Micah 5:1-5
Luke 1:39-56
12/20/15
As I've said before, I don't
think life was meant to be easy or even necessarily happy. We are meant to grow, learn, love, live life
fully, and perhaps to pursue
happiness. But I'm not sure the American belief that it's all about happiness
is accurate and I think believing that it is all about being happy makes it
hard both to appreciate the good times,
but also it becomes very hard when we
are struggling and can't quite make it to "happy". None the less, in a society where we live
much longer than people used to, working hard to survive the challenges of each
day over weeks, months, years, decades, can be just plain exhausting. There’s a lovely Peter Garbriel song called, In Your Eyes that has the line - "I
get so tired of working so hard for our survival". And there are times when I hear it that I
find myself pausing,
And thinking,
Me too.
My guess is that many of us feel this way at one time or
another. The song continues, "… I
get so lost sometimes. Days pass and
this emptiness fills my heart. When I
want to run away, I drive off in my car..." Do you ever feel like that? As you listen to what is going on in the
world, or when you have struggles at work, or when you make mistakes – wherever
and whatever they may be, do you then have times when you would just like to
drive away, to leave it, to go elsewhere?
But the truth of it is, where
would we go? Where would you go? Wherever you go, there you are. And no matter how far we go, we take our
struggles and our challenges with us. We each struggle with something. Currently I'm truly and deeply struggling
with where our world seems to be heading, with the increasing hatred and the
fear mongering that seem to have become so popular. Sometimes I’d like to drive
to Canada or Denmark (if that were possible).
Just away. There are other
times I struggle with more personal anxieties, worries and difficulties. But
lately there are times it is hard to hold onto hope in the midst of what I’m
hearing in the news: the killing, the vandalism, the attacks on others.
Especially when things are happening in the world that I don't feel I can
stop. I feel helpless in the face of
what is going on. I can speak out, I can
talk about love rather than fear or hate, I can promote ideas and suggestions for
how to be proactive, I can sign petitions, join gatherings, conversations,
marches.... But it doesn't feel like enough.
My influence in the world is small, and today I feel that smallness. I
am worried for the world. I am worried
for my kids and what kind of a world they are growing into. When I was back in Ohio and would feel this
way, I often went for a quick walk in the Metroparks, which would center me for
awhile. In nature I felt renewed. And when I saw this Wendel Berry poem posted
on a friend's page, I had to post it as well to our church page because it is
true for me, too:
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grow in
me
and I wake in the night at the
least sound
in fear of what my life and my
children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood
drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild
things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind
stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.
There are times and days when
getting to nature is not possible. But I
think there is a deeper truth in this which is that we really do need times of
rest, of retreat from what is hard and challenging and demanding. Rest is necessary for all of us. Times away from work are crucial to our
wholeness, to being able to process through what happens in our lives, for
being able to continue to be grateful and creative and positive. Our Bible requires us to keep a Sabbath
day. This isn't optional, it's listed as
one of the big 10 things that we are supposed to do. But for some reason, this is the one of the
ten commandments that I think we have the hardest time following, the hardest
time taking seriously. How many of us
actually take a day off to rest each week?
Even our weekends get so busy with errands and other activities. Perhaps especially during advent it is hard,
with all of our Christmas preparation, to find rest time. And yet, it is exactly during times like
Advent, when we are called to wait and to watch that we need to set aside that
time.
Today we heard the
magnificat, Mary’s singing out of joy and praise to the God who has brought her
this child. We hear that her joy begins
with gratitude for what God has done. And we hear what we discussed two weeks
ago, that once again God’s coming to be among us is an even-ing up of the
playing fields, a raising up of those who have not had, and a lowering down of
those who have had. Most of the time when we read this passage I focus on the
beauty and call of her song of praise.
But there is a small line in this text that we usually ignore and that
is the very last sentence, “she stayed with her cousin Elizabeth for about
three months.” No sentence in here is
accidental. So what is the message in
that one sentence? Why tell us that she
stayed with Elizabeth for three months?
It is a comment again about taking time away.
In the midst of the
challenge of being a pregnant teenager, she did not just keep pushing through
what was hard. She stayed. With her
cousin. For three months. Two pregnant females, supporting each other,
nurturing each other, caring for each other.
And, no doubt, resting, as is often necessary for pregnant women to
do. They supported one another with
love, they expressed joy, and they found peace together.
Both were doing
amazing work, and would continue to do that for many years – carrying, birthing
and raising the two boys who would become John the Baptist and Jesus. But before they continued the work, they took
time out, to be with one another. To
renew, to refresh, to strengthen for what was to come.
As a people of faith,
as people who are on the way, as followers of Christ, we have work to do. We are called to be actively working for
justice, for change, for empowerment. We
are called to actively stand up for the voiceless, for those towards whom
hatred, fear and condemnation is being espoused. We are called to care for people in concrete,
real ways and to lift people up out of their poverty and oppression. But once again, Advent, and Moses through the
ten commandments remind us that this work must start with God. That means taking time to pray, to rest, to
listen, to strengthen up for the work that is to come.
Christmas is right
around the corner. And we may feel we
just don’t have time to pray, or rest.
But Martin Luther is famous for commenting, "I have so much to do
today that I'm going to need to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able
to get it all done." We must learn to see prayer as the most powerful and efficient use of our time. It is not a waste of time. It is time that centers us so that we can do
what needs to be done. By prayer in this
context I also don’t just mean blabbering to God. I mean
talking, yes, but also taking time to listen, to focus, to be led by what God
calls us to do in this moment and at this time.
This week we will
celebrate Christmas. And like many of
the signs and posters and memes out there, it is true that as a culture we have
taken the Christ out of Christmas in many ways.
When Christmas comes we will need to be about the work of Christ –
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, forgiving the guilty, welcoming the
stranger and the unwanted child, caring for the sick, loving our enemies. We will need to be about that because that is
the Christ we are called to follow and called to serve. Doing Christmas is welcoming Christ in all of
those people who make us uneasy, in all of those whom we would rather not see, in
all of those whom we fear. But we are not at Christmas yet. And while Advent can be incredibly busy, it
is NOW that we are called to take time to wait, to watch, to center our hearts,
to pray, to listen. It is through that
time of prayer, waiting, watching that we will find hope, peace, joy and love
in our midst.
There was a man who
complained that he wasn't able to reach his pastor by phone one day. When the clergy replied that it had been her
day off, the man snarled: “well, the Devil never takes a day off.” The
wise pastor smiled and replied, “true enough and if I don't take a day off
I will be just like him.” Take that to
heart. Take time. Wait, Watch, Pray. And rest in God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment