St. Paul's Episcopal Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Ave SW
Canton, Ohio 44702
Phone: 330-455-0286
Fax: 330-455-9818
E-mail: office@stpaulscanton.org

Advent 1
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Canton OH
Jeremiah 33:14-16

November 29, 2009
The Rev. Barbara L Bond

I saw Eternity the other night

Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,

All calm, as it was bright,

And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,

Driv’n by the spheres.

The poet Henry Vaughan begins his poem “The World” with that arresting image: Eternity as a ring of pure and endless light; an unending circle, bright and glowing. And underneath it, Time continues, relentless. Time doesn’t stop, but if we stopped and looked up, we would see Eternity. Aaahhh.

That is what the season of Advent offers us – a chance to stop and look up and see Eternity. Even if we are racing around on the ground, Eternity is right here, offering us calmness and brightness. This great Ring of light could be our Advent wreath, a circle with gathering brightness as we light more and more candles through the season. We are experiencing Eternity.

This season begins our new liturgical year, urging us forward into another big circle, of living in the great cycle of the sacred seasons. We look forward, always living in hope. We are always coming around the bend, coming home to experience God anew.

The prophet Jeremiah was likewise living in hope. He was not living in a hopeful time, either for his people or for himself. He was in prison when he wrote today’s first lesson and his people were in exile. The Jews had been defeated by the Assyrians, their land plundered, their Temple destroyed, and they had been hauled off to Babylon. But they did not despair. They looked forward to their eventual homecoming, which came about 50 years later. All this happened about 2500 years ago, and much rich writing came from this period – approximately two-thirds of the Old Testament. This yearning for home, this looking forward in hope – marks this wonderful passage. Jeremiah writes, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” God keeps God’s promises. We can trust in that. And how is God going to accomplish this for the Jews? Jeremiah continues, “[God] will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” We Christians have come to interpret this righteous Branch as Jesus, whose coming we await in this season. Jeremiah was speaking of his own times and his own situation in 587 BC, and the righteousness to which he referred was the Homecoming of his people. God would use a person, an agent, to accomplish this – King Cyrus of Persia decided to let the people go back home. The Jews interpreted this as the agency of God, using Cyrus, to accomplish God’s purpose and keep God’s promise.

We likewise believe that God can act through people. God’s decision to come and dwell among us as a person put Eternity on the map. God stepped into the human predicament in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. God broke into history, and told us to look up: hold our heads high, take an attitude of confidence, work for justice and righteousness, and build God’s kingdom right here on earth. We are invited to step into the unending ring of brightness, to be a part of God’s eternity. The absolution of our confession of sin ends this way: “Keep us in eternal.life.” Keep us here. We are already in Eternal Life.

Time sometimes does seem relentless. Another 17th century poet, Andrew Marvell, wrote famously, “But at my back I always hear time’s winged Chariot hurrying near.” How do we stop that pursuit, at our back, that sense that time is rushing and pushing us forward?

I think ritual helps. The rituals of the church put us in a different space, a space where time stops and we rehearse our sacred stories, week after week. Rituals help us to suspend time and glimpse Eternity.

Our secular society has its own rituals, some of which can seem pretty pointless. I remember about 20 years ago, when I was catering a lot of parties in December, that I finally stopped, my hands still full of bread flour, and shrieked, “What does this have to do with Christmas?” I stopped catering that year. But the secular ritual of Christmas parties continued without me. We humans need something to mark the cycle of time.

I have decided not to rail against the annual commercial blitz of shopping in December. It is apparently the secular society’s way of doing Advent. I gave up that ritual about the same time I gave up catering, and instead I have my own rituals – the rituals of the church, and the rituals of my home. I’m sure you have some too. If you still rush around shopping, fine – it is your way of marking the season. But take some time to mark it in other ways too: take some devotional time, every day, and lure yourself into a calm and bright space. Light a candle, open a window on your Advent calendar. Put up decorations, place your Nativity figures with thoughtfulness and reflection. You have God right in the palm of your hand. Miniaturized, the figure of a baby, you hold the key to Eternity. Look up. It’s right here.

AMEN