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Sermon November 27, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
First Sunday of Advent
https://lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv1_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__November_27__2022
Video: https://youtu.be/DiZ7ybBy-s0
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2:4
Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Matthew 26:40-42
Please be seated
“They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the peope knew magic. And they would walk up on the air like climbin’ up on a gate. And they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Black, shiny wings flappin’ against the blue up there.”
So begins the American Black Folktale from the book by Virginia Hamilton, The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales. It’s believed the folktale was told as a way to explain how some people who were enslaved escaped. One day they’d be working in the field or the owner’s house and then suddenly, they’d be gone.
As we know, that journey and those attempts to escape being enslaved were then, as even now, perilous. The desire for freedom was so strong amongst those enslaved. The hope for a different life was so strong.
In today’s Gospel Jesus is telling us he will come again, but that we will not know the exact day and time. In verses 40 and 41, we hear how two will be working in the fields and one will be taken and how two women will be grinding meal together and one will be taken. The people could fly, right??
Our readings today, while reminding us that Jesus will come again, also give us a vision of what God’s reign on earth will look like; a vision of freedom and peace, I think. They also instruct us in the way we should live at all times, since we do not know the exact day and time of the coming of Jesus or God’s reign on earth.
We hear, for instance, that war shall cease. From that we know we must work for peace…for peace among all of God’s creation here and now. We must ask ourselves as we live our lives, which actions create peace in our lives, in our neighbors’ lives and in the world?
Jesus reminds us that we must do our daily work, whether it be in the fields or grinding meal in the courtyard. We keep doing the work we are called to do.
At the same time, Paul reminds us to live honorably, and to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the commentaries I read this week said, “Hopeful people are troublemakers in the world, and the hope that is in them is the source of vitality, energy, courage and life itself.” (p. 11)
When we live knowing that Christ is coming…when we live knowing that we must be always awake and aware of the coming of Christ…when we live our daily and often ordinary lives following Jesus’ teachings as best as we can, we are hopeful people. We are troublemakers in the world, because we are fully in this world and yet not of this world. We have vitality, energy, courage and life itself. We have peace. And most of all, we have freedom.
We can truly fly.
Amen
The People Could Fly https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:93886d73-a820-4dde-8408-f456e996dd59
Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year A, Volume 1, p. 11
