Hope, peace, joy, love - and truth

Stir up your power, we pray - and with great might come among us. And he does, but that power is not evident at first. At first, he comes as a baby…

But the psalmist warns us, put not your trust in princes. 

2 Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, *
    for there is no help in them.
 3 When they breathe their last, they return to earth, *
    and in that day their thoughts perish.
 4 Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! *
    whose hope is in the LORD their God; 
5 Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *
    who keeps his promise for ever;
 6 Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *
    and food to those who hunger.

(Psalm 146: 2-6, BCP)

The help Jesus gives is the help of Christ the King, a king unlike any other, in fact subversive of the dominant paradigm of monarchy. If he is king, we have missed the meaning of "king" -- Jesus does not come among us like Saul, a mighty warrior, or David, a comely and pious and witty man. 

Jesus does come among us, as healer, savior, and thus king beyond kings. Jesus comes among us and we behold what it really means to be king. 

Today we return once again to the image of the fore-runner, of John the Baptizer, who, having proclaimed that the one who was to come has come, sends for reassurance that Jesus really is that one. 

What did you go out into the desert to see? What did you see?

What did you see? What did you hear? Testify to that, tell John that, says the Lord. 

And the signs he cites say who he is. And who he will be. And what his kingdom, call it that, will be.

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

What was old news, that the day of the Lord would arrive, is new again; he is coming indeed, and in his coming is splendor.

And so today in the midst of Advent, our 'little Lent' of blue, we have a Sunday of rose. We have a day of joy.

Various people have asked me, what do you celebrate this season? Joy. Hope, peace, joy, love. And truth. And, therefore, justice.

For he is coming, and there is judgment. The word of the Lord, embodied in a baby, is the terror of kings. And more than that: as an old song says,

This little Babe so few days old 
is come to rifle Satan's fold;
all hell doth at his presence quake 
though he himself for cold do shake;
for in this weak unarmèd wise 
the gates of hell he will surprise.

Robert Southwell (1561? - 1595)

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. When the angel came to her, he said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you!” 

She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.

Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. Nothing is impossible for God.

Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

(Luke 1:26-35, 37-38. Common English Bible) 

“Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.”

This Sunday we sing Mary’s response to the news:

Mary said,
“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
    In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
        because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
    He shows mercy to everyone,
        from one generation to the next,
        who honors him as God.

(Luke 1:46-50, Common English Bible)

Blessed. And then we celebrate the night she gave birth. She does not complain about pain, not focus on the travails she could expect; her attention is on what the Lord is doing, for her and through her.

Into the world is coming the kingdom of God, that was and is and is to come. In her womb she carries the paradox of salvation.

How can this be? How can all this holiness, all this grace, all this power, be so fragile and frail in its arrival? The fate of the world, found in a small small thing. 

Soon the powers that be, from Herod Antipas, client-king of the occupying empire, to the quislings whose interest lies with holding the people down, will be searching and seeking to destroy the small hope of humanity.

But as we have been reminded this season, in psalm and lesson, the powers of the earth are nothing next to the power perfected in weakness, the power that was kept in a cradle, then spread across the earth.

Wait till you see how Herod reacts, when he hears the Messiah is born.

Wait till you see how Rome responds, when they hear the words, Jesus is Lord (and Caesar is not).

Wait until you hear the words, I follow Jesus, and so I must show compassion to the poor, clothe the naked and feed the hungry, speak for the voiceless and innocent, and do justice in my daily life.

Wait until you see that, you see the hand of God at work in the people around you, the world about you.

Then you will know he is come; for he is certainly near. 

Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha: O come, Emmanuel. Come among us. 

And let what we wish to see and hear be what is seen and heard of us: the presence of redeeming grace.

Hope, peace, joy, love - and truth.

● Isaiah 35:1-10
● Canticle 15  
● James 5:7-10
● Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent 2025 (10:30 AM)
Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson (https://stmatthewtucson.org/)
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWI48qhKGZc5dZVf5elsRPw

© John Leech 2025 

Tell out my soul

What did you go out into the desert to see? What did you see?

