Going Home

Christmas Eve Meditation 2016                                               

Going Home

“The very purpose of Christmas is to visit where ones roots lie”.  This beautiful sentiment was spoken by Sr. Monica Joan to a younger nun who lamented that she could not get home for Christmas one year.  Sr. Monica Joan is a nun on the endearing BBC show ‘Call the Midwife’; she is elderly and ill with the onset of dementia.  She is from a wealthy home but chose to follow God’s call and be a nun in the East End of poverty stricken London in the 1950’s.  She served at Nonnatus House. 

After many years at Nonnatus House one particular year Sr. Monica Joan strives her hardest to go home and so she leaves the convent one night very close to Christmas.  When finding out that she had gone missing the other sisters where afraid that she was wandering aimlessly and lost given her limited mental capacities now.  But in Sr. Monica Joan’s mind she wasn’t lost, she was simply finding her way to where she needed to be.  Home.  After traveling some time she acknowledged, ‘It was effort enough to make my way here.  Now that I am home I am quite content.’ 

People at home knew her as Antonia, her birth name before she took on a name that symbolized her new life.  In her reflection she said ‘it seems strange to hear my name again “Antonia” – I have come home to be centered’. Indeed she was home and centered on who she was and her roots.

And after being cared for and warmed in her ancestral home she told her family gathered round, “Everyone should go home for Christmas, that was why Jesus was born in Bethlehem.”  Sr. Monica Joan knew the meaning of Christmas and in her frailty she emulated it.  Of all the births that she attended as a midwife, and seeing the joys of birth at home, revisiting her homestead, the place of her birth was very important to her because home was so intertwined with the birth of Christ.  She had come home.

In fact that is exactly why Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  It was Mary and Joseph’s ancestral home, it was where their roots were.  You see that year there was an imperial edict issued from the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus that there would be a census taken and that people needed to go home to their familial residence so that they could be counted and then appropriately taxed and conscripted.

For Mary and Joseph home was the quaint Judean village of Bethlehem, it was where their ancestors were born, made a living and then grew old.  It was the origin of the family of King David who of course, is from whom Jesus is descended.  So, they journeyed back to their roots.  As Sr. Monica Joan said, “The very purpose of Christmas is to visit where ones roots lie”.  Traveling is very much a part of this Christmas story, then and now.

And that is why you, my friends, are here tonight.  You have made the journey to that which is familiar to you, your roots.  You’ve travelled from far away places and just down the street.  Even I travelled, by foot, a mere 187 steps from the parsonage to the church to get here, to pay homage to this story of love and to hear and experience how my salvation begins once again.

We’ve come to hear a familiar story of Christ’s birth, the birth of saving grace in the world.  We’ve come to the place where our shared story takes root, a place where we can be our God given selves without pretenses, without fanfare, without anything that you have to make up, or put on, or take off because that’s what this home is about.  Its about coming as you are tonight to revisit your foundation here, this Christmas Eve, in Jesus Christ.   

The conditions of your birth, your domicile of origin are important and are essential this night because they are rooted in the story and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your circumstances may not be Hallmark card picture perfect but they are inexplicably twined together for in this story of a sweet little baby is life and life resurrected where the imperfect becomes tolerable and maybe, with great imagination even perfect.  Christmas is a story of love and transformation that is over two thousand years old, a story that reads as a lullaby does for a small child in a warm home, it is anything but. 

Homes are not always perfect.  I dare to say a stable with smelly cattle and stinky sheep that had to be moved out of the way was not the best choice for a birth – especially for the Son of God for heaven’s sake.  A makeshift bed out of a food trough half stuffed with eaten hay on a cool night with air slipping through the wooden slats of the stable is not where I would want to lay my newborn.  No sir or madam!  But I suppose I wouldn’t have a choice because we have no control over where and how we are born.  Jesus surely didn’t.

           

Let me tell you that many are born in less than ideal circumstances still to this day.  The World Health Organization reported just this week Monday that a baby was born, a beautiful 8 pound baby girl named Tasmin. Dear Tasmin is the first baby born after her mother was evacuated from war torn Aleppo, already an immigrant so young to be born in such deplorable conditions.  To see this beautiful girl with her raven black hair we know that, while the conditions of her birth are heart wrenching and dangerous, she is alive and her beginnings do not have to define who she will become in this world, she’s in God’s beloved hands.  Christian or not there is hope and there is light in her tiny face and muted cry. 

