First Sunday in Advent 2020
Sermon Title: “Be the hope, make real God’s sustenance and generosity”
Scripture Texts: Psalm 121: 1-8; Matthew 10: 42
By Rev. Francisco J. Hernando
Biblical References: PSALMS 121:1-8, MATTHEW 10: 40-42 (RSV)
A Song of Ascents.
121 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From whence does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved,
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade
on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore.
INTRODUCTION
Greetings from the Office of the General Secretary. I know that you have been affected by the long lock down whether in the National Capital Region or in Davao or wherever you are. I thank you for the invitation to preach at this service on the First Sunday of Advent and on this first week of Advent Season. The start of Advent this year as preparation for Christmas celebration is tainted by the pandemic wherein most of us have been prevented from face-to-face gathering as congregation, or institution, or even as families. Many are preparing for Christmas homecoming, but too many quarantine requirements have burdened those preparing to travel home this Advent Season.
Well-meaning Christian believers have been debating with friends and family members how they may return their lives to normalcy, even with the threat of infection of the SARS-2 Covid-flu virus. The much coined word, “New-normal” has its conditioning effect, that there is less possibility of returning to the “old-normal” lives that people have. In many instances, even the strongest of immune system and sturdy personalities have succumb to anxiety and some have been traumatized by the threat of Covid-19 and the fear of consequent death due to infection.
We have all journeyed into the quarantine lack down for the last eight months of the year. Our very own UCCP hospitals were not spared from the impact of the pandemic. Although our hospitals did not cater to Covid-19 patients, but the health protocols were followed. Amidst all these, we try to figure out where would help come, and where does our greatest hope lies.
O N E
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From whence does my help come? The Psalmist was trying to embark on a journey, perhaps like the refugees and migrants stranded in an island in Greece waiting for immigration pass to Western Europe, would asked the same question. Such a question is quite natural— whether one is thinking of a geographic journey through dangerous territory, a lifelong journey through many ups and downs, or a spiritual journey to discovery seeking a homecoming to God.
Like many Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), even if there is a promise of better economic life for themselves and for their families, yet at every departure from home country, their minds and hearts are fearful and ask the question from whence help would come when life threatening situation occurs while working abroad. As youth and adults, we know for a fact that Life is full of many dangers. The physical: disease, injury, accident, war, infirmity, or natural disasters. The economic: recession, depression, unemployment, outsourcing, downsizing, insolvency, debt, or theft. The spiritual: doubt, sin, evil, corruption, fundamentalism, extremism, or false teaching.
What more natural question to ask than, “From whence shall my help come?”
Residents from typhoons Rolly and Ulysses devasted communities, 24 hours after the typhoons destroyed their homes and their livelihood, and not having food and drinking water to nourish their bodies, cried out for help, “Tulungan nyo po kami!” The 3 meters high flood waters that sent residents on their roof waiting to be rescued, were shouting, “Tulungan nyo kami!” If I were in this of situation, I should have died of exhaustion right there on the roof, waiting for rescuers, who came late or did not come at all. From whence shall my help come?
The psalmist answers his or her own question with a confession of faith: “My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.”
The help the badly need will come from our God, the Creator and Redeemer. How does that operate in concrete situation? We have the strongest of faith affirmation that God will rescue when we cry for help. But we cannot stand or sit idly in our house or office and wait for God to reach out and lift us up from where we are. God’s help is operative when believers like us have utilize our native human intelligence and material resources to help those in need.
In our recently launched International Solidarity Forum, we used the thematic call, “Cry-out, ‘Rescue us, O God!’”. Not less than 40 human rights cases were experienced by our church leaders and lay leaders. These cases ranging from red-tagging, arrest and detention due to trumped-up criminal cases, extra-judicial killings. On the night of November 17, our virtual Cry-out to God for help was responded by God through the messages of support and solidarity from our national and overseas partners and mission organizations.
God extended help through the Church’s relief food pack distribution to less-served communities in Metro Manila, in the jurisdictions and conferences. But it is quite interesting to note that with little resources, we were able to share with those in dire need. Political institutions and agencies that have more resources, have not adequately served the people they pledge to serve. The State rather took advantage of the look down and quarantine protocols by instituting repressive laws and policies.
In the midst of dangers, calamities and pandemic, the Church and its institutions should always think and find means to be the hands and feet of God in providing help and support to the poor, deprived and oppressed in our land in the world. We are always confronted by God’s Word, when we fail to be God’s carriers of good news to the suffering people in the land.
T W O
Exegete Rolf Jacobson mentioned that verses 3-8 emphasized the key word keep/keeper — which translates the Hebrew word shamar. The logical movement here is from God’s identity and character --to God identifying and characteristic actions. Who is God? God is a keeper. God’s identity is to protect, shield, watch over, guard, keep. God does this like a watchman keeping guard over a city (130:8) or a bird shielding its young in the shelter of his wings (91:4).
