Sermon for Year C Advent 1

Hope 

I was in the library of Needham Broughton High School

in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Libraries have always been--and still are--my second home.

I remember that day very clearly

because it was the day 

I discovered the poet Langston Hughes.

Seriously, 

I really thought I had DISCOVERED Langston Hughes.

I had never heard of him--

so of course, how could anyone else have heard of him?

I guess it by-passed my brain circuitry

that if no one else had heard of him

why then were his poems published in the book I held in my hands?

But that day,

for me,

I discovered Langston Hughes.

The poem was one titled DREAMS.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow. 

That image of a broken-winged bird  has stayed with me.

A few nights ago I dreamed about this poem

only I woke up and the poem had different words--

Hope is a broken-winged bird

that has learned to fly.

Hope is a broken-winged bird that has learned to fly.

I think this is the theme for this first Sunday in Advent.

The scriptures today (and our sequence hymn)

are filled with brokenness,

with chaos.

Signs of ending all around us.

Jesus tells us that people will faint

from fear and foreboding

of what is coming upon the world.

We understand this.

We watch television,

we read the newspaper,

we see what is happening in our own lives.

And yet....

and yet...

the scriptures today are pregnant with hope.

I am an early riser.

I love early mornings.

I get up at about 4 am

and believe it or not, that is my favorite time of day.

I love to go outside and look up at the sky.

Some mornings the sky is so black, so dark,

but there are stars sprinkled everywhere.

Sometimes the moon is so bright

it is almost blinding.

There in the darkness

there is light.

I stand there and think,

How is this possible?

How can there be so much beauty surrounding us

when there is also so much pain beneath our feet?

Today we enter the season of Advent.

The color that surrounds us is this gorgeous purple-blue.

There is a different painting hanging over the retable.

A painting by Penelope Carscaddon that invites us,

in its abstract use of line and color

of light and darkness,

this painting invites us 

to journey into the mystery that is Advent.

With Advent,the music we sing changes.

Some of the language in our liturgy changes.

We have moved from the green of Ordinary time 

to the white of last Sunday’s Christ the King celebration

to this beautiful purple blue

which tells us it’s Advent!

Here at St. John’s 

we use these same hangings, 

this same color

for Lent.

But don’t get Advent and Lent confused.

Advent is not a penitential season.

Advent is a season of hope.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us,

The days are surely coming (SURELY COMING), says the Lord,

when I will fulfill the promises I made.

The letter to the Thessalonians 

is about gratitude and joy and hearts made strong.

Hope!

Luke’s gospel today tells us to not let our hearts be weighed down 

by the worries of this life.

Our call is to be people of hope. 

Even in the worst of times,

and we know Jesus endured the absolute worst of times,

Yet the message we hear from Jesus

is one of hope.

Jesus does not deny 

that there is chaos and distress in the world.

Jesus never says,

“If you believe in me,

everything will be easy.”

What he does say is ,

“I will be with you.

Make room for me. 

The kingdom of God is near.”

Advent opens the door

and lets the broken-winged bird of hope fly.

Langston Hughes gives us a gospel message.

Poets often do that.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow. 

Jesus tells us that God’s dream for the world

will not die.

That our lives will not be frozen

because God is anything but barren.

Advent reminds us that hope 

is born again and again and again.

Keep the manger ready.

Make room at the inn.

Hope is a broken-winged bird

that has learned to fly.

Langston Hughes