It’s in these unimaginable places, these homes, homes that are less than impeccable situations where God meets us and claims us.  The late Rev. Peter Gomes, theologian, former professor and minister at Harvard University once preached, “Christmas is God’s initiative, it is God’s work when God begins to establish a relationship of love with us; and of this love Jesus is the sign, the substance, and the symbol.  The gift of God for the people of God.”[i]

The gift of God for the people of God[ii] in Aleppo, in Berlin, in Ankara, in Washington, in New Haven, in Orange, this night God comes into the reality of a fanatical world, into crazy homes and offers a gift of stability and resilience in the midst of all of this.   

May the spirit of Christmas and this baby's birth be the light of stability in your life tonight and forever.  Amen

---

[i] Gomes, Peter J.  ‘Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living’.  Harper Collins, 2003.

[ii] The Gift of God for the people of God concept taken from Peter Gomes sermon ‘Gifts” in above named book.

In the Nick of Time

December 18, 2016                                                            Isaiah 7: 10-16, Matthew 1: 18-25

In the Nick of Time

Isaiah 7: 10-16

To understand the prophetic words of Isaiah today we need a primer on the political situation back in the 8^th century BCE because Isaiah’s prophecies revolved around the alliances and aggressions of several different kingdoms.  The northern kingdom of Israel in alliance with the northern kingdom of Syria approached Ahaz, King of the southern kingdom of Judah.  They wanted Ahaz to join their coalition to defeat Assyria.  But no dice, Ahaz refused.  So they decided to go it alone but the Lord said NO!, Ahaz, must have faith and join them.  Ahaz was stubborn.  And even after Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, he refused to have faith and put the Lord to a test.  When Isaiah realized that Ahaz was hiding his fear to trust in the Lord, Isaiah becomes exasperated.  So the Lord, just in the nick of time, intervened and gave an unexpected response and sign….

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

So God brushed off the wishes of Ahaz and brought a sign anyway.  God shows steadfast faithfulness even when Ahaz did not and, by the way, Ahaz didn’t turn out to be such a great King for Judah anyway.  Now we don’t really know who the child was that Isaiah was referring to, it’s vague, but Christians have long seen this passage as a precursor to what comes in the New Testament and in particular what we will hear in a minute from the Gospel of Matthew.  All we know about Isaiah’s prophecy is that there is that the birth of a baby is a sign of renewal, that God shows up to help, in this unexpected context and moment to help.  God with us.  Immanuel. God brings assurance to Ahaz and each generation thereafter will find God in unexpected places, bidden or not.  This is the understanding captured for us today.

Matthew 1: 18-25

Let us now hear the narrative of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Matthew, the first verse.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

                             “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

                                     and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.”

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

In the Gospel of Matthew we are told the conception and birth from Joseph’s experience.  In Luke we are privy to Mary’s experiences but in Matthew it’s all about Joseph.  Both narratives are wonderfully told and give us much to think about during these remaining days of Advent although Matthew isn’t so much interested in a pretty nativity story.  Joseph and Mary are real people, with real life problems that they had to negotiate and figure out as best they could.  Joseph had his fair share of problems.

He and Mary were engaged to be married, which in the first century BCE was a legal and binding contract; essentially they were married but without the delight of marital relations.  So Joseph had only two options when he found out that she was with child.  The first was to publically declare his disgrace, humiliation and moral injury because of Mary’s ‘perceived’ indiscretion, which by the way would have ended up in Mary’s stoning or, the second option was that he could quietly divorce her.

I think we can safely say that Joseph had a tough decision to make.  It was not the circumstances that he had ‘signed up for’.  He thought he was going to marry a nice young woman, eventually have kids with her and happily live out his life.  But this? This news was a huge upheaval in his life and in her life too.  They had planned ‘happily ever after’ but that wasn’t to be.

I can only imagine the heart wrenching discussions they had when she found out she was with child.  The anger, the sadness, and the betrayal – you see this story that we all know and love has this element of torment in it that is rarely talked about.  Yet if we linger here a bit we can imagine this part too because this unsaid part of the narrative is, I think, what makes this narrative very powerful.