From abstraction to abstraction, the poor and marginalized people and communities could not fathom how God can be their keeper. It looks like that the God revealed in the Scriptures is a distant God, and therefore can be considered a watchman or one who watch over. This symbolic station separates God from the people. Our middle class theologizing can be comforting to ourselves because we still have our jobs and our salaries, the oligarchs and those who have more in live are not worrisome, they worry not getting enough profits from their investments.
Yes, God is our keeper and watchman, but only when our churches and institutions are able to manifest this God in programs and services that responds to the needs of the majority of people. In the narrative I composed about my experience of lock down, I said:
Employment and wages lost ...
Millions of people have to stop working,
the pandemic revealed the ugly consequences
of the nation's class society.
The metropolis was in a standstill.
The nearby public school has no more children playing,
or chanting their songs and rhymes,
No longer can be heard the noisy Lambada music from the jeepney
leaving the compound to have its pasada to Quiapo and Pier
The jeepneys have been parked here since the first day of ECQ
drivers are either stranded in location
or gone to their homes, and just like us, locked down.
EDSA has been decongested of vehicles
and the noisy deafening beep sounds of impatient motorists gone,
And there was silence, at times eerie.
Thus the jeepney drivers were begging for alms on highways saying that they could no longer fend for their families because they stopped driving as government lock down policies and they can be penalized for violating the policies imposed by the government. I was emotionally and spiritually aching deep within that the God I believe in and active in the life of the church could not reach out to distressed jeepney drivers. Our faith in God as keeper, guardian and Creator has been tested in these difficult times of our lives as God’s people and as a nation.
T H R E E
What does God promise to do? God promises to keep you. God will guard you as you go on your journey of life, and as you return home. As you go out and come in. As you face the dangers of the day and of the night.
It is good to emphasize God’s promise of protection, because it quickens our spirits and our immune system enables to fight the varieties of infections. Our faith as support us in maintaining our sanity and mental health.
The list of promises here is not meant to suggest that those who walk in the shelter of God will face no harm or that nothing ill will befall them. The Psalter knows all too well that the wicked are everywhere and that they thrive unjustly.
We know for a fact that during the pandemic many people have experience confusion and the vulnerable ones have lost their sense of psychological balance. Some people have opted to end their lives. Even our church workers of their share of the fear and anxiety of the pandemic. Some did not get their salaries or honorarium. But their hope in God was not diminished, they keep on finding means to serve our congregations.
God’s promises, however, are meant as characteristic promises — these are the sort of things that the Lord does for those who rely on him. And the words of blessing and promise evoke God’s protection and our awareness of it. For this reason, it is common for Jewish families to post Psalm 121 in the delivery room, or in baby carriages, or in a child’s room.
Rolf Jacobson believes that the genre of blessing is under-utilized in today’s world. He asserts that every child of God should give and receive a blessing every day. The words of Psalm 121 make a great blessing. Perhaps close the sermon by asking the congregation to bless each other, making the sign of the cross on each other or raising the hand of blessing and saying, “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on and forevermore.”
FINALE
Finally, The Bible reflector in the UCCP Advent and Christmas guide, emphasized: The psalmist affirms that God is the source of every blessing (121:7-8). The Lord’s care extends to all despite adversities, as God is sovereign over all affairs of life, especially the life of God’s own people. Whatever God’s children do or whatever challenges in life they are facing, the Lord will watch over their affairs and assures them to keep their lives now and forevermore.
These affirmations about God the Creator, the Guardian and the Source of every blessing must weave into the fabric of our lives by showing our compassion to others.
Those who are able to say “yes” to these affirmations are ready to become the ”guardians” of all that God have made and are ready to share their blessings to others so that those who thirst can drink, the hungry can eat, the oppressed can be liberated and those who are blind can see. Our highest thanksgiving to God is by doing all these so that God’s goodness remains not only in us but also extends to others.
I hope that this Advent and Christmas season we will find meaning in the anticipation of remembrances of the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s precious gift for the world. Let us meditatively reflect on all the pain and sufferings we have as individuals, families and as a nation.
This Advent and Christmas is the season of relief and rehabilitation work in devasted communities by typhoons that visited the country. The response to fund campaign for relief and rehabilitation work has been amazing. We pray that our people who receive our help and support will say, From whence my help comes? My help comes from God, my keeper and Savior.
PRAYER
We may not have the nearby mountains to which we gaze and say, “from whence does my help comes?” but we believe in you --our loving and compassionate God as our great Helper and Sustainer. We thank you for reminding us of your unfailing mercy for us, your frail children. Release us from the fears brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Merciful God, be our guide and strength as we continue to journey in these times of pandemic, calamities and State’s persecution of the Church. Firm up our hopes and strengthen our faith in your healing power. As we build up our courage and lengthen our resilience to face the challenges in life, lift us up from the pandemic fatigue and rise to the measure to which we are called to respond and serve. And now may the sustaining and caressing Spirit of God, uplift you, the healing touch of the Redeemer restore you, and the recreating accompaniment of the Creator God abundantly bless you and make you whole again. Amen.
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Source reference: Rolf Jacobson https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-psalm-121-6
