From Great Fear to Great Joy

Luke 2:8-20

4th Sunday of Advent

December 23, 2012

Elizabeth A. Deibert

  

This has been a year of fear.  Fear was stoked used by both parties in the election season and the brooding fear continues with all the debate and posturing at the edge of the fiscal cliff.   In the church, not just Peace Church, but the church across America, there is great fear of diminished power in society and declining numbers.   There are larger segments of the population not interested in church, turned off by church, seeing church as irrelevant.    At Peace, we’ve been growing, but we’ve had our own recent anxieties about church building  -- about having an affordable home where we can worship and accomplish the mission to which God has called us.   And like everyone, we have our individual fears about health, family life, money, and the like.

 

But of course, the worst of our fears in the last week have been around the security of our population, especially of children in our violent culture.  In July, the movie theatre in Colorado, in August, the mosque in Wisconsin, and nine days ago, the elementary school in Connecticut.    We are not feeling very safe.   We’re not keeping our children safe.   A study by the Children’s Defense Fund found that we lose some 2,800 children and teenagers to guns annually.   That’s more than the number of American troops who have died in any year in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.   More than twice as many preschoolers die annually from gun violence in America as law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty.   

Gun suicides (nearly 19,000 a year in the U.S.) outnumber gun murders (more than 11,000), and a gun in the home increases the risk that someone in the home will succeed at committing suicide.   And here the most disturbing statistic:  Every two months, we lose more Americans to gun violence than we lost in the 9/11 attacks.   (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/opinion/kristof-looking-for-lessons-in-newtown.html?ref=nicholasdkristof   We need to address this fear.   We need to choose life over this constant death.   

We need to work against gun violence through better control.   Plus we need to work for good mental health support systems for all people.   But as the writer of the book, Far from the Tree, a study of the family of the Colombine perpetrator Klebold, Andrew Solomon says, we do not have any easy out by blaming the family and friends for not spotting a disaster in the making.   “If we want to stem violence, we need to begin by stemming despair.”   Despair and self-hatred are at the root of this tragedy.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/opinion/sunday/anatomy-of-a-murder-suicide.html?src=recg&_r=0      There is too much fear and not enough good news  spilling over as hope, peace, love, and joy in our world! 

 

 “Fear”:  That word shows up 438 times in the Bible, the word “afraid” 217 times, the word “terrified” 47 times.  But for people of God fear never gets the last word, unless we are referring to the often repeated Biblical notion of holding God in highest reverence – often when the word “fear” is used, it is in reference to God, but it has a different connotation there, just as we use the word love to describe how we feel about family members as well as favorite foods.  But fear, being afraid, worrying or even being terrified, that is never the final answer for Christians.   Fear moves to comfort and joy.   Hear these reassurances:

 

^NRS  Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me.

 

^NRS  Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

 

^NRS  Isaiah 35:4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come and save you."

 

^NRS  Daniel 10:19 He said, "Do not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe. Be strong and courageous

 

At the time of Jesus birth, there were many reassurances to those who were afraid:

 

^NRS  Luke 1:12-13 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. 

 

^NRS  Matthew 1:20 An angel of the Lord appeared to (Joseph) in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

 

^NRS  Luke 1:30-32 The angel said to Mary, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…”

 

In Jesus’ ministry he offered many reassurances to those who were afraid:  to the disciples in the storm, to Jairus whose daughter was dying, to those who would worry about money, about having enough stuff.

 

At the time of Jesus death and resurrection, there were reassurances to fearful: 

 

^NRS  John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

 

^NRS  Matthew 28:5 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

 

^NRS  Matthew 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

 

And now, listen carefully for the reassurances of the angels to the terrorized shepherds:

Luke 2:8-20

⁸ In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see—

I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:

¹¹ to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,

"Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place,

which the Lord has made known to us."

