The Kingdom Coming with Love, Reconciliation and Beauty

                                                                 Advent 3A 2013

Isaiah 35:1-10; Magnificat;James 5:7-10; Matt 11:2-11

With Guest Artists from Walnut Lodge and the Ballet Theatre Shenango Valley

Father Adam Trambley

December 15, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

We are waiting. 

Today this church, along with many other liturgical churches, is celebrating.  Advent is a time of waiting for Christ’s coming, both as the baby in the manger at Christmas and as the King of the Universe on the last day.  The question today is what is the world going to look like when Jesus shows up? 

Some people seem to expect Jesus to come on a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer.  Well, usually the expression is more sophisticated, but not the idea.  They believe that we can have an encounter with God that really doesn’t require anything of us.  Set out a plate of milk and cookies and Jesus will show up with whatever we want. Then we can go about our business as usual, only with more stuff.  I don’t think that this understanding of the coming Kingdom of God is true or very helpful to anybody.

Other folks seem to have an understanding like John the Baptist’s vision.   The strength of the oppressors is broken.  Captives are set free.  Those who rely on God will be rewarded.  John got the idea right.  He just didn’t understand the method.  He wanted his Messiah to show up, tell everybody he was right, and then burn away anything or anyone that wasn’t in agreement.  Too many Christians today have expectations of Jesus are similar to John.  They miss that Jesus loves everybody and comes for everybody and is going to engage everybody in whatever ways he can.  They miss the boundless joy, the abundant hospitality, and the unfathomable love overflowing onto all creation that will come with the Kingdom of God.

That overwhelming, incomprehensible, awe-inspiring love is the fundamental characteristic of the Kingdom of God given freely by the one John proclaimed and the one we are waiting for, Jesus Christ our Messiah, our Lord, our King.  Jesus is the one who fills the hungry with good things, who lifts up the lowly, who cleanses the outcast.  Jesus is the one who allows the lion to lie down with the lamb, the wolf with the kid, and makes it safe for the children to play with cobras.  Jesus is the one who makes the crocus blossom abundantly, who causes streams to break forth in the desert, and orchestrates all the beauties of nature.  Jesus is coming to bring in a Kingdom so full of goodness and truth and beauty that not even fools will be able to miss it, and we going into it singing with everlasting joy. 

The problem for us today is that the Kingdom isn’t here yet.  We know that pain and brokenness still exists.  We see the evils that people do to each other, and, when we are honest, recognize the many instances where we ourselves have failed.  We’ve experienced the sickness, the harm, and the tragedy that seems to be woven into the structures of the world around us.  We can be so overwhelmed that we lose sight of the Kingdom of God we are hoping for.  Yet the darkness sometimes surrounding us is precisely why we need to find ways to live out the values of the Kingdom now.  By living into Kingdom in tangible ways, we are able to announce its in-breaking presence to ourselves and the world around us, even while we wait for Jesus to come and finally usher it in.

How do we do that?  Well, we’ve seen the cartoons with people carrying signs on street corners reading “Repent. The end is near.”  There may be a time for such placards, but I’m not sure they are so effective.   Instead, we proclaim the Kingdom of God when we demonstrate the love, the goodness, the truth or the beauty that Jesus lived.

We’ve had some great examples of people announcing the Kingdom in various ways recently.  Pope Francis has captured the hearts of the world because he refuses to hold onto anything, including basically good religious pieties, that prevent him from sharing God’s love with the poor and the outcasts.  Instead of delegating care for the needy to some cardinal he may be sneaking out into the middle of the night to spend time with the poor.  He hugs those with physical deformities, he washes the feet of those who don’t fit in, and he doesn’t stop proclaiming in word and deed the same things Jesus announced to John. How can we not see God at work in him?  How can we not want to spend eternity with people who have that much love for everyone?  How can we not hope that God will transform us with the courage to love our brothers and sisters with the same reckless abandon?  How can we not want to follow such a man into a deeper relationship with whatever God he is serving? 

