I lived for a time in a second story apartment in Philadelphia. In many ways Philly has a climate similar to Spokane, very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. If anything, because of the humidity it is more extreme, the hot is more stifling and the winter is filled with more snow and frost. The winter there was bleak, first there was great flooding, washing away paths and roads and destroying basements and ground floors everywhere. Then there was the freeze, day after day with a wind chill in the single digits and below. As I would sit at the window of my apartment, staring out into the cold I had an intimate view of a great magnolia tree, it was huge and I looked right out into its limbs. It had been beautiful when we moved in in the summer all dark waxy leaves and blooms. Then fall came with great rains and the leaves and blooms fell to the ground a sad wilted mess and the tree was bare like the rest of the maples and oaks on our street. But suddenly one day in the dead of winter the magnolia was magnificent again. One day as I sat wrapped in a blankets cursing the furnace which was shoddy at best I looked out the window to see what I was sure were buds on the tree. Sure enough this tree that thrives in a hot southern climate picked the coldest days of the year to promise that it would bloom again and before we knew it. It wasn't much but it was a sign of hope, an act of faith in the dead of winter.
My tree budding in the deep cold of winter was a sign of hope but it only kept me going for so long. Working as a pastor I got calls often from families who couldn't afford something they needed to be warm for this season, a car battery, money to keep their heat on, the extra food needed for active children who shivered through the day and night. I love snow but many things about this winter made each snowstorm seem more bleak. Was there nothing to do but wait the winter out? Each time I got a call like this I looked around the city, I spent the afternoon on the phone and suddenly I started to notice buds of hope. I found volunteer city employees who took their personal time to walk the poor and lost through the city's aid programs so that they could continue to heat their homes without going into great debt. I found within my own congregation people ready and willing to organize a food program for anyone who came to our door hungry. I found mechanics in the congregation and neighborhood willing to help low income families winterize their cars and stretch the usable years they got out of them. These people, the volunteers, the mechanics and the food collectors were already doing these things right under my nose. But it took a while in the midst of the hustle and bustle of winter and the troubles of many people to notice how this branch of the kingdom was working
All around us in this bleak, wintry world are signs of hope, like buds on the magnolia tree in the deepest part of the darkest season. Here in Spokane, some of you might be familiar with this or following it in the paper, the Spokesman every year does a charity drive to provide food and toys to people in Spokane and increasingly from all over the northwest, as far away as southern Idaho and Montana. They publish articles about it each day and the article for Friday explained that in order to make it work they have to act almost entirely on faith. To make the most of the money given, indeed to stretch it far enough to accommodate all of the need many of the supplies have to be ordered in the summer, before any money is received for the year. Estimates are made about how much they will need, things are ordered and then everyone hopes that enough money will come in during the brief period that money is collected. Every year enough money has come in, it comes from young and old, wealthy and struggling but it also comes from those it was meant to help, children who collect their meager allowances to send and people who come to pick up their food vouchers only to donate them back as they see those around them in even more need and are inspired by the spirit of charity. On the cold snow covered Spokane Fair grounds the kingdom sprouts, grows and blooms in the love and generosity of those who know what a struggle this season can be.
Our lesson today speaks of hopeless things happening, of people suffering and it says that in the midst of this suffering will come signs of the kingdom, words of hope and promises of redemption. Jeremiah speaks of a new time for the people of God, one marked by safety and peace. These things that the people of God longed for are just the same today as they were two thousand years ago and more. The greatest concerns are the desire for peace and the need for safety and security. We share these same concerns now because living in the kingdom means being surrounded by the reality of the world but remaining assured by the loving and redemptive presence of Christ and looking forward to the future glory of the kingdom. We are assured by the words of Christ, by his presence with us here and at the table that each day we are part of the kingdom even as we walk in the darkness of the winter.
Jesus says that like the leaf buds on a tree in the mid-winter we will see signs that the kingdom is near, that it is all around.
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, advent a season of waiting, of reflection and of hope. During the next four weeks as we approach the manger and await the birth of the Christ child be looking around you for those in need, keep an eye out so that you might bring hope to the hopeless this season so that you yourself might be a sign of the kingdom as we live in it here and now. But also take time to notice the buds of hope appearing all around us reminding us that the kingdom of God is with us now and is ever approaching in even greater glory.
Here in this congregation especially you will have opportunity to notice buds of hope. As you begin the call process there must be mixed feelings, some fear and apprehension and some loneliness as you journey through this season without a regular pastor but the call process can be one of great hope as you learn about yourself as a congregation and as you imagine an exciting new future for Zion and for the community. So take time this advent as you think about the future of the congregation to look for signs of how you fit into the kingdom and signs of the glorious hope that is the promise of the coming of Christ.
Advent is a time of expectation, we expect the Christ child and we look for the kingdom, we expect growth in our spiritual lives and we look for peace around us, we spend time in silent darkness and we look for the light. This advent may we all take the time to notice signs of new life to come, like watching a tree bud in the midst of winter may we watch the kingdom grow in unlikely and wonderful ways and may we expect to meet Christ in the life of the world around us.
Amen
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