And So Begins Our Baptized Life

First Sermon Preached at Orange Congregational Church, Orange, CT

Luke 3: 15-17, 21-23

St. Jude Catholic School - Baptism of Jesus

Not long ago I had the baptisms of two tiny cousins lined up.  They were infants around 13 or 14 months old as I recall.  One of the infants lived with her family in town and her cousin’s family was from Massachusetts.  Neither family, to my knowledge was passionate churchgoers, if you know what I mean.  But rather than turn them away I decided to plant some seeds and opted to baptize them.

So we got to the time in the service for the baptism and I called the families up to the front.  The deacon was with me and I began.  The mothers were bouncing the girls and everyone, dressed to the nines, looked very sweet.  Successfully the girls were baptized, we walked through the congregation for introductions and then convened back on the dais.

Then it began.  I started the final prayers and the congregation began snickering.  I looked up and the cousins, being held side by side, began to play with one another.  It was cute, but distracting.  They were trying to hug and kiss one another practically falling out of their mother’s arms.

Then the unthinkable.  (Or maybe not)  One of them took her little fist and bonked the other in the face.  The assaulted had one of those delayed cry reactions that only infants can do and of course the congregation was now in an uproar!  Immediately I ended and said ‘go in peace’ of course which I had my doubts. 

And so began their baptized life. These girls now have their lifetime to make good to one another.  It has once been said “Baptism is a once in a lifetime event, but it takes a lifetime to complete”. That’s because once baptized we are called to a different life, a life transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit to envision a creative path that always lies wide open before us if we only open our eyes to see.

John the Baptist knew all to well of the call upon his life and the power of baptism.  As soon as he became an adult he put on those itchy-scratchy camel hair clothes, packed up some yummy locusts and sweet honey and took to the wilderness.  His out of the box life-style began, his life of preaching and teaching, his life of baptizing folks, and his special calling to pave the way for his cousin Jesus. 

Hear now our scripture from the Gospel of Luke, the third chapter.

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work. 

He Qui-The Baptism of Jesus

Up until now Jesus had been living his life in the region of the peaceful Galilee and he comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin John.  John had been sojourning in the wilderness of Judea just about where the Jordan empties into the Dead Sea.

John baptized many people that day and after he baptized Jesus the heavens broke open.  The Spirit of God, sort of like a dove, alighted on him.  And a voice from heaven reassured Jesus, ‘you are my son, you are marked by my love, I am delighted in you.’

With this, Jesus begins his ministry and a short lifetime following the precepts of God.  With the words of the prophet Isaiah in his heart and mind Jesus begins a life of servant hood, gratitude, and prayer to God.   God’s grace and Jesus’ mission was conferred on him that day in the fresh waters of the Jordan River.   

Baptism called him and set him apart to be about the work of God, which ultimately is the work of change and transformation.  Jesus never points to himself, he always points to God as the source for all of his living.  And once aligned with the powerful and almighty you can never fail.

Today begins our baptized life together as congregation and interim pastor.  I will walk with you these next couple of years or however long it takes and help you to be the best that you can possibly be, to peer into what the future might hold, and to unearth the ways in which you want to change and grow.  I am here to follow in Rev. King’s good and large footsteps, to expand and build upon the ministries that were begun under his watch and to enable you to create and enact a vision of hope for Orange Congregational that your next settled pastor will yearn to be a part of.

But we are not there yet, we are just beginning.

Transition can be sad, scary, disconcerting, tenuous or maybe even a bit tumultuous.  Do not be anxious and do not worry.  With God’s guidance we will walk together remembering the past, negotiating the present, and embracing a great future.  We are in for the time of our lives with hard work and lots of humor to offset it.  That’s the way God intends us to be indeed that’s the way God wants us to live fully.

This interim time is one of the most exhilarating, affirming and exciting times in the life of this congregation.  Because you are not bound by ‘should’s’ but surrounded by ‘what if’s’.   It may not be easy, never is.  We might, like those infants, bonk heads and hearts as we walk through this discovery process and sacred journey together.  But it is essential work and ministry that we will perform during this time and with Christ leading us we can do great and wonderful ministry together.  It is a part of bringing our Baptismal promises to bear at this time and in this place.