People throughout the world also remembered Nelson Mandela this week.  Here is a man who went into prison with a righteous injustice for his people, looking for a violent overthrow of those in power, sounding like John the Baptist in some ways.  Then, through the mercy of God, he became transformed through decades in prison to understanding the incredible power of God’s reconciling love.  He wasn’t perfect, and people of good-will can disagree about any political choices.  But he came out of prison understanding that he no longer had enemies, and he worked to bring healing and unity to a divided country.  He built relationships with anyone willing to work with him, even those that could have been considered enemies, for the good of his people.  He oversaw the formation of a Truth in Reconciliation chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu that actually allowed people who had done heinous crimes to each other during the Apartheid era to face each other, confess their sins, and go forward together.   He lived the risks of trying to govern by the reconciling love and justice proclaimed in the gospels instead of the real-politic of power and self-interests. 

          

We can take these two men as models. Like Francis, we can stretch ourselves in love and care for the poor and outcast.  Like Nelson who was injured in ways most of us can’t even imagine, we can always seek forgiveness and reconciliation with those who have hurt us and who we have hurt.  But there is one other way I want to talk about today that we can live into the Kingdom of God.  We have all these artists here today, and beauty is fundamentally a characteristic of God.  When we focus on bringing forth the beautiful in art, music, and dance we are offering people an opportunity to come before God.   Passionate beauty in any medium makes our spirits soar beyond drudgery of daily life into the glorious heart of the almighty God.  Beauty is at God’s core, and we are made in the image of that beauty.  In many ways, without the beautiful in nature and in art, we can’t really know God or ourselves.

This need for beauty is why churches are filled with architecture and sculpture and stained-glass and woodwork and tapestries and color and music and poetry and even costume and dance.  If we want to point people to the Kingdom of God, we have to at least try to look like it a little bit.  The Kingdom of God is lusher than the most verdant meadow; the Kingdom of God is more glorious than the most resplendent sunset; the Kingdom of God is filled with music richer than the best Bach cantatas or doo-wop harmonies; the Kingdom of God is filled with seraphim flying and saints dancing more passionately and gracefully than the most elaborate stage productions.  The Kingdom of God is so beautiful that we desperately need people like Ron and our choir, and James and Abbey, and Sam, and Miss Jill, and these vocalists and dancers that have joined us today to dedicate themselves to their craft so that we can experience some greater portion of who God is and the Kingdom we are yearning for.  Some days that happens in church, and many days it happens in other places.  But wherever and whenever it happens, we are blessed, and are grateful.

So we are waiting.  Waiting for Christmas.  Waiting for Jesus.  Waiting for the Kingdom of God.  But we are not waiting without hope.  Instead we are looking forward to the love, the reconciliation, and the beauty of the Kingdom, living them out whenever and wherever we can today, so that we can recognize them in their fullness when the Kingdom finally comes.

Unity, Welcome, Purpose, and Mission

Advent 2A 2013

 Isaiah 11:1-10; Ps 72;Romans 15:4-13; Matt 3:1-12

Father Adam Trambley

December 8, 2013, St.John’s Sharon

This morning’s readings are all powerful.  Matthew’s Gospel tells us about John the Baptist’s message, but we aren’t going to spend time here today. Next Sunday, at the 10:00, service we are expecting a special visit from John the Baptist.  So you’all want to come back next week.   

Before looking at the great vision of Isaiah, I want to start with what is probably the least familiar of today’s reading, the one from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul prays that the God of steadfastness and encouragement allows us to live in harmony with each other so that we can glorify God together.  Steadfastness is meant to keep us on God’s path, and the scriptures encourage us by showing us the compelling vision of God’s future.  An important part of that godly future is that we live in unity.  As we listen to God’s word, we catch the hope of what God has in store, and that helps live together in harmony today. 

Then Paul gives one direction specific direction for living in this unity.  He says to welcome one another just as Christ welcomed us, for the glory of God.  To become one, we need to show hospitality to each other, just like Jesus did.   Jesus dined with people, sat and talked with them, went to parties with them, cared for them when they were sick, was with them at weddings and funerals, and prayed for them.  He still does the same with us, inviting us to his table at the altar and being with us in all our life circumstances, even if we are only aware of how much he is there when we stop and look for him.  Paul says to act the same way.  We know from experience that when do share our lives with one another, it does bring us closer.  We do have a depth of love in this church from relationships built up over decades as people have welcomed each other into their lives.  Part of our ability as a church to more completely glorify God with one voice comes from spending more time, with more people, getting to know them and sharing our lives with each other. 

