Grace-St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Mercerville, New Jersey

And from "Tonight" in West Side Story: : Somethin’s comin', I don't know what it is, but it is - gonna be great!"
In nomine...

Whether we are blessed with the articulate hope and symbolism of Zephaniah
or the inchoate dreams of Tony in West Side Story,
Human beings have always had a "dream," a suspicion,
an intuition, if you will,
that there is a better way to "do life" than our world has yet found.
The wiser among us have also long suspected that whatever "it" may be,
WE were not capable of bringing in that new life by ourselves.

This dream of "something comin' "has been nurtured in the dead of winter, in the face of war and violence
and in the face of the injustice which winter’s cold and lack of food
tend to make both worse and much more obvious,

The feeling that "what's comin'" is Judgment,
that we humans are at bottom responsible
for a lot of what is wrong in the world
comes with longer nights and shorter days,
with the "wars and rumors of war" which tend to happen in our hemisphere as the heat of summer recedes.
That feeling comes with the injustice that shows up as famine, cold and poverty in the midst of celebration

Violence contrasts with songs of peace and goodwill,
Jack and Susy preach on war and the death penalty,
and we begin again to wonder about our personal responsibility
in and for our community's and the world's craziness.
Thus one part of this week’s winter solstice is darkness and dread,
an awareness of our part in the wrongs of the world.
Not surprising then, that the second coming, Armageddon or Doomsday
is the theme of the end of the year as the sun falls toward the winter solstice,
and we retreat into our homes - assuming that we have homes.
Old English and Norse traditions tell us that evil ones roam the forest
in the dead of the winter solstice,
and from those stories comes our tradition of winter greens -
of hanging around our homes those things - the evergreens, the mistletoe, the holly and the ivy which do not die, as the earth falls into darkness.

Stories of the second coming fit well in this cold darkness
with their themes of judgment, and sudden terror, and their assumption that all things must end when God returns to judge our world.
"Who can abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears," inquires Handel's bass.
"for He is like a refiner's fire, and He will purify the heirs of Levi."

Does anybody here NOT regularly feel in need of being purified,
of being emptied out and beginning all over again,
of doing things differently and somehow better, so they come out right?
And who among us does not also worry that the wastelands inside us will overcome the gardens we have also planted in our hearts and souls?

Into our the worlds darkness and our personal darkness come the prophet’s words
"The wilderness shall rejoice . . . and the dry land blossom abundantly.
and the ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion with singing . . .
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." – that’s Isaiah.
Zephaniah from this morning’s reading says, “I will remove disaster from you, so that you shall not bear reproach for it.
. .and I will save the lame, and gather the outcast, and
I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
At that time I will bring you home
The Prophets DO know "what's comin' " and they know that
"it's gonna be great!"
They believe with all their might and main that GOD is coming.
and they are not, in the end, terrified of that Day of Judgment.
WHY NOT?

Listen to John the Baptizer – “I baptize you with water,
but one who is more powerful than I is coming.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to gather the wheat into his granary.”
In short, they are not terrified, because it is Our God – the God we know in Jesus, who is coming.

"Rejoice, the Lord is coming," carol our Advent hymns,
Rejoice? given the impending judgment of "God
and the mess we have helped make of the world?
Rejoice? considering our treatment of the maimed, the lame, the blind,
the poor and those in prisons?
Rejoice? That we shall personally be seen by all and sundry
as exactly what we are?
Rejoice? In the heart of darkness and cold, of greed and violence,
of wars and rumors of war?

Yes, "rejoice, and again I say rejoice. "
Rejoice, because the one who comes is Jesus -
who makes the lame to walk and the blind to see.
The one who comes is Our God who humbled himself to take human form being born as a baby to refugee parents in a stable
Rejoice, the one who comes is the Lord of the Dance of Life and Death
who always and everywhere chooses life for creation.
Rejoice, because the crucified one who comes,
suffers every human indignity praying,
"Father, Forgive them, they don't understand what they are doing."
Rejoice, for the Prince of Peace comes
with the promise of healing for the nations
Rejoice, for the coming of the Incarnate Word
is the beginning of the new creation and that New Creation is
the “somethin' comin' I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great!"
of which we all dream deep down in our hearts.

Of course we have chosen to celebrate Jesus' birth as the darkness of
the winter solstice closes in.
For if Jesus is the promised, then we can be certain.
that light will always shine in darkness,
We can be sure that the armor of love is stronger
than the sword of fear and hatred,
That peace is stronger and more permanent than war.
and that darkness and judgment offer us not terror at the end
but cleansing, forgiveness and new life.
That God is FOR us, indeed God is WITH us, so who can be against us?

Jesus promises that our waste places -- whether in the desert,
in our cities, or in our hearts
will be filled with the only thing they need for complete joy -
the presence of God's profound love for us and for all people.
AND we are promised
that we and all the ransomed of God will walk on the great highway
Whole, and well, and free, as children of the kingdom
Rejoicing that God has remembered us . . .
In nomine . . .