Friends, we have reached the mid-way point of our Advent journey to Jesus—to the crib, and we rejoice!  Amid the rejoicing though, there is doubt as evidenced by the chosen readings for today’s liturgy.  The two aspects of rejoicing and doubting not only show themselves in our readings today, but, if we are honest, in our lives as well.  Most of us live between the tensions.  We know the hope, for which we live—that Jesus lived, died and rose and that his life changed. Because of him; we know the same is true for us—yet we struggle through our imperfect lives at times.  There are many moments of joy—but there are times of sadness, loneliness, sickness, war, misunderstandings in families, among friends and nations, suffering in the world that we can’t alleviate and we pray—“How long O God—come, Jesus, come—show us how to make life, our world better.”  Isaiah addresses our concerns today—“Courage! Do not be afraid! Look, your God is coming—is coming with justice—is coming to save you.”

This past week, our little Elliot celebrated his 3^rd birthday and we, his family, remember well his precarious entering into life, two months early at 3#2 oz. and of how wonderfully he has grown ever since! The tensions we live between!

This past year has been full with the new and different, the disappointing, the ups and downs, joys and sorrows—our country, for the first time in our history nearly elected its first woman president and because of her courage to take on a system that has never before elected a woman to its highest office, it will be much easier for the next woman to do it!

Each of us has lived through the ups and downs of this past year and could speak to what has been good, what, not so good and how these experiences have changed us.  Hopefully, you and me have come through it all, better,  and knowing that our good God has walked with us.  During this Advent Season, one has to marvel that our God chose to be one of us and become, like us, so fragile, yet so wonderfully made!

And so, even though life isn’t perfect, the human spirit, coupled with the divine within each of us, moves in hope for that time when strife, illness, confusion, poverty, and war, will be no more.  We can take encouragement from our readings today that the human struggle each of us walks with, was the struggle our forebears had too.

Last week we saw the prophet John taking on the Pharisees, calling them to make their “crooked roads straight,”—something each of us is called to at times.  This week we see that same prophet, now in prison, doubting who Jesus truly is. The answer to John’s question, “Is God with us—are you the Messiah?—is the answer that we as Jesus’ followers must hear too in our doubts.  Jesus gave John hope by recounting that, “The blind see, the crippled are walking, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor have the Good News preached to them.

So even though many of us are still recovering from the loss of an election that promised so much for the least among us and walking amid doubts of what our country and world will be now in the hands of billionaires who think of the rich first, we must keep our focus on Jesus, keep following him and trusting that the good we do and the good we see in others, does and will continue to make a difference. When we see all this too; we know that the dream we all hope for has come about—the lamb lying down with the lion and so on.  The dream of a peaceful world, free of suffering has everything to do with each of us—it won’t come without us friends.  We must keep doing our part, keep trusting, and keep believing—hope is our life blood!

In that light, it gives me great joy to share a bit more about the group that Dick Dahl and I have been asked to be part of here in Winona.  This group has endeavored to gather the voices of many different religious backgrounds and of those with no particular religious voice to discuss how “we are more alike than we are different.”  In the new climate that seems to have raised its ugly head during this past presidential campaign, stating basically that those who are perceived as different from white America are less than acceptable; this new group is discussing how we, young and old, can prove this thought, wrong.  Watch for more about this group and some programming  in the near future.

As we keep our eyes on Jesus, walking with him through the ups and downs of his human experience; our own ups and downs have new meaning and purpose.  It has always been truly significant for me to reflect on the struggles of Mary and Joseph to bring forth Jesus and to couple that thought with my own experience during the times that I was pregnant, or the experience of our daughter and son-in-law.  In your own lives as well, whether giving physical or spiritual birth through being there for others—whenever we can combine the divine and the human, the experiences become profound and so much more meaningful.

Friends, Advent calls us to develop an advent heart, learning how to live as we wait, in Joan Chittister’s words. She continues,  “Sometimes random moments of grace help us do this.”  At this time of year, there are examples all around us—of people opening up their closed hearts, letting them expand in the pattern of the Christmas story—an over-the-top giving of love. I think of present initiatives that our parish has been involved in recently—the wonderful clothes and food collection for our sisters and brothers at Standing Rock, that was packed and delivered into the hands of our driver by Michael and Robert this past Friday—of the Winona Warming Center, a project a long time in the making for the homeless in our city.

