December 23, 2007
(Fourth Sunday of Advent)
God the Unexpected
by The Rev. Carol Sanford,
Priest Associate
Isaiah 7:10-16 • Psalm 80:1-7,
16-18 • Romans 1:1-7 •
Matthew 1:18-25
(From
The Lectionary Page)
Happy Fourth Sunday in Advent! As a child, I was so excited about Christmas coming that I called December 23rd Christmas Eve eve; it seemed to bring Christmas closer. Actually, I still do. That sense of happy anticipation and expectation of delight is just as true for me now as it was then; perhaps even more so, in some ways. I still get excited: about the children’s pageant and the glorious music, the greens and the incense; everything that goes into our great liturgies of the Nativity, our celebrations of our belief in the unbelievable, the Incarnation, God coming among us as the infant Jesus.
And, to be honest, I also love many of the most secular symbols and customs of the season, the gingerbread and the glitter and the tinsel. My heart may be centered on watching for the child in the manger, and "O Come O Come Immanuel" is playing in my car, but I’m also humming “Frosty the Snowman” in the supermarket, and stirring my hot chocolate with a peppermint candy cane. And, of course, I love the holiday movie season. So please bear with me for a brief Advent diversion into the cinema multiplex.
I invite you to consider with me the surprising Advent message in the recently much-maligned film, The Golden Compass. This movie is the first installment in the latest fantasy epic that has many Christians up in arms as being anti-religious, atheistic and, they say, blatantly anti-God.
I don’t know if the reports are accurate, but I have read that the author of the books is, in fact, an atheist, and doesn’t mind saying so. If this is true, then I, for one, believe that he has failed miserably in putting forth his own opinion. When I read The Golden Compass years ago, I thought it was all about God, and despite the recent publicity saying that the film is atheistic, I found the movie to be filled with God. After all, the people in the film and, well, this is fantasy, talking animals and various spirits along with so-called witches and assorted flying folk, seemed to spend a great deal of time and effort, sometimes at their own serious personal risk, in helping and caring for one another. True, the movie has suspiciously priestly-looking bad guys, who function in big buildings with curiously familiar arched windows, rather like the ones in our nave, and the good guys are witches and polar bears and philosopher/scientists rather than religious folk. Still, by whatever name Love is called, Love is always ‘God’ to me.
Think about it: Love is all over this supposedly Godless movie, but, then, God shows up all over the place all the time, when expected and when least expected. Usually, it’s simply a question of what we’re looking for and what we expect to see. In times and places and hearts of deepest despair, in the darkest nights of nations and of souls, the light shines forth. Most of us have read of the small kindnesses done in concentration camps, or we can recognize the consistent acts of racial and religious and politically partisan forgiveness that enable our civic and national life to continue, or we observe within our families and within ourselves tender emotions that urge and allow us to heal from various types of illness and trauma.
God shows up in emergency shelters and addiction treatment centers and even under the bridges we drive over on our way home. God shows up in music and candles and in the Christmas gifts we give each other, and She is with us in war zones and hospitals and at 3:00 a.m. when we are worried and lonely and frightened. God shows up at unexpected times and unexpected ways, but it helps if we are watching and waiting for Him.
Mary expected to go to her husband demonstrably a virgin. God showed up and complicated matters, but Mary said ‘yes’ and the world was saved from sin and death.
Joseph did not expect his betrothed to be pregnant. One reasonable response would have been for him to follow Scriptural law by returning her to her father and initiating her death by stoning. But God showed up, and Joseph believed the message and Mary lived and her son was born and we are born into new life in him.
A nation under the burden of ethnic and religious domination did not expect to be rescued by an unarmed, defenseless infant, but Jesus came as Savior and Redeemer of the earth wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
No one expected a crucifixion to transform a world, but God showed up, and it did.
God will show up in unexpected ways and in unexpected places, because there is no darkness so opaque that the light cannot shine through, whether it is the bleak midwinter cloud cover, the pain of loss and grief, our own sin or the ghastly affects of cultures gone astray.
We spend this Advent season, most of us, in concentrated expectation of some brief moments of bright light. We look for the excitement on our children’s faces, or for the flush of joy when we hear the first trumpets announcing in the nave the birth of Christ. Perhaps it is the expectation of a wonderful meal or the beauty being prepared by our musicians and florists, or the sight of our Bishop among us that we happily anticipate. We may be excited about the prospect of giving or receiving a special gift.
We have many expectations this time of year, and rightfully and joyfully so. Remember, though, that God can also surprise us. Look for the star and watch the manger for the coming of Christ among us. Remember St. Joseph, the guardian earthly father and Mary, the bearer of God in the flesh. And take heart. Enjoy this day and the days to come. Have a cup of cocoa and a peppermint stick. Call an old friend. Go to a movie. Take a nap, even though you have gifts yet to wrap. Be quiet for just a few moments today, this last Sunday in Advent, and watch expectantly for the dawning presence of God everywhere.
I may be entirely missing some dreadful message in the movie The Golden Compass, so please don’t presume any endorsement on my part. All I know is what I saw there, and that I have added a major character in that film, a polar bear, to the figures in our home Nativity scene awaiting the miraculous birth.
I am hoping that this will remind me that when any form of darkness is visible, even when God is denied or seems to be absent, we can rest assured that God will insist on being with us and that his name shall be called Jesus, and that the Sun of Righteousness will shine upon us and scatter the darkness from before our path, sometimes when we expect Him, and even when we don’t. Amen.
