Advent 2 C: Hidden in Plain Sight

Posted by DJL on Dec 7, 2018 in Dear Partner | 3 comments

Dear Partner in Preaching,

Upon sitting down to write this letter to you, I quickly reviewed the three earlier times I’ve written on this passage (once on these pages, once in a Dear Working Preacher column, and once by way of commentary for Working Preacher) and realized… that they same more or less the same thing! (Less you miss this, take it as a warning about reviewing old sermons, too! 🙂 ) I suppose that’s not terrible and, for what it’s worth, I’ll still stand by my sense of Luke’s audacious testimony that moves from history to confession. But it does remind me that there’s only so much one can say about any given passage and it leads to my own confession that I probably don’t have any particularly new insights into this passage. But…I do have a story that may help illustrate how to help our people see and even enter into Luke’s narrative and confession.

So…and super briefly, noting again that I have little new to offer :)…I love that after the listing of seven of the “powers that be” of the time –not one, or two, or even three, take note, but SEVEN! – Luke concludes with“the Word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.” I love that because, compared with the seven names mentioned just before, John is a nobody. And he’s in the wilderness – that in-between place of testing and waiting and sacrifice where no sensible person wants to be found. So… John is essentially a nobody who’s absolutely nowhere… and yet this is precisely where the Word of God went. Not Jerusalem, or Athens, or Rome, or any of the other“centers of the universe” but rather to the margins. And maybe that’s often where the Word of God shows up – just where we’d least expect it.

Now to the story. Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, the congregation where I am so privileged to serve as a pastor, has a variety of affiliated ministries – service-oriented organizations that serve the larger community. One of these, Mount Olivet Rolling Acres, serves persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Founded more than fifty years ago, the organization has thirty-four homes across the Twin Cities where groups of three or four persons live with support in order to have much richer and more independent lives than they otherwise would. It’s a phenomenal organization, with talented and dedicated staff serving a population of incredible persons with a range of abilities and disabilities across a spectrum of ages.

Monday night we had our annual Christmas concert with VocalEssence, a wonderful vocal group in the Twin Cities. It’s not a benefit or a fund raiser, it’s simply a Christmas concert for our clients and their families and staff. And not just for, but also with. That is, Rolling Acres has a Glee Club, and members of that group do several numbers with Vocal Essence. It’s an incredibly fun, even moving, evening. And by “moving” I mean emotionally, for sure, but also physically active, as various clients have a hard time keeping still — which if fine – and all of us are invited to participate in the concert. (I got to be one of the “ten lords a leaping,” for instance.) And so at any given moment, during any given song, and in any given direction you might look, you will see a collection of people unlike almost any other, gathered together in song and celebration. And I guess what I found so moving was that there are a lot of people at that concert and who are a part of theRolling Acres family that would so easily be overlooked, if not left behind, by the larger culture and would have absolutely nothing in common with the “powers that be” of our day. Kind of like John in comparison to the gang of seven Luke mentions up front.

But in that singing, in the movement, in the collection of people who in many ways exist on the margins of a culture that celebrates youth and beauty and power and ability… That’s where the Word of God appeared, at least to me. It was a wondrous site, where suddenly, blessed by the presence of the Word, everyone there was beautiful, special, chosen, and beloved. The clients, their family members, the staff, visitors and supporters, the guest singers and conductor. Everyone was seen and valued, not in relation to what they could do or say or contribute or achieve… but because each was a child ofGod.

“In the second year of the presidency of Donald Trump, whileMark Dayton was governor of Minnesota, and Jacob Frey mayor of Minneapolis, while the Rev. Ann Svennungsen was bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod, theWord of God came to the clients, family, and staff of Mount Olivet RollingAcres Christmas Festival Concert.” That’s the way I hear Luke’s introduction this week. And I’m guessing that if you look, you can find similarly surprising encounters with the Word of God, hidden in plain sight, appearing on the margins and in places you’d not normally expect because… because that’s just the way it is with God’s Word.

So happy hunting this week, Dear Partner, as you look and find God’s word and presence and promise showing up just where we least expect it. Whether at a concert, or family gathering, or hard but important conversation, or Bible study, or intervention, or reconciliation, or service project or…. We don’t know where the Word of God will come, except that it comes just where it’s needed and often where we don’t expect. Kind of likeGod’s Word appearing in a wild-eyed itinerant preacher in the wilderness, or a babe born to a teenage mom, or the figure of one convicted as a criminal hanging on the cross. That’s just the way God’s Word is. Thanks for looking for it… and then telling us what you see. Your folks will be surprised, delighted, and blessed by what you find.

Blessings on your Advent proclamation,
David