Feline Caused Sleep Deprivation

Beloved partner and I had a lovely Christmas which included spoiling our newest member of the family Little Guy. By far is favorite toy was the catnip mouse that beloved found in the local pet store

Come here little boy, would you like some kitty drugs.

Little guy played with the mouse with such glee. Then he discovered how to play fetch with the mouse. I'd throw the mouse into the kitchen, he'd chase after it, put it in his mouth and run back to me. Then I'd tell him what a good boy he was petting him and fawning over him. Then I'd throw it again, he'd bring it back to me, I'd give him attention etc. After a half an hour of doing this, Little Guy and I got tired and went to bed.

Then at 1:00 am in the morning, in a nocturnal fit that only catnip can cause, Little Guy decided he wanted to play fetch. So he got little mousy in his mouth, jumped on the bed and dropped it on my face, waking me out of a sound sleep. I woke with a yelp, waking up beloved partner. She asked what was wrong as I looked all around me. I found Little Guy was inches from my nose, pointing at his toy and meowing.

I told him I wasn't going to play and I put his toy on the floor. He grabbed his toy and jumped on the bed with it and meowed. I put it on the floor, he got it and jumped on the bed. I decided to keep it on the bed. He decided to bat it around the bed. etc. etc. And so it went for the rest of the night into the morning.

Aaaaaah the joys of kitteh parenthood.

Throw it again mommy, throw it again!!!!!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

An American Nativity

Tonight we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us. Two thousand years ago God poured God-self into human form so that we would know first hand the depth of God’s love and grace of God's son Jesus. When we think of his birth we imagine magical manger scenes with angels, shepherds and wise men all centered around a holy family in awe. We forget the details surrounding the birth of our Savior.

We have forgottend that Mary and Joseph were dirt poor and that Mary had gotten pregnant out of wedlock. We have forgotten that they were forced to travel to a chaotic town where the roads were dusty and crowded with travelers. We we have forgotten that on this night, they became homeless because they could not find a room in an inn and so Mary had to give birth to Jesus in the only shelter they could find, a smelly dirty barn where animals ate and slept.

Yes Jesus was born in a lowly, humble situation however this does not take away from the wonder of his birth. In fact it shows us just how amazing God’s grace to us is all about. Imagine if you will what the nativity scene would look like if Jesus were born right now in our time and place. Imagine along with me an American Nativity.

In a small town in New Hampshire, lived a young couple Jose and Maria, immigrants from Central America whose families ran away from Honduras to escape the bone crushing poverty and violence in the streets. Jose and Maria had lived in North America for over a year but in order to remain in the United States they needed to apply their green cards at the closest Immigration office which was in Lyndhurst New Jersey.

Jose was a day laborer and he was able to get lots of work through Labor Ready but he didn’t make enough to afford an apartment for he and Maria to live in and Maria was pregnant. Maria was barely 18, very young and very naïve. When Maria became pregnant, she told Jose that he would be the child’s father, but he wasn’t the child’s father. Maria told him that an angel told her that the spark that began the life of their child was from God. Jose thought Maria was crazy for believing that God would conceive a child with her but he Jose stayed with Maria because he loved her so.

Jose and Maria used all their money to buy bus tickets to Lyndhurst New Jersey and made haste as they journeyed all night to their destination. They arrived late into the night and needed a place to sleep and cleanup before their appointment the next morning at the Immigration office. They went to the nearest homeless shelter and stood in line for a bed, but the shelter filled up before they got to the door. The man that was standing behind them in line took pity upon the couple and told them that he could take them to a tent city down by the river where they could spend the night. Jose and Maria gratefully accepted his invitation.

When they got to the camp Jose and Maria’s new friend yelled out to the residents of the tent city, “Hey I gotta lady in a family way here, we need to set up a camp for them, can anyone spare anything for their camp.” One man gave them his tarp, another gave them a portable heater, and yet another said they could sleep in his tent while he doubled up with a buddy in another, then a lady gave them a couple of comforters she had stored in her tent. As Jose and the men were setting up their camp, Maria’s water broke. It was certain that she will give birth that night.

In the tent city by the river Maria gave birth to a skinny little baby boy. She named him Jesus, the name that she was told by the angel to give this special child. As she swaddled him in one of Jose’s shirts a bright star appeared over their tent.

At another homeless camp not so far away, a motley group of hard living homeless men were warming themselves around a fire. While they were passing around a bottle of vodka, they noticed a star above the other homeless camp down the river. Then suddenly in a flash an angel stood before them, surrounded by light and glory. The men were terrified. But the angel said to them, “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 is a liberator, who is the son of God. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a tent. And suddenly there was with the angel a choir of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to all.”

