The Magic of Christmas

When I was a child Christmas was the biggest day of the year! It was magical. My family would begin our celebration by putting up and decorating the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, festooning it with lights, stars, angels, even little disco balls and a flashing star on top of the tree. I still have a few of these disco balls much to my spouse’s chagrin. Underneath the tree would lay our nativity set. My brother Mark and I used to love playing with the nativity set. We’d make up stories with the Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and animals figurines, everything was there but the baby Jesus because he would not appear until Christmas day. However it was not unusual to find a Barbie doll or rocket ship in the middle of the porcelain figures of my family’s crèche as my brother and I liked to play out our own creative spin on the story of the Nativity.

But the best part of the Christmas season was the presents. Slowly the wrapped boxes would come. First one box would appear under the tree, then another and then another. Brown boxes would come in the mail filled with even more presents to put under the tree. By Christmas Eve the presents were so abundant that my parents had to set up another little tree in the kitchen to handle excess. Yes. we kids knew that the true meaning of Christmas was about the birth of God’s son, our Savior the baby Jesus, but really, if you asked us what Christmas was really about…we would say it is all about the presents.

In my family’s tradition we opened all of our gifts after supper on Christmas Eve. That was the longest supper ever for a bunch of kids who could barely wait to tear into the presents under the tree. We would cram our food into our mouths in lightning speed with no appreciation for the work my mom put into making this lovely meal. And unlike any other night in our house, we would refuse our dessert so as to get to the presents just that much faster. There was nothing my parents could do to slow us down.

The Christmases that we remember as children were the greatest days of our lives. We remember the magic of the trees, the music, the cookies and the presents. We remember the joy of watching holiday specials that were shown on TV once a year: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We remember brothers and sisters coming back from far away places to spend the holiday with us. We remember that for one night of the year, it felt like all the troubles of the world would disappear and as we basked in the glory of tearing through wrapping paper to reveal the toy that we longed for.

But as we grow up into adulthood, it seems that the magic of Christmas disappears bit by bit. Work, school, relationships and bills take over. Christmas becomes more of an obligation, a reminder of what we’ve lost instead of the wonder of what’s possible. As adults we try desperately to get that magic back and we’d do anything to feel the same way we did as children at Christmas but all the trees, presents and mistletoe can’t get at what we most long for on Christmas, a longing of which we cannot name but whose ache we feel nonetheless.

Some of us come this night with our hearts aching. Whether it is dealing with the grief over the recent loss of a loved one or the tension of a relationship that is strained, or even just plain homesickness for those of us who can’t be with our families tonight, we know that Christmas is not the perfection that Hallmark cards make it up to be. It is confusing, it is stressful, it is messy. However it is in the middle of this very mess that God chooses to incarnate God’s self to the world. God elevates the messiness of humanity by becoming human just like us through the birth of Jesus.

The circumstances around Jesus’ birth were quite messy. Jesus’ earthly parents Mary and Joseph were dirt poor and Mary was pregnant out of wedlock, thus tarnishing Jesus’ reputation before he was even born. Mary and Joseph were forced to travel to a chaotic town where the roads were dusty and crowded with travelers in order to be counted in a mandatory census by Caesar Augustus. And on the night that Jesus was born Mary and Joseph were homeless because they could not find a room in an inn. Mary ended up giving birth to Jesus in the only shelter they could find, a smelly dirty barn where animals ate and slept. The first people to hear the announcement of Jesus’ birth were not kings, soldiers or even priests, no, it was a bunch of shepherds in a field with their sheep. In Jesus’ day the shepherds were not considered respectable folk. They were dirty and smelly living out on the fields with no family or home to speak of. They were the marginalized, the outsiders, the throw away people of Judean society and it is to these outsiders that the angels sang, “To YOU is born…a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) To YOU outsiders, to YOU throw away people, to YOU, knee deep in the mess is born a Savior.

This friends is the magic of Christmas. The Prince of Peace, the Messiah was not born in a palace the son of a great king or queen, no he was born in a stable the son of God. The first people to know of his birth were not people of power and influence; no these were the outsiders, the marginalized, the people whom Jesus would associate with throughout his ministry. The birth of Jesus is a living testament that God is for us. That God’s amazing grace is freely given to us. Too often we think that God can only be found in that which is most perfect and beautiful but the good news is that God seeks us in the places where life is the most messy, most gritty, most chaotic. God shows up in the in the midst of our messy lives to say to us, “Do not be afraid; for see I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people.” (Luke 2:10)

On Christmas we remember that God came to us as a helpless little baby boy born into a poor family to become the greatest glory the world. For this baby born of humble circumstance would grow up to satisfy the ache of our deepest longing. The gift of Jesus is the messy embodiment of God’s love, peace and joy for the world.

“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 whosoever believes in him

will not perish but have everlasting life.” (1)

May it be so. Amen.

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

Mary's Song

Luke 1:39-55


"My Soul Magnifies the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of God's servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,” (Luke 1:46-49)

These words recited in the Gospel of the Luke and beautifully sung by our choir this morning came from a woman who was sat on the margins of the marginalized. Mary had everything going against her; she was young, unmarried and poor. She was pregnant outside of wedlock, the cause 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 sings a song of rejoicing in God’s blessings in her life and of God’s vision of a world made right. The song we call the Magnificat.

