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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
