ANTICIPATION JMB
BSPC
November 27, 1983 Gols, OH
| "Even in the vailey of the shadow of death I wiil

fear no evil, for thou art with me."\ In the centuries-long

confrontation of hope with hopelessness, people of faith

have been bouyed, literally held up, by the affirmation

a

that even in the worst of circumstances there is # redemp-

People of fan, hum alse been peop\e er Gee cave
tive possibility, is no stranger.to hopelessness.

It's not that we believe God will transform #@ circun-

tor Maho, — . .
Stances so that, the dead princess is seen finally merely

to be sleeping. \ That's the stuff of fairytales. \ What

we try to hold on to is that ever(in) the worst of circum-

stances, God will be present to work redemptively. That
the @roma of aur”
is hope.

Our ability to believe that is sorely tried on occa-

sion. | Last Sunday night for instance, most of us apparently
miami od Lalit]

spent a few hours in the valley of the shadow of death,

watching the ABC movie, "The Day After," a portrayal of

a nuclear exchange and the aftermath in Lawrence, Kansas.

There wasn't a lot of hope in that pro cam. \ Those who

were not killed in the initial blast, are critically ill
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with radiation sickness. \ There were warnings aplenty
a hd

about the possible emotional effects of watching the film, m1
oq Tia Blaguse of Weck. heir /

particularly for young children. ( And afterward, some

members of the very distinguished panel seemed literally

Sree fram Am \naetas
ipravporah, Lamp-\e »

r
a \
angry because age people had the opportunity to see, what

—

OMA,
it was they Wewe paying their taxes to do to_life and
ee EEE EEE

the earth. te

“A ow
ead eloquent example& of Orwellian Doublespeak, Henry

Kissinger rumbled on about how unfortunate to become emo-

import + ComplioAd _
tional about so eoneres a matter as the end of life in

| eee

\ the world. |

oy -
2 ven in e valley Much of the story took place

in a hospital: \ and during the evening it became for me whe ors
and os wen dram WE CN

a metaphor for the valley of the shadQy, ate eee zw

for God.\ Would he be there." \ ine it possible that in

this wretched, hopeless situation, God would show? \ Could

faith find hope, even here?

—
SSS

I had about given up: \ had about concluded that the

ay

film was basically a nihilistic document of ultimate des-

pair. \ 7 then two things happened. \ that physician -
—_— — |
himself dying and knowing it, kept on treating other dying
people: kept on keeping of and—_1—founrd—hepe—and—Ged
in—thata nd finally, a. Aaya ery: new born, surely
—- — eee Sy

doomed;\ and yet there it was, for me at least¢,that most
ies

magnificent music inyall the world. \ The overture to lifes...
even in the valle of the shadow. \ How like God #e=—=srea
— eee — =

ges

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_libwingodimmgeedse.\ How like God to be there in an eloquent,

a

unmistakable and yet so fragile plea for life. \How subtle,

Linen anal

I thought .\ It is foolish to expect divine intervention
— —_ namie
which dramatically and miraculously alters the circumstan-

—

ces. | cod isn't going to destroy the missiles, or enforce

a freeze, or lower the tadiation level after the blast.

ery

God, instead, will appear in the vulnerable plea of a

eRe Fenian

—

new born baby: \a ery which, even in the strained efforts
- ie

of a TV special, still asks for a response. \ that's the

bee

wi
hope - God comeg and creates and redemptive possibility, and

€
i

am the dynamic somehow draws, even the spectator in s50
—_— Peter emeeerigatie

that if there hope it will be because

someone hear@ the eloquent, vulnerable cry and doa! something

about it. | How like God. \ How like what happened in Bethle-

hem.

