Sunday, December 16th, 2012
Trinity Anglican Church, Bradford, ON
The Rev. Daniel F. Graves
Words calling us to rejoice may seem very hollow today. When Zephaniah calls us to “sing aloud,” and “to
rejoice and exult with all our hearts,” and when St. Paul proclaims “rejoice in
the Lord always,” we find that we simply cannot stir up within our hearts such
exultation. The news that twenty-six
people were killed on Friday, in a school in Connecticut, twenty of them young
children, makes us seriously question what cause have we for rejoicing. At this time of year when rejoicing abounds,
when celebrations are taking place, when families come together in joyful
thanksgiving for the bounty of this life and for the love we share as families
and friends, I suspect that each person that celebrates will feel their joy
restrained and indeed their hearts weighed down by the incomprehensible tragedy
of what has taken place. Words cannot capture our grief nor can they express our
sorrow for those who will never embrace their child or loved one again. And when we seek to allow our imaginations to
drift into that place of empathy we find ourselves reeling back, unwilling to
even entertain what that horror might be like if we were in the place of those
parents and family members today. This
act of violence will not only have repercussions for those who lost those
dearest to them, but it will have repercussions for years to come on that whole
community and those who will forever bear witness to that event. Our prayer can only be, “Lord, have mercy.”
The Christmas narrative into which we move, has ever been
one in which our shouts of joy have been met with deeds of darkness. Angels proclaimed tidings of joy to shepherds;
shepherds shared good news; priests and prophets sang songs of salvation that
they were witnessing their salvation – songs we continue to sing today – yet,
as those songs were sung of old, as they are sung today, sin remains at work in
the world. Wise men came from the East
to worship the newborn king. They came
to bring him gifts, but inadvertently, they alerted Herod to the location of
the child and Herod feared that his precarious grip on power would be
loosened. The powers of sin and darkness
gripped Herod and he sought to kill the child.
He did not succeed, but he slaughtered many innocents. Wise men came seeking the light, but instead,
in their error, they left behind a trail of innocent blood.
In every generation, we seek the light. During every Advent and Christmastide we
proclaim the once and coming king whose light shines in the darkness and the
darkness cannot overcome that light. But
still, in every generation, until all things are gathered up in Christ, sins
persists, and the brokenness of one person can lead to the brokenness of a
community, a nation, even a whole people.
The darkness threatens to overcome us and it will do us no good to tell
ourselves that darkness does not exist, that sin does not exist, nor must we
ever delude ourselves that we are not a broken people. In these moments we need Jesus more than
ever. In these moments we need to trust
in him and hold fast to our baptismal covenant to resist evil and sin in
whatever form it takes, in our systems that allow such violence, in our human
desires that drive us to despair, in the senseless forces that drive us to
violence. We must resist such things,
with the help of God. In these moments
we must do as Mary did, and cling to the Christ child with all our might. It does not mean that we will not be hurt,
that our hearts will not be broken, that we will not know fear or sin or brokenness,
or violence. In the Temple, after the
circumcision of baby Jesus, old Simeon prophesied that a sword would pierce
Mary’s soul, too. And so it did when she
stood at the foot of the cross and beheld her wounded, bleeding, dying son.
Good news comes into the world; light comes into the world, and
darkness seeks to overcome it. Mary and
Joseph fled the wrath of violent king, and many children died. Truth came into the world and we nailed it to
a tree. Light came into the world and in
its darkness the world failed to see it. The Holy Family knows the pain that
the world feels today. Jesus knows the pain that the world feels today. God the
Father knows the pain that world feels today.
And God in Christ helps us to bear what we cannot bear on our own. Thus, we can do nothing else but cling to the
Christ child, and cling to the man who hangs on the cross, that in his
resurrection, the works of darkness might finally be cast out, and in the
fullness of time, that mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
1 comment:
I read your sermon this morning (Feb 5, 2013), and found it very insightful and encouraging!
It had never occurred to me that in their search for the Light, the wise men alerted Herod and inadvertently left behind a trail of innocent blood.
Shows that evil is so desperate (and irrational) trying overcome the light that it piggy-backs on the search and slaughters many innocents.
Far from saying that evil doesn't exist, we must face and name it, while tightening our grip on Jesus the Christ in whose Resurrection is the sure hope for evil's eradication.
Anyway, you said it very well! Thank you.
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