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Stir up your power, we pray - and with great might come among us. And, the psalmist warns us, put not your trust in princes. 

Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, *

    for there is no help in them.

When they breathe their last, they return to earth, *

    and in that day their thoughts perish.

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! *

    whose hope is in the LORD their God; 

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *

    who keeps his promise for ever;

Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *

    and food to those who hunger.

(Psalm 146: 2-6, BCP)

The help Jesus gives is the help of Christ the King, a king unlike any other, in fact subversive of the dominant paradigm of monarchy. If he is king, we have missed the meaning of "king" -- Jesus does not come among us like Saul, a mighty warrior, or David, a comely and pious and witty man. 

Jesus does come among us, as healer, savior, and thus king beyond kings. Jesus comes among us and we behold what it means to be king, what it means to be a man; in fact, what it means to be human. 

Remember when he wrote with his finger in the dust? "Neither do I condemn you," he said. Judgement, but judgment in the sense of establishing righteousness. And that meant for the woman accused and brought before him, and for all drawn to his throne, forgiveness of sins. Sin, yes, exists: but beyond it, grace.

“My grace is enough for you, [says the Lord] because power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Today we return once again to the image of the fore-runner, of John the Baptizer, who, having proclaimed that the one who was to come has come, sends for reassurance that Jesus really is that one. 

What did you see? What did you hear? Testify to that, tell John that, says the Lord. 

And the signs he cites say who he is. And who he will be. And what his kingdom, call it that, will be.

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

We anticipate what has already arrived. We have outlived our obsolescence. What was old news, that the day of the Lord would arrive, is coming indeed, and in its coming is splendor.

And so today in the midst of Advent, our 'little Lent' of blue, we have a Sunday of rose. We have a day of joy.

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Various people have asked me, what do you celebrate this season? Hope, peace, joy, love. And truth.

For he is coming, and there is judgment. The word of the Lord, embodied in a baby, is the terror of kings.

This little Babe so few days old 

is come to rifle Satan's fold;

all hell doth at his presence quake 

though he himself for cold do shake;

for in this weak unarmèd wise 

the gates of hell he will surprise.

Robert Southwell (1561? - 1595)

***

This past week I was blessed to attend a holiday concert that featured three versions of Ave Maria and three of Silent Night. Sounds like overkill? Nah. Not when this Sunday we sing Mary’s response to the holy messenger who greeted her “Ave Maria” - Hail Mary. “Hail Mary, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.”

Blessed. And then we celebrate the night she gave birth. She does not complain about pain, not focus on the travails she could expect; her attention is on what the Lord is doing, for her and through her.

Mary said,

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!

    In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.

He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.

    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored

        because the mighty one has done great things for me.

Holy is his name.

    He shows mercy to everyone,

        from one generation to the next,

        who honors him as God.

(Luke 1:46-50, Common English Bible)

Into the world is coming the kingdom of God, that was and is and is to come. In her womb she carries the paradox of salvation.

How can this be? How can all this holiness, all this grace, all this power, be so fragile and frail in its arrival? The fate of the world, found in a small small thing. 

***

In Bethlehem there is a place to think about all this, in a small room under the altar of the church of the Nativity. There is the place, you are told, where she laid the newborn child: the manger.

And soon the vulnerable child and new mother and her husband will be on the road, following the path of Jacob into exile in Egypt.

Soon the powers that be, from Herod Antipas, client-king of the occupying empire, to the quislings whose interest lies with holding the people down, will be searching and seeking to destroy the small hope of humanity.

But as we have been reminded this season, in psalm and lesson, the powers of the earth are nothing next to the power perfected in weakness, the power kept in a cradle, then spread across the earth.

***

Wait till you see how Herod reacts, when he hears the Messiah is born.

Wait till you see how Rome responds, when they hear the words, Jesus is Lord (and Caesar is not).

Wait until you hear the words, I follow Jesus, and so I must show compassion to the poor, clothe the naked and feed the hungry, speak for the voiceless and innocent, and do justice in my daily life.

