December 2, 2007
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Advent 1
Isaiah 2:1-5
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Matthew 24:36-44
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson
There is a building on Bank and Somerset that is in the news. You know the one - the old heritage building where the interior collapsed and left the outside walls, the facade, standing. No one seems to know why it happened. But the building is so unstable that they have had to close the street to traffic. The slightest vibration could bring the rest crashing down. From the outside it looks fine - red brick and white plaster. A lovely old building, a heritage building, so of course we must keep it, no matter how long it takes to repair and rebuild.
This building on Somerset and Bank, this piece of our heritage, interestingly enough is a metaphor for this morning’s gospel. Because that is how Matthew feels about his religion, and not only his religion but his whole world as well. He feels his world is an empty facade - it might still look good - but inside it has collapsed. Like the building its interior is empty. You can’t live in it any more. And it is unsafe - trying to live in the old world is a waste of time, futile and ultimately dangerous.
Matthew feels the same way about the faith he was nurtured in, Judaism. Why? because of Jesus, of course, yes. But also because of what has happened to him and the little band of followers of the way that he leads. Two things have occurred that have changed everything. First, the Jewish temple has been destroyed by Rome. The temple - the centre of worship, of faith, of Jewish identity - is gone. The temple, God’s house, the home of God on earth, the place where human beings could go to be in God’s presence, is gone. The temple, that building that was a visual symbol of God’s continued presence in the world, and care for the world is gone. Jews across the Roman empire were devastated. The symbol that bound them together no matter where they were living was gone. How were they going to continue as a people without it? How would they survive, survive together, as a people of faith?
The second thing that happened was even worse. Matthew and his little band of Christians got kicked out of the synagogue. Destroying the temple was part of Rome’s policy of demoralizing the population in order to control them. It went along with Rome’s policy of increasing persecution. The synagogue Jews felt that they would be less of a target without these pesky Christian Jews. So they kicked Matthew and his little band of Christians, out.
But how would Matthew’s group survive without the synagogue? They felt betrayed by their own people. You see, they didn’t think of themselves as Christians. They thought of themselves as Jews who were freed from the burden of living up to the letter of the law - all the little rules and regulations that had crept into Judaism, and because of Jesus, they had been freed to live out its spirit. In Jesus they had discovered again the spirit of the Torah, which means good news. The spirit of Torah that Jesus spoke of is that the kingdom of God is discovered in everyday life on earth. The world was to be changed. Yet it wasn’t. They looked out and people misused one another. Rome still oppressed. They began to wonder where was this kingdom on earth? They were devastated. What was the answer to their almost hopeless situation? For Jesus to return and set things right.
It is easy to take the response on a surface reading. To turn these passages into an act of judgmental readings without hope. For when times are out of joint, when things are difficult there is a search for some solution - a radical solution where things are made right. Thus Matthew has been misread as a passage of doom and apocalyptic reality. When people feel oppressed they often move to pessimism and hopelessness. And there are those who do this today - who speak of wrath. Yet a careful reading actually offers another view - a view of hope that God continues to work with this world as it is, to bring light and transformation, to lure to where it could be, where the common good is our agenda.
That is what this passage is about. For the light of hope to be experienced needs people who are ready to respond. It is a call to be ready. It is a called to faithfulness. In dark times the Christian is be a beacon of light. For it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
In the call to be ready Matthew has put his society on trial. He visions a court of law where God is the judge. He encourages his followers and friends in the strongest language possible to live their lives so Jesus will recognize them. The metaphor is that Jesus will return and be able to appear as a character witness on their behalf, because of their faithfulness. Matthew picks up the image of Jesus as the ethical teacher and actor. To be within the community is follow the way of love. It is to have ones character, ones heart formed by the love of God.
So in the metaphor of the court Jesus will be called as the character witness. The human one who knows the heart by watching how one acts. We all know the important role of character witnesses, especially when we seem to have not lived up to our best self. They come in and say this is not really who we are - it is a not like us, for our heart is actual one of love. This is the crucial witness and Jesus in the metaphor finds us as faithful.
Of course there is a warning in the passages. But it is not about punishment and wrath, it is about living the life style of faithfulness. It assumes that when we are awake, when we have seen the light of hope, we are able to form ourselves around it. We will be those who light the candles of hope.
Our culture can look like the building on Bank beautiful but ultimately empty. Our faith can be the same way. It looks nice on the outside, especially as we move to Christmas. Christmas is the most beautiful time of the year, but inside we have to ask ourselves what of value is here? What do we really need to sustain us in our faithful life. We can spend a lot of time trying to fix it. make it look better. But in the end, we may only have a faith that fits the past - looks good, but doesn’t sustain us. It is interesting how we use tradition when things are no longer working. It can be empty or a facade, covering an emptiness of meaning. It is said that traditionalism is the sign of a dead faith. In this season we are faced with such issues, having a traditional Christmas. But what does that mean? What will that look like?
Sometimes we just have to let go of the past, we have to let go of our temples, and move on where God calls. God does call us to create something beautiful in the present. God calls us to invite the spirit into our worship, our religion into our lives. To live out of faithfulness. God continually calls us on a great and holy adventure, an adventure of the spirit, the spirit filled life. By the examination of what really is on our hearts we can create an open space to let God to slide in. This is to discover that what we are not moving to a birth of a baby, but what we are celebrating is rebirth of love in every part of our world and our experience. As we move through Advent we have a time to practice awareness - of looking for those hints of love in our world that will sustain. Advent is a time of practicing anticipation, of creating the heart and eyes that affirm that the truth about life is love. The practice is not to rush to the rebirth, but to prepare hearts that welcome it. This is the time for such practice - such waiting - such preparation for the in-breaking light of God so we become those who light up our dark world.
(With thanks to The Rev. Suzanne Sykes and The Rev. Dr. Christine Johnson)
George Hermanson
www.georgehermanson.com
