Introductory Thoughts:
Have you begun decorating, planning for, and thinking through Christmas this year? This year nothing is automatic. Having to think everything through can get tiring. But maybe that extra moment of thought can also be a time to remember our way back to what it’s really about.
In our neighbourhood some folks are making a special effort this year – decorating a little earlier and a bit more brightly – to help their kids they say, to have a little extra joy in the midst of all the changes, losses and uncertainties of the last 8 months. And isn’t Advent a time to let ourselves be reminded that in the midst of uncertainty, anxiety and fear, God still comes to us with a gift – a child, a life, a light that still shines in our darkness?
Wherever you are, whatever questions, insecurities, disruptions and fears you may be living at with, may this service and season of Advent be of comfort to you. May find yourselves opened to the light of God’s love and God’s presence.
Reading and Meditation
Isaiah 9:2-7 is a traditional
reading for Advent 1.
The people
walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of
deep darkness a light has dawned.
You have
enlarged the nation and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you as people
rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice when
dividing discovered treasure.
The time of Isaiah was a terrible time for the people of Israel. The kingdom was a total mess. It was divided. It was top-heavy with leaders who were corrupt and self-serving. The poor were very poor and not really cared for. There was a rot at the heart of the nation and in the souls of the people that demoralized everyone and everything. Attempts at political renewal and religious revival changed nothing. Things were falling apart, with no solution in sight. And there was an enemy – the great army of Assyria – at the border, ready to come in and topple and take over whatever was left.
What a terrible time to be in. Can we relate in any way? Globally? Nationally? Personally?
So what’s the basis of the hope that the prophet proclaims, when he says “on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned”?
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,
the bar
across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning, will
be fuel for the fire.
The prophet’s hope is not grounded in what he wishes will come true, but in what he remembers as having been true from the past. “As in the day of Midian’s defeat…” he says, and with these words he calls to mind something all his listeners would be familiar with – a time in their past when they were similarly up against it, facing the loss of everything, and God got them through, God led them through the dark and fearful time they were facing, to a new beginning.
Can we believe that today? Can we let ourselves be reminded of the big picture, the long perspective, the whole of the story of God leading us through ups and downs, through good times and bad, for richer for poorer, in sickness and health … never leaving nor forsaking us, but leading us through?
It’s like Psalm 23, when it turns from those nice opening verses about being led to green pastures and quiet waters – the nice side of life, to the middle verses that affirm “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, through the valley of deepest darkness, I fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” … and it’s there, the psalmist says, that we come to experience the most intimate anointing and the most abundant provision.
Does that promise – that hope – still hold? Can we – do we – believe it? Is there any sign that we can look to, to help us know the promise still holds?
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he
will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace.
Of the greatness of his
government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s
throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that
time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
A child is born.
That’s the hope? Something as daily and universal as a child being born? How many are born every day into the billions of lives already being lived on the planet? In some ways, such an ordinary thing.
And yet, isn’t it the most extra-ordinary thing, a miracle every time it happens? A new life, a new hope, a new person ready and able to love and to be loved, to live in the image and likeness of God – both knowing God’s love for herself or himself, and through their life, through their relationships and choices and actions – as big or small as they may be, sharing God’s love for all.
Do you remember the David Bowie/ Bing Crosby mash-up of The Little Drummer Boy (“come, they told me, a newborn king to see, I’ll play my drum for him, pa-rum-pa-pa-pum”) and Peace on Earth (“peace on earth, can it be? years from now perhaps we’ll see the day of glory…”)?
On one hand – the great vision and hope that God breathes into every soul that’s born – peace on Earth. And on the other – the way we live it out, each in our own way, pa-rum-pa-pa-pum, with the choices we make, the gifts we offer, the generous gestures we make, the charity and mercy we show, adding our little drum-beats on our tiny drum, to the general chorus and the ongoing, unending parade of the coming of God’s light into and all through the world in us and through us to others.
So, here in the sanctuary of Fifty church we’ll be lighting the first candle of Advent, the candle of hope. Is there a candle you have at home, that you can make and name and light this year as a candle of hope?
And even more, how can you light a candle – how can you bring a glimmer of hope – into the world this Advent season?
Wherever you are and with whatever resources and opportunities are yours, what little action, what gesture of kindness, what word or deed of love or forgiveness or acceptance or comfort or support will bring light to someone near you?
With the tiny drum you have been given, this year what little drum-beat will you add to the song of hope for yourself and for others?
Pa-rum-pa-pa-pum.
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