Solidarity is promised and it is powerful

Rev. Peter Bauer

Have you ever felt support from others at a time in your life when you did not expect it? Maybe you experienced a serious illness, a dissolution of a relationship, a death of family member or the death of a career.

At that moment, you may have felt bereft, not knowing where to turn or what to decide. You are alone with yourself and your thoughts and fears. Suddenly, someone appears, someone that you have recently met or someone that you have known a long time. A miracle occurs and you realize that you don’t feel that alone.

Solidarity occurs and you realize that being befriended and connected can be a tremendous powerful force for the good and for doing good in the world.

Community building occurs when people reach out to one another checking in concerning physical welfare. Mutual Aid presents a model where people from various backgrounds can come together to share concerns and get ideas, perspectives that will better their lives. This becomes empowerment for group members and thus change becomes possible, even transformational.

Years ago, I went through a career change. My active-duty Navy Chaplain career was ending, and I clearly felt lost. I didn’t know what to do. My social worker friend, Arnie Oskin, and his wife invited me out to dinner in Chicago.

I took the North Line train from Waukegan, Il down to Northwestern Station and walked over to Michigan Avenue arriving at the Magnificent Mile. The restaurant where I was meeting my friends was in the same mall complex. I had arrived early, and I walked around looking at various shops.

I remember that it was Advent, and it was close to Christmas. I must admit that I was feeling sad and blue.

I then sat down outside Bloomingdales, and I saw a beautiful sight. There in front of me must have been a good 200 or more Poinsettia plants (which were large), and they were arranged to look like a Christmas tree. The display went from the floor all the way up to the top of the ceiling. The flood lights shone on them.

The look of the poinsettias was breathtaking, it was mesmerizing. I felt like I was sitting in the front of a cathedral. It was peaceful and calm while I sat there. I began to feel lighter.

Over dinner talking to my Jewish friends, I related the experience. They smiled and they talked about the importance of Hanukkah and the significance of light coming into the world. I could relate this also to the coming of God being born again in Jesus, bringing the light into the world.

It was also that night that the Oskin’s brought me light and encouragement about starting graduate school in social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jane Addams School of Social Work.

Sebastian Junger would say, “I had found my new herd.”

Micah is trying to make sense of the desolation and loss of his day. He longs to see his people reunited after being held captive by a foreign power.

Kathryn M. Schifferdecker writes about this passage:

The passage is indeed mysterious. What is clear, however, is that it was understood by the Gospel writers as a messianic prophecy and has continued through the centuries to be understood as such. The “ruler”, whose coming Micah foretells, is the One whose birth we will soon celebrate: of the line of David, from Bethlehem, a king who will shepherd his flock in the power of the Lord.

Solidarity is powerful. Yes, even friends who are far away and who write you, pray for you become a powerful vehicle for support. I experienced that presence while writing this sermon when an old friend wrote and shared that I might be feeling strange and detached spending the first Thanksgiving alone. His email message with two links citing the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing “My Help “and “Surely Goodness and Mercy “were both powerful messages that I needed to hear during a time of deep vulnerability.

Luke describes Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and Zechariah as being a happy serendipitous event. Both women are so overjoyed that one exclaims “The baby leaped in her womb “(Luke 1: 41).

This visitation of Mary to Elizabeth brings about transformation. Both women know something big is going to happen to them, something that will change their whole life trajectory. Elizabeth ponders:

 “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. “(Luke 1: 43).

The manifestation of the Holy revealed to both Mary and Elizabeth have been both revealing and earth shattering. Nothing now will be the same. The progression and the purpose of life will now change. Focus on the immediate family will shift now to some degree to the concern for the entire people of God. 

Again, Mary and Elizabeth remind us that solidarity is powerful. This experience is powerful for women. Can it be equally powerful for men?

Women consistently find support and encouragement with other women. Men tend to try and “tough it out,” isolate as if they were above asking for help and some consultation. This isolation can lead to more loneliness, and powerlessness being realized by those who want to look tough.

The Advent journey that we are making together is never finished, it isn’t complete. The significance of Advent will be measured by reflecting on the themes of preparing for new life and offering gratitude for the lives that have been previously lived.

What are the new lives that you are living and what has been the previous life episodes? which remind us that God is persistent and looks, seeks us out for full reconciliation in Jesus.

My good friend, Chaplain Dave Thompson, has noted in his fine article: “Don’t Be a Sore Loser, How to Negotiate Losses Successfully in Life.”

Many of us need help in this chaotic transition time between old realities and a new life, as we ask, “What have I lost, what have I left, and what is still possible for me?” 

The incarnation of God becoming human in the person of Jesus is all about negotiating this chaotic transition time. Here the idea and the realization of God becomes magnified and enhanced by the reality of God becoming one of us.

Here, in this Advent time, many of you, including me, may be asking “what have I lost, what have I left, and what is still possible for me?”

Elizabeth and Mary were both physically carrying new life. There was joy but there was also concern about the future. What would life be like for their children and what would life be like for them?

As readers of the Gospel, we know that the outcome for John the Baptist and Jesus is not good. They will both face death through cruel means.

Yet, we know and affirm that because of the Resurrection of Jesus that new life continues and that there will be a future for all of us.

Yes, Advent is about things, events and people transforming into new life. 

The scriptures say it well: “Rivers in the Desert “(Isaiah 43:19).

 “The crooked pathways will be made straight and the rough ways smooth” (Luke 3:4-6).

What are your crooked paths? What are your rough places that need to be made smooth?

What relationships at work, at school, at home, with family and friends, what needs renovation? What needs transformation?

Jesus is coming again to be born into our lives and into the life of the world.

Jesus promises presence, power, grace, truth, peace, comfort, encouragement, and solidarity with all of us.

Will we be ready to accept and embrace this solidarity – being a co-creator in the work of the Kingdom of God?

May it happen for all of us, this day and forever more.

May it be so.

Rev. Peter E. Bauer is a United Church of Christ minister. He has been a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Medium.Com. He currently serves as the Intentional Interim Minister of Touchstone Community Church (United Church of Christ) in Boerne.