Christian hope is an Advent theme and it is predicated

i

on a doctrine which wes forged in one of the bleakest parts

le ila nee

of the Christian story - the time after Jesus, the first

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generation of the church. | chriseians were being persecuted Mealy

Vala.
| they fet powerless in the face of the Roman

— ae

authorities. \ They were nothing but a nuisance the empire

had decided to eliminate. | And so when they gathered to

contemplate their own grimly apedgmtic future, they recalled

-_ apocalyphe

the ancient Jewish promise of the Day of _the Lord, the

restoration of the Davidic monarchy when the king would
a

return. | ana they recalled the words of Jesus about the

a ,
a

Kingdom of God coming in the world: and they articulated

a doctrine about the second coming of Christ on the clouds
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which shortly became a problem for them and which has

TE ee

confused Christian people ever since.

pM A4-*
When interpreted literally their piecemes of the
ee eT

second coming they left for us iaethe-—Kebt+e reve stimulated

—————

countless folk to sell all their belongings and stand,

—_——

around waiting for the end of the world. [ they were doing

it in Thessalonie® and some folks are still doing it.f The
ie

fact that the end didn't come - didn't come as even Jesus
nl i Fl
said it would, caused the writer of the fourth Gospel,

for instance, to suggest that Jesus Christ has already

—_ aoe

come again: that there is a second coming whenever God's

ee

spirit is at work in the human enterprise.

Now because of the excesses of the Lliteralists who

—_ es

are waiting for the end of the world, we don't pay much

attention to the doctrine, and that's too bad because
———

it is where the hope in Christianity is located! { not
=?

that Jesus is going to descend on clouds and gather all

the folk who belong to the right church and consign the
on ———

rest of us to hell, but that Jesus Christ will keep showing

up - will not abandon human history ~ but will keep appear-

ing as a hopeful, redemptive possibility: \en energy , wey aaail,
Lve Pp

Ph

an impetus in the direction, of healing, and reconciliation
ee

What it means today is important; namely that we

——— ee

can count on a redemptive possibility in even the darkest

valleys. } Sometimes we may not like the form it takes.

Sometimes we may not recognize it. | We may deplore the
a i
methods of the protestors - but they raise the issue of
life and hope for us. \We can't expect God to intervene
to save the human race, but we can look for God in the
ee ere

= ——— ean ae

frustrations and impatience and "eon Che of good people
e

who are saying to one another now,\ let's get together

#
and talk about thie: instead of quaking in terror, people

who gathered in churches and townhalls and schools Last

a

Monday to share their deep concern for their country and

aad it tin
por

God will break in, Christ will come again - werwewetty.

—_—

the whole human race.

One of my favorite writers Frederick Buechner said in
an interview recently, "Listen to what's happening in
your own life...to experiencey that somehow, even if you

—,___-

can't say how ~- seem either to illumine, or to be illumined

by, teligious truth. Pay special attention to those times

when you find tears in your eyes, even if you don’t know

why the tears are there. Evesybedy—has—steh—exper-ences
- i£—net—once—a—day,—_then—once—a- week...Listen to your

Et suppose the most common, nearly universal response

to Advent is a kind of surprise. \vnis year is no exception:'™

Seem

“don't tell me it's here already! Why,
A

it was just Labor Day." ) We're not ready and that's just
the point. | We never are. \ And one of the reasons is that
a
the very event which documents our hope in history - the
birth of Jesus - has become such a warmly sentimental
holiday: all nostalgia and focussing on the past. The
EE —_—,

thrust you see, is meant to be the future. Beee~yonreeertc

The birth is magnificent because of what ik portends:

aan

namely, a future in which Christ comes again and again;

a future in which the baby is born in human hearts in

a
each generation: | a future - full of hope because our
forbears were right - “even in the valley of the shadow

—_—_

of death" God will be with us.

Historians speculate that there was a _ secret_ code
Ss

with which those early, hope-filled Christians identified
fouMart—
one another. | an intriguing reverent - am Aramaic Wiiase

- remains in the New Testament, -dn—the—very—tast—werds ,
ia ™ & SM le Arana

arauglke : Lee.
It is the locus of our hope. \ teen for-coneertes

is why we look forward to our future with profound and
undying ho _. Macatee

means han

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