THE HOLY IN, THE ORDINARY.

| December a 3, 1989 -
8: 30. and Ad: 00 acum. | Worship: ee f
ae John M. Buchanan |
| Fourth. ch Presbyterian chiven
| Scripture oes

- Matthew 24:36-44 0 —
—. Romans 13:11-14 °-

and ‘blow: ‘their horns a lot and.

etna: Cacophony. “if: you listen very: carefully, you. ean hear,

omewhere | around: the forty foot tree, an electronically.
r yy OF all’ things, “Silent. night! holy ’

a is) bright.”

That was happening a week before Advent, and it accentuated our
eccentricity. We are the last building to put out our seasonal
decorations. It's always that way, but it is particularly conspicuous. in
years like this one, when the calendar provides an extra week bet ween
Thanksgiving and the first Sunday in Advent. The other buildings -on the
block were as ready for Christmas as they are going to get the Friday
before jlast. We, the institution with the most investment in the holiday,
hold back, refuse to play, and when we do, finally, when we come to the
first Sunday in Advent, it is almost reluctantly, certainly quietly. |

The reason is that we have a point we wish to make: several points
actually, and they are really rather important to us. ;

The first is that the birth of Jesus was an ordinary human birth:
that insofar as it represents God's coming to earth, it is the -holy-in the
ordinary: not the holy in the spectacular, the holy in the dramatic, the
holy in the colorful, but the holy in the ordinary. We think that isan
important point. 7

The second point is subtle. Not everybody gets it. It is that there
is a paradox about the event we are about to celebrate. While the event
itself, the birth of Jesus, happened in history 2,000 years ago, there is
a sense in which its fulfillment, its completion is still. in the..future.
The paradox which the Christian church alone knows about is- that the coming
of Jesus Christ is a sign that God is still at work bringing a-new creation
into being, a new future, and that the deepest significance of- our
Christmas celebration is not looking backward in nostalgia and. ;
sentimentality, as lovely and appealing as that is, but looking forward in
hope and courage and anticipation.

That dynamic ~ that “now but not yet"... “here but in the future"...
“he has come but he is coming"... which is what we are expressing with our
Advent music and purple color - reflects something profound about the
human condition... the universal human experience of living with a sense of
expectation. We seem to have a built-in longing for something that our
lives do not seem capable of producing. We long for personal. peace,
wholeness, a sense of at-homeness, salvation if you will. Our longing is
personal, and sometimes is also specifically political. The prophets of
Israel looked forward to a future day when God's Messiah would establish an
era of justice and peace on earth.

Throughout Christendom today people are hearing the traditional
readings for the First Sunday in Advent including lovely verses from the
second chapter of Isaiah. They were read in morning worship onthe Belknap
this morning in the Maita Harbor and in the congregation was the. President
of the United States, George Bush. “and they shall beat their. .swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, neither shali they study war any more." (Isaiah
2:4} oe

The idea that human life is lived in a sense of anticipation, a
waiting for something to happen is the theme of one of the most famous and
most studied and certainly most enigmatic plays, Waiting for Godot, by
Samuel Beckett. In that drama two characters are waiting. They talk
nonsense: a flow of thought begins to develop and is suddenly terminated

12/3/89 -2-

“and” never » picked up again. Godot never comes, of course. Play-goers.. | ~
_become uneasy, anxious, sometimes angry... And ‘drama scholars believe. that.
was Beckett's “point.” Human -life.is. lived in anticipation - in hope. <3in:

expectation that Godot, or "someone, Wild come.

| is in the Bibl - in the Old Testament prophets who:
coming: of. the. Messiah. The New Testament also Yooks- ‘forward
Those - passage: it

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Done: knows - the. hour," he said. . The: je
clean into the. fu

Ser a eee it has. always. ‘been. the. ete is.
Israel's” Praise; “Pe y27) el Be :

You see, what the church has to say at this time of year is that God
is transforming the world. What we have to add to the year-end consumer
bash is that there is hope - hope for a different and better future. for the .
world and for each individual. What the church tries to say is-that we
_ actually believe in the. possibility of transformation. © And for the
‘authentic Advent word to. get heard it has. to penetrate to people and. to
“Places” in us where there is _a neéd and a longing for transformation.

That word has always been a source of hope and courage for those
whose: future did not look. so bright. :

Jewish exiles, niles’ away from home, were strengthened by, the
-prophet's proclamation: _"The people who walked-in darkness have” ‘seen
a great light."