Wait until you see that, you see the hand of God at work in the people around you, the world about you.

Then you will know he is come; for he is certainly near. 

Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha: O come, Emmanuel. Come among us. 

And let what we wish to see and hear be what is seen and heard of us: the presence of redeeming grace.

Hope, peace, joy, love - and truth.

* * *

Hasten, O Father, the coming of thy kingdom; and grant that we thy servants, who now live by faith, may with joy behold thy Son at his coming in glorious majesty; even Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Make a place for God in your hearts and in your lives, for he comes to you this day and always; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

(David Adam, Clouds of Glory. Prayers for the Church Year, Year A. SPCK, 2000, 11.)

• Isaiah 35:1-10
• James 5:7-10
• Matthew 11:2-11
• Canticle 15  The Song of Mary: Magnificat. Luke 1:46-55

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv3_RCL.html

Thanks to the Rev. Colby Roberts for his sermon last Sunday at St Timothy's, Yakima. 

https://www.facebook.com/StTimothysEpiscopalChurchYakima

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/community-q-a-new-rector-at-st-timothys-episcopal-church-brings-enthusiasm-spectacular-singing-voice/article_f4f3e7d6-e523-505d-a16b-02ca41fe2eb8.html

Patronato Christmas concert at Mission San Xavier, December 10, 2025, at 7:45 p.m. 

And blessed is she that believed

Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.	(Revelation 19: 6)
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.	(Revelation 11: 15)
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.	(Revelation 19: 16)

Hallelujah!

http://opera.stanford.edu/iu/libretti/messiah.htm

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.

Two women meet in a hill town. One is old. One is young. Both, improbably, are pregnant.

Outside this room it may be noisy, with premature, superficial celebration, but inside this room, in quiet triumph, anticipation and hope, two women meet: one old, one young. One is past the age to bear a child. One for whom it would be physically impossible. Yet – here they are. And they know the promise of God.

The word of God runs strong in their family, their tribe, their nation – and their world.

Two women.

Two babies.

And the world changes.

Not just for these women. Or these two boys. For us, for our salvation.

Not just this change, but also a transformation of time.

The crucial event of world history is coming – and they welcome it: the promise of ages they help to bring into being.

Two obscure women in a hill town in Palestine, at the center of the world.

Faith completed, hope fulfilled, and gratefulness offered.

Having received grace upon grace, Mary could say, I am become an instrument of peace.

Having received from his fullness grace upon grace (John 1:16), we can say: let us become instruments of his peace.

The kingdom of God is being born within us, as we bear Christ into the world.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God is at work, reconciling all things to himself. (Colossians 1:19-20)

Hope confirmed. Promise fulfilled. And together, the two women celebrate.

What Mary knows, Elizabeth proclaims: Mary’s blessing begins with Mary’s believing.

Blessed is she who believed that God’s word would be fulfilled in her.

Mary put full confidence in God’s promise. Her reliance upon it was total and complete.

The blessing begins with faith. Mary kept faith her whole life – even up to and through the crucifixion of her son – that somehow this all had meaning and purpose, that it was within the will of God.

God has done – is doing – will always do – great things; God is holy; God is merciful.

Listen to The Song of Miriam – celebrating the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh:

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’                                     (Exodus 15:20-21)

Are these women powerless and marginal? No longer. The triumph of God is upon them.

The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of the Lord, and of his Christ.

The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,

and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.  (Revelation 11: 15)

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15: 57)

This victory is not his alone: for all people who hold him in awe, all who ‘fear him’, shall share in the promise. The question is: how shall we share in the victory?

If God be for us, who can be against us?  (Romans 8: 31)    


***

How shall we share in the victory?

Look again at Mary, and her cousin Elizabeth. Obedience, openness to God’s word, faithful waiting, and willingness to accept God’s plan and trust him to carry it out.

Not knowing the details, not asking for guarantees, they are not merely passive recipients but active partners in the fulfillment of God’s plan, the action of his mercy.

They have known, their people have known for centuries, that God’s salvation was coming. In this obscure corner of the hills, they kept hope alive.

