DOWN SYNDROME

DANCE

INTRODUCTION

For a homily today and for a reflection, I would  like to use a homily that I heard on the radio by a Rev. Rosemary Wakeland. She preached it for this Sunday -- the third Sunday in Advent.

DOWN SYNDROME

She began her homily this way.

She once worked with young people who were handicapped: mentally, physically, etc. She said that every Saturday night they would have a social: games and dances - barn dances, group dancing, etc.

And she said that the kids with Down Syndrome had a good sense of rhythm and enjoyed the beat. They were good dancers and really enjoyed the dancing.

And she said that every once and a while in the midst of the dance, when she was dancing with the kids, in the midst of the joy, and the celebration, the rejoicing, a wave of sadness would come over her. It would wipe her out, because she would begin to think about these kids. Wouldn’t it be great if they were normal? Wouldn’t it be great if they could be out there on the dance floor enjoying life like normal kids? Wouldn’t that be great? If only that one chromosome or whatever it was, was okay. As well as the other handicapped kids. Why do they have to suffer this hell? Couldn’t they be out there enjoying a normal life? That would be heaven.

SECOND THOUGHTS

And then another thing would hit her, perhaps later on in the evening, when she was alone. She would begin to think about people who have everything, especially people who lord it over other people, who step on people, who make life miserable for other people. Then she would say to herself, “You know someday they are going to have to face judgment and they are going to get their hell.” They are going to be judged. Just as these kids will get their heaven. When all will be right. Everything will be righted someday in heaven, while there will be judgment on us.

THIRD THOUGHTS

And then it would hit her, Me? What about me? Look at the ways I cause hell for other people. And there will be judgment on me.

FOURTH THOUGHTS

And she said that at that point it would become too much for her. She would then fall into prayer because she knew she wasn’t right. She knew she couldn’t make things right by herself or straighten out the hell and the hurt she had caused in others. Only God could make things right. Only God could save her.

She was feeling and thinking about some powerful thoughts and feelings there.

Well, what she said really hit me.

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Then Rosemary tied her thoughts and feelings into today’s readings.

Today is John the Baptist Sunday. She said that John the Baptist saw hell all around him. And he began to proclaim heaven. He wanted to make things right. He preached judgment on his people, the Israelites.  He preached hell and judgment against the Romans. They were living on occupied land. He preached that someone was going to come and make things right. Someone was going to come and make things right. The Messiah.

Then he added, that he, John the Baptist, was not the Messiah. And we’re going to hear the readings this week about John the Baptist, He points to Jesus. That Jesus is the one. He’s the one who is going to redeem Israel and save us.

Wow.

A few months later John is in prison and everything has gone wrong. And in prison he hears about Jesus and Jesus is not living up to his (John’s) expectations. So he sends messengers to Jesus, “Are you the one to come or should we expect someone else?” Someone else who will make it all right.  And we know what Jesus tells the delegates.

Aren’t we like John the Baptist? We want things right now. And in our mind we know the way that things should be. It’s our vision, our scenario, our plan, our model, our dream. That’s the way things should be.

And we think that someone out there can come in here and make things right. If only we had the right person, the right people, we could make this the right community.

What we are doing is picturing the solution to be out there. The messiah is out there, the answer is out there, the plan is out there, the secret is out there.

Rosemary says that if that is our vision and our way then Advent is still taking place for us. Christmas has not taken place yet.

Christmas can have happened already.

Christ was a baby a long time ago.

The kingdom of God has already come.

Heaven is already here.

The kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is in our midst. It’s within.

In our minds.

And Jesus and the whole body of Christ, can make things right according to the plan of Jesus. Not with the love of power, but with the power of love. Not with a power from outside that will come in and make things right, all straightened out with power, no, but with the power of love, which is a horse of a different color. It takes in patience, understanding, hope, prayer, all. The kingdom of heaven is here.

TODAY’S READINGS

Looking at today’s readings, we are the lowly whom Jesus brings glad tidings to. We are the broken hearted whom Jesus heals. We are the captives who hear the proclamation of liberty.  We are prisoners who are being released. And this year, this moment is a year of favor from the Lord. And when we realize we’re it  Jesus way is it,  then make things right to bring about heaven where there is hell.

