“Hoping”     

First Congregational United Church of Christ

December 9, 2007

The Rev. Sharyl B. Peterson

Scripture Readings: Matthew 3:1-3, Romans 15:5-13

I don’t know about most of you, but Christmas was a lot more fun when I was a kid than it is now that I’m all grown up.

One reason for the difference is that back then, I didn’t have to worry about shopping for sixty-eleven different people, and get everything wrapped, and get the tree up and the house decorated, and write and send Christmas cards, and plan and help cook and clean up a big Christmas dinner.  I just made my little homemade gifts of ceramic ashtrays and knitted hats and stuffed pincushions, and wrapped them with the help of Mom or Dad, and help hang the ornaments on the tree they put up, and settle down and wait happily to find out what Santa might bring me.

            The second reason for the difference is that what I wanted to get for Christmas back then was usually fairly simple, and if Santa was in a good mood, it was realistically obtainable – a doll, or a chemistry set, or a real pony (which, alas, it took me another 40 years to get).  As I recall, our Christmas lists as kids were fairly short, and the top one or two “most wanted items” on our lists usually showed up under the tree on Christmas morning.

            But Christmas has gotten a lot harder in the last four decades.  First, there’s the unending list of stuff to do – that unending list that exhausts all of us, and makes most of us crazy this time of year.  And second, what I want for Christmas these days seems a whole lot less likely to show up than those things I used to want.

            Things like peace in the world – peace for everyone – for our troops to be home with their families, and for their troops to be home with their families – for children and women and men all over the world to be able to live safely and well in their homelands.  Things like more tolerance and less judgment, right here in “River City” – fewer mean-spirited Letters to the Editor, and You Said Its, fewer frowns and more smiles as you encounter people on the streets, more respect – in print and in personal encounters – for differences of opinion and ways of looking at the world.  Things like good health care and a good education for every child – for every child – in this country; and in this state; and in this nation; and in our world – so that every child who is born has the opportunity to learn and grow and develop the talents and gifts God gave him or her, and has real choices about what they will do with their lives.

            There’s a big difference between that and the “wish lists” I had as a kid … this is more of a “hope list.”  This is what I yearn for with my mind, and heart, and soul.  And the real downer part of Christmas – or what can be a real downer part – are those feelings of sadness, or despair, or disbelief that any of those things on that list – and we all have a list at least something like that – are likely to arrive any time soon.

            Which in many ways puts us in exactly the same boat as our forebears in the faith – those Jewish men and women living in places like Bethlehem … and Nazareth … and all those other places that figure in the ancient Christmas story.  Life was pretty darn bleak for them too – in fact, life was pretty terrible for most Jews living in that part of the world in those days.  They were occupied by a foreign power, whose rulers were harsh, and arrogant, and unjust, and sought only to build more and more power and control for themselves; there was no tolerance at all for differences between people:  the Romans hated the Jews, the Jews hated the Romans, and in each of their respective cultures, there were subgroups based on ethnicity, on class, and on religious – that divided them even further; the Jewish children were suffering – while education for all wasn’t an issue in that time and place, many of those children lacked adequate food, or shelter, or the most basic necessities for life.

And into this wretched setting strides a wild man – someone who even by the standards of his time was considered profoundly odd – weird – maybe even dangerous.  This fellow named John, a/k/a the Baptizer because of his peculiar habit of standing on the banks of the Jordan River preaching, followed by an invitation to baptism for everyone attending.  This weird guy, proclaiming, as had so many before him – that the Messiah was about to arrive, and save God’s people.  This weird guy, preaching in the midst of poverty and fear and violence and chaos – that there was hope to be found – in the person of this Messiah. 

            But first, he says – things here – things among us – have got to change.  Over and over, day after day, this scraggy skinny bearded man in the filthy ragged loincloth calls the people who gather to hear him to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

            It’s an image that in our culture has become a caricature.  We’ve all seen the cartoons – if we’ve lived or traveled in big cities, we’ve seen the real thing – the scraggy, bearded, apparently-raving crazies standing on street corners, waving their signs that say, “Repent, the end is near.”

            But stop right there for a second.  Listen again to John.  Read his sign:  “Repent – for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Not the end is near – but the kingdom of heaven has come near.  John wasn’t just lambasting the people so they could say a final “Gee, I’m sorry for everything I’ve done that’s bad” before they’re vaporized by God in a puff of smoke – although some of the imagery in the passages following this one, images of winnowing, and axes, and unquenchable fire, might lead you to think that.  Instead, John was inviting them – calling and challenging them, yes, but also inviting them – inviting us – to change our ways so that the kingdom that God is yearning for might truly come about on this earth.

            Because the repentance he was preaching wasn’t just about feeling sorry about what we’ve done that’s wrong – and before any of us get too self-righteous about this, every one of us has done things that are wrong.  Repentance was and is about changing our ways.  It’s about making a clear, conscious choices to live differently than we have in the past.

If you’ve wronged someone else – maybe you said something mean or critical to them, maybe you took advantage of them, maybe you lied to them – repentance is not just about sitting around and feeling bad – or even guilty – about it.  Repentance is about first, seeking that person out and apologizing.  And it’s about second, choosing to act in ways that are different from before, so you don’t hurt them again.

