Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, November 30, 2014
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Freedom is coming, oh yes I know
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Freedom is coming, oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Freedom is coming, oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Freedom is coming, oh yes I know
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Jesus is coming, oh yes I know
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Jesus is coming, oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know Jesus is coming, oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know Jesus is coming, oh yes I know.
AMEN.
Oh yes I know, freedom is coming, oh yes I know.
Oh yes I know, Jesus is coming, oh yes I know
That song really could be the whole sermon this morning.
Now don’t get excited. You know me too well to know I’d let us off that easy. But I will tell you that on this morning, when you walk out of this Cathedral, that is the song I want on your lips, and that is the truth I want in your heart.
Freedom is coming.
Jesus is coming.
Yes, I know.
It is the first Sunday of Advent. It is the beginning of a new year. The beginning of a season of preparation for Christmas, of waiting, of expectation of the coming of Christ.
And we are ready for a new year.
The last year has been one unlike any I can remember. Unrest and invasions in Ukraine. One Malaysian airliner disappearing and another crashing. Israel and Palestine teetering on the brink of war. Ebola outbreaks. Syria and Isis.
Here in St. Louis we had one of the worst winters we can remember, the ongoing battle over New Life Evangelistic Center and how we are going to care for people struggling with homelessness, and, of course, the death of Michael Brown, and the outrage, division and conflict that has followed.
This past Monday night, for the second time this year, we watched parts of our beloved city burn on live TV. For nearly four months we have heard powerful, young, nonviolent demonstrators cry out that Black Lives Matter. We have heard terrible stories of the treatment of people of color at the hands of the police, which many of us have had to hold in painful tension with the relationships we have with beloved friends and family who are those police. And it is confusing and hard because so much of what is being pointed out about police is not about bad people but about good people caught in a bad system -- and that's a truth that convicts me, too.
We even try to go about our normal activities of life – shopping at a mall – only to be confronted with hundreds of people chanting and laying on the floor, and your priest is one of them. What is up with that?
We have had relationships strained, unfriended people on Facebook and some have even left this Cathedral.
It has not been an easy year. Can we just own that? That this has been hard? That this is hard for all of us? That we are tired? And that some of us have been tired for a long, long time?
And so on this first Sunday of Advent, we need this message of hope. We need this message of truth. We need to hear and in fact, we need not just to hear we need to sing in beautiful harmony
That freedom is coming
That Jesus is coming
And that yes, we know.
We are ready for a new year, and here the Gospel has some good news and, if not bad, then at least hard news for us. The good news is that a new year is coming. The good news is freedom is coming. The good news is Jesus is coming, yes we know.
But the hard news is if we are looking for this year to be easier than the last we may well be disappointed. Because just the way that a newborn child is not neatly delivered in a sheet and a bow by the stork but through the long, hard pains of labor, yes, we know that freedom comes into the world, yes we know that Jesus comes into the world only through pain and struggle.
This morning’s Gospel reminds us that Advent, this season of waiting for the birth of Christ, is not a season of blissful calm. It is labor pains.
Jesus said to his disciples, "In those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Then they will see `the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Following Jesus, waiting for Jesus is not for the feint of heart. It is not a prosperity Gospel of “Confess the Lord and riches will be heaped upon your head.” It is labor pains, which is why we never do it alone but together, holding each other’s hand even when it is being squeezed so tight it feels like it is going to come off.
Following Jesus is about being deeply engaged in the pain and the struggle and the conflict. It is about even as we prepare for the Word who became flesh and lived among us, ourselves being that Word in flesh that lives deeply among those who are most in pain, most rejected, most in need of the freedom that Jesus’ coming brings.
It is being in the midst of the pain and the struggle and the conflict, feeling it deeply, and not despairing but unfailingly singing our song of Advent, our song of hope
That freedom is coming
That Jesus is coming
And that yes, we know.
That beautiful song was not written and sung when times were good. It’s easy to sing songs of hope when times are good. The true beauty of that song is not the tune or the voices of the harmony. The true beauty of that song is that it was born out of one of the most beautiful things in all creation – the power of courageous love.
That song came out of the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. That song came out of a people who were being brutally oppressed, who were told that because of the color of their skin their lives mattered less, and who were in the midst of standing up and saying, “No more.”
That song came from the lips of leaders like Desmond Tutu who boldly stood up against the Apartheid government and told them that they had already lost. How’s that for courageous love? And then with a smile bigger than his tiny frame lovingly said to the enforcers of that regime “since you have already lost, we invite you to join the winning side.”
That’s hope. The conviction that even though the powers of the world are against us, that even though there is great suffering and it seems like the sun is darkened and that the moon will not give its light and that the stars are falling from the heavens and that the very powers in the heaven are shaken that the realm of God will not be stopped. That nobody can stop the revolution that we have prayed for, the revolution we pray God will bring every time we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
We are people of that hope. And we will not give up that hope and we will not run away from the struggle because we know the Son of Man is coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
We know that freedom is coming.
We know that Jesus is coming.
Yes we know.
And how do we know? Why do we hope? Why do we sing this song and even at our grave sing our song of Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah?
Because we have made a choice.
Together, we have made a choice to be people of hope and not despair.
Together, we have chosen to be baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Together, we have chosen to put our whole trust in the grace and love of one who was not born in a palace but in a stable. Born not as a king but as a refugee.
Together, we have chosen to take the name of Jesus, the name of one who did not grasp onto power but emptied himself, and who through deep, fierce and contentious love began a movement that turned an empire and indeed the world inside out and upside down.
Together, we have chosen to continue in the name of Jesus that work of bringing in the realm of God in this day and in this place. It is the hard work of a mother in labor and of the partner who stands with her holding her hand and helping her breathe, refusing to leave her side until together they celebrate with tears the birth of the new life they have brought into the world. And just like that labor, yes it is painful, but it is worth it. It is oh, so, worth it.
It is the first Sunday of Advent. It is the beginning of a new year. The beginning of a season of preparation for Christmas, of waiting, of expectation of the coming of Christ. We have been here before and we will be here again. And we do not hide from this moment. We do not flee from this moment. We greet this moment knowing that the outcome has already been determined, that the powers that would oppress have already lost, that all are invited to join the winning side.
We greet this moment together, hand in hand, and we praise God for it.
We praise God that God has given us each other so that in this moment we do not wait, watch and work alone.
We praise God that God has given us the opportunity to be both parent and midwife in this moment in history.
And we praise God that even though we might want to cry in despair, that together God instead has given us a song to sing. A song of joy. A song of hope. A song that is the love that will heal our city and heal our world.
And right now, all God is asking us to do is to trust in that hope and to sing. So would you please stand.
Now I know we are Episcopalians, and we might have convinced ourselves we can’t sing and we might have convinced ourselves we can’t dance. But I don’t believe it for a second. Because this is our song. It is in our heart and it is in our bones. So we’re going to sing it loud and sing it proud.
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Freedom is coming, oh yes I...
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Freedom is coming, oh yes I...
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Freedom is coming, oh yes I...
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Freedom is coming, oh yes I...
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Jesus is coming, oh yes I...
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Oh Jesus
Jesus is coming, oh yes I...
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know Jesus is coming, oh yes I...
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Oh yes I know
Jesus is coming, oh yes I know.
AMEN.
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