Homily
3rd Sunday of Advent A
14/15 December 2013
Christ the King Topeka
Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say rejoice! The Lord is near!
I hope I haven't let you down this morning, in not finding a pink vestment, or rose, if you will. I searched high and low in the sacristy, but Fr. Pete must have been one tough hombre who was not about to wear pink, or spend a buck on a pink vestment, no matter what the liturgical books say. Or, maybe he just loved your rose vestment so much here that he took it with him to Overland Park. I'll let you decide.
A rose vestment, if of course, optional for Gaudete Sunday. But rejoicing is not! Christians are to be known always and everywhere for their joy, but especially as we turn the corner toward our full celebration of the Christmas mystery! We are not to be anxious about shopping days or preparations, most of which the men here haven't even started anyway. No, our deepest spiritual attitude and emotion is to be joy, because the Lord is near to us. Christmas is close. Christmas which means the world's being able to see the incomparable and long awaited and long promised gift that is the Christ child, the gift of a baby that alone brings a light to shatter the darkness of the world and makes possible the realization of the deepest hopes and desires of mankind. We are to rejoice, then, for his traveling into the world is the reason we will travel to see each other. His being incomparable gift is the reason we will give to each other like crazy in this holy season. His being close to us as an innocent and vulnerable child is the reason we draw close to each other. Rejoice, then, again I say rejoice! The Lord is near!
Our readings today are chock full of hope, for the Lord's coming means the establishment of a new creation that is distinctively better than the first creation, for the new creation is one that cannot be destroyed, one that cannot be touched by sin and death, for the new creation begins with the conquering of sin and death, and grows from there. Hope is the theological virtue by which we place our trust in the establishment of a new creation that begins small but can only grow, a creation that begins in weakness and vulnerability but slowly but surely gains strength. Hope is the theological virtue by which we see how one baby born at the darkest hour of the darkest night in the middle of nowhere while the whole world was asleep, can lead one day to the redemption of the world from the inside out, and the mysterious but sure building of the kingdom of heaven that will last forever.
You see, hope is different than optimism. I'm optimistic that KU's basketball team will get it together, and do what they most often do, win the Big XII and make the Final Four. I'm optimistic that things will go their way. Two of my brothers are not, at least in our conversation this week. They're pessimistic, thinking that the freshman won't get it, and the season might be sub-standard. Either way, we'll know who is right by March. Optimism and pessimism pertain to how things break for us in this world. We either think things are going to get better or worse. And we find out who is right over time.
Yet hope is the theological virtue that is one of the deepest and distinctive marks of a Christian, a virtue that God pours directly into our hearts so that we might be more like him and see things as he does, is different than optimism. Hope is not on a timeline, and is not dependent upon outcomes easily measured. In fact, hope can grow even in the worst of external circumstances, when things do not go my way, when the breaks are against me. Even in this environment, hope can grow, as we see that God wants to begin remaking his creation beginning with the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, and where sin and discouragement have set in. That is where God most wants to visit, and hope knows that He cares and is coming to remake the world in those precise places where optimism can make no difference.
Hope is like planting a seed then, with patient perseverance, that God's kingdom is being born all around us, through relationships, and charity, and service, and vulnerability, and dependence. Hope can see in Jesus' decision to start by healing the sick and teaching the dumb, people who were powerless to change anything, the establishment of a kingdom that starts tiny can only grow. Hope can see that even though Jesus could have healed this way for a thousand years and never healed enough or made the world perfect, that His decision to use his power not to form an army or control politics, but to make himself small as possible, choosing to remake the world from the inside out, beginning with the weakest, is God beautiful and sure way of establishing a kingdom that will never be destroyed again.
Hope sees all these things, and presses on no matter how long it takes the promise to take root and have its effect. Living in hope is not easy, however. Even John the Baptist who did what he was supposed to do, and allowed himself to be arrested and to decrease so that Christ could increase, maybe had a second thought from prison. Is this really working? Is the one I baptized, the one I told everyone would strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and burn the chaff and baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire - is this really his plan? To make himself smaller and smaller - to give himself away in love to the least in the world? Will this plan really work? It was a good question, and our hope can sometimes be damaged by our lack of patience and vision.
That is why we have to begin Christmas by asking precisely how the Lord wants to visit me, and what the Lord's coming means personally for me. Our deepest rejoicing comes from knowing I have prepared a new space and a new highway in my life for the Lord to visit me. Our best rejoicing is that the Lord is not coming at Christmas to rearrange my life or tell me what to do, but he is coming to visit me as a helpless little baby, as one who alone has a chance to break through my defenses, as one who makes himself tiny and helpless and irresistible, so that I might let him into the deepest recesses of my heart, that I might allow him to heal me and redeem me from the inside out. We rejoice because the pattern of redemption that begins in my own heart, is the pattern that will one day surely redeem our world.