¹⁶ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

¹⁷ When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;

¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen,

as it had been told them.   (NRSV)

When we are most afraid, perhaps we should look to see where the angels are, because in all of the stories which prepare for and announce Christ’s birth, there are always angels reassuring the ones who are scared.    Particularly in difficult times, we are called to move like the shepherds from fear to joy, by listening to the message of angels.    It is not easy in our rationalistic world to speak of angels, but I still believe.    I believe that angels come to us in our dreams, as the angel did Joseph.   I believe angels call us to active faithfulness and receptiveness to God, as they did Mary.  

I believe angels come to reassure us and remind us that God has brought us good news of great joy, charging us to go to the manger each year, as we also go to the cross each year, to walk through the life and teachings of Jesus, and weekly to feast on him in our hearts through Word and Sacrament.   In every encounter with angels, the first charge is “Be not afraid.”  

So let’s us move into the twelve days of Christmas and into a brand new year, unafraid because we know the good news of great joy!    We have a Savior who came to show us God’s great love, to lead us toward peace, and to fill us with hope.  

It is that Savior who empowers one like Leigh Knauert, Tricia’s friend, to proclaim the good news even at her 14 year old son’s funeral, after his suicide.   When you hear these excerpts from her proclamation, you will know she is surrounded by angels and uplifted by the prayer and presence of so many:

Only because my cries have been heard, by God and by many of you, have I been able to stand in this new place and enter into the healing that has taken place in my life over the past three years.   Because I have been able to say how bad the bad is, I can also say how good the good is.   

I remember well in the weeks after (my husband) David died, feeling like I was every bit as overwhelmed by the goodness of people stepping in and caring for us in unimaginable ways as I was by the awfulness of the fact that my husband had just died and I was left alone to face life and raise four children.

The horror of (my son) Peter’s death is overwhelming in a much different way, and I have, in one week, been faced with things that have not yet and never will surface in grieving David.  What I do know is this:  Like those being addressed in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, I have two choices in front of me.  Chapter 30 verse 19 says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live.” 

I would literally have to bury my head in a hole to not be blinded by the light of God’s love that so many of you have allowed to shine through yourselves. I cannot reject it; I cannot turn away from it. I can and indeed will be distracted from it, pulled back into the dark, painful places of my reality, but I am convinced that choosing life will always be my ultimate decision because I have had the gift of seeing what that choice looks like in the very best and in the very worst of situations. 

I stand here today to tell you that even in the unspeakable awfulness of what has happened to Peter, death will not have the final word, not in my house and not in my family.  Horrific images and haunting questions of why will not be my focus, even though they will manage to creep in sometimes.

Darkness and evil and horror and sadness and guilt and pain will not be the last thing left at the end of the day. I will continue to tell them that they have no place in a life and in a family that has been won over by Jesus’ message of triumphant love.

Like all the grieving families in Newtown, CT, Leigh has many hard days ahead of her, so do many of us.   But she is choosing life over death.   She is will not let fear have the last word.  Nor will we!   Because we listen to messages of the angels. 

God's Love Magnified

Luke 1:39-56
3rd Sunday of Advent

Elizabeth M. Deibert 

December 16, 2012

When words are hard to find, music is the place I go for prayer.   Words cannot explain anything this week.    Watch the newscasters trying to give information, but in the end, information never answers the difficult questions.    So we must turn to prayer.   Prayer is at the heart of worship.    And music is a way of engaging the whole self in prayer, so pray with me as I sing. (slide)

God, we have heard it, sounding in the silence:
News of the children lost to this world's violence.
Children of promise! Then without a warning,
Loved ones are mourning.

Jesus, you came to bear our human sorrow;
You came to give us hope for each tomorrow.
You are our life, Lord God's own love revealing.
We need your healing!   (slide)

Heal us from giving weapons any glory;
Help us, O Prince of Peace, to hear your story;
Help us resist the evil all around here;
May love abound here!

By your own Spirit, give your church a clear voice;
In this world's violence, help us make a new choice.
Help us to witness to the joy your peace brings,
Until your world sings!

HERZLIEBSTER JESU: Johann Crueger, 1640 (Ah, Holy Jesus)
Hymn text copyright © 1999 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.

