Advent 1 / Proper 27B: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
The Rev'd Cameron Partridge
November 10, 2024
May the words of my mouth, the mediation of our hearts and the actions of our lives welcome your reign. Amen.
Good morning, St. Aidan’s. I am grateful to be greeted this morning by you and by the light of Advent’s first candle. Seven weeks we will travel this path of expectation and anticipation, awaiting and reaching for the coming of Christ, for God’s holy, life-giving reign. This marks the eighth year we have observed this longer version of the season, together with congregations across the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and others.[1] As this season finally arrives, I usually approach it with intentional anticipation, aware that we are actively stepping into it, and earlier than most churches. This year it feels different to me, as if we are not meeting Advent so much as Advent is meeting us. It is arriving despite our despair, our rage or wailing, our distraction or seduction by the kingdoms and rulers of this world. It reminds us, in the words of our collect, that God’s Wisdom goes forth and does not return empty,[2] that the kingdom of God – not to be confused with the kingdoms of this world – is breaking in. Nothing can stop it. Let your reign come, O God, open our eyes, take our hands, grasp hold of us, join us anew.
Our readings this morning help us to know what to look for, what to reach out towards as the divine dream draws near.[3] The first of them, the story of Ruth and Naomi, tells of hope that emerges from despair, of new life and possibility despite overshadowing gloom. Naomi and her husband Elimelech, as the beginning of Ruth relays, “were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.” When famine devastated the land, they left home and journeyed to Moab with their two sons. Once in Moab, tragedy struck: Elimelech died, followed in short succession by his two sons who had since married (Ruth 1:1-5). Now the three women, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth, were left without any means of support or protection in their ancient patriarchal context. Assessing the situation, Naomi tells her daughters in law that for their own well-being they should go seek out new husbands with new families. With their husbands’ deaths, they had no obligation to Naomi, and she might well hinder their future marriage prospects. Orpah tearfully agrees and departs, but Ruth would not. She clings to Naomi, refusing to leave her—where she would go, Ruth would go. They returned to Bethlehem, to the land of Elimelech, with little but each other. Our reading picks up the story shortly after their return. Ruth had joined in gleaning the barley crop of Boaz, a kinsman of Elimelech who had begun looking out for Ruth, keeping her safe with the other women who worked in his fields. Now in our passage Naomi suggests how Ruth might approach Boaz and ultimately marry him, joining their families, coming under his protection. When this does come to pass and Ruth gives birth to a son, the women rejoice: “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin” (Ruth 4:14). Blessed be God who is not absent though it may well feel that way; who is with you in deep uncertainty and fear; who coaxes new life, new family in the wake of death and danger. Blessed be God in whom possibility abides when hope feels lost.
I have been reflecting a great deal about uncertainty, alienation, danger, and despair this week. I know many of you have been feeling some combination of those emotions since the election results came in this week. I have heard from some of you along the way, and I’m glad you’ve also been talking with one another in various groupings, supporting each other wherever your hearts may be. As I wrote to you on Wednesday, I have been strongly reminded of the days just before I came across the country to be your priest eight years ago. When the election results came in on that November day in 2016, I knew I needed to reach out to you. It was then and is all the more now a vulnerable, precarious moment. To share how we feel in this moment can be a tender thing. However much we may share, there is also difference in our experience and emotion, and in our levels of vulnerability. Some may be more comfortable talking about all of this than others, as well.
In my own journey through the emotional turbulence of this week, I have found myself longing for the Wisdom of God that goes forth but does not return empty. I have hungered for a word from our ancestors in life and faith who lived through calamities and have insight to share. I hear such wisdom in the story of Naomi and Ruth, women who journeyed, survived, and thrived in the wake of tragedy and in the face of terrible odds. I see it in the example of the widow who in fearless generosity gave two copper coins to the treasury, “everything she had, all she had to live on,” as Jesus observed to his disciples (Mark 12:44). I receive it in Bishop Steven Charleston’s book Ladder to the Light which we are reading as part of our Advent Formation series together with St. Cyprian’s, starting this week. Bishop Charleston writes,
Not long ago, I was asked to write a brief commentary on the Christian theology of the apocalypse: the final, terrible vision of the end of the world. I said my Native American culture was in a unique position to speak of this kind of vision, because we were among the few cultures that have already experienced it. In historic memory, we have seen our reality come crashing down as invaders destroyed our homeland. We have lived through genocide, concentration camps, religious persecution, and every human rights abuse imaginable. Yet we are still here. No darkness – not even the end of the world as we knew it – had the power to overcome us. So our message is powerful not because it is only for us, but because it speaks to and for every human heart…[4]
Even the worst that human beings can inflict on one another, and upon the earth itself, did not have the power to overcome them.
