The Rev'd Jane B Bearden Trinity Episcopal Church Haverhill Dec 5, 2010
This Advent during the Thursday evening Eucharist we are using a new liturgy that Janet put together for us.It is adapted from the Iona tradition.I am not totally familiar with the spiritual practice there but I know it to be meditative and honed in the Celtic tradition.After the reading of the lessons we share our reflections on the readings. Built into the liturgy is a question to consider.If this is the Word of God and it is meant to change our lives, then how will our lives be changed in the next days having heard it? I think that is a great question to ask – especially in Advent. As we hear these lessons of things to come, of communities replanted and renewed, of welcome and of love, of returning and of peace of spirit and fire... how does God call us to new life, where is God at work in our lives? How will our lives be changed in the weeks and months to come after having heard these Advent lessons? It is not by accident that each week in Advent we begin our worship with a silent procession and by lighting a candle on the Advent wreath. As each candle is lit we are drawn closer and closer to the breaking through of God in our lives, but the deliberate pace of this season of waiting and watching keeps us from jumping to far forward too fast. Each candle we light reminds us of a different aspect of what it means to receive Christ as newborn baby into our lives. Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. And our readings remind us of our responsibility to be a part of that inbreaking of God both individually and as a faith community. If you get email you have probably seen one of those Utube flash mob videos.I love them.I want so badly to be in the place when one happens.For those who have not seen it.Flash mobs occur in train stations, on busy city streets, in department stores and in mall food courts...Most anywhere that there are large numbers of people completely absorbed in what they are doing and oblivious to what is going on around them.Then quite suddenly music begins to play and one or two people begin to dance or sing or perhaps both.The performers are pretty professional at least on the ones I have seen.It is not a haphazard thing but rather is choreographed and done well.Bystanders soon pick up on the fact that something is afoot as more and more people join in the singing or dancing.Cameras come out and video cameras.The “audience” begins to get cell phones going and taping the sounds and images of the Flash Mob.My favorite is in Macy’s in Philadelphia where they have that great big organ.It is not unusual for the organ to be played.I think that happens every day but what is unusual is that the Philadelphia Opera Company is there spread out over four or five floors.All of a sudden voices join in a you hear Alleluia.The conductor is up on the top floor leaning over a balcony and what must be 75 or 80 voices are just wonderful.But the really entertaining thing about these flash mob videos is the people who just happened to be there.At first most seem embarrassed, they try to continue with what ever it was that they were doing before the interruption.But soon most become taken up in the sheer joy of beautiful music being sung to glorify God. Like all things good and bad the singing comes to an end.But there is something inside me that does not want it to end.I sort of tip over toward the computer in an effort to stay in the moment – make it last a little longer, afraid perhaps that if it is over then I will no longer have the music to enjoy... In a sort of anti-climax my life will return to what it was before.The people in Macy’s have a similar reaction – there is a stunned silence, clapping, and then it is over and most of the people return to their shopping.I wonder...Are they changed in some way?Will their lives be different when they go home for having heard the music?Is a flash Mob just a flash in the pan or do random acts of culture have the potential to renew a love of music and art in people who are chained to a world of competition and power struggles and the counter-cultural notions of taking time to enjoy beautiful art or music is frowned upon. Here we are in Advent – awaiting the most amazing of interruptions,We are awaiting God’s action in the world.Will we be changed when it comes?Or will we just ho hum, pack away the decorations, pile up the bills for the gifts, stuff the good will and peace on earth back into the boxes and move on just as we were before.Will we just continue shopping after the hallelulahs have faded out of earshot?.If this is the Word of God and it is meant to change our lives, then how will our lives be changed in the next days having heard it? Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. … The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon the One [who is to come]... ...the spirit of wisdom and understanding... ...the wolf shall live with the lamb... ...the lion shall eat straw like the ox... ...and a little child shall lead them... They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; For the earth will be filled of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. … Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. … May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. What we are about this time of the year is waiting for the greatest Flash Mob of all.What we will experience in just a few short weeks from now is the interruption of our lives by God.This birth in a stable is meant to change us, to awaken in us an awareness of God’s love for us and to inspire us to share that love with all whom we meet.How we do that – how we live out that encounter with God is the work of a spirit filled, faithful community and everyone in it. Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.The four candles of Advent.The world in which we live is more like the faces in the Mall, expressionless, lacking the spark of hope in a world of pain and suffering.But every now and then, peace breaks out in a place where I never would have believed it possible. Every once in a while, the deepest, ugliest sore imaginable actually heals. Every now and then old anger and resentment gets buried so deep that a back hoe couldn’t dig it up.Often these small random acts of hope, love, joy, and peace come about without any prompting of pushing.Somehow – from somewhere a stone heart is softened and another heart is touched.Isaiah's vision--the light, the peace, the healing, the calm this is the source of these random miracles.It is the season of miracles – God is about to act. What is it that makes us stop and listen – moved almost to tears - when we hear Handel’s Messiah in the atrium of Macy’s?What is it that awakens a longing for God in us when we hear Isaiah's incredible images for God's restoration of those in exile or John the Baptist announce that “another is coming who is greater”? We try to hold it together, keeping an appearance of being in control – not wanting to acknowledge the interconnectedness, our need to be loved and cared for.We dare not show any interest in the music lest we risk being seen as weak or vulnerable. But just like the sweet sound of unexpected music catching us up and holding us - Isaiah's words cut through all our false bravado and reveal us for what we are at our core--God's suffering children who long to be gathered up and loved and told that we are safe and that, despite the pain and the loss and the anguish of this world, there is hope for restoration, healing, and renewal.And best of all, thereis the promise of a birth – one that will turn the world upside down - and one which, in the power and mystery of God, is surely coming. A shoot from a dead stump. A voice crying in the wilderness of a mall. A stranger finds their way into a church after years of feeling isolated from God and is welcomed warmly. A little baby crying in a manger.We who hear the word of God, who come and experience the unexpected entrance of God into our lives – we are called to be the voices in the crowds, singing deeply and fully of the wonder of God’s love.How will the reading of the word of God change you tomorrow? Let us pray:Holy and gracious God, who comes to us weak and vulnerable, a baby in the manger, send your spirit upon us this season to stir us up to be the voices of Hope, and love, and joy and peace in the world.hearing, receiving, and announcing your coming to all whom we meet.We pray in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus your son.Amen.