We know about the creation stories, we know about the slaves being freed from Egypt, we know about the stories of Jesus, and about the early Church, but there is a big hole in our knowledge of the Bible. And important piece that is often missing. That is, the stories of the Exile. Most of the Old Testament is written in response to these historical events. And the New Testament is built on the foundation of the witness of Israel during the Exile. And yet, listen up, because the story of Israel's exile, and our current chapter in the story of the Church, have something in common.

In Israel, it happened in 587 BC when Assyria at last blew in, burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carried off Israel into captivity. Exile. Here, in North America 2003, is it too dramatic to speak of our present situation as exile, or something that feels very much like exile? What do people do on exile? For one thing, they talk. They try to figure out what has happened to them and why. Why are we no longer at home? Jeremiah says that Israel has lost everything because the people would not trust and obey God. Most writing of the Hebrew Bible, by my count about two thirds, was written during time of exile. The grandest poetry of Israel was written to prepare to go into exile, or while on exile, or getting ready (as in our joyful text from Jeremiah today) to come out of exile.

Walter Brueggemann says that Israel learned a number of important skills while in exile. First, Israel learned to express sadness, rage, and loss honestly. I believe that a major source of family abuse, vengeful prison policies, even the governments kicking people off welfare next Spring are related to the rage that some people feel in losing their hold on power.

And there are others sources of consuming rage. Friends have who deal with eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, have said that sometimes rage is frequently at the heart. A young woman feels rage because of what has happened to her and tragically, that rage turns inward, turns to hurt, and begins to consume the self. Rage that ought to find its proper object in the world, turns inward and consumes the victim.

We worry that our rage may be so great that, if we dared express It, it would destroy everything. It takes courage, faith to move from denial to honest expression of complaint, lament, and admission of loss. Of Israel it is said, "She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her" (Lam 1:2), Israel perfected this literature of lament; of crying out.

Sometimes people accuse us preachers, the church, of always stressing the negative, of harping on what's wrong with the world and us rather than celebrating what's right. Here you've come to church this morning for a positive, upbeat word, and look what you're getting!

However, in a situation of exile, where the keepers of the empire tell us that this is the best of all possible worlds, smile, put on a happy face, and let the government look after you; it takes courage to complain. Kings don't weep. Weeping is the first act of letting go of our tight grip on present arrangements so that we might possibly move toward something better than the present.

Church at its best is the public processing of pain. Sometimes you come to church and are surprised to find yourself in tears. I suspect there is some suppressed grief that you have hidden from public view , which the Scripture, the music, something here allows you to express. That's good. Israel trusted God so much that it could rage, complain, shake its fist and cry out, "God, why?"

It takes a lot of faith in the power of God to ask why.

But, even in the honesty of its lament, Israel in exile also was able to express a new confidence in the power of God to work new possibility. "In times of dislocation," says Brueggemann, "the temptation is to become self preoccupied and self-indulgent." However, our faith teaches that times of dislocation ought to be considered as times of divine in-breaking. We are not meant for submissive docility, zombies anesthetized before the reassuring numbing of CBC, CNN, ESPN, or other opiates of TV. Israel was faced with an enemy, Assyria, whose might seemed to dictate every option and to control every aspect of life-something like our economy, or the government, or advertising.

The amazing thing was that, in a situation of devastating defeat and discouragement, the prophets of Israel, like today's text from Jeremiah, dared to proclaim with Isaiah, "Your God reigns!" All of those grand phrases that are so well celebrated in The Messiah"Comfort, ye, my people," "And he shall reign forever and ever"came out of exile. The "Hallelujah Chorus" is from Revelation, words from a poor, little, persecuted church hanging on by its fingernails on the fringes of the empire.

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah... In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety" Jeremiah 33:14-16).

The time is coming!

I will restore, re-gather Israel and Judah, do for you that which you cannot do for yourselves, namely, bring you home.

Pushy, risky theological claim that, all present evidence to the contrary, God still reigns and God's purposes shall not be finally defeated. One reason why we gather in church, when we are in exile, is to learn some pushy, confident speech. If we can be assertive, pushy before the altar of God, we might learn a little chutzpah for use down at the city hall, or before the lures of Wal Mart, or when standing up against unjust systems; be they at work, in the church or at school.

