Our passage today talks about “rending our hearts and not our garments”. I want to take notice of our hearts this morning...so let’s be still for a moment and find our own heartbeats...
Arriving God, open our hearts to you. In this season and every season, help us to notice the beauty all around, the grace and peace that comes in every breath, the love that is ours, through your son Jesus Christ, AMEN.
Joel is another Old Testament prophet. We’re not sure exactly what year he was writing, but many scholars suppose it was after the Hebrews had resumed worship after their exile. After years of being far from home, now they were back!
Many of the OT prophets, namely Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah were very critical of worship. But Joel seems to think it is central to the life of the faithful community. Now, I imagine he would have been just as critical as the others if worship was empty and void of meaning in its words and rituals, if it was just a safe place to hide from the world and even from yourself. But Joel points to a certain wholeness in worship. Bringing your whole self -- the good, the bad, the honest. “Rend your hearts.”
“Where you at?!” like my brother always says on the phone when it seems like I’m drifting or not paying attention.
God is calling us back -- back to the fold, back to honesty, back to our truest, best selves. Back home, you could say. Advent is the time to come home, to return to God. Open your hearts. “Return to me with all your heart, says the Lord.”
When was the last time you noticed your heart beating?
Everything else feels full -- the pace, the stress, perhaps the anger or the frustration or the resentment, the sorrow, the calendar, the parking lots, the check-out lines and phone lines -- everything else seems so full, and yet our hearts beat, right beneath the surface, full of life, pumping and circulating oxygen. Every second is a miracle. But we hardly notice.
The first step here, in our Advent return, is to slow down and notice the grace that is as close to us as our beating hearts.
Then we’re called to open our hearts to the invitation and the arrival of God.
Sometimes, filling ourselves in every other way blocks us from being filled with God’s grace and peace. But God arrives whether we’re ready or not, sisters and brothers in Christ. God enters our busyness and our sorrows. God offers us peace, and often that peace starts by working its way into our world and into our lives, from the inside out. It starts in our hearts. Notice your heart this week. Notice your breathing. Visualize God’s deep peace and unending grace pulsing through your veins. This is Advent.
Then, our text says, with open hearts we receive even more. The Spirit of the living God. “I will pour out my spirit on all, flesh,” we hear today. Our children will be prophets. (“Sons and daughters will prophesy.”) We have prophets among us. Kids are not just cute and serendipitous: Darin offered a powerful image this week in his sermon to the pastors of his/our 8-year-old Clare leading them to meet their neighbors, get to know their neighbors...because, you know, kids play. But barriers -- some of the greatest are between our own neighbors -- barriers come down and the child shall lead them. Children shall be prophets when our hearts are open…
And old men shall dream dreams when our hearts are open.
I had an old man once tell me -- I was preaching about God’s dream and God inviting us into that dream of peace and justice where all are fed, clothed, housed, and included. And he just shouted at me: “I don’t want to dream!” Joel offers a different picture here...of old men falling asleep and dreaming of wholeness, a better world, where all receive bread at the table, where all including old men hear words of encouragement (not criticism), affection (not neglect), undeserved grace (not the curse of responsibility). This Spirit of God pours out on all flesh, and everyone’s included, even the curmudgeon or the cruel...or the enemy.
That’s the thing about this theme of opening our hearts. When that happens -- and it happens with the Spirit’s aid -- when our hearts are opened, there’s room for everyone! God turns our enemies into recipients of our compassion. We don’t have to agree with those who we deem opposite, but we can feel care and concern for them, for their well being too. When we let go of their cruelty and criticism, even their violence and abuse. (That’s the challenge, but with God...)
When we let go of that -- rather than letting it sink in -- when we get back to noticing our heartbeat -- rending our heart to God -- then we can even look at those who oppose us, with compassion, grace, perhaps even forgiveness, certainly patience. [pause] Let the children lead us there, too.
Friends in Christ, Advent is a time for new beginnings, for clearing out, and opening up. [pause]
This week, they poked two big holes in the front of our sanctuary -- the new doors that will go into our sacristy, and because the new space is not enclosed yet, there was this cool breeze that filled our sanctuary. I’ve never felt the wind blow in our sanctuary like that.
Advent is the season where God arrives and opens our hearts. A cool breeze, and exposure, something new is being born in us. And from that, the Spirit fills us, and moves us outward to go in peace, love and serve our neighbor, all neighbors.
Maybe this is a dark time for you, a time of loss and sorrow. Know that Christ comes next to you in your sorrow. Sits with you in your pain, holds you in your resentment. Know that Christ waits for us too, as we work through our stuff. Christ finds us there. And accompanies us into the light.
Friends in Christ, even now...we ARE home. For here is bread, and all are welcome. Here is undeserved grace, poured out even for you. Here is forgiveness and love. The Spirit’s already among us. Thanks be to God. AMEN.
--
Lighting Advent Wreath:
We praise you, O God,
for this circle of light
that marks our days of preparation for Christ’s advent.
As we light the candles
on this wreath,
turn us again to you.
Kindle within us
the fire of your Spirit,
that we may be light
shining in the darkness.
Open our hearts to your grace,
that we may welcome others
as you have welcomed us.
Grant this through Christ our Lord,
whose coming is certain
and whose day draws near.
Amen.
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