Unto ordinary lives is delivered extraordinary Good News

ANGEL AND SHEPHERDS by Hyper Pixels Media 

Good Christmas Eve to you all.  We are so glad you’ve joined us on the cold, dark night to celebrate new light and love breaking into our lives.

In tonight’s Gospel reading (Luke 2:1-20) we’ve heard about shepherds led by angel to gather with Mary and Joseph to behold the newborn child many years ago.  Let’s get a sense of who has been led to our gather here tonight.  There’s no shame in answering honestly to these questions – as we’ve heard, the good news we share tonight is for all of God’s people. 

Who are the regulars – those who we’re likely to find here every Sunday morning?  Who’s been here before, but this is their first time back in a long time?  Who is here for the first time?  Of those how many have come as guests of someone who knows this place?  Who is here for the first time, not really knowing anyone in particular, but seeking something sacred on this holy night?  Who here has had a kinda rough or challenging journey to get here, either literally or emotionally?  (pause…) and who here, if we’re being really candid, is yearning for a momentary break from the noise and haste of this often frantic season so that you can find again the light of Christ… so that something tender and holy tonight will re-kindle something tender and holy in you?

ALL of you are most welcome here.  Look around.  If you recognize someone you don’t know, or see someone you’ve haven’t seen in a while, greet them with the warmth of Jesus in your heart and the recognition of Christ’s spirit in theirs. It’s our hope that everyone will find what you’re seeking, here in our family.  May tonight be the beginning of some new relationships in Christ’s name.  May no one leave this place a ‘stranger’ tonight wondering if they belong – we all begin as invited/expected guests and then members here in Christ’s church.

You see, tonight we’re gathering here to remember a story about ordinary people who receive extraordinary revelations about God’s relationship with us and then gather together to make sense of what has been revealed to them.

“The Angel and the Shepherds”James Jacques Joseph Tissot

These are not people of any consequence in the world and time that they live in.  They are average folk going about their daily routine – God finds them there and invites them to see and know more about God’s love for everyone.

Luke wants us to see that God’s profound revelation of love for us is not really associated with royal and imperial powers; nor does it come to us through any specific religious rituals and special sacrifices; heck, the most profound moments we’ve heard of don’t even take place in a temple or church.   We gather in here to remember the stories so that our eyes and hearts are more open when we go out there to love and serve our Lord.

                                                         

A simple country couple, Mary and Joe, are making due with the only shelter they can find on this dark and crowded night in the city. Certainly there has to be room in a respectable place, even if one someone’s floor… alas, no one has shown this unknown couple even hospitality of that sort.  While this will be a holy night, as we know.. this ain’t likely a silent night for our wearied travelers – she’s now in the throes of labor; he’s alone with her and they’re gonna have to figure this out together in a mostly dark, cold and smelly barn shelter.  With the warm, ripe breath of curious lifestock on their shoulders, they will have to make due with putting their newborn child in the feeding tough to keep him off the dirt-n-grime that they themselves will end up sleeping on tonight.  Just when they might imagine they’re ready for some rest….

“The Adoration of the Shepherd”James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Shepherds (dirty, edgy migrant laborers) from the fields are inspired by news that a child is being born that will change everything.  They leave their fields and travel to the outskirts of the city to see if it’s true.  Guided by angels, they find Mary and Joe huddled together around the trough in which they’ve placed their newborn child.  Are our new born parents freaked out by these rough visitors who have come in from the night, wild-eyed with wonder and awe as they enter this vulnerable scene?  Other Gospel writers will tell of yet more strange visitors arriving from foreign lands into this most unseemly of scenes.

What must this gathering group of strangers in the midst of this barn be experiencing as they come together and somehow manage to look past the natural messiness of what has just taken place, over the unlikely chances of them having encountered each other otherwise, and begin to see each other, by the radiant light that this newborn child brings, as members of the same family in God’s eyes?

Luke tells us that the shepherds left this unifying human experience glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen… these often looked-over laborers from the fields become our first models of evangelism for the Good News of God’s kingdom come through Jesus Christ. 

What does this scene of utterly ordinary people being chosen for such extraordinary encounters say to us about where God’s priorities are in coming into the world anew in this way?

As one of my fellow priests has said in one of her semons, “Jesus’ first attendants were from the edges of polite society, not from the center…. [and Jesus in his ministry continues to] deal kindly with people on the margins, and tell stories with unexpected heroes, such as the Good Samaritan. The God we see through the portrayal of Jesus in Luke is a God who reaches past the boundaries of race, class, gender and religion to touch people who are on the outside, and it starts with the story of this night…. The birth of Jesus says to us that God’s desire is to be with us in all times and places, not only when the house is clean and the children are asleep. Those who visit him in Luke’s account suggest further that this good news is for everyone, and perhaps especially for those whose lives on the margins make them most open and receptive to good news…. this story’s true value comes in its gritty reality, its affirmation of human experience….” (The Rev. Kay Sylvester, Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tustin, CA)

How is it for us tonight… to gather here, some of us initially strangers to each other…all having been drawn here by something bigger than ourselves…  some of us ready to celebrate the Good News that has been born out in our own lives… some curious about what they’ll discover at church this time… some wondering if this whole Christian story is true (and, if so, what that means to them)… perhaps others are here just wanting some company and not to be alone on this night when deep in our hearts we’re getting in touch with “hopes and fears of all the years” again on this profound evening.

"Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger…. Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2: 10-12, 19)

In sermons to come, we’ll be exploring more explicitly the meaning of Christ being born unto us.  For now, let’s be a little awe struck by the truth that God’s love is not revealed to us in intellectual concepts or good moral principles; rather God’s love comes unto us as a being of flesh and blood like us to show us how to live with each other as God intends. 

As we huddle together on this dark night, over 2,000 years since the this strange company of our ancestors gathered on that first Christmas, we’re invited to be open to the profoundly good news that God chooses to come to us, right in the middle of our actual circumstances, and invites us join with our neighbors in beholding the gift of his love made known to us in Christ.

To prepare us to exchange peace in His name before we go back into this holy night singing together, carrying our lights back into the otherwise dark world, let’s take these remaining moments of the sermon time to meditate a little and then see each other anew in the light of Christ born again through us this Christmas Eve.

I invite you to close your eyes and quietly meditate/pray on some of these words that we’ve already shared in song together and some of the words that we’ll soon sing together – may the Holy Spirit help lift any/all cold cynicism or unfertile fear from our minds while inviting the truth in these words be planted even deeper into ours heart on this holy night:

 “…shepherds quake at the sight, glories stream from heaven afar…”

(Silent Night)

“…O hush the noise and cease your strife and hear the angels sing!”

(It Came Upon the Midnight Clear)

“God rest you… let nothing you dismay; Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day…”

(God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)

“…this is Christ the King, who shepherds guard…. Haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.”

(What Child is This?)

“…in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light: the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight… the dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more….”

(O Little Town of Bethlehem)

                                                            

“O come, all ye faithful…. let us adore him.”

(Oh Come, All Ye Faithful)

Now, as I read a few final verses from some of our carols, I invite you to open your eyes slowly and, in silence, look into the eyes of your fellow travelers gathered here tonight.  

With silent, but nonetheless loving intent, scan the room and meet each other eye-to-eye. 

As you see each other and hold your glances for a few moments, recognize that no matter the differences between you otherwise, just like the shepherds so long ago, you’ve made this journey here tonight to behold something profound – see if you can’t help but smile with each other as you feel this truth well up in your hearts.  Christ being born!

Here these final hymn words as you greet each other in this silent knowing that God’s love is born in us and acknowledging that we are to be the ones to take this Good News out into world that so badly needs the light that we carry in Christ’s name.

“The Lord is come…. Let every heart prepare him room…. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found…. with truth and grace… and wonders of his love.”

(Joy to the World)

“…Son of God, love’s pure light, radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus, Lord at thy birth…”

(Silent Night)

“……. O holy Child of Bethlehem… cast out our sin and enter in, be born is us today.”

(O Little Town of Bethlehem)

“Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere… Jesus Christ is born!”

(Go Tell it on the Mountain)

AMEN

Blessed be our visitations (with God nothing will be impossible)

An older couple in the hill country prepares for a visit from a younger person, a relative traveling from another rural area.  It’s been an interesting year for them and they’re still not sure what to make of it.  They had grown used to living with the stigma and shame of the wife’s inability to bear a child (something that people often assumed was a sign of God’s judgment against her).  They were too old to expect that this would ever change.  The husband is also suffering from unexplainable medical issues, having been struck mute for a period of time.  Perhaps you know a couple like this as well – good people, wise and ripened with age, convinced that God has already finished with them… that they’ve served their purpose and are now just living out their remaining years faithful in wait for their final days. Her name is Elizabeth, a Greek transliteration of a Elisheba, a name that means “my god has sworn an oath.”  Her husband’s name is from a word that means “the Lord remembers.”  God, in fact, has more plans for them.

A younger person prepares to make the journey to visit distant relatives.  She might be traveling alone, at considerable risk to herself.  Her fiancé has recently had to cope with unsettling news and is still discerning what to do about it – he says he has seen things and heard voices… he’s still trying to decide what it all means for them. Carrying with her she has a mix of emotions.  How will she be received? What will this older couple think of her life choices, her present circumstances?  She also has unbelievable news to share about what she has seen and heard – will they believe her?  She’s been told that her relatives, too, have been touched in some special way.  What will she discover in their company?  Perhaps you know a young person like this – innocent and perhaps a bit naïve, yet full of faith and hope, who has come into unusual circumstances and finds themselves in a challenging situation.  Where is God in this person’s life?  Even the origins of her name, Mary, reflect a mix of emotions, said to have meanings ranging from ‘bitterness’ and ‘rebelliousness’ to ‘wished for child’ and ‘beloved lady.’  The origins of her fiancé’s name mean ‘God will enlarge/grow/increase.’  Indeed, God has plans for this couple also.