Messiah would come – and he has!

With the certainty of a done deal, Mary proclaims God’s triumph as past action. He has done what he promised.

And so … it would be … and is, now, when we open ourselves in trust to the coming of God’s word among us.

It may mean waiting through a dark night – or a Son’s death.

It will mean obedience – perseverance, patience, faithfulness –

and true glory.

How shall we share in the victory?

How do we help God’s kingdom of justice and peace to become established among all people? We might start by:

Doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.

Keeping faith that what the future may bring, God will bring.

And he is good.

Behold thy servants, Lord: let it be unto us according to thy word.

Amen.

        

CAdvent4, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Micah 5:2-5a, Canticle 15,  Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-45, (46-55), Magnificat,

Robert Fuller, Homilies from the Heart, Year C, St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church, Tucson, Ariz. (http://www.cabrinitucson.org/)

Br. Abraham, "Leonard, Sheldon, and Penny Discuss the Implications of the Incarnation," Abbey Letter No. 252, Christmas 2012, St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, Mich. (http://saintgregorysthreerivers.org/) 

Martin Luther's Christmas Book, Roland H. Bainton, ed. (Augsburg Fortress, 1950)

2012 December 23, for Saint Alban’s Episcopal Church, Edmonds, Wash.

Annunciation 2012

Back on the feast of Epiphany we remembered the visit of the magi to the Holy Family, and the gifts they bring: Gold for the king, Frankincense for the priest, Myrrh for the sacrifice. There is, I submit, one more gift - for us to offer: Praise for the Living One.

Right in the middle of Lent we encounter a part of the Nativity story, nine months before Christmas Day. Raymond Brown, the Roman Catholic biblical scholar, taught that the gospels actually were written beginning with the passion narrative - proceeding through Holy Week, the Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and then on around to the Birth narratives.

The birth narratives begin with the visit of the angel to Zechariah, announcing the coming birth of John. Then the focus shifts to a younger woman, cousin of Elizabeth. It is Mary. The angel comes to Mary – and hails her as full of grace: she is to bear a son, who is to be the Messiah.

Mary accepts the burden of birth and the destiny of motherhood to the Messiah, Conception to Assumption, somehow knowing that she must not count her child as hers to keep, but must let go of him, dedicate him to the Lord, as Samuel's mother Hannah dedicated him, knowing he will go from her.

Mary, mother of Jesus, takes this task on herself, knowingly, as God's servant, because she knew that he, her child to be, was sent to set the people free: that at last God's promise to redeem Israel would bear fruit in the fullness of time, and that that fulfillment was coming very soon, and was beginning to happen, quickening even now in her.

The Word would indeed ripen in her own womb. She would bear forth upon the world he who would himself bear the pain of the world.

Like Hannah's son Samuel, Jesus the Son of Mary is one consecrated, set apart for service to the Lord, as a thanksgiving offering to the Lord. Samuel is the prophet who brought justice to Israel, and yet he points beyond himself - to Saul, first, then to David, to David's son Solomon, and ultimately to Jesus.

In the birth story of Samuel, Hannah his mother rejoices that God has remembered the forgotten, and will bring relief to the poor. “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God,” she sings (1 Samuel 2:1-10).

In the birth story of Jesus, Mary his mother rejoices that God remembers the forgotten and brings relief to the poor. (Luke 1:46-55) And in our prayers, even daily, we join in her song, the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, Canticle 15 in the Book of Common Prayer: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...”

first cousins, once removed

John came like Elijah through the wilderness, calling the people to turn away from falsehood, to turn back to their true allegiance, to Almighty God. He called them to repent: to start clean, to be washed in the waters of the Jordan as their spiritual forefathers had when first they walked into the land of the promise.

He called them. He was a “voice crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” He was the herald, the fore-runner: coming before, bearing glad tidings. The message he brought, to prepare the way of the Lord, is a message of impending – JOY.