It has been said that “well behaved women rarely make history.” The Magnificat definitely puts Mary within this category. The Magnificat was testimony of Mary’s rebelliousness to the status quo, imagining a different world where “The powerful are brought down from their thrones and the lowly are lifted up, the hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent away empty.” A terrifying thought for those in power.

It seems that the Magnificat has been watered down through the ages however this song has not lost its radical-ness. Theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer who was later executed by the Nazi’s stated in his sermon on the Magnificat, “The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings; this is the passionate, surrendered, proud, enthusiastic Mary who speaks out here. This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about collapsing thrones and humbled lords of this world, about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind. These are the tones of the women prophets of the Old Testament that now come to life in Mary's mouth." (1)  It is no wonder that the powerful have feared the message of the message of the Magnificat. In the 1980s the Government of Guatemala banned the public reading of the Magnificat because the authorities feared that it would agitate the oppressed to riot against them. (2)

In order to truly understand what the words of the Magnificat mean we have to imagine what the world was like for Mary in her time and place. Mary lived in Roman occupied Palestine. Judea was under the rule of Herod Antipas who had an insatiable appetite for power, palaces and extravagance. Herod reported to Caesar Augustus who was lifted up by the Romans as the Savior, the son of God, because when he seized power, he ended the civil wars in the Roman Empire to bring about the era of Pax Romana.(3)  Mary’s people were marginalized, living in utter poverty, crushed under the boot of the Roman Army and ruled by their corrupt deputy Herod Antipas.(4) Some note that Herod grew wealthy from the poverty of people like Mary and her family. They were serfs and peasants who paid such high taxes to support Herod’s building projects and extravagant life style that the citizenry did not have enough sustain themselves, often losing the very farmland that fed them.(5)  To further complicate things, Mary was a woman living in a patriarchal society. At that time a woman’s standing in Mary’s culture depended on the men that she was related to and Mary was only betrothed but not yet married to Joseph, she was pregnant not by him and stood to lose him. Yes, Mary stood on the margins of the margin and yet in spite of everything going against her, she is able to sings a song that was ahead of her time. (6)

Some note that The Magnificat is Mary’s heartfelt release of her deepest longings, for God to establish justice through the birth of her son so that there would be no more poor, oppressed or down trodden. In her song she sings of reversals, the proud are scattered, the powerful are taken down from their thrones and the lowly lifted up. Mary is not afraid to proclaim that God will bring the unjust leaders Caesar Augustus and Herod down from their positions of power so that the poor of Israel will finally experience God’s justice through the coming of her son the Messiah. She knows that all future generations shall be called her blessed because she will play an intimate part in the incarnation of God’s son on earth. All of this hope and expectation of a better future was sung from a powerless, penniless, unwed pregnant teenager. The Magnificat is not just a sweet song Mary sang to her aunt to celebrate their pregnancies, no this was a proclamation, this was a speech that could be heard at any protest rally telling all who would hear that God is working in history and this is what the world will look like when God establishes God’s reign on earth.(7)

Mary saw the world as God sees it. She 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. 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. (8)

“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)

In this time of uncertainty, we know the world is not the way God way would have it. There is still suffering in the world; there are still millions of children who go to bed homeless, hungry and afraid at night. (9) There is still war, tragedy and violence in every corner of the world tearing families asunder. However in this advent season as we contemplated our deepest longings, we were able imagine a different world where sharing by all means scarcity for none. Where peace, love and joy is manifest throughout all of creation. Mary’s song the Magnificat proclaims this new world order where suffering will end, everyone has enough and all nations will be brought to peace through the birth of her son our savior Jesus. As we move through these last days of Advent into the Christmas season let our longing voices join in Mary’s song of rejoicing in the hope of God’s future.

May it be so.

Amen.

(1)  Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J. “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.” U.S. Catholic, 68:12. (December 2003), 12-17.


(2)  Ibid.

(3)  Scot McKnight, “The Mary We Never Knew” Christianity Today, December 2006. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/december/8.26.html

(4)  Johnson, “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.”

(5)  John Ortberg, “Living by the Word: Sunday, December 20 Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55)” Christian Century, 15 December 2009, 20.

(6) Kate Huey “Sermon Seeds: Luke 1: 47-55” http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/december-12-2010-third.html


(7)  Mcknight, “The Mary We Never Knew.”

(8)  Fred B. Craddock Luke. Interpretation, a Bible commentary for teaching and preaching. (Louisville, Ky: John Knox Press, 1990.), 30.

(9)  Huey “Sermon Seeds: Luke 1: 47-55”

Joyous Longing

Upon hearing of the miracles that Jesus was doing, John the Baptist sends a message to Jesus from his prison cell asking “Are you the one who is to come? Or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3) Indeed this is confusing passage because we read earlier in the gospel of Matthew that it is John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Messiah and John was the prophet who told everyone to prepare the way to the Lord. It was John who baptized Jesus and saw with his own eyes the heavens open up and the spirit of God descend like a dove and a voice from heaven say, “This is my son, the Beloved with whom I am well pleased.” (3:17) And yet it is this same John whom we see questioning the validity of Jesus being the messiah in this morning’s gospel reading. Quite paradoxical that the one who is sent to proclaim the messiah is the one who we see questioning the messiah. What happened?