Something unexpected has happened to all the people in our story – something they’re still trying to make sense of and something they don’t quite know how to explain to others. Their miraculous babies are about to change everything.  Both couples know that their live will be different – perhaps for the better, but they’re not always so sure about that.  They can’t yet imagine what difference their children will really make in the world.  What will others think when this older couple, Liz and Zach, shows up with a newborn child at their age?  What will the community do to Mary and Joe if they find out that Mary’s pregnant before they’ve been married… and that the child is not Joe’s?

We’ve heard stories like this before – stories of God enabling the birth of new life into challenging situations in order to bring in a new generation of prophetic leadership – E.g., in the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and Elkanah and Hannah.

What about us right now?  Can any of us relate to what it feels like to have God touched our lives in some unusual way that has us ambivalent… perhaps thankful in some ways and yet also freaked out.  Are any of us feeling a little isolated and yearning for a visitation?

Like embers separated from their fiery source, we want others to see and appreciate our light which we know will continue to glow with some warmth for a time… and we can become haunted by the knowing of what it means to be apart from… to be separated and alone.  How long can our light continue to shine on its own out here in the cold dark?

We know there’s potential for new life in community with others.  And, yet, if we re-join the fire, we might be subsumed and lost.  Perhaps it’s better to just quietly smoulder than to risk catching on fire again.  Yet, we’re drawn to greater light… we yearn to be part of something bigger and warmer than we can experience on our own.

Profound about this morning’s Gospel story (Luke 1:39-55) is what is called out of each of the people during their visitation with each other.  Though they’ve each been touched by the Holy Spirit in a unique way and have much to ponder on their own, it’s only when they come together in God’s name as a family that the meaning and power of the love that has touched them breaks forth from their hearts. 

It’s only when the glowing embers are brought back together that a new fire with greater light and warmth is possible.  

Yes, we know what is rekindled won’t last forever.   And, yet, there’s something deeply good and right about the power of reconnecting as a family in Christ, being embraced wholly as who you are, being recognized an appreciated for what you have inside you.  In the new light that is generated when we come together in God’s name, not matter how temporal, we can see more clearly the meaning of our lives.  Isn’t that what brings us back to this gathering each week?  Shouldn’t this be the focus of our Christmas gatherings?

Here we each are on this final Sunday of Advent.  We’re coming from all sorts of places, literally and figuratively.  Some of us older; some of us younger.  Perhaps like the people in this morning’s story, some among us have concerns about what others will think of the news they have to share... about our current circumstances and situations.  Perhaps some of us worry and wonder about all that will change in our lives in the next six to nine months.  Perhaps we want to know if God is still with us.

Oh, that when we greet each other we would be so moved with divine reassurance that God is with us that we’d burst forth in such faithful song toward each other.  Oh, to hear from each other, “you are blessed” and to be affirmed for our faith and favor in God’s eyes.  Oh, to be so overcome with the Holy Spirit that we can’t help but proclaim the good news that God will bring down those bloated with pride and arrogance while building up the meek and the mild; that God shows great mercy on those who remain awe-struck and humble before God; that God remains faithful to our wellbeing even we misbehave; that God fills the hungry and lifts up the lowly; that God is good and keeps the promises, like to be with us always!

Ok, so perhaps when we greet each other around our holiday hearths in these next days, we might not burst into song like Hannah or Mary… but we can, with God’s help, make our visitations holy with healing and the celebration of new life.

Each of us is pregnant with holy gifts from God.  And, if we’re honest, we each yearn for these gifts to be recognized, seen, and understood as having God-given potential to bring good into the world.  As we prepare ourselves to travel through these the final hours of darkness to a cold and dirty barn/cave to encounter a young rural couple who have been denied hospitality and shelter from others, a faithful young couple huddled near a feeding trough surrounded by curious animals, let their story remind us that we’re not alone in our wondering about the meaning and purpose of God’s actions in our lives.  Let us remember, from the intimate and personal inter-generational encounter between the people in this morning’s story, that if we’re open to it, when we approach each other with godly love, we can feel our hearts fill and leap, our souls magnified, when we encounter God’s presence in each other. 

We are to prepare ourselves in these final hours of Advent for Christ to be born in us again this year… and to remember that no matter how alone we might feel at times, the Good News of Christ is a communal / family affair – it’s about two or three or more gathering in Jesus’ name and experiencing Christ in our midst.

While we are not literally pregnant with God’s son as Mary was, we are nonetheless full of God’s Word and Spirit, and are called to give birth continually to new life and hope here in our church family for the sake of a world hungry for the Good News of redemption and restoration through Christ our Lord.

Let’s pray to God and consider anew what has been planted within us, individually and collectively that is to be born with God’s help in due time. 

As we prepare to celebrate the miracle of Christmas, let’s re-fuel our hearts with the promises perceived through the encounter between these pregnant women Elizabeth and Mary, and later in the nativity scene with Mary and Joseph – God comes to us amid a holy mess, in ways and at times that don’t initially appear to make good sense, in order to redeem, restore, and rebuild by bringing us back together. 

Let us remember that God has never left us, nor will our Lord ever abandon us.  This doesn’t mean that the road ahead will always be easy.  And, we can move forward assured that God is forever in our common lives and in our mission as a people gathered in Christ’s name.  As we move forward in faith, personally and as a church community, let’s expect some birthing pains in the process of bearing the Good News together as a holy family.