When the angels disappeared into heaven, the homeless men said to one another, “Let’s go to the camp down the river, where the star shines and see this child of God.” And so this motley crew of homeless men ran down the river to the homeless camp where Jesus was born and where they found him wrapped in a shirt lying in a tent.

Every year at this time we re-tell the story of Jesus’ birth to remind ourselves just how incredible it was that God came to us in human form, That he came to us as a helpless little baby born into a poor family to show us how God can turn miserable circumstances around to the greatest glory the world. For this baby born of humble circumstance will grow up to share with us the good news of God’s love and grace freely given to us.

“On a cold moonlit night,

In the sleepy town of Bethlehem,

Born in silence,

in holiness,

In beauty and tenderness...

It all came together one precious moment,

The promise, the purpose, the gift of our Savior
For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only son
so that whosever believes in him
will not perish but have everlasting life.”[i]

May it be so. Amen.

[i] Jaci Velasquez, “One Silent Night.” Touched by an Angel The Christmas Album. New York, NY: Epic/550 Music/Sony Music Soundtrax, 1999.

A message from Little Guy

Mommy, I demands you get off teh spacehook and play with meh!

There's Something About Mary - Advent 4

I’ve always said, you can take the girl out of the Catholic Church but there are pieces of the Catholic Church that you cannot take out of the girl. And for this Girl one of those pieces is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Yes my friends, there’s just something about Mary!

Growing up in a Catholic School, we girls were taught to emulate Mary because of her obedience. She was portrayed to us as meek and mild, well behaved and always eager to please. At Christmas pageants and May Day celebrations, it was only the best behaved girls who got to be Mary. Unfortunately, because I had a penchant for talking in class, I was never picked to be Mary. Alas, I was either part of the chorus of angels in the background or a lowly animal in the manger scene. However, I never lost my devotion to Mary. For whatever reason, I was drawn to her. When ever I looked at her I felt peaceful inside. I was drawn into her willingness to serve God, drawn into her gentleness, drawn into her calm appearance.

Fast forward to adulthood. As much as I loved the Catholic Church there were certain things that I could not abide by such as only allowing men to serve God as ordained priests and the supremacy of the Pope in Rome. As much as I loved the liturgy of the Catholic Church I knew that many parts of it were not a good fit for me and so I left the church of my childhood to join the United Church of Christ, whose structure and theology I found more fitting to how I viewed God’s work in the world. And yet, there were certain things about the Catholic Church I could not let go of…one of those being my devotion to Mary.

You see I’ve learned through the years that Mary was much more than the meek and mild Saint of my childhood. On the contrary, Mary was strong willed and independent, she was not afraid to share her opinions when the situation called for it. We remember that it was Mary who suggested to Jesus that he change water into wine at the wedding of Cana. During the time of Jesus’ trial and execution, Mary was willing to be by her son’s side even though it was dangerous for women to be in the streets during those times. As a matter of fact, when most of Jesus’ disciples had run away at his crucifixion, it was Mary his mother, and other women that stood by the cross to be with him as he drew his last breath.

Mary was not afraid to ask questions. At the annunciation, when the angel Gabriel told her that she would conceive, she immediately asked, “How can this be…for I am a virgin?” Now some would believe that conceiving Jesus was something that was forced upon Mary, but really at the annunciation, God was giving Mary a choice. Sure nay sayers think, “How could anyone refuse a direct request from God?” However the scriptures are full of stories of people refusing requests from God. Some did meet a bad end however God still gave them a choice. For Mary her “yes” to God came when she heard the angel Gabriel say that her cousin Elizabeth had conceived a child in her old age and that nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible with God. Why Mary was so overcome she couldn’t help but say yes because her heart turned and she knew that she with God, would bring to humanity the long awaited Messiah. She knelt before the angel and with great faith said, “Behold I am a handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Her life as we know it had begun.

Mary had everything going against her when she said yes to God. She was young, unmarried and poor. Her being pregnant outside of wedlock would cause her scandal and pain. She was at risk of losing everything she had, her betrothed Joseph, her standing in her community and her place in her family. And yet she had enough faith to say yes to God’s call.