You are a strong church, a good church, I have that from the best authority!   Yet you can be even stronger if you allow the Spirit of our creating God fill your hearts and minds from this day on.

The seeds of a Christian life are sown at our baptism.  It is up to us to nurture them and grow them into a full life together.

Let us love God together.  Let us create a powerhouse of ministry that Jesus Christ would be proud of.  Let us breathe in the power of the Holy Spirit so that our lungs are filled to the capacity with love, hope, and transformation.

Amen.

The Past As Prologue

Final Sermon preached at Wilton Congregational as their Interim Senior Pastor

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 1, Verses 1-11

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem , asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem , saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.

Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

A familiar story; wise men, a star and a wicked king.  It adds a sense of mystery to the infancy narrative of Jesus, not that it needed any more mystery than a virgin birth.  Maybe intrigue is a better word because the story of the visitors from the East brings us deeper into what will unfold as the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   

Much has been preached about this piece of scripture.  Finding your way home sometimes by a different route, letting a star remind you that the light of Christ is here, the inclusion of Gentiles into God’s plan of salvation, gifts that we can bring to the Christ child or gifts that we can offer to the church and to the world.  There are good nuggets that have been mined from this story.

Epiphany is a transitional moment in the church calendar year where Christ’s glory and divinity is revealed beyond the stable walls.

The Three Wise Men by EKDuncan

I’m not going to talk too much about that story today because you and I are at a transitional moment in our lives as pastor and congregation too, and I’d rather talk about that because that is where my heart and mind are this morning.

Interim ministry has a beginning and an end and it is hoped that the work in between is fruitful, revitalizing, spiritually energizing and that it would be a period of growth.  I believe that we have achieved all that if not more.  And so, my work is done!

There is a wonderful children’s movie called ‘Nanny McPhee’.  It’s about a nanny who comes to take care of a slew of horrid little children. Nanny herself, had warts, a huge tooth protruding from her upper lip, and was very unkempt looking at the beginning and was overly strict to the point of being mean.  Now don’t make the connection that you were horrid children.  You were not!  And don’t go thinking that I had warts.  I did not (or not many!)  

Emma Thompson as Nanny McPhee

So as the movie progresses the children become well behaved and each time they do something nice a wart magically disappears off of Nanny’s face. 

Throughout the movie there is something beautiful that happens to all of them.  With patience, understanding, searching, and a whole lot of love they become beautiful together.  The transformation is magnificent.  Of course when this happens, then it is time for Nanny to take her leave.

The best line in the movie is one that Nanny utters when she comes to live with the family, she say’s,

“When you need me, but do not want me, then I must stay, when you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go.”

You no longer need me and so I have to go.  There are so many plusses to interim ministry but saying goodbye is not one of them. However that’s what we will do today because you no longer need the type of ministry that I can provide for you.  I’m a sprinter, not a marathon runner in ministry.

We’ve done some fine work together over these 18 months.  We’ve weathered some storms literally, and we’ve laughed, cried, prayed, worshipped, studied, sang, and ate together.  My goals when I came here were to calm everyone down and to steady the boat when Brigitta got off.  You were pretty anxious whether you know it or not.  I sought to lead you through a process of discovery and unearth you from pretty some fairly stagnant waters. 

I endeavored to instill hope and to help you envision a path to your future.  I prayed to love you as a congregation of dedicated people who try very hard to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I prayed to just love you, which I’ve come to do.

We have so much to be thankful to God for as a pastor and congregation.  Blessing upon blessing God has given us the ability for forge ahead with confidence in a period of transition.  I thank God for your care and concern, for your reception of my ministry and friendship among you, and for a talented staff to work alongside of.  Doug, Ken, Richard, Marilyn, Nancy, Max and Jim.  I thank you.    

But you no longer need me, I recognize that.  And it’s not because I need to be needed, it’s because you are ready to launch!  That’s the bittersweet nature of interim ministry.  You are ready to embark on a new journey that will be exciting and fruitful with a new pastor in the pulpit, a different pastor who will bring his own experience, his own love of God, his unique call to ministry to bear here at Wilton Congregational.  You are ready to embark upon ministry with a marathoner!!!    

