St. Paul’s United Church Advent 1, Sunday, November 28, 2010

Camp Hope – Rev. David Mundy

Isaiah 2:1-5 Matthew 24:36-44

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During this past week we have been told about two situations in different parts of the world where miners have been trapped underground. In China, a country notorious for dangerous mining practices two dozen miners were led to safety while in New Zealand about the same number are presumed dead after underground explosions.

Of course the biggest mining story of the past few months came out of Chile where 33 miners were in what everyone initially assumed would be their tomb, deep in the earth. For seventeen days there was no contact with the buried miners. Then an exploratory shaft resulted in what seemed like impossibly good news. All the trapped miners were alive, and a rescue effort unlike anything that had happened before got underway.

It’s hard to imagine what it was like for those miners in the darkness far below the surface. They will probably all become wealthy thanks to the books and movies which will share their story. But what about their families, anxiously waiting above?

Very quickly many of those loved ones made the decision to keep vigil at the mine head, even though there were no facilities for them to stay there. The government brought in tents and food and other necessities of life for what would be a growing number of people.

Almost immediately a place was set up in their midst for prayer, and the parish priests of some of the families came to lead in that prayer and worship. And a name was established for this temporary community, which was Camp Hope. The Spanish word for hope is “esperanza,” which is a beautiful word, but what happened in the camp during the weeks of waiting wasn’t always beautiful.

The close proximity coupled with the anxiety and the exhaustion meant that nerves were frayed at times. The story emerged that the wife and the mistress of one of the miners met for the first time in Camp Hope, which was probably a very interesting exchange. He was the miner who when everyone else was pulled to safety volunteered to stay down there for a few months longer!

Eventually all 33 miners were brought to the surface safely, amidst great celebration and fanfare. Camp Hope was quickly abandoned by the jubilant families, although there are now plans underway to turn the site into a museum and tourist attraction which will include the rescue capsule. For a time it was a powerful symbol of hope and expectation in the midst of darkness and fear.

This is the first Sunday of the Christian year, the first Sunday of Advent, and each of our four Sundays leading us toward Christmas has a theme. Since you are an intelligent bunch, you already know that this is the Sunday of hope. I wonder if we can say that our congregation is a sort of Camp Hope, doing its best to live with Christ’s hope as we enter into this new season.

Our first reading today was filled with promise and hope, although you might be surprised to learn that this message was offered during a bleak and ominous time for God’s people. The prophet Isaiah lived in the 8^th century before Jesus and the Assyrian empire was poised to invade Israel. The young Isaiah was called by God to declare a message of faithfulness, a role he was reluctant to take on.

Even though Isaiah offers a “tough love” message for the most part, the words we heard today give a hope-filled message, a mountain top perspective of a new way of being.

Many peoples shall come and say come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord . . . that God may teach us and that we may walk in God’s path . . . they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their swords into pruning hooks.

What a vision! So, are you hopeful this morning? Maybe it would be better if I asked if you are in despair or hopeless today. To declare that you are without hope might be going a little too far, but if you feel ambivalent, uncertain about your hope, it certainly wouldn’t be hard to understand because the longer we live, the more challenging it is for us to set up our tents in Camp Hope.

If we agree that it is important to live hopefully, why is it tough to do so at times? Well, for starters the days are getting really short here in the Northern Hemisphere and that is anything but hopeful!

From what we can see on the news, nations aren’t exactly turning their weapons into farm implements these days. There are wars and rumours of wars, to use a biblical phrase. The tensions on the Korean peninsula are so discouraging, especially knowing that only a couple of weeks ago these two governments allowed relatives who have been separated for decades by the DMZ to visit. Our own nation is still engaged in what is probably the longest war in our history.

There seems to be a war on the streets of the city of Toronto these days with young men using one another for target practice in a wave of senseless violence.

Much closer to home, we know that many of our friends here at St. Paul’s are living with sorrow and sadness, which can leave them feeling isolated and overwhelmed.

When the events of the world or in our personal lives seem beyond our control we can become increasingly more cynical and disheartened. My experience is that most people don’t lose hope all at once, as though there is a balloon called hope that suddenly bursts within us. More often it is a matter of the “death of a thousand cuts” with the gradual “bleeding out” of the promise and expectation for life. We may grow wary of God, wondering whether the message of Christ’s oving, hopeful presence with us which is so central to our faith and this time of year could possibly be true. When our hope fades we may look the same on the outside but something changes within us.

Somehow we must find our way back to hope. The late Christian theologian Henri Nouwen, who left academia to work with physically and mentally challenged adults acknowledged that life can be disappointing and painful, but despite this we can seek and find hope.

When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains,

but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life,

those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.

The Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn offers his own “take” on what it means to live passionately for change around us.

When you're lovers in a dangerous time

Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.

What if we substituted the word “Christians” for “lovers” and the word hope in that second line? So, today we can consciously choose to be a congregation of hope, to say that this is Camp Hope in the midst of the cynicism and the despair of the world around us. This is not a temporary encampment, but our ongoing calling as the Christian community. And hope is not some passive wish on our part, but our active participation in the fulfilment of the new order which God brings about in Christ.

In our gospel lesson Jesus invites us to stay alert and to wait expectantly for his coming. Did you notice that he says that we should wait for him the way a homeowner might stay awake because there is a burglar in the neighbourhood? That may seem like an odd image for the Christ, but it is used in one of the apostle Paul’s letters as well, and in the book we call Revelation. It is meant to jar us awake rather than lull us to sleep.

Despite everything we see and hear around us in the world, we can work and pray for a world of God’s peace and hope. I saw a sculpture recently which is the dove of peace made out of reclaimed weapons and it really speaks to the possibilities for change. I had a conversation with a retired United Church minister recently who has been an activist for most of his life – I’ve known him since I was a boy. He was really worked up about our federal government is spending 17 billion dollars on new fighter jets – that money could do so much good in building houses for natives on reserves. Even though he is a bit of a character, I admired his passion.

Within our congregation we can be encouragers to those who are going through the demanding times of their lives and are struggling to find hope in the midst of sadness and disappointment. After worship today there is a grief workshop which we have intentionally coordinated with this Sunday of Hope because we believe that God is a source of healing and hope.

And if our congregation is Camp Hope then it is our privilege and responsibility as individuals to carry hope with us, like a precious child, like the Christ Child, out into our community, our relationships, our places of work, the malls in which we will shop on the mad run toward Christmas.

Some of you may have seen the You Tube video which is making the email rounds these days which had its unlikely beginnings in a shopping mall in Welland, Ontario recently. A community choir, ninety people strong, went to the food court of this mall dressed like everyone else, sitting at the tables on a busy pre-Christmas shopping day. Then one of the choir members stood and began to sing the stirring opening strains of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. At first the shoppers look startled and bemused and some are even laughing. Then other choir members stand and join in until there is a throng of singers praising the God who has come to us in Christ. Some of the shoppers join them and others are using their cell phones to take photos. Who knows if some of them are offended, but no one who was there will forget what happened, and this is a Good News message which has now been shared with thousands of others via the internet.

I’m not suggesting that we all go to the mall to warble away! But every one of us can be bold and brave in sharing our faith in the living Christ. There is an old expression which is still kicking around: “Hope springs eternal” As we come to the table of Christ this morning I invite you into that eternal hope which is a gift to each of us. Welcome to “elcampo esperanza” – Camp Hope.