Today we are reading the story of expectant mothers Mary and Elizabeth, coming together in mutual joy.    Elizabeth announces that Mary is blessed among women, and blessed is the fruit of her womb.   The forerunner, the prophet John the Baptist, is leaping in Elizabeth’s womb at the presence of Mary with Jesus in hers.    And Mary magnifies the Lord.   She rejoices in God her Savior.   She sings this song about God’s love magnified in God’s bringing a lowly one like her to such a blessed place.   She speaks of the power of a holy God at work, bringing down those with too much pride, too much power, too much wealth, and lifting up those who have been needy.

 

Hear the Gospel:                           

Luke 1:39-56

³⁹ In those days Mary set out and went with haste

 to a Judean town in the hill country,

⁴⁰ where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit  ⁴² and exclaimed with a loud cry,

"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

⁴³ And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

⁴⁴ For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting,

the child in my womb leaped for joy.

⁴⁵ And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment

of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

⁴⁶ And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,

⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

⁴⁸ for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

⁵⁰ His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

⁵¹ He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵² He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

⁵³ he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

⁵⁵ according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

⁵⁶ And Mary remained with her about three months

and then returned to her home.  (NRSV)

 

Let’s think about these two expectant mothers rejoicing in their children, before and after the birth.    Elizabeth, up in age, surprised to be having John.   Mary, not yet married, surprised to be having Jesus.   Both couples, Elizabeth and Zechariah, and Mary and Joseph, visited by angels.   Think of the danger of such a moment.   Think of the risk of childbirth in the 1st century, especially for one as old as Elizabeth.   Think of the risk of rejection for a woman like Mary.   Thank God Joseph listened to the angel and offered protection and dignity.   Thank God both women were so receptive to God’s plan of salvation through them, even not having all the answers, not knowing exactly what was happening, but Mary saying to the angel, “Let it be with me according to your word.”  

 

Think of both couples raising children, having to avoid the danger of the killing of baby boys by Herod.   Think of the love, of the sacrifice, of the wondering about what these messages of angels would mean as their boys grew up.   Think of adolescents who were precocious, Jesus staying in the temple to query the religious authorities, of John, being a radical hippie kind of guy, making strange pronouncements about the coming of the Lord.

 

Think of the parents of John and Jesus having to step back when these two men began their ministry, a ministry which was powerful and dangerous, a ministry which provided healing and love and forgiveness and grace, but which made the religious authorities and civil authorities very disturbed.    Think of the parents when John the Baptist was be-headed and when Jesus the Christ was crucified.   Both of them unjustly killed.    Think of the sorrow at seeing your children die like that.

 

And know that the parents, siblings and grandparents, the aunts, uncles, cousins and friends of all those dead children in Connecticut and all those heroic educators who lost their lives seeking to protect them, are in the good company of saints like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, who know that pain.    They are in the good company of Leigh Knauert, seminary friend of Clay and Tricia, whose son committed suicide last week.  They are in the good company of the Kellogg family in their sadness this week at saying good-bye to Gen for now.   They are in the good company of Sue Seiter’s cousin, whose mother and little daughter were killed together in a car accident a couple of weeks ago.  

 

The company of the grieving includes every one of us because life is full of losses, but none so tragic as the violent and senseless loss of precious little ones, whose lives were full of such promise and expectation.   Expectation.   Think of the expectation of Mary for her son.   She, like the disciples, surely thought his wisdom, his strength, his love, his leadership would take him to a place of power.    You can hear her longing for a strong armed leader to right all wrongs in her Magnificat, but alas, it is through his death, through her loss, that all wrongs are made right.   That’s not how she imagined it.   Through his death, through her loss.   

