Advent I
Zechariah, 14:4-9
I Thessalonians, 3:9-13
Luke, 21:25-31
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
POPE BENEDICT has needed to do some fence-mending with the Islamic world, and, I think to his credit, he took the initiative last week in his trip to Istanbul.
We generally don’t associate secularism with Islamic nations.1 But that is definitely not the case with Turkey. While religion is very important to most Turks, modern Turkey is decidedly secularist. For decades women have been forbidden to wear head-scarves in government buildings or on the campuses of universities, but I doubt that the Turks inspired the recent French law banning head-scarves in schools.
Rather, the Turks have found inspiration for secularism in Europe, especially in France. Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, drastically reduced the power of Islam in Turkey. He wanted not only freedom of religion, but freedom from religion. It wasn’t enough to allow people to practice whatever religion they preferred. He wanted religious institutions to have limited influence in the culture and to have no influence in government and politics.
I wondered what Pope Benedict made of the secularism of Turkey. Last week, I heard a commentator on the radio talking about Benedict’s displeasure with secularism in Europe.2 Benedict would like the Roman Catholic Church to have a much more aggressive public role in the life of European states; he has exerted much effort to influence European politics to adopt Catholic values, to be infused with Catholic ideals.
Christianity in Western Europe is in very serious decline, in some areas apparently not much more highly regarded than a quaint relic, a curiosity for the tourist industry. In many countries, less than ten percent of the population goes to church. Benedict wants to counter Europe’s religious apathy by giving the Church a higher public profile. I doubt very much that such a top-down model will re-evangelize Europe. This seems to be putting the cart before the horse.To be effective, evangelization has to be personal – at least in the modern world. Today’s political leaders aren’t effective advocates of religion. Rather, evangelization happens from one on one contact. It’s intimate. It’s grassroots. It’s personal relationships. The Church will have more influence in the world if it helps to build strong, faithful communities; if it helps to change people’s lives one at a time; if it helps people to meet God.Today’s readings focus our attention upon God’s coming into the world. In Advent, the Church prepares us for the coming of Jesus. We look back to his coming as a baby and forward to his second coming in power and glory. And we also look for his coming now to transform our lives, re-orienting us away from the world to what is eternal and meaningful and beautiful.
A healthy Christian community looks for God’s presence, expects his presence, in its midst. The Rite of Admission to the Catechumenate this morning is evidence of God’s presence and work here.
The Rite begins with the question, “What do you want from God?” Those becoming catechumens answer, “Faith.” It’s what all of us want – to trust God more completely, to know more deeply that God loves us and cares for us, that all will be well. Faith develops in a community where people are knit together by love. So faith is not merely a personal, interior feeling, or a possession. Faith is public, lived out through our words and deeds.
In his letter to the Thessalonians, the verses just before today’s lesson, S. Paul says that in his distress and troubles, their faith has comforted and encouraged him, that it’s kept him alive. (1Th 3:7-8) How we live our faith deeply influences other people. Faith is by no means a private matter, but of vital importance to other people – Christians and non-Christians.
The Rite of Admission recognizes this. Those becoming catechumens are simply committing themselves to continue in the process, to seek God earnestly, to learn about Jesus and Christianity.
The rest of us are making a much bigger commitment in this rite. We pledge to welcoming, guiding, and supporting these candidates by our prayers, by the way we live, by our witness. We’re committing to doing our part so that the Kingdom of God might comer nearer. In the rite this morning, we will pray for ourselves that we may be true examples, living signs of God’s love; we will pray that we may continue on in our journey to God, deepening our relationship with him, gradually being transformed by him into his image. We’re recognizing our responsibility to provide a healthy Christian community to nurture faith.
Now, what does a healthy Christian community look like? More and more, I see that four qualities are shaping our parish family, four qualities that need to define us corporately and individually – sort of core values. These are: 1) joy, good cheer, humor; 2) friendships, building strong relationships; 3) looking beyond, outside of ourselves, finding that our purpose exists in serving others – not in ourselves; and, 4) seeking God’s transformation, being open to spiritual growth, knowing that what challenges us is often good for us.
In today’s epistle, Paul touches upon these qualities. First, Paul thanks God for all of the joy he has because of the Christians in Thessalonica. Paul as joyful? That’s not the conventional view of Paul. But it’s true. There can be joy even in great sadness, difficulty, suffering. That’s because joy comes from commitment, from being possessed by something bigger than ourselves. Paul was possessed by Jesus, by being part of his mission and ministry.