For one thing prison happened. Herod Antipas the king of Jerusalem was threatened by John’s preaching of God’s kingdom defeating the injustices of the earthly kingdom. And so Herod hunted John down and threw him in prison. It was easy for John to believe in the promises of God when he was living freely in the wilderness and baptizing disciples in the river Jordan, but now from the darkness of a prison cell even the faith of a prophet can be shaken to it’s core.

Jesus’ response to John’s doubt is just as puzzling as John’s question. He doesn’t get angry or frustrated, he doesn’t rebuke John for his lack of faith, instead he puts the question back unto John. “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.” (11:5) Some note that what Jesus says, in effect, is “I cannot answer for you. You have to decide on your own whether I am for real. Look at the evidence. What do you see?” (1) I wonder what John’s response was to Jesus’ question? Could he have remembered the prophecy of Isaiah where Isaiah told a people in exile “Here is your God…he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like deer, and the tongues of the speechless will sing for joy.” (Isaiah 35:4-6) and then say to himself “Oh yeah right, these are the things that prove you are the Messiah” or some wonder if John would have been more apt to say, “Good for the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, and the temporarily dead. You may notice, however, Jesus, that I am still in prison.” (2)

Which of these responses is the appropriate response for one who is called to be a prophet? Jesus says both. After Jesus sent John’s messengers away, he turned to the bewildered crowds and asked them, “What did you go out to the wilderness to look at when you sought out John months ago, an emaciated holy man not of this world, or were you expecting someone of great power like a king, well if you wanted to see a king, go to a palace. John is a prophet and prophets are human and humans can hurt, and humans can doubt, and it is this human that God has called to send as a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord.”

We heard time and time again, that God does not call the qualified to ministry, rather God qualifies those whom God calls to do ministry so that the miracles that happen are God’s work alone. True discipleship is not knowing how to point others where Christ is, but rather it is about finding where Christ is in the midst of the messiness of life and learning to follow him even in the times where we may doubt his very existence. Then we are called to share with others these holy moments through acts of kindness and testimonies of faith.

On Friday Night the Small City Cold Weather Shelter at First Church opened its doors once again for those who are homeless to have a safe, warm place to sleep at night. This was the shelter that I served as director as part of my ministry at First Church. Most of the guests of the shelter were chronically homeless, staying year after year in homeless camps around the city, and coming in for the winter at First Church. Many of the guests called first church the “last stop to hell” because their lives had hit below what many would deem the bottom. I’ve struggled as a director, trying to connect our guests with what little social resources were available for them in this state. Unfortunately many guests were crippled with an overwhelming sense of learned helplessness and worthlessness that they did not have the ability to accept the help I was offering them. I’ve heard that it only takes 6 weeks of living on the streets to become this helpless. There were many times where my faith was shaken by what I saw, men and women struggling with addiction, mental illness and hopelessness. How is God going to make this mess right.

What I realized in my work at the homeless shelter was that I had to be patient with those whom I was called to care for. It’s like what James said in the epistle that we read this morning. “Be patient therefore beloved. The Farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives early and late rains.” (James 5:7) What he is telling his listeners is that there are some things that are out of our control. Just as a farmer cannot control the rains, so to we cannot control the coming of the Lord. However there are some things we can control, such as what seeds to put in the soil or what attitude to take when encountering difficulty. “Strengthen your hearts,” James says, “for the coming of the Lord is near.” Even though the world around you maybe crumbling such as the exiles listening to Isaiah, or even though you may be witnessing imprisonment such as John the Baptist, or seeing the tragic effects of chronic homelessness, we are told to take heart for indeed God will come and make things right.

I came to the conclusion that while I can’t change someone’s addictive behavior, only they can stop drinking and drugging, what I could change was making sure they had a warm safe place to stay for the night, giving them another day to be alive. And even though I couldn’t force someone to accept the social services that I was trying to connect them with, I could still keep the door open and let them know that I haven’t given up on them. And while I could not begin to diminish the overwhelming sense of shame and inhumanness that our guests suffered everyday in homelessness, I could at least try to be that one person who knows their name, gives them a kind word and helps them know their intrinsic worth as a child of God.

Advent and the Christmas season is a time for families and friends to gather together to celebrate the incarnation of Emmanuel God-with-us. For most of us this is a season of rejoicing and celebration, but for some of us, this is a hard season because of loss. For the guests of the homeless shelter Christmas is unbearable because they have lost their homes. Even though it seemed impossible for the guests of the shelter to feel a joyous longing for the culmination of God’s promise for all things being made right, it was possible for me to bring the good news of God’s love and grace freely given to them. The best Christmas ever for me was just two years ago when I decided to throw a big Christmas party for the shelter guests at First Church. With the help of friends and volunteers we decorated the hospitality room of the shelter with Christmassy things. The ladies guild of first church cooked cookies, cakes and hors d’oeuvres for the party. Donations from the local pharmacies, restaurants and grocery stores of various sundries were procured as gifts to give to our guests. A grade school class made homemade cards and wrapped scarves, mittens and hats in fun little gift wrapped boxes. Gift certificates were also donated from the various restaurants on Small Cities Main Street so that our guests could enjoy a nice meal. That night was magical because a deep joy could be felt throughout the celebrating of the night. As each guest received their presents, I looked into their eyes and call them by their name, “Fred, have a blessed Christmas. Steve, Merry Christmas. Bonnie, Good tidings to you. Joe, Blessings to you this season.” In a world that would cast these folks aside as nameless, faceless and homeless people, for one night these shelter guests were able to know that they were special, to know that they were deeply loved by God through the celebration of the birth of our Messiah Jesus. May it be so. Amen.




