“ADVENT 3”

“ADVENT 3”

Philippians 4:4-7         Luke 3:7-18

Third Sunday of Advent, Year C, December 15, 2024 rm

First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho

Andy Kennaly, Pastor

We have eyes on the front of our face. When we open our eyes, we look straight ahead and only see what’s in front of us. While there may be some peripheral vision, mostly what comes to focus depends on where we point our eyes. The entire back of our body tends to be ignored. Things that happen behind our back might go totally unnoticed. We assume this is normal. We don’t think twice about the consequences involved in going through life as we face one direction with such a high value on sight. But a limited view, seeing one thing at a time, filters the rest of reality. Ancient Greek philosophy only codifies this, shapes culture with paradigms that form beliefs that favor optics over feeling, seeing over touching, up verses down, in all sorts of ways much of what we assume is normal is skewed from the beginning because of restricted viewpoints and limited perspectives. People tend to project this limited view onto the rest of reality, totalizing their perspective.

The third Sunday of Advent helps pop this bubble as we use our ears to hear God’s voice cry out news of hope, love, and joy. Maybe we can learn to see beyond our limited vision.

Let’s recognize a larger perception and realize there are other creatures who experience the world in non-human ways, and sometimes they have an advantage. One creature we can learn from is a tree. Yes, a tree is a creature that breathes, drinks, and perceives the world around it.

This is the time of year many people bring a tree into their living space.  Christmas trees are often a primary part of the season’s decorations.  Many are artificial, made of non-tree materials. This year, the one at my house was made in Cambodia, probably was cargo on a massive container ship from Asia to North America, and now it sits in a stand in North Idaho.

Some Christmas trees are grown outside, then cut down and placed in a stand. You may notice vehicles driving through town with a tree strapped on their roof or tucked into a trailer, a tree found in the woods or purchased from a tree farm or a vendor. Sometimes the selection is fresh and green, other times a little sparse and dry.

Whether it’s artificial or more natural, we can use our spiritual imaginations and picture in our mind this tree connected to roots, planted in the ground as a seed helped sprout this young tree that year after year grew into a living participant of creation.

Real trees have roots and through them they chemically communicate with other trees and draw nourishment from the soil. The roots capture moisture which helps them survive. Brother tree also has branches.  Brother Tree has a 360-degree experience and simultaneously interacts with the world all around. Brother tree grows and reaches vertically into the sky. Trees are aware of what’s all around, and below, and above; they participate in multi-dimensional, simultaneous ways.

As trees sprout, grow, fall, die, and decompose to get reabsorbed as nutrients, generations merge. One tree contains entire forests; entire forests are held in one tree. Time is more than linear, but an intensity, a unity of “right now’s,” each connected to a fullness that recognizes other times scales. Time and space are hallowed, holy, permeable, and filled.

This is part of what Paul’s talking about in his letter to the Philippians as he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Joy is continuous, forever re-newing the fullness of each moment. Re-joice, re-joice. This is a re-newal of joy. Joy’s renewal leads to gentleness because the opposite is impossible when joy is primary. He says, “The Lord is near.” This points to Paul the Mystic’s experience, which is kind of like Brother Tree; Christ is experienced all around, multi-dimensionally, infused in everything, and time itself participates as an intensification of eternal mysteries revealed in Jesus.

Richard Rohr, in his book, The Universal Christ, puts it like this as we read with our getting-closer-to-Christmas, Advent ears tuned. He says,

“Christians believe […] the universal presence was […] ‘born of a woman under the law (Gal. 4:4) in a moment of chronological time. […] We daringly believe that God’s presence was poured into a single human being, so that humanity and divinity can be seen to be operating as one in him – and therefore in us! But instead of saying that God came into the world through Jesus, maybe it would better to say that Jesus came out of an already Christ-soaked world […], out of God’s loving union with physical creation.”

Then he adds,

“When I know that the world around me is both the hiding place and the revelation of God, I can no longer make a significant distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between the holy and the profane. […] Everything I see and know is indeed one “uni-verse,” revolving around one coherent center. This Divine Presence seeks connection and communion…”

(Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ, Convergent Press, 2019 by Center for Action and Contemplation, Inc., pgs. 14-15).

Look again at Luke’s gospel as the story shares John who claims the absolute holiness of the moment. The people cling to the past, to tradition, and they don’t see the Christ-mystery that is imminent. In the context of a Christ-soaked world, John proclaims that God “is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” The axe lies close to the roots because in the flow of history, God’s love is on the move, justice bends an active arch of creative power as good news draws out the wholeness that is already there.

As John’s message continues, two groups that are usually despised are mentioned by name: tax collectors and soldiers. Tax collectors were notorious for taking more than the state required and using the excess as personal wealth. They abused their authority and made money. People had no recourse, no way to fight back for fairness.

Soldiers were similar as the Roman army occupied the land of the Hebrews. Soldiers used threats, intimidation, and false accusations to extort from helpless victims.

In Luke, both groups ask John what they should do in response to his message, and in both cases his answers are the same. “Do your job properly and be satisfied with your wages.” In Philippians the themes are joy, rejoicing, gentleness, not to worry, thankfulness, and the peace of God. These qualities pivot around the reality that “the Lord is near.” This is the theme that carries over as John tells these groups to live as they ought to live because the Lord is near.

Christ permeates all creation, and Luke reminds us that even the outsiders, the marginalized, are included in the central dance of the Trinity, the imminent presence of God. Even tax collectors and soldiers can be content because the Lord is near and joy is abundant.

As we go deeper into the season, in the days ahead try and exercise your awareness. As you see a Christmas tree, for example, picture roots, alive with the Earth, and branches reaching the sky and stars, interacting with moisture and air as the Earth flows and everything is in relationship. Ask yourself, how is Christ and the intensities of eternal realities expressed in this moment? Close your eyes, and allow your heart to see all around, in and through the uni-verse. From the spacious depths of your soul rooted in Christ, Re-joice. Re-joice.  Again, and always, always, and again. Re-joice, Rejoice, our joy is renewed, always new, to the glory of God. Amen.