Breaking Through: A sermon for Advent and Christmas
Given by Rev. Earl William Greene, Jr. at the United Church of Christ,
eastern Ventura County, CA
Based on Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Every year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City there’s a display which includes a marvelous Christmas tree, and underneath the tree is a beautiful eighteenth century Neapolitan nativity scene.
The nativity scene is similar to others in that the familiar figures are there: Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the shepherds and the wise men. This scene is different from all other manger scenes in that this manger scene has as a back-drop the ruins of the mighty Roman Empire. All around the scene are decaying columns from great buildings - symbols of an ancient culture now long gone.
The artist who designed this poignant scene has illustrated a truth - that God's new age always *breaks through* the remnants of the old world. What happened at Bethlehem was that the new age had broken through, and there was good news - the kind that hadn't been heard before from Rome, or from anywhere else- that God's new age would not be built on power and force, as the Roman Empire and others had done, but that in God's new age there was to be room for the poor, and room for those who never counted much in the old order of things. It was to be a topsy-turvy, radical change where what counted was inside, the heart - not the old familiar things like status, influence, cleverness.
The good news was that in God's new age things would be radically inclusive. The good news wasn't just for those who were *privileged*, or for those who always did the right thing and never made mistakes, it wasn't just for good Jews, but that good news was to all people in every circumstance of life,- radically inclusive, reaching beyond boundary lines that had forever kept people apart. Bethlehem was a glimpse of God's new age, a new beginning, with a teacher unlike any other. A Break Through.
Isaiah, many years earlier hoped for such a time. In his day he felt personally called to be an agent of God's new day. His was a dismal time. His people had been exiled to Babylonia . They were refugees there - pressed into service by those who had captured them. They longed to return to their holy land. When they did return what they found was worse than they could have ever imagined.
Their beautiful Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, the majestic walls surrounding the city were in rubble - stones scattered all over the landscape. They couldn't find where their homes had been . There were no familiar markings, no remnants of their culture. God may have delivered them from exile in Babylonia, but to what? At least in Babylonia they had food to eat, shelter, some order to their lives.
And in that context, Isaiah said, "the spirit of God is upon me...I have been anointed to bring good news to those who are oppressed. The *year of jubilee* is coming people,- don't despair. God will break through and bring in a new day. Let's stay together. Let's ask for courage for this time. God has not forgotten the promises."
I can imagine Isaiah saying , "remember when we were slaves in Egypt God intervened and brought us out. We had learned to be content with our lot in Egypt but God led us to a better place. God will do that again! The circumstances of this moment are real all right, every thing is in shambles, but they are real just for now. The way things are now is nothing compared to what God has in mind for us. Think of this as an 'Advent time'."
God breaking through. Both Israel and the Christian Church share that same faith - that God does indeed break through still, that out of the most ordinary situations in this life, even out of tragedy or loss, sometimes when the darkness of the world is at its darkest, or the circumstances in our personal lives have become next to hopeless - it's then that a surprising thing happens. God does what seems impossible to do, taking on the situation as it is, and brings new life and a whole new set of possibilities to it, and life is never the same again.
And so today we hear Isaiah's words again, right in the middle of this Advent season. And we hear Jesus saying the same words to his day. But like people of old, we're so apt to just see the predictability of things. We don't expect much. We become satisfied with the way things are. We don't reach out very far, sometimes for fear of maybe losing the little we have. We don't want to rock the boat. We don't want to get disappointed if things don't work out as this hope would picture it. We put our imaginations away, and cling to the familiar.
But the good news about God is this: that God is forever *breaking through.* This holy season is a reminder of that. So, the question for us personally becomes will we be able to be vessels of that "breaking through," or are we going to go through this season more set more on buying, accumulating, being busy, holding on tightly to what we have, fearful, afraid to take any new risks in life for fear...for fear...for fear - of what?
God is breaking through: new configurations of life yet unformed, undreamed of - beyond our imagination. There will be breathing space, new formulas, alternatives, a new world, a new hope - not just for the few lucky ones who always seem to grab the goodies first, but for all of God's people everywhere.
Walter Brueggemann, a great theologian in this day, and a minister in the United Church of Christ asks us to imagine standing on the threshold of God's Break-Through. But inside us is something resistant. We begin to see the possibility of good news, but then the thought of this break through makes "the prince of darkness" within us spring into action to call up big doubts. "The Prince of Darkness" - whatever that may mean to you hears good news being talked about and pulls us aside and says, "don't listen to this idealistic nonsense. Your life can't really be better than it is now. The cards aren't in your favor. Miracles just don’t happen to you! You've got to learn to adapt, compromise, settle for what you and I know we can count on. Don't expect peace in this world. There's never been peace. Don't set yourself up for a big disappointments. Play it safe. Be content with the way things are. Be grateful that things aren't a whole lot worse!"
You see, "the prince of darkness" within us knows that a closed world with walls and fences, and a closed mind is easier run. People who think they have no future are more manageable than those with imagination who are willing to risk something new. And so, the Prince rules the roost. Our own roost. And we only think about how hard change will be, how impossible the situation is, and how others have tried and failed.
But sometimes, on a cold December sometimes we know that we are so unsatisfied with the *way things are in our lives,* that we are willing to take a peek over the horizon, We stand up tiptoe. We remind ourselves that there was once over Bethlehem a bright light, and voices, and singing. Yes, it was a miserable, oppressive time, but God broke through anyway. And we can hear Isaiah laughing out loud in glee, saying to us, "I told you so! God has a way of doing this thing over and over again."
I believe with all my heart that the book isn't written yet. Creation isn't finished. There are more surprises coming, more breakthroughs from God, that your life, my life, the life of this world are far from being permanently set, fixed, predetermined, unless - unless we stubbornly, and in fear insist upon it, and we close the book tight ourselves because that's the way we want it. It seems safer that way.
It’s a choice, you see. But even right down in our deepest ruts God still comes to disturb our stubbornness and offers again and again an invitation to join together in yet another breakthrough, one in a whole series of breakthroughs yet to come.
See the glory-beaming star! Claim the peace it offers to the world and to your own life! Don't let doubt or terror rule your roost anymore. Go back to your homes, back to the places where you work and do it differently this time. Rejoice today, for Emmanuel comes. Things never need be the same again.
Amen.
Some resources for this sermon came from William H. Willamon in Pulpit
Resource, October, November, December, 1996