I’m pretty positive that we all can relate to the sadness of unmet expectations.  A business opportunity that you’ve been working on falls through, you were counting on someone being there for you but in the end they flat out weren’t, you thought your life was heading in one direction but then it takes a turn off of the main road down a bumpy dark path.  You name it, times like these are incredibly damaging to one’s spirit.  But we mustn’t despair.

In spite of Joseph’s disappointment, public disgrace and unmet expectations he was still a good man, a righteous man, a kind man, a man who endeavored to do the right thing so that they could move on, he opted to divorce her and spare her life.  Not that life after divorce for Mary would have been easy but at least she could live out her days, his integrity in tact.   He didn’t despair.

As soon as Joseph made the decision to divorce her, one of God’s angels came to him in the nick of time.  And of course we know that the angel instructed Joseph to hang in there, that Mary’s pregnancy is very special, that the Lord Immanuel will soon be here.  God’s saying to Joseph just wait, be patient, don’t make any moves or take drastic actions, I know what I’m doing here and of course God did know exactly where this relationship was going to end (or begin).  Not in divorce but rather in a fruitful union bearing Jesus the Christ, which changed the course of human history.

It’s funny how God seems to show up in unexpected places just in the nick of time helping us get to where we need to be or helping us out of a jam or maybe just enabling us to endure a hardship without giving up.  These stories both from Isaiah and Matthew bid each generation to seek God’s unfailing presence in all sorts of and any circumstance of our lives.  And when we seek, we will find it.  Because God is there, God is always in those places we least expect God to be showing up, when we need God the most.

The face of a friend, the words of a stranger, in the snuggling of your pet next to you or perhaps just a walk in the woods, or the cessation of turmoil, in the nick of time, when you need God the most, God is there.  As God was there for Ahaz, for Joseph and for all of those who have gone before us God is there for us now too.  Be open, be alert, be attuned and seek.

Unmet expectations are met just in the nick of time.   Remember, if you will as a mantra the last line of the first verse in the carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” because it so beautifully illustrates how God shows up amidst life’s disappointments.  “Our hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”.  Just just can’t resist being with us.

Amen.

Stumps, Roots and the Coming of Christ

December 4, 2016                                                                     Matthew 3: 1-12, Isaiah 11:1-10

Advent 2

Stumps, Roots and the Coming of Christ

Matthew 3: 1-12

Today’s Gospel lesson is one that will be familiar to many of you.  It is the story of John the Baptist proclaiming repentance in the wilderness.  Scruffy locust eating John, is the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah, cousin to Jesus of Nazareth.

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

If ever there was a piece of scripture that makes me want to weep and fall prostrate and repent it is this one.  Proclaiming repentance that is John the Baptist cry, repent so that you can prepare the way for the Lord.  Repent and be sure that the tree of your life is bearing good fruit in all ways so that your heart is clear and your intentions are honorable so that the ax, lying at the root, does not have to be used.  Repent and be sure your soul is a smooth byway for Jesus to enter.  If not, then examine and de-clutter.   Scrutinize and expunge.  Study and edit out the nemesis that keeps you from bearing good fruit. 

Advent is not some grand baby cake eating, gift giving shower for Jesus.  Advent is much deeper than that, it questions our worthiness, our readiness, and our willingness to receive the life and ministry of Jesus. Advent readies us for this tiny baby Christ.

Isaiah 11: 1-10

Now as we prepare to hear the words of the prophet Isaiah we remember that John the Baptist preached from the words of Isaiah, he warned that the ax is not far from the root of the tree lest the people do not repent.  His words seem harsh but he knew his scripture and whose prophetic shoes he was filling.  To put this in context we need to know that in verses before our passage in Isaiah he says, “Look, the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the tallest trees will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will hack down the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.”   Yet the people of Israel did not repent, they did not change their ways.  And the branches of their lives were lopped off until there was nothing but a stump remaining.

But Isaiah changes the tenor of his message, and now he peaches a peaceful Kingdom, one with hope.  Chapter 11 beginning at the first verse.

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

The stumps and roots of Jesse.  Jesse is the son of Obed and he is the father of King David and of course we trace the house and lineage of Jesus back through this Davidic line.  But a lot of history happened between Jesse and Jesus.

