This summer, I had the privilege of returning to one of my favorite places as a child. My father used to always make sure that we went to the Brandywine River Museum multiple times a year. It is especially around this time of year that we would enjoy the Christmas Critters. I hope I might take our children there yet this season.
So, it was this summer that I went back to the Brandywine River Museum, and one of the exhibitions was an artist that I learned about that day, Horace Pippin. Self-taught artist from the West Chester area, Pippin was known for his distinctive folk art style. At the end of the exhibit, there was a series of three paintings that caught my eye, particularly because of the commentary. Pippin painted a series entitled Holy Mountain. The commentary noted his service in World War I with the physical effects, a wounded right arm, as well as mental emotional traumas. He said, ‘When I was a boy I loved to make pictures,’ Pippin recalled, but it was World War I that ‘brought out all the art in me….I can never forget suffering, and I will never forget sunset… so I came home with all of it in my mind and I paint from it today.’1
Pippin was a Jesus follower, member of the St. John Methodist Protestant Church in its day, and he wanted to reconcile his biblical knowledge from the passage of Isaiah that we read today with his horrific experiences of war. He illustrates the peaceable kingdom with a tranquil foreground. The dark woods behind include soldiers fighting and small white crosses depicting military cemeteries. Each painting includes the date from World War II: June 6, 1944, for D-Day; December 7, 1944, for the third anniversary of Pearl Harbor; and August 9, 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Out of his own challenges, we was able to picture peace and wholeness, the coming of the Kingdom of God in his own time. This was the inspiration for me in the artwork of Horace Pippin, that we might picture the Advent of Christ. Each of us picturing the advent of Christ from our own circumstances and experiences. Those of us, like Pippin, who have served in the trenches of war, are shaped by the experiences of life and death that were a part of serving alongside others. Those of us, who hear the words of Isaiah and bristle at a nursing child playing over the hole of an asp, might well be shaped by the experience of caring for children. Those of us who know the way cows and bears are and cannot imagine them co-existing seamlessly in the same pasture might be shaped by our natural experiences. Each of us pictures the Advent of Christ from our own experiences and each of us then has the opportunity to take those experiences and let them be the impetus for us to seek peace in God’s kingdom. Over the season of Advent, we will look at a different image each week from an artist who pictured the Advent of Christ in their own life and in the own context.
It is the prophet Isaiah whose powerful images begin our Advent season. As the prophet speaks to the people of Israel in the 8th century before the birth of Christ, the prophet knew the particular context. A place where peace was the farthest experience from the lives of a people who had lived under oppression and kings who had cared more for their own interests than benevolence of the people. A dream of peace that seemed as outlandish as a lion and lamb lying down together. The prophet Isaiah described the reign of God knowing that the listeners might reject it out of hand. However, knowing that God’s kingdom was still a reality in coming.
The work of Advent is much more than the work of setting up the Christmas tree and unpacking the nativities, although I might argue that we need that, too. The work of Advent is preparing our minds and hearts to imagine that the words of promise from the prophet Isaiah and the gospel write of Luke are not merely “somewhere over the rainbow” images of another time and another place; they are included for the eighth-century hearers and for us because they tell us who God is and where God is taking God’s people-a vision that will make possible full life in the present, then and now, not only “once upon a time.”2
Luke, in the gospel lesson shifts the question from when will this happen to how shall we live? Shall we live as people who are terrified for today and tomorrow? Shall we live as those who know there can be horrific experiences that are yet to come and let fear lead us from one terror to the next? Or shall we live with the hope of the prophet who could have given into the terror pounded from day to day and the worry weighing down each step. Or the hope and awareness that Jesus called the disciples to in Luke?
It is that fear that cripples us, drives us to forget who we are, to see people in need as the enemy, and to place securing our safety and comfort above meeting the basic needs of those in distress. Fear is more dangerous than violence because fear can lead us to forget our deepest identity and betray our most cherished values. Do not fear is the most common proclamation from prophets to people.
This is where you and I prepare for the coming of Christ, by picturing and sharing the advent of Christ. This is where we become beacons of light and hope. This is where we remind the world that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. From Pippin’s horrific war experiences, he worked for peace and reconciliation across military divisions that were primarily segregated in his day. He, here in West Chester, had lived through segregated schools, horrible discrimination as a black veteran, and rampant fears in a nation unsettled that the War to end all wars seemed to have led to another war. He could have given up. It was his faith and choice to continue to serve and seek God that supported him through the challenges of each day.
This morning at the 11 o’clock service, we will baptize Emberly Gajeski. The congregation will make promises that we will seek to join her parents in raising her in the faith. We again, make the countercultural claim that we have not given up on our faith or the future. But rather, we so believe that the Kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven, that we want everyone to know about it, including Baby Emberly. We each bring our own experiences to that promise. This is strength for Emberly. She has teachers and doctors, cooks and accountants, scientists and artists who all wish for her to know Jesus. Each of whom bring part of themselves to their relationships with Jesus and each other. We bring a part of the vision that we can picture with the Advent of Christ. We bring it to share with Emberly and with one another.
As we lit the candle earlier in the service, we marked the beginning of our waiting and looking, seeking peace in the kingdom. We chose in the midst of a world of pain and brokenness, fear and anxiety, to choose Jesus. As we light candles in our homes, decorate Christmas trees, and imagine the Advent of Christ, might we share wildly and abundantly about the coming of Christ, not just as a cute baby, but as savior of the world. Let us together remind each other and urge each one towards the living of kingdom right here and right now, where we need it most.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
1http://www.historynet.com/horace-pippin-world-war-i-veteran-and-artist.htm
2https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 11:1-10
The Peaceful Kingdom
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Gospel Lesson: Luke 21:25-36
The Coming of the Son of Man
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Exhortation to Watch
“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, November 29 ~ Saturday, December 5
Sunday: “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:2. Jesus, our messiah, receives the spirit of the Lord as do those who come in the name of the Lord. During this Advent, ask God to open your eyes to how God’s spirit is already moving among us and guiding those who come in the name of the Lord.
Monday: “Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” Isaiah 11:5. The coming, or Advent, of Christ always points to righteousness and faithfulness. Where do you see righteousness and faithfulness?
Tuesday: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6. Where is God calling you to follow a little child in this expectant season?
Wednesday: “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9. The advent of Christ fills the world with God’s way. Pray for the second coming of Christ.
Thursday: “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21: 28. Where is God calling you to notice God’s movement around you?
Friday: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Luke 21:33. As we wait for the advent of Christ, meditate on God’s word.
Saturday: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly.” Luke 21: 34. There are so many reasons that we might miss God moving around us. How can you remove your distractions?