And you see, that makes me really happy.  I feel, leaving here, that I have done my best to honor God and to be the pastor that you needed me to be at this time in the life of Wilton Congregational.  We are severing our relationship on very good and gracious terms knowing that the best is yet to come.

Be open to the endless and exciting possibilities of how you will move forward, God called you into existence in 1726 and God will safely see you into the future.  It is a marathon of grace, gratitude, love and forgiveness.

Wilton Congregational Church photo by S. Wagner

So I want to leave you with a charge, or maybe a couple.  Three to be exact since this is the last time that I will address you as your pastor and in a position of authority under God.

The first charge I leave you is challenging but essential.  I charge you to always be about the work of Christ, that is why we are here and that is why men and women discern a call to ministry, because we want to be about the work and ministry of Christ.  It is for no other reason that the church exists.  We’re not a country club or a social service agency, or a hierarchical vessel to pour out our power hungry selves.  We are here solely to witness to the strength and salvation of God through Jesus Christ.  Please, always remember that, if you stray too far from that it will lead you onto rocky terrain.

Your second charge is to pray.  Pray often. Pray always.  Your new pastor is human and will, at times, need your prayers of support, your prayers of love, your prayers of compassion.  He is human in all ways and the demands of a congregation upon their pastor can be great.  Be gentle, be loving, be forgiving, be kind as I have experienced you to be. 

And your third charge is to be a beacon of hope in this community.  Our world needs hope, this community needs hope.  Not that we are in a bad way, but the demands of life are huge and people need a place of complete acceptance and unconditional love.  You can be that place for people, you can be that non-judgmental haven for people to experience God when the rest of the world is saying something else, when the rest of the world is condemning rather than commending.  Shun no one and let the community know it explicitly. 

My dear friends, I will miss you.  A lot.  But I leave here knowing that I have lost my warts and you are the best that you can be.  Together we have honored and loved our Lord, Jesus Christ and that’s what it’s all about. 

Rejoice fully in the pastor to come who is ready and willing to be here for the marathon, who will love you in all of life’s circumstances, and who loves God with all of his heart. 

God is good all of the time, and all of the time, God is good.

Amen, and Amen!
Thank you to Rev. Cynthia Robinson for the reminder about Nanny McPhee!

A Place for All

Luke 2: 41-52

What adult among us today has not come into contact with a twelve year old?  After all, we were one once ourselves, right?  So we know that being twelve produces all sorts of different thoughts, anxieties, moods, hormones….  It’s an eclectic and confusing time to say the least. 

As I remember back to that age; make up, boys, and The Beatles were occupying a lot of space in my mind.  And, you would have found me at church since my parents were faithful church going people.  But my reasons for going would have been different than theirs.  I wanted to go so that I could be with my like-minded friend Carol who also cared deeply for make up, boys, and The Beatles.  Church was the place to be in our little world.

So I always find it humorous that, when in the lectionary, we go from the sweet and powerful Christmas story of Jesus’ birth, and imagining him as an infant to the portion of scripture this week where Jesus has grown older, a pre-teen the penultimate before teen-ager-hood.  How time flies! 

But children do that, they grow up in an instant. 

Now he’s a boy, 12 years old.  Knowing Jesus it is doubtful that he would have been seeking out his friends at the temple in Jerusalem to talk about shaving, girls, and the hottest Klezmer band.  He is approaching a very special age in the life of a Jewish boy; Bar Mitzvah age, the age of reason, where now, under Jewish law, he is to study scripture. A greater responsibility is expected of him. 

Let us open the scriptures today from the Gospel of Luke, the 2^nd chapter.

Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for Passover. And when Jesus was twelve years old, they all went there as usual for the celebration. After Passover his parents left, but they did not know that Jesus had stayed on in the city. They thought he was traveling with some other people, and they went a whole day before they started looking for him. When they could not find him with their relatives and friends, they went back to Jerusalem and started looking for him there.

