Tonetta Landis-Aina: Those Who Dream of Peace

All right, so I'm pretty excited this evening to be with

you and to be able to continue our Advent sermon series

that were calling those who dream.

as a

As of.

As I've been kind of preparing for this sermon and thinking

about this sermon, I've been spending some time, Conjuring

up the sights and the sounds and the smells of the

Christmas season.

and,

and I,

and I'm

And I've been remembering a lot about the Christmases of my

childhood. I don't know if you get to this time of year and

you start to think about how you spent your younger years.

I've been thinking about the way that the Landis is in

Greensboro North Carolina used to spend their Christmas

mornings. And I'm starting to think some about some of the

most memorable gifts I've ever received.

The.

that you

That year I got TLC's CrazySexyCool album. That was that

was a year.

Why?

When?

One Year my brother gave me a romance novel, and I don't

know how my parents by church-going parents. Let that pass,

but it did.

in the

and then, I'll

And then I'll never forget the time. Somebody gave me a

perfectly rap. Gillette razor as a preteen and it was his

not-so-subtle hints that I was being initiated into the

ways of proper femininity.

and,

and clearly, they

And clearly that didn't take. So, you know, you do.

Photos of a real.

But I don't even realize.

I've been realizing that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And the day after Christmas, had these particular rhythms

in my family, they were defined by kind of these three

things on Christmas Eve and Christmas night. We would cook

into the wee hours of the morning on the day after

Christmas. We would travel to the country to have dinner

with my extended family.

And then do.

And then they are we.

And then thought we would do all of those things with a

kind of soundtrack that was played Extremely Loud of

Christmas music.

Do my phone.

Did my father only really listen to music on 3 days? And he

listens very loudly. And he listens Non-Stop. And it's

because of the diversity of that Christmas listening, his

Christmas listening to come to it, like to have a real

appreciation for Christmas music, and have a wide. Have

been exposed to a wide variety of Christmas music.

and,

And have a.

And having listened to a lot of it. I'm pretty clear on what

some of my favorite songs are and absolute. Favorite song

is at the top of my list is Happy Christmas by John, Lennon

and Yoko Ono. It's also known as War is Over.

in the

In the absolute best years of growing up, right before, the

clock will strike midnight. We all be in the kitchen making

my parents. Favorite coconut cake, and favorite potato

salad and right at midnight. Happy Christmas with, come on

the radio. And I will grab my mother and we would twirl

around

and I,

And I love the.

And I love that song cuz it's filled with joy.

but it also,

But it also was filled with this kind of appropriate

introspection for the season and which were all split all

too often do by Distraction.

so, the

So, this is Christmas.

And why?

And what have you done?

Best.

That's the

Fastest the question the song asked over and over again,

asking us to ponder less, the gifts that we are going to

give and to receive and more the gifts that we are to

become

And part.

And part way through the first section, the song, you start

to hear the childlike voices in the background singing in a

way that almost feels like this haunting Channel

possibility.

War.

War is over, if you want it, war is over now.

That.

That's all.

That song Never Fails to draw my attention to the famous,

hope and Isaiah to that when Messiah comes, he will judge

with Justice.

I did.

I didn't.

I didn't respond to the people will fashion from their

swords and Spears plowshares. And pruning hooks instruments

for cultivation of food rather than for fighting.

I'm

I know.

I nor will they train for war anymore?

in a

In a lot of way.

In a lot of ways. For me, it feels like it's not a surprise

that the people who wrote a happy. Christmas also wrote

yoga on on John, Legend. Also wrote imagine

Take.

Dickinson.

To consider a world without War a world in, which the way

has been prepared for the coming of God requires as

profound restoration, and I would even say a profound.

Resurrection of the imagination.

It.

It requires this kind of radical Dreaming or or, or maybe

it's better to say the, the freedom and the faith to dream.

God's eyes dreams dreams, that God dreams.

and I,

And not many of us.

In.

and,

Include.

Including me, have that kind of freedom and have that kind

of faith.

Yeah.

yet the

Yet the stories about the coming of God in the birth of

Jesus, they're filled with dreams.

I see.

I think.

I seen that it is those who dream who are best prepared for

the coming of God.

And I'll come.

And I'll confess one more thing.

What?

One.

One more.

One more song that I really love. I really love happy

Christmas but there is one more song that also really grabs

me around this time of year and it's it's a Christmas song

called I Heard the Bells of Christmas day. It's buy cesium

artist Casting Crowns. No judgments.

Is.

It's the right.

Is the ride from a poem that was written during the Civil

War by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And here are a couple of

the stanzas in that poem.

Are.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar

carols play and wild and sweet. The words repeat of peace

on Earth Goodwill to Men and don't how has the day had come

the bill Fry's of all Christendom had rolled Along The

Unbroken, the song of peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.

