It’s this time of the year again ..a difficult time for some and for others a good time ….one more Sunday ..Christ the King Sunday ..Thanks Giving and then the church year is over. In 2 weeks all starts again with Advent and a new Birth at Christmas.
Transition is the theme and the joys and difficulties of it ..the hopes and the despair ..both, side by side like the 2 lessons we heard from Isaiah and Luke. They talk about how bad things can become and about how well/good all matter of things will be. They talk about despair and hope, death and resurrection, Good Friday and Easter Morning. They talk about birthing pains ..transitions and change, they talk about humans and God.
How does one feel when you see your whole world falling apart in and around you? How do those Haitian people feel now ..who lost everything? How do you live with famine ..deadly floods and war?
But we do not need to go to other countries …..How do we live with the death of a child? How do we live with divorce ..addiction and lonliness ..a terminal illness.
I think we all in our lifes sooner or later come across something we call despair. Maybe not as grand in the headlines as in earthquakes ..tsunamies ..wars and the likes ..more quieter ..like a more privat loss of some kind /may it have been a patient ..or a beloved career, a partner ..a loved one. It can also be the loss of Hope or Joy, meanng and purpose ..and suddenly we find ourselves after much struggle – loud or quietly - eye to eye with despair ..eye to eye with not knowing what to do. For many Christmas and ThanksGiving can be such a time where we come eye to eye with our lonliness, grief and tears; inescapable it comes every year.
And around and into those moments of despair is what those 2 lessons are trying to speak to. The Gospel in no uncertain terms tells us that life can be bad / very bad ..and if we think its bad ..it can come worse. Life is not like a sight seeing trip .. like the deciples admire what they see .. it can be bad ..desolete ..lonly and full of pain and injustice! But this is just one side ..though a side that must be seen, faced, acknowledge ..like good Friday ..before the other side ..the end of the story ..Easter …can unfold. And that Easter we hear in the lesson of Isaiah.
Isaiah 65:17-25
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD--
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent-- its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
There will be justice …there will be peace ….there will be joy and Love!
No story ends with despair ..despair is not the last thing, it might feel like it ..it might taste like it and it might look like it. Jesus felt it and we feel it! And in the same way Jesus surrendered to the will of God we can do that too …we can surrender all those feelings and emotions to God. And when we do that ..when we really let go of all that brought or pushed us to that place of despair a sudden transition takes place ..it comes quietly ..bits and pieces of silence ..and peace ..like first light after a very dark night.
If we don’t let God into those places ..things will not change ….so in regards to the upcoming Christmas/Holiday season …. Let God into your lonliness ..into all the pain and memories ..let God walk you through it ……step by step ..and you will feel bits and pieces of silence and peace and once God walked you through, the despair will be gone!, peace will have steped into its place.