 

But now God has lived and died with us and for us.    And God with us, Immanuel, Prince of Peace, has been raised for us.    And so, we know, without a shadow of doubt that the Prince of Peace, who said, “Let the little children come to me and do not stop them” has welcomed twenty more precious ones, who had lots of life left in them, but now will share all of that life fully in his presence of Christ, while their parents long to see them, to hug them again, to watch them grow up.   And we are stuck with that sickening communal sense of guilt.   What is wrong with our world?   Why cannot we provide help or healing for those who are so disturbed, so troubled that they unleash their rage on unsuspecting little children?    

 

I hope that a church named Peace will spend some considerable time working on that question.  

Sure, we have done some good, teaching peacemaking skills in our community, but there is so much more to do.   What good compromises could be made in the gun control debate, which would provide greater protection?  Perhaps you would be concerned enough to spend an extra hour today in Lively learning discussing how we might be more effective peacemakers in this world.

 

God’s love is magnified when communities of God’s people embody the sacrificial life of Jesus Christ.   God’s love is magnified when we stop trying to have answers, and are simply present and compassionate toward hurting people.   God’s love is magnified, when we like Mary, submit to God’s will, not knowing exactly what it means or what sacrifices will be required of us.    God’s love is magnified when suffering people remember that the one who suffers with us does indeed lift us up to the place where there is no more pain, no more tears.   There is a place.  

There is a Place

by John Bell and Graham Maule, dedicated to the families

of the 16 school children who died in Scotland, in 1996.

 

There is a place prepared for little children,

those we once lived for, those we deeply mourn,

those who from play, from learning, and from laughing, cruelly were torn.

           

There is a place where hands which held ours tightly

now are released beyond all hurt and fear,

healed by that love which also feels our sorrow, tear after tear.

 

There is a place where all the lost potential

yields its full promise, finds its true intent;

Silenced no more, young voices echo freely, as they were meant.

 

There is a place where God will hear our question,

suffer our anger, share our speechless grief,

gently repair the innocence of loving, and of belief.

 

Jesus, who bids us be like little children,

shields those our arms are yearning to embrace.

God will ensure that all are reunited:  there is a place.

The Dawning of Peace

Luke 1:67-79

2nd Sunday of Advent

Elizabeth M. Deibert

December 9, 2012

 

Last week our theme was hope and as we read the promises of God from the prophet Jeremiah, we were reminded that hope is hanging onto the promises of God expectantly.    H – hanging.   O – onto   P – promises   E – expectantly.   Today we move to the great word, our favorite theme: Peace.   People eagerly awaiting coming Emmanuel.   

The opening chapters of Luke's Gospel are like a musical drama.   At all the significant moments the characters break into song.    And in the music, one finds the heart of the message.  In the first two chapters of Luke we have three famous songs: the Magnificat sung by Mother Mary, the Benedictus sung by Uncle Zechariah, and the Nunc Dimittis by Simeon, devout elder in Jerusalem.    If you removed these three songs along with the songs of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all people” the narrative would lose all its power. You'd hardly know anything was happening in Bethlehem.

Hear now the Benedictus,  which is Latin for Blessed.  The Benedictus tells us first – what God has done; second – what we are supposed to do in response, and third – what the prophet John the Baptist will do, and finally – what God will ultimately do.

 

Luke 1:68-79

⁶⁸ "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.

⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,

⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

⁷¹ that we would be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us.

⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,

and has remembered his holy covenant,

⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,

to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.

⁷⁸ By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,

⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace."

(NRSV)

Now as the Benedictus has been sung for most of the generations of the church, hear it set to music.   (Sing Hymn 602. Vs. 1)

In the first part there are seven active verbs of which God is subject. God has looked with favor on us and redeemed us. God has raised up a mighty Savior as God promised us. God has saved us from our enemies. God has shown mercy and remembered his covenant.   In other words, friends, God has been faithful. God has not let us down, even when we were faithless.  These words are uttered by Zechariah before the birth of Jesus, but they speak of the Savior as if he already is.  Remember Luke is crafting the memory, the story, knowing already the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

We then, being rescued by God, are called to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days.  It is important to note that we are first rescued. God doesn’t call to us when we are drowning in the deep waters of fear, sin and death, and tell us to swim to shore so God can forgive us. No, God rescues us. Then we are called to serve without fear of death and in thankfulness for our rescue.

