9 December 2012
“My
relationship with the Lord has grown cold” she said. “I have to work on that.”
She wasn’t
talking to me. I just couldn’t help but overhear the conversation in the booth
directly behind me, no matter how hard I tried not to hear it. I mean, you can’t put your fingers in your ears and
hum at Perkins. Not unless you are small enough to order off the children’s
menu. That sort of behavior is unbecoming in an adult. Likewise, turning around
and joining a conversation with strangers is generally not an option. But if it
were, this is what I would like to have said: “How is your relationship with
your people? Do you have a warm relationship with the people you see every day?
Because we relate to God through other people.”
I was just
reading Malachi (the last book in the Old Testament). In Malachi’s day, people
were complaining that God did not seem to care about their troubles. People
thought that if they went to the temple and offered the usual sacrifice, if
they observed the ritual and the rules, that they out to get something out of
it. People were starting to complain. Why are we going to all this trouble if
God does not show?
Malachi said to them, if you want
God to be faithful to you, then you all should be faithful to your wives. If
you want God to be fair, you better treat other people fairly. If you want God
to be generous, then be generous to people who are in need. Simple really.
Simple to understand; it’s the doing
that’s difficult.
This is the
Sunday—the second Sunday in Advent-- when we sing about preparing a way in the
wilderness. In the metaphorical language of the church, during Advent we
prepare a way for Jesus to enter into our hearts. That is poetic language; it’s
beautiful. It is also meaningless, unless by “Jesus” we mean people. We open
our hearts to other people by getting to know them, so that their joys become our joys, and their cares become our cares.
But that too is meaningless, unless
by “opening our hearts” we mean not just being mindful of the miseries of
others, but doing whatever we can to relieve the miseries of others, working as
hard to relieve their miseries as we work to relieve our own. If faith is just
a feeling, what earthly good is that? What difference in the world does it make
for us to feel all warm and Jesus-y in our hearts?
The
prophets speak of a change of heart but they don’t stop there. Words of glad
tidings are empty if they are not followed by deeds. This is how the Prince of
Peace comes into the world, to save the world: First the Godly one is born into
our hearts, then our minds, then our bodies. This is how we become drenched in
Godliness, this is how the holy works through us. Feel it. Think it. And go and
do. This is the good news. Thanks be to God. Amen.
