This is the season of parties and entertaining. I’m always amazed when I walk into someone’s house and I see such lavish attention to detail: food laid out with great intent. Seating areas arranged with care. Colorful decorations beautifully conceived. I have a friend who is a genius in welcoming others into her house. Music, lighting, food, décor. When she has people over, everything is so artfully done it just calms you down and invites you to relax and enjoy yourself. My favorite house to go to are my friends in New Hampshire. I try to take a retreat to their house as much as possible. I describe their home as modest with an amazing view. Their deck looks out to a gorgeous range of mountains that are breathtaking. Now, I only visit in the spring or summer so I only see pictures of their view in winter. But in the summer it is magnificent. And the food is always fresh and homemade. It not fancy, but very very welcoming. My friend who is 78 years old still grills chicken on a webber grill – the little one which sits low on the ground. The intent is never to impress; it is to allow folks to come for love and sanctuary from their hectic lives. They epitomize hospitality for me and I am not the only one who makes regular pilgrimages to their home.

As I reflect on all of this I am aware of how much preparation goes into welcoming someone into your home… or your life. Things don’t just “happen.” Great work and organization are happening behind the scenes and below the surface. Now, this might seem like the antithesis to all the Advent waiting, listening and pondering that we have been talking about for the past few weeks. However, Advent is not just about sittin’ around and doin nothing! The season of Advent educates us about graceful preparation. First we must ponder and think and listen for the spirit of God to anoint us. And then we must begin to take the steps to achieve the work that God calls us to do. It’s not an either/or, it’s a both/and. Today’s text in Isaiah is a call to action. Written in a time of deep despair and troubling exile for the original audience, it is a mandate to get busy responding to God whatever your circumstance! It begins with the claim that God’s spirit is upon me (not the talented, gifted person on TV or with more gifts), but you and me! And we are told that God anoints us to start working on behalf of others through proclamation and action. The text itself is full of action words: bring, bind, proclaim, release, comfort, provide, build, repair, raise up. The entire text is about movement outside of ourselves, towards others. The intent is to bring God’s vision and hope into reality beyond our own lives. We can’t have the world that God conceives by sitting around. God requires the best of us to make things happen.

I read a story this week of a man whose son graduated from Ohio State with a degree in English. Like many others these days, his son had a hard time finding work after college. Instead of being able to get a nice paying job with benefits and vacation time, he took a job working as a therapist for autistic kids, because it was a paying job. He called his dad recently to tell him about a great moment in this modest job. He has been working with a 9 year old boy on his social and developmental skills. The boy is completely nonverbal and yet recently he said his first word. “Hi.” But that’s not the great part. The great part was that when his mom came home from work that day, her son looked at her and for the first time greeted his mom with a “hi” for the first time in his life. As the father of the working son says, “That’s an experience you’re not going to get in a cubicle.” (Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 12, 2011 p. 35)
Bring, bind, proclaim, release, comfort, provide, build, repair, raise up.

I spoke with a friend this week. It was her birthday so I called to have a chat. I told her that I bought her a book, but that I needed to finish it before I put it in the mail. She laughed and said, “Sure, finish it and then after I read it, we’ll have a mini book group to discuss it!” She said her life is full right now – her mom has Alzheimer’s and she lives in as assisted living building but seems to be spending more and more time with her at her house. It’s not easy. Her mom takes a lot of care. She told me that this week they were going to go out and it took a lot of effort to get her dressed and ready and by the time they got to the door of her house after an hour of preparation, her mom was not interested in going out. So, they just re-tooled and stayed home. Sometimes the preparations lead you nowhere. I told my friend that I was sure that she would get into heaven just on how she is caring for her mom in these years. Yeah, my friend said, and when I get there I just want to have 5 minutes alone with God…

Bring, bind, proclaim, release, comfort, provide, build, repair, raise up.

Sometime the work we are anointed to do doesn’t result in a splashy display of success. Sometimes it just provides release and comfort and binding to those who desperately need it. We spend a lot of time reading about and watching the lives of famous people. It distorts us from the lives we are supposed to be living ourselves. Even famous figures have to decide how to use their fame. Two people in the news right now couldn’t be more opposite in their lives and in their influence. The first if Football quarterback Tim Tebow. He has made his faith and God’s claim on his life very public. He plays some games with a Bible verse painted on his face. In a culture of excess and bad behavior he has made it clear that his faith in God compels him to do something with his gifts. When he won the Heisman trophy in college he used his fame to raise $340,000 for charity. When he attended a college football awards ceremony in 2009 he had met a 20 year old fan with a brain tumor the night before and he brought her as his date for the award ceremony the following day. History will show whether he will remain a talented athlete or a generous, faithful person, but for now he states “Football is just a game; God doesn’t care whether you win or lose.” Wouldn’t it be nice if one very public and successful athlete used his fame to build up other people’s lives? (Wall Street Journal Dec. 10-11, 2011 C3)

The other famous figure that was in the news this week is Nelson Mandela. Unlike Tim Tebow, he is not playing out his life on the sports field. In fact a huge portion of his life was spent behind bars. Yet, since his release he has been a leader in his country but after one term as president, he chose to step down. “If anyone was well positioned to launch a political personality cult it was Mr. Mandela. His refusal to do so is probably his greatest legacy to his homeland. It sent South Africa on a course different from most other African nations.” Instead Mandela has worked for change behind the scenes. On his watch the ANC has “dropped its more radical economic policies and engaged with South Africa’s private sector..” He continues to be a living symbol of “our better nature, the personification of forgiveness and nonracialism.” (Ibid.)

Bring, bind, proclaim, release, comfort, provide, build, repair, raise up.
Any great endeavor requires a multiplicity of gifts and graces. Every one of us has a part to play in God’s great drama of history where all are fed, valued, loved and have access to stable lives. The quiet part of Advent allows us to ask again what our role is in this divine story is, and to re-discover what God’s spirit is urging us to do to participate in this kind of holy living.

Ultimately Advent is about reorienting our priorities during a time of transition and hope. It is about setting aside the “same ol, same ol” and allowing God to usher in a new ways of understanding and being in this world. Whether this is played out for you on a public stage or in your private life, it is a time of movement under the surface – a shifting of focus, a clarity of vision, a reordering of priorities for this phase in our lives. God is known in history as changeless. Well, maybe God’s love and God’s hope is unchanging, but I think God changes and we change depending on what challenge is in front of us. The world that God created is a dynamic, creative, evolving entity and we as created beings are called to respond to the world in new ways. So, this third week in Advent, may our preparation be full of God’s spirit upon us, anointing us for actions that reflect our relationship with God. Amen.

-Rev. Marlene W. Pomeroy