"So, what did you expect...Justice?"
Julie Madden
Sunday, December 9th 2007

Make ready for the Christ whose smile like lightning sets free the song of everlasting glory that now sleeps in our paper flesh like dynamite.

How’s that for an idea of what we can expect from Advent?

Today we consider the question: “What did you expect? Justice?” and today’s gospel is the story of John the Baptist coming out of the desert, in his camel hair clothing, eating locusts, baptizing the people.

What does he say? “Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand.” Living with this scripture recently has really been revelatory to me: The kingdom of God is at hand. The reign of God is here and now, in us and around us. God’s promise is not in the future, it’s not external, and it’s not contingent on anything. It is now and it is within us, individually and collectively. Our communion song today is: Now is the moment, now is the time, this very day there is salvation. We are loved and the world is loved. No exceptions.

This doesn’t mean that everything is swell (even I’m not in that kind of denial) – our world certainly doesn’t completely reflect God’s justice, which we define as the building of right relationships. The world doesn’t always reflect God’s love or God’s preferential option for the poor. So what we try to understand is that the kingdom is here and is not yet here. It is not fully realized, and we can help bring the reign of God into more life in the world. Our actions can be truly sacramental – they reflect and make apparent the reign of God in our world.

We are co-creators, as Joan Chittister tells us: “The goal is the building up of the kingdom where the widows are cared for, orphans are loved, the measures are equal, dreaming is possible and everyone is brought to the fullness of life.” The world is not healed and we have yet to live fully into the compassion, the healing and the transformation that mark the kingdom of God. But it is here and now and it is beyond our expectations.

Stephen Mitchell says: “When Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, he was not prophesying about some easy, danger-free perfection that will someday appear. He was talking about a state of being, a way of living at ease among the joys and sorrows of our world.”

This has been a revelation for me, because I often live and act as if I don’t really expect justice, I don’t expect the Beloved Community to be truly real. I have to say that right now people in power are saying and doing things that just make me want to weep or pound my head against the steering wheel while I’m listening to NPR. I want to scream, “For Christ’s sake, you idiots, just be compassionate!” The irony of this is not entirely lost on me…

But what I find is that when I create “the other” in my own mind, and when I act for peace and justice solely out of what Thomas Merton calls “an organized despair,” I get very tired, and I know that many of you share this weariness sometimes. John the Baptist actually gives me some hope in this regard. In the gospel today, it sounds to me like he kind of wants the Pharisees and the Sadducees to get theirs. He is confident that Christ will separate the wheat from the chaff and woe to any of you who end up chaff - and that sense of retributive justice is familiar to me.

But the beauty of John the Baptist is that he’s very clear that it’s not about his way. He is preparing us and pointing toward Jesus, who is the way, and Jesus, bless his heart, was completely immersed in the limitless kingdom of God. He was swimming in God’s all-encompassing compassion and his realization of God’s love led him to love. He reminded us that God sends rain to the just and unjust, to the prodigal and the faithful. With Christ, there is no division and ultimately there are no sides in the kingdom of God.

This is almost beyond my imagining, but many of our Advent readings this year tell us what this would look like: Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares; the wolf shall be the guest of the lamb and the calf and the young lion shall browse together with a little child to lead them. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den. There shall be no harm or ruin for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

And there are signs all around us on our journey:

Bishop Tom Gumbleton of Detroit is known and loved by many of us. He has been a prophetic voice on issues of peace and inclusion and accountability by the church. When he was here last spring, he was told that he could not speak at any churches in our diocese including St. Joan and he acquiesced to that request. Shortly after that, I heard him speak at a small breakfast gathering and someone asked him for his wisdom in how to build a good relationship with the new archbishop. Tom Gumbleton replied: “love him.” I’ll never forget that.

And yesterday I was at St. Martin’s Table, and one of the fabulous MacDonald sisters was there. She was looking at a book of photos and noticed a picture of a young Iraqi girl who had lost her arm in the world. This caused her to say quietly: “Can all the wars in the world be worth the cost of that one arm?” That will stay with me.

And finally, my most tangible sign that the kingdome of God is real is all of you.

Together in this community, we can be a taste of the Beloved Community. We can be a community of challenge and conscience. We restore and refresh one another. You let Jesus lead you into places of risk and relationships of solidarity with those who are excluded or marginalized. And maybe together we will someday know a compassion so big that when we reach out, we will stop saying: “There but for the grace of God go I” and we will replace that with “Here, in the grace of God, are we.”

So remember this Advent that you live in God’s kingdom and God’s kingdom lives in you. We do not have to wait for justice, for compassion, for peace, for love. It is here, and it is ours to practice and to bring about. Expect it!