It takes a lot of faith to express confident joy in the reign of God and at the same time honesty about our situation in exile. Israel's prophets managed to pull it off. By God's grace, so might we.

By the grace of God we can move beyond mere sadness, and death-dealing rage. We can move away from denial that inevitably breeds violence. We can use imaginative speech to speak of new social possibility, new thinking that dares to sketch new worlds. We can learn to name our fretful time as more than exile, as prelude to homecoming, return to God, return of God. We can move toward our redemption, confident, singing as we go. Sing and shout for joy, people of Israel.

We gather in Advent and speak of home, having received God's loving promise to preserve us, bring us home. We who by the grace of God are exiles from the world, waiting & working for a new world to come. Here, as we move through Advent toward the Nativity, we wait in darkness. This Sunday's lesson, in which the darkness is penetrated by a brief burst of joyful light, is an invitation to peer a bit longer into the darkness of our present, to name our situation as exile, as estrangement from God, but also to look forward to our redemption by a God who promises to come among us.

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Liturgy

Note to Hooke: We will get the families to translate this part themselves either in Taiwanese or Mandarine.

THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT: HOPE

Every Sunday of Advent the candle lighting is preceded by the Call to Worship, and the Introit: "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". Please come forward during the singing of the Introit. The candle lighting litany includes the prayer of Approach for the day - and is followed by the singing of "A Candle Is Burning" by the congregation. When the verse is over the candle lighting group may return to their seats. The "voices" can be assigned as you, the readers, see fit.

VOICE - Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means
"coming" and in this season we prepare for the coming of
Christ. One of the ways we prepare for his coming is by
making an Advent wreath and lighting its candles to
remind us of the gifts Christ brings to the world.

VOICE - The Advent wreath includes many symbols to help us
think about Christ and his gifts. The wreath itself is
in the shape of a circle. A circle has no beginning and
no end. This reminds us that there is no beginning and
no end to God and that God's love and caring are forever.

VOICE - The light from the candles - which grows stronger each
Sunday in Advent, reminds us that Jesus is the light of
the world.

VOICE - Today we light the candle of hope. The people of
Israel hoped in God's promises and were not disappointed.
Again and again God delivered Israel from its enemies.
We too have the same experience of salvation. That is
why we believe in God's promise to send Jesus to us once
again to judge the world and establish his kingdom
forever upon the earth. (a person lights the candle)

VOICE - Hope is like a light shining in a dark place. As we
look at the light of this candle we celebrate the hope we
have in Jesus Christ.

VOICE - Let us pray: Thank you God for the hope you give us.
We ask that as we wait for all your promises to come
true, and for Christ to come again, that you would remain
present with us. Help us today, and everyday to worship
you, to hear your word, and to do your will by sharing
your hope with each other. We ask it in the name of the
one who was born in Bethlehem. Amen.

SONG: A Candle is burning, a flame warm and bright,
a candle of hope in December's dark night.
While angels sing blessing from heaven's starry sky,
our hearts we prepare now for Jesus is nigh.

RETURN TO YOUR SEATS AS SONG IS SUNG

Advent liturgy copyright - Rev. Richard J. Fairchild 1997, 2000
use only with proper acknowledgement

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Call to Worship
"Show me your ways, teach me your paths,
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my saviour.
For you I wait all day Long." - Psalm 25

Confession
"Remember your mercy, O God, and your steadfast love,
for they are as old as time.
Do not remember my sins and offenses,
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for your goodness sake, O God." - adapted from Psalm 25

Assurance
In the Book of Hebrews it says that not only will God forgive those who are truly sorry. For those who turn from paths of inhumanity and evil, God will remember their sins no more. These wrongs will be gone forever, never to be thought of again.

Scriptures:
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25

Hymns:
VU #1: Come, O Come Emmanuel V1,3,5,7
VU #5 All the Earth is Waiting
VU #30 Hail to God's Own Annointed