And even with all of this, faith tells us that this goodness, born out of our love, which is the divine spark within each of us, is more than urpassed by God’s all-encompassing love for each of us!  Friends, we are truly blessed today, even amid all that isn’t right! We must keep on after the model of our brother Jesus, one so strong, yet so fragile, like us!  Amen? Amen!

 

Each year when Advent comes round; I love hearing the words of Isaiah as we have shared and proclaimed them here today, “A herald’s voice in the desert cries—make ready the way of our God”—clear a straight path.

Advent is all about the expectant waiting.  We can think of the times we have waited for a loved one’s return, from a trip, coming home from school—our kids were 6 hours away, so only came home at the holidays and “expectant waiting” described the feeling well at seeing them again.  The arrival of a new baby is another occasion that comes under the category of expectant waiting.  For Isaiah, it is a longing for all that this expected one will bring—peace and justice that he speaks of in another scriptural passage where he announced the coming of John the Baptist who will call the people to prepare.

In Luke’s gospel which we didn’t read today, there is a longer account of who John would be and of his call to the people for what would be needed from them. We read, “Every valley will be filled in—every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight—the rough ways smooth.”  Nothing will, nor should get in the way of Jesus’ coming—neither at that first appearance nor now, in our hearts this Christmas season.

God wants to get close to us—come into our hearts and reside there, help us to find our way, living our lives to the fullest.  But often, the path to our heart isn’t straight, it is cluttered with “rocks and dead wood”—the obstacles that we put in the way,  just like the woods on our farm used to be before we made trails. It is hard for God to get through when we throw up barriers.  We need to look often into our lives and check where our focus is—our way isn’t cleared once and for all—but needs constant checking.  Are we always busy with things?–always keeping active so that no time is available for quiet reflecting, having a talk with God about the bigger issues? Even though this is a busy time, I am simply asking us all to consider balance between the “busy-ness” and the quiet.

A friend of mine told me that he takes 10 minutes or so of quiet each day, with his coffee, lights a candle, and goes to the “basement of his heart” as we spoke of last week and checks  in with the Source of All Life. He says that it makes all the difference in his days.

The beautiful reading from Isaiah today gives us a wonderfully concise picture of just who “this shoot from the stump of Jesse” will be—that in fact we should keep our focus on.  The Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, counsel, strength and reverence for God will reside in this One, we are told.  Justice will gird him and his care for all the poor and lowly will be evident.  Those who are not about justice, love and mercy will be put in their place.

There is something wonderful in the air it seems at Christmas time when folks tend to reach out unlike other times of the year—I so long to make that Christmas feeling extend throughout the year!   I believe that Isaiah was speaking of a future, peaceful time such as this; that the world only got a glimpse of when Jesus walked the earth—the wolf lying down with the lamb, the cow and bear as neighbors and so on.

All this peace and good will are our challenges my friends to bring about in our world; one small step at a time—one act of kindness at a time. We all love the stories of “paying it forward” when someone does us a kindness and we want to give them something back and instead are told, “Do something good for someone else!”

Advent also calls us to look at our world and its people with bigger eyes and larger hearts and to get at what causes people to suffer.  I was having a conversation with a family member on Thanksgiving and shared about the collection we are doing for Standing Rock and it got me to thinking—wouldn’t it be great if there were no reservations, if we all could truly be one, living together in peace—that, truly would be “the lion lying down with the lamb!”  Our country has a like opportunity right now with the “Water Savers” at Standing Rock in North Dakota.

Paul reinforces Isaiah’s message of peace and justice toward all in his letter to the Romans. He lets them and we know that our strength comes from our loving God who will stand with us, and be for us, in our pursuit of goodness, kindness, peace, mercy and justice.  We never have to do it alone.

We are moving into a season in the Church Year that for many of us; if not all of us, is that one time each year that we really manage to open up our hearts, if they have been closed, even if just for a day or two, a week or two, and that is why this holy day/holiday is loved by many. We all as individuals, peoples, nations, want, more than we would say or admit perhaps, to live in a world that truly responds in love, care, joy, belief in others, gratitude, peace, generosity, justice, regardless of what we heard in the past political campaign.  That is what Christmas is all about, extending our best selves to others, to our world and this is what truly “makes America great!”