(1) Mark E. Yurs “Matthew 11:2-11: Homiletical  Perspective” Feasting On the Word pg. 71
(2) David Bartlett "Matthew 11:2-11: Pastoral Perspective" Feasting On the Word pg. 70

Proclaiming Our Deepest Longing

Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12

We’ve all seen those cute videos on You-tube and national TV. You know the ones with that show unlikely animal friends such as a crow befriending a kitten, or the lioness adopting a baby antelope. Then there’s the over the top video of a rat, riding a cat who is riding a dog through the streets of San Francisco. However the video that brings tears to my eyes is the reunion of Christian the lion with his former human caretakers a year after the lion was released into the wilds of Africa. It is impossible to think that a predator such as a lion being so affectionate with what should be its prey. What is it that causes these homemade videos to go viral, to be passed electronically from person to person until the viewership reaches over a million and said video is shown on the national news? What is it about predator and prey playing together that captures our attention? Could it be that such a vision captures a sense of our deepest longing of the world as God would have it?

In the Hebrew scripture this morning, we hear the prophet Isaiah give this exact vision of what the world will be like when God raises up a king to rule Israel with justice and equity. No more will aggression rule the day for when God reigns violence and brutality will be no more and even the animals will overcome their carnivorous nature to lounge together in the safety of God’s abundant creation. Now it is important to note that this vision of was not Isaiah predicting of the coming of Jesus Christ. In this passage Isaiah was pinning all his hopes unto a young Hezekiah who would succeed Ahaz after the Northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians 721 years before the birth of Christ. However this vision illuminates what the incarnation of Jesus means as we read this text through a Christian lens. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann states that this interpretation “establishes a linkage between the Jewish expectation” of God setting things right through an earthly king who will rule with righteousness and “the powerful, compelling reality of Jesus” A responsible interpretation of this text is that what Isaiah had hoped for in his own time was actually embodied and enacted through Jesus’ life and ministry.

However it is over 2000 years since Jesus’ birth and violence still pervades every corner of our world. Today, we have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world four times over. The news is filled stories about new terrorist plots, economic uncertainty and conflicts between countries in far away places that effect life in this small town. And there are many of us who have experienced violence and the abuse of power on a personal level. In spite of God’s incarnation through Jesus, the wolves still circle where the lambs graze and the lion ravages its prey.

In his commentary on Isaiah, Brueggeman notes that this passage begins with a stump which is a dead plant from which nothing will grow. The context is a deep failure of the Davidic dynasty. The kingdom has become divided and all the hopes of Israel are spent. “And now” Brueggeman states, “the poet asserts a new generativity” a new birth so to speak “with a sprout, unnamed and unidentified, but a faint sign of life, growth and possibility…the ‘spirit of Yahweh’ is a force that enlivens, gives power, energy and courage, so that its bearer is recognized as one designated, who has the capacity to do what the world believes is impossible…Judah will have in its midst an agent of new possibility who counters all its despair.” Hope gets its start from an unexpected place where transformation can begin from the ruins of dreams dead and discarded.

In the Gospel reading John the Baptist proclaims that the kingdom that Isaiah promised has come near. We’ve all seen the bumper sticker, “Jesus is coming…look busy.” What John is essentially saying is “The Messiah is coming…Everything is about to change.” John looks back to the tradition to point toward God’s new future. The writer of the gospel is careful to note what John is wearing, camel hair and a leather belt because that was the garb of Elijah a prophet of old. Scholars note that in Jesus’ day there “was an expectation that one day God would bring in the messianic age, setting all things right, restoring the fortunes of Israel, and placing an ideal king on David’s throne. A sign that this was about to happen is that Elijah would reappear. Symbolically, then John the Baptist is old Elijah returned from the past and his appearance in the wilderness stands as a sign of the nearness of the messianic age.”

Because the kingdom was near, John tells his congregation to repent, to turn away from the visions of this world and turn toward God’s vision for the world. To proclaim for one’s own longing, God’s great desire for all of creation to live in right relationship with each other. In this repentance, this re-orientation, the believer’s world view is changed from seeing things as they are to seeing things as they could be. The repented believer becomes open to God’s surprising will. Essentially the believer begins to live their life as if the reign of God is here and now, living a life where love rules over fear and hope rules over despair. Repentance is not about judgment rather it is about taking responsibility for the times we have fallen short of God’s vision. However, we know that we can honestly confess our shortcomings confident in the knowledge that God does forgive our sins.

A colleague shared a poem with me about being in church which fits nicely with both the texts we’ve read this morning.

Why are we here?