Are you personally ready for such a visit on Christmas Eve? If so, rejoice! Again, I say to you rejoice! The Lord is near!
3rd Sunday of Advent A
14/15 December 2013
Christ the King Topeka
Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say rejoice! The Lord is near!
A rose vestment, if of course, optional for Gaudete Sunday. But rejoicing is not! Christians are to be known always and everywhere for their joy, but especially as we turn the corner toward our full celebration of the Christmas mystery! We are not to be anxious about shopping days or preparations, most of which the men here haven't even started anyway. No, our deepest spiritual attitude and emotion is to be joy, because the Lord is near to us. Christmas is close. Christmas which means the world's being able to see the incomparable and long awaited and long promised gift that is the Christ child, the gift of a baby that alone brings a light to shatter the darkness of the world and makes possible the realization of the deepest hopes and desires of mankind. We are to rejoice, then, for his traveling into the world is the reason we will travel to see each other. His being incomparable gift is the reason we will give to each other like crazy in this holy season. His being close to us as an innocent and vulnerable child is the reason we draw close to each other. Rejoice, then, again I say rejoice! The Lord is near!
Our readings today are chock full of hope, for the Lord's coming means the establishment of a new creation that is distinctively better than the first creation, for the new creation is one that cannot be destroyed, one that cannot be touched by sin and death, for the new creation begins with the conquering of sin and death, and grows from there. Hope is the theological virtue by which we place our trust in the establishment of a new creation that begins small but can only grow, a creation that begins in weakness and vulnerability but slowly but surely gains strength. Hope is the theological virtue by which we see how one baby born at the darkest hour of the darkest night in the middle of nowhere while the whole world was asleep, can lead one day to the redemption of the world from the inside out, and the mysterious but sure building of the kingdom of heaven that will last forever.
You see, hope is different than optimism. I'm optimistic that KU's basketball team will get it together, and do what they most often do, win the Big XII and make the Final Four. I'm optimistic that things will go their way. Two of my brothers are not, at least in our conversation this week. They're pessimistic, thinking that the freshman won't get it, and the season might be sub-standard. Either way, we'll know who is right by March. Optimism and pessimism pertain to how things break for us in this world. We either think things are going to get better or worse. And we find out who is right over time.
Yet hope is the theological virtue that is one of the deepest and distinctive marks of a Christian, a virtue that God pours directly into our hearts so that we might be more like him and see things as he does, is different than optimism. Hope is not on a timeline, and is not dependent upon outcomes easily measured. In fact, hope can grow even in the worst of external circumstances, when things do not go my way, when the breaks are against me. Even in this environment, hope can grow, as we see that God wants to begin remaking his creation beginning with the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, and where sin and discouragement have set in. That is where God most wants to visit, and hope knows that He cares and is coming to remake the world in those precise places where optimism can make no difference.
Hope is like planting a seed then, with patient perseverance, that God's kingdom is being born all around us, through relationships, and charity, and service, and vulnerability, and dependence. Hope can see in Jesus' decision to start by healing the sick and teaching the dumb, people who were powerless to change anything, the establishment of a kingdom that starts tiny can only grow. Hope can see that even though Jesus could have healed this way for a thousand years and never healed enough or made the world perfect, that His decision to use his power not to form an army or control politics, but to make himself small as possible, choosing to remake the world from the inside out, beginning with the weakest, is God beautiful and sure way of establishing a kingdom that will never be destroyed again.
Hope sees all these things, and presses on no matter how long it takes the promise to take root and have its effect. Living in hope is not easy, however. Even John the Baptist who did what he was supposed to do, and allowed himself to be arrested and to decrease so that Christ could increase, maybe had a second thought from prison. Is this really working? Is the one I baptized, the one I told everyone would strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and burn the chaff and baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire - is this really his plan? To make himself smaller and smaller - to give himself away in love to the least in the world? Will this plan really work? It was a good question, and our hope can sometimes be damaged by our lack of patience and vision.
That is why we have to begin Christmas by asking precisely how the Lord wants to visit me, and what the Lord's coming means personally for me. Our deepest rejoicing comes from knowing I have prepared a new space and a new highway in my life for the Lord to visit me. Our best rejoicing is that the Lord is not coming at Christmas to rearrange my life or tell me what to do, but he is coming to visit me as a helpless little baby, as one who alone has a chance to break through my defenses, as one who makes himself tiny and helpless and irresistible, so that I might let him into the deepest recesses of my heart, that I might allow him to heal me and redeem me from the inside out. We rejoice because the pattern of redemption that begins in my own heart, is the pattern that will one day surely redeem our world.
Are you personally ready for such a visit on Christmas Eve? If so, rejoice! Again, I say to you rejoice! The Lord is near!
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