St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen & Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
December 9, 2018
Year C: The Second
Sunday of Advent
Baruch 5:1-9
Canticle 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
Wilderness Places and Wilderness Times
If
you were here last week and remember my sermon, you may recall that I showed
off a little bit about how far I go back in Jersey City. I talked about how
different the Hudson Mall was back when I was a kid, bustling with big crowds
and many different stores, including, surprisingly enough, a Catholic bookstore
and chapel run by nuns.
Well,
the problem with showing off is that there’s usually someone who can show off a
little bit more and, sure enough, after last week’s 8:00 service our
parishioner Mike Rems shared with me some of his Hudson Mall memories
which go farther back then mine – so far back that he remembers when there were
no stores there at all – just marshland – just empty wilderness where as a kid
he and his pals went hunting for small creatures – unsuccessfully, he says.
By
the time I was a kid in the 1970s, most of our city and county had been paved
over and built up, though I remember there was a little patch of wilderness
along the railroad tracks back behind Country Village, a little wilderness with
a footpath running through, a little wilderness where I was warned never to go.
Today
a house sits on that land, and if you’re looking for wilderness around here, I
guess you have to go over to Lincoln Park West or Liberty Park and look in just
the right direction and squint a little bit – and then you can almost imagine
you’re in the wilderness.
Now,
there may not be much natural wilderness left around here, but in many other
ways, our city is very much a wilderness.
There’s
the wilderness along some of our major avenues and along many of our side
streets where danger seems to lurk on nearly every corner and so many houses
and buildings sit looking forlorn, neglected, abandoned.
There’s
the wilderness of people living in shockingly poor conditions – crumbling walls
– infestation of vermin – no heat – and the fear that they will lose even that
to landlords who want as much rent as they can get.
And,
on the other hand, there’s the wilderness of the good landlords, the good supers,
and the good homeowners, who do their best to keep up their buildings and
sidewalks, but challenged every single day by the neglect and abuse of tenants
and neighbors.
There’s
the wilderness of too many of our schools, where there’s no running water, not
enough supplies, not enough family support, and teachers are demoralized and
exhausted by low pay, a crushing amount of paperwork, and very little respect.
And,
finally, and most important, there’s the wilderness in the hearts of so many of
our people – loneliness, regret, fear, anger – and the disorientation caused by
our rapidly changing society and economy that seems to be leaving us behind.
So,
yes, Jersey City is a paved-over place, but we don’t have to travel very far at
all to find wilderness places and wilderness times.
There’s
a funny thing about wilderness places and wilderness times, though, that ancient people
understood and that maybe we’ve forgotten.
In
the wilderness places and wilderness times, we recognize only too well our weakness and
dependence, so it’s there – in the wilderness - that we can most clearly experience
God’s presence and God’s power.
On
this second Sunday of preparation, we turn our attention to one of the central
characters of Advent, John the Baptist.
It’s
only Luke the Evangelist who gives us some of the Baptist’s back story – only
Luke who tells us that John and Jesus were family, related through their
mothers – only Luke who tells us that John was the son of Zechariah the priest,
who sings to his son the song we just said together:
“You,
my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before
the Lord to prepare his way…”
And,
Luke tells us that John and Jesus - and all of the others that we are about to
hear about in the Gospel – they all lived in the wilderness of the Roman Empire,
under the rule of a particularly grotesque and depraved emperor named Tiberius.
All of the people
we’re about to hear about in the Gospel – they all lived under lesser but still
bad news officials like Pontius Pilate, and also the Jewish priests who had sold
out to the Romans to save their people, or maybe just to save themselves.
The
Gospel itself takes place in a wilderness place and a wilderness time.
Luke
doesn’t tell us anything about John the Baptist from his birth until what we
heard today: we’re told that the word of God came to him in the wilderness and
then he traveled in the area around the Jordan River and began calling people –
began calling people living in the wilderness of a brutal empire – people
living in the wilderness of their own sin and despair.
John called people
to be baptized – to repent - to change their hearts – to change their ways – to
prepare for the salvation of God.
God
comes to us in wilderness places and wilderness times.
This
all happened a long time ago, right?
But, I’ve talked to enough of you - and I’ve
experienced it myself in my own life – to know that God is still at work – God
is still coming to us in our wilderness places and wilderness times.
And
then, just as God used John the Baptist, God sends us to people who are in
their own wilderness places and wilderness times.
I
think of one of our parishioners who calls a friend who is in the wilderness of
illness and depression – calls her every single day - to make sure she’s
hanging in there - in his own quiet way, offering her encouragement, support,
and love.
I
think of someone who called me the other day concerned about a mutual friend of
ours who is in the wilderness of alcoholism, quite literally drinking himself
to death – saying to me that we have to do something – we have to
try our best to save him because we love him and his life is worth living.
And,
yes, I think of the hospitality we offered to our Family Promise guests – talk
about people in a wilderness time and place – sharing God’s love with them
right here in our spiritual home.
And,
I think of the monthly feasts we serve at the homeless drop-in center – and the
now the sandwiches that we also make – and the socks and blankets that we’re
collecting – and Mia’s beautiful vision (which we have surpassed, by the
way!) - all to feed and warm people who are living in the wilderness of the
streets or in the shelters.
And,
I also think of Jersey City Together – this remarkable organization that is
just a few years old but has already made such a difference in our own lives
and in the lives of so many of our neighbors – bringing hope and power to
people living in the wilderness of unsafe neighborhoods – the wilderness of
dilapidated apartments – the wilderness of substandard schools.
I think of Jersey
City Together, which has called on the leaders of our city to, in a way, repent
– to change their ways.
And now this
afternoon we’ll continue this good and holy work and I hope you’ll be there.
So, yes, we live
in a paved-over place, but we don’t have to travel far at all to find
wilderness places and wilderness times.
Fortunately, God
comes to us in the wilderness – and then, God sends us out to our
brothers and sisters in the wilderness, sometimes calling on them to change
their ways – but most of all, offering them – offering one another - the overflowing
love of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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