“We are not here to “do a bunk” from the world.
We are not here to “get in touch with our ‘inner selves’”.
We are not here to “recharge our batteries”.

Why are we here?

We are here because the world is not right,
because we are not right,
and because we are angry about injustice,
sad about suffering,
and ashamed of ourselves.

Why are we here?

We are here because God so loves the world
that he is making it right,
turning it into a new creation;
and because God so loves us
that he is making us right.
turning us into a new people,
making us like Jesus:
faithful, truthful, peaceful, hopeful.

We are here because God, in his grace, has called us here.” *

In this time of Advent, we prepare for the incarnation of Jesus by examining ourselves. Where do we need to make room for Jesus who embodied and expressed the peace, love and mercy that God wills for all people? Do we live our lives according to the faith we have in worldly things or according to our faith in the promises of God? How are we called to proclaim our deepest longing of peace on earth, wholeness for creation and an end to all violence?

May it be so.

Amen.

* http://virtualmethodist.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-to-worship.html adapted slightly via http://apearldownunder.blogspot.com/2010/12/impossible-kingdom.html

“Our Greatest Fear or Our Deepest Longing?” Advent 1

Isaiah 2:1-5

It’s to haul out the holly, put up the tree, fill up the stocking, it’s time to deck the halls again. Yes once again we are anticipating the biggest event of our year, that wondrous day we call Christmas. Since the day after Halloween, or was that the day after Labor Day, I can’t remember, we’ve been receiving catalogs showing us pictures of happy families in matching pajamas enjoying a quiet moment together. On TV we have been regaled with commercials of a crazed woman preparing for the Target two day sale and on the internet we’ve seen ads that promise healthy living and the promise of good organization in the form of electronic gadgets. (1)  For some of us this frenzied season can seem like our greatest fear but for all of us these jam packed four weeks of Christmas preparation is the manifestation of our deepest longings.


As I review the sermons that I have preached in Advents past, I have noticed a disturbing pattern. While trying to share the good news of the incarnation of God with us through the nativity of Jesus, I’ve crusaded against frenzy of the season. But I realize that I was just as steeped in the hub bub of the season as you all. No matter how hard I tried to go back to the reason for the season, the birth of the Christ child, I’d still be drawn into the excitement of finding that perfect gift. I’d get caught up in eating drinking and merry making at many a Christmas gathering. And on most Advent evenings I could be found in my living room enjoying my umpteenth Christmas cookie while watching “Frosty the Snowman.” “A Charlie Brown Christmas” “Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer” and my personal favorite “A Christmas Story.” Which I’ve probably watched over a half a dozen times just last year alone. Yes I am a Christmas show junkie!

Why do the cultural and commercial messages of the secular season have such a hold on us? What compels us in these four weeks of Advent to shop ‘til we drop, gather night after night with our friends and families at open houses, celebrate with co-workers at company Christmas parties and watch cartoons that explore the true meaning of Christmas? Perhaps it is because these things respond to our deepest, truest need for something bigger than ourselves. We yearn for the nostalgia of our bygone childhood wonder. We look forward to being together with those who are dear to us. We hope that this will be the Christmas where our dreams will come true.(2)  In all of this holiday rushing around what we are straining towards is something of meaning, we longingly cry for the love, joy and wholeness of life that is not counterfeit. We hear the invitation to walk toward to the light of the world, Emmanuel, God with us, the Christ Child.

In this morning’s older testament reading we hear the prophet Isaiah offer a vision of God fulfilling the deepest longings his people. That all people from all nations will come together to seek God together so that they may learn from God his ways and so that they may walk together in God’s path. God will be the judge between nations and arbitrate for many peoples. Scholars note that Isaiah is saying that God “will make an actual difference in the way the world works: inequities will be balanced, shackles will be loosed, wrongs will be set right. Out of this justice will come transformation—weapons of violence will be turned into instruments for nourishment. The nations will put their swords down, and will not train for war anymore.” (3) This passage ends with an invitation to walk in the light of this transformation. To have hope in a world made new.

All of gift giving, the pictures of happy families on Christmas cards, the yuletide gatherings and the Christmas shows speak to a very deep and real hope for peace, harmony and love. The gatherings we partake in and the gifts that we buy for each other is our way saying, “I see you.” The beloved Christmas shows that we watch over and over and over again represent our desire to believe in things that seem impossible, such as a reindeer who saves the day with his shiny red nose, a snowman coming to life or the hope of transformation such as a Grinch finding the true meaning of Christmas.

This morning for the children’s sermon I shared the story of the Grinch who stole Christmas. We don’t why the Grinch hated Christmas, but we do know that he resented the merrymaking of the citizens of who-ville. He wanted to put a stop to the noise, the singing and the feasting. He wanted to keep Christmas from coming so that the whos of who-ville would be just as miserable as he was. He stole their presents, trees and food in hopes of taking away Christmas. But his dastardly plan didn’t work. On Christmas morning he is shocked to find:

“Every who in who-ville, the tall and the small,

Was singing! Without presents at all!

He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!

IT CAME!

Somehow or other, it came just the same!...

And what happened then…?

Well…in whoville they say

That the Grinch’s small heart

Grew three sizes that day!

And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight,

He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light

He brought back the toys! And Food for the feast!

