Waiting for a Girl to be Born

“Waiting for a Girl to be Born”
Luke 21:25-36

First Sunday of Advent December 3, 2006
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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Children are sitting around the Advent wreath waiting to light the candle on the third Sunday of Advent. A minister asks a question before she lights the candle, “Could anyone tell me why the third candle is pink?” No one is volunteering to answer. Then, a little girl raises her hand with excitement and shouts her answer. “Because God is still waiting for a girl to be born?”

The pink candle, by the way, is the third candle to be lit on Gaudate Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent. “Gaudate” means “Rejoice!” in Latin, a word taken from Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. … The Lord is near.” A pink colour was chosen to signify “rejoicing.”

Waiting for a girl to be born.

What happened at l’École Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989 really hit me hard. A man planned and executed the murders because he believed that his future as an engineer was doomed since women were taking away jobs from him. The murderous event hit me hard because it happened just a few months after the birth of my first daughter, Frances. I kept thinking that Frances has arrived into a world where being a female is a cause for death. I was well aware that the culture of misogyny was embedded in our society but the brutality became real to me when my daughter arrived into my world.

Fifteen years ago, in 1991, the Canadian Parliament declared December 6 a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Today, we will be honouring the lives of the 14 women and all other women who experienced violence due to their gender. During the Prayers of People we will be dedicating a rose for each person.

We remember and honour the lives of these 14 women today:

Geneviève Bergeron, 21
Hélène Colgan, 23
Nathalie Croteau, 23
Barbara Daigneault, 22
Anne-Marie Edward, 21
Maud Haviernick, 29
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31
Maryse Laganière, 25
Maryse Leclair, 23
Anne-Marie Lemay, 27
Sonia Pelletier, 23
Michèle Richard, 21
Annie St-Arneault, 23
Annie Turcotte, 21.

Yes, our society has changed much since 1989. Misogyny, however, is still deeply ingrained in our socio-political and religious psyche.

Today’s lectionary reading in Luke helps us to focus not only on the birth of Jesus, but also on signs of the Second Coming of Jesus. About 20 years after the death of the Apostle Paul, the community of Luke began to envisage what the signs of the Second Coming of Jesus would look like. They believed that God created faith within them so that each believer would be able to discern the signs of the coming of God’s reign. The community of Luke believed that their sufferings from persecution will end when God’s reign begins.

This is what one commentary says about today’s passage. “The language was generated from a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the author’s present reality and an equally strong yearning for an altered future – both of which spring from an absolute conviction that God ultimately exercises authority over all creation, including the course of history.”[1]

We, too, are living in a time of “a strong sense of dissatisfaction” with our present realties. Like the people of early Christian community, we yearn for an altered future. And yet, we are unwilling to give up our power to have control over things in and around us.

Mary Ellen Azada, a Presbyterian minister in California, writes in her reflection on today’s Luke passage.

“In a society of comfort and affluence, the need for a Savior outside
ourselves is hindered by the things that clutter our lives. We have become accustomed to a set of values that urges us to ‘do it on our own.’ When Jesus was born, it was different. There was a profound and deep anticipation of the Messiah among the Jews. John the Baptist’s arrival stirred this longing for a Messiah, as people wondered if this man was the prophet whose voice [cried] out in the wilderness” (Isa. 40:3). Perhaps in this age of high tech communication, given our ability to view the suffering of the world at such a rapid speed, we have become desensitized to much of our own pain and the pain of the world. Our sense of expectance has shrunk because we are out of touch with our need for healing. Perhaps for us the Advent season is not only a season for anticipating the birth of our Lord and the return of our Saviour, but a season to acknowledge our need for God.”[2]

Advent is derived from the Latin word “adventus” which means “arrival” or “coming.” Advent marks the start of the Christian season. In the early Christian community, Advent was a time of prayer and confession. Today, it is a time of spiritual reflection as well as joyful anticipation of the coming of the Christ Child into our world.

How do we anticipate and cultivate hope in our part of the global village in the midst of social upheavals and helplessness? How do we discern a sign of the times that could guide us to see the arrival of the reign of God in our world? Were there times when you felt that divine help came to you and your community while you were facing devastation and pain?

I came across a sign of hope and renewal of our time when I opened the back page of the Week in Review section of the Sunday edition of The New York Times last week. Yoko Ono Lennon wrote a letter to the public as another anniversary of her husband, John Lennon’s murder arrives on December 8. I would like to read you part of her letter. She wrote:

“Thank you for your undying love for John and also for your concern for me on this tragic anniversary. This year, though, on December 8th, while we remember John, I would also like us to focus on sending the following message to the millions of people suffering around the world:

To the people who have also lost loved ones without cause: forgive us for having been unable to stop the tragedy. We pray for the wounds to heal.

To the soldiers of all countries and of all centuries, who were maimed for life, or who lost their lives: forgive us for our misjudgements and what happened as a result of them.

To the civilians who were maimed, or killed, or who lost their family members: forgive us for having been unable to prevent it.

To the people who have been abused and tortured: forgive us for having allowed it to happen.

Know that your loss is our loss.
Know that the physical and mental abuse you have endured will have a lingering effect on our society, and the world.
Know that the burden is ours.

As the widow of one who was killed by an act of violence, I don’t know if I am ready yet to forgive the one who pulled the trigger. I am sure all victims of violent crimes feel as I do. But healing is what is urgently needed now in the world.

Let’s heal the wounds together.

Every year, let’s make December 8th the day to ask for forgiveness from those who suffered the insufferable.
Let’s wish strongly that one day we will be able to say that we healed ourselves, and by healing ourselves, we healed the world.”[3]

I was inspired by the way Yoko Ono moved beyond her personal suffering and tragedy to pray for the healing of the world that is in dire need of healing. I, too, believe that healing the world is intimately connected to healing of the self. And as a Christian, I also believe that the healing of our self and the world begins when we acknowledge our need for God.

We are still waiting for a girl to be born in a world where misogyny would be a forgotten word; and where men and women, boys and girls, will be able to relate with one another as equals, not bound by learned behaviours of prejudices and hatred due to misguided gender roles and biases. We are anticipating a world where violence will be an exception, not the norm.

As we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, I invite you to join in a prayer that Jack Reimer wrote in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish New Year.

We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end war;
For we know that You have made the world in a way
That humanity must find its own path to peace
Within oneself and with one’s neighbour.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end starvation;
For You have already given us the resources
With which to feed the entire world
If we would only use them wisely.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God,
To root out prejudice,
For You have already given us eyes
With which to see the good in all people
If we would only use them rightly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end despair,
For You have already given us the power
To clear away slums and to give hope
If we would only use our power justly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end disease,
For You have already given us great minds with which
To search our cures and healing
If we could only use them constructively.
Therefore we pray to You instead, O God,
For strength, determination, and willpower,
To do, instead of just to pray,
To become, instead of merely to wish.[4]

May each of us strive to become such a being.

Amen.

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[1] Marion Soards, Thomas Dozeman, and Kendall McCabe, Year C Advent/Christmas/Epiphany: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 26.
[2] Mary Ellen Azada, “November 30, 1997: First Sunday of Advent,” The Abingdon Women’s Preaching Annual: Serise 1 – Yr. C, comp. and ed. Jana L. Childers and Lucy A. Rose (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997), 14.
[3] Yoko Ono Lennon, “Forgive Us,” Week in Review, The Sunday New York Times, 26 November, 2006, 12.
[4] The Reverend E. Lee Hancock, “The Grand Puppeteer: On Omnipotence,” The Book of Women’s Sermons, ed. E. Lee Hancock (New York: Riverhead Books, 1999), 136-137.