The three books of Isaiah are beautifully bound together into one book that tells the story of God’s presence and the lives of the people of Zion or Israel. In the first book he warned them of God’s impending judgment and this is where our passage is from today, then in the second book he spoke words of comfort to God’s people while they were in exile in Babylon.  The third book addresses the dire situation that they found when they finally returned home to a devastated land.    

Isaiah, among others, was their prophet!  He was politically astute at domestic politics and he also knew the international scene around them; Isaiah’s charge was to take care of Israel. They needed someone who could be the ‘go between’ if you will between them and God.  Old Testament Palestine, as it was called then, was a divided kingdom, Israel to the north and Judah to the south.  They were churning through king after king, not at all organized. 

Things were beginning to crumble and eventually it would.  So they needed hope that there would be someone who would lead them forward to a place where God’s kingdom would be as peaceful as a lamb and an a wolf curled up together, serene as can be on a comfy sofa.  But they also needed someone to do the tough work, someone who could issue words of warning to help them get to that place.

Today I want to focus on the metaphor of the stump and the shoot because it is out of this metaphor that Christ arises as the symbol of salvation.  Like deadheading in your garden on a warm summer’s day, God goes a deadheading in a major way when the treetops are lopped off and there is nothing left but a forest of stumps. 

Stumps.  I know what that’s like.  Seeing a stump where there used to be a large tree that made its home for at least a hundred years in the front of the parsonage is jarring.  About 5:00 am on a fine early morning this past summer the sky was just beginning to show some light and I heard a sound that I couldn’t quite distinguish but it was rather frightening. 

It was a crackly sound, then a thud followed by silence.  I decided to brave it and I looked outside the window.  There, a very large branch section of the tree had completely split from the trunk.  Well, what we had suspected was that the tree was hollow on the inside and couldn’t safely be salvaged.  It was no longer bearing ‘good fruit’.  It had to come down and this beautiful tree that provided shade in the day and a gorgeous palette of color in the fall was to no longer be. 

So it was taken down to a large stump about the size of a medium round kitchen table.  It made me sad to see the open space where this one large tree had lived.  But that night in its place the open expanse of the sky soothed my grieving spirit and there was the gift.  I could see star after star after star and from the window at the head of my bed. I could watch Orion gracefully glide across the sky as the night progressed.  Therein was the salvation for my soul.    

Within a few days Don Feurerstein came and took the stump out before any shoots had the chance to grow but a flowering cherry tree was planted very close to its place.  Something beautiful had come out of something that was rotted and dead.  Life from death.  But it wouldn’t have happened if we had not been attentive to what was desperately needed. The taking down and the clearing out.

And that’s the way it is.  And that is the way it is especially for Advent. John the Baptist, Isaiah the prophet calls us to clean up our act.  To lop off the extraneous stuff that gets in our way of healthy, God filled living. To prune back the wild and unruly tendrils that strangle any potential to be guided by the spirit.  To deadhead that which kills us and prohibits any possibility of life.  What needs to be taken down to a stump for you so that Christ can grow in your heart?  The true grace of Advent is the time now taken, given to reflect, to expunge and to allow and wait for our Savior to come.  O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Amen,

Armistice at Our Table

Colossians 3: 12-17

The eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 1918 there was silence.  There was a temporary cessation of hostilities, an armistice,  between the Allied nations and Germany thus ending ‘The Great War’ or WWI.  Kurt Vonnegut speaks of this armistice in his book, “Breakfast of Champions”:

“I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy… all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.”[i]

In the silence of armistice, God speaks.

In fact it is in the sheer silence and cessation of embittered talk and battle that our still speaking God comes to us and utters words of hope and encouragement.

Our scripture this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  They too were a community in conflict, dispute and despair as is our nation.  Among them were doubters as to the efficacy of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.  They wondered whether what was accomplished in Christ had actually liberated them from the powers of the universe since things pretty much were the same as usual.   They questioned whether or not Christ helped them achieve access to God.  Paul, in his inimitable way reassures them that they are loved and he tells them to be thankful because they ARE connected and that is through Christ.

Hear now the word of God through Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Ironically this passage is one of the passages that lovebird couples often choose as the scripture for their wedding homily.  What they don’t often know is the context in which it was written and what Paul was trying to accomplish within his community.  And I suppose that is ok because the essence of the passage speaks to how we are to treat one another regardless if we are a conflicted community or some star-crossed lovers. It’s good words and values for all times and circumstances.