Yes, we know that Jesus is the embodiment of God where God poured Godself into human form so as to know intimately our lot on earth, however, this meant that God had to begin this journey in the form of a baby in order to be one of us. God became a being so utterly dependant upon its parents that if it were left to its own devices it would surely not survive. Mary and Joseph, but most especially Mary was whom Jesus depended on for his daily needs. She fed him from her own breast, she kept him warm in swaddling clothes that she found in the manger and she comforted him in her own arms whenever he cried. She cared for him into his adulthood and even after his death, as we’ve seen portrayed in the Pieta, an artistic rendition of Mary holding Jesus after he is taken down from the cross. It takes a pretty gutsy woman to raise into adulthood the child “destined for the falling and raising of many in Israel.” (Luke 2: 33) knowing that one day a sword would pierce her own soul as she witnessed these things.

Shortly after Mary found out that she was pregnant with Jesus, she very quickly left for her cousin Elizabeth’s home in a Judean town in the hill country. The scripture doesn’t tell us why Mary traveled the 80 or so miles to see Elizabeth, but I imagine that she as overwhelmed and that she needed support from an older woman in order to prepare herself for the daunting responsibility of being Jesus’ mother.

The scene we read from Luke’s gospel is quite dramatic. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, her baby, John the Baptist, stirred in her womb and she exclaimed to this poor, unwed, pregnant girl, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Without Mary even telling her, Elizabeth knew that Mary was carrying the son of God. Elizabeth blesses Mary for believing in the word of God, “And blessed is she who believed there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Upon hearing Elizabeth’s blessings Mary was so overcome with joy that she breaks out into song, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” (vv 46-48) She praises God for looking to her even though she had everything going against her because she was young, unmarried and poor. “His mercy is for those who fear him, from generation to generation,” (v. 50) she sings, going on to predict how God was going to turn the world upside down—scattering the proud, brining down the powerful, lifting up the lowly and feeding the hungry (vv. 50-53). Some note that Mary knew that God would be reversing everything: “who’s in, who’s out; who’s up, who’s down. Who the winners are; who the losers are. Mary knows that up until that moment the world has gotten things pretty wrong and that God will set things right. But who would listen to her, an unimportant peasant girl of ill repute. Who would listen to her son who would preach, “Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the meek.” And just where did her son get his material. Could it have been from his mom? Did he learn from her that God has no intention of tolerating injustice and greed in this world? Did she teach him that it angers God when people are selfish or violent, when rich people watch poor people go hungry and do nothing, when the powerful push around the weak because they can get away with it.”[i] Mary knew that God’s great desire for the world was for all to live in the spirit of Shalom, where all of God’s creation would have what is needed to be whole, well and prosperous.

Some note that Mary was so sure that God will do what God has promised that as she sang her song, she used the past tense as a way of expressing her confidence and certainty of God’s work in the world.[ii]
“He has shown strength with his arm” (v. 51)
“He has brought down the powerful” (v. 52)
“He has filled the hungry with good things” (v. 53)
“He has helped his servant Israel.” (v. 54)

Yes, my sisters and brothers and Christ, there is something about Mary. There is something about the unique way she saw the good news of God’s love and grace. There is something about the way she proclaimed a new world order centered upon her son our Savior Jesus. There is something about her faithfulness, her courageous, her obedience to fulfilling God’s call, her willingness to say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

May it be so. Amen.

[i] John Ortberg, “Living by the Word: Sunday, December 20 Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55)” Christian Century, 15 December 2009, 20.
[ii] Fred B. Craddock Luke. Interpretation, a Bible commentary for teaching and preaching. (Louisville, Ky: John Knox Press, 1990.), 30.

Little Guy

We've added a new member to the family. For blogging purposes his name is Little Guy. We decided to adopt an older cat (he's three) because they are the most difficult to adopt out. When we met him at the shelter, he came right up to the us and couldn't take his eyes off of us. In a lot of ways he picked us rather than we him.

When I finally got to meet him, the first question I asked was, "What is your Christology? How do you define salvation?" Everyone, my partner, the adoption counselor and Little Guy looked at me like, "huh?" Hey, I need help with my sermons!

Little guy is still adjusting to our household. Sometimes he's very affectionate, a lot of the time he wants to be left alone. He loves to play with the feather toy and any yarn he can get his paws on.

Whaddaya mean I gots to read all these.

Sermon Advent 2

“It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”
Baruch 5:1-9
Luke 3:1-6

Whenever I hear the text that I just read from the Gospel, I am reminded of the song by R.E.M. called, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” In a chaotic stream of consciousness the lead singer gives us his apocalyptic imaginations of what the end of the world would look like:

Earthquakes, birds and snakes and low flying planes.
Books burning, bloodletting, cars exploding

And amongst these disasters the group keeps singing the chorus

“It’s the end of the world as we know it….and I feel fine.”

