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.
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.
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