Advent III
Bethlehem Lutheran Church
Los Alamos, NM
Sunday, 11 December 2022
Matthew 11.2-11
2Ὁ δὲ Ἰωάννης ἀκούσας ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Χριστοῦ πέμψας διὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ 3εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Σὺ εἶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἢ ἕτερον προσδοκῶμεν; 4καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Πορευθέντες ἀπαγγείλατε Ἰωάννῃ ἃ ἀκούετε καὶ βλέπετε: 5τυφλοὶ ἀναβλέπουσιν καὶ χωλοὶ περιπατοῦσιν, λεπροὶ καθαρίζονται καὶ κωφοὶ ἀκούουσιν, καὶ νεκροὶ ἐγείρονται καὶ πτωχοὶ εὐαγγελίζονται: 6καὶ μακάριός ἐστιν ὃς ἐὰν μὴ σκανδαλισθῇ ἐν ἐμοί. 7Τούτων δὲ πορευομένων ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγειν τοῖς ὄχλοις περὶ Ἰωάννου, Τί ἐξήλθατε εἰς τὴν ἔρημον θεάσασθαι; κάλαμον ὑπὸ ἀνέμου σαλευόμενον; 8ἀλλὰ τί ἐξήλθατε ἰδεῖν; ἄνθρωπον ἐν μαλακοῖς ἠμφιεσμένον; ἰδοὺ οἱ τὰ μαλακὰ φοροῦντες ἐν τοῖς οἴκοις τῶν βασιλέων εἰσίν. 9ἀλλὰ τί ἐξήλθατε ἰδεῖν; προφήτην; ναί, λέγω ὑμῖν, καὶ περισσότερον προφήτου. 10οὗτός ἐστιν περὶ οὗ γέγραπται, Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου. 11ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐκ ἐγήγερται ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν μείζων Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ: ὁ δὲ μικρότερος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν μείζων αὐτοῦ ἐστιν.
2When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ 4Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’ 7As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.” 11Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
EACH WINTER AS THE YEAR GROWS OLDER [ELW #252]
By William & Annabeth Gay
Each winter as the year grows older,
We each grow older too.
The chill sets in a little colder;
The verities we knew
Seem shaken and untrue.
When race and class cry out for treason,
When sirens call for war,
They overshout the voice of reason
And scream till we ignore
All we held dear before.
Yet I believe beyond believing,
That life can spring from death:
That growth can flower from our grieving;
That we can catch our breath
And turn transfixed by faith.
So even as the sun is turning
To journey to the north,
The living flame, in secret burning,
Can kindle on the earth
And bring God’s love to birth.
O Child of ecstasy and sorrows,
O Prince of peace and pain,
Brighten today’s world by tomorrow’s,
Renew our lives again;
Lord Jesus, come and reign!
It is again a very deep honour and pleasure for me to be with you this morning. As you know, or may not know, entitling Sermons has always been difficult for me. When I first began Ordained Life at St. Luke’s in Albuquerque back in 1972, the Secretary asked me in advance of the Sunday I was to first preach, “Pastor, what is the Title of your Sermon?”
“I need a title?” I asked.
“No,” she said, “I do. For the Bulletin.”
Struggling for several days I gave in and said, “How about God’s Mighty Word Preached with Power and Strength!” So that became the title.
Two weeks later, she asked again and I responded, “Let’s just use the same Title, it seems to work well.” And so after that I was never asked again for a Title for my Sermon.
In the years before I retired, I did try each week to come up with something significant, engaging, sometimes humorous. And, sometimes, the Title actually did have something to do with the words of the Sermon.
So, I’m quite proud of the Title that I chose for this Sermon on the Third Sunday of Advent:
The Dorian Mode, John the Baptist,
and Jesus
We shall see.
+
The Dorian Mode, John the Baptist, and Jesus
+ In nomine Domini. Amen.
The Rev. William Gay and his wife Annabeth McClelland Gay are responsible for the Hymn of the Day. Both were born in the 1920s, both were graduates of Union Seminary in New York, he Ordained in the United Church of Christ, she an Organist, Choir Director, and composer of anthems and hymn tunes. They were married in 1949 and served congregations in Ohio. When he retired from parish life in 1982, he taught Greek at United Methodist Seminary in Dayton. Finally, they moved to Lincoln, NE where they lived until they went to God, he in 2009, she in 2020.
During the 1960s, during the Vietnam War Era, it was their practice to write Christmas Carols and send them to their friends as part of their annual Christmas Letter. He wrote the text, she the tune.
Each Winter As the Year Grows Older is the Carol they wrote in 1969. It is found in the United Church of Christ New Century Hymnal and of course in our own Evangelical Lutheran Worship. It is one of my most favourite Advent Hymns and the generosity of Pr. Nicolé afforded me the opportunity to choose it as the Hymn of the Day for this Sunday.
Musically, it is an unhurried and wistful thing, with a touch of the Dorian Mode in the third line of each verse. You will hear it as you sing it because it is inescapably poignant.
