Waiting In the Time of Advent

Our pastor has worked hard to empower our lay leaders, to instill in us the belief that our church is not just the pastor - the church is us and we have many gifts and abilities to contribute. As a way to express that, a few weeks ago she asked some of us to talk about Advent and what we’re waiting for during this season of anticipation. Truthfully, I was a little bit fearful about that because, although she didn’t tell me that it had to be uplifting, I kind of felt that in this season of excitement about the birth of our Savior, I should be speaking about happy and positive things. Except that those things aren’t what my mind keeps coming back to as I ponder the list of what I’d most like to see happen – what I’m waiting and praying for. Mostly what I’m waiting for these days has to do with justice. There’s a long list, but I’ve cut it down here to those things closest to my heart.

This time of the year is a study in contrasts. People are celebrating and shopping and spending and partying. But for many people (many more than we realize), the holiday season is a time of struggle and sadness and loss.

I’m waiting for justice for all those parents out there who struggle to make ends meet, who are on a bus to work at 5 or 6 a.m. and don’t get home to see their kids until many hours later. Who often have to rely on the kindness of friends and neighbors, or whose children are latchkey kids, because they can’t afford good day care.

I’m waiting for justice for the kids at the Storefront Shelter for Homeless Teens. They face mountainous struggles at such young ages. They need so much but have so little.

I’m waiting for justice for people who are losing their homes during this economic crisis, whether you rent or own. There are many who live one paycheck away from homelessness, not by choice but because of economic circumstances.

I want justice for young people like my oldest daughter who worked hard, went to college and did what she was told would lead to success, and now because the economy is in such a bad place, employers know they can advertise a job for 10-bucks an hour and require someone with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and they’ll get 100 applicants, because young people are desperate for work. Yesterday, while reading this to my girls, Oldest Daughter told me that I must mention that after a long search, she was just hired at a company that pays a livable salary with great benefits. So today, she’s celebrating, while she’s in TJ helping to spay and neuter animals.

I work in mental health, although I’m not a clinician. I’m waiting for justice for some of our clients and their families who are finding themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness because rents and the cost of living keep going up but salaries aren’t. Or they’ve lost their jobs because of downsizing. Or because of the current State budget crisis, programs that help mentally ill teens who are in the juvenile justice system or who are doing things that may result in their incarceration – those evidence-based, successful programs, one of which we ran, have been cut, while at the same time we put more money into building prisons.

And finally - justice for my gay and lesbian friends who are feeling marginalized and ostracized by 52% of the voters. When we single out a group of people and take away their fundamental rights, in my opinion, we tear at the fabric of what makes this country great. This resonates with me because I was married to an African-American man. When we married, my husband and I took it for granted that we had the right to marry, have children, buy a home, pay taxes, and make a life together.

But the reality is, until 1967, just 16 years before we were married, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, we could have been jailed in many states. Many opponents of the Court’s decision were certain that this would result in the downfall of society. In the first Gallup pole on the subject, 94% of whites – 94% - opposed interracial marriage of any kind. Many people used the Bible to support their views that marriage between the races was an abomination to God. Sound familiar in light of the recent vote? For centuries, proponents of Jim Crow laws had cited chapter and verse in the Bible to support their views that anyone who wasn’t Caucasian was of an inferior race and therefore unworthy of being treated as equals.

You know what? Society didn’t fall apart when the Civil Rights Act was passed, and most of today’s kids don’t even know what “Jim Crow” means. I cried tears of joy when Barack Obama was elected as our 44th President, exactly 44 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed, while at the same time I watched, with sadness, news coverage that told me my friends were losing their right to marry. We’ve come far on this journey of civil rights, but the passage of Proposition 8 tells me that we have much farther to go.

I have the tendency like many of my Swedish forebears (who lived in the dark for six months of the year) to only see the long darkness that we live with, and I’m always reminding myself that we live in the hope and belief and certainty in the coming of Christ who will bring the light and take away the despair. It sometimes makes me feel guilty for being happy and fortunate when so many others are suffering. So, justice…finally, I guess I’m just waiting for a time when everyone will be able to enjoy the celebration and peace that should belong to the whole world during this season.