Third Sunday of Advent

The first reading today is the great spirit of the Lord passage where the words of Isaiah say, “The spirit of the lord is upon me, because the lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, release to the captives”.    This is the passage that Jesus quotes in Luke when he says this text is fulfilled today in your hearing. What strikes me in the reading is really what happens to Jesus and what supposed to happen to us when the spirit of God is upon us.  Right after the spirit of good settles on us, what do we become?  We become glad tidings to the poor, we heal broken-hearted people, and we release people that are captive.

All throughout the earlier weeks of advent we have people calling for God to come in power and fix this broken world.  Advent keeps reminding us that God doesn’t do that with the power that we imagine God would use, but when that spirit of God is upon us what we get is Emmanuel. Emmanuel, who shows us what the power really looks like; it is caring for the least and the lost, it is healing people, it is joy for the poor.

In the Gospel reading from John, the priests and the Levites are out looking to see if John thinks he is the Messiah, with all of their questions and searching for the Christ.  And there is a great line in the middle of that passage, where John says, “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.” Once again Jesus is among them, but he isn’t recognized because the things that Jesus is doing aren’t the things that God would be doing.   They aren’t the way that people thought Christ would be coming to them.

So how did he come and how does he come……... I think of how Jesus started his journey with us. Much like those we serve at CCS he started it as a vulnerable child, without a home, as a refugee on the road, dependent on the compassion of those around him to reach out and welcome him.

As Catholics and Christians, we proclaim in every season that Emmanuel is still on the road with us—in our own lives and inviting us to accompany those who are most vulnerable on their journeys through life, a journey that can sometimes be harsh and unforgiving.

One of the places this past year where that road was incredibly hard and unforgiving was in Oso, where a devastating landslide killed 43 people and devastated an entire community. And as painful and tragic as Oso was and is, it is the best example I know of how CCS and our entire church really recognized where Jesus is in our times and what we are to do about it. I want to share a little bit about the story of Oso. 

In one of my visits to Oso after the landslide, I spent an afternoon with Father Tim Sauer,  who is the pastor of the Catholic churches at Arlington and Darrington. We drove through the slide area, and it was like driving through a graveyard, seeing the devastation and feeling the loss of life there. Father Sauer would describe it this way………

In my many years as Priest and Pastor of God’s people, no experience has been as profound as the disaster at Oso. Tragedy’s touch ignored no-one. It was as if everyone carried a backpack of bricks . . . bricks of grief, bricks of anger, and bricks of confusion and fear at so much loss…

Our churches response to that backpack of pain was incredible. In the early days after the landslide, Father Tim Sauer met with the religious leaders of the area to see how they could help.  At that meeting were the small evangelical churches in that rural community……. churches who were all devastated,  all having lost some of their congregation, and who had no resources to do anything in response,   not even bury their dead. What Father Sauer said even then was incredible. He said our church can bring a lot of help, we have CCS and we have each other.  In his words,

What began as just one desperate call to Catholic Community Services resulted in extraordinary support.  CCS stepped-up to accompany us on our pain-laden journey to start the healing and help fuel hope. They sent professional counselors into the schools to work with our children, they sent disaster case managers who worked with our families and catholic donors offered generous gifts and a powerhouse of prayer…. and  we were able to offer every grieving family financial support for the memorial services and burials of their loved ones, regardless of their faith beliefs.

In this rural community, to this group of fundamentalist pastors, ,  some of whom had been anti catholic their entire life,  this was unheard of. In fact 2 of those pastors shared quietly with our staff months later, that they thanked God for the Catholics and our response, even though they could never say that out loud in their congregation.  What Father Sauer knew in those times was that in this incredible time he wasn’t alone.

He knew that the faith of catholic people, the work of CCS, the commitment of our church to the poor and vulnerable based on the gospel, the kind of Emmanuel that we celebrate in this advent season, was going to make in incredible difference in the lives of the people of Oso, no matter what church they went to and what they believed.

The same thing happens here in your community at Christ our Hope.……. You share so many of the ministries of CCS and CHS in this building. I know you do a meal each week for the residents, you support the Women’s Wellness Center by donating hygiene supplies, you are part of the Dialogue for Justice and you share this wonderful building with our residents..

In Oso, in the many ministries of Christ our Hope, in many more ways we reach out in the name of Jesus with hope, hospitality and support. I would ask that you join me and tens of thousands of Catholics across Western Washington to once again reach out, and become an even stronger and more vibrant expression of Emmanuel for the poorest in our midst.

If you look I your pews you will see an envelope that looks like this.  You also may have gotten one in the mail. We ask you to prayerfully consider a gift, which you can either put in the collection basket when it comes around or mail into us. Please know that 91 cents of every dollar spent goes directly to providing services, and that 25% of the gifts collected today are returned to Christ our Hope to support parish ministries like St. Vincent de Paul and others.

In closing, I ask that you pray for our work and for those we serve. And remember, the Holy Family found shelter and protection on their journey because someone along the way saw their need, stepped-up and responded generously.

Healing has begun and the number of bricks in the backpacks has lessened. But CCS remains with us to walk with our community…despite countless tears of grief, there are abundant tears of gratitude. My personal gratitude is boundless to CCS and to all those who embraced our community with love and support in our desperate time of need.                   

   Thank you and blessings to your families this season.