Treat one another with compassion, which is to be kind and fair, and loving and forgiving, to show mercy, and to be as a conduit of God’s benevolent grace to others. And above all to clothe ourselves in love – not the syrupy, romantic, Hallmark sort of love but the kind of love that will roll up its sleeves and toil hard working through things when times get tough, as they are destined to do when in relationship.  Life, you know has its ups and downs as the familiar cliché reminds us, it’s disappointments and satisfactions.  And through all of this Paul encourages them to be thankful, to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.  Truly God was with them.

If ever there was a passage that is downright essential for our lives right now it is this one.  Because who among us has not been adversely affected in one way or another by negative political expression no matter if your candidate won or loss the election?  We are tired as a people.  This election and these weeks after have put a drain on us all.  I am weary and so very apprehensive about our future as a nation and as a people conceived in liberty and justice for ALL.

And so this passage is apropos for our nation divided right now too and for us as we sit down to our Thanksgiving tables - tables that have the potential for divisive talk, hard feelings about those we love and care about because of who they voted for, and potential potato slinging barbs.  Tables that could possibly turn into metaphorical food fights rather than a coming together to give thanks to God our creator of diverse thought, diverse skin color, diverse sexual orientation, diverse ethnicity, diverse religious affiliation and belief and diverse political party and opinion. 

Civil discourse has taken a turn for the worse.  Codes of conduct and the lines of mutual respect for others have been relaxed almost to the point of non-existence.  Where will we go as a people and as a nation if this continues? What will all of this do to our spiritual well-being if it continues?  How will we sit down at a table of Thanksgiving and look into the eyes of someone who, perhaps, thinks much differently than you? How will we ever find hope?

Do not despair, our country and our thanksgiving tables have survived the civil war, 2 world wars, the great depression and Vietnam and we will survive this tumultuous time too but undoubtedly will be changed.  So we have to work hard at civility, and the simplicity of kindness and fairness. It is the time to practice armistice.  To call for a cessation of damaging rhetoric and listen for that still small voice of God.  It is to focus on words that heal and strengthen us as families, as communities, as individuals and ultimately as a nation.  To bring out the flag of peace and call truce because it is in that truce, that armistice, a beautiful silence can be heard, when God comes to us and speaks words of wisdom and hope.  In this silence God’s spirit, the dove of peace infuses our hearts with faith, and resolve to form a ‘more perfect union’ as our constitution tells us.  A union based in love as we endeavor to love one another.

Let us remember what scripture tells us,…. clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

Taking these words into your heart and remembering them will help you to achieve a bolder sense of civic engagement.  One that is not damaging but uplifting of all people for we live our lives in community and with others and our Christian heritage calls us to be harbingers of justice, peace, understanding, and acceptance.  

I leave you this morning with the few ending verses of Maya Angelou’s Inaugural poem, “On the Pulse of Morning”:

Lift up your eyes upon

The day breaking for you.

Give birth again

To the dream.

Women, children, men,

Take it into the palms of your hands.

Mold it into the shape of your most

Private need. Sculpt it into

The image of your most public self.

Lift up your hearts.

Each new hour holds new chances

For new beginnings.

Do not be wedded forever

To fear, yoked eternally

To brutishness.

The horizon leans forward,

Offering you space to place new steps of change.

Here, on the pulse of this fine day

You may have the courage

To look up and out upon me,

The rock, the river, the tree, your country.

No less to Midas than the mendicant.

No less to you now than the mastodon then.

Here on the pulse of this new day

You may have the grace to look up and out

And into your sister's eyes,

Into your brother's face, your country

And say simply

Very simply

With hope

Good morning.[ii]

I give thanks for you and pray that your table of gratitude be blessed.

Amen

---

[i] Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, 1979.

[ii] Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning, The Inaugural Poem, January20, 1993.

Ready, Set, Come

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17

It was October 30th, 1938 when Orson Welles presented ‘War of the Worlds’, an adaptation of the SciFi novel by HG Wells, on CBS’s Mercury Theater. 