In tribute to a prophet of our times, who died this past year, Fr. Ed Hays, who founded the Shantivanam Prayer Community in Kansas many years back; I would once again like to share his notion that the Christmas Crib and Santa Claus should go together.  I have always felt this idea to be right, even before I discovered he felt that way too! Great minds I guess….

Ed Hays was a gifted artist and writer along with being a fine human being and several Christmases ago, he designed a card depicting both the baby Jesus and Santa.   A baby was born out of love and self-giving and ever since, followers of Jesus have celebrated his coming among us by generously and lovingly giving to others at Christmas time.

I have heard some people who try to separate the two, Jesus and Santa and while I understand the intent, I don’t agree with the action. What I would say is needed, is again—balance. We should not have Santa without Jesus, nor should we have Jesus without Santa. When we balance the two we have love that is expressed. If we have Jesus and no Santa—then we fail to respond to God’s great act of love freely given—we simply must respond! If we have Santa and no Jesus, we have forgotten the reason for the celebration and our gift-giving is hollow.

Therefore Friends, my prayer for each of us is that we strive for that balance this Advent Season—make our ways straight, let nothing get in the way of our God coming into our hearts this Christmas Season, and be close to us then throughout the year, responding with love as we reach out to everyone we meet!  May God bless us all, and give us the strength to be true followers of Jesus, the Christ, our Brother and Friend.

The holy season of Advent gives us four weeks as Christians, followers of Jesus, to prepare not only to remember his historical coming in time, to be one with us, Emmanuel, but of our journey to God.  Both parts are important, but the last is equally important!  Advent is a time to remember that Jesus doesn’t just come to us, but we MUST also be on a journey to him.

All the readings today speak about being on a journey.  In our opening hymn, we sang, “People look east, the time is near!”  “Pilgrimage” is the word most used by the people in Jesus’ earthly time.  Psalm 22 speaks about the joy a traveler or pilgrim felt in entering the temple, the house of God.  The prayer on the pilgrim’s lips was always, “peace, be with you.”  I reflect on the greetings of family and friends over this Thanksgiving weekend—in our family as we greeted each other initially and said our good-byes at day’s end—it was all about peace and all good to each one. Travelers long to go home each Thanksgiving, remembering times past and the joy of being with loved ones—and, this is something different to each person.

This is the year that our children are with their in-laws—we switch it up each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but even from the miles, the greetings come back and forth and the gratitude for each other is felt.  Thanksgiving also reminds me of three years ago when our daughter’s Thanksgiving plans to come home were changed abruptly when she developed pre-eclampsia and had to stay put hoping to keep the baby inside as long as possible. Elliot, ever anxious for life and what comes next stayed put until December 8^th, and has caused us all to feel gratitude ever since, as we “journey” with him.

In Jesus’ time, the greeting, “Peace, be with you,” was the wish that people gave to each other when they entered another’s home, much like we say, “Hello” and give hugs of welcome.  “Peace, be with you” was indicative of the fact that the time when Jesus walked the earth was a time of warring—one nation against another—in many ways, like today.  Jerusalem was a strong fortress in and of itself, but the psalmist tells us that what made it strong was the presence of God within, and if they enjoyed any peace at all, it was due to that fact, that God lives there, within them and each person and their world.  The same is true of us—our strength and peace and well-being comes from our God within us, our being aware that we are a part of something bigger than our own existence. Our strength and peace of mind does not come ultimately from any of the material trappings we gather around us.  Hopefully, these thoughts can comfort us as we contemplate and worry about what will come next in our country.

There is a wonderful story told entitled, “The Basement of my Heart”—I have shared this story with you in the past, but it bears repeating at this time of year. The story is about a person whose life was in disarray.  This person had so much going on—sad and hard things happening in her life—and one day, just sat down, wondering where God was in all this trouble.  In the quiet—she found that God was right there, in the “basement of her heart” and when she took the time, she found God had been there all along and wanted to help her and be with her in not just the good, but the hard things in her life.  I like to share this story because it is so easy to forget in the busy-ness of our lives that our strength and hope is very close—right within us, in fact!

The gospel today tells us that the Promised One is coming at a time we least expect. The scripture continues…“so we should be ready.” As the story, “The Basement of my Heart” suggests, our God is always near and being cognizant of this fact, softens the Scripture and informs us each day that God does indeed love us and want our good.  Each of us has God within us—we are made of God and as someone wise has said, we are merely spiritual beings here, having a human experience.