[insert for the baptism of Landon Alexander Elam, b. 6/13/2012 --- at Grace, Winfield]

It was six months after Elizabeth and Zacharias conceived that Mary received that blessed visit from the same angel Gabriel with news that she, too, was to be with child… and not just any child, but a son to be named Jesus who shall be the Son of the Highest and who will reign in His kingdom without end (Luke 1:26-33).  Three months later, John the Baptist was born from Elizabeth.  About thirty-three years later, the fruit of Elizabeth’s womb would again encounter the one born of his mother’s cousin Mary – Jesus – at the River Jordan for the rite of baptism.

Here we are this morning, about six month after the birth of Landon Alexander Elam, born to Caleb and Kendal.  What promises are in store for the life of little Landon?  Only God knows.  What we do know today is that we’re all about to proclaim our communal support of this young couple in their endeavor to raise and form this child in Christ’s name.  Specifically, as Landon’s godparents, Katie and Ryan are about to make profound promises and take sacred vows on behalf of little Landon.

As we join with this family in initiating by water and the Holy Spirit little Landon into Christ’s Body the Church, let’s remember that the bond which God establishes in Holy Baptism is indissoluble… and that our Lord himself sought baptism by John and was subsequently named as God’s beloved and equipped by the Holy Spirit with power and authority for ministry.

As we all join with this family this morning, renewing our own Baptismal Covenant with God and each other, let’s hear the words we say through the perspective of preparing for birth of Christ in our lives at Christmas. 

God chose to come to us as a vulnerable child in less than ideal circumstances, fulfilling a promise to us to redeem a broken world.  God trusts that we will care for, nurture and help develop the Son and share in His work.

At heart – this is the nature of our relationship with our creator God. We’re in this together – God’s promises to us are never failing.  May we each live into the commitments we’re making to God and to each other to use our hearts, heads, and hands for healing… to participate, with God’s help, in the reconciling of all as God’s own family.

May our souls magnify the Lord and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior.

AMEN.

Repent! Rejoice! (and pray!)

Hello, Grace/Trinity.  Thank you for the invitation to join you today, next Sunday, and Christmas (Eve).  As I am usually in a different church each Sunday, sharing our final journey to Christmas through several services together in this place will be special experience. 

Today is the liturgical midpoint of our Advent season – a time of expectancy, gestation, pregnancy if you will, as we prepare to celebrate the inbreaking of God’s light and love into our world through the birth of Jesus Christ.  It’s a Sunday that has come to be known as guadete Sunday (gaudete is Latin for ‘rejoice’, the first word of the Indroit often sung on this day, today’s Epistle reading from Philippians 4:4-7).  Some communities also refer to this day as “Stir up” Sunday because of the first words of the Collect for today:  “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us…”  It’s tradition on this third Sunday of Advent to light a pink candle, rather than another blue candle, as a sign of a break in the Advent action… a sign of anticipated joy amid the undercurrent of pregnancy pangs during this time of holy preparation.  So, today we’re encouraged to rejoice!

And, yet, here we are in December 2012, gathering on the heels of an exhausting election season; a terrible natural disaster from hurricane Sandy; continued chronic economic malaise aligned with the perennial pressures of a hyper spend-spend-spend mania; and, of course, the horrific slaughter of innocents this past Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.  Are we really in any mood to rejoice?

Perhaps the cries of John the Baptist, that wild man out by the Jordan, resonate more clearly this year – REPENT, you brood of serpents!  The imagery of mighty God with an axe in hand ready to chop down the failing trees that bear no good fruit – our just God with winnowing fork in hand, clearing out the chaff and tossing it into unquenchable fire – speaks to deep yearnings that can be frightening to examine honestly.

Outwardly, we are fast approaching the midpoint of the winter season – the winter solstice – a moment in time when we, in the northern hemisphere, due to the nature of the how our tilted earth rotates around the sun, experience the shortest day and the longest night of the year.  It is here – when it’s the darkest – that church tradition has placed the remembrance of the birth of our Savior Jesus, calling us to celebrate a new light breaking into our dark world.  To paraphrase a popular adage attributed to a 17^th Century theologian (Thomas Fuller), it’s darkest before a new day dawns.  Indeed, after this solstice moment outwardly, we will experience reversal, perhaps also inwardly – the nights will get shorter as we begin to experience increase light in our days following Christmas.

It’s because of God’s promise of eternal light through the coming of Christ into our dark world that we’re called to rejoice. It is because of the promise of God’s justice and God’s desire for us to love each other as God loves us that we’re called to repent. 

REPENT

In Hebrew scripture, the words we render as ‘repent’ convey both a sense of regret and “the idea of turning back, re-tracing one’s steps in order to return to the right way.”*  The prophets used these words and concepts to address our lack of honoring our end of the covenant with God and reminding us that God forgives those who repent. I.e., When you’ve gone astray, get back on track – get right with God.

