A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent are here.
It’s almost Christmas, Y’all! Are you ready? If not, that’s ok because we are still in Advent – the season of anticipation, like in the time before Amazon when we had to wait a week or even two for what we ordered to arrive. Advent is about anticipation on three fronts: We step back in time and imagine what it is like to wait for the long promised messiah to come, what it is for Mary and Elizabeth to wait the births of these two extraordinary babies; we look into the future imagining what it will be when God fulfills the promise to restore heaven and earth to the original intent; and we stay present in the moment looking for all of the ways God comes to us each day in the here and now.
Each of the Sundays in Advent we have focused on a characteristic of God’s Kingdom: Hope, Peace, Joy, and today’s is Love.
We talk about these in a particular order because they build on each other. Our Hope comes from God’s faithfulness; it isn’t wishful thinking but the confidence that God keeps God’s promises and is faithful to us even when we are unfaithful with God. And when we are feeling hopeless, we need each other to remind us of God’s faithfulness.
And because of God’s faithfulness we can know the peace that comes from learning God’s form of justice – knowing that every human being is created good and in God’s image so we work towards everyone having what they need to thrive on equal footing. Kingdom Justice doesn’t switch the oppressor and oppressed, the haves and havenots; Kingdom justice levels the playing field so we live in companionship, not competition.
And as we work toward the peace of God’s Kingdom we know the Joy that comes from knowing God is with us always, regardless of our external circumstances. We hold fast to the Hope of God and abide in the peace of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. When we are in the darkest dark, we know the light of God is with us, even if we can only take someone else’s word for it. If I can’t see the light, I need others to assure me it’s there.
And today Love completes the circle. Love comes to us in a vulnerable baby. Emmanuel. God with us, in relationship with us because God is Love. We are created by God to be loved and to love. To walk this life’s journey with God and each other. None of the Kingdom characteristics can be lived out individualistically; each requires community, cooperation, collaboration, with God and each other.
Together these characteristics tell the Good News of God’s love for each of us and all of us. Not some sentimental Hallmark Movie love but a bold, active love that propels us into the Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
To counter the ever-too-loud message of the world, that I need to only take care of me, that it’s ok to take what I want regardless of the impact on others, and that if someone else has something good there’s less good for me to have, we have to keep proclaiming the Good News by living the Kingdom Characteristics we focus on in Advent, not just in these four weeks but every day of the year.
In our Gospel readings today, we bear witness to two women living for God’s Kingdom, saying yes to very difficult things.
Biblical scenes where there are only women present are rare and we must allow them to jolt us from our comfort zones and ask “what’s God up to here? Why did the writer find this important enough to use precious ink and parchment to record it?” This scene of Mary and Elizabeth rejoicing at God’s plan for creation is bookended by the scene of the women who come to the empty tomb to be the first to proclaim the resurrection. These aren’t meek and mild stories of timid girls for us to say “oh, look how sweet they are”. These are powerful stories of bold, courageous women standing firm in God’s promises, proclaiming God’s Love louder that the hate of this world.
God has made himself known to these women and they rejoice in the divine presence and proclaim the glory of God.
I went to an ordination this past week of a woman in our diocese and I was introduced to several new hymns about women from a hymn collection called Voices Found: Women in the Church’s Song. It’s been in publication since 2003 and amazingly this is the first I’ve come across it; why isn’t it better known? I guess that’s to ponder another time, back to the story: One hymn we sang was titled “God of the Women” and one verse read, “God of the women who walked Jesus’ way, giving their resources, learning to pray, Mary, Joanna, Susanna, and more …”. At this point the woman I was sitting next to leaned over and sang “because there’s not enough time to list them all” and we both laughed with joy at the acknowledgement of women like us who have said yes to God’s call to ministry. We laughed with joy because we were a part of celebrating and lifting up another priest who said yes to the love of God.
Love, Kingdom Love, is the most powerful force in the universe. It is more than simply feeding the poor or sharing with those who may have less than us, helping those with less than we have is just the beginning of how we learn to love well in this world. Love is wanting the best for others. Love is working together to remove the obstacles that prevent others from thriving; taking down the walls that divide us and them; leveling the path so that no one is elevated above another. Love is doing life together in such a way that we all are equipped and enabled to do the work we are given to do in the Kingdom.
Love changes the world we live in each time we celebrate each other, weep with each other, hold each other up in challenging times, remind each other we aren’t on this journey alone, when we stop competing with with each other, stop trying to fix each other, and make the choice to be companions following Jesus.
I have a dear friend who says “Love is telling each other when we have spinach in our teeth” and there’s so much to unpack in that statement but the summary is that Love is both wanting the best for each other and helping each other be our best. Love is speaking truth to each other and the world. Love is the foundation of our Kingdom living because God is Love.
So in these last moments of anticipation before Christmas morning, be awake and watchful for the presence of God. Rejoice in the the hope and peace that comes with knowing there is nothing we can do that would make God love us any more or any less that God already loves us.
God may not ask us to do anything nearly as difficult as giving birth to and raising God’s own Son, but we can still say yes to God and God’s Kingdom every day. We can celebrate how the good news changes everything because it changes us and how we move through this world. And we can proclaim the glory of God and the joy of the good news with everyone we encounter by loving well. Amen.
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