Romans 13:11-14
It happened in an instant. I’d just walked in the building. It was packed, mostly with children. Even before I had made my way to the front, I knew I had to do this.
That’s what I tell people when they ask how I started to keep bees. A friend had been telling me for years that I had to keep bees. She’d been on about bees since I came to know her. In fact, just a few months before that fateful day at the Topsfield Fair I’d been staying with Ann. Once again, she started on about bees. To satisfy her, I took a couple of her bee books to read. The next morning, I returned them, unread, but promised to do some reading about bees when I got home.
So, I went off to the Topsfield Fair, mostly out of obligation. What happened changed my life. I walked in obliged. I walked out committed. In that instant something inside me woke up.
It’s safe to say I woke up to a whole new way of being. Because of the bees, I began to pay attention. I came to know where they found the nectar which they turn into honey, and the pollen they eat for protein. I began to see things, as if for the first time. Soon I could identify over 130 different plants, flowers and trees that grow at Emery House. I discovered the difference between butter and eggs (which is a flower and not a breakfast!), and goldenrod. I can tell you things bloom two weeks earlier in Cambridge. I can identify the ridge near Peabody where the weather between Cambridge and West Newbury changes.
But something else woke up in me: a memory, a dream, a vision. I remembered what I wanted to be when I grew up. Ever since I can remember, and then I forgot, and then I remembered: long before I wanted to be a monk; long before I wanted to be a priest, I wanted to be a famer. I remembered it that day at the Topsfield Fair and I knew, as if my life depended on it, that I HAD to keep bees.
We are urged today by Jesus, Paul, and Isaiah as well, to wake up, to wake up to a new way of being, a new world, a new reality.
Isaiah knew that there was a different way of being in the world than the one in which he lived. Wars and rumours of wars abounded. Warmongering, corrupt kings reigned. Fraudulent priests in league with the rich and powerful, oppressed the poor and dispossessed. But Isaiah was awake to a different reality. It was not the army of the Assyrians that he saw flocking to Jerusalem, or unruly mobs storming the halls of government, but the peoples of the earth seeking the ways of justice and peace.
“In days to come the mountain the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and . . . all nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of . . . God . . . that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’” (Isaiah 2:2, 3)
Isaiah was awake to a different reality, a reality in which “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2: 4).
There were those no doubt who regarded Isaiah as unplugged from reality. At the same time many longed for Isaiah’s reality to be fulfilled. Who here today does not long for the reality of Isaiah, than the one we see emanating from the White House?
Sometimes to wake up to a new reality, to a new world, to a new way of being, we need to go to the Topsfield Fair. Other times we need to risk speaking of justice and peace in times like these. Sometimes the reality of the world, and the war cry of corrupt kings dull our senses to the reality of God, but Isaiah stands before us reminding us to keep awake to the reality that the promised day of God will indeed come, even when people think we are crazy.
Noah knew that there was a different way of being in the world than the one in which he lived.[1] To find that reality, he had to build an ark. There were those no doubt who regarded Noah as unplugged from reality. However, to be faithful to God, Noah knew he had to do something crazy. In the end he trusted the reality of God’s promises and built the ark. Sometimes the reality of the world, and the raging storms of daily life dull our senses to the reality of God, but Noah stands before us reminding us to keep awake to the reality that the promised day of God will indeed come, even when people think we are crazy.
Sometimes to wake up to a new reality, to a new world, to a new way of being, we need to go to the Topsfield Fair. Other times we need to risk building an ark.
Advent is a time when we are commanded to wake up, to keep awake, to stay awake.
All around us the armies of corrupt kings are laying siege. The storms of life are raging. But the vision of Isaiah, the trust of Noah, and the life of Jesus stand before us as reminders that a different reality is possible, a different world is possible, a different way of being is possible
Some days to find that that new reality, that new world, that new reality, we need to go to the Topsfield Fair. Other days we need the vision of Isaiah, the trust of Noah, and the life of Jesus to keep us awake, to open our eyes so that we may see, and know and believe that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11).
It feels this Advent that we are mired in despair. Everything looks hopeless. My hunch is, that was also the world of Isaiah, and the world of Noah. Yet both had an inner sense that another way of being was possible.
I don’t know what you see today. It may be the armies of corrupt kings laying siege all round. It may be storm clouds heavy with rain. Or it may be a wild and wonderful vision of peace. It may be plans for an ark. It may be a honeybee dancing and drawing you in to the source of a new and abundant life.[2]
The hope of Isaiah, the confidence of Noah, and the dance of the honeybee are the things calling to me this Advent. The challenge is to be awake to their message and hear, through the din of war, the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer; to see through the threatening storm clouds, the colours of the rainbow; and to remember as you watch the honeybee dance, the invitation to a new and abundant life.
So, this Advent, wake up and watch the honeybee, see the rainbow, and hear the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer and know that in this world full of corrupt kings and fraudulent priests, God’s promise of peace, salvation, and renewal is nearer today than it was, even yesterday.
[2] Upon discovering a source of nectar or pollen, honeybees return to the hive and dance to communicate the direction of the nectar or pollen.