Advent
3; Yr. A, December 15, 2013
Isaiah 35:1-10;
Psalm 146;
James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
Sermon
preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Advent is a time
of waiting. Literally it means
"coming". Ironically, what we
are waiting for, has already arrived. What we’re waiting for is Emanuel, God with us. God is here in all the
messiness and frustration of our lives. God
lives within us and around us. That’s
what joy is about in this Advent time. It’s
about that miraculous paradox, that what we long for is already among us. That is our joy and it comes to us
in the most unexpected ways, even in the midst of struggle and suffering and
pain. South Africa showed us that in a
very vivid way this week as they celebrated the life of Nelson Mandella. They laughed and danced and cheered with joy
as they grieved the loss of a man who defied hatred and acted with
forgiveness. They showed us that joy and
grief can exist together.
As I was driving
to Two Saints yesterday for the quiet morning, I was listening to NPR. They
interviewed a mother of a six-year old child who was killed in the Sandy Hook
shootings a year ago. This is her story.
As much as Dec. 14 will
forever be a day of unfathomable grief for Nelba Márquez-Greene, Dec. 13 will
be one of unending gratitude. "I will never forget that day," she
says. On that day, Márquez-Greene stopped the usual frantic drill: rushing to
activities and errands, worrying about the dishes and laundry, even cleaning up
the mess on the floor. That morning, her
6-year-old daughter, Ana Grace, had knocked down the entire nativity set off
the piano. Baby Jesus was still in little pieces on the floor when she came
home from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Márquez-Greene can't explain
it, but something compelled her that evening to just ignore it all and instead
corral Ana, her son Isaiah and her husband Jimmy into the car. "And off we went to the Cheesecake
Factory," she says, "where we had our final time as a family of
four." It was, she says, the
greatest gift. "We were sitting
there taking goofy pictures, Ana was making faces," she says. "We had
second dessert. We had, like, three pasta dishes. I'm so grateful we had
that."
After the shooting the next morning,
where Ana and 25 others were killed, her parents wondered how they'd ever feel
whole again. Most days still bring
unbearable pain. But as Márquez-Greene puts it, she's "made it her
business" to stay focused on the good days with Ana. "It is what brings me great comfort and
great joy," she says. "And that is what gives us strength."[1] Memories of joy.
“Joy
is the pure and simple delight in being alive.
Joy is our elated response to feelings of happiness, experiences of
pleasure, and awareness of abundance. It
is also the deep satisfaction we know when we are able to serve others and be
glad for their good fortune.”[2] Joy isn’t something proclaimed very
loudly in our world. In fact, I wonder
if we’re almost a little afraid to claim it.
I wonder why.
Maybe
it’s because we don’t control joy. It
controls us. It’s like a burst of fresh
water that springs up unexpectedly. We
can’t always tell where it comes from or understand why it appears, but it does.
Have you ever tried to stifle giggles in
church? I have. I can’t tell you what provoked the laughter
in our pew when I was younger, but I can tell you how difficult it was to
contain. As soon as one of my brothers
would swallow back the laughter, we’d look at each other out of the corner of our
eyes, and start all over again. Shoulders
shaking, heads bowed, hands over our mouths.
The more my mother would tell us to “knock it off”, the harder it was to
stop. We were simply overcome, happily
out of control.
Have
you ever looked at an old picture or gotten lost in a memory, and suddenly
discovered yourself smiling? Have you
ever laughed so hard you cried? Joy is powerful,
intense enough to cut through the deepest suffering and loss. According to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Joy
is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”[3]
Isaiah lists the signs … the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and
the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the
tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the
desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of
water. (Isaiah 35:5-7a) Notice the verbs … opened … unstopped …
leaping … singing … breaking forth ... becoming … all words that describe the
nature of joy. Active and
expanding. All creation will experience
the sign of God’s life-giving presence … in joy.
In our gospel, John the Baptist sends his
disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah.
John is in prison after being arrested. John must have realized that his position was
precarious. He must have felt lonely and
anxious, at times perhaps even despairing.
What word did his cousin, Jesus, send to comfort him? Jesus told the disciples to go back to John. “Tell him what you see and hear.” Tell him about the signs. Tell him that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to
them. (Matthew 11:4-5) Go back and give John the joyful news! Let the words of Isaiah ring in his ears! Let him be comforted with joy!
Joy grounded in the
coming of the Lord, a Lord who will set things right. A Lord who will make a safe highway for the
righteous. The redeemed will walk there. Those in exile will return to their homes
singing with joy. To a prisoner, this
would certainly be good news of great joy.
News of returning. News of
redemption. News of liberation.
Nelson Mandella spent more than 25 years in
prison serving what he expected to be a life sentence. Twice he was offered conditional release, but
he refused to compromise his principles.
He wanted to live, but like John, he was willing to die for what he
believed. John never left his prison,
but Nelson Mandella did. What joy he must
have felt as he walked away from that prison toward freedom. He could have been bitter and resentful, but
by all accounts … we’re told that he never responded to racism with
racism. He treated others with dignity
and respect. He walked the Holy Way and
that helped to lead his country into a new era.
His life was a sign to many, a sign that brings joy and hope to the
world.
It’s easy to think that the world is going
to hell in a handbasket because we hear a lot of bad news these days. But we don’t have
to live in it all the time. Márquez-Greene said that she was one of those parents
who said that if something happened to her child, she didn’t know how she would
be able to go on. It’s not easy, but she
does … and so do many others. She says, we
“want to remember Ana's life twice as
loudly as her death”.[4] It seems that the South African people wanted
to remember Nelson Mandella’s life twice as loudly as his death too. They all wanted to celebrate life, to find
comfort in joy even in the face of death.
I pray that we can claim our joy too … that we can let it take us over
and transform us … as we embrace God’s enduring presence with us this Advent.
Amen
[1]
On NPR Weekend Edition. A Grieving Newtown Mother's
Motto: 'Love Wins' by Tovia Smith. December 14,
2013 5:11 AM. http://www.npr.org/2013/12/14/250786728/a-grieving-newtown-mothers-motto-love-wins.
[2]
Spirituality & Practice:Resources for
spiritual journeys. Spiritual practices:
Joy. Home page, http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/practices.php?id=15
[3]
Spirituality & Practice:Resources for
spiritual journeys. Spiritual practices:
Joy. Quotations, http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/practices.php?id=15&g=1
[4]
On NPR Weekend Edition. A Grieving Newtown Mother's
Motto: 'Love Wins' by Tovia Smith. December 14,
2013 5:11 AM. http://www.npr.org/2013/12/14/250786728/a-grieving-newtown-mothers-motto-love-wins.
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