Three days later they found Jesus sitting in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was surprised at how much he knew and at the answers he gave.

When his parents found him, they were amazed. His mother said, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been very worried, and we have been searching for you!”

Jesus answered, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he meant.

Jesus went back to Nazareth with his parents and obeyed them. His mother kept on thinking about all that had happened.

Jesus became wise, and he grew strong. God was pleased with him and so were the people.  (Contemporary English Version)

Well, you know how twelve year olds can be.  On one hand Jesus shows us that he is fully 12 years old by, his smart-aleck remark to Mary, ‘Why are you looking for me?  Didn’t you know that I’d be here?’  That, ‘In my house’ remark would have been considered ‘back talk’ which was forbidden by ‘the stare’ from my mother.  And Joseph probably would have been a bit perturbed by now hearing about Jesus’ other father’s house, like what is Joseph, chopped liver?

Mary and Joseph just didn’t understand what he was saying, they didn’t make the connection between the divine mystery of Jesus’ birth twelve years prior and the day to day tasks of raising a boy in the first century.  Teens are teens.  So Jesus obeyed them and they all went back to Nazareth.  Mary kept thinking about this, Jesus got older and wiser and we are told that God was really happy with the divine Son that day in the Temple. 

Fast forward and the next we hear of Jesus at his baptism and start of his ministry when he was thirty years old, an adult.  But that is the scripture in the weeks to come.

We can assume that throughout his teen years and twenty-something years he continued to grow in wisdom, travel down to Jerusalem for Passover, say prayers in the Temple, and offer sacrifices.  The Temple was the place to be because here they would have found God through the holy of holies, a place to practice ritual and study Torah, a place to be in the fellowship of other Jews.  Hopefully Jesus never got lost again and Mary and Joseph came to accept that Jesus would be found in his Father’s [sic] house.

Jesus knew all to well the importance of being in God’s house, that holy sanctuary.  For him it was a place to ‘be in’, or maybe ‘as one’ with God until it was time for his identity to be revealed.  Here he could read Torah to learn how to live, engage the prophets of old to find a sense of direction, or even read one of the Psalms of David to soothe his teenaged soul when things may have gotten rough at home.  You know how that happens when children are teens.

Everyone needs a place to go.  A temple, a sanctuary, a church is still very important today, we all need a place where we can find a refuge from the onslaught of daily living, a safe haven when turmoil knocks at your door, and a place to learn and grow with others in our faith.  We need a place where our children can grow up to be who they are, as they are, created by God with love, a place where they know they will be accepted and cherished.

You have that place here and now, but could it be more?  Could all people feel the safety and solitude that you feel when you enter this sanctuary?  And if they could, how would it be?  How would you make it known to all that this place, this holy ground that we call Wilton Congregational is a place of healing and hope for all people? 

The mentally ill, the young adults with special needs, the mother on some form of welfare, the ethnically, racially different, the gay, the transgendered, the other whomever you determine your other to be?  We don’t typically see them on a Sunday morning in our pews but believe me, they are in our community and its vicinity.

The church doesn’t exist for itself. The church doesn’t exist for the status quo, filling the coffers or those who look and dress like us.  It exists as a lens through which we can see and envision salvation and transformation for each person who crosses our threshold. It exists for everyone and anyone who thirsts to be refreshed by the love of God through Jesus Christ.  The church exists so that people can be healed in the many ways that they are in need of healing and hope.  The church exits to be a place of inclusion rather than exclusion. 

The church exists so that we can get outside of our four walls and engage others whose hopes and dreams are similar to ours but expressed in a different way.  That’s why we exist.  The church exists to tell the Gospel of salvation P E R I O D.

Soon you will prepare to be a church with a new spiritual leader and guide.  He will bring about change because that’s what each new pastor does, not because they try to mark their territory or forge their own path, but because each pastor speaks from his or her own unique experience in God’s created world.  It is always rich and from the heart.

Each pastor has a story to tell of how God has picked them up and dropped them off in a different place of grace.  Each pastor comes to the Gospel by a different path and will tell it in their own words, yet will proclaim the glory of God.  That is the constant in all of this.  God’s glory. 

