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The Spirit of Advent
December 6, 2009
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1995 was a hard year for me. It was a year that my mother died, my marriage fell apart, and I resigned my position as minister of my church in New Hampshire. It was then that I came to Michigan to start my new life.
It was a sad time, but also a time of quiet hope and expectation. For I became the interim minister of a small congregation in Clarklake Michigan that was originally a Universalist church stuck next to a cornfield by a creek. Many of the members, if not most, were farmers, and they were the salt of the earth – kind, hard-working, honest folk. They exemplified the essence of Universalism, which is God is loved. They accepted me with open arms and helped me to renew my faith in human beings. I also think that I helped them to develop a good relationship with the minister and prepare the way for a new permanent ministry. Thus, at the time, I was single, again – unattached and free. I was also free of the anguish of my first marriage and the troubles of my previous ministry. Even more than that, I had a sense that life would be good again. And I met some wonderful people. Two of those people that I’ve met, where fellow single ministers Alvin and Karen. Al was an American Baptist minister and Karen, a Presbyterian minister, both serving in Jackson. We would get together from time to time to share our experiences at church and of being single. It was a lovely time for me, a time of breaking bread with colleagues and friends. I remember one time in early spring at one of our lunches I shared with them my qualms about celebrating Easter. I told them this: I do not believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus nor in the idea that Jesus was God. He was a human being, a gifted teacher, but a human being, nevertheless. Thus, it was hard for me to celebrate a story about a human being who was cruelly tortured to death. Al and Karen thought differently. For them, Easter was the most important and blessed day. It was easy for them to celebrate because that day meant hope and new life. It symbolizes the essence of their Christianity, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is fully human, thus he had suffered like a human being and he was fully God, thus he has the power to transform our lives and give us hope. But what was hard for them to celebrate – and this surprised me – was Christmas. “How in the heck can Christmas be hard to celebrate?” I asked them. “Well,” they said, “Christmas has lost its purity. It is over-commercialized, and does not really reflect the spirit of Christmas or Christianity. Rather, more often, it promotes the spirit of stress, of merchants making big profits, of lots of parties and lots of drinking.” Well, I could certainly understand what they were saying and agreed with much of it. Christmas has become a time of materialistic acquisitiveness and overindulgence. But there is much I love about Christmas. I love the brightness, the lights and decorations; I love the parties and even some of the drinking and perhaps the mistletoe; I even love the gifts – when done in the proper spirit; but most of all I love the music, especially of people coming together sing carols and Handel’s Messiah. But most importantly Christmas reminds me of a story of the birth of a baby to poor refugee parents, born in troubled times, much like our own – time of death and terror, a time of malfeasance among leaders, a time of despair. But even in those troubled times, this story points to hope, to a new life, to the possibility of comfort and joy and peace. Thus, it is easy for me to feel good about Christmas and to look forward to that day. Al and Karen understood what I was saying, but there was a day that that celebrated idea of hope in a troubled time better than Christmas Day: Advent. Advent truly symbolized for them the spirit of Christmas as opposed to all that other stuff that they disapproved of. In that spirit, let us consider the meaning of Advent. Advent is the beginning of the four weeks before Christmas [actually this Sunday is the second Sunday of Advent]. It is the time people prepare the way for that special day of the birth of Jesus. Often people do so with prayers and fasting. It is considered a time of a quiet hope. The four Sundays of Advent are often traditionally celebrated with four candles with one to be lit each Sunday, each with a specific meaning associated with the different aspects of the Advent story, of Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy. A common way of marking these qualities especially with children is the use of the Advent Calendar. Thus, each day can carry a religious message, or seasonal picture or little chocolates. Another home-based craft made is the Advent wreath that can use in a circular wreath that symbolizes eternity.
Advent reminds us that there is hope of a new day, of something wonderful that is about to happen.
Could be!
Who knows? There’s something due any day; I will know right away, Soon as it shows...
