Sermon for 1st Sunday of Advent
Called to Acts of Kindness and Love
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Two deaths caught my attention over the past week or so. One was just this past Friday, the death of George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the USA. The other was about two weeks ago, the death of John Allen Chau.
You may not remember the name John Allen Chau, but you probably saw the news of his death. Chau was the young man who, determined to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the indigenous and isolated people of North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, was killed by the Sentinelese people as he shouted at them from their beach.
For me, Chau’s story is another one of those head-shaking stories which help make a caricature of Christianity in the public eye. Another one of the sort of stories that put a picture in the public mind of Christianity that is far from the one we would hope would be there. Chau went to North Sentinel Island even though he was not welcome there, even though his trip there was prohibited by law and even though his presence there, because the Sentinelese people are so isolated from outsiders and their diseases, Chau’s presence there would put the island residents at great risk of disease and death. His was a colonial view of missionary work, one which Christian missionaries around the world long ago dismissed. My missionary friends were both puzzled and angered by Chau’s actions. It was as if he was saying, “I am bringing Jesus to you and too bad if my presence kills you in the process.”
This is not how Christians spread the Gospel today.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Christians are often called to go to places where governments rule them unwelcome, but they never go to places where native peoples have asked them not to come and, especially, where their presence would be a danger to the native peoples. Or, at least, that is how most all missionaries work today.
It all makes me sigh and realize that people like Chau have just made our work as Christians much harder, since the public has but another reason to caricature us as out of touch at best and mean and hurtful at worst.
Our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has 240 missionaries active in more than 40 countries around the world, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to many. They are all in these nations because they have been invited by local people and because they have specific skills - pastors, teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. – skills which the local Lutheran churches need and have asked us to provide. Their work is far different from this young man who appeared to be looking for adventure with little concern for the people he said he wished to offer witness.
The other death which caught my attention was the death this past Friday of former US President, George H.W. Bush. You can say a lot of President Bush, both good and bad, but it was clear that Bush was a man rooted in his Christian faith who tried to bring out the best in people, certainly a huge contrast to the current President. You may remember President Bush’s “Points of Light” initiatives in which he tried to hold up people around the USA who were doing good, caring for others, especially those less fortunate than themselves. Many people and institutions followed Bush’s lead and created their own “Points of Light” initiatives to call forth and recognize the goodness in the people of this land.
These deaths led me to think again about how do we, as Christians, how do we do the work we are called to as Christians here on this earth?
Years before her death, Mother Theresa told a story about a time when she was very sick with a fever. As her temperature climbed, Mother Theresa became delirious. In the midst of her delirium, Mother Theresa had a vision that she was standing at the door of heaven, ready to leave this world and pass on to the next, to her heavenly reward. There in front of her was St. Peter, just as one might expect, working as the gatekeeper of heaven.
In her dream, Mother Theresa asked St. Peter if she could now enter heaven. To her surprise, St. Peter refused her request! Now, this hurt Mother Theresa to her core – For so many years she had cared for the poorest of the poor in India, people no one else wanted to care for. Certainly, that should have made her welcome in heaven. “Why can I not enter,” Mother Thesa asked St. Peter?
St. Peter replied, “Mother Theresa, you cannot enter heaven because there are no slums in heaven.”
There are no slums in heaven. There was more work for Mother Theresa to do here on earth.
And, there is work for all of us to do here on earth.
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the Christian season of hope and expectation. The message of this season is, as it has always been, that no matter what we do or do not do, God shows up. God shows up because that is how God works. As the child of a teenage brown mother, sleeping in a trough for livestock, God shows up. God shows up to remind us of God’s love for us and to remind us that God will and does show up for everyone.
Today’s Gospel is lesson is full, once again, of “end times” language – signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, distress among nations, fear and foreboding with even the heavens shaken.
And, what does Jesus call us to do in the face of all of this? Does Jesus suggest we should sit back and wait for the end? To close our personal and political borders to others? To stock up on food and weapons, getting ready for the final battle?
No, Jesus tells us to hold up our heads and get involved. To not accept what is happening all around us or to let it all go for the next generation to fix.
And, God’s justice is coming.
Despite all the end times talk in today’s Gospel lesson, Advent is not a time to wait for the world’s end, but a time to redouble our efforts in this world.
Advent is about the coming of the Child of Mary and the end of history. There “will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.” Our response to this is not to hide and wait but to make this Advent more about earth than heaven. We must be like St. Peter at heaven’s gate in Mother Theresa’s dream – we must remind ourselves that there is still work to do, much work to do, for us here on earth as we wait for the Lord to come again into our lives this Christmas. The best way to wait is to work for the kingdom of God here on earth, to work for justice and righteousness in this land.
As we light the candles of Advent, we must acknowledge that we have some of the light but not all of the light. Extreme ideologies of nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia and so much more are alive in this nation and the world. As we wait for the Christ Child our call is to work for justice for all people, to welcome the stranger and refugee, to stand up for the poor and homeless. We are called to make room in our lives for others, even those much different than we are.
The poet Denise Levertov writes, “The world is not with us enough. O taste and see…” We must be with the world enough in this Advent. We must travel lightly - with our prayers, our pained hearts and our willing hands. We must be alert at all times, and especially for the poor and the refugee and with the earth which is suffering and weary. We must pray daily to have the strength to stand now and in the last great day before the Son of Man, this Christ Child who will come and who forever is our Lord and Savior, this Jesus, this child of Mary and the Lord of history.
Into this world, in these times, during this Advent, God comes again. God shows up again. And, God shows up with the call for us all to join God in the pursuit of justice and righteousness for the poor, the refugee, and the earth. This Advent. This day.
The world’s end is not today. And, until that day, we, you and I, have work to do here and now for others and for God. We, you and I, are called to acts of kindness and love.
And, here is more – in the face of any discouragement with all that is happening in this world, we have the light of Christ. And, we know that Christ shines through any darkness in this world and the darkness does not, can not overcome Christ’s light. This is the message of Advent and Christmas this year and all years.
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, December 2, 2018