*(Achtemeier, Paul J., Ed. et al. Harper Collins Bible Dictionary Rev. Ed. (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996) p. 924)

In the writings of the New Testament, the Greek words μετάνοια /μετανοέω   (meta-noia / noiein) are used to convey the idea that we need to be constantly changing our mind / coming to a new way of thinking.  Perhaps some of you have heard that in the Greek word translated as ‘repent’, we can also hear the “turn around” or “get a bigger mind about.”

According to the American Heritage College Dictionary (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1993), repentance is “1. To feel remorse for self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do; be contrite…” And this is where we sometimes stop – passively just ‘feeling’ something like shame or guilt.  But the definition continues, “2. To feel such regret for past conduct as to change one’s mind regarding it… 3. To make a change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition…”. 

So, in the wild man’s call to repentance as we prepare for the coming of one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, we ought to hear that feeling sorry or regretful is necessary but not sufficient for the full repentance that we’re called to as Christians.  To repent with Christ is a WILLFUL CHOICE to TURN from evil, sin, regret, shame, and guilt… and to RE-POSITION / RE-ORIENT our hearts and minds toward justice and mercy, and ACT towards others with charitable love.

To illustrate, John the Baptist, when asked ‘what should we do’ replies by offering three examples of bearing good fruit of repentance that, interestingly for us to hear today, all have to do with mitigating economic injustice: share your surplus with those in more need; do not take advantage of others financially; and do not manipulate with unjust power and authority to garner wealth that you’ve not earned.  Or,as one commentator put it, “no hoarding, skimming, or extortion.”

However self-righteous or entitled we each feel sometimes, John warns us that God is quite capable of cutting down the arrogant and guilty while building up the meek and innocent. The good news is that we’re perpetually afforded, through God’s justice balanced with mercy, the opportunity to CHOOSE to counter our sin, turn-around, and change our hearts, minds, and course of action. 

This call to repentance is the essence of John the Baptizer’s ministry. Response to this call is how we’re told that Jesus begins his prophetic and messianic ministry as an adult.  Arguably, we could say that repentance is one of the actions at the very core what it means to follow Jesus.  As we prepare to celebrate his coming into our world, we are called to prepare ourselves by turning-around, course-correcting things in our lives that have gone astray.

Following Christ doesn’t mean turning a blind-eye to injustices in our world.  It means owning-up to our responsibility (response-ability), turning around, and doing something to mitigate or eliminate it.

REJOICE

Amid the darkness of this season, while we are engaged in challenging self-evaluation and community critique of our collective actions or lack thereof, we are also called to remember and rejoice in God’s promises to the faithful – piercing through the dark is light perpetual.

The prophet Zephaniah, after warning his kin about God’s judgment for sin, ends his writing with a hopeful tone.  This morning we heard, “Rejoice and exult with all your heart… the Lord, your God, is in your midst… [God] will remove disaster… deal with all your oppressors… save the lame and gather the outcast… will bring you home” (Zephaniah 3:14, 17-20).

And this morning we heard from the prophet Isaiah, “Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things… the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One…”  (Isaiah 12:5-6).

We also heard from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, sometimes called his ‘epistle of joy’ (Philippians 4:4-7), “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice… the Lord is near”.  Paul further instructs us to pray about everything instead of worrying about anything – bring it all to God in faith and hope.  He assures us that if we do this, our hearts and minds will be guarded by a peace from God that will surpass our rational understanding.  That’s good news worthy of rejoicing as we repent.

CLOSING

Repent!  Rejoice!  We can’t have one without the other, the Spirit is telling us. 

As another pastor puts it, “There is no getting to Bethlehem and the sweet baby in the manger without first hearing the rough prophet in the wilderness call us to repentance… Faithful and fruitful arrival at the manger will be possible only after the careful self-examination and recommitment called for by John.”  (Kathy Beach-Verhey, Co-Pastor, Faison Presbyterian Church, Faison, North Carolina as quoted in her commentary in Feasting on the Word)

Repent!  Rejoice!  Which one comes first for you this year? You can start with either… and we’re called to do both.

That God is with us now, no matter how dark the season might seem, warrants our joy and praise.  At the conclusion of today’s service, Kimy has us singing Hymn 640 “Watchman, tell us of the night.”  We can rejoice in the singing of the final verse, “…for the morning seems to dawn.  Traveler, darkness takes its flight, doubt and terror are withdrawn… lo! The Prince of Peace, lo! The Son of God is come!”

And, because we each/all have some ‘housecleaning’ to do as we prepare to accept the gift of God’s love coming to us through Jesus Christ, repentance is called for – changing of the direction of our minds and hearts which so easily slide off the focus on God’s kingdom come, not our own.

Repent!  May this Sunday of Advent remind us that God’s kingdom is come when we accept the new birth of Jesus into our hearts and act accordingly.  God’s will is done on earth when we work with Christ to fix our world, starting with the repair of broken relationships.   He will lead us into a reign of repentance where goodness and mercy prevail, and justice is delivered through charity and forgiving love.  Amid any earthly darkness, Jesus comes as divine light with the power to stir up new life within us, the courage to admit our faults and change our ways.

Rejoice!  In the reign of Christ our King we are called to join in the restoration of wellbeing to ALL: the blind and the lame are healed; the deaf are made to hear again; the poor and hungry are fed; the imprisoned set free; the barren lands blossom again; and a Holy Way is established, along which no danger lurks, and upon which no traveler is ever be led astray again. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” (Rev 21:4-5)

AMEN.