Who knows? Something is coming. Something great. A miracle, perhaps. We think of what Advent symbolizes, a story about a couple, an older man and his young pregnant wife, living in poverty, refugees, trying to escape terror. We can see in the Gospel of Matthew that the Magi went searching for something, a newborn king, but not a king in the traditional sense, a king who will usher in a new era, a new spirit. They go to King Herod, knowing him to be brutal and treacherous leader, to ask him if he beheld the star in Bethlehem that prophesied something new, something’s coming, perhaps a miracle is due. We can note the treachery of King Herod comes from his weakness, his anxiety and insecurity about his power as a monarch. He is threatened by the idea of the birth of a baby boy. In time, he has all the boy babies put to death. Herod, like so many powerful leaders, acted out of his weakness with violence and treachery. But even at the time of treachery and violence, the Magi set out on an adventure to follow a star. I find it interesting that the Magi do not give gifts to Herod, which would be expected, for in those ancient times it was customary to give gives to the monarch. After all, he could have killed on a whim, but instead they give gifts to the baby Jesus who has poor parents and apparently no power at all, to speak of. What were the magi looking for? Why did they go on this journey? We do not know but one thing is for certain. They were moved. Something called to them to go on this adventure. We can celebrate Advent today especially given our own insecurities living in our own troubled times. In such times, it is hard to believe that something wonderful may be coming. We live in a time of war, economic insecurity and hateful rhetoric among our leaders and communicators. Many people are suffering now, here and in foreign lands, because of the policies of our government. It is important that we are mindful of those who suffer. But I think also, that we have an opportunity here to learn new ways of living, of sharing, of helping one another, of taking more time and joy in our important relationships and discovering the miracle of everyday life. Advent is a time for us to discover ourselves. I share with this story of a man who made that journey through treachery and violence to discover himself. It is a story of Gilbert Romero as told to Barbara Smythe from the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories for a Better World edited by Jack Canfield and others. Gilbert had what we would considered a tragic horrendous life growing up in a family of 13 brothers and sisters all of whom ran away from their crazy abusive father by the time they were 14. His mother had been murdered. He found himself involved with the gang life with drugs and violence. He once got a 14-year-old girl pregnant and when he was 18, he married her so that he could avoid a statutory rape charge. One time he tried to murder his own father and went to prison for attempted murder. After getting out of prison, he once again went back to prison, this time for transporting drugs across the border. If we had known Gilbert at this time in his life, we would probably say that his dark past of drugs and violence and his criminal record would almost guarantee that he did not have a chance for what we would call a decent, normal life. But after he got out of prison the second time, he met some amazing people – an older couple who took him in and loved him. In time, he would call them “grandma” and “grandpa.”
They were religious folk and took him to their church. There he got to know some old ladies who discovered that he had musical talent and encouraged and supported him in that talent, by having him lead a worship service in music and preaching. Gilbert tells a story of how even then he still carried a gun and how one day when he was pushing a stroller with his baby, he had a chance encounter with another man pushing a stroller, a man who had brutalized him and whom he had vowed to kill: Now we stared into each other’s eyes, he said, instinctively reaching for weapons. A bizarre coincidence. Two innocents, a moment away from the shattering blast that would make them fatherless. There was no movement, no sound; even the babies were quiet, still waiting for a signal. And then a peace came over me.In time Gilbert became so involved in his religion, he himself became a pastor 25 years ago. 15 years ago he helped establish the Bittersweet Ministries for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Over 3000 people have gone through that program. His Bittersweet Gospel Band performs all over the country as the ambassador for their programs.
I close with this one last story about Gilbert Romero that speaks to the idea even in the midst of darkness and violence, of poverty and despair, there is hope, because even though we cannot change events outside of ourselves, we can discover a being within ourselves to bring to life: My life had really changed, Gilbert said. I didn’t know how much until one night in Chicago. We were there with the band. My friend and I were standing outside the home of our hosts talking before we went inside.Gilbert Romero made his journey not knowing what to expect, but discovering inside himself a new life. Let us remember this day, this second day of Advent, as our way of looking within ourselves to discover a being to bring to life. That journey is by no means always easy or delightful. Quite the contrary. It can involve difficulty and even danger. But with faith, it can bring us to something new and wonderful.
And in the spirit of Advent, I close with these words, which are among the most beautiful words for this time of year and as such are written by an unknown author: If as Herod, we fill our lives with things and again with things; if we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action; when will we have time to make the long slow journey across the desert wilderness as did the Wise Men? Or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds? Or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary? For each one of us there is a desert wilderness to travel; a star to discover; and a being within ourselves to bring to life. |
| Sermon Copyright © 2009 Harold W. Beu |
