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Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2014, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

Wow, this has been a rocky week with lots of world-wide news . . . i.e. renewed relations between the USA and Cuba; the sense-less shootings of school children in Pakistan and one that particularly hits me was the hostage siege in Sydney Australia of last Monday (their Tuesday). 

 

As you remember, I was in Sydney last fall for a sabbatical.  I know that Café where the crisis took place.  It is not far from the big touristy place called Circular Que.   For those of you who didn’t hear much about it . . . an armed gunman breaks into a public café, holds many people hostage for 16 hours and finally police move and shot him. 

 

The police were able to save most of the hostages, but unfortunately two of the hostages (who were regular people) died.  Well that’s bad enough as it is . . . but the gunman was from Iran and during the take-over he displayed an Islamic flag in the window.   This was all unfolding on national TV so, as you can, imagine all of Australian’s Muslims feared what kind of retribution would happen to them.

 

You see, “getting them back” has been the common reaction when there has been a criminal or terrorist incident involving Muslims here in our country.  That is, “hate crimes” against Muslims go way up.  So you can understand why the Muslims living in Australia, especially in Sydney, feared what would happen to them. 

 

Here in our community, there were 178 families who feared what Christmas would be like for them, because they were in some financial hardships. They feared what would happen to them. 

 

Let’s rewind history about 2,000 years.  As we heard in the gospel, there is a young woman, who is visited by an angel and is invited to become the Mother of God, but she would be pregnant and not married.  As of yet, Mary didn’t know what her finance, Joseph’s, reaction would be.  Which means there would a good chance that she would be stoned to death, because in that culture it was unlawful for a woman to be pregnant and not married. And so it is very likely that Mary had thoughts about what might happen to her. 

 

And then the angel Gabriel (whose name means “God is my strength”), speaks some of the most powerful words in the whole bible  . . . “Do not be afraid.”

 

Here is what happened in Sydney, that same day there was a young woman who rode public transportation (which is the common way to get around in Sydney) and this women was Muslim and she was wearing a headscarf (which is the tradition for Muslim women) and discreetly removed it because she feared what others might do to her after that hostage siege.

 

Another young woman, Rachael Jacobs, realized what was happening and ran after the woman at as she left the train.  She told her, “Put it back on. I'll walk with you.” The woman started to cry and hugged Rachel for about a minute - then walked off.”   Well encounter this went viral; it was tweeted 150, 000 times just that day. People spread the message, “I’ll ride with you.”

 

The people in Australia seemed to get it, that is  . . . not to fear.  That hashtag saying became a powerful sign that Australians will not be worked up into an Islamophobic rage because of the actions of a single madman.  It is if the community was coming together to say to the Muslimsin their area,“Do not be afraid.”

 

Many times, a community’s support helps us deal with our fears.  Those involved in support groups know this.  Those dealing with depression know this (that is, it helps to talk and not keep things closed in).  Teams know this when a player has made a mistake and they encourage them on. 

 

Hopefully the 178 families who felt the support of the community.  Because of the generosity of our parish and 11 other parishes and countless businesses and many hours of volunteered time, all 178 families were supplied with clothes and goodies to make their Christmas complete. 

 

Hopefully you all know this as we gather each week at Eucharist.  For when there is a difficulty in your life, you don’t have to face it alone, but rather we come together with people who have been through hardships and people who are currently doing OK . . . and we support each other.

 

We recognize the coming of Emmanuel at Christmas.  Emmanuel means “God with us.”   We celebrate God with us here at this gathering.   A God who says, “I am with you” . . . in the bread that we break (which reminds us that through all death there will be resurrection) in the word that we share (countless stories of how God has intervened throughout history) and in the support of this community all around us (to feel that we are not along, not matter what the difficulty is.)

 

 

 

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