Creation Cares

1 Advent, December 2, 2018

Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, Vermont

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

Theologian in Residence

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-36
Psalm 25:1-9

Let us pray: The earth is the Lord’s for He made it; come let us adore Him.

            As I mentioned in a previous sermon, Paul and I have a family home on Cape Cod. Protected by the national seashore, our house sits on a little knoll overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Memories are everywhere. Pictures of generations of family and friends capture sacred moments. New experiences are still being created; and even as we watch places and people disappear from our lives, our hope remains.

Over the years, we’ve witnessed the landscape change. Aside from the natural beauty of the four seasons, the hurricanes and northeasters have seemed particularly harsh. Last year the tidal flooding was so bad that it destroyed Liam’s Clam Shack, a local favorite. This restaurant was known widely for its onion rings, although truth be told, Moose Tracks ice cream was my personal favorite. Today four food trucks have replaced this one icon; and it’s just not the same.

The marsh area in front of our house is often covered with beach grass, and is filled with birds of many colors. After last year’s storm, it suddenly looked like a moonscape. Accustomed to watching birds dive, and beachgoers sneaking over the dunes for various activities, we suddenly saw that there was no place to hide nor even to nest. Our view of the ocean became dangerously close, and the reality that parts of Cape Cod might someday be reclaimed by water began to sink in.

Cape Cod, like many places throughout our world, has become overpopulated. Our water has become polluted and our landfills overflow.

In California, where wildfires burn out of control, and forest management is questioned, people have growing concerns about what’s happening to creation. Jesus said, “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations, confused by the roaring of the sea and waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

What we are seeing, hearing, and experiencing in many areas of our lives echo these warnings. We are being shaken as a church, a nation, and a world. What used to be predictable is not. Uncertainties about our future distress us and confuse us. With fear and foreboding, we wonder, what will happen to this fragile earth, our island home, when inconvenient truths suggest that our appetites far exceed our good stewardship?

Apocalypse now. Such visions were common during the centuries before and after Jesus, when there was a great deal of social, religious, and political unrest. Often these apocalyptic visions began with a judgment, when inconvenient truths were spoken. Warnings were made about certain people or particular issues. If course corrections were not taken, said the prophets, then God’s kingdom would break into their current reality, and it would not be pretty. Like those billboards that say “Don’t make me come down there, says God.” Or like those early birds in red hats outside our windows this morning, you can run but you can’t hide!

Some of you have told me that you like history. Now Jeremiah was not only a bullfrog of some notoriety, he was also one of the major prophets during the time when the land was divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was called Israel, and the southern kingdom was called Judah. The Jews often found themselves caught between competing powers, not only among and within themselves, but also from the east, west, north, and south. Enemies wanted their land and at this particular time, the Babylonian empire (current day Iran) was threatening their capital city of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah had a reputation for being a whiner, a coward, and an opponent of the Temple priests. He was a man who followed the lineage of Moses, emphasizing that obeying the commandments of God was far more important than the work of the Temple priests. Fearing that the Babylonians would destroy Jerusalem, if the Jews fought back, Jeremiah argued that it was better to negotiate with the enemy than to lose everything to a military power greater than themselves. Welcome to our current world of geo-politics and land grabs.

Like many other prophets, Jeremiah first offered a warning about how things had gone wrong, how the eco-balance of their spiritual lives had tilted, how people were misbehaving, and being unfaithful to God. Likewise, Jesus warned his disciples to be on guard, so that their hearts were not weighed down with “dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life.”  “Look” said Jesus. These things are happening and they will continue to happen. You will see signs of judgement, and you must pay attention to them. “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape these things.”

 As historians, we may wonder if things will ever change. Are we doomed to repeat history over and over again, like a never-ending story of ceaseless repetition, like Groundhog days in eternity. Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, wrote“The Shaking Reality of Advent”, shortly before he was hanged in 1945, condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler. He said, “There is perhaps nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up.” ( Watch for the Light, p 82) This shaking up, however, is intended to move us to change, to speak up, to act for justice, to show mercy, and to pray, as the psalmist once did, “Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.”

Fortunately, prophets balance their messages of judgment with hope, offering images of how God will save us. For instance, Micah talks about the fidelity of God despite human betrayal. Amos speaks about a return to Paradise. Ezekiel imagines a new Temple, and Isaiah a new Jerusalem. Jeremiah declares that the restoration of land is a part of God’s promise. In what is called his ‘Book of Consolation’, from which today’s reading is taken, Jeremiah says, “For the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors. I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

Today, we light the first candle in our Advent wreath, a candle that symbolizes hope. According to Richard Rohr, “Advent is, above all else, a call to full consciousness and a forewarning about (its) high price. The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy, because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.” (Preparing for Christmas, p5) Despite our fears about our lives, our church, our nation, and our world, despite the shaking that’s going on all around us, there is a Source of new life that is ever present and never ending. No longer trapped in cycles of boredom or self-destruction, we are set free to dive and soar, to rest and nest, as birds of many colors in the freedom of God’s new creation. “Hope, unlike optimism, is independent of people’s circumstances. Hope is grounded in the faithfulness of God,” wrote Miroslav Wolf.  

In the beginning, when the waters flooded God’s creation, there was a single ark, built by human beings, who carried the seeds of new life. The dove eventually returned with an olive leaf, indicating that dry land lay ahead. Miroslav Wolf wrote,  “If darkness has descended upon you and your world, you need not try to persuade yourself that things are not as bad as they seem, or to search desperately for reasons to be optimistic. Remind yourself instead of a very simple fact: the light of God shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Advent is a time of waiting for that dove, knowing that there is dry land ahead, even in dark nights and stormy seas, even when the ocean rises dangerously close, and beloved people and icons disappear from our lives.

Jesus spoke of God’s promise. He pointed to the fig tree and said. “Stand up and raise your heads, with confidence. Your redemption is drawing near.” Translated in Latin, confidence means “with faith.” Yes, we have warnings and judgments, but we also have promises and hope. Trust God; for our salvation rests in the heart of God; and in God’s hands are the caverns of the earth, and the heights of the hills are His also. Written on our own hearts, sealed in His own blood, God, through the person of Jesus, has given us His Word.

This Land is God’s Land, and we are God’s people and the sheep of His pasture. The sea is His for He made it and His hands have molded the dry land. When you see these things, you will know that the kingdom of God is near; and you have nothing to fear. Today, be conscious of God’s creation and hearken to God’s voice. Enter into the world of Advent, which is a world filled with beauty, hope, and love.