Advent Hope / Baptism
1993 (Year B), 28 November (Advent 1)
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
Two days after the new Archbishop of Canterbury was enthroned, he received a letter from the Chaplain of Bangkok. Among the chaplain’s many responsibilities, he is also priest to the Karen people, who live in the hills on the Burmese border with Thailand. They have often sought to defend their homeland and has led them into conflict with the Burmese Army. If the church in Burma ministered to them it would be seen as treason, hence the chaplain in Bangkok. He wrote,
‘The Karen have been in the wilderness now for 42 years. Their Christianity stems from the mission in Burma during the British Raj. We have five Karen priests, two deacons and five catechists. They move from village to village. We have six bamboo and thatch worship centres along the border. The Karen are not allowed to move any more than three kilometres into Thailand. They may not work, earn money of grow crops. They are totally dependent on the world church for all physical and spiritual needs.
Last Easter, 2,000 of them met at our Karen Parish Church for four days of worship, as they usually do. They also met to discuss what they can do for the Decade of Evangelism.
As always, they have asked that I send you their whole Easter offering, for you to use at your discretion. So here again is the widow’s mite. I don’t really know where they get the money from. They have no shops.
Further, they have decided that, because they have heard of the problems of the Middle East (they listen to BBC World Service) they will send you their entire Good Friday Collection, for transmission to the Church in the Holy Land. ‘Because they must be in need of it by now.’
Lastly, they made a special Retiring Collection, to be forwarded to you for, ‘Getting the rest of the Church started on the Decade of Evangelism. These monies are also enclosed. The entire cheque was made out for £26.45p. The chaplain ends with the words, ‘I suspect that I need say no more.’ I guess the story is so powerful that neither do I, but I’ll risk one or two.
The Karen people are a people grounded in hope; after all they have nothing else, not even £26.45p now. And hope for them must be everything. For us who have so much, hope is less important and what we do hope for becomes focussed in much more temporary and fleeting pleasures.
Yet coming up against the more fundamental things of life helps clarify our minds. It also concentrates the hopes. The Karen people will know that only too well. Our secret hopes will seem totally pointless to them. Occasionally though events do change the way we think, if only for a short time the birth of children is a marvellous example. Our hopes become simpler, clearer. We want the best for them. We want them to be secure. To be happy and healthy. We want their good. We hope to be around for them, watching them grow and coming to maturity. Very simple these hopes yet I’m willing to bet they are shared by all the parents here today. The Karen people might know a bit all this as well.
These hopes are divine. For they are what God hopes and wills for these children. It’s what God hopes for all of us. And we, we if we also hope the same things will find ourselves at the side of the Divine.
The Karen people hope their £26.45 will be of use to us for the Decade of Evangelism, they hope that their money might be of use to the church in the Middle East, they hope also that it might be put to use by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Their hope will do much much more. If we let it, it will inspire every one of us. It will give us courage to hope for the things that really matter in this world, the coming of the Kingdom.
So may you come to us, O Lord. Into our poverty bring your wealth. Into our emptiness bring your fullness. Into our ugliness bring your beauty. Make us ready to open ourselves to you. Break down the walls which we hide behind. Quench the fear that burns within us, for you come to make us rich, and great and lovely. Come Lord Jesus to these children who we baptise in your name. Come, Lord Jesus come to us. AMEN