Jesus proclaimed God’s glory always.  He never looked towards himself but to God. That’s what’s going on in the temple here, he didn’t defy his parents, he was attentive to God’s call upon his life and was bold enough to live it out even from the very beginning.  May we also live out God’s call to us, gathering at church, rejoicing in one another’s differences and then going out into the world with the Gospel in your heart and grace with every step you take. 

Amen.

A Time of Love Incarnate

A Time of Love Incarnate

 Nativity from the Church of the Ascension, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem  2007

It was the darkest of days for Mary and Joseph.  The scorching heat of the summer had given away to colder winds and sunset now came early ushering in deep, lengthy shadows as they traversed the rocky countryside from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea. 

It was not carefree, easy living under the Roman Empire for most people.  Mary and Joseph, Jews in the first century, were not given many religious rights under King Herod and they were subject to heavy taxation by the Roman authorities.  There was a large disparity between the rich and the poor, and insecure Herod issued a decree to slaughter the lives of the innocent ones.  Life was exceedingly demanding in all ways.  And here was Mary, unwed, young, and with child.  

They needed light.  They needed some luminosity and hope that tomorrow was going to be a better day, that, their God had not forgotten them, that God was not silent in their despair and marginalized circumstances.

And when they could not find a place to stay, forcing them to lodge in a musty animal stall, their baby was born.  “And what was come into being in him [this baby] was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1: 4-5) 

The darkness did not overcome it because this baby was the light of the world, Jesus Christ.  You see the story that you’ve come to hear tonight is so much more than just a sweetened sentimental tale that bears repeating once a year.  It is the story of life born, infused with desire and the promise of resurrection hope.  It is a story of God, and God’s love incarnate in humanity, through Jesus the Christ. It is a story that has meaning each day for your life not just Christmas Eve.  It is a story of God reaching directly into your life and shining grace in all your darkest corners.

Our days are threatening right now.   Not only is this the darkest time of the year but unbelievable events have entered our lives, very close to home, practically in our backyard so that the degrees of separation are hardly existent.  We have questions without answers, or without answers that will satisfy our deepest longing to know and understand the depths of God and our existential nature. 

Why does evil exit?  Why doesn’t God intervene and stop it?  Does God even care?  These real questions we bring with us tonight as we revisit the stable of so long ago.  Mary and Joseph may have asked those same questions.  Even though their faith was strong and their devotedness to God’s call on their lives was palpable, they still had questions.  What if?  How come?  What will become of us?     

When asked why my colleague, the Rev. Matt Crebbin of the Newtown Congregational Church didn’t use the United Church of Christ moniker, “God is still speaking” as a sign of hope in a recent interview,  pensively, Matt said, ‘because for folks God seems distant and silent right now.’  He said, ‘There are no words. Right now is the time for the ministry of incarnation, and that’s what we’re doing’.[i]

How poignant.  He meant that when there are no words that can possibly soothe an aching heart, you can, by your mere presence, be the presence of God to someone who is in need of comfort and hope.  Just by being there!  Because by your presence, and your kindness you are the face and heart of a loving and very present God.   

That is love incarnate. 

That is what Christmas is all about, God’s word, promise, and hope becoming one with us in Jesus Christ.  And then we, extending Christ’s love to others.  “And the word became flesh and lived among us…full of grace and truth.”  (John 1:14)  Theologian Barbara Brown Taylor says, “By choosing Christ to flesh out the word, God made a lasting decision in favor of incarnation…and it is in our own flesh and blood that the word of God continues to be made known.”[ii]

When you see the outpouring of makeshift memorials in Newtown, the 1,000’s of teddy bears collected, the meals cooked and given, the 100’s gathered for a candlelight vigil you can’t help but see that God is all over the place and good hearts triumph over evil ones. That life, even in dire circumstances goes on, because God favors humanity and chooses life.

God’s love embodied, is what is in that stable in Bethlehem.  A newborn cries because God chooses to be with us and God’s greatest desire is for us to carry on in God’s holy name.  God’s love is personified in each one of us.