Tara.

Still ringing singing on its way, the world revolve from

night today, a voice search, I'm a chance Sublime of peace,

on Earth, Goodwill to men.

then for

then from each black, accursed mouth, the canon thundered

in the South and with the sound that Carol's drowned,

Happy.

A piece of.

happy Saint.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.

And then.

And in despair, I bowed my head. There is no peace on

Earth. I said

For.

for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on Earth,

Goodwill to men.

That's a.

That's it.

That's an important poem to me because most of the time, I

live my life inside of attention of that song.

In the tent.

Independence.

in attention, but

In the tension between hope for peace on Earth and Goodwill

to men and the reality of constantly, booming by Cannons of

idolatry and inhumanity.

Another.

and I suspect the

And I suspect I'm not the only one.

I'll

I live.

I live with this temptation to live to sparingly with my

head bowed. Instead of remaining alert with closing down,

instead of remaining alert to the doctor who comes every

single day, every single day.

I'm

I only want to look at the facts on the ground instead of

looking toward God's future in fantasy.

So,

so, they

So, this Sunday of Advent, this Sunday, when Christians of

every imaginable, background, traditionally light, the

Advent candle for peace.

The song.

The Sun.

The Sunday.

The Sunday often feel strained.

I'd

I do.

I don't think that all in this country. We know I talk a

lot about peace. Well,

We?

we use it.

We use a lot of cheap. Stand-ins for peace, we call

silence, peace.

We?

We can.

We consider order piece.

We?

We all think.

We often think of the the security State as God shalom in

the American dream as a kingdom of God.

Most days.

Most days. I'd rather talk about Justice and peace.

That.

That's a.

That's something that I have no vocabulary for.

and I'll just say,

And I'll just say, as an aside, I'm one of the people who

and I have not seen what kind of forever. So I know that

this records, the Black Panther is a risky, but I saw the

Black Panther, when I saw it years ago, I cried for through

the whole last part of the movie because I was rooting for

killmonger.

That move.

That movie, which is about the dilemmas that front lip face

African and African Americans and people of African descent

in general.

in the

In that move.

In that movie, killmonger is the one that has a clear plan

to help the oppressed people of the world, but it's a plan

that's rude and Vengeance. It's a plan that offers

catharsis, but then you get this other character to the

Cholla who actually chooses the way of Peace, who chooses

to give away the gifts of the wakandan through education

and transparency.

and that would,

and that remind,

And that reminded me of how hard it is for me to root for

peace.

Every.

Remind.

It reminded me of the Jesus who scandalously opens up

across boundaries and comes

They?

B r.

it remind

It reminds me that Justice always must serve love and

that's the only way to get to peace.

so, as we

So as we move forward on this site, we are going to get to

the scripture. Y'all dedicated to peace, I recognize

attention. So I want to take us to the parts of Mark that I

think can Enlighten us a little bit 1, 1 through 8.

and,

and think of,

And think a little bit about how this part of scripture,

might teaches about teeth, peace, might teach us about

dreaming, and about preparing the way for the coming of

God, Mark 1138, feel free to look that up. If you have a

Bible or I think it's on the screen.

The.

The begin.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of

God, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah. See, I am

sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your

way

the boys.

The voice of wine and crying out in the wilderness. Prepare

the way of the Lord make his paths straight

John.

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness. Proclaiming a

baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins.

I'm

MP.

And people.

And people from the hold you day in the countryside and all

the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were

baptized by him in the River. Jordan confessing their sins

Now.

Now John was with clothes camels hair with a leather belt

around his waist and eat locusts and wild honey.

Hebrew.

He proclaimed. The one who is more powerful than I is

coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie

the song of his sandals.

Hi.

I have.

I have baptized you with water but he will baptize you with

the Holy Spirit.

so, we

so, what we

So what we have here in this text is it's a Liberation

text, it proclaims right from the outset of gospel that is

outside of the Gospel of Caesar in a typical style of

Martha writer immediately. Throws us into this sense. That

thing, you find me a tire Book of Mark that this gospel is

a gospel country to the ideology of room, it proclaims a

Jewish Messiah who will bring lasting peace over and

against the Pax. Romana the peace, that rolling proclaimed.

Is.

Is it?

It is a mistake that this citation draws the reader back to

this moment and Israelites history and Isaiah 40. And in

the into this moment in which God was acting for the

Deliverance of the Babylonian people are the Israelite

people from Babylonian captivity,

In.

in the

In that moment, you can check it out and Isaiah 40. God was

speaking comfort.

just,

Just as God.

