On Monday night at our Worship Committee, we went around the table trying to remember the sequence of symbolism of the Advent candles. Finally, with the help of a smart phone, we came to the sequence we are observing this year: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. So, this first week we begin with Hope.
Why might Hope be associated with Advent, the beginning of the church year, the time of preparation before our celebration of Christmas and a time to think of Last Things: death, judgement, heaven and hell?
First, obviously, in Advent we prepare for our celebration of the One who is the Hope of the Nations, the Christ, the Messiah, who will put right the unjust and sinful world with his perfect Just Reign. In a world just as broken and violent as ours, the ancient Hebrews waited with hope for a Messiah who would bring peace, justice and an ingathering of all the nations. As Christians, we believe that Jesus of Nazareth was that Messiah; and that in his life and teachings, his death and resurrection (yes, and through the church, the extension of his Body), he left us a path to love and justice that was, and is, still full of Hope.
The apocalyptic scriptures of end times that frequently emerge in the Advent readings, remind us that this Hope is counter-cultural and that we are not to be drowned in despair that nothing can be done. Even in the current world political situation. So often in his ministry, Jesus reached out to those without hope and offered them encouragement, love, healing, forgiveness and new life. Jesus was a Hope-Giver.
On Advent Sunday, we are also starting a new church year. Perhaps the old church year has worn us out a bit and some of our hope has been lost – whether through deaths or illness of family and friends, or our own ill health, or uncertainty about the future, or failed plans, or overwork, or ongoing stresses and tensions with others or even within ourselves.
Advent is a time to re-set ourselves, so to speak, back to the basic Christian virtues of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. On this Sunday, that means not just a return to again becoming hopeful people where we have felt hopeless, but becoming again (or becoming more intently) hope-giving people. Hope is about encouragement and we are called to encourage one another.
We have various Advent giving programs such as the Giving Tree, the Advent calendar boxes for St. Matthew’s House and our own Christmas giving to both the local and overseas church. Such giving offers encouragement to those who do not share our material resources.
But what about adding a more personal relationship Advent calendar not so tied to material gifts to anonymous people? For example, on one’s daily calendar or in one’s daily date book, might we have a place for the name of one person we have given hope and encouragement to each day of this week. (And do the same for the following weeks, one person to whom we have been an agent of Peace, Joy and Love.) Such an exercise might make us more intentional about our roles as Hope-imparters, Peace-makers, Joy-givers and, indeed, Lovers. And keep the names secret, adding them to our daily prayers.
I make this suggestion because we are surrounded by many people in this world (including sometimes ourselves) who lack Hope. And we who know the Hope-giving Messiah are called to be agents of that Hope in the world. It is very easy to criticize, dismiss others, gossip, revert to the good days of the past; but we are here and now, the Hope-giving Messiah’s mouths, words, gestures, arms and legs, ears and touch. Let us be that Hope-giving presence, both to one another and to the world.
It is Advent, so we also hope with an eye on Christmas, our celebration of the birth of the Hope of the nations. As much as we descry the early celebration of Christmas, it is already all around us and hard to avoid. Christmas is about presence – God’s presence with us in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, “God with us” – and our hope, if it is to be a Christmas hope – must be a hope that is present to others. It is a temptation to climb into a hole and hide from Christmas, so intense are some of the problematic sides of the season. But Advent gives us a chance to step back a bit from all that and to concentrate on reflecting on (and then acting on) how we, as individuals and a parish, might be more present in hope (and in peace and joy and love) to our neighbours.
For a parish like us, it is a bit complicated when we say “neighbours” and “being present”. We come from all over the city and beyond. Some of us live in the neighbourhood or nearby, some quite far away. So, we have neighbours to be present for, offering hope, both around the church neighbourhood and around our various local neighbourhoods. We also have “neighbours” at our places of employment or recreation. For many (perhaps even most of us), we have friends and family across the country and across the world; and the social media has made them, at least virtually, present to us 24 hours a day. We might well ask, like the rich young man who asks Jesus, “and who is my neighbour?” To that question, we remember, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, a quintessential story of Jesus about giving hope.
The answer to the question, “and who is my neighbour?” is, of course, everyone – everyone we meet, even strangers; everyone who has needs, even if they inconvenience us; everyone who comes through the doors of this church. Perhaps it might be helpful to think of the parish as one enormous Good Samaritan, providing assistance and support where others have passed by on the other side. Of course, we worry about volunteer fatigue and sometime complain. And sometimes this approach is not easy on the budget or makes us worry about money. But if we engage in the ministry of hope, money will come.
But let us extend the story of the Good Samaritan a moment. What if, after he had bound up the wounds of the injured man and taken him to the inn, the Good Samaritan continued on his journey; and then, a mile down the road, he found another man wounded and lying on the ground, since this was a very dangerous part of the road? What do we think he would have said? Somehow, I do not believe he would have thought “I have already done my good deed for the day, let some other Good Samaritan look after this guy” and simply moved on. I suspect he would have pitched in again, even without complaint. And so it is (or should be) with our hope-giving enterprises, whether as a parish relating with our complicated and sometimes difficult neighbourhood or as individuals ending up as Good Samaritans – givers of hope – to family and friends at home and around the world. And in all this, our hope-giving should build up our own hope, for in hope-giving we are doing the work of Christ in the world. Thus, it is also important to support and encourage one another in our works of hope, and not just observe to criticize. When the master of the house returns (from today’s Gospel), let us be found doing hope-giving work.
So, this week, let us think and act for and with Hope. Take a tag from the Christmas Giving Tree and buy a gift that offers hope to a single mother and her children; take an Advent box and begin filling it with food and supplies for St. Matthew’s House; each day make a special effort to encourage and give hope to someone we know is “down”; invite a friend to our Christmas dinner and pay their way if they cannot afford it (and come, be present); invite a friend to church on Sunday or Wednesday; welcome everyone who comes through these doors with genuine love and hope-giving. But also use this Advent season, not so much frenetically preparing for Christmas, but as a time to reflect how we may be more effective in our Good Samaritan and hope-giving ministries. May we all have a Holy Advent. Amen.
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