Third Sunday of Advent: The Empowerment of Those Thought to Be Weak

This Third Sunday of Advent means that we are half way between the beginning of the Advent Season and the celebration of Christmas.  Here in Minnesota we have been braving a massive blizzard, said to be the biggest since 1991.  The huge snow fall with drifts that will go up to and past your knees when walking in the newly fallen snow.  It is as reminder at least to me that the best is yet to come.  Snow is beautiful when it falls, but it is a pain to remove.  We love to look at it, but hate to clean it off of our cars/trucks or other vehicles.  The same can be said for helping the underprivileged of our society.  It is easy for all of us including myself to talk about helping those who are facing racism, sexism, class/economic and social crisis', etc, but don't let us get too close to actually doing something about it.  If we do, the politicians won't have any further excuses to make for not extending unemployment benefits, or repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. 

Today's alternate Psalm response is the Magnificat.  That song that Mary sang when she visited Elizabeth found in Luke 1: 46-55.  In the Magnificat Mary sings of how God has show the strength of God's arm and scattered the proud in their conceit.  God has cast down the mighty and lifted up the lowly.  God has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich have been sent empty.  Mary sings of a society where the privileged no longer dominate the underprivileged, because God has recognized the underprivileged as God's own people.  When God came to us in Christ on that first Christmas, God claimed all of humankind as God's own and those who were rich became poor, so that those who were poor might become rich with God's mercy and goodness.

The readings for this weekends Liturgy speak of a world changed by God's intervention, not by some mysterious episode alone, but by those who have been touched by God's transforming love.  Transformation happens in our human hearts when "Only in God is my soul at rest, in God comes my salvation."  (See Psalm 62).  Yet, God's salvation is not just about the transformation of our own lives by God's grace, it is also the willingness to be about the transformation of a society riddled with prejudice, violence and cruelty.   A society in which violence against gay and lesbian people in Uganda is only growing because of the misinformation delivered there by the Missionaries of Hate.  As a result, Jesus Christ is getting a bad Name.  Rather than reforming society to watch and wait for the return of Jesus with attitudes of inclusion and love, the Name of Jesus is misused to advance the kingdom of darkness and violence.  In Isaiah 35: 1-10 we read about a desert land where the flowers now bloom and water flows.  Those who were once fearful can now find courage and strength.  In a world like that, those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer (LGBTQ) are no longer losing while heterosexuals and those who are single gender minded benefit.  Anti-immigration bills and bills that take organ transplants away from those who need them as has happened in Arizona, just would not happen, because we recognize God's loving creation and presence in every living person.  Unemployment benefits for everyone including the 99er's would not become hostage to tax breaks for the wealthy, because we realize that the underprivileged are also worth taking care of.

In our Gospel today, Matthew 11:2-11 John the Baptist has been taken prisoner by Herod.  He wants to know if Jesus is in fact the one John was sent to "prepare the way for."  Jesus sent word back to John telling him of how those who were previously on the margins of society, the underprivileged now know that God includes them as God's people.  John the Baptist hears that God has not forgotten those that society and the Church seem to have forgotten.  They too are part of God's loving plan for all of creation.  

How do we know that God is active and working in our time?  As we watch and wait for the coming of Christ this Advent, how do we see God acting in our time?  When concerned people literally speak up, either by writing a letter to our leaders, help at a soup kitchen, help deliver hot meals to those living with HIV/AIDS, or push for the repeal of DADT, God is active through what we do.  Because as we speak up or help, the hungry are filled with good things, while the rich are sent away empty.  God scatters the proud of heart, while raising up the lowly, because through our work God has put a name and a face on those who would otherwise go unforgotten.  As Christianist groups work harder and harder to make false statements about LGBTQ people, those of us who are LGBTQ who speak up by telling our stories help push back against those who want to see us disappear in to obscurity.  As we come out to our friends, families, church communities, work places etc, we let people know that the folks that Fred Phelps, Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer and Paul Cameron bash are us. People that others know and care a lot about.  When we allow people to know that we are here and that we have hearts that love other people very deeply, God releases those who would otherwise be held captive. 

As we continue on our Advent journey to Christmas, let us watch and wait while we give evidence of God's transforming power.  May God transform us and our world around us so that all many know that God has a special place for them and us.  May all around us know and hear of God's unconditional and all-inclusive love by our faith and works that are the result of a world transformed.

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent, page 212).

Most gracious God,
        be with us as together we seek to transform
        the systems which oppress so many.
    Strengthen our resistance not to conform to the status quo and
        encourage us to question our own change movements,
        their goals and means, and what it means to lead and follow
        faithfully.
    Amen. (Prayerfully Out in Scripture)