Are you shouldering some difficulties these days that get you questioning some things? Is hope a little hard to hold on to? Does Jesus’ work in the world and in our lives seems way too ordinary, a bit underwhelming and perhaps even disappointing? In this season of Advent Mike Boucher encourages us to be more patient with people and less patient with the systems that harm people and the planet.
Homily Transcript
I was at a party recently where I got to catch up with a friend named Sue and she was talking about Advent in their household. She said that their family recently lost baby Jesus from the manger. She went on to say, “Well, we lost the real one a long time ago, but we were using one of those Guatemalan worry dolls instead. Somehow the worry doll is now missing and so my son put a post-it note with a drawn picture of Jesus in the manger”. She said that ‘this feels like a metaphor for our faith life these days…”
A lot of us can probably relate. Our lives may feel like Jesus got lost somewhere along the way and we can’t quite find him. Now our faith life is a post-it note with scribbles.
If this feels familiar, then I am here to tell you that you are in the right place and in the right church season! Advent celebrates those who feel lost, confused, searching and in need of some good news.
I have been really aware lately how much people are going through these days – and especially at this time of year. Even people who may not look like they’re going through things are going through things. Whether it’s our own health, caring for a loved one, worrying about children, facing loneliness or loss, strained relationships, financial worries, unemployment…the list goes on.
Doesn’t mean good things aren’t happening, but I have found a lot of heaviness out there.
I saw a meme posted by friend that said, “I hate it when people ask me, “Are you ready for Christmas? No, Susan, I’m not even ready for today…”
I was at a gathering of some colleagues the other day and we went around the table and just said one word to the question, “How are you?” Tired, overwhelmed, depleted, overworked, tired, I don’t even know….
Not sure what category you’re in these days, and it’s perfectly fine if you’re doing great. But I know that a lot of people are not.
And this may get us wondering some things about God. It may negatively impact our perspective. It might discourage us.
Pain and suffering do that. They get us doubting and second guessing. Have you ever had insomnia? Or worries that kept you up? Or physical pain that lasted through the night? These things mess with our minds.
I’m guessing John the Baptist in today’s gospel can relate.
John, who is known for his confidence and his fire and passion is in a very different position today. John has been in prison. It is likely that life has beaten him down a bit and put some doubts in his head.
Somehow John had been staying up-to-date on Jesus’ comings and goings and was probably encouraged by what he heard. But as far as we know, John was a revolutionary and likely expected that God’s coming would mean big changes in society.
But the big changes hadn’t come. Just Jesus healing a limited number of fringe people. So John sends messengers to ask Jesus if he’s the one, because these initial reports – while encouraging – surely couldn’t be the whole thing, right? The revolution was around the corner, isn’t it?
One of my favorite theologians and preachers, Barbara Brown Taylor, says we don’t know for sure what was going through his head, but it is likely he was expecting more from his cousin. And Jesus probably knew this because at the end of what he tells John’s disciples he says “blessed is the one who has taken no offense in me.” Which, slightly translated, means “blessed is the one who can handle their disappointment in me and still believe.”
John had high hopes for what Jesus would do. He expected that Jesus would bring a flood. Jesus instead brought what BBT calls a “steady drip of mercy” and grace.
Perhaps to John, and to us, Jesus’ work in the world and in our lives seems way too ordinary and kind of underwhelming. There’s no big headline. No miracle cure. No Hollywood movie ending. Maybe that’s why we’ve kind of lost touch with him. Not much seemed to be happening.
In our conference room at the Neighborhood Center where I work, we have a quote from the Quaker Rufus Jones that sits as a reminder for all of us. It says, “I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles in which vital and transforming events take place.”
I don’t know why, but our God seems to prefer to work in quiet processes, small circles and steady drips. Some days this asks a lot from us to keep opening a part of us that wants to close.
But like so many of those who have gone before us our job is to try to live in the world with hope that something is emerging – even if we can’t see or hear it for ourselves and even if we may not know what it is or recognize it. Hope is a decision we try to keep making.
For most of us, this hope is not something we generate on our own. Hope is fueled in human connection. You have likely heard the old Irish proverb that says, “It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.”
When we are able to find good shelter in each other take care of each other in meaningful ways, that keeps hope alive. Think about even the little things that people talk about – they lost their wallet or phone and someone returned it – and then they say, “Oh my God, I have hope in humanity!” It doesn’t take much sometimes. Our first reading from Isaiah kind of lays out a basic job description for taking care of one another: Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: don’t be afraid. When we strengthen people and ease their fears, hope grows. When it is done for us, our hope grows.
So in this season of Advent, besides encouraging you to try to maintain your hope in the dark, I would encourage you to do two other things: Try to be more patient with people because we have no idea what they are carrying these days. And try to be less patient with systems that hurt people and make them carry far more than they ever should.
For the next few weeks, I would encourage all of us to be extra patient with people. Now I’m not talking about letting people disrespect or walk all over you. I’m talking about offering people extra grace and compassion. If we’re all going through as much as I know we’re going through, we are all going to need some extra TLC. And we also know that when people are stressed, they’re not at their best. People say and do things that they wouldn’t do if their better selves were more available.
Just the other day at work I got called down to our waiting room because a woman was being very loud and impatient with her child. She was waiting for her friend to finish up an appointment and her year old child was getting pretty antsy. When I came down, she said, “I’m so sorry…” and started to cry. She said she just moved back here from another state after being with her mom who was dying. She had no transportation, no social supports, was down to 5 diapers for her child, was waiting for her social services case to be activated and was living with a friend on their couch. To top it all off, her phone had just died. We both cried quite a bit as we talked about how hard her situation is and how we might get her some assistance for the immediate needs. This woman didn’t need more judgment or lectures on parenting. She needed some patience pretty badly – like most of us.
Can we be that steady drip of mercy and grace for each other?
But if we’re called to be more patient with each other, we are equally called to be less patient with the systems that cause so much stress and hardship. James Baldwin said that “we made the world we’re living in and we have to make it over.” If we know that in the shelter of each other the people live, we also know that a lot of the systems we live in only provide partial or no shelter for many and then blame people for needing shelter!
Many of you know of – and I am sure some of you are directly affected by – the proposed teacher layoffs in the City School District. I know it’s not finalized yet and it’s a complicated situation, but the pain is already deep and it’s been going on for decades. These aren’t systems we can keep being patient with. And I was so inspired this week by the young people who have risen as leaders from World of Inquiry and East High. They have said “we will be the voice for our schools” and are organizing and demanding change related to systemic issues that need attention now.
Can we have more patience with people. Can we have less patience with systems that cause hardship. Can we nurture hope in the dark.
Now I am not here to try to convince you that “things are great” or that you just need to change your perspective and everything will be better. I’m just here to remind us that God’s steady drip of mercy and grace continues to act in our world – in quiet processes and small circles oftentimes on the fringes and just under the surface. Our part is to keep trusting that God is with us, to keep supporting each other on the journey and to keep resisting the systems that do harm.
That’s the Advent journey. And even if your faith has been reduced to a post-it-note in a manger scene, no worries. God can still work with that.
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