I once read a
status update from the friend of a friend… a 17-year-old young woman who seems
to have the whole world right before her— she has friends, she is a good
student, she is a musician and an athlete, and is about to begin the college
safari. Yet her status update seems to
came out of the fog like an SOS.
It reads: “I
feel as if the weight of the whole world is on my shoulders.”
Another time,
I ran into another old friend on Facebook who told me that the job he worked in
for that last decade or so has just disappeared. Poof! Now, here he is, in his
early- to mid-fifties, on the hunt for work. He says on his status that he is
trying to see this as an opportunity and not as a setback, but it is not easy.
And nearly
every day I read a new prayer request for a person facing surgery, some crisis,
or transition, or for a person grieving a loss.
These
electronic cries for help are quiet cries for hope in a life filled with
uncertainty. You do not need a computer
or broadband to find this theme in human experience. It’s been in art and
literature, even Scripture, since the very beginning. In fact, it shows up
whenever people of faith look around at the world they inhabit. Today’s scriptures included.
But there is
a response, and, in fact, an antidote in today’s Scripture. In fact, if there is a
common theme in today’s lessons, it is this: that we are called to rejoice in
the midst of uncertainty.
All of the
Scripture and music in today’s Lessons & Carols, tell us that the promised Messiah
is coming—and that they should get ready.
Advent is a
season of rejoicing and anticipation. We are being reminded to rest in God, because
God has done, and is doing, great things for us, that God is with us now, and
God’s future is always unfolding.
The challenge
is to rise to the occasion without forcing the issue.
To that seventeen-year-old
friend of a friend, I would point to John the Baptist, who carries the voice of
the anointed one but is comfortable enough in his own skin to know that he is
not the messiah. I would say to her, you have so much ahead of you, the one
thing you don’t have to worry about is being the Messiah. You are not there to
save the world, let alone your parent and loved one’s images of you. You are
called to be the best “you” that you can possibly be. That is more than enough
voice that prepares God’s way for us.
To the one
who feels that life is becalmed if not beached, I would direct them to the scripture, music, and
songs of hope, of faith that we heard today. Especially to those looking forward, to the words of Isaiah bringing words
of hope and comfort to a people displaced by war and turmoil. But especially, I would point to
the relationship between Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, who when they realize that God is doing great things
in both of their lives break out in prayer and song as they discover the
nearness and greatness of God in their lives.
Advent
reminds us that God always meets us where we are, as we are, and exactly at the
point of our greatest need. And that God who meets us, is ready to walk with us
through all of life, no matter what it brings us, and not only bring us home,
as the full person that God made us to be… ready to serve, ready to love, ready
to follow and walk with Jesus every step of the way. Today, we have heard the
story of God’s saving work, of how God meets us where our need is the greatest,
and how God in Christ accompanies us to the fullness and richness of life
promised in the coming of Jesus at Christmas. This is what we await, and this
is what God does for all of us every day.
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