I was not yet born so I don’t have first hand experience, maybe some of you do.  However I’ve heard about the widespread panic, the mass hysteria by folks who believed that there were major gas eruptions on the planet Mars and that the earth was being invaded by Martians.  I’ve listened to the broadcast.  It is clearly understandable that people thought this was the end of the world as they knew it if, in fact, they were being invaded by other beings from the third dimension.

Similarly, much further back when ancient people saw the consistently waxing and waning moon turn a crimson red, not knowing that it was a lunar eclipse, they thought that their world was coming to an end, that the gods must have been fiery mad at them.  It is scary when unusual, out of the ordinary occurrences happen and it’s even scarier when you are not emotionally or spiritually prepared.  That is, when your mind, your heart, and your soul are not in tact.

The end times, the parousia as Biblical scholars call it, the day of the Lord, the return of Jesus Christ has both frightened and fascinated people for a very long time.  Even back in the day when Paul, Silvanus and Timothy walked the earth some 25 years after Jesus’ death. 

The Epistle or letter of Second Thessalonians is written in the style of Paul but not by Paul according to scholars.  It’s a mere three chapters long and will leave you scratching your head and saying, ‘huh, what?’  And when I am left scratching my head I go to see how Eugene Peterson paraphrases it in ‘The Message’.  Often he adds some clarity to a muddy and baffling passage.  So I want to read the passage to you from ‘The Message’. 

 1-3Now, friends, read these next words carefully. Slow down and don't go jumping to conclusions regarding the day when our Master, Jesus Christ, will come back and we assemble to welcome him. Don't let anyone shake you up or get you excited over some breathless report or rumored letter from me that the day of the Master's arrival has come and gone. Don't fall for any line like that.

 3-5Before that day comes, a couple of things have to happen. First, the Apostasy. Second, the debut of the Anarchist, a real dog of Satan. He'll defy and then take over every so-called god or altar. Having cleared away the opposition, he'll then set himself up in God's Temple as "God Almighty." Don't you remember me going over all this in detail when I was with you? Are your memories that short?

 13-14Meanwhile, we've got our hands full continually thanking God for you, our good friends—so loved by God! God picked you out as his from the very start. Think of it: included in God's original plan of salvation by the bond of faith in the living truth. This is the life of the Spirit he invited you to through the Message we delivered, in which you get in on the glory of our Master, Jesus Christ.

 15-17So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.

Quite simply put: Don’t get excited.  Don’t fall for rumors about when Christ will return.  Apostasy will happen, which is a rebellion against God and faith, then the anarchist, a ‘lawless’ one who will be the devil in disguise will have to appear.  (I know, that’s real scary – people upon hearing all of that might have panicked just like the people listening to the ‘War of the Worlds’)  Paul then gives thanks for the people that God chose to be included for salvation, he gives them a pep talk for strength and then he pronounces a blessing. 

Theology and understanding were quite different in the first century of the Common Era.  The disciples expected Jesus to come back within their lifetime.  The ‘day of the Lord’ was imminent; it was looming on the horizon.  They lived with Jesus, they watched Jesus die, they talked with him and saw him after his resurrection and so when Jesus said he would come again, they believed that he’d be back.  Right back.  Like maybe he was going on a trip for a few weeks and would return.  But that didn’t happen.  He didn’t return.  Their generation died, as did their children’s generation die. 

Theology and church doctrine began to change; it really had to because Jesus had not come back expectations had to change.  How do we understand his words in light of the fact that what he said and what we are experiencing are two different things?  Christianity, had to reorient itself and emerge into theology that offered hope for that glorious day when Jesus would return. 

We’ve changed as a people since then even more so.  We, at least I’ll speak for myself, do not live with that acute expectation of Jesus’ second coming.   It just doesn’t enter my mind on any regular basis.  We have become unworried, even complacent with this part of our Christian theology.  Yet it is an important component of our salvation for when the Messiah comes again all things that have crumbled will be restored, the lame will be wonderfully healed, the blind will be sighted again and peace will prevail.  How magnificent that day will be?  But that’s not our reality.

So in the meantime, how do we order our lives as if Jesus Christ was going to arrive tomorrow?  Would you have to change a few things in your life?    There is a bumper sticker and I think I’ve even seen it in magnet form that makes me laugh, it reads “Jesus is coming, look busy”.   It’s a reminder of his return.  To me it gives a sense of urgency when all along you’ve been slacking off a bit.  It’s kind of like a teenager who hears the door of her parent’s car slam shut and she jumps off of the sofa to straighten up quickly when she should have been cleaning all along, that was the one caveat to her staying at home for the night. 

