(The Gospel for the 1st Sunday in Advent is Mark 13:24-37.)
All the broken hearts
shall rejoice;
All those
who are heavy laden,
whose eyes are tired
and do not see,
shall be lifted up
to meet with the healer.
The battered souls and bodies
shall be healed;
the hungry
shall be fed;
the imprisoned
shall be free;
all earthly children
shall regain joy
in the reign
of the just and loving one
coming for you,
coming for me
in this time
in this world.
South Korean theologian Sun Ai Lee Park is the poet, and she says three things that we need to hear as we step into the season of Advent.
First, the just and loving one is coming, in this time and in this world. The gist of last Sunday’s Gospel was the good news that Jesus Christ is nearer to us than we know. He is in the homeless man here in the North County I first heard about Wednesday, who is looking for a car—not to drive, but to sleep in. He is in each of the children and parents who will receive gifts from the Giving Tree our middle schoolers invite you to support. He is in the young mom in North Adams who has had doors of hope thrown open to her by fulltime enrollment at MCLA, whom our Outreach to Kids Fund was able to help last week as she couldn’t figure out how to provide winter clothes and school needs for her children after her partner walked out on her.
He is in each of these people because, in the Good News of Matthew, he says he is.
Closer than we know. And each of us is called to know, to recognize, him when he comes in this time and in this world. There’s the second thing we need to know at Advent: he is coming to you and to me.
Enlightenment is an inward state of readiness for outreach. That is good news for all people, because in the mutual flow between donors and recipients, it gets mighty hard to distinguish one from the other. People who “have not” will find it good news when they are blessed by the sharing of people who have; but at the same moment they are themselves a gift to bring to awareness and gratitude and perspective the people who have. Good news flows both ways.
By the Good News of Mark that we hear today, the master of the house will come whenever he’s ready, and we’re to be awake. Coming for you, coming for me, says our poet. We are doorkeepers, left in charge of the just and loving one’s resources while he’s away on his missionary journey. On that journey, he keeps coming to more and more people, communities, homes, churches, schools, workplaces making them his and putting in charge as doorkeepers people who have his resources, charging them with the task of opening to him every time he appears in the hungry, the homeless, the runaway. And at every such doorway, every time having meets not having, how does the poet put it? “ The battered souls and bodies
shall be healed;
the hungry
shall be fed;
the imprisoned
shall be free;
all earthly children
shall regain joy
in the reign
of the just and loving one.”
The first news of Advent is that he is coming. The second news of Advent is that he is coming to you and to me, making us his doorkeepers. The third message of the season is about his nature: he is the healer. That nature of his must be front and center in all we make of these 25 short Advent days that prepare us for Christmas, and then Christmas must be about his healing us, his healing all.
Put that into the apocalyptic vision we hear in Mark’s Gospel today, and hear good news for winter 2008: Read the times, don’t hide from the headlines even when they report that heaven and earth appear to be passing away. But even in days of suffering when the sun is darkened and the stars are falling from heaven, riding all this chaos as if he were walking on the clouds above is the just and loving one. Understand that he’s on his missionary journey, and his mission is to turn towards healing all this flow of having and not having. So read the papers—and read your Bible. Watch the news—and look for him to be close at hand. Consult your financial advisor—and cast your care upon God, who, says our Gospel today, is the only one who knows the full truth of what’s happening and what needs to happen. Seek God’s truth and be open to God’s healing.
The Advent news is, first, that he is coming. Second, he comes to you and me and makes us doorkeepers in charge of his resources. And third, his nature is that of healer, and his healing is not limited by what we have or have not. He is able to use the mutual flow of giving and receiving because people who have and people who have not are equally precious, equally useful, equally in need of healing.
That is mighty good news for all people. Enlightenment is an inward state of readiness for outreach. I love it about St. John’s that we are enlightened enough to turn our liturgies to the purposes of the healer. We do not receive communion without also giving opportunity for all who seek healing to take part in prayer, the laying on of hands, and anointing for healing. And that in turn gives to all who are within arm’s reach moments of grace to enter that mutual flow.
Today as we step into Advent, the coming of the healer, we gratefully recognize the roles played by parishioners who make up our healing team, and by clergy who assist in the sacramental act of unction, anointing for healing.
One of those priests is Charles O’Brien, and this first Sunday in Advent is his 50th anniversary of being made a priest. A Roman Catholic priest, for Charles was a Jesuit when he was ordained in the Chapel of Holy Cross College in Rome, Italy, on November 30, 1958. That he was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church 21 years later tells the story of a journey. Perhaps he will tell us that story, one day.
In this season, I love it about St. John’s that we turn our liturgy, our community gathering, to outreach by the Giving Tree early on, and later on by our Christmas Offering, and during Advent by several homegrown ways to purchase gifts through compassionate commerce. Let me say more about each.
First, the Giving Tree. Our middle schoolers are taking over this annual projoect, and this year we’ll be providing gifts for two young families from Healthy Families, two single-parent families from Louison House, and a 23-year-old man. I’m sure we’ll get our marching orders later this morning.
Second, our Christmas Offering. The Outreach to Kids Fund (nicknamed the OK Fund) gives St. John’s the ability to provide relief when any of our local agencies (Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, Healthy Families, Department of Social Services, MA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, to name a few) calls us with a family in crisis, a situation where a gift of $200-300 will prevent eviction, keep the gas or electricity connected, prevent the breaking up of a family, provide clothing or equipment for a newborn. Two or three times a month we’re asked to do this, and the OK Fund lets it happen.
Third, alternative gifts. Our homegrown compassionate commerce does two things at once: pleases the recipient, and transforms the gift into outreach. Every Sunday is Fair Trade Coffee day at our coffee hour, when you may buy a bag, beans or ground. Every Advent Sunday, we’ll also be marketing at coffee hour lentil soup mix to support schools and schoolchildren in Sudan, through out interchurch Sudan Relief Task Force. And a matchless Christmas ornament auctioni is set for Monday evening, December 16, in our upper room when special ornaments donated by parishioners and friends become even more special as they’re auctioned to raise money to buy who knows what kind and how many animals for poor farmers through Heifer Project International. That’s an event for all ages.
By our liturgies and gatherings, by our solitary daily keeping, and by our family kitchen-table observances this Advent and Christmas, we grow in enlightenment as an inward state of readiness for outreach.
All the broken hearts
shall rejoice;
All those
who are heavy laden,
whose eyes are tired
and do not see,
shall be lifted up
to meet with the healer.
The battered souls and bodies
shall be healed;
the hungry
shall be fed;
the imprisoned
shall be free;
all earthly children
shall regain joy
in the reign
of the just and loving one
coming for you,
coming for me
in this time
in this world.
