Advent 2B
December 7, 2008
Continuity
This morning’s sermon does not have a beginning, middle or end. That doesn’t
make for good writing and definitely creates confusion in the presentation.
I know someone who is presently teaching writing, specifically research paper
writing, to college students. As the semester nears its end, the margins of
his students’ papers are framed with his comments: “What’s
the point you are presenting; where is your thesis, your argument? You have
not looked at the existing knowledge on the subject, so you haven’t logically
analyzed your topic. Your conclusion is flawed!” Research paper writing,
it turns out, is about organizing confusion: looking at an issue from every
angle possible, in order to demonstrate the issues and a new way forward. In
this respect, then, the process of a research paper is a lot like the process
we use daily to tackle life’s tough problems. We take a confusing situation
and we attempt to render it reasonable—to make sense of it—by framing
it with the logic and organization at our disposal, in any given time and space.
In other words, inside of our framing we try to pinpoint a beginning, middle
and an end—so that we get the picture. That is very helpful, a step in
fashioning a step forward. Yet, researchers—the best of them; science
researchers especially, the very ones who most employ logic and reason and verifiability—remind
us that the organized picture inside the frame is one thing; however, outside
the frame, the big picture still does not have a beginning, a middle and an
end. In fact, they say, confusion continues; chaos abounds. People of faith,
however, in creedal assertion say: Hmm ‘No beginning, no middle, and no
end? That sounds to us a lot like God. Amen.’
No beginning, no middle, no end; rather continuity. Amidst all the change in
this life, which we consider in the season of Advent as we get ready for Christmas
when we ponder anew what the Almighty can do; in the midst of change—confusing
and chaotic—we celebrate the continuity of God. That’s why there
are a number of rich traditions with long histories during this season. It’s
our faithful response to the poverty winter brings to the shortness of life.
Continuity: Like the Advent Wreath itself—a circle: no beginning, no middle,
no end. The evergreen is (like a symbolic research paper) compared to the cyclical
return of colder and colder and bleak (and is presented, argued, as the way
forward that lights the path) with the increasing brightness of candles lighted
one through four, whilst this life’s darkness is at the door, more and
more. The continuity of God ‘midst all life’s change.
Yesterday, December 6, the Church celebrated the feast Sint Nicolaus, Bishop
of Myra in the early 4th Century, in the Anatolian region of modern day Turkey.
The legends of Bishop Nicolaus embody the continuity of God, reminding us that
change need not bring anxiety, that the divine can and does deliver “Comfort,
comfort, my people”—bringing welcome change into our vulnerable
and impoverished lives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
There are the stories of the Bishop rescuing homeless street children who had
either been thrown out or abandoned by parents who could not care for them;
including the miraculous tale of Nicolaus on the scene too late, fishing butchered
children from a briny boiling cauldron and the three little ones being resurrected
to new life. Equally vulnerable to children, exposed to the chance and change
of weather on the high seas, sailors from everywhere were favorites of Nicolaus.
Continually they could depend on the church’s hospitality and shelter
when they docked in harbor. The continuity of God was also experienced by three
sisters—three girls coming of age one after another with their single
parent father who had no gold for any of their dowries. Lest these young women
reach marriageable status without the traditional cash bonus for potential husbands,
a lack that would press the girls into prostitution, Nicolaus weighed in with
the church’s gold—three round sacks of it, slinging one bag after
another up into a window of their dwelling. So what if the church altar was
missing some of its capital: the continuity of God had to be demonstrated. Bishop
was willing to hock a gold candlestick, crucifix or three in order to save these
young girls from the culture’s sex trafficking. Yes, the continuity of
God (which, by the way, those three slung orbs hanging there out the window
or over the door somehow transmuted into the sign which to this day signals
that you have come upon a pawn shop)! Of course, such transmutation is nothing
compared to how Sint Nicolaus – Sinterklaas – Santa Claus has mutated
out of being the gift-bearing bishop visiting the poor, sick and suffering on
Christmas morn, his gift reminding them, as well as all the Church and State,
that those exposed to the changes of this life and the marginalizations of society
are so much like the Christ Child, favored of God.
The continuity of God yet brings change. Even our continuous traditions remind
us; though they are muted, because they are fierce. We celebrate on December
25th, Christ our Savior is born. On the traditional church calendar, what comes
next on December 26th? The Feast of Stephen, commemorates the first Christian
martyr. He was tried in a kangaroo of a religious court, on the technicality
that his speaking of the birth of Christ meant he was speaking against the established
religious traditions of the day. With no Nicolaus to ransom him with three bags
of gold, Stephen is remembered iconographically with three rounded rocks—those
used to stone him to death and to remind us continuously that bearing the birth
of Christ changes things. We remember even more, following Christmas, on December
28th, this commemoration hardly a feast but an orgy of killing: the slaughter
of The Holy Innocents. You remember the story of how the three kings take a
back road home so as to avoid telling Herod where the Christ Child lay; and
thus Herod all firstborn newborn boys did slay.
Continuity and Change. In celebrating the continuity of God, we must also ponder
the change which even God’s continuity brings. We must be careful that
we do not only frame what we like about Christmas morn and then try to live
by that very tranquil and organized picture. God will not let us change the
story like that. God will not let us change God like that. God is change.
The sermon doesn’t end here but it is over for now. Some of the points
raised in last week’s sermon and today’s are provocative and confusing.
Change and continuity are provocative and confusing. God is continuity and change.
In the remaining days of Advent ponder a new what the Almighty can do. Do you
recall where that line comes from? A hymn. Do you remember the next phrase in
that hymn: Ponder anew what the Almighty can do and I will praise him with a
new song. We’ll get there before this Advent ends, because amidst all
this continuous change, we’ll consider how Mary’s weighty pondering
issues forth in a new song. Amen