Luke’s gospel gives us a similar stream of consciousness from the character of John the Baptist. In the wilderness he cries out “to make paths straight, every valley will be filled, and every mountain shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.” Unlike the rock stars of the group R.E.M., John is a man who lives on the fringes of his society, portrayed in other gospels as a recluse, an eccentric who wears camel skin and eats locusts. John is like those the doomsday folk we occasionally see in the comics; you know the ones who carry signs saying, “Repent, the end of the world is near.”

Yet John does not stop at the end of the world. He’s more optimistic than that. He tells all that would listen that yes, the world will end as they know it, but he feels fine because he knows that the Lord is coming to make things right.

The beginning of this passage locates this story in a very specific time and place. Luke lists off the names of the rulers of that time. The Emperor Tiberious of Rome, Pontius Pilate the Governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee. Also included is the high priest Caiaphas. By naming those in the powerful elite of that day Luke projects this story against the backdrop of the political and religious history of Israel. We will see these characters again in this gospel’s account of Jesus’ trial and execution.

History tells us that at the time the gospel of Luke was written, the Roman Empire ruled the world through a system of domination and the homeland of Jesus, John and those who followed them, the land of Israel was oppressed under the tyranny of Roman occupation. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Israel, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair.[i]

For those in power, for those whom the status quo was good, the imagery of valleys being filled and the mountains being flattened was indeed a threat to their way of life. For the oppressed, John’s message was comforting because they could very clearly hear him say “watch out, because the Lord is coming and will be bringing on a new world order.” The theme that runs through out the whole gospel of Luke is the coming of the kingdom of God here on earth, where the powerful are brought down from their thrones and God lifts up the lowly, where God fills hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. (Luke 1: 52-53) The world order would be reversed as God makes the ground level so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. (Baruch 5: 7)

“It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine.”

I wonder if John the Baptist were to give the same message to our world, right now, if I could count myself among the comforted or the afflicted. The vision of a reversed world order of a ground made level by God makes me nervous. You see, even though I may struggle to make ends meet, have had to deal with the stressors of an uncertain job market for me and my partner, and grapple with the economic problems of our day, I do know that because of my education, my class and my living where I do, I have a life that is more comfortable than most. What does the end of the world as we know it going to mean for me and my family? Am I ready to repent, to turn from my consumeristic ways that may cause harm to others? Am I ready to do what it takes to live simply so that others may simply live? Will I be fine? Will I be forgiven?

When the word of God came to John, he began “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (3:3) Biblical scholars note that repentance literally means to turn, to change direction and John is telling the people of Israel to prepare the way of the Lord by cleansing themselves of the pollution of sin and turning towards God. Although John’s emphasis on repentance might seem to make human action more important than God’s grace, that is not the case, for repentance itself is understood as something God freely gives. We do not turn in a new direction because of our own power. The past can hold us so tightly that something outside our control must happen to create a new opportunity. Repentance is the renewal of personal and communal life made possible the arrival of a special time, the time when “all flesh” can “see the salvation of God.” (3:6)[ii]

A church in a time of interim ministry is in many ways preparing the way of the Lord and making paths straight. Now hang with me here, I am not implying that the person you will call to be your next settled pastor will be as great as Jesus himself and I ain’t no John the Baptist, you won’t see me eating any bugs in the near future. What I am saying is that when a church moves from the ministry of one settled pastor to another, there are things that we can do together to prepare for your new ministry with your next settled pastor. Yes the work may be difficult, there may be crooked roads which we will have to try to make straight, there may be bumps that we will have to make smooth. However, know that we do not do this alone. God is here and God is working with us and through us. “For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make the level ground, so that [we] may walk safely in the Glory of God.” (Baruch 5: 7)

May it be so. Amen.

[i] Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.
[ii] Tannehill, Robert C. Luke. Abingdon New Testament commentaries. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996. 78-79.

I'm a bad bad blogger

Well I've been working in a church for almost two weeks and I forgot to blog about it. I am currently serving as an interim pastor of a church a couple of towns away from the one I live in. This is a very exciting opportunity for me. I've always wondered if I was called to interim ministry, there are parts of it that I find very intriguing, such as the constant changing of positions, the intentional work of helping a church in transition, the unique opportunities of stepping into a system that is open for change.

So for at least the next year I'll be walking with this church and we'll discern together where God is calling us to be in this world at this time.