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Garlands Instead of Ashes I Thessalonians 5:16 – 24; Isaiah 61: 1 – 4, 8 – 11 “Tom Long (a teacher of preachers), tells a story about rabbi Hugo Grynn who was sent to Auschwitz as a little boy. In the midst of the concentration camp, in the midst of death and horror many Jews held onto whatever shreds of religious observance they could without drawing the ire of the guards. One cold winter’s evening, Hugo’s father gathered the family in the barracks. It was the first night of Chanukah, the Feast of Lights. The young child watched in horror as his father took the family’s last pat of butter and made a makeshift candle using a string from his ragged clothes. He then took a match and lit the candle. “Father, no!” Hugo cried. “That butter is our last bit of food! How will we survive!” “We can live for many days without food,” his father said. “We cannot live for a single minute without hope. This is the fire of hope. Never let it go out. Not here. Not anywhere.” (Pulpit Resource. Vol 33, No. 4. P. 55) We cannot live for a single minute without hope. Paul’s letter to the young church at Thessalonica was one of encouragement and one to bring them hope. Life in that time was difficult. There were major issues of poverty, hunger, war, political abuse, and disease. But they had experienced a relationship to a man called Jesus, and soon they came to believe that the message and life and ministry he had brought could change that dismal world and help them endure and respond to the world in new ways. They sincerely believed that the end times of THIS worlds’ suffering were coming. Living in the promise that Jesus Christ’s return was imminent, the people needed to know how to live, what to do, how to survive in those days of turmoil. The message (about the last days) evidently was incorrect, or garbled, or the sense of time was misconstrued. Whatever the reason:
It is not an option for Christians to live without hope. It is not an option for Christians to live without peace. It is not an option for Christians to live without joy. But we are living in a world where many people have none of the above. How do we live and how do we preach, teach and share our faith without appearing glib? How can we — especially in this season — provide garlands instead of ashes. How can we provide hope, peace and joy rather than doom, gloom and terror. When I was a child — and even a young woman — I made a Christmas wish list, hoping that I would receive exactly what I had identified as need and desire. How many, many times I was disappointed. As a child, Santa often didn’t give me the exact baby doll I wanted. As a teen-ager my mother never did quite ‘get’ what was in style. For years I remember receiving beautiful gifts that my husband wanted me to wear, when all I really wanted was a simple sewing machine. Poor me — not because I didn’t get what I wanted — but poor me for not being able to appreciate and give thanks — immense thanks — for the gifts I was given. We do the same ‘wish-listing’ with God, I fear. Daily prayers are filled with the identification of our needs, and the urgency and passionate requesting from God that they be fulfilled. Despondency and disappointment comes when that fulfillment does not appear exactly to our specifications. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstances does not mean make a wish-list, pray hard for God to act on our behalf, so we can be joyous with the outcome we have already determined we need. It does mean — and I believe Paul to have been saying years ago — look around for evidence of God’s presence, search for ways to BE God’s presence in a world that needs God, be grateful that we have the ability, the knowledge, the faith that allows us to receive from God and give to God’s world in those ways. Annie Lamott, in Plan B. (New York: Riverhead Books. 2005. P. 259) writes about the light we are looking for in Advent. “I have thought,” she says, “that the light would look like success, a good man, a child, a Democratic president, but none of these was right. Moses led his people in circles for forty years so they could get ready for the Promised Land, because they had too many ideas and preconceptions about what a Promised Land should look like. During Advent, we have to sit in our own anxiety and funkiness long enough to know what a Promised Land would be like, or, to put it another way, what it means to be saved, which, if we are to believe Jesus ... specifically means to see everyone on earth as family.” Rejoicing always, praying without ceasing and giving thanks in all circumstances is a very large demand for these times because it means we have to stand in this world family affirming and believing that God loves this world so much that there is redemption possible; that God loves all those in this creation that there are possibilities for new life every day; that God loves us so incredibly that we have been called into ministry with God to do and be God’s agents in bringing hope, and peace and joy to those who do not seem to be able to see or experience any of them. The wish lists cannot be things, or places, or even stations in life that we would choose, but, rather, eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to be opened, and strength to be garnered so that we may bring garlands of love to the world rather than allowing the ashes to consume it. The people of our cities and nation and world need us — as those empowered by Jesus Christ — to stand with them, to bring comfort, work for justice, to identify the source of light and healing. May we do so in faith. May we do so in love. SW |
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