And He…HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the Roast Beast.” (4)

The Grinch was transformed on that Christmas day. Through seeing the whos of who-ville gather as a community he found peace, love and harmony that he didn’t know he was longing for.

As we commence upon activities of this season let us remember that as we are looking for gifts, cooking, merry making and yes even Christmas show viewing, we are participating in the excitement and anticipation of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.   We hope for a better future with the coming of Emanuel, God-with-us and we look forward to the world becoming transformed by the culmination of our deepest longings for peace, love and harmony being satisfied.  May the heart of the world grow three sizes larger on that day!

(1) Stacy Simpson Duke, “Isaiah 2:1-5 : Pastoral Perspective.” Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year A, Vol. 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 2.


(2) Ibid., 3

(3) Ibid., 4

(4) Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (New York: Random House, 1957)

A King Like No Other

Old Testament Lesson: Jeremiah 23: 1-6
Gospel Lesson: Luke 23: 33-43

Almost three weeks ago we had an election that once again has changed the balance of power of our government both nationally and locally. It was a joyous time for some and a time of anguish for others. Unfortunately this election once again proved that our country continues to be deeply divided. The campaigning was nasty on both sides. The between the various candidates were heightened in some cases to a fight between good and evil where each side demonized the other. In the end, the body of elected leadership reflects our national mood, a divided country that fears for our future. It seems that incivility rules the day as it has become more and more difficult for those who lead our cities, our state and our nation to work with each other. There has always been differences between political parties however fear and anger have caused splits within our civic groups and divisiveness have turned people against one another rather than working with each other. The people of our nation have scattered and been driven away like the sheep in the Jeremiah reading. However God promises to bring us together, but how?


This morning’s older testament reading begins with some rather harsh words from God to concerning the leadership of Judah. Using the word shepherd as the metaphor for king, God speaks words that the kings, princes and royal officials of Judah would rather not hear, “It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil ways…Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock.” (Jer. 23:2) At the time that the prophet Jeremiah wrote this text, the invasion of Judah by the Babylonians had just begun and many of the people were being sent to exile in Babylon. However, the prophet does not blame the economy, or the weather, or even that the Babylonians had better armies then the Judeans, the blame rests upon the shoulders of the leaders of the nation of Judah. Some note that Jeremiah is accusing leaders of abusing their power by serving their own interests rather than the best interests of their own people. Their power is God given, and God calls them first and foremost to look after the widow, the children, the alien, the poor of their nation, to do everything in their power to make sure all their people have what they need to live whole lives. Instead the leaders only looked out for themselves. So God who is always in power promises to push out of the way the leaders who caused the problems injustice in the first place and to bring about a new leadership whose sole interest is the reign of God. (1) Under this new order all the people will have what they need in order to live whole prosperous lives. That sounds nice to all of us hearing the scripture today, but we wonder, thousands of years later…has this happened yet? Today we struggle with a struggling economy, a lack of jobs, hunger, homelessness in our own neighborhoods and even war we wonder why we have shortages, shortages of jobs, food, fuel etc. But the question that God would ask us is this: are these shortages real or has God’s abundance simply been unevenly distributed?(2) Could the thirst for power and influence of a few be contributing to the underlying issues that cause inequity in the first place?

Today we celebrate the Reign of Christ, also known as “Christ the King Sunday.” But today’s gospel reading does not portray Jesus as what we would imagine to be a king. He is not adorned with a crown and jewels. He is not sitting upon a majestic throne surrounded by a court of princes, duchesses and knights nor is he at the head of a mighty army ready to conquer. Jesus, the one whom we call king is hanging on a cross in between two criminals. The leaders and soldiers are mocking him, daring him to save himself and come down off that cross. The only vestige of royalty is the inscription above Jesus’ head that reads, “This is the King of the Jews.” But then again, we do see Jesus acting with the authority of a true ruler. The rule of Jesus centers upon relationship through reconciliation and forgiveness. He pardons those who crucified him by saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And He assures the criminal hanging next to him that he will be in paradise. What we see is Jesus ruling through the power of grace.

Throughout the gospel of Luke, we hear Jesus say, “The Kingdom of God is at Hand.” But what is this kingdom of God he keeps proclaiming. His followers thought that he was going to defeat the power of the Roman Government that occupied Israel while Jesus was on earth. But Jesus was not concerned with political power or military, rather he was concerned with liberation. He speaks, over and over again, about economic justice issues. He seeks to free the oppressed. He honors women, widows, and children. He challenges the social norms of his culture by associating himself with the rejected people in his society. He eats with sinners and touches the untouchable. Jesus makes the radical claim that it is not the powers and principalities that are in charge of the world, rather it is and always will be God. The only power that Jesus was serving was God’s power. The scary thing was that in serving God’s power, he ended up being hung on a cross and jeered by the leaders and soldiers who put him there. You see, when he preached about the kingdom of God, he was putting forth the radical claim that all people are children of God, all people are worthy and that all people deserve justice! This message is very threatening to a power structure such as the Roman Government that depended upon oppression and unjust policies to keep its hold on its power.

