Father John Heschle is the immediate past Rector of St. Paul's Church By-the-Lake in Chicago. We were in seminary together, and recently surprised to discover that we had been worshiping together at St. Andrew's in Grayslake about four pews and an aisle apart!
He preached this sermon at St. Andrew's on Second Sunday of Advent, December 5, 2021, based on the reading from Baruch 5:1-9, which you can read by clicking here.
"Take off the garments of sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem. . . . Put on the robe of righteousness that comes from God . . . the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting . . . to show your splendor everywhere under heaven." Baruch 5:1-2.
I.
If I had to give this Homily a title it would be "Dressed to the Nines."
When I graduated Seminary in 1978, my Bishop in Kalamazoo would not ordain me, nor say why. Everyone in seminary assumed it was because I was a Traditionalist, and I still am.
Your rector Father Kelly and I agree on many of the Anglo-Catholic traditions of our Church.
In seminary I was a representative of an English vestment company, and one of the junior seminarians, to whom I sold the basic cassock and surplice required by the seminary, said of me, when he heard that I would not be ordained right after graduation, "All dressed up and no place to go!"
It was true until Bishop Montgomery got me out of that Diocese and into ours to send me to rural Morrison, Illinois.
II.
Every time I hear this scripture from Baruch, I remember the story of Marlene Dietrich at the Little Church Around the Corner (The Church of the Transfiguration in New York City), and the home of the Episcopal Actors Guild.
As the thurifer, bearing the thurible in which the incense was burning, processed down the center aisle, she said, "Darling I love your dress but your purse is on fire."
Today's first reading uses the image of vestments as an allegory for sorrow and joy, and how Jerusalem and her people are clothed with God's glory, righteousness, splendor, and even a diadem crown.
Clothing has always been crucial in defining different aspects of our culture.
Class and status, as well as religious worship, have significant apparel that defines order, rank, and the roles we play. Think, for example, of the military and the importance of uniforms. In terms of the Church, Protestants have never much liked vestments, save maybe the black preaching gown in the Calvinist, Reformed, and Presbyterian traditions.
III.
The Prophet Baruch shows us God's favor towards Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile, and describes her as wrapped in a splendid garment.
It is a garment poetically of peace and justice, and not our justice, but God's.
God does this, we are told, so all can see the power and importance of that city, one that had been desecrated by the Babylonians.
In the restoration we see a gathering of the people from East and West— exiles returning, carried home by God as on a royal throne.
These are not just images of the "temporal real world," but of the Eternal and Heavenly City of God. From our perspective in 2021, we are guided there through our active participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass each Sunday.
The Mass guides us to God's Throne, to God's Kingdom, to the Heavenly Jerusalem. And so, we use vestments, ceremonies— even incense in many places— to remind us of that glory.
IV.
And here's the SO-WHAT of all of this, and the SO-WHAT of Advent.
While we cannot ignore the problems of the world, nor the pandemic still plaguing us, we have reason to celebrate.
We must not only put on the garments of our salvation, the splendor of our God— but we must live the glory by becoming in our daily lives the glory, the joy, and the peace for others to see, and to enter into it with us.
Isn't that what a parish family is all about? Isn't that the work of this parish church here in Grayslake?
Let us, this Advent, put away our political rancor, our negative comments, our depressing moans and judgmental attitudes.
Let is strive to become God's Jerusalem again: a bright, shining, glorious city of people who live God's ways of justice and peace.
St. Paul tells the young Church at Ephesus to put away all rancor and bitterness, and to put on Our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the Advent of our lives. He comes as a child in the Incarnation at Christmas, He comes in the Resurrection after the sacrifice of the cross on Calvary, and He comes again to judge the living and the dead.
And more especially, He comes every Sunday at Mass to guide and comfort us as we journey through this world to that Heavenly Kingdom.
V.
I had a very religious mother who took us to daily Mass at St. Mary the Virgin whenever we went into New York City. She taught us as children to kneel before the Tabernacle when we saw the light burning in the Sanctuary Lamp, and to say from memory: "Blessed, praised, hallowed, and adored be Jesus Christ on His throne of glory in Heaven, in the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and in the hearts of His faithful people now and forever. Amen."
This Advent Jesus comes to reign in our hearts daily. But we must be willing to come, willing to put on the garments of His Love and Joy. To be all dressed up and have EVERYWHERE to go!
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