Our holiness and righteousness are in response to his rescue. The Old

Testament reminds the Israelites sixty times that it was God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. God rescued them. God rescued us from our slavery to sin. Our grateful response is to live holy and joyful lives.

John the Baptist is called the prophet of the Most High, the forerunner. He goes to prepare the way, to give knowledge of forgiveness. John prepared the way for the first coming of Christ. We Christians are called to prepare the way for the second coming, which we anticipate during Advent.  Our responsibility, like John’s, is to share the good news of God’s forgiveness in word and action.   You see, if you are really in touch with the fact that you nearly drowned and God rescued you, you cannot help but be filled with gratitude and with forgiveness of others.   You want to love people into believing this good news, not judge them.

The last two verses of this passage are the promise of what God will do. God, filled with tender mercy, will make the dawn break upon us, giving light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, guiding us in the way of peace. This message is peace is just what we need. It’s what the world needs. The world waits in the dark shadows of night for the light.  We wait in the eery, long hours of night, hoping for the light. We wait for daybreak, for some sign of peace and hope that we are not forgotten. We wait in the darkness.  (Lights out)

A very sad example of darkness.    Just last Sunday, one of our sister Presbyterian Churches in northern Pennsylvania, experienced the horror of having their organist gunned down in the middle of worship by her ex-husband.   Two elementary school teachers, a soured divorce.   I cannot begin to understand this darkness. 

We wait in the darkness, knowing that God promises daybreak. We wait in the darkness in solidarity with those for whom life is dark and scary. We wait in the darkness of our sin, aware that we ourselves have extinguished light by our actions, by our attitudes, by our inability to do what we wanted to do, what we ought to have done. But we do not sit in the darkness without a light. Do you see how even two Advent candles illumine this entire room?  

All it takes is a little light.   How many of you watched the CNN Heroes Award presentation last night?   It was truly inspiring – people with courage and with vision, accomplishing great things to benefit others – a school for girls in Afghanistan, where getting an education is unusual for girls.   A gym with special goals and esteem-building exercises for those recovering from addiction.  A program to support children and youth who are caregivers for their parents or siblings with disabilities and at risk of losing their own childhood.  A program that has helped 1000 kids in Ohio, mostly poor minorities, learn to swim, started by a grieving mother whose son drowned at age 16.    A center to provide compassionate care for children in Nepal who were stuck in prison with their parents.

When my siblings were 2, 4, and 6, my dad spent a year in a TB sanitorium, unable to see his kids, unable to work.   My mom struggled to make it.   The Presbyterian Church reached out to a young mother at home alone with three children and no money. They provided Christmas for my family and that’s how my family joined the Presbyterian Church.   You are providing Christmas for several families in the worshiping community of Presbyterians at Mission Beth-El.   And you are making a difference in the lives of people in many countries through your Alternative Gifts International donations.    And you help one another in times of crisis.   You pray, you visit, you provide the caring support of Stephen Ministry.   You give to the discretionary fund, by which I can confidentially help people in our congregation and beyond who have unique needs, due to crises.  It is beautiful to see a compassionate church, reaching out and reaching in to care for all in need. In the light of that compassion, we see the dawning of God’s peace.   We see the glorious dawn when estranged people forgive one another. We see the glorious dawn when nations put down their guns and work on diplomacy and when we try to figure out together how to feed the hungry.

Advent is a time of waiting for the light of the world which will overcome every dark corner of death and despair. God has not finished what was started on that silent and holy night in Bethlehem. We’re waiting for the Dayspring to disperse the gloomy clouds of night in Syria and in Jerusalem.  And we’re waiting for the day of rejoicing when Immanuel comes again to put an end to our cynicism and rampant materialism.  We’re waiting for death’s dark shadows to be put to flight in this global economic recession, which leaves us feeling uncertain but leaves the most vulnerable in great peril.    

