“Most of us depend on our calendar to help us keep
track of time. We remember events and appointments in our personal lives, and
follow the events of the world around us based on a calendar that turns over a
new year on the first of every January. This week, as it does each year, the
church gets a head start on the rest of the world by beginning a new year (Year
B in the liturgical calendar) on the First Sunday of Advent.
Nora Gallagher uses the church year and its seasons as
a framework for her graceful meditation, Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived
in Faith. "The church calendar," she writes, "calls into
consciousness the existence of a world uninhabited by efficiency, a world
filled with the excessiveness of saints, ashes, smoke and fire; it fills my heart
with both dread and hope."[1]
Todays reading says “Therefore keep awake – for you do
not know the when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at
midnight, or at cockcrow or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he
comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep Awake.” (Mark 13:37)
Stay awake, be alert, be ready! In the midst of this gospel reading this time
is very stressful. The description of
end of days when the sun ceases to shine and the moon goes dark and the stars
literally falling from the sky. We are being told that this could happen at any
given moment. And we will not know that
hour till we see it but when we do see it we will know!
I think if I was alive back then and I heard this for
the first time, when they had no understanding how the real world and universe
works, I would be terrified. I would
have no problem staying awake because how could I sleep?
I really do Like Nora Gallagher’s reflection on the
Church Year. The liturgical calendar is
something very few of us truly live by. However Happy new year! The Church year is literally what a pastor’s
life revolves around. The only time we
pay attention to the secular calendar is around tax time.
But Nora’s reflection is so elegant and sweet it bears
repeating; “’The church calendar,’ she writes, ‘calls into consciousness the
existence of a world uninhabited by efficiency, a world filled with the
excessiveness of saints, ashes, smoke and fire; it fills my heart with both
dread and hope.’”[2]
This season of advent we are watching, watching with
hope, with Joy, with Love and with peace. This Sunday we watch with hope, the
hope that comes with a small child. What does that hope look like? As we live
this church calendar how acutely aware do we become of a world uninhabited by
efficiency? Do we see a world filled with excessive saints? Do we taste a world of ash, smoke and fire?
Let’s talk about the lack of efficiency. Being Christian in this mad world is not
efficient at all. We are called to run
towards pain, hunger, disease and dis-ease.
We are called to get out of our comfortable lives and challenge the
world around us to be better, we are called to be better, we are called to be
in this world as active participants working to bring about the kindom of
heaven right here.
How does that happen?
What does that look like? It is
our relationship with the sacred. It is how we walk seeking that just world for
all. The Just world for all campaign is
a campaign of the united church of Christ which incorporates the 3 great loves.
“The 3 Great
Loves is the denomination’s opportunity to express how our Love of Neighbor,
Love of Children, and Love of Creation work together to address the inequities
in our current world.
Over the course of the next two years, through the
lens of the 3 Great Loves, the United Church of Christ tells the story of how
we are impacting and transforming the world, united in common purpose and
mission.
During these upcoming two years, there will be moments
of special invitation to participate in this denomination-wide undertaking. One
by one we will focus on each of the 3 Great Loves in service to our
communities.
Our expression of love, is and will be our living
testimony”[3]
Our living testimony.
We are not a church that does altar calls, we do not seek miraculous
healings though we do claim and proclaim them.
We are a church of action. We are called to the reservations. We are called to the homeless and the
hungry. We are called to care for each
other and the world the best we can.
In the podcast for a just world, a new program from
the United Church of Christ, the narrator speaks of the unique spirituality
that embodies this program. She states “When I talk about spirituality I am
talking about the demonstration of relationships, the commercial spiritual
genre highlights only the relationship between an individual and the
disembodied divine, but the embodiment of God's love and justice in Jesus and
the demonstration of transforming life-giving relationships infused with
liberating action and love. Show us the holiness the presence of God in all of
our relationships.”[4]
As we watch for hope it is through our spiritual
relationship that not only do we watch for hope but also we are hope. As we seek ways to connect to make better
this world it is our knowledge of the embodiment of divine love in Christ and
our practice to mirror that love in this world to seek out and offer Gods love
and Justice to those who are marginalized and/or in pain that we become the
face of Christ, that we are transformed into the hope of the world.
The narrator in the podcast goes on to say “So then
discipleship, the process of us walking more closely to Jesus more deeply in
the action of love transforming our lives to demonstrate that embodiment which
is to become more human while at the same time recognizing more deeply the
sacred presence in every person, is part of our path in seeking a just world
for all. Maybe it can be called a spirituality of justice. It has everything to
do with recognizing our deep interconnectedness to one another, to creation, to
God, and demonstrating those relationships in love. Do justice, walk humbly,
love mercy… not just in individual interpersonal encounters but at the dinner
table, with the food we eat for our bodies and nourishment, who we invite to
share it with us, the way we preserve and prepare the food the way it is
cultivated in the earth, the way we treat those who tend it along the
agricultural supply chain.”[5]
The concept of justice work and food go so hand in
hand it can be overwhelming, but it truly is where all the world interconnects
“Over 1 billion people are employed in world agriculture, representing 1 in 3
of all workers… Labour force participation rates are usually highest in the
poorest countries. More people are employed out of necessity than by choice, as
only a fraction of the working-age population can afford not to work. In these
countries, low unemployment figures in conjunction with high labour
participation rates result in large swathes engaged in vulnerable employment
and many in working poverty.”[6]
As Californians we are rich in agriculture and yet in
those wet and rainy months much of our food comes form across the border. During the high production months much of our
labor comes from across the border. We need to think about and at the very
least be aware of our food and our practices around it
We should think
about “If it crossed international borders through the trade policies and what
we do with our food waste.”[7]
You see “There is a demonstration of relationship in
all of those things. When we remain unconscious to that fact, exploitation
easily takes root and the dominant dehumanizing structures and systems are free
to grow. But recognizing humanity. And deep interconnection along the way gives
us the opportunity to choose life for ourselves. For others. For creation. And
to plant seeds of life.”[8]
The whole Gospel of Mark was written about 40 years
after the crucifixion during Roman occupation perhaps that is why there is such
an urgency to the whole gospel. “The Gospel of Mark moves at breakneck speed
centering the sick, the poor, and the demon possessed the literal masses of
people marginalized in the economy and systems of Roman occupation.”[9]
Perhaps that is why there is such an urgency to todays
message to keep awake, to keep our eyes open. I know in this time it is hard to
keep our eyes open. We have witnessed
injustice, hateful acts, natural disasters, and wars. We can be tempted to look
away.
But we will stay awake, we will watch for the Hope in
the world to come and we will strive to be that hope. Even if it means just changing our eating
habits to a more sustainable way. Even
if it means bringing toys for children.
Even if it means just being aware of our global community and how we are
all of us, each and every one of us, connected.
Just by watching for hope we become the hope that is
embodied in the Christ child. Let us continue to be that hope as we seek a Just
world for all.
Amen.
[1] Kathyrn Matthews,
First sunday of advent year B, accessed December 2, 2017,
http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_december_3_2017.
[3] Dorhauer, John,
Three Great Loves, 2017, accessed December 2, 2017,
http://www.ucc.org/3greatloves.
[4] Tracy Howe
Wispelwey, Advent at the Border part 1, November 28, 2017, accessed December 2,
2017, https://soundcloud.com/forajustworld.
[6] Food and
agriculture organization of the United Nations, Labour, accessed December 2,
2017, http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2490e/i2490e01b.pdf.
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