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.342

http://sintnicolas.weebly.com/

"Almighty God, in your love you gave your servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness both on land and sea: Grant, we pray, that your Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."  (Collect for Feast of Nicholas from Holy Women, Holy Men)

St. Nicholas rescuing murdered children
Artist: Elisabeth Jvanovsky

"...Another story tells of three theological students, traveling on their way to study in Athens. A wicked innkeeper robbed and murdered them, hiding their remains in a large pickling tub. It so happ

ened that Bishop Nicholas, traveling along the same route, stopped at this very inn. In the night he dreamed of the crime, got up, and summoned the innkeeper. As Nicholas prayed earnestly to God the three boys were restored to life and wholeness. In France the story is told of three small children, wandering in their play until lost, lured, and captured by an evil butcher. St. Nicholas appears and appeals to God to return them to life and to their families. And so St. Nicholas is the patron and protector of children."

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/who-is-st-nicholas/

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11063b.htm

"Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."
 [Advent 1 Collect from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer]

Subjects in Christ’s kingdom of Truth

Holy Spirit...  Take my lips and speak through them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  

[intro remarks…] Good morning, good people of St. Thomas (in Garden City, KS).  Greetings from Bishop Wolfe in the Diocese of Kansas (on whose staff I serve) and from Bishop Milliken here in Western Kansas (who I spoke to briefly on Wednesday); your own Sadie Pile at Emporia State is one of our campus peer ministers;  visiting Pastor AJ Striffler, pastor of St. James Lutheran (ELCA) – they welcome you, particularly for Holy Eucharist any Sunday at 10am (ref: ELCA and TEC concordat “Called to Common Mission”)

Today’s lessons offer a radical reorientation for our allegiances in a day and age when our loyalties are so often subjected to commercial temptation and political seductions.  We’re here today in a transition from one season of the church year into another… we’re here today with a choice of kings of kingdoms.

We’ve made it through a long political campaign season and survived, more or less, the national elections.  There was so much talk this past year about what type of nation we want to live in and who is worth to lead us through the challenging days ahead, grappling with outrageous national debt, pervasive unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, etc..  Despite all the squawk of seemingly hopeless political and economic challenges, just days ago, we gathered as a nation in “Thanksgiving” to celebrate our many blessings; many people gorging themselves on processed foods while surrounded by ads in the paper, on TV, and on radio generating anxiety and/or inciting near riotous excitement about where and when to “line up” to be first in the commercial frenzy of “Black Friday” – an occasion for us to abandon all godly patience and financial prudence as we storm the retail establishment, wild-eyed, wielded our credit cards, seeking to ‘capture’ the best deals on things to relieve perceptions of inadequacy, alleviate fears of being ‘without’, and otherwise show others how much we love and care for them.  Oh, to see us over these past few weeks… which kingdom does it appear we’re wanting to inhabit?  To what rulers do our calendars and checkbooks bend and kneel?

Here near the end of this frenzied month, the days are getting shorter as cool weather takes hold and it gets darker earlier.  The gardens and fields have dried up, died off, and been blown away.  The soil is being prepared to bare new life months from now.  There’s something almost instinctive that instructs us to huddle close by the embers of a warm hearth and reflect on the year that is passing away while quietly imagining the possibilities of a year ahead.  As nature tells us that we’re in transition from one season to another, so does the liturgical calendar of our church. 

This is the last Sunday of the Christian church calendar.  A week from now is the first Sunday of Advent.  We’re transitioning from ‘ordinary’/’proper’ time following Pentecost when we’ve been remembering the mission and ministry of our messiah, into a season of spiritual expectation as we start over again in our church year together, anticipating the new birth we’ve all been promised through faith in the incarnation of God’s love coming into our world and living among us.  We will call the holy fruit of Mary’s womb our new born king. 

But, what sort of king will Jesus be for us?  Do we really want to be Christ’s subjects?

In today’s Gospel lesson (John 18:33-37), Pilate asks the arrested Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”, not so much out of intellectual curiosity or the desire to discover real truth about the nature of Jesus’ authority, but motivated by a need to hear something scandalous that would enable him as a Roman provincial leader, concerned about quelling the growing unrest of the Jewish mob, to legally justify further punishment and possibly elimination of this irritant and threat to the civic order in his jurisdiction.

In their ensuing brief conversation (unique to John’s telling) Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate's question directly nor does he deny being a king per se. Instead he invites Pilate, and us, to re-consider that his kingdom “is not from here” and to listen to the “truth” so as to belong to it.  Pilate doesn’t accept the invitation… and, frankly, some who claim to follow Jesus haven’t either. 

He invites those who hear his truth with the promise that his yoke is lite and also the instruction that living into this kingdom will not be easy and will even cause them to endure suffering. To be clear, being subject to his rule will put them/us at odds with the rule of Caesar and many of our principalities in power today.