And his joy is to be made complete in the coming of the Christ. “Are you the one we have been waiting for?” he asks Jesus; and the answer is YES! Look around you: see what is going on, what is happening. It is just beginning, but it is beginning to break through: the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

We look ahead this Sunday from the midst of Advent’s expectation to its fulfillment in the joy of Christmas. We light the pink candle. Today is “Gaudete Sunday”; “guadete” means REJOICE! Rejoice in the coming of the Savior. In the words of the 14th Century hymn:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary: rejoice!

The time of grace has come for which we have prayed; let us devoutly sing songs of joy.

God is made man while nature wonders; the world is renewed by Christ the King.

Therefore let our assembly sing praises now; at this time of preparation, let it bless the Lord. Greetings to our King!

Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary: rejoice!

And so we have a messenger who calls on us to prepare the way, to make room in our hearts and in our lives for the coming of the true King.

Let me read you a story. It is a story of some people, a boy and two girls, and some animals – beavers – who are traveling through a winter-bitten frozen landscape, running from the evil witch who has cast a spell on the land, where now it is “always winter and never Christmas!”

They run, and they hide, and they spend the night in a lonely cave, and even in their dreams they are pursued by the White Witch in her sledge drawn by tiny reindeer the color of snow.

They wake, and they do hear the bells of a sleigh. Mr. Beaver goes out to investigate. The children, and Mrs. Beaver, hear voices. They are alarmed. Is it the White Witch? Then comes Mr. Beaver’s reassuring voice:

[The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis, chapter 10]

And so you see Santa Claus came to Narnia. And he brought presents: TOOLS NOT TOYS – to equip the humans for the tasks ahead.

John the Baptist, as he called on people to prepare the way, provided a gift of a different sort: a clearing out, a ‘re-set’, and a readiness to start over and start fresh. Then the gifts become real. They become necessary – as the Savior comes.

Jesus, when he approached, began with the working of healing: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and this last: the poor are gladdened. They are glad because the Kingdom is coming, the reign of God on earth when all will be put to rights.

If you know your Narnia you know this is Aslan’s job: to overthrow the false reign of the White Witch, to set everything to rights, to release captives, to warm the frozen, to restore the lost, and to protect the innocent.

This is indeed the Day of the Lord that John proclaimed.

Son of Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, John grew up as one set apart, with a duty to perform. He was the one to prepare the way: and to herald the coming of the Messiah.

And this is what Mary was expecting Jesus to do: in her magnificent song of expectation and of triumph, she proclaims the greatness of God, who looks with favor on his lowly servant, and who brings to her and through her – in the bearing of the Christ Child – the time of grace for which we have prayed.

Therefore let our assembly sing praises now at this time of preparation; let us bless the Lord: Greetings to our King!

Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary; rejoice!


______________

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Macmillan, 1950) Chapter Ten: The Spell Begins to Break.

The Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols, edited by Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott (Oxford University Press, 1993), Carol 24, Gaudete!

David Adam, Clouds and Glory (SPCK, 2001) 3rd Sunday of Advent.

Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11, Canticle 15

Pilate slept in

Pilate slept in. Pontius Pilate had made a late night of it – in fact, he had turned in not long before dawn. He had washed his hands of the latest “Messiah” in the early hours of last Friday, called it good, and walked away. The nights since had been full, full of celebration – of a kind: reveling and drunkenness, debauchery and licentiousness, quarreling and jealousy, all the fleshly indulgence the apostle Paul so well describes. He was a creature of this night: the night at the end of the week. Pilate slept in.

It was early on the first day of the week, and it was still dark.

Across town, though, things were beginning to stir. Just quietly, a few women (Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome, perhaps a few others) gathered together ointments and spices and made their way out of their houses and down through the pre-dawn streets, to pay their last respects to their friend, do their last duty to their master. And so they made their way to the tomb of Jesus son of Mary, Jesus of Nazareth. They thought they knew what they would find there.

It was dawn minus thirty. Day was coming; dawn was soon to break.