African slaves, caged like animals, separated from hone, from Family,
from any sense of continuity with the past, or hope for the future; adopted
_the religion of their owners and heard in that religion a word-their owners
“shad: forgotten, and sang, "My Lord, what a morning when the stars” begin: to

fall." : ;

my “To people in ‘prison, -in exile, in slavery, about to be executed, down.
through history the coming of the Messiah, the birth of Jesus, has been

stunning news that the future can be different, that there is hope and | ,

; therefore reason for’ living in -courage and in. joy. :

Why, other than this basic hopefulness for a different. future e, is the
government of El Salvador waging war daily against the church? oe ;

: Does anybody actually: believe that the six Jesuit priests And: their
cook’ and her daughter who were murdered were guilty of anything- but hope
for. a-different future? Does anyone really expect-us to believe that the
headquarters of the Lutheran Church and the Episcopal Cathedral, both of
which. were invaded and shut down by government troops, are doing anything
other than people who know about the birth of Jesus have always done,
namely: live as if God is ‘actually on the side of-a new future characterized
by peace and justice and gentieness.

“Qver against the blandness of contemporary religious life. and the.
apathy with which many face the future... comes. electrifying good - news.
is*the way Lamar Williamson, a New Testament scholar, puts it. Jesus-is_
- born... salvation is nearer than we thought. : the future will be”
“different. :

‘And so it will... and so it is. The most mind-boggling picture I
ever saw, certainly the equivalent of men walking on the moon, was Mikhail
Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II beneath a picture of. the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. The Soviet leader and the American President talked last
- week. The Berlin Wall came down. Institutions which appeared as firmly
“entrenched, as permanent as human institutions ever get, changed over
night. The publisher of the largest German language newspaper..in the .
country, at our Michigan Avenue Forum last Wednesday, said that if anyone
had predicted the events of November 9, just one week before, he would have
judged them to be crazy. And since then ~ the streets of Prague filled and
‘under the benevolent gaze of Good King Wenceslas - it) happened-again.

12/3/89 -4-

ashes; oF
oe your. fe :
“humiliating diminishments,. or the darkness. of: unemployment because” you: are:

—.. for ‘hope. ‘and peace.. He comes in the ordinary experiences of life:.: even

How. can we not hear those ancient words about beating swords into
plows and spears into pruning hooks and Matthew's later word about watching
and being ready, and St. Paul's bold affirmation of God's love and mercy
and justice. breaking into the life of the world.. how not hear those
“words on: this first Sunday of Advent 1989 without tears of joy and
gratitude and renewed hope for. the future?

When. ‘Charles Beard, distinguished historian at Columbia University oo
retired, he was reflecting during his last‘ classroom lecture on what he: had.
learned © fron ‘teaching: history for half a century: “Number one,” he said,. ok
“when it is: ‘dark enough you can see the stars.:"’ [Walter Burghardt, “Sir, We
Would See! Jesus, p. 37) - Shep ae

- “There are’ times when you and I need that’ good: word of hope as we. =
- think: about. our world and-what the future holds. And there are. also. ines
when we. need ‘that word of hope; ‘that Advent promise, in a much smaller
world ’~. the world of our lives, our relationships, our jobs, our health,
our | future. an Oe loe

“the. gray. final: days of - November: and the first. days of. December. are. eae
- among the- darkest of the year; “and they reflect’an undeniable counterpoint. HIS
to the: brightly. lighted, loud: and frantic. festival on a-Michigan Avenue
Saturday: ‘afternoon: There isa melancholy- about Advent... It. isa: reminder. —
that.- ‘another » year. is past, that. we are another year older, that the babies_ oe
aren't: ‘babies. anymore, that children are grown and the elderly are. a little.
more frail. The intimate family customs, cherished and repeated detail by 20
detail. alwaye ‘remind us. so distinctly of the dear ones who shared the Joy. .
in. the. past: but. ‘are: not here this. December.

“and for. some, perhaps: for: all of-us.- “a bit: at least, ‘personal
darkness is. accentuated by. the bright Jights. ‘of the carnival... ;
the: darkness: of ‘a/marriage. or.a precious relationship. which has turned to
the. ‘darkness. ofa life ‘dream. which has. shattered into pieces
Tr the. darkness ‘of: aging. with its: catalog: ‘of demeaning and

“ne: Longer. needed, or the darkness: of an illness that. secretly and silently:
rules: within: you-and whose: existence you have shared: with ho one.

To. us- “= even us -- each ‘and every one of us, “the promise of: Advent is.
given. again. “There: is. hope: and. reason for. courage’ and anticipation.
, coming.. “his word is sure and. his love and mercy are forever.

oe in. the universal simplicity of. a human birth... the Holy, in
_the ‘ordinary. ‘So he..comes again, quietly; even in’ the midst of thes:
color: ‘and noise- ‘of. the. season... He is coming to a world which aches: and ~ :
longs: for: his: peace.. “He comes to you. — to your heart... where you Tong
something as modest | as bread broken and a cup shared.

"Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed."

Amen.

42/3/89" ee ~5-