SERMON – 01/03/2020
Throughout the world and
certainly in America, the year 2020 was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Worldwide,
as of December 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had killed over 1.5 million people.
In the U.S., during the same time period, there were over 315,000 deaths, with over
17 million people experiencing difficult and sometimes fatal symptoms as they
recovered from this virulent disease.
The number of people affected by Covid-19 is staggering. The number of loved ones left behind – left behind in a morass of emotional and financial hardship – is mind-numbing. The emotional and physical effects of total isolation from family and friends imposed on thousands of the elderly housed in permanent care facilities, or simply living alone in in their own home, is heartbreaking - tragic.
The economic impact of Covid-19 has yet to be calculated. However, just walking down the street of any town or city, or entering any mall, the number of darkened stores and restaurants speak for themselves. Jobs have been lost and careers that once seemed so promising are now irrelevant.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged the health and well-being of the American people, our governmental institutions have descended into a chaotic battle for power that threatens the very underpinnings of all that we as citizens of the U.S. know and love – a fair and just way of life.
As we make efforts to act with discipline in order to remain Covid-19 infection free, wearing masks, social distancing, and handwashing, we listen to endless broadcasts, filled with anxiety producing and anger provoking reports of political infighting and undisciplined and irresponsible comments designed to incite anger, hate, rebellion and rioting.
Without doubt, globally, and in the United States of America, the year 2020 was filled with challenges - anxiety, anger, and deep sadness. We yearned to put it all behind us. We yearned to go back to our normal way of life. Continually, we mouthed the hope – "certainly 2021 will be better."
Of course, "going back" is never possible, whatever the circumstances. And, of course, knowing what the future holds is equally impossible. Deep down we all know that. And yet, the fantasy of going back to better days in 2021 remains with us, despite the reality of the world around us – a world that most assuredly has forever changed. A world that has forever changed in ways that we cannot yet imagine.
However, despite all of this chaos and sadness, there is one constant. One steady presence that has not changed, that will never change. One constant that will be with us – be the same with us - always.
God the Father, who created us and who in a love that knows no bounds gave us the gift of his Son Jesus Christ. The gift of a light that shines in the darkness. A light that darkness does not overcome. A light that points us to the way of peace – a peace not only between nations, but a peace that passes all understanding and that dwells deep within us and among us – all of us. A peace that, when experienced allows us to face life under any circumstances – any circumstances - with courage, creativity, commitment, and most importantly with love.
In Paul's letter to the Ephesians he writes to his converts, "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe."
"I pray that with the eyes of your heart you may know the hope to which he has called you."
"… the riches of his glorious inheritance,"
"… the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe."
Stunningly powerful words. Have we listened to them carefully? Have we listened to them very carefully – with wisdom – with the eyes of our heart?
With faith in the Light of Christ deeply embedded in our hearts and souls, we have the ability – the power - to imagine ways to move beyond the chaos that so distracts us – so disrupts our world. The power to move forward in new ways, and to heal through word and deed. The power to lay aside egos, agendas, anger, and hatred, and in fellowship and unity heal through acts based in compassion and love.
The power of love – of healing - is ours for the asking. Christ has arrived. The Light is here. The Light of Christ, a light that the darkness cannot overcome, is with us. With us now and always.
On Christmas day in 1863 the great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem called “Christmas Bells.” The Civil War had brought a backdrop of national despair. Longfellow himself had suffered the tragic death of his beloved wife just two years earlier. She had accidently set her dress on fire when sealing a letter with a ball of wax that she was softening with the flame of a candle. Longfellow’s son Charlie had suffered serious wounds in the Mine Run Campaign in Virginia. His recovery was painful and difficult.
Against the backdrop of the painful loss of his beloved wife, constant worry over the precarious recovery of his son, and in the midst of a great war that ultimately claimed more than 600,00 American lives, Longfellow wrote his poem. A poem that was ultimately set to music and is now a beloved hymn – “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
I heard
the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought
how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in
despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
Longfellow’s poem does not ignore the pain and suffering of his time, but in the end, it is filled with hope – the hope of “peace on earth, good-will to men.”
We cannot - indeed, we must not -
ignore the suffering and pain that millions of people, worldwide, have experienced
this past year. The pain and suffering that continues still, even in 2021, our
hoped for “better year.”
But like Longfellow, we are called to look beyond this pain and suffering and with the eyes of our heart to know “the hope to which [Christ} has called [us]. The riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and the immeasurable greatness for us who believe.”
Jesus came to us to know us; to walk beside us; to share in our suffering and our pain; and, ultimately through his death on the cross to provide the light that will allow us to hear the bells on Christmas Day, and on every other day of the year.
The Wrong
shall fail, the Right prevail,
With
peace on earth, good-will to men.”