The manger takes on an especially profound meaning this year.  Christ ‘fleshes out’ for us a way to live that pleases God and that reflects the divine nature of a just and generous God.  The birth of Christ ushers in comfort, redemption and hope.

This tiny Savior-baby is God saying to us, live into your greatest potential.  The borning cries of Jesus beckon you to come out of the darkness of your life into a hopeful future and that is what it is all about.  A future with hope, God has plans for you. (Jer 31)  

So take God’s profound affirmation of love with you tonight out into this world.  Be the face and hands of Jesus to others and in that way the stable, the manger, the stars and the angels become a very real and living nativity of the incarnate God, not some simple story told long ago.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding be in your hearts and minds forever.
Amen.
Christmas Eve Meditation, 2012

Nativity from Shepherd's Field, Bethlehem, West Bank 2007

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[i] Notes from clergy gathering on Dec. 18, 2012 at the Newtown Congregational Church.

[ii] Taylor, Barbara Brown. “The Preaching Life”, Cowley Publications, Cambridge, MA 1993, p.84.

A meditation

Meditation Given at Wilton Congregational Church for the Newtown shootings

Here we gather, and around us is the scenery and the props for our pageant tomorrow.  Less than one hour ago this holy sanctuary was teeming with excited children reenacting the story of Jesus’ birth.  They laughed and sang and said their memorized lines, sometimes screwing up or forgetting as children do.  And this is the way it should be.

It should not be that children go off to school and do not come home because of one person’s heinous acts of violence.  It should not be that this one person, who still yet almost a child himself, can kill and take away the very hope of life itself; children and the ones who chose to teach and nurture them.

It is not right at all.

The poet T.S. Eliot once said, “Every now and then, life drops an unavoidable question at your door.”  We have now had unavoidable questions dropped right into the lap of our lives. ‘Why now?  Where were you God?  Why did this have to happen?”

But sadly, these difficult questions have no immediate answers that can possibly take away the pain, assuage the grief, or turn back the clock.  There are no words that can make it all better at this very moment.  All we can do is lean heavily into our faith that we will be comforted in time, that these families who were so violently torn apart will receive some sort of peace and maybe a portion of understanding that will help us re-order our lives.

I do not believe that this tragedy was in God’s plan for some higher purpose or that God painted this tragic scene in the lives of these families and ultimately ours to show us a lesson.  That would be a manipulative God that I care not to believe in.  I believe that God loves life, God creates, God does not destroy.  God is for us and not against us.  And I do believe that we can craft out of dreadful circumstances a vision of goodness and grace for us to order our own lives.     

So what do we do with all of this heartache, this intense sadness, this lonely emptiness? Where do you put a pain so deep?’

We can either retreat from life or we can live boldly the future that these children would have embodied.  We can take the smile of a child with us, we can seize the very essence of their living and carry it forward with us into the future.  We can lift up their memory and then commit ourselves to a better future in their name.  

We can remember that God loves us deeply, dearly and that we too will someday be welcomed into the cloud of great witnesses that have gone before us, the cloud that these people have been welcomed into.  We can remember that life is finite; that each day counts immeasurably and that we must tell those whom we care deeply about that we love them over and over again.  

As we sit here with Bethlehem around us we remember that Christ has come into this world to save and to heal, and to comfort us.  That what lies in the manger is hope and salvation and that the beauty of life goes on. 

Amen.  

Newtown, Connecticut December 14, 2012

For the children, teachers, parents, friends of the Newtown community.  May God's strength envelop you in this time of tragedy and may the Spirit of God sustain in this time of need.

Prepare Yourself

Luke 3: 1-6

After Mary left Elizabeth with a song in her heart and her soul rejoicing, she went back to the Galilee.  Both women gave birth to sons; one was named Jesus, the other named John.  The cousins grew and they played, they laughed and they learned, and they became men.

We pick up our scripture from the Gospel of Luke:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea (i-tyu-re-a) and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

Luke posits our scripture in a time and place and with high-faluting people both of the Roman Empire and of the Jewish priesthood.  Yet it is curious (but maybe not) that he chooses not to actually give the message that he needs to tell in Rome or Jerusalem, in places and with people of power, but in the wilderness with a very unique and common sort of guy named John.  