So, you see; our journey this Advent isn’t to strive to become more spiritually-minded; we just have to become more aware of who we really are, and claim that existence in our human hearts. When we believe this, then we can believe the concept that each of us carries the face of God and of the responsibility to show that face to the world in which we live. If we walk through our lives with eyes and hearts open, the opportunities to share the goodness of life—the face of Jesus, abound.  We are finishing up our collection for Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota next Sunday and then we can look toward assisting with the Winona Warming Center and the Ten Days of Giving.  Many of us are involved in sharing a monthly meal at the Catholic Worker House, besides our regular sharing of groceries for Winona Volunteer Services, which we will pick up again on the second Sunday in December.

Paul, in the reading from Romans tells us to “wake up.”  In the Gospel reading from Matthew we hear of the need to “stay awake” and “to be prepared.”  All of our readings today are preparing us to receive Jesus, our Savior, more fully into our lives.  This is such a rich time—Advent, and I love it, every year when it comes round.  I find within myself the need to prepare each year for the awesome coming of Jesus, not only into history, but into my life anew.

Each year when Advent comes, I go out on our land and cut pine boughs, bring them into the house to become part of a wreath, something like the one that resides to my right here in our liturgical space today.  The color of the boughs is green, the church color for hope—we hope in our God for so much!

We have one candle lit today and we will add one each week as we journey toward Christmas.  The color for the season is blue—a color that denotes the holy, royal blood line of Jesus both human and of God and the blue is also in deference to Mary, his beloved mother.  In the third week, Gaudete Sunday, or simply, “Joy Sunday,” because our journey to Christmas is almost complete, we will light the candle in the white holder.

Again, this is such a rich time and we simply should not let ourselves, like much of our society, rush to Christmas before we have prepared.  During Advent, I always spend time thinking of Mary, Jesus’ mother and of her preparations to be a mother, for the first time. It wasn’t something she could rush—seemingly, it would take 9 months no matter what she did. She was told this would be a special child—the very Son of God. Would this birth be different from other births? She didn’t know. She had to prepare like this holy child would arrive like any other because she simply didn’t know.

I think the more we can make the Holy Family real, live human beings, the more we can look up to them as models in our own faith over matters that we don’t entirely understand. It was a walk in faith for Mary and Joseph as all pregnancies are. But the important piece is that preparation was necessary, then, and for us now.  The incarnation—“God-with-us” is an awesome event, not to be taken lightly!  We live in a society unfortunately that wants everything NOW rather than patiently waiting and making sure that we are truly ready.

And how do we do that?  I would guess that the words of Isaiah today in the first reading are a good place to start.  We are told to take the tools of war that are basically violence and hatred and turn them into life-producing tools—goodness, kindness, justice, truth and love.  Now I know that this is a stretch—to imagine that we can ever get rid of war and fighting as a way to peace, especially with some of the rhetoric we have heard during the presidential campaign, but hope springs eternal within me and with any great venture; we simply have to start. In our own lives, what can we do to be more peace-minded, less apt to fly off the handle when “someone gets under our skin?” I have found, putting some space and time between my reactions allows for a calmer, clear-headed response, one that can attempt to see an opposing opinion.  At times like these, it is good to remember our brother Jesus and how he responded to like situations—he was always trying to better understand people.  It is also good to distinguish between the crime and the person. It is appropriate to hate the crime, but never the person, and granted, this is hard to do at times. For the Christian this simply means that we need more and more to put on Jesus—become more like him.

This time of year, we always hear stories of ways that people step out of themselves and give in a special way because of the gratitude they feel for all the gifts they have received in life. Advent is about gratitude for a God who has loved us enough to send us Jesus.

As Paul says, “we need to be alert, attentive for ways to become more like Jesus—we need to change our hearts! And the local paper gave us this in the person of Michael Gerson from the Washington Post:  “For believers, Christmas culminates the remarkable story of a God who searches for us.  The only adequate responses are stillness, gratitude and trust.  After a dismal and divisive campaign season, many of us need the timely reminders of the Advent Season: that people matter more than all our political certainties.  That God is in control, despite our best efforts.  And that some conflicts can’t be won by force or votes—only by grace.”

So friends, may Advent be for each of us, a time to grow closer to our God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth—if we haven’t been as attentive to his message as we would like, then I invite us all to go into the “basement of our hearts” and get reacquainted with our God who is always near.