We’re waiting for the dawning of peace, a day when greed and power do not rule the day and prevent leaders from negotiating justice and peace for all.  We’re waiting for the dawning of peace for everyone who is depressed or grieving or suffering in any way.   We’re waiting for the dawning of peace in family relationships, where harsh words and hard judgments and bitterness tear at the fabric of love and unity.   We’re waiting for the dawning of peace in our diseases and addictions, longing for day when health and freedom come to us all.  

We’re waiting for the dawn of peace, that peace which reminds us once again that we are all forgiven of all our sins, and able to begin anew with the full assurance of God’s love and God’s strength and God’s grace. 

But we do not just wait, we worship and we work with God to bring light to dark places.   The Incarnation is about God’s love being made flesh, and so we take our own flesh, our bodies into the dark places of the world to bring God’s light.   We are the body of Christ, the body called to be Immanuel, the God who is with the people, with us.   And so we are with other people, waiting and working for the dawning of peace.   By our presence and by our love, we can remind them that God comes into every dark corner of life where people are in pain, bringing light, bringing life, bringing peace. 

Let us pray:

You are our light and our salvation.   You are the Prince of Peace.   No darkness can overwhelm your light.    Guide our feet in the ways of peace, that we like John the Baptist, and his parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, might prepare the way for you, Immanuel, our God with us.

Life-giving Hope

Jeremiah 29:11-13; 31:3,8-9; 33:14-16
1st Sunday of Advent

Elizabeth M. Deibert
December 2, 2012                         

I started this week in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad mood.   You know what I mean?   The kind of mood that makes you want to get away from everybody because they are either driving you crazy or you know you might soon say something that you will quickly regret.   What I’ve learned is that for me, being in the pit of despair is actually my lack of awareness of the life-giving hope all around me.   We can endure anything if we have hope – hope of relief, hope of comfort, hope of rescue, hope that things will get better.   That’s the kind of hope Jeremiah gives the Israelites, whose lives as exiles in Babylon were hard-pressed and discouraging.   If you can imagine the shock and destruction of 9/11 multiplied by leaders being removed and most of the population being forced out of the country to live in an unknown land among the very ones who destroyed your homeland, then you can understand how the Israelites felt.

We are reading three brief and beautiful passages from Jeremiah, words that help us to hope in the future God is bringing us, hope in the faithfulness of God’s love, hope in promises of God being fulfilled.   While we know Jeremiah was writing them to the Israelites 600 years before Jesus, we hear the overtones of the future God will bring in the life of Jesus, the righteous branch.

 

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 31:3,8-9 I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.  8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. 9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; 

Jeremiah 33:14-16  The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.   16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.   And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."  (NRSV)

In 1963 Thomas Merton wrote an essay titled, “Advent: Hope or Delusion?”  Merton says, The certainty of Christian hope lies beyond passion and beyond knowledge. Therefore we must sometimes expect our hope to come in conflict with darkness, desperation and ignorance. Therefore, too, we must remember that Christian optimism is not a perpetual sense of euphoria… We must not strive to maintain a climate of optimism by the mere suppression of tragic realities….In Advent we celebrate the future coming and indeed the already present Christ in our world. We witness to His presence even in the midst of all the world’s problems and tragedies. Our Advent faith is not an escape from the world to a misty realm of slogans and comforts which declare our problems to be unreal, our tragedies inexistent…Our task is to seek and find Christ in our world as it is, and not as it might be. The fact that the world is other than it might be does not alter the truth that Christ is present in it and that His plan has been neither frustrated nor changed: indeed, all will be done according to His will. Our Advent is a celebration of this hope.

Our Advent is a reminder that even when you have an empty chair at your table in the holidays, there is hope in the God who keeps promises, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.    Even when your bank account is empty after the bills and before you shop, there is hope in the God who keeps promises, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.   