John always appears in Advent, usually about the same week, this second week.  So in the middle of angel’s wings, pre-natal conversations between Mary and Elizabeth, there appears this scruffy, locust eating, camel’s hair wearing, and wilderness living man.  Surely his family must have thought him an outcast, you know that crazy cousin John. How can he be the messenger when he himself is so, well, kooky? 

“Prepare the way of the Lord!” he says, “repent, and be saved”. 

But you see God did choose John to deliver this message, prepare yourself.  Perhaps when you are in the wilderness things become a bit clearer.   When there is no clutter and extraneous things around you are no longer present, you can make ready your heart.  The pathway for decent living and walking in the light of God is by repenting and turning your life around.  He saw this, he knew this because the word of God found him and came to him, yes, in the wilderness. 

John brings us a tough message because repent asks us to look deeply and honestly within ourselves and then to change those things which do not reflect the love of God.  Prepare doesn’t mean to pull out the silver service and shine it up.  It means something quite different.

This time of year I always get asked the question, “Are you ready for Christmas?” which really means, am I prepared?  Have I purchased all of the presents I need to give, have I created a menu for Christmas day, have I attended the parties or sent out the necessary regrets.  It means have I decorated the house and put up the tree, have I decked the halls with boughs of holly?  Have I written my sermon?  To which I say, sure, I’m ready.  

Yet this itchy-scratchy passage pops up in my mind with John’s itchy-scratchy message.  He offers a different definition of how to prepare; prepare by repenting.  So the question “Am I ready?” brings me to another place.  It really means, have I acknowledged the ways in which I may have disparaged others?  Have I considered the ways that I have not used my God-given talents, the ways in which I have utterly failed to help other people less fortunate than myself, or those more fortunate than myself, the way in which my words may have hurt others?  Bottom line: have I recognized and accepted my sins? 

No one wants to talk about sins this time of year, I know?  You’re thinking, ‘Come on Reverend, let’s just sing some Christmas carols, we want to really feel good, drink some wassail and reminisce’.  I know what’s on your minds, I go there too.  And yet, the voice of John lingers, prepare, repent, be saved.   

As we draw closer to Christmas the message is clear that we have to make straight the path for Christ to come.  We have to level the highs of our living and gird up the valleys of our depravity, in order to prepare the way because surely our lives have highs and lows.

Surely there are things that just get in our way from finding and following the path that we are to take.  If you need forgiveness, then ask.  If you are in need of reconciliation, then forge ahead.  If you need rest, then take it.  If you need to clear out and let go, then please, just do it.

Waiting in expectation and longing and yearning.  Clearing out, mapping the safest and most direct route, that’s Advent.  It’s not the frenzy and preparation that begins after Thanksgiving, the decorations, the buying, the parties, the buying, the cookies, the buying, the activities.  This is not Advent.  Advent is not adding on hills and valley’s it’s stripping them away.  It’s simplifying, introspection, and reflecting on God’s grace in your life and preparing for the advent of the real Savior Jesus Christ.

Reclaim this season, this very, very sacred time of year for our own preparation.  If we do not prepare our hearts we will lose the profound impact and the immeasurable influence that the birth of Christ has upon our lives and the world.  How can you see the one light when these flashing electrical lawn displays outshine the greatest light?  How can you make a place for the Savior when your heart is burdened?  Prepare, repent, forgiveness is born. 

Our lives are complicated but Advent is not.  It is hope.  It is faith.  It is having the strength to be, to sit in a barren, empty place and then to prepare to come home again.  It’s knowing that in spite of our best efforts the perfect Christmas will happen.  We have no control over that.  God does.  The incarnation, God revealing Godself in the person of Jesus is the most flawless Christmas ever.  It is a miracle of the most perfect kind.  And it happens without any fanfare when our penitent hearts are uncluttered to receive this gift. Then the hills will be made low and the valleys lifted up.  You will know that the redemption of the world is close at hand.