The Way of Return

Sermon

Well, we are back to the season of waiting.

In the life of the church, the four Sundays before Christmas Day are known as Advent, in which we are waiting for the birth of Emmanuel: God with Us. The scripture this morning calls us to prepare, to ready ourselves to receive God. Writer Michelle Blake noticed that one of the essential paradoxes of Advent is that while we wait for God, we are with God all along. While we need to be reassured of God’s arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home… The mind can’t grasp paradox; it is the knowledge of the soul. So today, let’s tap into soul-knowledge.

However you look at it, waiting is difficult. A few weeks back, I saw a meme of a man taking a bag of garbage to the trash can. The garbage bag was labeled “2020.” We are waiting to toss out 2020, aren’t we? We are waiting for vaccines for COVID-19 to be available. We are waiting to be done with closed businesses, physical separations, and wearing face masks. We are waiting for healing in our city and nation.

Another thing I’m waiting for (and working on) is putting in a backyard ADU (alternative dwelling unit) for my parents to live in. Mom and Dad are selling their home in New Mexico and moving in as soon as we complete the project. Right now, we are waiting on city permits to begin construction.

We have a long way to go for their new homecoming.

Longing for Mom and Dad to be here, near me, is a continuation of our journey from long ago. When I was a child, my family moved about every two to four years, from Oklahoma to Kansas to Nebraska to Tennessee to Colorado. My dad was a college professor and pastor. We moved frequently because of his sense of calling. All that moving felt like hardship because we were frequently saying goodbye to home and friends. We were always longing for home, and at the same time, we were home together, a family on the move. There’s another paradox.

Do any of you remember that old TV show “Lost in Space” (with the very cheesy special effects)? I was a huge fan, probably because I identified with the family in the show. The Robinson family was the first family in space to venture from earth toward the Alpha Centauri solar system. By sabotage, they were knocked off course and lost. Every week, every episode, found them seeking their way home. With our frequent moves, like Penny Robinson, I felt that the Miller family was “Lost in Space.”

Right now, we are all feeling a little lost. At times, it even feels like exile. We hope that 2021 will bring good changes, but now, we are still in the wilderness, preparing the way, the best that we can. That brings us to John the Baptist, in the wilderness, baptizing people of repentance for forgiveness of sin.

If you were to title the whole of Mark’s Gospel, it might be: “Prepare the Way of the Lord.” Biblical scholar Marcus Borg suggested that in Mark’s Gospel, “repentance” means a return journey, out of exile, and back home to God.

So, our reading today points to a key theme: A journey out of exile. Following the way of Jesus is following the way back home. What is the way of Jesus? Well, look at his life: truth-telling, mercy-living and forgiveness-giving. Life focused on loving those at the margins. Life centered not on the self, but on

loving neighbor and enemy. When we prepare the way of the Lord, we follow the way of Jesus with God is at the center.

We are in the wilderness, yes, but wilderness time is an opportunity for vigorous and honest self- inventory. Now, we may consider how have we been in exile, as a people, and as individuals. We ask, why is the world the way it is? How have we turned away from God? From one another? When COVID-19 is no longer threatening, what will we keep from this time? What will we return home to? Why is the world the way it is?

Well, it’s because we haven’t practiced the reality of the gifts that God is always giving. Swedish economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld remarked: “How long the road is. But, for all the time the journey has already taken, how you have needed every second of it in order to learn what the road passes-by.”

What has the road passed by in our lives? What has been in exile in our civic life? When we seriously pursue these questions, we are preparing the way of the Lord, and we turn toward one another. And we turn toward God, acknowledging that we are no longer living a life all focused on ourselves. Yes, it is a paradox: Though we are waiting for God, God is always with us, even in the wilderness. And God is always offering gifts.

Like most of us, our Thanksgiving meal was unusual. But God gave us gifts in that meal. My young adult sons and I, plus my nephew (the son of my brother), his partner, and their new baby, met out on our back porch for a vegan Thanksgiving. Masked, and bundled in coats and blankets, we remembered the life of my brother, who died just one year ago. On the table right along with stuffed mushrooms and roasted veggies was a feast of memories: some joyful and some painful. Lance died suddenly and way too soon. Confusion and anger had tinged even some of the good memories. But as the bright afternoon dimmed toward twilight, I felt a sense of coming home to something new: my grown-up nephew, now a loving dad, sharing what he’d learned from my brother about dedication, attention, and loving parenting. I returned to remembering the fun things about Lance: his sense of humor, his quick mind, his thoughtfulness. For my sons, there was the coming home to connections with family, since they hadn’t seen their cousin in 15 years. For my nephew, there was sharing particular details about Lance and our family stories, a special bond we shared. As we broke bread together, we received gifts from one another, gifts of vulnerability, love, and joy. I realized that this is not the family I pictured a decade ago, but it is home. We have come out of exile. We have found Alpha Centauri and home.

Today, Westminster celebrates another feast: Communion. As a community, we come to the table, hungry for so many things. What are you hungry for? Healing? Safety? Reconciliation? Love? Hope? Peace?

As we break and eat the bread of life, we remember the way of Jesus that is always about Love. The way of Jesus which calls us back from narrow self-concern and to God at our center and the way of forgiveness.

What would our lives be like if every time we sat down to break bread, we ate and remembered that Jesus is with us wherever we are on the journey. Even in the wilderness waiting, God is with us, renewing our hearts to be home for the people and love that comes in surprising ways.

No more a stranger, or a guest, but like a child, at home.