I don’t travel much. Not a business traveler. I have gone away for extended continuing education or other ministry trips; New Orleans, Detroit. I went to Puerto Rico once in college--my only trip off the mainland. But it looks like I’m going to Ft. Myers Fla in Febuary for an ELCA World Hunger leaders gathering. Anyway, I’m never gone that long. My parents rarely traveled either, farmers are rooted to their land. So I haven’t experienced the feeling of being welcomed home or welcoming someone after a long time apart. I have this image of coming off an airplane and coming down an escalator and someone holding a sign up with my name on it. Mr. Lenahan. Someone waiting for my arrival. Or maybe a party waiting for my arrival. I wonder if going to heaven is like that? Escalator reversed, robed apostles and angels waiting at the gate, Peter holding the sign, no baggage to claim—not lost luggage, just unnecessary. I guess some of us view heaven as an arrival, a homecoming.
Yesterday’s Lancaster newspaper had a front page article about a surprise homecoming for a local family at Clay elementary school this week. Two kids whose mom has been deployed in Iraq for about a year received a huge surprise at an assembly where they unwrapped a refrigerator box present to find that the prize they had “won” was their mom’s early discharge. I think about family’s with loved ones on deployment waiting for that person to come home. For a year they carry a sign around in their hearts and minds with “mom”, or “Dad”, “spouse”, or “son”, or “daughter” on it. Advent is about waiting for someone to come. So, what does that feel like? I guess to get at that we need to dig into our own personal stuff a little. So...
Whose sign are you carrying this year? Who would you write down? Imagine that for Christmas you can go to the airport and pick someone up…whose name is on the sign? Anyone, living or dead. For some of you, maybe all of us, this is an emotional thought. We have lost loved ones, brothers and sisters this year. Children have lost parents. Parents have lost children.
John’s gospel is full of signs, all pointing to Jesus. The gospel of John is a homecoming of sorts. This is God’s world, God’s place, God’s home. And Jesus, the Word of God, returns, comes to claim it as his own. Jesus comes home in the gospel of John, to the world God made and loves. John the Baptist is one of a few people in the gospel of John who hold up the sign pointing at Jesus' arrival. John’s sign says “Lamb of God” . John waited and then, the waiting was over. He arrived. The gospel of John is a gospel about God's arrival in the flesh of Jesus.
Notice John the baptist is not the one for whom the people are waiting. He makes it clear that the signs for God to come, that Israel has been holding up, do not point to him. He is not the Messiah. They wait for another. But he knows for whom they wait. They wait for Jesus. And yet they will not know him. They will not recognize him when he comes in humility. They will not see that the light of God and the glory of the LORD shines in him. There will be other signs that God is in this Christ; mainly the sign of the bread. In the bread that is shared the true identity of Jesus is revealed to the world. We share that same bread, a sign that God is in Jesus Christ and Jesus is here. A sign that points forward to an age without hunger, without want, without death. Jesus points us to the future, when he will come again. For the first Christians, they anticipated his second coming as something that was to happen soon. It has not. There has been a delay. Maybe, too long...For we grow weary and lose hope.
Here is another Advent, another season of anticipation and hoping for God to transform this weary world into a world of peace and love. Here we are, waiting. Waiting for a sign. Is God present, living, active? What is God doing about the world? Is there something to be hopeful about?
Now, we are the church. In Advent, our example of faith is found in John the Baptist. Like John, we are the sign pointing the way to Jesus. We are the sign that Jesus was and is and will be. We are the sign that God is actively making peace, healing the sick, rescuing the oppressed, nourishing the hungry, serving the poor in the world today. We are the sign pointing to the bread of life in the Lord's supper, the Eucharist. We are the one's holding the sign, awaiting His arrival. Awaiting His return. The church is the sign that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. People long for a sign that God is good, that life is good, that redemption is possible. People need hope. Be the sign that gives hope this Advent. His arrival, though delayed, is certain.
No comments:
Post a Comment