 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
December 16, 2007
What Was Will Be!
James 5:7-10
“Years ago,” writes author Michael Poteet, “my parents gave me a Santa Claus hat that had belonged to my maternal grandfather.” 1
Paw-Paw would wear the hat each year, it sat lopsided on his bald head; a wide, Christmas-morning grin on his face – as he reached into a tattered red burlap sack and pulled out one-dollar trinkets mail-ordered from catalogues.
“It is a melancholy memory,” the author goes on to say. By the time he was old enough to be one of the children gathered around his grandfather, Paw-Paw had already suffered multiple strokes. His speech was slurred and his lips did not meet to stop the occasional drool. Michael was afraid of his grandfather. The hat was a loved relic of a man and a time that he had never known – yet it bore with it memories of a different, more uncomfortable kind.
Gaudete – it is Latin, and roughly it means, rejoice! This third Sunday of Advent is by tradition the Gaudete Sunday – a day of rejoicing when we remember Mary's song and her courageous will to hope in the face of difficult and confusing news which certainly turned her own life upside down. In the Magnificat , a portion of which we read responsively as the Advent candle was being lit, she rejoices in the light of her own pregnancy, but sees this birth, according to Luke, as “a sign for the rising and the falling of many.” Tradition tells us to rejoice in the coming light this day – but our experience of light cannot help but call up some shadows for many of us as well.
As author Michael Poteet notes, the sights and sounds of Christmas can also signal grief. Unless you are very fortunate, you have a similar story to that of Paw-Paw. Generations past who have blessed our family gatherings – losses which strangely become more acute in the midst of the season and the call to rejoice – they are all so very much part of Christmas too. Unfortunately, the general tenor of the season does not leave much room for such memories. While the lights are frantically racing up and down the roof lines of our houses and the carols are filling our ears and minds with silver bells and sleighs dashing through the snow, along with the promises of a Silent Night, we are nearly overwhelmed by the message to open our wallets, be jolly and be fun, no matter what. But, in the midst of rejoicing, we should also hear Mary's words to the shepherds, “A sword will pierce your own heart also…he is born for the rising and the falling of many!”
In James' letter he reminds folks to be patient. It is not God's way to swoop down and erase things – we suffer, we hurt, but God is ‘standing at the door;' making a way toward us even now. It did not happen “once upon a time for all time,” what was will be and will continue to be on the horizon.
A poor young woman of Palestine, one of the lesser colonies of the mighty Roman Emperor, yet she sang of a world turning upside down: The Mighty will be brought low – the hungry will be satisfied. Mary's song was one of revolution but we are sophisticated enough to realize that change never comes without loss. As someone has noted, “There is always, of course, a problem with utopian visions. Revolutionaries of both the right and the left have justified enormous cruelties in the name of some future ideal state. Jesus' revolution indeed promises radical transformation; but he is quick to point out that his kingdom "is not of this world". He is not saying that all our hopes and dreams must be deferred to the next life, but rather that the reign of God must first be realized within our hearts and minds.” 2
It is my personal conviction that all this Christmas and Advent stuff remains just that, stuff , unless we are able to allow the contradictions to enter into our consciousness – we need to give ourselves permission to be melancholy or even downright sad – as part of the full Advent experience. “Be patient,” says James, and if it doesn't feel right, don't pretend that it is. Remember Job? James reminds us that hope is endurance, hope is not denial.
For heaven's sake – there is a war going on, right now. Watching a string of Christmas specials on T.V. – seeing Clarence once again get his wings as Jimmy Stewart hugs his family – gives us ample opportunity to safely shed a tear or two. Parents and spouses, children or grandparents of men and women posted in places like Bagram Air Base or the Hellman Valley, Fallujah or Bagdad – they don't need the pretext, the tears and worry must be somewhere near the surface for every waking hour. How could they help but be?
Life is tough – when you scratch the surface of any of us, you will find the hurting places. Of course we don't want to wear them on our sleeves , but we don't want to push all that down somewhere, unacknowledged and deemed somehow unacceptable, because this is Christmas and Christmas is supposed to be a happy time.
“God's love made visible….” That is our theme this Advent season, it is a reminder that we worship a God who became flesh, who shared our flesh and blood and calls us sister and brother. Gaudete – Rejoice not because our world was made perfect by this gift of incarnation, but because this world with all its contradictions has become the realm of God.
In Field of Dreams (one of the best baseball movies of all time) John Kinsella , the estranged father of the author Ray, has come back as a young man, “before the weight of the world descended upon his shoulders.” “Is this Heaven?” he asks. “No, this is Iowa” is the answer. But in fact, the movie makes us realize, the dividing line between Heaven and Earth – now and then, then and sometime later – has been forever blurred. Baseball, the many warts of which have once again been highlighted this past week by the Mitchell report on the use of performance enhancing drugs, is just a microcosm of all of life writ large. We are each just struggling to make our way with faithfulness and sometimes we fail, sometimes we let others down, sometimes we are let down by the people we love the most and sometimes we suffer enormous loss.
Do we cynically reject baseball because of the mess that we suspected and Mitchell has revealed? Cheers will be tempered by hurt in the ball park for some time. Even if you don't like baseball one little bit, surely you can see the connections. It never works to paper it over or pretend it is not there. Whether it is the mess of an ill conceived war or a club house tainted by cheating players, whatever the nature of the darkness that seems to have descended into the midst of us, all of that is part of the promise too.
But as the author Michael Poteet notes, “In Jesus Christ, God willingly walked in the shadows, and God's light shines in our darkness.” 3 The shadow side of Christmas – the birth in a stable, “no crib for a bed,” the mustering of Herod's troops to slaughter the innocents of Bethlehem and flight of the holy family into exile – the shadow side of Christmas and the shadow side of life can be frightening, no questions asked. The manger is only the beginning because the way Jesus walked eventually leads to the cross. The wonderful paradox of Christmas is that though the way leads through the shadows, it is the celebration of the coming of the light.
The one we expected has come in Jesus Christ, we know the story – but that incarnation of God's love made visible is still being born among us and that has made all the difference. What was will be. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:3 - 5 NRSVA)
God's love is made “Visible” as we make our own way in life filled with hopes, challenged by temptations of every sort, and sometimes weighed down with heart-ache – as we make our way God with us – is WITH US. What started in Bethlehem let us never forget, indeed led to Calvary – but it did not end there either. And that is the point of all of this – that is why we rejoice. GAUDETE! Amen.
1 Michael S. Poteet, “Longest Night,” published in The Clergy Journal, November/December 2007, Logos Productions, Minneapolis, MN. Page 33-34 Go Back
2 Peter Davison, Sermon of the Week Contributors Forums, Website of the Anglican Church in Canada. Go Back
3 Michael S. Poteet, IBID, page 34 Go Back
| Return to Sermon List |
First Presbyterian
Church of Cedar Rapids
310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org
Copyright © 2003-2007 First Presbyterian Church of Cedar Rapids. All rights reserved.