Homily Notes Second Sunday of Advent

The first snow is tomorrow. We might not feel ready. Maybe we need to be positive. We have been taught through many Advents that this is a time to learn patience. We use these four weeks as a time to seek wisdom. We also want to be more understanding. But the most sought after prize is the virtue of hope.

We have certain Advent figures who teach us about hope. One of them is John the Baptist. His life seems to have been tragic. John the Baptist dreamed of an Israel where the king would be a moral person. He called out for a great leader to rise-up to strike down tyranny, but instead when he was executed. His promising message was snuffed out. How can he be a symbol of hope we might ask?

Once an artist drew a picture called “Hope.” The painting is by G.F. Watts who lived in the 19th Century. The picture has inspired a lot of leaders from Teddy Roosevelt to Martin Luther King. The image is of a battered woman. She has a bandage on her head. She sits on the top of the world. While she sits, she plucks at a harp. We notice when we look at her the all the strings on the harp are broken except one. She insists on making music.

We might all feel like the woman in the portrait at times. We all have met up with life’s disappointments. If we have not some day we will. What can be our response? We can have several. The first could be that we grow bitter. We all have been there. We want something badly, maybe a positon that someone else has, we are passed over. We can become mean to those around us, striking out at those we love for no reason. The bitterness, of course, can hurt us most of all because no one is going to want anything to do with us.

A second reaction to disappointment is that we can withdraw. We say to ourselves, “Risking failure again is not worth it.” We quit organizations that disappoint us. We see a lot of this in the church. Maybe a person is involved in some committee. The experience does not go well so they say. “I quit. I will just stay home.” Or, “I will just sit in the pew doing only what I must.” We might ask what good comes from this?

A third reaction to being disappointed is fatalism. We say to ourselves that whatever I may do will not help the world any way so why try? We saw a lot of that at election time. People said, “Well, I am just not going to vote. My vote does not matter.” Did that really help anything?

How do we counteract this bitterness, isolation and fatalism? We might try to realize that we are pilgrims on a journey. We are always moving toward a distant horizon. We take the long view.

One of the experiences most of us have had is that we have traveled to the Rocky Mountains. When we see mountains for the first time it is an overwhelming experience isn’t it. But usually we spot them from a distance for they rise out of the flatness of the plains. We drive toward them, but it seems like we will never reach them because they are farther away then they look. We can imagine our ancestors who went west in covered wagons. How long it must have taken them to reach the mountains after they first saw them. Maybe some of them died on the way. Perhaps a few gave up to turn back. And when they got to the mountains they had to cross over to the other side. How would they ever do that they asked? But the ones who did cross found new lives in a new home.

All this resembles our spiritual journey. If we can continue to pray habitually we find strength. We cannot pray once expecting that to do any good, but we must pray day after day, week after week, year after year. And then we must act on the wisdom we acquire. We are like the angel in G.T. Watts painting plucking the one string time after time. But the one note is often what sustains us in our darkest hour.

John the Baptist is portrayed in the movies as the prophet who is preaching until the final seconds of his life. He stubbornly refuses to recant his vision. His dream is portrayed as being fulfilled in kingdom of Jesus, a Kingdom which is still unfolding in history. In this Kingdom, we place our hope. What we see today is not the end of the story. What we remember during Advent is that one day everything is going to be turned upside down. The poor will be fed. The sick will be healed. The oppressed will be freed. All the unfairness of the world will be rectified. As believers that is what we look forward to. Even though the day of Lord seems far off it may be closer than we think. Take heart. Have hope.

Please keep in mind this is a rough draft, grammar may not be perfect.