Advent 1, 2025

 Last month I spent three hours as Clergy Presence outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, also known as the ICE building.  Several of you asked me about it, so I thought I would share with you today.  I attended an online training the month before to understand immigrant rights.  Our immigrant neighbors asked for clergy to be there as a calming, peaceful presence, and a reminder of our to care for immigrants and strangers, to show people that we care community together, and to show up for each other and look out for each other.

I learned a lot and I was moved by what I witnessed there.  I didn’t know what went on at the ICE building before I went.  I was met there by the clergy that was on shift before me and she gave me a little orientation.  There were also about 4 members of PIRC, the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition.  They help immigrants know their rights and they keep track of who goes in and out of the ICE building and are willing to notify family members if someone does not emerge from the building.  They also take pictures of all the vehicles coming in and out of the parking area and send them to a team to analyze them to see if these are the same cars making raids in the community and bringing people in for questioning and possible detention.

Many immigrants regularly go to the ICE building for appointments to get a green card or turn in paperwork required to live in the United States.  When people went in, they could not be accompanied by family or friends unless they also had the same appointment.  They could not even have a lawyer present or any legal aid.  When people approached the building, sometimes they seemed afraid.  Some were shaking.  The people from PIRC encouraged them.  Most people later emerged looking relieved.  Some had their green card.  Some had taken the next steps in being able to stay in the United States.  So for these people, we cheered and briefly celebrated with them. 

Around the corner at the ICE building, , there was a group of people from the Quaker church protesting.  The protesters stay separate from PIRC and clergy presence to distinguish between our purposes.  The Quakers had protest signs and waved to cars coming down the busy street.  They received lots of honks in support. 

This Gospel story today reminds me of the plight of immigrants in our country, and this is both in Democrat and Republican administrations, that people are whisked away in a moment.  Some are taken and some are left, without a moment to say goodbye.  And that was the same in Matthew’s community.  Some people think this reading is about the rapture, but the rapture was an idea invented about 80 years ago.  It does not exist in the Bible.  What this reading is talking about is that Christians were being arrested, taken because they were seen as a threat to society, because they offered another way of living in love and grace toward others.  Remember  what we read two weeks ago, “You will be dragged before courts and judges…God will give the words and wisdom.  By your endurance you will gain your souls.” 

I’ve often thought about how scary that would be not to know if you could be picked up at any time, whether by ICE or by Roman Soldiers.  Jesus promises his presence when we are hurting or alone or persecuted, and he challenges us to walk with people who are persecuted, he challenges us to walk with the alien in our land and treat them as a citizen.  He knew what it was to be a foreigner in a strange land when his family fled to Egypt to escape Herod.

In this beginning of the church year, the whole calendar sits empty before us.  Holidays and celebration are penciled in, but we have a whole year of possibility.  How do we enter this year?  Maybe in some ways, we enter with dread.  People are out of work and unemployment is rising.  Groceries are expensive.  Tarriffs or the threat of them have raised the cost of many things we might order online.  Our country is divided—we actually share most beliefs, but we talk differently and follow different leaders and so we find ourselves unable to bridge gaps or have difficult conversations.  So dread is one choice.

And we can look at our year with hope.  Hope is the theme of the first Sunday in Advent.  We start out the church year in the darkness of Advent.  It’s a vulnerable moment—quiet, cold, lonely.  I’m thinking of Mary, feeling pretty vulnerable right about now, young and pregnant, not knowing how this is all going to go.  I’m thinking of Joseph, feeling pretty vulnerable right now—did he do the right thing?  What would it mean to be a father to the Christ child?  I’m thinking of families separated and incarcerated in our country.  I think of the people of Ukraine and Gaza.  There are so many possibilities for good or ill and so we with Mary and Joseph, we are getting ready.  The holy family isn’t getting any sleep, so we too get to keep awake.

The command “Keep Awake” is for you plural, so don’t worry, we can take shifts.  We want to be prepared.  There are a couple of levels to preparation.  One is on a practical level.  We want to be prepared to support one another in case of natural disaster.  The flood is specifically named in the scripture.  We’ve been working on this at Trinity, to be prepared to take in neighbors and help each other in case of disaster.  We want to be a blessing.  We’re getting prepared to be a blessing because the world is harsh and there are so many unknowns.

I heard a rumor that some of you don’t intend to prepare because you’re ready to meet God, however, I would like to encourage you to prepare for an emergency because it might not be quick and we’re not going to leave you suffering.  You are part of something greater, the Body of Christ, Trinity Lutheran Church.   We take care of each other, even you, so I encourage you to make some basic preparations beginning with a first aid kit, some food and water, a battery you can charge your phone on so you can possibly communicate with loved ones.

So there is the physical getting ready, but there is another level of readiness, and that is more spiritual.  We begin to get ready when we simply look around us and pay attention.  It’s like getting ready to make a turn when you’re driving.  You are looking close to your car and also up ahead a little way to see what’s coming.  Jesus is asking us to look up and scan ahead.  We want to be on the lookout for dangers but also good things—there very well might be a donut shop where you need to stop, or a friend’s house you want to go to.

We know where we are going, because God has told us to expect it.  We are going where all the tears will be wiped away, where all creation will be drawn together, where peace reigns.  So as we scan we are ready for all the road blocks and dangers along the way, but we go with joy and hope because we know where we are going, and we know it’s going to be good.

God is coming like a thief.  That is kind of a mixed message, because God is good and thieves are bad.  Are we supposed to have dread or hope?  Maybe God comes like a thief because we lock up our house tight against such radical love and welcome.  We can’t imagine this world God promises.  We’re not prepared to change our ways.  But God isn’t letting us stay the same, stay safe and keep our old priorities, so God breaks in and steals our former obsessions with security and wealth and people speaking well of us, and God leaves us relying on each other, building community, helping our neighbors, and living God’s love.