Just as God had delivered the Hebrews From Slavery. God was

now bringing Exodus

The prom.

the prophet Isaiah envisions a literal Highway through the

Wilderness on which those would egg who are exiled could

walk back to safely. Could walk back home.

Is.

It is.

It is no accident that Mark starts. This book, announcing

the coming of Jesus. The Messiah by showing us John, in the

wilderness By The River Jordan, which would have strongly,

remind reminded those first three rivers of God,

separation,

Happy.

After.

After all.

After all these those years God have been perceived to be

silent.

and,

I know.

I never met.

And their emergence. This sense that God is speaking again.

See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you.

That messed.

That message was.

That message would have brought comfort.

but you don't,

but you also would have been

But you also would have brought this sense of coming

judgment.

make a

because the other part of this, this citation from Isaiah

actually goes back to Malachi 3

I'm going.

I'm going to rain.

I'm going to read that cuz I think it's helpful when we

think about the season.

The.

See, I'm still

See, I'm sending my Messenger to prepare the way before me,

and the Lord whom you seek will, suddenly come to his

Temple, the messenger of the Covenant and whom you Delight.

Indeed, he is coming says the Lord of hosts but who can

endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he

appears for, he is like a Refiner's Fire. And like Fuller's

Soap, he will sit at the refinery and purifier silver and

he will purify then I will draw near to you for judgment.

The band.

Tibetan rites.

Damn right Square on the second Sunday of Advent, we had

this piece of scripture. That's a Liberation scriptures

about God's liberating presents, it's about Comfort, but

it's also about a judgment that should be good news because

it's about setting the world, right?

It.

It's

it's a

It's about righteousness and Justice righteousness, and

peace kissing as a song says.

I know.

and those of us,

and those of us who

and those of us who are called All of Us in this room to

clear the road for the kind of comfort in refining that

comes from God, are asked to here,

I will.

I want to say,

I want to say one more thing. I'm going to just say, name,

a couple of takeaways from the scripture before I do that,

I want a ground. It's easy to stand here and to give

In the seas.

In this season to talk through like what does it mean to

prepare the way?

and,

Into.

End-to-end not to become just another thing for you to do.

So I want to start by saying that, in this piece of

scripture, it is super ambiguous. Who is doing, what, who

the messenger is? Who the, who the road has been cleared

for? You can read it at a number of different way, than

what are ways? I read it is that don't fit with the way is

being prepared for and that means that we can root down in

Grace. Don't want to start. I want to say that before I say

anything else that what issues for for this text has the

sense that we can rest in God and what God, there's this

poem by TS Eliot called Ash, Wednesday that has this line

that I love that. I think I get to this work of preparing

the way and it's teach us to Care and not to care.

and I,

And that long.

and that line,

And that line, couches with Paradox of being attached and

letting go of living, fully by grace. And yet, knowing

that, what you do matters,

Adobe.

About being deeply committed to grass and I'm staying with

civil rights, the leader Ella Baker that we who believe in

Freedom cannot rest.

The.

the way has been prepared already for you by an incarnate

God,

Hey.

play a

I agree.

I got.

By God, who created us in their image? Don't want to say

that before I say anything else.

but,

but I

But I will.

But I will say that the main question that always comes up

with his texts. What does it mean to prepare the way? How

do you do that? And I would say that there are as many

answers to that question as there are people in this room.

In.

and,

And yet.

and yet, I

And yet, I think that there are few things to point out

here.

Do.

So far.

Do first.

The.

Those.

Those who dream of the Advent of God, prepare the way

through their repentance.

John Kay.

John comes into this Wilderness into the space, right? For

Liberation. Proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

Advair.

Advantis.

Advantage this time of joy and it's also what time of

preparation traditionally to time of thinking about what

we're growing from and what we're growing into.

and,

and I know,

And I know that talking about repentance is super

uncomfortable, it's really uncomfortable for us to talk

about especially in this room cuz of the ways that word has

been used against us.

In.

In the word.

In the word that usually precedes. It's in also has really

problematic connotations in the way that many of us have an

have been encountered it

there.

there's,

There's usually one biblical metaphor for saying that gets

used over and over again. It's the metaphor around Purity

and impurity it turns on contamination. Logic, even though

there's a ton of other ways to think about Sin, you can

make about Sin in the Bible in the Bible that the biblical

writers think about saying is falling down and getting back

up, stepping off the path and stepping back on, there are

all kinds of ways. I think about send that are less about

taking on shame than that one metaphor most of us or maybe

many of us have been to

and the

And the same.

and the same way, I think we

And the same way, I think we need a broader range of a

Cavalier around what it means to repent, for a Zeppelin In

anti-racism justice-oriented spaces. People talk about the

work of dismantling systems of domination and then to do

so, then you can think about repentance as asking what

needs to be dismantled inside of you.