Imagine a desert landscape half an hour before dawn. A star glimmers in the east. As you move out into the open you see the moon, almost full, in the west, illumining the landscape – nearby trees, houses, hills, and the mountains beyond. The star in the east has a companion, a lesser satellite, still shining with brightness from the night before. There is a rustle here and there of night sounds. A campfire flickers: it can be rekindled.

The night is far along now, and the day is about to dawn.

We are waiting: you and I, together. We are waiting for the new dawn, the day of the Lord, the day when righteousness and peace will embrace, when swords will be beaten into plowshares and never will nation learn war anymore. We wait for the day when the poor are justified, and receive their due; when the widow and the orphan are protected.

And we are moving: we are not waiting passively, but actively, expectantly, we begin to move into this new day. Because something happened that morning as Pilate slept in; something that Salome and Mary and Joanna did not expect to happen. When they got to the tomb they found not the beginning of eternal night but the rising of a new day, the day of the Lord, just beginning, the day breaking into night’s dominion, bringing peace.

They ran to bring the news of this new day to all the disciples so that they could begin living in it, living into it, living it, as soon as possibly joy could allow.

And so we too are moving, running walking climbing, making our way into the world to let it know that Jesus is alive: the King has come home, the true King, the Messiah indeed, at last, is coming to his own – and his own shall know him and be set free.

He comes to us, this unexpected Jesus, in a form unsuspected: where we look for a king, a royal birth, we find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Where we look for a warrior we find a man of peace. Where we look for a master we find one who empties his self of all majesty and serves. Where we look for an answer, a question:

How are we to live in this new day, the day of the Lord? How are we to announce it?

Every year it comes back around to us, at the top of the year, as we face both backwards into the past – the Nativity of our Lord– and forwards into the future – the Return of the King; and yet at this present moment, when we stand on the precipice of time, we live in the moment of freedom: to find ourselves and define ourselves anew, as people of the passing night or as the people of God, Christ’s children, the Church.

How are we to live at this moment? Whiling away the waning hours of night? Or shall we begin, even now, in this moment, to live as children of the day?

To live as children of the day is to begin to live into God’s kingdom – to take the values Jesus has taught us and without waiting for a big sign in the sky – like the one that says, “Welcome to Las Vegas!” – to say, “Eternal life starts here”, to begin to live that way. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

We cannot be again what we once were, but we can become what we should be, can be, and are called to be. We cannot recapture lost time, but we can stay focused, keep together, and move forward in the name of Christ, into the redeeming of time: future, present, past – all are made new and whole in the light of Christ.

The ways of the Lord are so precious and true, so giving of life, that Isaiah predicts all nations will come seeking instruction, to learn to walk in the ways of God, and to be shown his pathways. God through the Holy Spirit – and through the Body of Christ – teaches us the way. It is a way that leads to justice, that finds peace, that sees an end to the strife between people and nations – a time so confident of its fruitfulness that the tools of war are no longer needed and can be turned into the tools of productive abundance.

We are his hands and his feet in the world, his voice and his ears, and we are gathered here in this place in this time to embody to the world his message of peace. As we bear forth his message – even in the absurd and timeless form of a baby – we bring the greatest force to bear that the world has ever known: and that force is the love of God.

Irresistible, it moves mountains; immemorial, it lasts forever; inconceivable, it is real… the most real thing of all.

This is the season of advent, of new beginnings, for you, for me, for all of us who live in this world – a new hope is dawning as surely as the light is rising in the East, beyond the mountains, unseen, but closer every moment.

We experience that new hope in our own lives, even in the midst of sorrow. Where Pilate would find only the end of night, the women of Jesus found a new dawn. Where the world runs out its string, there faith begins to take hold. Jesus is with us, even in the darkest hour, just before dawn. And he is our light.

And if we are transparent enough, the light of the love of the Lord shines through us, a beacon for others, beckoning them to join us in this new day.

O come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

JRL+

The First Sunday of Advent: December 2, 2007
The Church of Saint Alban, Edmonds, Washington.

God, who ever comes to you, draw you to his love, draw you to his light, draw you to himself; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

(David Adam, Clouds of Glory, Year A, Advent 1)

Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122/Canticle 15, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44