The kingdom of God is different from any kingdom we have known. It is where sharing by all means scarcity for none. Those who are meek are lifted up as the inheritors of the earth, all those who hunger are fed, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied. Jesus was not seeking a revolution, but he was a revolutionary when he proclaimed that the kingdom of God is at hand. Through this bold statement he questioned those powers in his claim that God is for the oppressed and stands with the oppressed. The Roman Government hung Jesus on the cross because they thought he was provoking his followers to revolt against the government, but it this death sentence is what redeems us. Some believe that Christ redeems us by bearing through his death the burden of all our fears, and our hatred. This broken man forsaken, and reviled even by the criminal next to him, is the king whom we honor today. A king like no other.

The challenge for us as people of faith is to figure out how we are called to participate in the building of God’s realm with Christ as our King. How can we use Jesus’ example of leading which was centered relationship, forgiveness and reconciliation to bring all people back into right relationship with each other. The task seems insurmountable in this political climate. But we must remember what Jesus says throughout the Gospel of Luke, “what is impossible for people, is possible with God.” With God and prayerful discernment, we can take up the challenge to dialogue with each other. This may mean sitting down with someone whose political beliefs you might disagree with and truly listening to why they believe and from this conversation you both may find the common threads that bind all of us together. For instance, everyone agrees that we want to take care of our children. We want them to be housed, fed and well cared for. We want our children to be well educated and we all want to protect our children. This common thread can becomes a starting point for dialogue. Be prepared to agree to disagree on some issues. This isn’t about whose right and whose wrong, rather it is about working together to bring about a world where justice reigns. God sent Jesus to be the righteous branch of David to reign as king and deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land through forgiveness and reconciliation. Let us continue to believe that the days are surely coming where we will reconcile with each other and continue the work of building the kingdom of God here and now. May it be so, Amen.

(1) Feasting on the Word
(2) Ibid.

The World As God Would Have It.

Isaiah 65: 17-25
Luke 21: 5-19

It was warm fall morning almost 10 years ago. I was working as an accountant for a large corporation in downtown BigCity at the time. It was early in the morning and I was processing my daily cash accounting spreadsheets and listening to the radio. My favorite DJ was reading the news in her usual joking manner but suddenly she stopped, and in a panicked voice she said that a Airline Jet had hit a sky scraper in New York. I stopped working and looked at my radio. Then my phone rang. I picked it up and my Beloved Partner told me that she had just seen on the news a jet plane hitting one of the twin towers in New York. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. I tried to get on CNN website on to see if there was news of this tragedy but the website was so overloaded, I could not get on. I changed the radio station to public radio to hear the news of this tragedy. At first I thought it was some bizarre accident, that someone had fallen asleep at air traffic control thus causing the planes to fly amuck. Eventually the towers collapsed.


"As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." (Luke 21:6)

As the day wore on, the media revealed that terrorists associated with the group Al-Qaeda had hijacked the commercial airline jets planes and had flown them into the towers for the purpose of utter destruction.

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.” Luke 21: 10b-11

I couldn’t continue working under the distress that I was feeling. Then I heard that a plane had crashed into the pentagon. My panic shifted into high gear because my sister lives by the pentagon. I tried to call her but couldn’t get through because the phone circuits going into Washington DC were also overloaded. I sat and I worried. Eventually my workplace closed and let us go for home for the day.

As I rode the bus home from work noticed that the streets were unusually empty in our normally bustling downtown BigCity. The stores had closed early and many of the offices were empty. The skies were also empty because all planes had been grounded. I realized that my world had changed instantly in the moments that the planes had hit the twin towers. Safety was no longer something that I could take for granted.

I imagine that the Israelite people felt the same shock and life altering pain when their temple fell 70 years after the death of Jesus. The temple of Jerusalem was the worship center of the Jewish community of which Jesus was a part of. “People would[sic] gather in the large colonnades and porches around the Temple Mount for various purposes, including speech making and healing.” (1) They believed that God physically dwelled within the temple in a room which was called the holy of holies. The Jewish folk throughout the Middle East made pilgrimage to the temple on Passover to celebrate the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This is exactly what Jesus and his disciples were doing in the narrative of this story. His disciples were marveling at the grandeur of the buildings but Jesus tells them that the buildings will be destroyed. The disciples are shocked that Jesus would predict such a thing. This prediction implied that God’s dwelling place would be destroyed and that God would no longer be physically present among the people. They wondered if God was going to abandon them.

Forty years after Jesus made his prediction, the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army. At the time of the destruction, the early Christians were still a part of the Jewish people as a sect of within the religion of Judaism, and so the destruction of the temple was indeed a devastating blow for them. They were at a loss as to where worship God, because God’s dwelling place amongst the people had been torn asunder. This indeed was an uncertain time in the life of the early Christian Community.

What was it like for these early Christians to see their center of worship destroyed and yet have the words of Isaiah 65 ring in their ears, “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.” (Isaiah 65:18) Does this vision of Isaiah imply utter destruction of the present world and creation of a new one? In order to understand where Isaiah was coming from when he wrote his prophesy, we need to know the time and place of the writing of this scripture. It is understood that the last portion of Isaiah chapters 56-66 was written at the time when the Israelite people were returning to their homeland in 520 BCE after being captive in Babylon for over 60 years. They were going about the difficult task of rebuilding their community of faith in a time where people were cynical about their future. There is hardship all around them, their lives are difficult. And yet in the midst of despair the prophet Isaiah is able to testify with confidence that hope that the God who created heaven and earth does not seek to destroy, rather, God seeks to build upon the original creation and transform it into something new.  (2)

This text gives us a radical vision of the world as God would have it, where the living conditions of the new Jerusalem reflect the hope of God’s creation living in right relationship with each other.

