12/07/2014 ~ Second Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which We Commemorate Peace ~ Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8 ~ Communion Sunday.
Good News
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Christ, Child of God.” — Mark 1:1.
In years past the ceremony at which the National Book Awards are presented has not been a place of particular controversy. It was, in fact, controversial this year.
Like many awards, the prizes known as the National Book Awards are announced at a formal dinner. And like many awards the organizers of the event often line up a master of ceremonies type to crack a couple of jokes and move the proceedings along.
Daniel Handler, best known for working under the pen name Lemony Snicket, filled that role this year. Using the Snicket pseudonym, Handler wrote thirteen episodes of the successful children’s book series known as A Series of Unfortunate Events.
So, at the National Book Awards, Handler/Snicket, a friendly chap in his mid-40s, author of award winning children’s books, was tapped to be the master of ceremonies. What could possibly go wrong? (Slight pause.)
At that same event Jacqueline Woodson, an African-American writer, received the National Book Award in the young-adult category for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. Handler and Woodson are friends. They have been in one another’s homes. What could possibly go wrong? (Slight pause.)
Well, the last place in the world Woodson thought she would hear a racially insensitive joke, especially from her friend Handler, was after she got a standing ovation with her acceptance speech. What was the joke?
In this particular case it was a reference to the fact that Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Handler, her friend, because they were close, knew that his friend, Woodson, an African-American writer, was allergic to watermelon.
And so yes, Woodson never thought she would hear a watermelon joke, a racial insensitive joke, escape from the lips of her dear friend Daniel, right after her acceptance speech. But that... is exactly what happened. Handler cracked a joke about Woodson, an African-American, being allergic to watermelon.
As I said: what... could... possibly... go... wrong? (Slight pause.) To be clear, Mr. Handler has profusely and very publically apologized for his actions— as well he should. (Slight pause.)
We find these words at the beginning of the Gospel we know as Mark: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Christ, Child of God.” (Slight pause.)
The opening words of Mark pose a number of challenges. Prime among them is this: what exactly is the good news?
There are a myriad of possibilities people suggest these days. In our times most prominent and popular among them are probably these: the sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient and Jesus was raised, therefore everything is fine; the resurrection of our bodies as we now know them is a real promise fulfilled; eternal life with God is a given.
But what take does the writer of Mark have on the good news? I think we need to look at two things in this passage and examine how they interact. First, the mission of the Baptizer. (Quote:) “Prepare, make ready the way of our God.” Second, where is the message proclaimed? (Quote:) “...in the desert, in the wilderness,...”
This writer is obviously referring us to Isaiah, the passage we heard today. And if we are sensitive to Isaiah’s message, we realize the prophet, by addressing the wilderness and insisting it be made straight, thereby sends us to the opening words of Genesis.
Why? In the opening words of the Torah, what does God do? God creates the universe. And in Genesis, this new universe is described as (quote:) “unformed and void, wild and waste, filled with chaos and emptiness,...”
Which is to say, we need to recognize how precisely this message in Genesis ties into how the message of the good news of Christ is expressed in Mark. The universe is nothing but chaos. God creates order from chaos. And in the wilderness, in the chaos, John is to prepare the way, to make things straight— order from chaos.
Another way to see these connections is to say order is created from chaos by the presence, by the power of God. Therefore, certainly once aspect of the good news being proclaimed by the writer of Mark, is that through the presence of God in Jesus, through the power of God in Jesus, chaos can be transformed into order. (Slight pause.)
The power of God— power— now there’s a word that makes many uncomfortable. Why? Because most of us associate power with force. But does the kind of power— the power of God, the presence of God which is addressed here— have anything to do with force?
I think not just modern culture but human culture gets in the way of our understanding the difference between human power and the power of God. So, let’s start with some basic questions to try to unpack God and power.
Does power exist? We would be foolish to deny the reality: power is real. Power exists. But what is the power of God? Is it force, something we humans associate with power or is the power of God a different understanding of power? Is the power of God more about the real presence of God than about force? (Slight pause.)
We are in the portion of the church year known as Advent. On the four Sundays therein we commemorate four separate aspects of our walk with God: hope, peace, love and joy.
It is really, really hard for me to connect hope or peace or love or joy with force of any kind. Why?
Since these are aspects of our walk with God, hope and peace and love and joy express a sense of the presence of God, a sense that God is with us. And if we are true to that journey with God, true to that walk with God, the use of force is simply not a consideration. (Slight pause.)
So, lets come back to that National Book Awards ceremony. The same evening another award was presented. Science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin, now 85, was presented with a life-time achievement award for her Contribution to American Letters.
In her remarks Le Guin said (quote:) “Hard times are coming,... and we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live, writers who can see through our fear-stricken society... to other ways of being and even imagine real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom— poets, visionaries— realists of a larger reality. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings....,” she said. (Slight pause.)
I think the Advent message of hope, peace, love, joy, the message of the good news, tells us something about the real presence of God and how we need to live our lives. Yes, we need to live our lives understanding that power is real. And we also need to live our lives understanding that power and force are not the same.
Power exercised with brut force is based in the very human emotion called fear. And we live, as Le Quin suggests, in a fear-stricken society. If the events of recent days have not proved to us we live in a fear-stricken society, we are not paying attention.
The power of the presence of God, on the other hand, helps us remember what true freedom— freedom from force— what true freedom is. And with the power of the presence of God comes an understanding that a life filled with hope, with peace, with love, with joy is available.
So yes, we need to acknowledge that racism— even the kind of passive racism displayed by cracking a racial joke— we need to acknowledge that racism, sexism, economic oppression, gender inequity, social oppression— all these are inappropriate expressions of power. Hence, by definition, all these are also products of fear. (Slight pause.)
I think all this calls us to be attentive to two things. First, we need to admit power exists and is real. And we even need to be aware each of us has power.
Second, because of the presence of God, the presence proclaimed by the good news, we need to exercise power, individually and collectively— especially collectively— in the way God would have us exercise power. We need to exercise power not through all the ‘isms’— racism, sexism, etc.— all the ‘isms’ so prevalent in modern society, a society which is clearly fear driven.
Indeed, we need to exercise power with and through hope, peace, love, joy. We need to exercise power with an understanding that if any one of us is denied freedom, if any one of us is denied our God given inalienable rights, we are all denied our rights.
Put another way, we need to be attuned to the presence and to the power and to the will of God. When we do so, the good news proclaimed by the writer of Mark— that God is present and real— becomes a tangible part of life, a tangible way we live, a real sense that God is with us. After all, God is with us. Is that not what the Christmas message says? Amen.
12/07/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “I recently saw this on a tee shirt: ‘Keep Christ in Christmas— Feed the Hungry; Shelter the Homeless; Welcome the Immigrants; Forgive Others; Embrace Outsiders; Share with Those in Need; Advocate for the Marginalized; Confront Those Abusing Power.’ And that would keep Christ in Christmas.”
BENEDICTION: Let us be present to one another as we go from this place. Let us share our gifts, our hopes, our memories, our pain and our joy. Go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that God is steadfast. Go in peace for God is with us. And may the peace of God which surpasses understanding be with us this day and forevermore. Amen.
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