As you may see this morning, we begin the season of Advent. Dave reminded us last week Advent marks the first Sunday in the life of the church. There is newness all around and expectation is in the air. We can’t wait to be able to light all the candles on the advent wreath and the choirs of angels will soon be singing marking the birth of baby Jesus. Some of you may even be scoping out your seats for the Christmas pageants already!
     Advent has a double meaning. We prepare for Christmas when Christ first coming to us is remembered, but we also eagerly wait the second coming of Jesus. Advent thus points us back to the manager and ahead to a new heaven and a new earth, the coming kingdom of God. As we eagerly wait and prepare to tell the story again, we may have to adjust our eyesight. Sometimes in the ordinary, in the mundane of the everyday, our senses become dull. Transitioning from the everyday to a time of celebration make take a little time. Today marks a new day in the season of Advent. What do we hope to see and experience on this journey to the manager?
     The prophet Isaiah hoped Israel could see the glory of God as they returned from exile. Israel is returning from exile in Babylon, returning from a long season of darkness, coming into a season of light. They are reminded once again of the promises of God, I am the Lord; in it’s time I will accomplish it quickly.This text is a dramatic movement from despair to hope, from absence to presence and from once be blinded by sin to having your eyes opened by the grace of God. God’s invitation to arise and shine and to look and see can only happen because God’s glory is shining bright.
     I am intrigued by the image of seeing in this text. Some preachers might take the usual path and talk about the light imagery, how God’s light is our everlasting light. Though important and an image we will return to in Advent, I am intrigued by the image of seeing. I am intrigued because I know I find myself at times having to refocus my theological gaze and when I think about the work of the church, sometimes we get so bogged down in our own issues we fail to lift our heads and look around.
     Following my curiosity I stumbled upon the work of John Berger, an art historian. Berger’s book Ways of Seeing first published in 1972 has been called one of the most influential books on art in any language. Berger writes, Seeing comes before words. The child looks and sees before it can speak. But there is another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world. The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe. To look is a choice.
     Berger wrote about the impact art has on our sight and the relation between the two. Berger’s words speak to how we see as the people of God. Does what we believe- about who God is, who Jesus is, and how the Spirit works- make any difference in how we see things?
     The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.
     My grandfather passed away this past September. He was 91 years old and lived a good life. He was a lifetime deacon in the Southern Baptist church and his faith in Jesus Christ was one of the most important things in his life. At his funeral I had the pleasure of hearing many stories about him, but one sticks out. Granddaddy was bird hunting with some of his friends one fall day. Early into the hunt, a young teenage boy was driving a bit to fast past their hunting spot and accidentally killed one of the men’s hunting dogs. Well, as you might imagine, in the deep woods of South Mississippi with guns and testerone abounding, tempers began to flare and heated words were exchanged as well as few words that deacons in the Southern Baptist church don’t like to hear. Suddenly a fight began brewing. Seeing what was happening, my granddaddy told the men to stop and hold hands. It was the time to pray. I wonder what the men thought, but they did as he asked. There in the piney woods of South Mississippi, a group of men stopped to pray for a dog, for each other, and for God’s grace to calm a heated situation.
     The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.
     The prophet’s words to the exiles of Israel could be heard, because they were beginning to believe that God’s light had come, that the darkness that covered the earth, the deep darkness would be overshadowed by the Lord’s glory. The prophet imagines a world in which the abused and nearly forgotten now are drawn back to their proper place among God’s beloved people.
     Do God’s words speak to us today? We can name people that make a difference because they see something others don’t. We are called as the church and people of faith to open our eyes- even if they are half shut because we are tired of looking- or half open because we fear to see too much- or closed tightly because we only look at what we want to see.
     We must we willing to lift our eyes and look around and when we do we engage in the practice of hope. God calls us to see and practice hope in situations of deep despair. Our Christian faith reminds us, that tribulation produces hope and hope overcomes despair. When circumstances are unbearable, we turn God, whose power is greater than any circumstance…. even death.
     In the spring of 2003, three college students set out to see something different. They set out on a journey to Sudan in Africa to try to understand the depth of the suffering and the impact of the war in that region of the world. Sudan, a region of Africa were 2 million people have died and 5 million have fled the country because of the war between the north and the south. So, these self professed idealist young people, set out to find a new story with cameras bought off EBay. What they discovered in Africa was not what they originally had planned. What they found were Invisible Children.
     They created a documentary that tells a powerful story. At the beginning of the documentary they speak about the way that media shapes our lives, how what we see on TV or in magazines or in the movies tells us what we know about life. As they put it, so in a sense media is life. So we are naïve kids who haven’t traveled a lot and we are going to Sudan trying to find the truth behind the media that defines our lives.
     They collected financial support from family and friends and set off on their journey. Since they were not permitted to fly into Sudan, they flew into Kenya. When they arrived in Kenya through a contact from home they connected with a woman who ran an orphanage for children whose parents had died of AIDS. Their new friend agreed to take them to Sudan to find a story. Once in Southern Sudan they didn’t find anything, but snakes and they got really sick. Most of the Southern Sudanese had fled to Uganda to escape the war.
     Their new friend agreed to take them to Uganda. After visiting one refuge camp, on the way to another, they were forced to seek shelter in Gulu, a northern city in Uganda after Rebels had shot at the van in front of them. Seeking safety they found refuge in Gulu and that is where they found their story.
     Their guide and friend told them about the thousands of children that traveled to the city of Gulu each night to seek shelter. In Northern Uganda a war has been raging for over 20 years. The rebel movement known as Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony now seeks out young children to fight as soldiers. The numbers are staggering over 30,000 children have been abducted to work as soldiers.
     To evade the rebels thousands and thousands of “night commuters” walk miles to Gulu to sleep under verandas, in schools, and hospital courtyards and bus parking lots. The three naïve boys from that United States had found their story. They had found the truth that they didn’t hear about on the evening news. So for a week or more they interviewed these kids and others concerned about the issue of child soldiers. Interwoven in the stories of violence, fear, and hunger they documented were stories of resilience and hope. Some nights they even witnessed kids singing praises to God dancing, shining as they danced in God’s glory.
     The documentary has sparked lots of interest. The three boys have created an Invisible Children Education Project where they and others go into schools, communities, and churches to make people aware of what is happening in Uganda and how they can help. Last April across the US thousands of young people and adults participated in the first “Night Commuter Walk.” The Invisible Children movement, as they call it also has a website and a My Space page. All because three young naïve boys from California knew and believed there was more to see.
     As people of faith we are called to see the invisible- because God’s spirit gives us the clarity to see when we think we can’t or when we don’t want to. Israel was able to see their lives differently because of what God had done. As we begin Advent, a season of preparation and actively waiting, we are given ways of seeing by the grace of God and glory of the coming Christ child. Will what we see this advent and Christmas be different because of we know and believe? Will we be able to see the hope in the midst of struggle, see light in the midst of darkness, and notice people in need who seem to go unnoticed?
     We will need strength for this journey. As we begin to focus our eyes, what better way to increase our sense of sight than to engage in our sense of taste. At this table, we taste of God’s glory and hopeful promises of Jesus Christ, as we seek new ways of seeing.
     Lift up your eyes and look around…then you shall see and be radiant.
     Arise, shine; for your light has come.

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