“Reoriented”

Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS

December 4, 2016 - Isaiah 11:1-6 and Matthew 3:1-6

For a season that’s supposed to be about quiet and stillness and waiting, it always seems a bit jarring to me when John the Baptist comes screaming in. So much for silent night, holy night - John is in your face. He looks like he’s mistakenly dressed up for a costume party that doesn’t exist. He eats weird. He’s certainly not quiet. Or patient.

John rockets into our midst like some kind of uninvited guest, screaming words no one much wants to hear: REPENT! FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD DRAWS NEAR!

If this were a holiday party - if we were in polite company - we’d probably chuckle awkwardly and pass him another cookie. Anything to get him to be quiet. No one much wants to deal with a Wild Man in a month that already feels a bit unhinged.

Of course, this isn’t a holiday party. It’s church. And I hate to tell you this, but you’re not in polite company. Because Jesus is here and he has a lot of strong suits but minding manners isn’t one of them.

And so here we sit. Confronted with John. John with the messy hair, wild eyes, too-loud voice. Every year in Advent. Year after year after year.

I guess maybe that’s because we seem to need reminding? I know I do. It’s all too easy to slip into the comfortable, cozy bits of Christmas. New slippers, hot cocoa by the tree, the warmth of candles. And the tinsley bits are also fun. New gadgets, new toys, new cocktails, new friends, new traditions.

But if we allow ourselves to go too far into the delightful parts of the season we start to lose focus. And so John comes screaming back in on his rocket of repentance reminding us that there is more to this season.

Advent is an invitation - or perhaps even a command - to radically reorient ourselves. That’s what repent means, after all. And it’s no accident that John gets in our face with a call to repentance. If the “kingdom of God is drawing near” - if the Realm of God’s Justice and Peace is about to ride in on a shooting star, then we need to get ready. We need to dust off our Hope-glasses and prepare our hearts to receive the new life being born in our midst. For most of us, this means we need to think seriously about recommitting ourselves to metanoia - repentance.

Repentance is not about feeling guilty or ashamed. It’s bigger than just saying “I’m sorry that I did X and I’ll try to do better.” It may include all of those things, but metanoia is about turning. Turning around. Re-orienting our entire lives towards something different. It’s a little like a radical rebirth.

It seems to me it’s no accident that Christ came - beckoning us into reorientation, renewal, rejoicing - in the form of a tiny human. Anyone who’s ever spent much time with a newborn knows that they have a way of reorienting everything. Speaking of screaming in on a rocket! Babies are relentless. Delightful creatures, surely….but also very powerful. They have the ability to completely reorder your time, priorities, and life. They turn our worlds upside down in surprising ways.

Babies make us ponder the past, present, and future in disorienting ways. I can remember being awake in the middle of the night with my babies - feeling a connection to all the generations of parents who went before me doing the same thing, noticing acutely the sensations of being in the moment with my own child, and desperately pondering the future - wondering if there ever might be a time when I wasn’t awakened 6-8 times every night.

John’s directive: REPENT! FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD DRAWS NEAR! has the same omnipresent quality about it. We are suddenly in the past, present, future all at once. We recall our past failures - collectively and as individuals. We are certainly in the moment - how could you not be when someone dressed up for a costume party that doesn’t exist comes interrupting your picnic on the riverbank? But John also grabs us firmly by the chin and points our faces towards the future. “The Realm of God draws near.”

The Kingdom or Realm of God is not some far off destination that only exists in the afterlife or the Second Coming of Christ. Instead, God’s Realm - that Beloved Community where the wolf lies down with the lamb is approaching here and now.

It was as inconceivable in John’s time as it is in ours. They may not have had the twenty-four hour news cycle, but they certainly had their own share of heartbreak. A marginalized people living in a time where justice was elusive at best. John’s people - Jesus’s people - must have scoffed at the invitation to hope that God’s Realm of Justice and Peace was near.

Over the years, I’ve come to believe that God’s Realm somehow exists here and now - even in the mess that is our world. It’s like the two worlds Nate talked about last week. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of what could be - what lies beneath the surface. For good and bad are always mixed up. Even in times where evil seems to reign, Love still has its say. Things are not always as they seem.

The author of Isaiah knew this. He speaks of the “stump of Jesse.” A mighty tree cut down. At first glance, we see a tree stump and assume it’s dead. But foresters know that new life can come even from a tree that’s been chopped down and used up. In fact, there’s an ancient form of forestry still practiced today called coppicing. Trees are sometimes cut down so that they will regenerate - sending out shoots and giving birth to new trees. Here on the prairie, we know about a similar practice used every spring - the burning of the fields. New life springs forth from what looks like death. Things are not always as they seem.

The pathway to peace is not always smooth. We know that times of peace often come after times of great disruption. Those who live to see days where “no one is hurt on my holy mountain” have often also lived through times of great pain and violence.

Even in the hard times, God does not leave us helpless, abandoned in the midst of great hacked-down forests. Instead, God sends prophets to call us back to ourselves. God reorients us. Grabbing us gently, but firmly by our shoulders and turning us around to where we need to be.

Last weekend I had the chance to see the new Disney movie Moana, a story about reorientation and remembrance. Moana, a teenage girl who is learning how to become chief of her people, grows up with a special bond with her grandmother who is the self-described “village crazy lady.” Undeterred by her grandmother’s quirks, sits at her grandmoter’s feet, absorbing the stories of her people. She allows herself to be shaped and reformed as she learns where her people have been and dreams of what they might be. She reinvents herself: becoming a way-finder, using the stars as her guide as she travels across the sea. It’s a story about remembering who you are and trusting in that knowledge as you take bold risks.

Most of us aren’t likely to get on a boat and use the stars as our guide as we reorient our entire lives. But all of us would do well to pay attention the John the Baptist. I know, I know. He’s a little weird. And it would be much more pleasant to just shove another cookie in his mouth to silence him.

But to ignore John is to miss the invitation to total reorientation that comes in Advent. The invitation to remember who we really are. To remember that we are beloved children of the Most High, called to walk in the ways of our faith ancestors - relentlessly proclaiming the advent of God’s Realm. A place where the lion lays down with the calf. A Realm of Peace that is more than just the absence of conflict - but a place where justice rules.

As we journey through the season of Advent, we put on our Hope Glasses to help us see the path we travel. We receive God’s gifts of Peace and Joy. The final destination is Love. In a world that is wrecked with anxiety and fear, Love is our guide. We reorient ourselves like sunflowers, turned gently but firmly towards our Source.

And we follow the star to the place where Love lies. The place where Love is born again and again and again. Thanks be to God.