Lest there be any doubt- as it is yet 2020- it is my privilege and purpose to announce that we areliving in the time of God’s favor!
This Day it is thus incumbent upon us, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to bare out God’s desire that we bring Good News to the oppressed; uphold the brokenhearted; comfort the many mourning, and – for God’s sake! -release the prisoners …especially now, in this Covid surge.
This is the work of the Spirit of God, and our charge!
Happily, we have a full communion of saints to take point from. On December 7, I often remember a dear mentor and my oldest child’s Godmother Hattie Kay Williams of Chicago. She was born a great-granddaughter to a couple enslaved in South Carolina until 1865; born soon after explosions of racial violence killed 23 citizens who’d dared to migrate from the south for work in Chicago.
Hyde Park in Hattie’s childhood was culturally rich; her father was a professional singer who also worked slaughterhouses and steel mills. She integrated her grade school of Jewish classmates. Later, she and her husband owned the home in which they raised their children. After she was widowed, her home became a safe house for that neighborhood, ruined by venal land speculation and the city’s racially targeted neglect.
In recovery from a brain tumor at 44, Hattie encountered God’s grace, converted to Catholicism, and dedicated her life to serving God’s people. As public housing towers rose around her and more black families moved in, she organized a representative PTA, and fought fiercely for equal education for black children. She headed a boycott that ousted the superintendent and led the Chicago School Board in 1963 to adopt an integration policy for equal education. It was never enforced. She leveraged the University of Chicago to staff a first preschool for the area in the 60’s; it was firebombed in the night. She persisted in her advocacy. She earned a Social Work degree from DePaul University. She prayed.
Hattie knew discouragement in the face of hate but embraced the power of love.
By 1980 the decaying public housing that surrounded her block of homes was an epicenter of crack, gang violence and teen pregnancy. It was a shooting range for the Chicago PD, who would shoot their path up the stairways. Hers was the home young women came to for comfort after being raped; mothers came for food and clothes for their families, and to disclose their latest losses- a son shot, the heat turned off. Hattie’s own children were not all spared the rising violence. A resourceful woman, she could have left, but chose to stay and seek justice for her neighbors.
I was privileged to live with Hattie for a semester of seminary. Hattie was co-founder and adjunct instructor of their cross-cultural intensive. We collaborated for a few more years. She was the Big Mama on her block, but she made herself small so we could see her neighbors. She wanted us to know the lives, needs, and gifts of her community, because she loved them.
Her favorite Bible quote was from John’s gospel “When I am Lifted up, I will draw all people unto myself.” That unity was an actual vision of hers, a live hope, with which she persisted in joy, and at times on piano, with song.
You likely have your own roster of personal saints. I think this pandemic and the fissures it has revealed is an excellent time to take them out, dust them off, and draw on their distinctive strengths and encouragement. Share them with your family or friends.
Paul’s short letter to the Thessalonians commands us to Rejoice- and give thanks- in all circumstances!
This oldest preserved Christian writing, likely penned CE 50-51, was sent to a circle of Christians formed by Paul. There was in Thessalonica an established Jewish community, in whose synagogue he preached. There were also worshippers of the Roman gods, and of a diversity of Oriental deities.
Working as a tentmaker, Paul shared his experience of the risen Jesus as well to others in the trades. His success among these Gentiles must have angered the Jews and precipitated his quick departure. Later, knowing the persecution their new community was facing, he wrote this letter from Corinth.
In it, Paul affirms the power of their own faith witness: The word of the Lord has echoed forth from you RESOUNDINGLY! (1 Thess.1:8)
And, responding to the harassment, threats, and possibly deaths in their young community, he assures them that those who die before Christ returns will be with him in God’s Home, and that they are to proceed not in fear but boldly and Rejoicing In every circumstance!
Reading this early letter of a young Paul is refreshing and relatable. He is not responding to a community in crisis or spelling out his later theological arguments. He is encouraging the young- in- Christ. He is bolstering his companions who are scared and maybe grieving. Paul’s trust in their witness is precious, and his affection obvious.
(Apart from the persecution and threat of death, maybe you have had your own experience of an intimate faith community. Reading this 3 ½ page letter prompted me to reflect on some of my experiences, and even to jot a few notes to former companions on the way.)
Like Paul, we as believers continue to rejoice, because believers are carriers of an irrepressible Spirit of Life that cannot be quenched. Not 2000 years ago, not now.
Over recent months as the lies upon which our “independent” and “free”, “hardworking” and “self-made” nation have been further exposed;
Those who assume for themselves intrinsic greater worth than others have ramped up the lies and attempted to further crush the oppressed.
AND YET, we do not give in to exhaustion or despair!
The irrepressible Creative Spirit who breathes life is pregnant with hope and is not asleep!
Our ever-loving God of Justice and Mercy holds firm – and urges us to act boldly.
In Advent we anticipate not the birth of an infant Jesus in Bethlehem, but the courage to meet him where he is. We know not to look to those in the temples of power, but among the laborers, and those made powerless– to hear their truth. We look to those prophets gone before us, and those rising in our cities.
We need look widely to all who are proclaiming a new and better way, ways to be human family and to rebuild our ruined cities, to make them just and sustainable. John the Baptizer showed us the way, as he made himself smaller so that we might look to the Light of the One where he pointed. And that light, that Christ now shines in us all.
So, let us look: To the artists, the youth, and community activists; to visionary leaders and organizers. Let us hear and seriously reflect upon their ideas. Test them for truth, and justice. Keep what is worthy and support that boldly, with our prayer, skill, time, and money as needed.
Let us take heart from climate leaders, energy developers and the communities, states, and nations that have continued to move into renewable energy even as our nation withdrew. Trusting that all is not lost, let us double down on our daily efforts to tread more lightly on this planet.
Each of us has a vital and maybe new vocation in these very days: We must bolster our own hope so that we can be hopeful for others. Our brokenness is all out there, and we need hope to have the energy to heal.
Rejoicing and giving thanks are actions that help build hope. Today let us give thanks for all who in our lives have served as guides, leading us toward light. If who you are thinking of is alive, maybe thank them again!
So many beloved and some remarkable people will not be with us in the new year. Lives lost to violence, poverty, CV19 or other illnesses including addiction and despair.
As we move forward in greater awareness, commitment, and love, may JOY be our memorial and celebration of their lives, and our dedication to the future generations passed on as Hope. As the devastation of generations is slowly but surely repaired, may we as one Rejoice in countless Days of God’s Favor manifest!
Prayers:
Let us pray that leaders of churches, communities, and nations forcefully reject all Violence and threat of violence toward people vulnerable because of the color of their skin, country of origin, or sexual/gender identity
For the peaceful transfer of power in our nation
For the robust and sustained rebuilding of our local communities so that no one need be without security, housing, or dignity,
For those ill with Covid, those mourning loved ones this year, and all who work essential jobs in our communities,
We pause for your own intentions, and those submitted to our book of intentions.