I think it’s probably safe to say that at least sometime in your life, in some area of your life you have probably slacked off a bit.  I have to admit that since I don’t often think about Jesus’ second coming I wonder what would he find me doing?  Maybe I don’t try hard enough or I walk past someone who could use my help.  It not because I don’t care, but because I just wasn’t aware that the person needed help.  My eyes and heart were closed.  I try to live in the ways that he has taught; but let’s face it though being a disciple of Christ is hard work and we all are human. 

This tension that we are asked to live into.  How do we live in expectation of the second coming and also be about our work and our relationships at hand?  How do we live in the here and now with a sharp awareness of the end times without making ourselves completely crazy?  How would you like Jesus to find you if he were to come tomorrow or maybe even later this afternoon?

I believe that what matters most to Christ is that we are ourselves, that whatever we do we work towards developing our greatest potential - not anyone else’s and certainly not beyond your means or your talents.  Don’t be someone you are not, accept the someone that you are.  God has made you uniquely special and you are good and precious in God’s sight.  If you are working at your greatest capacity with an open mind and heart towards the future then God will use you in the most miraculous of ways and the most opportune times.  Then you will be ‘looking busy’ if Christ comes today, there is nothing to panic about.

I also believe and know that Christ wants us to love God with all of our heart.  Love God.  Worship God. Pray to God.  If you are at odds with God, to know that God will still love you dearly and want you.  Christ also tells us to love our neighbor.  This might be a little tougher yes?  But if we live each day at hand with an awareness of the lives of other people, their needs, their wants, their God given abilities too then what might begin as mere tolerance could grow into a mutual respect for the other. 

Let us live as if Christ were coming tomorrow.  Be at peace with yourself.  Reconcile relationships, even your relationship with God.  Go about your business of lifting up each person that you encounter, even the crusty ones.  Do some good.  Resist the bad.  Rest assured that God’s promise of mercy and grace are yours for the taking.

Amen.

Go and Do the Same

Luke 10: 25-37

The week before Stewardship Sunday, which is today, is the traditional day for me to give ‘The Money Sermon’.  By next week it will be to late because I sincerely hope that you will take this week to prayerfully and earnestly consider the financial gift that you can make for 2017.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We have for our scriptural consideration today the beloved parable of the Good Samaritan, which is what our Stewardship Season has been based on.  Let us now hear this enduring parable from the Gospel of Luke the 10^th chapter – the Contemporary English Version.

An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to have eternal life?”

Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?”

The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”

Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.” But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”

Jesus replied:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.

A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.”

Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”

The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”

Jesus said, “Go and do the same!”

I’d like for us to think about this parable the way in which the Christians of the first century would probably have understood it because I think over the years, the millennia we have glossed over the poignancy of the message of this parable. In context the Greco-Roman listeners understood Jesus’ parables as allegory about God: one character in the story represented God and events in the story pointed toward our rebellion, divine judgment, or God’s forgiveness.[i]  Jesus always wanted them to know about God all of the time.  He never pointed to himself but only to God.

In the Lukan narrative, showing mercy, compassion and giving of oneself is a divine privilege and so the Samaritan, who showed mercy for the man in the ditch, is acting in God’s capacity or as God’s agent.  So if God is the fine Samaritan then this is a parable about God and God’s compassionate acts of love.  And for us it is a call from Jesus to be Godly compassionate in our actions.  Not because it just feels good to be doing nice things for others but because more urgently we are acting on God’s behalf which is serious business, not our own.  Because it’s just what God would do.

So when Jesus says, ‘Go and do the same’, he is challenging them, and now us, to be agents of love and compassion for God in all situations, because that’s what God would do in ALL circumstances.  Acting on God’s behalf is weighty and mighty work, so there are choices to make and this ancient story becomes a mighty call upon our lives.