The Isaiah reading gives us encouragement here to make us steadfast.  We have the beautiful image of the wolf lying with the lamb, the leopard and the goat napping together, and the child reaching into the cobra’s lair.  Think about it.  If God is able to bring together the baby to play with the cobra, there is nobody in this church or in any other church that we can’t manage to know and love.  I’ve met pretty much everybody in the church and I know all about people being mean, cranky, rude, scary, ornery, tired, selfish, short-sighted, and difficult -- and so far I’m just talking about your priest – but I haven’t seen anything as bad as a sharp-fanged, venomous cobra. 

But Isaiah also puts his divine lovey-dovey wildlife park into a context.  That context for the peaceful life of creation is the Lord’s rule, where people know what God wants them to do and they do it.  If Jesus tells the leopard to go vegan and the tells the wolf that Thanksgiving is only tofurkey from now on, they’ll make good friends with the holy soy bean.  Our unity finds its fulfillment as we take the welcoming relationships we’ve developed and move into a common obedience to God’s instruction.

At a fundamental level, we know that we need to follow the basic laws of God to be able to live together.  Thou shalt not steal; because if you take someone’s clothespin cookies it breaks the relationships in the church.  Thou shalt not kill, even if someone took your clothespin cookies.  Thou shalt not commit adultery, even if your spouse likes clothespin cookies and eats them when you aren’t paying attention, or, worse yet, didn’t buy you any to begin with.  You might want some counseling, but, you know, it is “for better or for worse.”  Without following the basic instructions, all our common life collapses. 

But our unity comes through an even deeper obedience to God than just the ethical mandates of Christian life.  We also have particular vocation, and our vocation in this parish comes in living out the purpose that God has called us to: Worship God, Care for People, and Grow as Christians.  This statement summarizes what St. John’s has been about since a group of Episcopalians got together to begin worshipping in Sharon almost one-hundred and fifty years ago.  The same emphasis we see throughout our history is coming together for common worship on Sundays, reaching out to help people in need, and teaching our young people and one another how to live a Christian life.  The services and the music have sometimes looked a little different, the ministries have changed, and the curriculums continue to be revised, but we always worship God, care for people and grow as Christians.

Specifically at this time, God is calling us to work in five particular directions.   First is to worship God in creative, passionate and beautiful ways that inspire a wide variety of people. (and you can read these on the walls by the doors so I’ll just summarize them)  We also are called to build authentic, loving relationships, to strengthen youth and families, to meet people’s basic needs and to participate in the revitalization of our wider community.  As we follow God’s lead to live out our purpose by following our strategic directions, we are going to come closer together.   People working effectively to get somewhere always draw closer than when everyone just stays put.  Living out God’s purpose is the kind of adventure that leads us to rely on each other, and keeps us from the isolation inherent in focusing only on making ourselves more comfortable. 

Then of course, our own situation differs slightly from the one in Isaiah.  We don’t have a lot of leopards, lions, wolves, snakes, or bears here, so having our exotic pets go to the doggie park together for play group may not be the most important mark of the Kingdom of God breaking into St. John’s.  But our guiding principles identify how we are to live our common life of faith together.  We ask for God’s guidance and power, we work do develop loving relationships, we are hospitable and welcoming, we do what we do well for the glory of God, we enjoy our work and have fun doing it, and we engage the wider community in our work.  As our parish life exhibits these qualities, we are living into our best selves, and we see the Kingdom of God is coming among us.     

This Advent, we have seen this purpose and these strategic directions and these guiding principles lived into, and the results have been just what Paul said they would be – our greater unity, and the inclusion of the Gentile into God’s saving work, which for us today means that people from outside of St. John’s, especially the unchurched, are coming to us and discovering something about God’s love and hospitality and presence and way of life.  By doing what we are called to do we are able to overcome the challenges that ministry brings so that we can grow in unity and in ministry.

Making cookies!!

