Kendall's Notebook 4
Sermon: "Talked and Touched Into Life"
Dec. 8, 2002 - Advent 2
Mark 1: 1-8
Kendall Brown, preacher
Flying to Boston this week, I was in the company of
a mother and her two children on the plane.
Mom and children became separated as mom
stowed some baggage in the overheads behind me.
With the children in front of me
and the mother behind me,
I was caught
in the middle of a dreadful bellowing.
The children didn't just cry, they roared
as they became more and more frightened
by the separation.
First Mom spoke – her words calmed and soothed.
But the children were not fully quieted until mom
returned and
picked them up
and cuddled them.
A day later, I was reading a new book that I found on
my retreat in Cambridge.
The quote that reminded me of the airplane scene
Is by Rowan Williams,
Arch Bishop of Canterbury
in "A Ray of Darkness" Page 5.
"Our longings remind us of the essential human fact that we are talked and touched into life."
(" and that a human race struggling to do all of it talking and touching for itself faces a paralyzing unhappiness and anxiety.")
We are talked and touched into life.
Speech and touch make us human. Speech and touch remind us that we are nothing unless we are a part of a larger whole - the larger community of other human beings.
Advent is a time when we celebrate holiness drawing near. Speech and touch remind us that as individuals we are nothing unless we are part of the larger community of humanity.
The longings of Advent remind us that the human community is nothing
- no matter how glorious our achievements,
impressive our advancements,
wondrous our accomplishments –
unless we are part of a wholeness larger than our humanity. The wholeness of our longing is the holiness that draws near during Advent.
"We are talked and touched into life…."
An archangel speaks to a poor maiden, Mary.
A dream speaks to her confused fiancée, Joseph.
Angels speak to shepherds on a hillside.
In Bethlehem, human history is touched by heaven's mystery
A child who is the word of god comes into our world.
"We are talked and touched into life…"
Yesterday, I was at the Good Sam Nursing Home for the funeral of Clarence Huebschman.
During the sermon, Mary Henderson mentioned something that I have often felt when officiating at funerals this time of year.
She told how her mother died three years ago on Dec. 23.
One of the comments she heard,
one of those comfortless comments of comfort
that Christians are so good at making,
was "Oh what a bad time of year for your mother to die –
right around the holiday."
Translation: "What an awful time for someone to die and in the process go and ruin your Christmas."
Mary shared what we both have often experienced in our ministries – that this is the season when the hope we proclaim at memorial services seems ever more tangible,
ever more near to us.
"Round us rings the music of the spheres." (from: "This Is My Father's World)
Heaven is ever closer. The words of hope are ever more real.
Sometimes during this season, you can almost reach up
and touch the eternal with our hands of clay.
In the presence of death
our friends gather around us and speak to us and embrace us
We are talked and touched back into life….
I have always thought it quite amazing that people actually left the comfort of home to go out into the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach.
Perhaps it was urban flight caused by spiritual fright.
Perhaps people weren't all that different 2000 years ago.
They were drawn out of the city into the wilderness by a longing,
an emptiness that craved a filling,
an incompleteness that sought a completion,
a littleness that desired a larger whole,
a separateness that desired a togetherness.
Like us, they lived in a world that begged a making sense.
They tried to make sense of wars, rumors of war and threats of war.
They tried to make sense of mindless killings and beatings.
They tried to make sense of random acts of terror.
They tried to make sense of disease and suffering striking the good and righteous.
They tried to make sense of a church and religious officials who cover scandal and bankrupt the church morally and physically.
They tried to make sense of the accumulation of wealth and power among the undeserving and unworthy.
They tried to make sense……
Making sense of it all isn't what it is all about.
Most of life will never make sense and will only drive us senseless trying to do so.
It was not sense they received in the wilderness from John.
They received a talk and a touch
John preached to them a word,
and touched them with the water of baptism.
With that talk and touch,
he reoriented them to wholeness and healing.
They were talked and touched into life…..
Our daughter has been a nanny for a few years and I think will always be one in one way or another.
She loves little children and has a tremendous gift for being with them.
A few months ago, she was on her way to a babysitting job in San Francisco. Her cell phone rang as she was making her way through bay area traffic. It was her little charge calling her up to tell her that she was late.
Hannah was upset to hear that and asked to speak with his mom. Mom got on the phone and after laughing told Hannah not to worry
She was on time.
Her son just wanted Hannah to get there a little earlier so he could have more time with her before going to bed.
Children need the talk and touch of love and life.
Hannah is always watching and studying children and noticing things the rest of us miss. About this time of year a few years ago, we were out shopping together in a crowded mall. As usual Hannah was watching the children. She pointed out what little kids do in a crowd. They never get far from mom or dad on their own. They might pull away for a few moments to amuse some curiosity. Soon they are right back under Ma or Dad's feet, and reaching out to touch mom's skirt or Dad's leg before setting off again, only to return to touch and talk and be assured they were still connected with that which is larger than they and gives them life.
Advent is time for us to come back from wanderings,
Our self – made illusions of security,
Our – efforts to make sense.
Advent is a time to come back
From the world of senselessness
From our loneliness
And to be talked and touched back into life.