On the eve of the one year anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., an 18 year old kid goes into his high school in Centenniel, Colorado, armed with shotgun and molotov cocktails to hunt down a teacher. When all is done, a 15-year old girl is critically injured and the young gunman has killed himself. Meanwhile, gun control and mental illness healthcare are a joke. Have we learned nothing? Clearly those we've elected have failed us miserably.
A farm bill will soon be voted on in Congress which will further cut SNAP support for the most vulnerable among us. It's been reported that in New York State, 850,000 will be adversely affected by further cuts with an average of another $90/month being cut from food income. What are the options for those already not able to put enough food on the table? And let us not think for a moment that non-profits can take up the slack. All of this is enough to make me almost want to give up all hope.
Ironically, here we are in the season of Advent; a season that emphasizes hope: Hope not based on the illusion of generic optimism, but hope that names the crap all around us. Advent acknowledges that the world we live in is broken and that we're broken. Advent vigorously opposes the false prophets who assert that if you just have enough faith life will be happy.
Advent admits that God's rule is not yet apparent in the world; God's promises are not yet fulfilled. Even if everything does not work out for the best and we do not live happily ever after, Advent hope means there are still things worth living for, worth suffering for, worth dying for. Which means Advent is a season of waiting. Waiting is what we can do if we have hope; we can endure the problems of the present in the promise of a better future. Advent waiting is not passivity. It is more like the kind of waiting practiced by a cancer support group, whose members have decided they will live with cancer, not just die from it.
People of faith neither accept nor give easy answers to the problems of evil and suffering in the world. In our liturgy, in the framework of our church year, we are invited to journey with a God who has entered into the brokenness and vulnerability of our humanity promising to never leave our side. The season of Advent gives voice to God and to our own legitimate voices of grief, sorrow and doubt. This is precisely why the season of Advent is a blessing. A culture that has been celebrating Christmas since Halloween has no means to deal with tragedy. But the scripture readings and hymnody of Advent give voice not only to our pain but also to the hope that we are not forsaken by God.
There will be more school shootings and I will continue to hold my breath everytime I drop my kids off at school wondering in the back of my mind....
Those who are hungry will continue to suffer at the hands of societal apathy and I will have my doubts that God can break through hardened hearts....
But will we give up? Will we throw in the towel and just let the cards fall where they will? Or is there a glimmer of hope that a crokus can grow in the desert? That a drop of water can be found in parched sand? That a vulnerable baby in Bethlehem can overthrow a powerful emperor in Rome? That an empty tomb can follow a cross of death? Is there hope after all? Join me in worship. Join me in prayer. And together let's find out.
Peace and Love,
Pastor Doug