The challenges can be tough, too, especially on day like yesterday when hundreds of people were in church for five different events.  The 3C’s had dozens of folks from the parish volunteering and hundreds of others coming to buy cookies and other Christmas items, while also offering lunch for people to stop and socialize.  They brought in over $5,000 which they will donate to a variety of groups over the next year. (And, as a brief commercial announcement, after the service delicious cookies and a couple of varieties of soup are available for sale in Allen Hall.)  The second anniversary of St. John’s Kitchen had a relatively light day, serving just under 150, while having to revamp their menu due to, as they say, “circumstances beyond our control.”  Some of our lunch guests were able to have their photos taken by Rachel Dudzenski, who is about to graduate with a photography degree, after having make-overs earlier this week through a partnership with Laurel Technical Institute.  The healing team held a soaking prayer service at 1:15, and House Group 1 bought cookies, ate lunch, and then held a book discussion.  Then today, we have two services, Sunday School, and 120 people will be using Allen Hall later for a soccer banquet.  Over two days, hundreds of people worshipping God, caring for people (or being cared for), and growing as Christians in ways that correspond to our strategic directions.  All the while people praying, and helping visitors get where they needed to go, and doing things with a sense of excellence, and building loving relationships with each other, and even finding some fun in the midst of ambulance calls and logistical hitches and staying on our feet for hours and all the other little nagging difficulties that get dealt with on the path to the Kingdom of God.

 

Other events are happening in our life together, as well.  ECS is in the midst of its Christmas give-away after completing its Thanksgiving give-away a few weeks ago..  Last Sunday the youth group had an outing and they will make Kettle-Korn next weekend.  The choir, along with other parishioners and non-parishioners, sang Christmas carols downtown last weekend for Sharon’s Small Business Shop-Around.  The ECW Christmas party is coming up a week from Monday, the Altar Guild will be preparing for Christmas on Saturday, and a second AA group is starting up here because they have felt so welcome that they feel a connection to this place, which is a wonderful thing.

Then, next week at the 10:00 service, we are being joined by dancers, actors, musicians and vocalists connected to Walnut Lodge and the Ballet Theatre Shenango Valley to help bring our scripture readings to life.  The Gospel will be a dialogue between Jesus and John the Baptist.  The reading from James will be sung to a contemporary composition written for this service and the Magnificat will read by a spoken chorus.  Our offertory anthem will be a special arrangement of O Come, O Come Emmanuel with original choreography and about twenty ballet dancers.  And, even with all this, we are going to keep the service a reasonable length.  We are going worship God in creative, passionate and beautiful ways in accordance with our guiding principles.  Please come and experience what should be an incredible Advent opportunity.  More than that, feel free to invite folks to join you.  This is the kind of special service that is easy to ask a family member or friend that hasn’t been to church in a while to join you for.  It’s special and people might come, and then you can invite them again for Christmas. We’ll have a reception in Allen Hall following the service for all of us and our guests, and we expect a lot of guests.  Given the artists coming and their families, we could have fifty to a hundred guests, so please come and be welcoming and help them find their place in the service and walk them down to Allen Hall and generally give people such a powerfully good experience that anybody who doesn’t already have a church might start showing up here occasionally.  This opportunity is so wonderful on so many levels that we want to take full advantage of it.

This parish is doing wonderful work, and you can probably tell because many of you are tired today.  We are coming together in unity of purpose and mission.  That unity is helping people from outside of St. John’s come to know and praise God in all sorts of ways.  The work we are doing during Advent will help those inside and outside the parish recognize Jesus as he comes at Christmas and at the last day.  As we worship God, care for people and grow as Christians, we grow in together and welcome others in so that we all give glory and praise to God.

Waiting

                                                                 Advent 1A 2013

Isaiah 2:1-5; Ps 122;Romans 13:11-14; Matt 24:36-44

Father Adam Trambley

December 1, 2013, St.John’s Sharon

Waiting.

            Advent is the season of waiting.

            A four-week preparation

                        For the coming of the Messiah.

            Repentance of sins and

                        Seeking for stars

            All so we can better wait

                        For whatever God wants

                        And is willing to do.

More than waiting, thought, really.

Yearning.

Lamenting.

Wailing.

Falling into the full measure

            Of creation’s brokenness,

            Recognizing the impossibility of its restoration,

            And fanning the fickle flames

                        Of hope that God will come with us

                                    Into the midst of everything

And make it right again.

Isaiah and Jesus both speak out of that waiting.

