Stars, Candles and Other Tiny Lights – Advent 1
Stars, Candles, and Other Tiny Lights Texts: Jeremiah 33:14-16 33:15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 33:16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.” Luke 21:25-36 21:26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 21:27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 21:28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” 21:29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 21:30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 21:31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 21:32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 21:34 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, 21:35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 21:36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Prayer Sermon Advent is a prophetic season. A season which looks forward not only to the once-again-but-not-yet coming of the Christ-Child, but also to the second coming of the Christ, ultimately to the transformation of the world. And so, this morning, two prophecies: Jeremiah’s prophecy of comfort and restoration; Jesus’ own prophecy of end times, redemption and and transformation. Someone once said the preacher’s role is to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted. And this is true of Jeremiah – who preached repentance before the exile, and restoration in the midst of it. It is also true of Jesus – who preached that the oppressed would be blessed, and the privileged would be cursed. But always, the role of the preacher and the prophet is to say, if you stay close to God, everything will be alright. In this season of stars and wonder, in this season when the light shines in the darkness and we hold to the hope that the darkness cannot overcome it, I invite you to consider these more recent stories of prophecy. When you look to the dark night sky, what stars do you see? ~~ Beneath a dark night sky, in the winter of 1914, British and French soldiers were entrenched on the Western Front, opposite their German counterparts in World War 1. This, we all know, was the war to end all wars – although it didn’t. It was the war that took 15 million lives – almost an entire generation of European men. But, there were a few nights, in a few places, in the midst of the bitter winters of 1914 and 1915 when something other than war was waged. Christmas Eve and Christmas those two years, something amazing happened, not everywhere, but on a few of the battlefronts. Against the orders of their superiors, soldiers put down their guns and exchanged them for peaceful Christmas greetings, across enemy lines. Folk singer John McCutcheon captured the scene: ‘Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung, I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more When you look to the dark night sky, what stars do you see? I wonder for our own men and women serving overseas right now, and for the enemies they fight. When they look to the dark night sky, what stars do they see? The days are surely coming, says the Lord. There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars… ~~ The Northfield News (my college town paper) reported this fall about a wedding ring lost for 20 years: “Claudia Tuma was beating a rug outside the farmhouse where her husband was born and raised. Like every other day, she was wearing her wedding ring, a simple gold band with waved etchings. But as she thwacked away, the ring she started wearing on Sept. 1, 1971, slid free and flew into the air. Tuma couldn’t find it. Neither could her husband, Bob, nor the family members who meticulously combed the ground on their hands and knees in search of the ring… One day this July, at their house just east of Lonsdale city limits, a stranger came calling. “He came up and was looking around,” she said. “We didn’t know what to make of him.” [Paul Meyer asked permission to use his hobby metal detector on their farm...Bob and Claudia's minds thought immediately of that long-lost wedding ring, a sparkling star long unseen.] “I said the chances of me finding it are slim to none, but if I found it I’d let them know.” When he was done searching the yard, Meyer put his finds…on the trunk of his car. The lost ring was not among them. “I said, ‘Bob, hold out your hand.’ I pulled the ring (out of my pocket) and plopped it in his hands,” Meyer said…. Bob Tuma rushed Meyer and the dirt-covered ring into the house. “You could just see the tears swell up … it fit perfectly after all those years,” said Meyer…“As far as satisfaction, it’s probably one of my best finds ever.” It could be his toughest, too… The size, shape and composition of the ring would have made it a difficult target to find below two inches of soil. Meyer refused a cash reward, but he couldn’t escape a show of Claudia Tuma’s gratitude. “I’m afraid I gave him a hug,” she said. The days are surely coming… Be on guard and be alert – the star of hope will not remain buried for long. When you look to the dark night sky, what stars do you see? ~~ In 1976, at the age of 28, the freshman US Representative of Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District started making a fuss about climate change on Capitol Hill. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/12/climatechange1) No one was listening. The media didn’t come to the congressional hearings. This was 7 years before NASA’s James Hansen told the New York Times of his belief that the planet was warming. This was decades, frankly, before anyone would pay attention. But that’s what prophets do, they stand alone, trying to get people to change before it’s too late; trying to get people to be on guard and stay alert. I say with no small amount of home-state pride that Al Gore has been talking about climate change since way before it was cool. And it’s worth noting that it was his mom who planted the seed, by talking about Silent Spring with him over dinner when he was in high school. In 1998, with the US Administration refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, Al Gore symbolically signed it – a prophetic and hopeful witness that, one day…the days are surely coming. Somewhere along 2006, working on climate change became cool, at least in part because of a movie and a slide show shown across the country, including here: An Inconvenient Truth. And Al Gore continues today to be a leader in the global effort to combat climate change. He was once one of few stars in the sky, one of few candles lit, one of few prophetic voices calling for transformation around energy use. He has now been joined by thousands and millions of people dedicated to addressing global warming. As the night sky fills with stars, our hope gets brighter and brighter, that we will be able repent, restore, and re-power our world. In the lead-up to the UN Climate talks in Copenhagen in December, it is possible that we can all become prophets – we can all become stars in the sky; candles of hope, messengers to world leaders. Once again 350.org is calling us to a prophetic witness, and we will be lighting candles for our world this Advent season. The days are surely coming, says the Lord. There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars… Will there be signs here on earth, among us? When you look to the dark night sky, what stars do you see? Amen.
A Sermon for Pleasant Street Church
Rev. Reebee Girash
November 29, 2009 (First Sunday of Advent)
33:14 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
21:25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I, “Now listen up, me boys!” each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
“He’s singing bloody well, you know!” my partner says to me
Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war
…
The next they sang was “Stille Nacht.” “Tis ‘Silent Night’,” says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
“There’s someone coming toward us!” the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man’s Land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave ‘em hell
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men
With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?”
‘Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore…” (Christmas in the Trenches, 1984)
Consider the story of Claudia Tuma and her wedding ring.
http://northfieldnews.com/news.php?viewStory=50313
By: JIM HAMMERAND, Staff Writer
Posted: Friday, October 30, 2009 10:51 pm
when hope, long buried, will emerge again.