Isaiah 2:2-5 SG)
There’s a day coming when the mountain of God’s House will be The Mountain—solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come, let’s climb God’s Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob. He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation; they won’t play war anymore.
Come, let’s live in the light of God.
It feels almost ironic to start this advent season with HOPE when so many people are feeling, not hope, but despair, right now. Things are so ugly in our country these days that Hope seems like the furthest thing from our horizon. And yet .....
It is not in the midst of comfort and peaceful agreement that God offers us Hope. We don’t need hope when all is going well.
Derek Penwell is a Christian Church pastor in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also a writer, and a lecturer at the U. of Kentucky at Louisville. He is one of the people whose writings I follow because he has such a talent for seeing to the heart of the scriptures. The piece I’m going to quote in a moment here is from his discussion of the Matthew 25 reading we read last week:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
When I began thinking about hope, in a hopeless world, this week, it came to me just how truly well last week’s scripture, and Penwell’s thoughts on it, fit our Advent theme.
To continue what Penwell had to say: "What has troubled me, perhaps as much as anything, about our current cultural moment is not just the lack of empathy among so many, but the idea that empathy might even be something anyone should even care about. For more than a year now, vast numbers of our neighbors have lived in fear of what the powers and principalities might do to them. People who claim to follow Jesus, the one who identified with the very people who feel threatened in this environment, have a responsibility to see in those people the face of Jesus.
"And that’s the surprise of this parable: When Jesus shows up, it’s definitely not what we expected. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, shouldn’t the heavens be torn apart, and the sound of mighty winds fill the air—shouldn’t God come among us with awe and majesty?
"Alas, when the Son of Man comes in glory, what we see are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner—because that’s where Jesus has chosen to hang out. Indeed ... that’s who Jesus is."
The gospels tell us over and over that Jesus did not come for the rich and the politically powerful – although God knows, they need him too – they just are so blinded by their arrogance they can’t see how desperate their need is. He did not come for those who issue edicts and pontificate from their high altars, believing themselves the chosen, the worthy and the important, those through whom God speaks. So busy speaking from their own importance that they don’t hear Jesus calling them to listen and repent.
As followers of Christ, we are called to be where the poor and the hope-less are. This first Sunday in Advent we are called to be hope in the midst of a world full of war and selfishness and hunger and greed – a world that doesn’t seem to have much hope in in right now.
What does hope look like to someone who is about to lose their access to food-stamps? Or healthcare coverage? To someone who is one serious illness away from losing their home? To someone who has lost all hope of ever affording a home? To anyone who recognizes that they do not matter in the slightest to the decision-makers who hold power around them?
To quote Penwell again: "Alas, when the Son of Man comes in glory, what we see are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner—because that’s where Jesus has chosen to hang out.”
These are the people Jesus loves. These are the people we are told to care for.
How?
It is not in the midst of comfort and peaceful agreement that God offers us Hope. We don’t need hope when all is going well.
Derek Penwell is a Christian Church pastor in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also a writer, and a lecturer at the U. of Kentucky at Louisville. He is one of the people whose writings I follow because he has such a talent for seeing to the heart of the scriptures. The piece I’m going to quote in a moment here is from his discussion of the Matthew 25 reading we read last week:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
When I began thinking about hope, in a hopeless world, this week, it came to me just how truly well last week’s scripture, and Penwell’s thoughts on it, fit our Advent theme.
To continue what Penwell had to say: "What has troubled me, perhaps as much as anything, about our current cultural moment is not just the lack of empathy among so many, but the idea that empathy might even be something anyone should even care about. For more than a year now, vast numbers of our neighbors have lived in fear of what the powers and principalities might do to them. People who claim to follow Jesus, the one who identified with the very people who feel threatened in this environment, have a responsibility to see in those people the face of Jesus.
"And that’s the surprise of this parable: When Jesus shows up, it’s definitely not what we expected. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, shouldn’t the heavens be torn apart, and the sound of mighty winds fill the air—shouldn’t God come among us with awe and majesty?
"Alas, when the Son of Man comes in glory, what we see are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner—because that’s where Jesus has chosen to hang out. Indeed ... that’s who Jesus is."
The gospels tell us over and over that Jesus did not come for the rich and the politically powerful – although God knows, they need him too – they just are so blinded by their arrogance they can’t see how desperate their need is. He did not come for those who issue edicts and pontificate from their high altars, believing themselves the chosen, the worthy and the important, those through whom God speaks. So busy speaking from their own importance that they don’t hear Jesus calling them to listen and repent.
As followers of Christ, we are called to be where the poor and the hope-less are. This first Sunday in Advent we are called to be hope in the midst of a world full of war and selfishness and hunger and greed – a world that doesn’t seem to have much hope in in right now.
What does hope look like to someone who is about to lose their access to food-stamps? Or healthcare coverage? To someone who is one serious illness away from losing their home? To someone who has lost all hope of ever affording a home? To anyone who recognizes that they do not matter in the slightest to the decision-makers who hold power around them?
To quote Penwell again: "Alas, when the Son of Man comes in glory, what we see are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner—because that’s where Jesus has chosen to hang out.”
These are the people Jesus loves. These are the people we are told to care for.
How?
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