Just weeks ago, in a reading from the Gospel according to Mark (Mark 10:42-45), we heard Jesus contrast His rule to the rule of traditional earthly kings when he said, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Jesus has made it clear that the kingdom he represents is conventional in geo-political terms.  As one commentator put it, “Jesus knew the oppressive nature of secular kings, and in contrast to them, he connected his role as king to humble service, and commanded his followers to be servants as well. In other passages of Scripture, his kingdom is tied to his suffering and death. While Christ is coming to judge the nations, his teachings spell out a kingdom of justice and judgment balanced with radical love, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. When we celebrate Christ as King, we are not celebrating an oppressive ruler, but one willing to die for humanity and whose "loving-kindness endures forever." Christ is the king that gives us true freedom, freedom in Him.”  (http://www.churchyear.net/ctksunday.html)

Indeed, the king we’re remembering today was born amid a blessed mess of to a rural couple with little societal standing, identifies more closely with the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned than with any royal pomp or regal celebrities… and gives up his earthly life wearing a crown of thorns rather than jewels, and executed aside criminals in public shame rather than coronated aside the powerful in public honor. 

Surely, this is not the long-awaited political, warrior messiah in the family line of King David who was supposed reclaim Israel from those who has dominated and oppressed her people? Is this the sort of lord any of us want to bow before… the kind of king we want to be subject to?

And, yet, here we are on “Christ the King” Sunday, the final feast before we begin the expectant journey of Advent.  In the 1920’s, this special feast day “Christ the King” was established by Pope Pious the XI as antidote to the rising primacy of secularism and a noted decline in respect for Christ and church of that era (sound familiar?).  Naming this Sunday “Christ the King” is intended to remind faithful Christians, amid an ever-more prevailing secular culture, that Christ is to reign in our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies.  

About the establishment of this special feast day, PiusXI wrote, “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ. It will call to their minds the thought of the last judgment, wherein Christ, who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these insults; for his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education… The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.”  (Quas Primas,32-33) 

From our readings of the Revelation according to John, we are greeted with peace and grace and reminded, in vivid imagery, that Christ’s kingdom is at hand, in parallel with our sense of reality – his reign was, is and will be.  Written during a time that it was not just counter-cultural, but downright dangerous to live as a Christian, the author reassures his readers they (and we ) are radically free from what has held them captive and that their ultimate place in a heavenly realm in contrast to the corrupted world they now perceive around them.  This corrupted kingdom and Christ’s kingdom will collide eventually in an awesome moment of transformation.  God’s will be done on earth as in heaven – God’s kingdom come!

In this meantime, Christ’s reign is already over hearts and minds… a reign of compassion, justice, mercy, charity, peace and love.  We are free to serve Him.  We are expected to serve Him.

As we leave church this morning, we’ll again be among the busy secular world preparing for the stressful holidays and the cunning commercial demands for our time and attention.  When you feel yourself getting caught up serving other lords, worshiping idols, and eating of the bread of anxiety, step back, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and remember our Lord’s supper and the true kingdom he calls us live in. 

Amid the noise and haste of a sin-filled marketplace around us where material things tempt and taunt us, promising to pleasantly distract us from the pangs of our deeper yearnings and longings, what if we dare to surrender to sweet silence, even if only for few brief moments when we gather with friends. What if, in our momentary, prayerful death to the distractions of this world, it’s possible to taste paradise with Christ and the saints?  What if we surrender the game of political gain and embrace the reign of sacrificial love?  How might this even brief experience of Christ’s kingdom come, change our wills for what must be done in our world here and now?

As we enter this Advent season, is it not authentic life with each other that we’re really longing for?  The beauty of the twinkling lights at night; the smell of crackling wood burning warm inside; the table prepared for us with loving care… are these not merely signs that invite us to the feast that we’re really hungry for – more perfect communion with God and our loved ones.  How can we make our gatherings this season more of a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that has been prepared for us by Christ our King? 

from SoichiWatanabe Portfolio

Christ our King is not removed from us, upon a throne somewhere distant.  He is, through the Holy Spirit, with those in greatest need – the least among us, those who we might prefer to avoid, those who might prefer to avoid us – the hungry, ill, imprisoned, forgotten, pushed aside, any who feel outside the gates… not welcome at the feast. It’s with those ‘lost’ that Christ our King can be found. We experience Christ in/through our reconciling interactions with each other.  Growing in knowledge and love of God through growing in knowledge and love each other, particularly the neighbors we’ve yet to welcome, is the work of the Christ’s kingdom.  Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people. 

Let us pray.

Christ, you are our King of redeeming justice, leading us in a principality of peace and charitable love.  Christ, our king, we are thankful for the mercy and peace you have freely given us – compel us to share these with our family, friends, and neighbors.  Help us surrender to your rule of justice and charity in our hearts.  Strengthen us as we boldly seek to help build your kingdom by being unexpectedly generous in our compassion, forgiveness, charity, and love toward others - particularly toward the “least of these” who are in most need -  and to graciously accept kinds acts from others when they’ve seen, through your Spirit, our deeper needs. 

AMEN.