In this parable there are so many ways in which God’s compassion becomes real.  The Samaritan man showed compassion by stopping and being present to someone quite different than himself.  He showed compassion by bandaging his wounds and using his own donkey to transport the man to shelter.  He stayed with him and he provided for this man’s needs and then, through his compassion, he promised to return and to pay for whatever this man’s needs were while he was gone.  The Samaritan man gave compassionately, in all ways, of himself, his time, and his financial resources.  It came from his heart.  Might we ‘Go and do the same’?

Today’s worship is about the church, OCC in particular. It’s about the saints of the church who have acted on God’s behalf witnessing of their love of God and their dedication to all aspects of the church.  It’s an important day as we honored the saints who have gone before us and as we honor the newest members of OCC and respectfully and lovingly honor all of the current members and friends. 

I have been so moved by the incredible stories that have been told over the past six weeks during our Candles of Witness time.  I hope that you have been as well.  They have been powerful stories of faith, of witness, of compassion, and of how OCC has made a difference in their lives and of how God’s abiding compassion is always with us.

George talked about Pauline and her unassuming financial generosity to the church. As a trustee it moved him to realize how spiritually important it is being a good steward of other people’s resources is and of how one woman, the tiny one that she was, sowed compassion in her life.  Go and Do the Same!

Terry told us about when she first came to OCC and was greeted warmly by someone in the congregation, a time in which she still remembers and that she endeavors to do now for others as an usher and deacon – knowing that hospitality, like Christ’s extravagant welcome makes a difference.  We experience God’s love through others and OCC is that beacon of God’s love.  Go and Do the Same!

Chrissy told us the story of lemon cake and of serving men and women at Columbus House and how one woman was ecstatic that she had brought lemon cake.  Chrissy, by her work through CS&O and example hopes that her love of service and the simplicity in the act of giving something even as insignificant as lemon cake is passed on to her children.  Go and Do the Same!

Renee is inspired by the shared faith stories of congregants offered during Lent.  The first time there was just a handful but the last time it was offered there was standing room only.  That’s the incredible redeeming power of witness.  We all have a story of faith to tell, and each one is unique, beloved,  and inspiring. Renee knows that through her work with adult education.  Go and Do the Same!

Lauri shared a reflection of a powerful time when she knew and felt that God was with her.  She recently lived through what could have been a fatal accident.  But she knew God was with her, that God was watching out for her and for all people involved in the accident.  She knows first hand of God’s abiding love, strength, presence and compassion.  That’s what moves her to work with our children, she wants to instill that knowledge of God and compassionate belief in them.  Go and Do the Same!

Chris too witnessed the love of God through other congregants particularly Ernie Moritz who reached out to her and Ron during a difficult time in their lives.  That’s compassionate, Christian community folks, at it’s very best.   Chris’ all encompassing love of others and of God is expressed for her through her love for music.  Each note she sings is a gift to God of thanksgiving and community.  Go and Do the Same!

And finally Bev.  Bev fully admits that she had a fear of serving the folks at Columbus House when she was on CS&O – seeing them face to face. Why?  Well we don’t know and that’s not what is important here.  What is important is that when the metal door was raised to feed the residents, so was Bev.  She saw face to face – she saw the face of Christ in others and those just like herself.  It was her ‘aha’ moment of compassion and grace. This is why she does the work that she does here at OCC through Stewardship.  She knows that WE are the real deal and she wants to keep the momentum going.  Go.  And Do The Same!

It’s up to us now.  Will we, will you Go and Do the Same?  Jesus talked often about financial matters and we need to do the same.  Making a financial pledge or gift, whatever the size allows the Candles of Witness stories emerge and be told.  Might they happen otherwise?  Well yes.  Where there is spiritual work to be done, God has a way.  But what good are inspiring stories of compassion unless they are told?  Unless they are shared among friends and kindred spirits? 

OCC needs your financial gift to allow for God’s work to be done.  Each and every gift, whatever the size, is a way of encouraging each other in the Spirit and supporting the greater community just as the kind and generous Samaritan did so long ago. 

Please take some time this week to pray and to think about your gift.  I have already done so.  Next week we will bring forward and dedicate our gifts to the glory of God.  May the compassionate acts of the Samaritan saturate your thoughts, the stories of faith and witness so told inspire your giving so that you can Go and Do the Same.  And may God’s grace infuse your life and the life of this beloved community that we call home.

Amen.

---

[i] “Hearing Parables with the Early Church” in The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University. 2006. Kruschwitz, Robert