A Sermon preached November 27, 2011, Advent 1 B

By the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

It’s Advent I, and so we begin again a New Year in the Christian Church calendar.

Four years ago today, on Advent I, 2007, you and I worshiped together for the very first time. We were in the building at Main & Taconic when we began our life together as parish and priest. 

Three years ago today, we were here at Crissey Farm. ‘Glad to be “in out of the cold”.  ‘Sort of huddled together and basically in shock with what had befallen us.

Two years ago, again at Crissey Farm, we were stressed out by insurance company deadlines. We were also feeling the stress of being a congregation in transition. We’d been hurled into a journey we hadn’t asked for. It was a journey from where we’d been to where God was leading us—and we didn’t know the way! We were starting to discern what the best for our parish was, and there were many differing ideas!

By last Advent I, we had sold the building, and we were welcoming the people of St. George Lee to worship with us here. The people of St. George were in their own kind of transition. They’d said goodbye to their beloved rector, and were in the process of selling their property.

A lot has happened to us in the past four years, hasn’t it? (!)

Each new liturgical year has brought its own joys and challenges for us as communities of God’s people. Yet for last year and this year, as in every year on Advent I, the themes for the day are perfect: HOPE and LIGHT and KEEPING ALERT.

In our first reading from Isaiah, the people have just returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. Life is chaotic. Nothing like it was before: Their beloved city is desolate. Their temple is destroyed. Life in Jerusalem, as they knew it before the exile, is simply gone. And, having been in exile, the people are different as well. So the people of God call for God to come to them, to INTERVENE,“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!”

They complain and blame when God is angry with them or hiding from them, and then their faith weakens, and they fall away, “We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

They remind God that God has made them and molded them, “We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand…we are all your people.” They are begging God to come to them, to shed light on their darkness, and to make God’s self known. The Psalmist puts it this way, “show the light of your countenance”.

Although they are desperate, there also seems to be a lot of HOPE in their plea: They know God is their God. they are God’s people, and they are hopeful that God will, in fact, respond. And God does respond to God’s people…over and over again. And, over and over, the people are strengthened…for a while, but then they fall away. (BTW that’s pretty much a brief summary of the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures, if not God’s relationship with God’s people in general!)

As we think of what those newly returned exiles asked for in Isaiah: For God to intervene in their plight, for God to forgive them and show up in their lives, we as Christians can see the coming of Jesus as a new kind of intervention. In fact, it’s God’s ultimate intervention: God becomes flesh and dwells among us as a human being. It is through this Human Being, who is also God, we see the light of God’s countenance. We are fully forgiven and given relationship with the One who made us and forms us—the potter of our clay.

At this time when our world and lives are dark on many fronts…With war and tumult, greed and scapegoating, crumbling economies, inequity, injustice, bankrupt and addicted nations and people, a government apparently unable to value the Common Good over partisan politics, and so many natural disasters that leave unspeakable and overwhelming destruction…We are seeing these things take place RIGHT NOW! As those before us have seen these things.

In the Gospel Jesus says, when we see these signs, we can know that Jesus is near…Just as when we see a plant putting on new shoots, we know that summer is near. It’s a natural part of God’s plan. Now this nearness of Jesus is not just referring to some cosmic End Time, it is also talking about right now…in the midst of our darkness, in the midst of the many signs we do indeed see taking place today. And so as we see the signs, as those before us saw signs, we can live in faithful HOPE: Jesus is near, and God will bring the LIGHT NOW…In this time in-between Jesus’ coming to earth as a child and when he comes again in the End Time. It’s a natural part of God’s plan… So we must KEEP ALERT right now, because in the midst of the darkness of our world, a light will shine. God will try to intervene again—Right now, today/tonight/tomorrow. Jesus said to those closest to him, “What I say to you, I say to all, “Keep alert”.

We must realize that we are part of the “all” Jesus is talking about. So it’s our job to WATCH, WAIT, and KEEP ALERT, because the LIGHT, which is  Jesus’ nearness, may very well surface in the most unexpected ways and times, and we don’t want to miss it! Instead, we want to BE READY to recognize just how God intervenes in our darkness…and to name it for ourselves and others.

As we begin our 5^th year together, remember God’s nearness will probably come in the most unexpected ways…                

Like a child’s innocent question, a grace that may come in the midst of pain and loss, a new path that opens when another is blocked, deep values that galvanize when finances get really tight, or perhaps recognizing we’re not alone after all, but part of a community that’s become a holy family for us.

No matter where we are physically or spiritually, Advent is the time to live in HOPE and EXPECTATION….WATCH! WAIT! BE ALERT for all those times when Jesus is near, when he shows us the light of his countenance, when God intervenes and brings the LIGHT. Amen. 

Sermon, Sunday November 20

The Rev. Dr. Audrey Scanlan

Canon for Mission Collaboration

The Episcopal Diocese of CT

Christ the King 2011, Great Barrington, MA

Grace and Peace in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Diocese of CT… and especially from our bishops, Ian, Jim and Laura.  It is an honor to be with you this morning and I am humbled to be invited to share in this day of celebration and thanksgiving and deep listening.  Thank you.

