Sermon – 12/2/12
Earlier this year, at the
beginning of summer, a number of family members came to visit the Bay Area.
Trying to be good hosts, Adolfo and I brought them to a number of places,
including sites in San Francisco and the East Bay, along with a trip down the
coast along Highway 1. When we reached the area around Half Moon Bay, as
anyone who has travelled in the area will be familiar with, we came across a
number of small stands selling fresh local fruits and vegetables.
Thinking we might find some fresh
figs—a favorite of one of our visitors—we stopped at one of the stands,
only to learn from the farmer that it wasn’t quite fig season yet, but,
it sure was the season for any number of other delicious things:
strawberries, watermelon, zucchini, artichokes, and so many other wonderful
treats. It was a veritable banquet of nature’s bounty, all laid out
before us as the fruit of the season for that time of the year.
Now, I bet that if we were
more familiar with that particular area and drove through more often, we would
not only learn the parameters of fig season much better – but also might grow
accustomed to the seasons of all the amazing crops that grow there, and
benefit even more from the rich bounty of the many harvests that take place
throughout the year.
Still, few of us probably
have the opportunity to drive through Half Moon Bay every day and learn the
rhythm of the seasons in that particular place. For most of us it’s probably
enough simply to visit once in a while and be surprised and delighted by what
we might find. But, though we may not travel Highway 1 daily, no
doubt many of us drive or walk or ride or spend time
passing through other places with great frequency each and every day.
Whether it’s driving to work,
commuting on the train, walking to the park, or visiting a friend or family
member, we all likely have daily routines that take us to and through places
that we grow familiar with. Now, it’s likely that not too many of these places
are areas where actual fruit and vegetables are growing or being sold on
the side of the road. But, as Jesus shares with us today in our gospel reading,
there is a fruit—a kind of plant, in fact—that’s in the process
of sprouting up all around us, no matter where our daily journeys may take us.
Whether we’re on a bus, at
work, caring for a loved one, volunteering in the community, or simply going out
for a walk, whatever it is that we’re doing, wherever we are, in whatever
circumstances we happen to find ourselves, the seedling plant that’s growing
all around is none other than the living reality that is the Kingdom
of God. Jesus today compares it to a fig tree, but really any plant would
do. The analogy is in fact the same – the Kingdom of God is a living,
growing, fruit-bearing thing that’s alive all around us. It spreads seeds,
grows, and bears fruit in due time. And, just like a farmer who knows the
season for a plant to flower, so we too can learn to discern the growth
of God’s reign all around us.
In truth, it doesn’t take
going to any special place or extraordinary lengths to do this. All we need are
the circumstances of our daily lives, the surroundings and realities
that God has given us, in order to learn to see God’s kingdom at work.
We might find it in a friend
who moves us with a simple gesture of compassion // or in a child who shares a
fresh perspective on life’s wonder // or in a movement for change or renewal
or justice in the community, that touches and inspires us.
Whatever these simple and yet
profound manifestations look like in each of our lives, no matter how we each
encounter the Kingdom day in and day out, the key is that we learn to realize
that it’s there. As Jesus reminds us, the more we learn to read the signs
of the times—the more we train in paying attention to how God is at work among
us—the more we too will grow in our own vocation as bearers and heralds of that
same Kingdom. As we learn to encounter and celebrate grace, justice,
mercy and all the other signs of God’s reign, we too will find that we
can share those same gifts with others.
This Advent season, as we
begin the observance of a season of waiting for the birth of Christ among us,
we do so with the awareness that the Kingdom is both already here among us
and still not fully realized. We stand in the in-between time as
we look for the signs of the times—the in-breaking God’s reign—and also learn
to be humble instruments of the flowering of that same reality among us.
Like travellers on the road
who learn the growing seasons of the living things they pass by along the way,
we too—in this sacred season and throughout the year—take up once more the
invitation to look all around, to discern the flowering of the Kingdom among
us, and to share the fruit of that living plant everywhere we go, both now
and always. Amen.
