As anyone who's read my past blog posts know, it's been quite a while since my last entry. Just about 7 months. I guess you could say that I've been embodying the Prodigal Son over that time. Yes, I've still been attending church fairly regularly. Yes, I'm still listening to a lot of Christian radio (both music and sermons and homilies). That said, I've definitely been living below God's expectations of me in other areas of my life. I'm probably drinking alcohol a little more than He would appreciate. I'm still probably not as good a father/husband/friend/brother, etc. as He would want me to be. I'm still probably more judgmental than He would like to see. I certainly don't seek Him as often as He'd like me to.
I could sit here and say that life has gotten in the way over the last several months with new roles at work, loss of friends and family, volunteering with my son's Cub Scout's group, etc. After all, who has the time to devote to living a Godly lifestyle? It's too hard, right? The honest thing would be tell you that I've gotten lazy. There is all too often a sporting event on the TV that I'd rather watch, or some other program to watch with the wife and kids. A large reason for my absence from the blog is that I've not really felt like I had much to contribute.
So why return to the blog at this point? Today's sermon at church really struck a chord with me. The message was appropriate for this time of year and seemed magnified when coupled with recent news events of the last several days. It was a message I feel needs to be shared. And before I begin, I must say I can't take credit for much of what is to follow. This will largely be a paraphrase from a our visiting rector, who was a representative from the Diocese. With apologies, I can't remember her name and I neglected to bring home the service booklet that named her.
As practicing Christians know, we are in the Advent portion of the church calendar. We are preparing for the coming of Christ through his birth in Bethlehem. Advent is kind of a unique season. While in the scriptures we read lessons that are preparing us for the coming of Christ through his birth in Bethlehem, it is juxtaposed against the larger backdrop of preparing, in a general way, for the coming of Christ in His return in what many call the Rapture. His Second Coming.
Today's Gospel reading was from Matthew (Ch. 11, verses 2-11). In it, we find John the Baptist in prison for professing the coming of the Messiah. We can imagine him in the darkness of a cell, second-guessing everything he'd done up to that point in his life. If Christ was the Messiah, why wasn't he toppling the regimes and bringing peace and prosperity to the Jewish people as was being proclaimed by all of the Old Testament prophets? Why hadn't he been able to keep John the Baptist out of prison? He was supposed to be all powerful, right? In his doubting mind, John the Baptist sends his own disciples out to Jesus to ask if Jesus is in fact "the one". Jesus answers them by telling them to go tell John everything that they're witnessing. Blind receiving sight. Lame walking. Lepers being cleansed. Deaf gaining hearing. Dead being raised to life. The poor having good news being brought to them.
The message in the Gospel seems pretty straight forward. While the Jews had certain ideas about what the Messiah was supposed to be and was supposed to do and what the outcome of his arrival would be mean for them, they weren't sure how all of that was supposed to come about and what it would really look like. They knew things would be different. They just misunderstood how the change would come into being. Instead of the fire and brimstone and battles and blood they had come to expect, this change would be fostered through different means.
We could stop there and we have a pretty darn good lesson to go home and stew on for the next week. What she talked about next was the frosting on an otherwise already delicious cake. She talked about everyone having in their proverbial backyard two beasts of burden. An ass of expectation and an ox of passion. True, the ass, that most stubborn of animals, can keep us trudging through the tough times when we'd rather stop. But the ass will all too easily keep us with eyes fixed on unrealistic expectations. Likewise the ox. It's power is often what we need when we find ourselves carrying loads we would otherwise think are too cumbersome to carry. But passions carried too strongly can blind us to what we truly need for ourselves, or more importantly, for others.
The last several months have been filled with events that would understandably make even the most ardent believer question where God is in midst of our everyday lives. Just in my life alone I've experienced two sudden and unexpected deaths of family and friends. Another young, healthy, ardent Christian I know is taken by cancer. Colorado communities have seen devastating fires and floods. And this past Friday we learn of yet another occurrence of inexplicable violence in inexplicable places. There is an awful lot to make one doubt. There is an awful lot to make one think that the "dark times" are the norm and we can't do anything about it. That God has abandoned us. Or worse, that there is no God.
You see, it's far too easy to have expectations of perfection for our God, or in John the Baptist's case his Messiah. After all, as we are told in sermon after sermon and reading after reading, God is the perfect "being". Why can't He cure cancer? Why can't He stop wars from happening? Why can't He keep hurricanes and tsunamis and tornados from killing people? Why can't He stop the violence we see in the world. In the case of John the Baptist and his expectations of Jesus, why hadn't he overthrown the establishment religion and governments and reigned supreme as the prophets before had foretold?
I would humbly suggest that God can do the things we'd like to see Him do. And He probably does more often than we can see or would be willing to admit. But would stopping us from experiencing pain, grief, sorrow, etc. teach us anything? Jesus tells John the Baptist's disciples to look at the positive things He is doing through love and compassion. Everyone already knows what violence and oppression can do. It had been going on for thousands of years at that point (and sadly continues today). Jesus, and God through Him, has chosen to put Love and Compassion at the forefront of what he wants and expects from us. That is what will ultimately bring about the change that the prophets have spoken about. These are the weapons He has given us. The veiled hand of God averting disasters and giving us everything we desire would be great. However, I would submit that without those awful experiences that bring about pain and sorrow and grief we can't possibly fully comprehend or appreciate the powerful affect of Love and Compassion.
Robert Louis Stevenson used to spend his evenings as a young boy in Scotland looking out the windows at dusk. He would watch the lamp-lighters walking down the streets lighting the kerosene street lamps of the time. His mother once asked him what he was doing when he looked out the windows. He answered "watching the lamp-lighters punch holes in the darkness." That's a pretty awesome and powerful image. Imagine John the Baptist's disciples arriving and telling John about what Jesus is doing. I can see the light bulb, or lamp-light, go on over his head as he sits there in the darkness of his cell and he realizes that this world-changing arrival of Jesus and coming revolution was to be forged on the sharp blades of Love and Compassion.
Yes, it is very easy to get discouraged by world events. We expect a perfect world and perfect people. It is very easy to begin to doubt, not only God's existence, but what we are doing ourselves. It is very easy to descend into darkness and wallow there in general malaise or self-pity. Yet is also very easy to see the hand of God in our everyday lives if we choose to let our eyes see it. I see it in the impromptu fundraisers at work for a colleague who had considerable damage to his home during the flooding. I see it in mass relief efforts and fundraising after natural disasters here and across the country (indeed, around the world). I see it in the way our communities come together in the aftermath of senseless tragedies. Outpourings of the Love and Compassion that God so wants us to embrace. We are a decent people who have an overwhelming capacity to come to the aid of others when needed, and often times without being asked.
Sure, there are bad people and bad things too often happen to good people. That happens when we have the amazing gift of free-will. But humanity, in general, is very good. It is up to us to help other people see it. Be lamp-lighters. Donate time or money to a charity that helps the less-fortunate. Take a sack lunch to that homeless person you see everyday on your drive to or from work. Cook a meal for the recent widower and offer a listening and caring ear. Talk about Christ's message of Love, Hope, and Forgiveness. Have the strength and courage to be an example of that message. Punch holes in the darkness so that others can see.