Then we can begin to rejoice heartily in the Lord, because God, like Mary, said is the Joy of our soul. And he is clothed us with the robe of salvation wrapped in a mantle of justice. We’re like a bridegroom and bride adorned with jewels and this earth will bring forth its plants and this place here is the garden, springing up and the Lord’s justice and peace will spring up here before all the nations, that we’ll rejoice in the Lord always as Paul says in today’s second reading, without ceasing. We’ll make this real because it’s taking place now. Heaven is here.

ORIGINAL SIN

So to return to the original story, when Rev. Rosemary in a moment of joy saw sorrow, so too we in the moment of sadness, can see joy. Heaven in hell. In moments of wanting power, to straighten it all out there to see Jesus in the dance, the dirge, of hell, glimpses of God in the sadness, the Kingdom of God is here. The one who can make it right is here. His way not our way.

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Here is her homily:

CHRIST’S WAY,

NOT JOHN’S,

NOT OUR’S

3 Sunday Advent B

Some years ago I worked with mentally handicapped young people.

Once a week we had a social evening. We shared, friends and staff, with the young people. It was great fun. We played games, but mainly we danced: country dances, group dances, square dances, and barn dancing.

A lot of young people had Down Syndrome. They usually loved music and had a good sense of rhythm. So it was good to dance with them.

I had my favorite partners and got to know some of them fairly well, especially in the dancing when they often or not were knocking me in the knee.

Sometimes, when I looked at them, I would get a certain vision of what it would be like if they had not had that extra chromosome.

It used to make me catch my breath and fall away in anger.

They should be so disfigured.

But that was usually followed by an irrational thought that one day it would be all right. They would appear as they should be.

I suppose I was caught up in the common human experience of believing that something better is coming, that one day wrongs will be righted, that there is some sort of justice at the heart of things.

My hope of seeing them as they should be was all mixed up with thoughts of heaven, a belief in a time or an another world when all ills will be healed and at last we shall be whole.

And mixed up with that is the hope that people who deliberately make other people live in hell should at least be caught up with and that is when it starts to get uncomfortable, because I knew that there had been times when I’ve made life hell for other people.

And if there is justice for them, there will be for me too.

JOHN THE BAPTIST SUNDAY

This is the Sunday in Advent when we remember John the Baptist.

The Jews believed that tomorrow could be different.

It was not just wishful thinking, but firmly based in the promises of God.

And the promises included the coming of a special person, who would establish God’s rule of righteousness on earth.

John came to get things ready for the coming of this special person, who was going to get life right, the way as God meant it to be.

John was quite uncompromising.

Everyone had gotten it wrong.

Everyone must repent or it was going to be the worst for them.

The coming one was coming in judgment with God’s full authority to sort the good from the bad.

So the expectation was high.

The trespassers, like the Roman occupying force, were going to get their come uppance.

And there was  a general drive to get one’s house in order to escape the coming judgment.

So it all seemed a bit odd that it was only a few months after Jesus had appeared on the scene and John had recognized him as God’s special person that John is in prison.

Shortly to be executed and he is sending messages to Jesus asking him if he really was the right one.

The problem was that Jesus had not come up to expectations.

Those people hoped for someone who would reestablish Jewish sovereignty and get rid of the Romans.

John possibly had in mind a high profile judgmental person, who would wade into sinful humanity, stamping out sin and promoting the righteous.

Instead they got Jesus who had his own ideas.

He certainly had no doubt that things could be better, that the sick could be healed, that the prisoners could be released, that sins could be forgiven, that the sinner could start again.

And that all this was not some far off day, but now. God’s kingdom was already happening right there in an occupied territory of the Roman empire without a sword being drawn.

The new kingdom was not about the love of power but the power of love.

Human behavior and reactions have not changed much through the centuries. Millions pay lip service to the Gospel of Jesus,  but actually trusting the power of love and risking the suffering that might follow is too risky. Usually we prefer the bomb and the bullet. Trusting the power of love means being vulnerable. That’s hard. People in Jesus day couldn’t cope with it any more than we can today.

Plenty have risked it individually and in groups but never at institutional level. The gospel story is the end of the beginning. The kingdom is within you. If not, Advent is still the time of hope.