“In God’s Hands”
13
December 2015
Advent
3C
Homily
preached at Trinity Episcopal Church
by the Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.
by the Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.
Ashland,
Oregon
8:00
a.m. Spoken Eucharist, 10:00 a.m. Sung Eucharist
In the last three or four weeks, I have
had a lot of conversations with people about fear: fear of mass shootings, terrorism, the sudden
and unexpected death of those we love. Others have told me of their fear about the
xenophobic, nativist calls by reactionaries for restrictions on Muslims,
Mexicans, or the current boogeyman of the month. “We’re all so helpless!” said one parishioner,
“Helpless and at the mercy of powers at
work far beyond our ability to do anything about it, really.”
Today, the third Sunday in Advent, is
called Gaudete Sunday. We light the pink
candle on the Advent Wreath, and I wear rose vestments. This is the Sunday in
Advent when fearful expectation of the coming of Christ is supposed to turn
into joy anticipating the setting right of all things that are wrong. Gaudete
means “Rejoice.”
Be happy. Rejoice.
Smile. Despite all that is in the
air, sing a happy song.
How can we rejoice when things look so
bad?
When the French want to tell you to be
strong, find joy in the face of trouble, and deal with what life dishes out,
they say “du courage!” It’s like saying
“buck up!” or “hang in there.”
One of the pivotal moments in my life,
and one of the greatest bits of counsel I ever received, took place in Beijing
China on June 6, 1989. I had arrived to
work at the U.S. Embassy there just days before. In the closing days of May, things in Beijing
had gotten more and more chaotic as the pro-democracy demonstrations in
Tian’anmen Square dragged on. The
evening of Saturday June 3, the army moved in to recapture the Square, re-exert
control over the city, and terrorize the people back into compliance with the
Communist Party’s leadership. Many of
you saw the picture of the single protester standing his ground before a column
of tanks. That scene was unusual. Generally people who stood in the way were
simply run over by the armored personnel carriers, crushed and chewed up by the
treads. For days the army used random shooting toward crowds
as a way of cowing people to get off the streets. More than a thousand were dead, and rumors of
dissenting Army units firing on each other raised the specter of Civil
War. In all this, the U.S. Embassy
granted refuge to the leading dissidents in the country. The next day, the army opened fire at U.S.
diplomatic apartments—some with children in them—in an hour-long shooting spree
in which, fortunately, none were killed.
The Ambassador James R. Lilley
called us all together to announce that our dependents were being evacuated
from the country and that we would mount a full-scale evacuation effort to take
stranded Americans in remote parts of the city to the airport. As we were meeting, automatic weapons fire
opened up just outside the Embassy compound where we were meeting. People crouched beneath the window levels
until silence returned.
Then Ambassador Lilley called us back
into order. What he said then is deeply
etched in my memory. Calmly, with
emotion, he said, “We are not often called upon to show courage. Courage is grace under fire, keeping your
head and your heart focused on what you need to do, and why, and then doing it
regardless of all the things you cannot control going on around you. As you go out to help evacuate Americans, you
must keep your cool and stay focused. As we send off our spouses and children,
not knowing when we might see them again, we must give them confidence and hope
by our own calm and love. Stay on task,
remember our values and the oath we took when we entered into Federal
service. Though all might not be well,
you will have the calm of knowing you have done everything in your power. It’s a matter of faith, both having faith, and keeping faith. It’s called
courage, and that is what we must step up to now, so we can make the best of
this bad, bad situation.” The words had
particular impact on me as we drove the next two days in convoys across the
barricades all over the city, facing the muzzles of AK-47s held by PLA teenage recruits from
the provinces shaky with amphetamines to keep them awake.
I have always thanked God that Jim
Lilley knew exactly what to say to us and then modeled courage for us. He taught where courage comes from. As African American Spirituals say, “Keep
your eyes on the prize! Keep your hand on the plough! Hold on, hold on!” This lesson has stayed with me from then
until now.
What Jim Lilley knew was this: if we keep our minds on the goal and stay on
task regardless of how bad things are, if we are true to the better angels in
our hearts, grace under fire just happens. We are no longer overwhelmed by the things
over which we have no control. And we
find we can even find humor, satisfaction, and yes, even joy in pursuing our
course, come hell or high water.
It’s there in today’s Canticle: ”Surely it is God who saves me, trusting him,
I shall not fear.” Paul says as much in
today’s Epistle: “Rejoice always,” he says, but then adds, “in the Lord.” “In the Lord”: Jesus is the prize that we
need to keep our eyes on. His teachings
are the plough we must keep our hands on.
He is the source, object, and driver of our joy and courage, not the
circumstances we find ourselves in. Paul,
like us, experienced bad stuff that he didn’t have any control over. He says, “do not worry about anything that
may happen,” but rather pray and ask God for our deepest desires in all aspects
of our lives with a thankful heart.
If we have thankful, yearning hearts
full of petitions to God, Paul says, the peace of God, which passes all
understanding, will fill our hearts and minds with the knowledge and love of
God. Joy, serenity, and courage are there
to be found.
This week there were a many items of
really good news that should cause us to smile and feel joy, since they are
little glimpses of God’s love and care.
The Roman Catholic Church declared in clearer terms than ever before that
Christians should not proselytize Jews, and that the covenant of God with the Jews
is eternal and has not been superseded by Christianity. On the other side, a
group of two dozen senior, influential, and very orthodox conservative Rabbis from
Israel, the U.S., and Europe announced that Christianity is part of God’s plan,
and that Jews and Christians have a common mission in bringing morality and a knowledge
of God to all in the world. As my friend
Rabbi David Zaslow told me, “this is REALLY BIG.”
There was also a fatwa issued by 70,000 Muslim clerics this week issued in India condemning terrorism and the misuse of religion for violence. And there was an agreement signed in Paris between 200 some nations on taking steps to control the causes of climate change. We prayed for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry after he suffered aphasia from a blot clot in his brain, later in the week, he was released from the hospital with hopes for a full recovery. Within a day, he was addressing a serious problem in the central offices of the Episcopal Church. Some senior officials had been accused of fiscal misconduct. Instead of hushing it up or joining a media feeding frenzy, he put the accused on administrative leave and announced the start of a formal investigation without prejudice to the accused or the accusers. This is good news because here the Church is reacting to a problem in the way it should, rather than concerning itself with public image one way or the other.
There was also a fatwa issued by 70,000 Muslim clerics this week issued in India condemning terrorism and the misuse of religion for violence. And there was an agreement signed in Paris between 200 some nations on taking steps to control the causes of climate change. We prayed for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry after he suffered aphasia from a blot clot in his brain, later in the week, he was released from the hospital with hopes for a full recovery. Within a day, he was addressing a serious problem in the central offices of the Episcopal Church. Some senior officials had been accused of fiscal misconduct. Instead of hushing it up or joining a media feeding frenzy, he put the accused on administrative leave and announced the start of a formal investigation without prejudice to the accused or the accusers. This is good news because here the Church is reacting to a problem in the way it should, rather than concerning itself with public image one way or the other.
Noting and remembering such glimpses of
goodness when they happen are ways to help us
keep our eyes on the prize.
Du courage! Let us go forth from this Eucharist today,
this Great Thanksgiving, renewed and recommitted to joy, to love, to caring for
each other, to supporting and healing the ill and reconciling hurt, and to
forgiveness. Let us mourn with those who
mourn, but always be ready to find joy and hope when it happens. For Joy and hope are there. We are in God’s hands.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Excellent and so edifying!
ReplyDelete