I recently read a book about Abraham Lincoln. Despite all of the demands made upon him as President, he made time to write to a miserable, young cadet at West Point. He wrote,
Allow me to assure you it is a perfect certainty that you will, very soon, feel better – quite happy – if you only stick to the resolution you have taken to procure a military education. I am older than you, have felt badly myself, and know, what I tell you is truth. Adhere to your purpose and you will feel soon as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.3
We know joy because besides the seriousness of commitment it comes with lightness, good humor, and laughter. On election day, 1864, while Lincoln sat in the telegraph office with friends waiting for the results, he read aloud the writings of a popular humorist. They were laughing and carrying on. This scandalized his dear friend Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War. Stanton wrote,
when the safety of the Republic was at issue, when the control of an empire was to be determined by a few figures brought in by the telegraph, the leader, the man most deeply concerned, not merely for himself but for his country, could turn aside to read such balderdash and to laugh at such frivolous jests.4
Stanton didn’t appreciate that laughter sustains us in difficulty and pain and anxiety. It’s a healthy way to deal with the absurdities of life. It’s a gift to cultivate.
Lincoln would take afternoon carriage rides with William Seward, the Secretary of State and a very close friend. One day the horses got out of hand, and the annoyed driver burst out in vehement, colorful swearing – at the horses, not the President and the Secretary of State. Lincoln asked the driver, “My friend, are you an Episcopalian?” The driver replied that he was a Methodist. Lincoln explained, “I thought that you must be an Episcopalian for you swear just like Secretary Seward, and he’s a churchwarden.” 5God gives us laughter and humor; they’re a taste of the delight of God; they’re a sign of joy, as well as increase joy.
Joy also comes from caring deeply about other people, from friendships – our second core value. In today’s epistle, Paul says that he can’t wait to see his friends; he’s praying to see them face to face. Like Paul, like the Thessalonians, we’re all on the same journey – all in this together, and we need the support of one another. We’re called to be a community where people feel at home, accepted, safe, and at the same time honoring our diversity, and honoring those who think differently than we do. It’s building strong relationships
Being a place where all can feel that they belong means that, third, we have to be outward looking and making new connections. Paul prays for the Thessalonians that they will increase and abound in love for one another and for all people. A Christian community isn’t authentic if it’s inward looking, narcissistic, focused on its own needs. Our purpose comes from outside of ourselves. It’s service. It’s living for others. It’s reaching out to those beyond our doors. When the Church does this, it’s truly the body of Christ, truly making the story of Jesus real in the world.
Joy, humor, friendships, purpose, an outward focus – these are gifts of God, and we receive them by being open to him, by asking him to transform us. The point of our glorious worship is not to make us feel self-satisfied, sated by God’s beauty, but to encounter his love; it’s to open us to the challenge and sustained growth of following Christ.
So, fourth, being part of a healthy Christian community means that we are continuously growing, continuously changing – being transformed. It is slow, gradual, demanding, difficult. On this side of the grave, we are never a finished work. But we can look back at our lives and say, “Wow, I’m a different person than I was five years ago, three years ago, even last year.” It’s pleasing to be surprised by ourselves – that we’ve tried new things, thought in new ways, become less enthralled by bad habits. This is the work of God.
My prayer for our parish is that these gifts – joy, humor, friendships, service, transformation – increasingly characterize our common life. On this Advent Sunday as we start a new Christian year, we look back and see that over the years this is what’s been happening here. It’s sure evidence that Christ is coming among us.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1 Nor do we associate Islam with feminine power. Angela Carter, the late English novelist, noticed, “The kind of power mothers have is enormous. Take the skyline of Istanbul – enormous breasts, pathetic little willies, a final revenge on Islam.” (In an interview by Lorna Sage in New Writing, eds. Malcolm Bradbury and Judy Cooke (1992).)
2 Soner Cagaptay and Damon Linker interviewed by Robert Seigel, ‘Securlarism is Point of Debate for Pope, Islamic Leaders,’ on All Things Considered, November 28, 2006.
3 Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals, Simon & Schuster (2005), p. 449.
© 2006 Lane John Davenport
