Excerpt - ALL THE PROSPECT AROUND US
Advent Sermon - Gabriel West
(Originally published in BLACK WELLS, BOOK 2: ALL THE PROSPECT AROUND US by Dark Hart, 2022)
Gabriel West’s Advent Sermon
(Recorded and Transcribed by First American Baptist Church, Black Wells, Colorado)
Gabriel West: “The Lord be with you.”
Congregation: “And also with you.”
“My thanks to Pastor Gwen for the opportunity to worship with you this morning. And now, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in the sight of you, O Lord.
“For me, waiting is an old friend. Both of my parents are hard workers. I’m the son of a teacher, and for those of you who are married to or were raised by a teacher, you know the demands that occupation requires. You have seen up close the strain and the fatigue on their faces. You have felt from afar the weight that their love for education places upon their hearts. And you have seen how that profession marks their time: Hours of parent calls. The late nights of grading. The early morning exhaustion.
“My father, during my formative years, was a truck driver. The oilfield went bust, and so, Dad, doing all he could do, would rise early, leaving our home in Plainview, Texas, to load Georgia-bound cotton in Lubbock. He’d drive across half the country to Georgia, which gave him onions destined for Tacoma, Washington. The apples in Tacoma belonged to Texas, and Dad belonged to us, so he trucked south again, back home. And four days after he left, Dad would come back, share a day or two with us, and then he was gone again. The last I’d see of him would be him climbing into his truck with a full thermos of coffee in hand: fuel for a mind so experienced with the circulatory system of the American interstate that he had no need for a map.
“Mom at work. Dad on the road. I, a lonely child, had only the waiting to accompany me. Much of my early life was lived moment by moment, in a kind of perpetual advent of their return. Waiting like that shapes a person. Informs who we are in those all too many moments of longing—and who we are to become.
“This is the third week of Advent. The time in our faith when we are waiting. When Christendom, our hands white-knuckled in anticipation, our hearts riven with yearning, huddle together, hopeful for Jesus’s triumphal entry into the world. And so, we wait.
“Waiting and waiting, we try to profit from the patience of Elijah, who in 1 Kings 19, pursued by his enemies, stood atop the mountain, waiting for the Lord to pass by. Elijah teaches us the fulfillment of our steadfastness, the divine reward–the briefest glimpse of Heavenly glory. And I wonder, how did Elijah feel while crouching within the cleft of the rock to hide himself from the cold, howling wind.
“I don’t know if he doubted.
“I know I would. I have.
“Doubt is the great enemy of waiting, I think: fear that what has been promised will never come. The long-suffering of doubt that we have all known in our hearts.”
Sound: Speaker clears throat.
“But, my friends. My brothers and sisters, there is good news. A word in our third week of Advent. The week of joy. A couple of nights ago, my friends and I were discussing our thoughts on happiness and joy. Are these the same? If not, how did we define them? All those sorts of questions you come up with while nestled in the downy cloud of friends and fellowship. My best friend James reconjured his long-standing opinion on joy. And so, James, if you’ll forgive me for naming you outright…”
Sound: Congregation laughs.
Sound: A catcall whistle.
Gabriel West: “My friend Lugosi, everyone.”
Sound: Congregation laughs again.
Gabriel West: “James, a natural philosopher, said joy is something inside us. A doorway within ourselves that we can choose to walk through. He has said on previous occasions that self-acceptance and self-love and self-care are the knob, lock, and key that opens our minds to a new vista of joyful living. He has told me it before, and it remains a beautiful metaphor.
Sound: A deep breath.
“Despite the metaphor's beauty, I do not agree. Joy doesn’t come from inside us, James. Joy gets inside of us.
“Joy isn’t a door we walk through. Joy is the tabernacle we are, all of us, living in. And we, all of God’s creation, are what make the world that tabernacle. Shining into the Other—shining for the Other. Our highest happiness found in serving each other.
“Jesus teaches us this truth, that joy is found in the Other. The person I am not. Christ bids that I see the world and the people around me in such a powerful way that I no longer require myself to be the center of it all. That who I am and what I am is an important part of the story God is telling, but that the world isn’t about my story. The world is our story. Everyone and all of us, for all the measure of time. The gift, the wisdom, that the third week of Advent gives us is this: Joy isn’t a prospect inside us.
“Joy is all the prospect around us.
“And what a gift, joy. A fire inside the hearth of the soul ignited by love, providing the strength to endure the many troubles and cares and struggles life puts upon us. And so, to steal from the hymn, and to add upon it. Joy to the world. For the world we’ve been given, and the people in it, are the joy. And we, a joyful people, wait together, not unlike the prophet against the cold howling wind. Hopeful for a fulfillment greater than Elijah’s glimpse. A full view of all that Heavenly glory that unfetters every worldly shackle, drives out hate of race and gender, orientation, or religious creed, and obliterates all earthly disenfranchisement.”