Those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus and participants in the Body of Christ as God’s mission to and for the world have to be deeply troubled on this eve of the advent of Advent.  Everyday, I ask my wife this question, “What has happened to our country?”  Almost each day, I ask colleagues, “Where is the church in all this?”  As Advent dawns, God has much to say about “all this.”  Are we listening?

I was a stranger and you tear-gassed me.

Earlier this week we saw the pictures of US border guards using tear gas on children whose threat to us was that they came with their families seeking asylum from the living hell of conditions in their own country.  So how does God speak to us about this?  Through the story of there being no room at the inn?  Through the story of the holy family fleeing into Egypt to escape King Herod who wanted to kill the baby Jesus? 

I was hungry and you bombed me

Last week, Save the Children reported that as many as 85,000 children have died in Yemen over the last three years from starvation.  These deaths are in addition to deaths inflicted by the Saudi assault on Yemen with US supplied arms.  Experts say that Yemen represents the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet with perhaps 14,000,000 on the brink of starvation, but hey, the Saudis are giving us good oil prices!

 A voice was heard in Ramah,

Wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

She refused to be consoled,

Because they are no more.

                              - Matthew 2:18 

I was in need and you deported me

Yesterday, U.S. officials reported that they had deported Samuel Oliver-Bruno back to Mexico.  He leaves behind a wife with a serious illness (lupus with heart complications) and a son.  Samuel had lived in the basement of a NC church for 11 months while working with an immigration lawyer to get his undocumented status legalized.  Under a ruse created by ICE, Samuel went to an appointment with immigration officials thinking that his process for residency would be finalized.  ICE arrested him.  As the van carrying him tried to leave the facility, the church’s pastor and other congregants surrounded the van, prayed, and sang hymns.  Eventually the pastor and 27 church members were arrested, and Samuel was taken away.    

there are still distinctions and hate is up

The FBI reports that hate crimes are up 17% in this country over last year, including a 23% increase in religious hate, and a 37% increase in anti-Semitism.  Duke University has a mural honoring the victims at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.  Last week, someone came and painted a red swastika on it. 

 The question persists for me.  What is going on in our country?

 Advent begins with this prayer:

 Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.  By your merciful protection alert us to the threatening dangers of our sins,

and redeems us for your life of justice, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

stir up our hearts. stir up our minds.

Alerting us to the threatening dangers of our sin, Advent should stir us up.  Advent tells us of a God who sides with the poor, the powerless, and the disenfranchised.  Advent tells us of Jesus’ cousin, John, coming and proclaiming a need for wholesale repentance towards justice and kindness in the light of the coming One.  Advent tells us of a teenage virgin from Nazareth whose words known as the Magnificat are put to music in Marty Haugen’s Holden Evening Prayer in this way:

Great and mighty are you, O Holy One,

Strong is your kindness evermore.

How you favor the weak and lowly one,

Humbling the proud of heart.

You have cast the mighty down from their thrones,

And uplifted the humble of heart,

You have filled the hungry with wondrous things,

And left the wealthy no part.

Church, are you listening?  Are you paying attention?  It is one thing for the things going on in our world today to trouble you and to challenge you. It is another for the words and themes of Advent to so move you into being the church God has always had in mind that they stir you up to side with God for the sake of the world.   And that is the mission of the church.

In Advent hope,