Journey's Weekly Homilies

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C            
NOVEMBER 30, 2003
Homily by Sam

JEREMIAH 33:14-16
I THESSALONIANS 3:12-4:2
LUKE 21:25-28,34-36

Word freely given, God here among us,
Peace for our future, be with us always,
Your will be done, may your kingdom come,
See us, accept us, keep us from falling.
Wake your pow’r, come lead us to freedom 

Today, a people who live in darkness turn toward the light of God’s presence.  Today we begin a new Church year with our first Sunday of Advent. 

Today the prophecy of Isaiah and the melody of Handel’s Messiah dance through my mind:  “The glory, the glory of the Lord has been revealed and all flesh shall see it together.  For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

Advent is a time of hope, a time of awakening to the possibilities of freedom in our world.  It is a time when we look with great expectation toward Christmas when a new savior is born to roll back the darkness.  And we light our candles anticipating the glory of that day.  

The morning comes, yet still it is night.  About half of the people of the world live in fear of their own governments.  Our country is said to be  one of the freest in the world, yet this very night tens of thousands of immigrants are being held in prisons without lawyers, without interpreters, without charges.  Their only crime is fleeing to this country for safety.

This month pollsters in Hillsboro asked the people what they thought was the biggest problem in the community.  To their surprise many people said there were too many Latinos in their city.

Last week at the fitness center I saw a Vietnamese man.  When he turned around I saw that his back was covered with lash marks.  He had been yoked to a plow and driven like an animal.  The morning comes, yet still it is night.

We are promised in Jeremiah that darkness is only for a season, that a new king will restore justice and peace to the nation.  Martin Luther King once said, “The arc of history is long, but it does bend toward justice.”  In Advent we look for signs of that justice, and age where God will be with us in a new way.

May our lives be not empty and aimless,
Keep us from falling back to the dust.
Send your Spirit, your breath that will renew us.
Wake your pow’r, come lead us to freedom. 

In this season we are regaled with many forms of entertainment, fed with new products, and tempted with endless lines of credit.  Yet these are useless without the renewal of our spirits.  And so Paul reminds us that the greatest gift is to increase our love for others.

Today we are called to turn from the pleasures of Christmas and prepare to meet a God who heals the sick, frees the prisoners, brings justice for the poor, and announces salvation for all people.

Today we begin a year in the Gospel of Luke.  The passage we read today is Luke’s version of the apocalypse, the end of time, which we read in the Gospel of Mark two weeks ago.  As Luke shapes this passage he adds the following comment:  “Look up.   Raise your heads.  Your redemption draws near.”

Stories of the apocalypse are really a vision of the kind of God  we will ultimately meet and what God’s final message to people will be.  Luke tells us:  “Do not be afraid of the gathering darkness.  Our God is a God of justice for the poor, mercy for the suffering.  In the end all people will find redemption.”  

That we may hear you, that we may live you,
People for people and all for all,
And bring to fullness your word that is our peace.
Wake your pow’r, come lead us to freedom. 

Through Jesus we will be empowered to become messengers of God’s peace.  We too may heal, free others, bring justice, and announce salvation.  And so we ask God to wake that power within us, among us. 

More than fifty years ago a Trappist monk walked the night with his charge to protect the community from the outbreak of fire and also search for signs of the dawn.  Deep within that night Thomas Merton heard the voice of God:

What has been cruel has now become merciful.  What is now merciful has never been cruel.  I have always overshadowed you with mercy, and cruelty I know not at all.  Have you caught sight of me my child?  Mercy within mercy within mercy.  I have forgiven the universe without end because I have never known sin.  

Tonight, the first night of Advent, we begin our fire watch.  My we catch a glimpse of that God, mercy within mercy within mercy.