Mark 13:24-37
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
This Advent especially, we may be hoping for new light in a world that feels so much like it felt last year. We hear news of indiscriminate violence, as the attacks in Mumbai attacks sound less and less concerned about who would be their victims. We see consumerism run amok, now with a tangible death toll (Black Friday indeed). It seems especially dark now, when consumer culture has progressed to the point of violence. It’s causing violence directly, and it’s inspiring violence – this attack on a gilded city sounds familiar to us for a reason. So we might ask, ” God, how much longer will you be angry with our prayers?”
The author of our Psalm asked the same question. He had seen the northern kingdom of Israel conquered by Assyria, and Judah was next. He could see the signs of the times, the military power lined up against Judah, and there was certainly no military power on Judah’s side. The end of the nation’s story was coming, and so the Psalmist asked God to make that story new again. He was, as we put it, “reduced” to prayer. We say that, because we often turn to prayer only when our other options have gone away.
That’s sort of like eating well after your heart attack – it’s a good idea, but you’re a little too late. It’s like writing a budget once your savings have run out – the best course of action is even more disappointing than what got you here. These are the right steps to take, but we should have taken them years before. Life builds up momentum. The Assyrians were on the march before Judah saw them coming and thought to repent. So too, we need to pray long before prayer is our only option.
Prayer doesn’t usually lead to quick fixes, the sudden change in the world we might wish for. The world changes slowly, and our hearts do too: repentance takes work. God answers prayer, but on His own time, and He may save us after we see the consequences of what we needed to be saved from. God delivered Judah, but only after the exile. God loves us too much to let forgiveness mean that we don’t have to learn from our mistakes. The answer to prayer may be silence, while God waits for us to figure out what we need to learn.
While we learn, God is with us, and in hindsight, we’re usually surprised at just how visible She’s been. God renounces the power to make us perfect instantly and instead goes the harder way. This is why, even though Mark promised that all this would happen soon, we still haven’t seen Christ return in power. Christ isn’t waiting at arm’s length for us to deserve engagement; Christ is waiting in pain with us. We slowly find Christ in our lives, always remaking us as God intended.
Our prayer calls God into our lives, and the Psalmist knows that God must start working to save the people. We need God’s mercy to shine on us, and fast. It seems as desperate as having the Assyrian armies surround us, but today is no less under God’s control than before: God is here. God is working out purposes larger than all our expectations.
So be open to the signs of this Advent. Call out to God, knowing that God is here. God will be with us on this Advent journey and always.
Amen.
What does food safety have to do with the U.S. international trade deficit? Find out when we watch the lecture “Thinking Globally About Food” by Paul Roberts. The lecture is part of the College of St. Scholastica’s Alworth Center for Peace and Justice Lecture Series. Bring your lunch and meet us in the session room at noon on Tuesday.
Deuteronomy 8:2-10
Philippians 4:6-20
Paul writes to the Philippian church rejoicing in the gifts they have sent to support him in his ministry (other churches didn’t apparently contribute as much). He points out that their gifts to Paul are for their sake more than for his: he celebrates the “profit that accumulates to [their] account” in God’s cosmic accounting department. But this is not a sermon about giving – I’ll tell you later how wonderful it is for us to give. The point Paul is making is deeper: “I’ve learned to be content with whatever I have.” This is a powerful statement for us, people who have so much of some things and so little of others. (more…)
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Matthew 25:14-30
At the end of his life, Joshua gathers the people of Israel at Shechem to renew their covenant with God. This is their moment to choose whom to serve, because there were other gods to be had. Their ancestors served gods in another land, each with its own name and image. This land used to belong to the Amorites, a people who had their own names and images for the Holy. (more…)
Andrew Bacevich called it profligacy, but we know it better as consumerism, the practice of buying, using (or not), and disposing of stuff. Now that we know it’s the root of all foreign-policy evil, we’re going to look at how all the stuff we buy and discard is made, and what that means for the environment. Join us for Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff, Tuesday at noon in the Session room.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:1-13
Matthew is a frustrating gospel to preach from, because he always needs to say who is out of the kingdom of heaven. We’ve covered this before, it fits the time when Matthew was writing. He wrote in a time of high expectations. He was expecting Christ’s return, the apocalypse (just not right away). So this fits the genre, as you in Bible study know all too well. Apocalyptic writings always seem to have these clear black-and-white views of the world, and they’re full of this sharp polemic. (more…)
It turns out that Andrew Bacevich’s interview on The Limits of Power was too interesting for two sessions, so Food for Thought will wrap it up Tuesday, November 11. Honor a veteran and come celebrate our freedom to think. This week we’ll meet in the downstairs south room.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:1-12
I received a church newsletter this week (no, not ours). It included – no, it was mostly taken up by – a voter guide. It looked well researched by the outside organization that put it together, and it carefully limited itself to the candidates’ positions on various issues. It made sure to preserve the church’s tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status, even including a letter from a lawyer certifying that everything complies with federal election law. In keeping with all those important laws, the guide didn’t give a formal nod to any individual candidates, but it’s not bragging to say that I’m smart enough to know whom I should vote for. (more…)
Our worship committee is in the middle of a conversation about our order of worship. For less than two years, our worship order has set the sermon in the middle and put the offering and prayers after the sermon. Previously, the sermon fell at the very end of the service, followed only by a hymn and the benediction. Some people have expressed the feeling that their voices were not heard when the worship order was changed. Most of you probably felt or still feel somewhat disoriented by the change in our weekly ritual. Of course, in the long history of the Church, this is neither the first nor the last time worship has changed. In worship planning, there are no strict right or wrong answers, just faithfulness to how this congregation gathers in God’s presence. (more…)
