Advent I, Year C
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
Yesterday we had the last of two Sabbatical workshops led by Fr. Morrie Hauge and Pastor Eldon Olson. The first was about living into our baptisms. Yesterday was titled "living into the eighth day".
Recall that - in the first story of creation in Genesis - God labored for six days and rested on the seventh - the "sabbath". The Sabbath, Jewish tradition has maintained, is Saturday - the day of completion. Creation is only complete when there is rest, refreshment, reflection on what has gone before. The eighth day - Sunday - is the day we enter into the new creation, the day when we enter into a new way of living that's a step beyond the old creation. It can go under many names, but we Christians name that day the day of resurrection.
The Sabbatical - for all of us - is over. But the learnings that have come - and will come - from it are not completed. That's what the "8th day" is for and about. To live into the eighth day is to live into the implications of resurrection for us as a community as they have touched each of us and all of us in the last three months.
To live into the 8th day is to live into a new beginning. On this day we begin four weeks of preparation for the celebration of God's coming among us - and so the theme of a new beginning is entirely appropriate.
Yesterday's workshop was quite remarkable! For me it felt like a lot of things came together. Morrie and Eldon will/have provide[d] a summary of that at forum time, and we'll be doing more to try and share with all of you some of the power of that day.
But how could I resist saying something too!?
Yesterday I heard and saw people who were changed by the sabbatical, and who found out that the change was actually really good! I was certainly changed by the experience - it was, simply, dazzling!
But perhaps the word "change" doesn't really capture it for me or for you, so here are some other words: blossoming, maturing, deeper understanding, delight, educational - all were used yesterday.
And the change that everyone described was cast in a particular context by this comment: "I realized", one person said, "how much the Church has changed. But there is a continuing theme which doesn't change, and that's community."
When I shared something of my reflections after everyone had spoken (can you imagine? I kept quiet for a whole 30 minutes!) that's what I had to say. In the midst of the remarkable newness I experienced in places I'd never been before that theme of community came through again and again. Whether it was the community gathered at the abbey on Iona or the community of pilgrims in the Holy Land there was a common theme: community is created when different people come together and - out of their diversity - agree that whatever they believe they will work for the good of the greater whole.
And when we come together as a community the things that seem most ordinary - eating, talking, simply spending time together - those things take on an added dimension - in a very special way they become sacred to us.
We live in an age where everyone wants to "cut to the chase" and, as a result, its easy to skip ahead, to jump over things in order to get to the denouement, the place where we decide or achieve, or complete.
What I learned - during my sabbatical and yesterday - is the importance of doing the initial work, both interior and exterior, and the importance of doing it together. That "initial work" sounds straightforward - simple, even - but is so important: what does it mean to be a Christian? How can I seek guidance in my life? What does it mean to pray?
Lots of you "stepped up to the plate" in the last three months. I heard how wonderful that was - so wonderful that I suggested that I should take a sabbatical every year! I was voted down. But - joking aside - there's something really important here: you have taken responsibility for yourselves and for this place; you have volunteered and worked; you have invited decision-making and worked for its good outcome; you have participated.
I didn't do it for you, and nor did anyone else - that's cause for real celebration!.
The people who gathered here - who represent about a fifth of the regular Sunday congregation, were energized by their experience. Those of you who were present at the All Parish Dinner heard four people speak movingly of their experience. I have heard - again and again - how you want to keep on this path.
And I say, "right on!" And I say "it's up to you". I'll be right there beside you. Let's make this Advent season a preparation not only for the Coming of the Holy One, let's make it a preparation for an exploration and a learning about ourselves and our faith as we look to what I believe is a very bright future with hope and with joy.
Amen.
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