12 02, 2012 "Longing for Righteousness"

Jeremiah 33: 14-16 Luke 21:25-36 Surprises are fun. To catch someone you love off-guard, to honor them by planning an event in demonstration of how much they mean to us, without their ever lifting a finger is fun. A year ago, the news was abuzz with story of a couple, who had been in a relationship so long she thought he would never propose marriage. Meanwhile the groom had planned their entire wedding so he could surprise her. He blindfolded her, had a limo drive until she was disoriented, when she took the blindfold off they were standing at the doors of the Church with her family and all their friends, the pastor and rings, flowers, photographers and the dress, and all she needed do was say “I Do.” The culture declared “How romantic!” At the time I wondered, and what would have happened if she looked at everything he did without her, and she said “No, I do not”? As stressful and expensive as weddings can be, the intent of Advent, the planning a wedding, like the 9 months of pregnancy, is to become one with another, to become one with this change in life's circumstance. As romantic as the story is, that the groom would want to do all this for her, and would spare her all the stress and decisions, this is not righteousness. We too often become jaded by being self-righteous, believing that we and we alone (using the Royal “We”) know what is best for everyone else, for all of our world. This first Sunday in Advent is about two things, first: Our goal, our intent, the purpose of human history is The LORD is our righteousness! Being right with God, and right with everyone, being right with everything in all creation, that is righteousness. This is not about winning, or accumulating, having power or prestige. Righteousness is having nothing hidden, but being transparent, being open, being honest, being one with all creation. At different times, as a pastor, I have been called upon to sit on Ethics Committees, for our Government, for Hospitals, and in the Church, in each case the focus has not been upon what is Ethical, or what is Moral, or what is Justice. The point of Ethics' Committees is that everyone involved be fully informed, fully able to make an informed decision about the costs and benefits and possible effects of actions or inaction. Our “Informed Consent” is the legal demonstration of righteousness, as we attest with our name and signature that we know what is going to happen and we are not only complicit we take our responsibility for ourselves. Recently our Village, Town, County, State and Nation held an election, and next week we as a church will elect our leaders. Our society is not a true democracy in which we each are able to express our opinion and vote on every issue, but rather our church like our government is a democratic republic, in which every person has a vote, but we vote to place our trust in others to make decisions for us. In truth, there are very moments in time, in which the pastoral ministry feels “holy.” More often than not, the ministry is worrying about how to have heat when the boiler shuts down, and how to pay for it when we have to call the repairmen on a Saturday. How to make everyone happy, when at times people have been unhappy enough with other parts of their lives that we have wanted a safe place to act out. Officiating at Weddings today includes being attentive that the Sheriff has been asked to stand guard in case the groom's mother shows up, and keeping the photographers and event planners at bay while the couple speak the vows of their hearts to each other and kiss. One of the few moments which truly are “holy” have been those times when persons have been prepared to reflect on their lives, to name what needs to be confessed and atoned for, before they die. Increasingly our world is about secrets, churches have disposed of “Confessionals,” and the point of a good defense is being able to tell the truth, without admitting the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Would that we lived in a time in history, where nothing was hidden, where we had relationships without secrets, when we could be wholly honest with one another and with ourselves, which would mean we could be one in righteousness with God. Righteousness with God and all Creation is one of the two themes of this first Sunday in Advent. The other is longing. The advertising business has been counting down the decreasing number of days left for us to get all of our shopping done, to have everything everyone wants for Christmas. Advent accepts a fluidity to time and space. We know all too well the words that will be spoken, words that have been professed for two thousand years. Similar to Once Upon a Time, or Long Long ago, the Gospel of Luke names a time in the past: “In those days, when a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled, the first enrollment when Quirinius was Governor of Syria.” Luke wrote down these words after Jesus' Arrest, Crucifixion and Resurrection from the Dead to identify the historic reality of what had been longed for, by a people counted as sheep by an empire, counted for taxation, and the hope of fulfillment after 2000 years of longing. There is something in me, I believe in us all, that feels discomfort with much of the Church year. At LENT we do not always feel ready to repent. On EASTER, there are personal circumstances that get in the way of feeling Triumphal, even with trumpet fanfare of feeling Joyful. PENTECOST is a long season, half the year in length, when as the church in this place and time we do not always feel spirit filled and spirit led. BUT ADVENT, all humanity can identify with the longing for what might have been long long ago, and which we hope and pray will come soon. Longing for a time, when we can be complete, and honest about everything in our lives, assured that we will be accepted and loved. Advent is the beginning of the year, as we begin in anticipation, waiting, longing for accomplishment, longing for acceptance of who we are with one another. On Thursday evening, our Village leaders affirmed the leadership of over 25 people from this congregation and the support of so many others in the church and throughout our Village. The Village Board extended a relationship to the Village of Jacob and John and Martha, and Andrew and Mary, and Santino, that our villages would claim one another as Sisters. And this day, and this coming week, representatives from here are traveling to the opposite side of the earth, to bring other refugees to their homes. Those refugees represent tribes that have been at war with the refugees we have known for thousands of years, longer than any remember. Bringing those refugees home to their families and villages, they will each then bring persons who are blind (from their tribe to the clinic located in what had been enemy territory, our sister village), blinded because they are so close to the equator, they will receive their sight. What a gift to long for in the ADVENT of Christ's Birth, that the scattered refugees dispersed over all the earth would be brought home, and the blind would renew their sight and see. Longing for Righteousness begins from tis moment on...