            You stop continually criticizing your kid (or whatever age) and start praising them from time to time.  You stop yelling at your spouse or partner, and start appreciating them more.  You stop drinking – or smoking – or using other substances that harm you and the people you care about – and start living a healthier lifestyle.  You stop gossiping and passing along malicious stories, and start sharing good things you’ve heard about others.  You stop living in a way that hurts others – and you – and start living in a way that is somehow more just, more compassionate, more caring.

            That’s what John was talking about.  He knew that the coming Messiah wasn’t going to be some kind of magician, who would wave a magic wand, and suddenly everything in the world was going to change for the good.  He knew this Messiah wasn’t going to holler out some magic words, like “Abracadabra,” and suddenly all the wars would stop, and the Romans would all go home, and everyone would have plenty of money, and life would be hunky-dorey for everyone.  He knew – or at least could guess – that the coming Messiah would show human beings how they were supposed to live together in a way that would bring – that can bring – God’s reign about right here on earth – but it was going to be up to people to choose to live that way.

            It’s the same thing Paul was talking about in his letters written just a couple of decades later, like that letter called Romans that we heard part of this morning.  As Christianity was growing and spreading and becoming a faith that was different from – distinct from – its Jewish roots, there were huge fights in the faith community over whether “outsides” should be welcomed into the Christian church.  And the “outsiders” they were fighting about were not undocumented aliens – or poor people – or people of a different skin color – they were the Gentiles.  Non-Jewish people.  People like you and me.  We were the outsiders.  And there was a large core of folks in that ancient first Christian community who believed that Gentiles were not included in God’s circle of love, nor in the hope that Jesus had brought.  And so Paul sent this letter called Romans to some of the Jewish Christians in Rome to tell them that God really did want those Gentiles – along with the Jews – to be part of “The Way,” which was the name they gave to that early form of Christianity.

            Although he uses different language from that of John the Baptist, Paul is urging exactly the same message as John:  Repent!  Change your ways – so the kingdom of heaven can come to pass on earth.  And in just a couple pithy paragraphs, he says there are three basic things those folks – and we – need(ed) to do to make that happen. 

            First, he ways, we need to “support one another.”  We need to encourage each other –if we’re lucky enough to have fairly strong faith, instead of judging and criticizing people whose faith we think is weaker than ours, we need to encourage them.  And that means not just telling them the good news, but modeling it – living it – in our own lives, so they can see and hear and feel and taste what it really means for them and every person to be loved by God.

            And second, Paul says, we need to “welcome one another.”  We need to recognize that we are all – despite whatever differences we may seem to have – whatever color we are – whatever gender we are – whatever political party we belong to – we are all sisters and brothers through Christ Jesus.  And so, what we absolutely must learn to do, in Paul’s words, is “to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ” – following in Jesus’ way of mercy, and love, and openness, and compassion.

            And third, Paul says, we are to “serve one another.”  He calls us to pay attention to Jesus’ example – that for Jesus, “service” or “servanthood” wasn’t just a good idea, but something he lived out in real, concrete ways.  He literally put food into persons’ mouths; he held their hands when they were hurting; he spoke words of comfort and reassurance when they were afraid. 

            And we, as Jesus’ followers, are called to do exactly the same thing.  And it is only if we do our part – if we support each other, and welcome each other, and serve each other – that there is any real hope in our world – any real hope for real peace, for real justice, for God’s kingdom to come to be a reality in this world.

            Lael Van Riper, one of our former Assistant Ministers here in this church, used to have a bumper-sticker on the bulletin-board outside her office door, that read, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  It’s a quotation from Gandhi, who used it to remind people that real change – the kind of changes that we all so frequently say we’re hoping for – only comes about when we do whatever it is that we can to help make that change happen. 

            And so, if what we are hoping to get for Christmas this year is more peace in our homes – or in our community – or in our world – we must be more peace-filled ourselves; we must be more peace-sharing ourselves.  We must learn to speak more softly – to act more kindly – to say “thank you” more often – to our children … our grandchildren … our spouses or partners … our friends … our kids’ teacher or soccer-coach … the checker at the grocery store.

If what we are hoping to get for Christmas this year is greater justice in the world, in every choice that we make – whether it’s about what food or books or car we buy, or who we vote for, or what worthy causes we support – that choice must be based first and foremost on how much it will increase justice in the world.  If what we are hoping to get for Christmas this year is more hope in the world – or even just in our own lives – we must be that hope for others.  That may mean taking a stuffed animal to the Toys for Tots drive, or putting some money in one of those red Salvation Army kettles, or volunteering just an hour a week at St. Mary’s or Homeward Bound or Heirlooms for Hospice, or supporting any one of the half-dozen special mission projects that our church is sponsoring for Christmas (which are out there in the Gathering Space on the various Mission Trees and boxes).

            In our Advent candle-lighting liturgy through this season, we have read responsively one of the most beautiful lines in all the Gospels:  “Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will have the light of life, and will never walk in darkness.”  If what we want for Christmas this year is to find more light in the darkness that sometimes threatens to overwhelm us – we must be light to others.  And as we are, as we do what we can, in ways large or small,  to bring at least a little more light to the corners of the world in which we live, we invite and welcome our Christ into the world again – we welcome the larger light into the world again – and together, we create and become new light for the world.  And as we follow Him, we will indeed find that we have “the light of life, and will never walk in darkness.”  And that’s a whole lot better than just a Christmas “wish list,” don’t you think?  Amen.