The Dorian Mode is named after the Dorian Greeks – and if you are so inclined you can read all about that especially in an lovely article in Wikipedia, who they were historically – mostly from the Peloponnese and Crete. This mode is fascinating in music theory and has a long history appearing significantly in Medieval times, but also in more modern centuries.
If you can whistle or hum Drunken Sailor, Scarborough Fair, or the 15th Century French Christmas Carol Noel Nouvelet (which also finds its way into our hymnal), then you already know the Dorian Mode. And if you know Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach, the Royal March of the Lions from Camille Saint-Saen’s Carnival of the Animals, Milestones by Miles Davis, or This Bird has Flown by the Beatles – you’ve got it.
What the Dorian Mode does in music is to grab us, a bit unexpectedly. It wakes us up, causes us to pay attention, maybe even challenges our thinking and draws us into a possibility of looking inside ourselves and our world and then evoking something beyond our self-centered-ness so that we can perhaps changed.
Verse 1:
Each winter as the year grows older,
we each grow older, too.
Here comes the Dorian Mode when we sing: The chill sets in a little colder;
And then that Mode turns us to contemplate the rest of the verse, which is:
the verities we knew seem shaken and untrue.
That in itself, my brothers and my sisters, is enough to make you stop and think, for those of us who went through 1969 during the Vietnam War Era and for all of us who are living through these times. Think of it, the verities we knew seem shaken and untrue.
Next verse:
When race and class cry out for treason,
when sirens call for war,
Here comes the Dorian:
they overshout the voice of reason
Ending this way:
and scream till we ignore
all we held dear before.
“Overshout” – Pastor Gay, thank you, as you rest from your labours, thank for that one word, “overshout.” How much it seems to be a word for us today. The Overshouting of the Voice of Reason – maybe the next Title of a Sermon.
At this point in the Sermon, maybe you and certainly myself, are wondering, “So what about the Gospel?” What about this story in Matthew’s telling of the Good News about John the Baptist (who is in prison, at the hands of Herod, and will actually soon meet his death) and Jesus, and their followers. What about it? It comes to life here in this hymn. It really does. John is the Prophet. Jesus is the personification of Freedom and Love and Grace from God. All we need to do is to follow – AND live it!
Third Verse:
Yet I believe beyond believing
that life can spring from death,
“believe beyond believing”? Really? Do we hear that? Can it be that we can believe beyond belief? Well, yes, that is what we call Faith or Trust or even Hope.
OK, you know it’s coming now and here it is the Dorian:
that growth can flower from our grieving
and then,
that we can catch our breath and turn transfixed by faith.
Beverly and I have experienced more death and dying these days, these weeks that we would wish. Friends, dear friends, have left. The son of a new friend was let go in the hospital. So much loss. So much sadness. So much unanswered prayers.
And yet, there is that phrase, that Dorian Mode-d music which penetrates to tell us, as did John the Baptist, as did Jesus that growth can flower from our grieving
and,
we can catch our breath.
Verse 4:
So even as the sun is turning
to journey to the north
Ah, here is my Theology of Winter, myself afflicted by this Dark Time of the Year, what is called medically SADD (what I call Seasonal Affected Dismal Disorder) – As I tell folks who ask, I like the concept of Winter, I just detest the doing of it!
The days are shorter and shorter and shorter and darker and darker and darker (and to think that I really wanted my first call to parish ministry to be in Alaska! I would not have survived. That I came to Albuquerque in 1972 is evidence of a loving and caring God.).
But the verse continues, you know it’s here now, the Dorian Intensity:
the living flame, in secret burning
Oh my goodness Pr. William and Annabeth, how did you know? By what Spirit were you so inspired to find these words? Living flame, burning in secret – can kindle on the earth and bring God’s love to birth.
That, dear friends, is precisely and exactly what we are gathering each Sunday to celebrate ever closer and closer as we come to the Eve of Christ’s Birth – that God brought love to us.
Verse 5, the final verse is haunting and full of power, more than a thousand voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus because it comes as the dénouement of the whole hymn:
O Child of ecstasy and sorrows,
O Prince of peace and pain,
That is the One we follow, is it not? The Child of Bethlehem who grows to become the Man of Sorrows, but also the Man of Joy, the Prince of Peace born in the Manger is also the one who suffers upon the Cross.
The Dorian Interception:
brighten today’s world by tomorrow’s
That should sink in for the remaining days of Advent – make today bright by tomorrow’s future hope; would that I could spend each hour of every day in that mode, in that hope, in that certainty.
And finally:
renew our lives again;
Lord Jesus, come and reign!
And there it all is. We are not just “getting ready for Christmas” not just that – we are entering into a newness, an awareness, a time of hope and understanding and tolerance and love and compassion that will end war and conflict and bring about peace on earth.
How is that possible? When we sing our way into the Gospel, as we do in this beautiful hymn, then we sing our way into the world, and by our deeds, by our actions, by making the Gospel alive every day in what we say, and what we do, then today’s world will indeed be brightened.
And that, that is the Good News.
And let us all say, Amen.
Deo Gratias (+)
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired
Nota(ble) Be(n)e 