Not long after 9/11, I met David Potorti. Both of our brothers worked for the same company in the World Trade Towers. David is a founding member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. To explain why he chose to work for peace and reconciliation after that day he used a quote from Samuel Jackson. In his article "Choosing Hope Over Experience," David shared this: Prior to our wedding, my wife and I were poring over quotes and poems about the institution of marriage. We thought we'd arrange these into a handout for the benefit of our guests. Since we were being married under the care of the Raleigh, North Carolina Friends Meeting, there would be lots of time to think in silence. There's only one that I remember: a quote from Samuel Johnson, a British author of the 1700s. He wrote about a man who endured an exceedingly bad, and exceedingly long, marriage. But when his wife finally died, he did something unexpected: he immediately remarried. Johnson called it "the triumph of hope over experience."
It is that triumph of hope over experience that our texts celebrate this morning. The third Sunday of Advent is known as the Sunday of joy, or Guadete Sunday. Our texts are sprinkled with joy-filled, hope-filled words of promise and restoration. Even John the Baptist, curmudgeon that he is, speaks of incarnation of God that will bring redemption to God's people. The joy that our texts bring this morning is not a simple optimism-it is not enough to look around at what is and say, "don't worry it will be all right." God knows we have had our share of experiences where that is not the case. And if that is all we are about how dare we face the world with such a message. What we offer is the tender love of God incarnate in the Word-made-flesh-Jesus Christ. A love that transcends what is, says there is something much more, and proclaims great hope for the world. This is the message proclaimed by John the Baptist, and by Isaiah to the exiles returning from captivity. They are the promise captured here in a story from William Willimon: Rabbi Hugo Grynn was sent to Auschwitz as a little boy. In the midst of the concentration camp, the death and horror many Jews held onto what ever shreds of their religious observance they could. One cold winter's night Hugo's father gathered the family in the barracks. It was the first night of Chanukah...the feast of Lights. The young child watched in horror as his father took the family's last pd of butter and made a makeshift candle using a string from his ragged clothes. He then took a match and lit the "candle". "Father , no!" Hugo cried. "That butter is our last bit of food! How shall we live?" "We can live for many days without food,! We cannot live for single minute without hope. This is the fire of hope. Never let it go out. Not here. Not anywhere."
"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them…those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy." "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners." These are the words of joy proclaimed to the exiles in Babylon. For about 50 years they were captive, but now in about 530 BCE, and edict from Cyrus, ruler of Babylon had granted them freedom.
Thousands of years later we claim these words of hope and freedom as our own. We are asked to choose hope over experience, liberation over bondage. And that my friends, is not always an easy thing to do. One of the methods used to train elephants is to keep them shackled from a very early age. The animals live bound like that for years until they no longer remember life any other way. Then the shackles can be released and the elephants will continue to move as if still bound by them. By the time we read Isaiah's words, the people of Israel had already been twice in captivity. In Egypt and then in Babylon. When Moses lead the people through the Red Sea, not all the Israelites went with him. Cyrus' proclamation of freedom for the captives was not enough for some, and they stayed behind in Babylon. Captivity can get pretty comfortable after a while. To be released is frightening for it means new ways of being and relating in the world.
To these proclamations of hope and release we bring our own captivities. It takes courage to preach such words; and it takes courage to take hold of them and live them out. In the book, "Parables," Megan McKenna tells this parable of a woman who wanted peace in the world, and peace in her heart: "One day she decided to go shopping and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus at the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she had seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She finally got up the nerve and asked, "Excuse me, are you Jesus?" "I am." "Do you work here?" "No, I own the store." "Oh, what do you sell?" "Just about everything," Jesus said. "Feel free to walk up and down the aisles and make a list, see what it is you want and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you." She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously and by the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and said, "No problem." And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up, and laid out the packets. She asked, "What are these?" "See packets," Jesus replied. "This is a catalogue store." She said, "You mean I don't get the finished product?" "No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them grow and someone else reaps the benefits. "Oh," she said. And she left the store without buying anything.
In the proclamation of hope this morning we are both the sowers and the reapers-givers and receivers. As we claim the words of release as our own we also proclaim them. Our preaching of this message to the world is not an option, but a requirement. God's people are called to buy those seeds in our parable. The words found in our texts this morning will be necessary until the day when the words found in Revelation come true: when there will be no more crying or mourning or death, and the rivers of life will pour down upon us. Until that day we are called to choose hope over experience, to proclaim the words of release to those held captive. Jesus chooses to define his ministry by the words of Isaiah. In the name of the Christ child we are empowered to do the same. To speak the words of joy and restoration even when those words seem lost in the swirling darkness-to know that even there such words are to be proclaimed to bind up the broken hearted and bring release to the captives.
"Lord, help us to be like those who dream…filling us with laughter and shouts of joy." Chose hope!