I am going to begin the
preaching of Advent by reminding us how we spent last Advent. We explored SHELTER
facing the complexity of the housing crisis in this province and in our
neighbourhood: homelessness, couch surfing, out-of-the-cold shelters, low
income and geared to income rentals, affordable housing, group homes, nursing
homes. We learned about organizations providing options and advocacy. We were
called to do something to change the injustice within systems, and to be vocal
with all levels of government. It was hard and demanding work. It was stressful
and weighed heavy. It took to uncomfortable places. This year, not to diminish the
great need for continued housing justice and advocacy – but to balance our
spirits and capacity for such work, we enter an Advent period of respite and
comfort reflecting on a theme of HOME.
Today we consider HEART as
HOME.
The first reading of the
season comes to us from chapter 2 of Isaiah. This is a unique chapter crafted
from words and phrases unlike those of the surrounding text. It comes at the
heals of a miracle. With fear and a sense of doom the people of Jerusalem have
witnessed the advancement of the Assyrian army. The mighty army marched through the Levant – Syria,
Lebanon, Israel – capturing every city in its wake, redistributing people, destroying
and pillaging. Every city was taken by the Assyrians on their march to build an
empire that rivalled that of Egypt and reached Egypt’s borders. Miraculously, the
Assyrian army on its approach to Jerusalem, stopped and turned around.
Jerusalem is saved. The people of Jerusalem understood the event to be the
providence of God - saved – due in large part to Isaiah’s prayers. The Assyrian
troops, this time, turned around because they were called back to fight a civil
war in their own capital city.
Isaiah calls the people to
come home, to remember the covenantal promise. Isaiah is stirred up saying, “If
you think this so-called miracle is amazing, just wait! For in the days to
come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of
mountains … Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.”
From the first Word of
Advent, we hear the heart of the Advent season: home. This prophecy from Isaiah
2, reminds the people of covenant home. Many come home and flock to the house
of God. There is instruction, and justice, and living covenant (loving God,
people, and creation). And there is peace: swords and spears are made into plowshares
and pruning hooks. An action that stirs up images of farming, fruit and bread, harvest,
and abundance – food for all.
The focus Gospel for this
year is that of Matthew, a writer who used organizational patterns, for
instance, 12 citations that announce the fulfillment of prophecy, found throughout
the Gospel to emphasize that prophecy is being fulfilled now. Today’s text is a
snippet of what we will hear through the year of Matthew’s presentation of apocalyptic
vision of the world with spheres of divine and demonic influence. In all, we will
journey with Matthew’s overriding theological motif, the presence of God.
Where is God to be found? Matthew
tells us that God is home in:
Jesus who is called Emmanuel
meaning God-with-us;
Secondly, Jesus remains present
in the church and his followers post-ascension. Jesus says to the disciples
before physically leaving, I am with you always to the end of the age;
And thirdly, God is home, in
the church present in the world. Matthew is the only Gospel in which Jesus
explicitly talks about ‘the church’- which is not a building or community, but
a missionary movement.
The church is called to be the
light of the world, the living body of Christ, making Christ present in the
world just as Jesus was God’s presence.
The Psalm from the candle
lighting liturgy nicely draws together the ideas of Isaiah and Matthew. The
Psalm is a song of ascent, meaning a Psalm that was recited as one approached
the city of Jerusalem and made pilgrimage to the Holy. The words stirred up the
heart of the pilgrim, I was glad when
they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
In
the ascent a prayer is prayed for the peace of Jerusalem – that would be the
miracle, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s in
days to come vision. In the Psalm the peace of Jerusalem is expressed
as Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers.
Reciting
Psalm 122 and hearing the Gospel of Matthew, the following two lines jumped out
at me:
I
will say, “Peace be within you.”
For
the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.
I
understand these lines as heart as home. There is a movement from the vision
that is not yet, the peace of Jerusalem that has been centuries in the making
and continues to be waited upon in our own time, to a peace and presence of God
that is within, a peace that is possible now, as Matthew’s Gospel describes. A
peace and presence that has the action of seeking good for the sake of the
house of the Lord --- the miracle, the fulfillment of God’s covenantal promise.
The Gregorian Sacramentary
is a 10th century illuminated Latin manuscript, likely created in Regensburg
Germany. In it there is a liturgical calendar that was used by the Benedictine Abbey
of Fulda. A sacramentary is a book filled with prayers and liturgies for the
seasons of the church year. The prayers are numbered, much like those in our hymnbook
(you can find tiny numbers beside many of the prayers- I encourage you to check
it out later). The prayer from this morning is prayer #778 from the Gregorian
Sacramentary, “Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.“ All 16 Advent
prayers in the sacramentary begin with the Latin excita. The traditional
English translation is “Stir up.”
Definitions of ‘stir up’ are
two-fold, to arouse or excite emotion and a desire and passion to do something.
Advent prayers actively
invite God to be present – peace within us- at home in us – and to stir up
emotion and desire; a desire with actions to bring Isaiah’s description of home
closer to reality, a place of peace and abundance where implements that cause
death, destruction, and pain are refashioned into tools that are life-giving,
feeding, and greening.
Advent texts remind me of the
many conversations I had with members of this congregation who came to Canada after
WWII as Displaced Persons, known as DPs. I was told stories of people fleeing,
leaving their homes with only what they could carry. DPs were unable to return to
their physical homes. Homes had been destroyed or taken in the mapping of new borders.
Over and over, DPs reflected that home was what you were able to carry with
you, not the material goods in a suitcase that could be taken from you. Stories
were about holding onto hope, looking for signs of promise, keeping the feet
moving and hands busy. The stories told were of finding home in the kindness and
generosity of others, the sense of home because of the shared experience, and a
belief that goodness is greater than evil. I heard many miracle stories. Home was
manifest in the prayers that rested in their hearts, the hymns that came to
mind, the snippets of poems and stories remembered, cherished memories of those
who loved them and those they loved. All the years before the war that were spent
in school, reading books, going to church, singing in choirs and so on were the
preparation that readied them for being displaced, provided a home for them in
their hearts when physical home was gone. It was the time spent in listening to
the wisdom of others, gathering knowledge both head and heart, that contributed
to their ability to carry-on through the days clouded with war.
Home was in the heart, and
heart was home. Home to what hope, love, peace, and joy there was in the now.
Stir up in us, Emmanuel, a
desire to make room in our hearts for you. We invite you into our lives to make
our heart your home. To fill it with hope, and love; peace and joy. Then with
heart, may we, go into the world and make home for others. Amen.
