do to fix this mess.  We can only keep it in our prayers and our hearts and hope that by God’s infinite grace this problem will find a solution.  Simplicity seems to me to be a better place to start than the wielding of power. 

            In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus talks about the Scribes, the religious leaders,  who like to walk about in long robes and take the best seats at all of the gatherings.  He says that they will, in the end, receive condemnation.  He watches as people put money into the treasury.  He sees the rich people put in large sums very ostentatiously.  Then a poor widow comes and puts into the treasury two small copper coins that are worth a penny.  He tells his disciples that this woman has contributed more than any of the others because they have given out of their surplus, but she has given all that she has.  This is a wonderful sermon about simplicity; how less is often worth much more.

           I know that is true for you and me also.  It is also probably true about the problems that affect so much of our world.  We complicate them with our egotistical need to control and to fix.  What separates most people is their need to be right and for those who oppose them to be wrong.  That is certainly true in our politics.  Blame and finger pointing seem to substitute for relevant conversation about what we need to do in this world.  When we can remove our egos from the argument, it is always easier to find answers.  That, I believe, is what Jesus is telling his disciples and what he is telling us. 

            One of the prime reasons for our involvement in the Middle East has been a strong desire to plant democracy in those different nations.  That is what we had in mind in Iraq, in Libya and certainly what we hoped for in Syria.  Obviously, that isn’t happening.  Those countries have their own tribal governments that have no desire at all to have what we call democracy.  They are simply tribes struggling in their own areas to keep their own control.  Our vision for these people is much too large for them to understand what we have in mind, and more the problem, it is our vision, not theirs.  I wonder if we would learn to listen more and talk less that we might be able in this world to find more inclusive answers to the questions that confront us. 

            When Jesus was given a coin and asked if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus asked whose picture was on the coin.  When the people answered that it was Caesar’s picture, Jesus told them to give to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, and to give to God what belonged to God.  He didn’t tell them to not pay the taxes, he simply told them to get their priorities straight.  If we could pay more attention to what God wants, which is for us to love one another as we are loved by God and not try to make everyone over in our own image, we might discover that the answers that seem to elude us are much easier to find.