Isaiah looks at all the ways

            People of ancient Palestine put God aside.   

From the precipice of despair

            Over false religious practices

                        Where children are sacrificed

                        Or taken to be temple prostitutes,

            Where gods are made in the image of man

            Where violence and war,

                        Strike everyone with fear and terror

            Where ignorance runs rampant

            And where decency and love have disappeared,

From that precipice of despair,

            Isaiah looks out to the mountain of hope,

            The mountain of the Lord’s house,

            The mountain of righteousness,

            The mountain of instruction,

            The mountain of peace, and plowshares and pruning hooks.

            The mountain of the light of the Lord!

The prophet sees

            This mountain

            With every fiber of his being,

From the depths of his very soul,

He hopes.

But no matter how vividly he sees

            Every color and hue

            Every hill and dale

            Every spring and tree

            On that mountain,

He sees it arriving

In days to come.

Meanwhile,

He waits.

And we wait.

Jesus

            Is talking about the same time.

He himself is bringing Isaiah’s mountain,

            But the people have forgotten to wait.

They eat and drink,

            They marry and give in marriage,

            They do all the things we do,

And some of them live their lives

            With an eye towards life

                        On the Mountain of the Lord.

            But many don’t. 

Jesus says:

            Stay awake.

            You don’t want to miss it

                        When things are finally put right.

            You don’t want to be so wrapped up

                        In what doesn’t matter

                        That you get left behind when

                                    Everyone else

                                    Is ready to go.

            I can’t tell you the time,

                        Jesus says,

            So be ready.

            Be waiting.

We’re waiting.

            Still waiting.

Waiting,

If we are honest,

for so much to be made right.

Waiting for Isaiah’s vision

            To become tangible to us,

            Touching our own hearts,

            Made manifest in our own lives.

Waiting to see

what God will do

to make right

all those things

we can’t

make right ourselves.

The list is long, really,

            Of what we are waiting for.

So much hurts

            And is utterly beyond our power.

We experience deep personal losses.

            Deaths of loved ones

                        We will not see again in this life.

            Divorces and other broken relationships

                        That have left sensitive wounds,

                                    And callous scars.

                        Where what we had wanted will never be

                                    And who we are now is not the same.

            Divides between parents and children

                        Where insecurities, pains, fears and dysfunctions

                        Are passed down in spite of ourselves.

                        Where we seem least capable

                        Of loving the way we want to.

We see overwhelming tragedies on a global scale.

            Wars repeating

                        As hatred is passed from one generation to the next.

            The poor

                        That will always be with us

                        And suffer so much preventable

disaster, disease, and death.

            Environmental catastrophes

                        Where the inevitable decisions of our daily life,

                        Keeping pushing past any ecological equilibrium.     

We find our social structures floundering.

            Churches less full than they used to be

                        People we remember

No longer there.

Valued rhythms and rituals

No longer repeated.

            Neighborhoods less safe,

                        Or less connected,

                        Or less like we want a

                                    Neighborhood to be.

            Cities struggling

                        With jobs lost

                        Infrastructure decaying

                        And children leaving.

            America

                        Not the way we want to remember it.

                        No longer winning World War II

                        Or putting men on the moon

                        Or being the best and brightest

                        Or the moral conscience for the world.

We ourselves have disappointed as well.

            We hurt people we love

                        And we don’t always know why

                        And we find we can’t always stop.

            We hurt ourselves

                        In any manner of failings,

                        But the seven deadly ones sum them up

                        Pride, anger, lust, greed, gluttony, envy and sloth.

We see so much that needs to be changed

            And isn’t changing easily.

The next election isn’t an easy answer.

            The newest self-help fad isn’t fixing it.

            The most polished preacher or practiced pastor

                        Won’t make it all go away.

The only answer is God,

            But he comes in his own way

            On his own time-table

            From his own mountain,

                        And we have to wait.

Or, we have to wait if we want to watch for God,

            But there are other choices, of course.

We can fill

            That emptiness inside

            With all manner of things

            That will not satisfy,

            With the distractions and delicacies

                        Of daily life lived as escape.

Modern America

            Has raised distraction to its heights.

            We never have to be quiet enough,

                        Inside or out,

                        To recognize how deep our longings

                        Really are.