Even when your job search is endless and your sense of self-worth is lagging, there is hope in the God who keeps promises, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.    There is still hope, even when you are estranged from your child or your parent or your spouse.   There is still hope even when the cancer is raging and you see no cure in sight.    There is still hope even when you’ve done something really foolish and you desperately need forgiveness or you need to forgive the other foolish one who hurt you.   There is still hope because we believe in a God who keeps promises, and this God did not just set the world turning and leave us alone.  This God came to us, to be one of us, God with us, Immanuel.    And so we have hope.   

Even if we free fall as a country off the fiscal cliff, we still have hope.  Why?    Because our hope is not in our Congress and our President, even if they were at their the very best bipartisan unity.   No, our hope is in the God, who came to us in Jesus Christ, the God, who said, “For surely I know the plans I have for you – plans for your peace, your shalom, your welfare – to give you a future with hope.”  Not just a future you can live with – a future with hope, with peace, with love, with promise.   That what God promises.    And our God keeps promises.

Even if our growing church, now one and half times as large as the median Presbyterian Church in the USA, finds itself pressured to secure a new home,  we will NOT lose hope because God has brought us too far to let us go now.   No, God has loved us with an everlasting love; God continues to be faithful to us.    God may bring us east or bring us west, north or south.   God may challenge us once again to dig into our pocketbooks and bank accounts to bring the vision of Peace to fruition.   But one thing I know – God is not forgetting about us now.    No, there are too many signs of God’s Spirit here.   People gathering faithfully for worship, service,  and learning each week.   People feeling loved and comfortable in church for the first time ever.   People being supported and upheld through difficult times.  People learning to live together in peace despite difference of political and social perspectives.   People learning to pray, to give, to live with a hopeful spirit.

God may bring us weeping, blind, or lame.   God may bring us worn out, broke, and blue, but I know God will bring us to those lovely brooks of water, quenching our thirst for hope.   God will bring along those straight paths of where we will no longer stumble;  God is going to give us a home Peace where we can live into our vision to be an intergenerational diverse community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ (JC) who reach out with the good news of Christ’s love, who grow strong in the service of God of neighbor, who send one another out with the joy of the Holy Spirit.    God is going to make it possible, even if we have to wander like the Israelites, God will help us to live out our mission to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus, building a community of Peace, and caring for the needs of others.    We have hope.

God entered the world as an infant and Herod began to ruthlessly aim to kill off all the baby boys.    Not an easy situation for Mary and Joseph, but they were already strong from the hope of believing the messages of angels rather than the critique of the world.    If God entered the world, courgeously willing to live in the danger zone like that, helpless as a tiny baby, we can live courageously in our times of weakness.   We can live with hope.

 (SLIDE)  And what is hope but hanging onto promise expectantly.   HOPE.  Hanging onto promises expectantly.   When we say we hope someone feels better is because we know the promise of God to heal people from grief and disease, to renew them in joy and love, and so that hope is grounded in promises which we have seen fulfilled.    When we say hope there will be peace between Israel and Palestine, peace in Syria, peace in all the troubled places in the world, we are hanging onto promises expectantly, because we have heard promise that one day there will be no more war.    We have seen reconciliation before, so we have hope.    When we say we hope that life will get better, that our heaviness of heart will be lifted, we expect it to happen, because we have seen it before.    We have watched the lives of others be renewed in vitality, so we have hope.   

When we say we have hope it is not because we see the end of the road in this current situation.   When we say that we have hope, it is not because we have an answer for all of life’s challenges.   When we say that we have hope, we are not diminishing the pain of the present moment.   But we are saying that we can wait expectantly because we trust in a God who keeps promises.    We rehearse the faithfulness of God over and over again so we can hang on through longest night, trusting that the sun will rise again.   After making the promise of a righteous branch which is to come, Jeremiah reminds those who have trouble believing that God’s covenant to restore their hope is as sure as God’s covenant with the day and the night.   Did the sun rise today?    There is hope.    There may not be any holly, jolly Christmas cheer.  So forget that part of the season.   Forget the Holly Jolly and get on with the Holy Jesus, in whom there is always hope.