What we need is here.

Advent Fellowship Homily

12.14.16

Isaiah 35:1-10

Please pray with me,

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our rock, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen. 

Leaning forward to the coming of Christ, we hear images from Isaiah that God is already in our midst.  We hear of the land itself being glad and rejoicing with joy and singing. 

We are reminded to be strong, do not fear.  For here is your God. 

We hear of great transformations in people and places and things that can only be transformed through the amazing power and grace of God’s love. 

Yet, we still find ourselves waiting. 

We wonder what the future will bring, in our hearts, families, nation and world. 

While we know of the coming of the one who died for our sins, we still walk sometimes in fear, uncertain of God’s plan of action.  Yet in reality, all we need is already here. 

What we need is here is the final line from a Wendell Berry poem entitled, The Wild Geese. 

I invite you to close your eyes and listen to the poem. 

The Wild Geese

Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer's end. In time's maze
over fall fields, we name names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed's marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

Open your eyes and see…What we need is here. 

In the lights that shine in the darkness, in the bread and wine shared at this table, in the empty cross that hangs before us….God is here. 

In the midst of waiting and uncertainty, what we need is here. 

Emmanuel, God with us, is here. 

This community of faith helps us to see beyond ourselves and our own needs, to reality that God calls us into a larger community on where God is always present.   

In a sanctuary filled with choirs and songs, God is here. 

In Sunday school classrooms with questions, laughter and prayer, God is here. 

In the abundance of gifts to be distributed to those less fortunate, God is here. 

In the conversations and meals shared in the social hall, God is here. 

In the gathering of family and friends to say goodbye to a loved one, God is here. 

In the waters of baptism, God is here.

In the word proclaimed, God is here.

In the bread and wine, God is here. 

In the light that breaks into the darkness.  God is here. 

What we need is here. 

Be strong and do not fear, for here is your God. 

And now may the peace, which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and let all God’s people say, amen.