I knew this place many years ago… when my mother would load me and my several siblings into the Chevy station wagon on a summer afternoon and come over to Jennifer House… to buy a gift for someone: a calico apron, a big woven basket, or some kitchen goods.  Children that we were, we would hang around the penny candy section or go out and toss pebbles in the courtyard.  This was in the days before malls… and the idea of shopping on a “campus” was exciting-  I think that my mother used these trips to re-gain her sanity after spending day after day with us playing “war canoe” or re-stringing fishing poles that had tangled lines… and cooking dinner for our family of 11 every night at Twin Lakes…  Jennifer House.  Now Crissey Farms. And today- and for the past couple (three?) years on Sunday mornings- home to the worshipping communities of St. James, Great Barrington and St. George’s, Lee.

Today in our liturgical year, we have reached the end of the line. This day- the Feast day of Christ the King- is the final Sunday in our church calendar… and next week, we will begin again, the annual cycle of feasts and fasts as we enter into the season of Advent.  Endings and beginnings.  I’d like to look at both of those ideas- endings and beginnings- in that order.

The gospel lesson this morning talks about a big ending:  the coming of Christ in Glory and the Final Judgment.  Students of the New Testament know that this is the only place in the Gospels where the Final Judgment is described… and so, as a central idea in our theology, it is good to pay attention to this passage!  Jesus- the Son of Man- comes again and divides the sheep from the goats. The goats are gathered up and told that they did not measure up … and so they are cast off into an eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…   The sheep are gathered at the right hand of God and are praised for their righteous ways… and they are sent to  inherit the Kingdom. There is a distinct separation where the righteous are rewarded and the others are damned.  But… it’s really not that easy.  It’s muddier than that- because in the Last Judgment… in this ending… at the end of this line… it is not clear- even for the rewarded ones- how they came to  inherit the Kingdom.  They are surprised.  And Jesus tells them: “I was hungry… you gave me food… I was thirsty… you gave me something to drink… I was naked… you gave me clothing.”   The righteous have failed to see- even in their good works- the unity- the Oneness- of the Kingdom:  Christ is  present not only in shining robes seated on the throne of glory… but Christ is  also present in the hungry, the sick , the poor and the dirty: there is no dividing line in the Kingdom.  And so, while this story describes separation and ending- the Final Judgment- it also holds up another idea- one of Unity and Oneness and Wholeness in God’s Kingdom… and the call for us to be ever vigiliant of that.  It is a call to seek out Christ and to see that in Him, we are One. 

As the communities of St. George’s and St. James, you have had your own experiences of endings.  I was amazed to learn about the history of St. Georges’ in which the church building suffered two different fires...in the year 1861 (when it was just 3 years old)  and again, 18 years later, in 1879, and, through the hard work of the people and the grace of God… you came to re-build and re-claim that space as your worshipping home.  Those fires were events that were out of your control and which for many communities could have served as the real- final- ending.  St James’ has a similar story in an uncontrolled event that could have pointed to an ending:  the sudden falling of the sanctuary wall three years ago which demanded sudden and certain evacuation from your worship space.  And, still, there is another ending to name:  the ending of St. George’s as owners of land in Lee- this time, a controlled ending, in which the parish chose in 2010 for the property to be sold.

These endings- both the controlled one and the sudden ones- have challenged both of your communities to find creative responses as the people of God and  they have called you to consider, together, now,  the next steps in your lives as followers of Jesus and his Way.

Beginnings. 

In his Convention Address, your bishop Gordon Scruton talked about the new beginnings for the Church and said: “God is looking for clergy and lay leaders in Western Massachusetts who will be willing to let God birth fresh expressions of Christian living and mission outside the walls and current patterns of their congregations.”    I’d say he had you in mind when he wrote that line.  He also said that there is a cost to doing this work:  in forging new beginnings there is an element of risk taking. It is hard work.  Not everyone is ready to come along.  And yet, the payoff is amazing.  Gordon writes of a “deeper, more holistic life  of discipleship with Jesus” as a result of risking a new beginning.

I think he’s right.  While new beginnings ask us to step out of our comfort zones- you have known that in the last year or more- there are also the benefits of a deeper formation and a richer relationship with each other- and, in each other, in Christ.

The writer of the letter to the Ephesians knew that, too. The letter to the Ephesians that we heard this morning is thought to be a circular letter… a letter written- probably by a student of Paul- and delivered to several  struggling congregations (in a circle) as a means of encouragement.  The part that we heard today is a prayer:  the prayer of the writer for these congregations:  that in their new beginnings that they will be given the spirit of “wisdom and revelation.. so that the eyes of their hearts will be enlightened and that they will know the Hope to which God has called them.”

Right now, as the communities of St. James’ and St. George’s, you are living in an in-between time. You have moved beyond your various endings… and are just starting to discern what shape your new beginning will take.  The work that we will do today will be offered in the spirit of Thanksgiving for all that you have enjoyed together as One Body in Christ, here on Sunday mornings.  And the work of the day is to listen.

I think of St. Paul and his companions as they traveled to new congregations across Asia Minor… I suspect that they did a lot of listening.  The letters that they wrote as a result of their visits showed that they did. There is great benefit in hearing another’s story.  And, I suspect, that if the sheep in Matthew’s gospel lesson had slowed down enough to listen to and look at the hungry that they were feeding.. and the naked whom they were clothing… that they might have seen that in their good works, they were serving Christ himself.

Today is a gift… it is an opportunity to stand in this place between endings and beginnings and to listen.

Every morning when I wake, I make my way out to the river trail in my hometown of Collinsville.  I get out there while it is still dark and return in the light of day.  And, in the middle, there is the dawning of the new day.  I stand at the river’s edge and watch as the grey clouds break open and the new day is born. I look and listen for God and give thanks.

This is the dawning of a new day.  Let us stop, look, and listen for God and give thanks.

Amen.