Bishop Charleston’ observations resonate with a deep, defiant feeling I have noticed welling up within me this week. I have seen and heard it in online posts from some friends in the trans community as well, trans femme, trans masc, and nonbinary folks, all of whom have been out and in activist spaces for many years, and do not claim to speak for the community as a whole. Here is the sentiment: in a presidential election that strategically exploited the fear and hatred of trans people for political gain;[5] a year that has seen over 662 pieces of anti-trans legislation filed across our country so far;[6] as the incoming presidential administration plans to amplify that attack;[7] and as anti-trans incidents continue in the Bay Area[8]— all of which seek in one way or another to erase us – we are not going away. As Bishop Charleston affirms, we cannot be overcome. We are here. We are, as the old saying goes, everywhere, including in church.
This spirit of defiance also makes me think of the Philadelphia Eleven, who in the triennium after their ordinations lived defiantly and joyously into a reality that many wanted to efface. Today in fact is the fiftieth anniversary of the first public Eucharist in an Episcopal congregation that any of the women celebrated. It was at the parish of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington D.C., presided over by the Reverend Alison Cheek at the invitation of the Rev. William Wendt, who was brought to an ecclesiastical trial because of this. For those of us who saw the recent Philadelphia Eleven documentary, the image of the Reverend Cheek hoisted, laughing on the shoulders of the attendees that day, is unforgettable.[9] So too for me was how decades later in her eighties, the Reverend Cheek spoke of having felt completely unselfconscious as she presided that day, the Eucharistic prayer flowing effortlessly through her. Wisdom goes forth and returns, thanks be to God.
The reign of God in which the naked are clothed, the captives set free, the wounded are healed, the hungry filled, the rich emptied, the first made last and the last first, cannot be confused with the kingdoms of this world, nor can it be defeated by them. And when this world tries to snuff out God’s dream – which it has tried, which it does try, which it will continue to try – our challenge is to steep ourselves in the wisdom of those who have walked this path, who know the deeper truth. God’s reign is near. It is here, steadily, dramatically, buoyantly, defiantly. Advent is upon us whether we are ready or not. Let us grasp hold of it. Let it join us. Let its Wisdom carry us forward. Amen.
[1] See the website of the Advent Project: http://www.theadventproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/rationale.pdf. See also William Peterson’s further development of the idea in What Are We Waiting For? Re-Imagining Advent for Time to Come (New York: Church Publishing, 2017)
[2] Collect for Advent 1 in “Collects for an Expanded Advent Season” on the website of the Advent Project http://www.theadventproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/adventcollectsrev.pdf
[3] Verna Dozier, The Dream of God: A Call to Return (Boston, MA: Cowley, 1991)
[4] Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage (Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2021), 15.
[5] Shane Goldmacher, “Trump and Republicans Bet Big on Anti-Trans Ads Across the Country,” in The New York Times, October 8, 2024: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/us/politics/trump-republican-transgender-ads.html. “The Ad Campaign,” The Daily Podcast, November 4, 2024: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/04/podcasts/the-daily/election-campaign-ads.html
[7] Maya King, “At Town Hall on Women’s Issues, Trump Renews ‘Enemy Within’ Talk,” The New York Times, October 15, 2024: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/15/us/politics/trump-fox-news-women-town-hall.html Amy Harmon, “Transgender Americans Voice New Anxiety About Trump Agenda,” in The New York Times, November 7, 2024: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/us/trump-trans-rights.html
[8] Erin Allday, “Bay Area teacher on leave after parent complaints about gender material,” in The New York Times, October 18, 202: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/cupertino-teacher-complaints-19847269.php. Marisa Ingemi, “SJSU volleyball: Documents reveal Wyoming forfeit over transgender player followed outside pressure,” in The San Francisco Chronicle, November 9, 2024: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/college/article/sjsu-wyoming-volleyball-trans-19902156.php
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