Other.

Are there is a

Are there is a writer. So I am a retailer that I love and

she talks about. This is one way, I think you could pray

repentance and I'm just trying to chill at a creative way

here. She talks about the ladder of hierarchy, that is at

work in all of us this ladder by where by which we compare

ourselves to people is even greater or lesser.

The light.

The lad.

The latter.

The latter that.

the latter that puts

The ladder that puts the white sis straight able-bodied

people in the top and black brown disable trans bodies at

the bottom.

I hear.

A huge.

I hear you.

Here's what she says, think about this through the lens of

repentance.

The most.

The most powerful way to destroy the latter issue is to

destroy the ladder inside yourself.

and just

Industry.

And destroying.

And destroying the ladder inside of ourselves. It's about

looking at where does the system live inside of me? Where

does the system of comparison live inside of me?

Tell my dad.

How am I judging?

How am I judging myself? Judging my own being based on this

hierarchy? Because the thing that makes the ladder real is

our attempt to continue to climb it.

What?

One way of.

One way of thinking about repentance, I could name others

that are about ego or thinking about the false self or

working through idolatry in humanity. There's so many ways

and I think that this text invites us to consider the ways

that we might repent and the rhythm of repentance

appropriate for our lives.

How do?

I think they,

I think they're

I think there's some

I think there's something richer to consider around the

word repentance than most of us now.

and I,

And then the other thing that I would say about this is

that those who dream of a coming God or invited to prepare

the way through their repentance without repentance will

lead to humility.

and I,

I do.

I don't.

I don't mean Shane there. I mean humility.

I'm

I'm talking to.

I'm talking about this so far. Where does that opens us up

to a greater awareness of the world?

I'm

I know that.

I know that we often think of John as a Brazen profit, but

I think that we don't think of John often enough as a

dreamer, as a person of imagination.

Do.

John did.

John didn't live for the future, John lives, from the

future. He announced the future in his body by the clothes

that he wore, which would remind the people of Elijah. And

the dawning of the new world to come Hebrew sustenance from

outside, the system of Rome by eating locusts and wild,

honey,

and,

And John John's dream is far different than the

triumphalism that we often carry.

But I

turn off the

That often masquerades progress, he doesn't come with five,

easy steps to become more productive for the sake of the

dream.

He?

He does.

He doesn't tell the people who gather at the river to take

more control of your life while you wait for the dream.

It's

It said.

It said John speaks of the stronger, one.

Take me to.

Pizza.

He speaks of the one who is equipped to confront the

powers, the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, which is

to say the one who judges the wrong ways that power has

been used and chooses to democratize it.

Stronger. We

Stronger one is coming and John and John humility is able

to lean down into long-term commitment.

John in, John's, humility commits to something that he will

never see.

Be back.

He becomes critical yeast before he becomes critical mass.

Any.

And he carried.

And he carries his dream that he has to pass on to others.

What?

What is a quick?

What are the questions I often think about in Advent is do

we have any dreams that are so big?

That.

that we

That we know they won't be fulfilled. And how comfortable

are we in cultivating humility and acceptance of that

reality.

all right, so I

All right. So I started this sermon with a confession that

preaching about pieces and easy for me.

I want.

I want to be.

I want to be the kind of person who's like, John who

imagines and lives in the future, but I find it hard to

find the kind of Freedom encouraged that John had the

dream, these dreams.

I'm

Any.

And even.

And even as I know that repentance and humility are key to

Preparing the way for the stronger. One who comes in the

form of a baby. There are times when despair near despair

shakes. My actions more than peace. Nothing can shape. Our

actions more than peace.

Yeah.

Yet the

Yet, the reason I love that poem the Christmas bells. It's

not only because it rightly diagnoses the tension, so many

of us feel

but also,

But also because it speaks truth into that tension.

Here's a.

He was all that poo.

Here's how that poor man's.

In.

in a

And ended.

And in despair, I bowed my head. There is no peace on

Earth. I said for hate is strong and mocks the song of

peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.

Did.

Then.

Then till the bills were loud and deep God is not dead, nor

ducky sleep, the wrong. Shall fail the right Prevail with

peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.

Advance.

Advent dreaming is about the true that the wrong shall

fail. The right Prevail, that all things that are not

right, we'll be set, right? Will be made, right?

Apparel.

Preparing.

Preparing the way in Repentance and humility emerges from

that, truth from that reality.

It is.

It is the old.

It is the only truth from which a lasting peace can come.

I'm a.

I'm in.

I meant.

there's,

there's a

There's like eight hundred miles of here. I'm hoping to

pick one that works.

Eric.

Here we go.

Nothing over. We have succeeded.