Lincoln on thanksgiving

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of October 3, 1863 (Presidential Proclamation 106)., 10/03/1863

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2009/nr09-25.html

Beginning of birthpangs. Comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable*

*ref: quote attributed to Finley Peter Dunne, newspaper writer and cartoonist of the late 19^th Century)

[good morning, introductions, and head’s up that I’m going to raise some questions for brief discussion]

This is the second to last Sunday of our Christian church year.  You can definitely hear in today’s lectionary readings wisdom for our preparation for the season of Advent, a time in which we prepare to celebrate the arrival of God’s love incarnate among us, the in-breaking of perpetual, communal light into our otherwise selfish and dark world. 

In the readings from 1 Samuel (1:4-20, 2:1-10) we hear the anguish and pain as well as strength and faith of Hannah (and a people) who, amid the shame of barrenness and oppression of being misunderstood (and amid a self-center culture that has turned away from God) is blessed with new life – new prophetic leadership beginning Samuel.  Hannah’s song, symbolic of the voice of a people renewed in faith, becomes the precursor for the Song of Mary (the Magnificat) that we’ll hear soon as we near Christmas.

In the readings from Hebrews (10:11-25) we hear how the coming of Christ as our great priest and perfect sacrifice has cleansed our hearts and minds, opened anew for us God’s will in our very being, and encourages/invites us to encourage one another, even to the point of provocation for the sake of God’s love.  One commentator said the good news, and challenge, being delivered to the Hebrews is like delivering truth about the availability of electricity and steam engines to the early agricultural laborers.

And, in our Gospel lesson from Mark (13:1-8) we hear Jesus confirm that man-made walls, no matter how grand, will not contain God, nor be the center of God’s kingdom, and that the breaking down and end of such institutions are but the beginnings of the birthpangs of the coming age and kingdom.

In the readings, there’s a theme of commitment to action that we’re called into as we await the coming again of our Lord – this is not a time of passive waiting. 

Long-suffering Hannah (the cultural causes of her long-suffering worth of a sermon of its own), when finally blessed with a child, proclaims through her song what she believes “will be” and “shall be” in God’s name and otherwise commits her son to God’s service all the days of his life (he will, in fact, be a prophetic guide to his people).

The author of the letter to the Hebrews aims to inspire to persevere in the face of persecution and renew their commitment to Christ’s mission, encouraging one another in faithful community and worship, and provoking one another to love and good deeds.

Jesus, in his longest ‘sermon’ in the Gospel of Mark (the entirety of chapter 13, not just verses 1-8 that we heard this morning), shakes us from any unhelpful preoccupation with concerns about the when and where of ultimate end of the age and instead challenges us to beware and be awake/alert to what we’re called to do and be in the meantime.

 [TO STIR DISCUSSION]

In Hannah’s story, she is anguished, groaning in prayer, and finds no solace at home (she is taunted by her husband’s more fertile wife and her misery unappreciated by her own husband) nor initially at her nearby religious institution (she’s instead accused to being drunk by the priest Eli).  Yet, the Lord “remembers her.”  Where are we likely to find contemporary Hannah’s today?  Who and what might be misunderstanding them?  What are they trying to give birth to?

The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that we’ve been cleansed of sin and made worthy to stand before God without any guilt or shame getting in our way.  We are to meet together, worship together, encourage one another, and provoke one another to love and good deeds.  In other places in the bible the Greek term for ‘provoking’ (literally ‘to sharpen’ or ‘to stimulate’) usually conveys sense of unwelcome stimulation that causes aggravation and agitation (perhaps even eliciting anger), like in Peninnah’s provocation of Hannah in 1 Sam 1:6.  Have you ever been provoked into love or good deeds?  Where Jesus’s acts of love and good deed provocative in his day?  Why?  What might loving provocation mean to us as Christians today?  

When Jesus is asked “when”, he essentially answers “how” and “what.” If you continue reading chapter 13 of Mark through to the end with verse 37, it’s clear that he wants us to know that institutions that are failing to fulfill God’s purposes will crumble and fall-apart (invoking some of the same language of the prophet Jeremiah), that there will be calamities and disasters before the end of this age, AND that he doesn’t want us to us to be led astray or stuck in worry about when the ultimate end will come.  What temples do you believe are destined to be torn down?  What is Jesus calling us to do in the meantime?

CONCLUDING “GOOD NEWS”

What is the Spirit saying to God’s people this morning?  I hear:

• God remains faithful to us, even when we’ve drifted away.
• Our salvation is not a one-time accomplishment or a cataclysmic event – our sanctification is a process of repentance, forgiveness, and new birth / new beginnings.
• When institutions no longer serve God’s purposes, they wither and crumble away, but that’s not the end of God’s story.
• God will open closed doors and bring life back, even to what has been barren.
• We are called less to personal piety and personal devotion as much as communal worship and collective encouragement in Christ.
•  The radical love that God intends will likely be provocative and disturbing to the status quo.

“Subversive God, deconstructing temples of power in which we would keep you trapped and tamed: lead us through violent times, unafraid to speak for peace, untempted by those who promise easy answers; may we follow him alone who renews the world in love; through Jesus Christ, who sits at God’s right hand. Amen.”

(Shakespeare, Steven. Prayers for An Inclusive Church (NY: Church Publishing, 2009) p.77)