Why sit still

            And experience the anguish of our souls,

            When we can get up and get a cookie,

            Or numb ourselves with a drink,

            Or laugh ourselves to sleep

                        Watching the TV’s in our bedrooms

            Or make lists and check them twice

                        And then find all the sales

            Or read what all our friends did on Facebook,

            Or overwhelm our minds

                        With 3-D, surround sound, big-screen

                        Entertainment extravaganzas.

            Or even run from one religious piety to another

                        Until we feel that God owes us and

Is expected to show up

When we want him.

All of these,

            At the right time,

            Can contribute to God’s work.

But so often we use them

            Just to prevent us

                        from feeling

                        what we need to feel.

What we need to feel

            Is the longing for God to make it right.

We need to get in touch

            With the yearning in our soul 

            For Jesus to show up.

We need to find that place

            Deep inside us

            That knows

            We need to live on Isaiah’s mountain

                        And nothing else

                        Is adequate.

And we need to wait

            In painful woundedness

            For Jesus to return.

In Advent,

            We open ourselves up

                        To the entire saving history of Jesus

                        And experience the tension

                        Between what God has already done

                        And what we are still waiting for.

In Advent we are waiting for Christmas

            Knowing that God has become man

                        And that God is with us

                        And that God is in all creation

            But that we still don’t fully experience

                        His presence with us.

In Advent we are waiting for the life of Jesus,

            Knowing what he taught and how he lived,

            But that we can’t fully live out

                        His teaching and example

In Advent we are waiting for the deliverance from sin

            Knowing that Jesus died

                        To deal with sin once for all time

            But that we are still wracked with guilt and shame.

In Advent we are waiting for resurrection

            Knowing that Christ is Risen!

            But that those we love are still dying.

In Advent we are waiting for Christ’s Ascension,

            Knowing that Jesus reigns

                        At the right hand of the Father

            But that he still needs to come back

                        And make things right.

In Advent we are waiting for Pentecost,

            Knowing that the Holy Spirit’s power has come upon us

            But that we still feel inadequate to the tasks at hand.

In Advent we are waiting for God,

            Knowing what he has promised

            And refusing,

                        Like some annoying nine-year old,

                        To stop looking at him

                        Until he does what he says he’d do.

Advent is the time

            We cultivate that waiting.

In Advent

            We listen to the pains and hurts

            To hear the things we are really yearning for;

            We expose our cracks and crevasses

            To see just what needs to happen

                        To make us whole.

            And we wait for that salvation to come to us.

In Advent, we wait

And in our waiting,

            We find our deepest prayer.

Our whole being

            Hurting

            Crying

            Wailing

            Lamenting

            Attentive to the fissures fracturing

                        Ourselves and our world

            Come more and more completely

to cry out to God.

Our anger and resentments,

            Our shame and guilt

            Are burned away

In our refusal to blame anyone else,

                        Including ourselves

            For those things

                        That we realize

                        Only God can handle,

And in their consuming flames

They become burning prayers.

Our brutal honesty

            About the depth of our pain

            Becomes the depth of our prayer

            As we confront God

From the brokenness of our entire lives.

Whatever we give up,

            Whether the food we fast from

            The TV we turn off

            Or the distractions we deny,

            Become strengths

                        In the petition of our 

                        Body, mind and spirit

Every effort we offer to just sit

            With what is needed

                        For ourselves and the world

            Becomes a prayer

                        To pull open the doors of heaven

            Until we are answered.

Perhaps no prayer is more powerful

            Than the utter realization

                        Of how much we need God

            And the decision to wait for him

                        Until he meets those needs.

Advent is accepting the inner emptiness

            Of knowing that everything needs restoration

            And that only God can restore it.

Then Advent is waiting, 

Eagerly and actively

            Passionately and profoundly,

            With tears and laments

            Heart-broken yet somehow hopeful

                        Until Jesus come again.

We open our entire beings

            As sounding chambers

To echo the great advent prayer

            Marantha – Come Lord Jesus,

Then, when we know

            Only the sorrows of the world

            And the promises of God

Our hopes and our prayers

Roll down as mighty waters

            From the seeming barren desert

                        of

our

            Advent

                                                                                    Waiting

Until finally

Jesus comes.