“No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” (Isaiah 65:20-22)

As people of faith we are called to testify this vision of radical transformation even in the midst of our most difficult times. Imagine what the world would look like if it were as God would have it. How would such a world spend its resources? How would the common good be embraced when all people had the opportunity to live in the fullness of time? What if we had health care, education, safe neighborhoods, plentiful good water for all and what if we all practiced good environmental stewardship of the earth. (3) Indeed, this is the very future that God has already announced for us as possible now.

How does God call us to take part in the transformation of our world? How is it possible for us to be God’s hands, feet and voice in bringing about the world as God would have it? It happens through following the patterns of justice making and mercy that Jesus taught us through his ministry. By giving one act of mercy we are able to give comfort. By giving one can of food to a local food pantry we are able to give nourishment to someone who is hungry. By giving one challenge to the systemic evil that causes injustice, the continuation of domination are dismantled piece by piece. By welcoming one stranger into this community of faith, the witness of God’s love and grace freely given can change one life. All of these one time acts accumulate to bring about the world as God would have it. (4) May it be so. Amen!

(1) Vernon Robbins, “Luke 21:5-19: Exegetical Perspective.” Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 309.


(2) Mary Eleanor Johns, “Isaiah 65:17-25: Pastoral Perspective.” Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 290.

(3)  Martha Stern, “Isaiah 65:17-25: Homiletical Perspective.” Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 295.

(4)  Isaiah 65:17-25: Pastoral Perspective.” 292.

Love this!!!

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Humble Recognition

Luke 18:9-14   

         One of my guilty pleasures is the musical show “Glee”.  Set in a high school in Lima, Ohio the show centers upon a high school glee club called “New Directions.”  Now as you can imagine, the kids in this singing group are less than cool.  They struggle with not fitting in with their peers because of their lack of social skills, diminished athletic ability, odd physical appearance or even just their choice of wardrobe.  However what makes these kids stand out is their musical talent.  But their musical gifts are not enough being thrown in the dumpster by a bunch of tough guys or avoid the occasional slushy thrown in their face. 

            Through an interesting turn of events, a couple of the cool kids, the football players and cheerleaders to be exact, decide to join the glee club for various reasons of their own.  The tensions within the club rise as the misfit diva is stuck singing next to the football player who threw him in the dumpster the day before.  Eventually the social structure of the fictional McKinley High School is turned on its head when the cheerleader are seen talking to the goth chick and the star quarterback becomes best friends with the schools only openly gay student, but it took this crew of kids much work to get to this point. 

            We all remember what it was like in high school.  For many of us high school was a happy time filled with parties, dances and sports games.  For some of us it was a mixed bag, there were good times and there were struggles but all in all it was ok.  But for a few of us high school may have been quite painful.  Maybe it was because the coursework was too hard, maybe things at home weren’t going so well or maybe it was because of a lack of fitting in.  For some, for reasons outside of their control they are not able to traverse the in and outs of the high school social hierarchy as smoothly as some of their peers.  And unfortunately there are a few children who are bullied mercilessly just because they are different.  Perhaps it’s the color of their skin, or their weight, or their appearance or even their sexual orientation as we’ve recently witnessed.  For all kids, adolescence is a painful, awkward and frustrating time what with changing voices, bodies and hormones abound.  But unfortunately there is a temptation to diminish this discomfort by putting other kids down in order to lift themselves up.  I know I did it.  Whenever I had trouble adjusting in high school, I would look for a kid who was weirder than myself and pick on him or her.  I would then lift myself up saying, “At least I’m not as strange as so and so.”  Somehow I was able to eek out some sense of feeling worthy by deeming someone else as less worthy than me. 

            I wish I could say that we outgrow this behavior when we grow older, but unfortunately many of us still struggle with the inclination to scapegoat others in order to lift ourselves up in our struggles.  When I worked at the homeless shelter, the phrase I kept hearing over and over again was, “I’m not like the other people here.  At least I don’t drink, do drugs, sleep around, etc. etc.”  At times folks would single out others, stating “At least I’m not like him, he’s been on the streets for years, I’ve only been homeless for a month.”  In the midst of the overwhelming sense of unworthiness that homelessness can bring, some will try to eek out a sense of feeling worthy by deeming someone as less worthy.

            We see the same dynamic in the gospel reading.  The Pharisee and the Tax Collector are praying at the temple.  Both are atoning for their sins and I am sure both are probably feeling unworthy.  We don’t know if it is a particular sin that brings them to the temple or if this is part of a required ritual.  The Pharisee standing by himself begins his prayer by putting down the tax collector, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people:  thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even a tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of my income” (Luke 18:11) The Pharisee is trying to prove his worthiness to God by pointing the unworthiness of others.  Whereas the tax collector feeling so unworthy that he cannot look up to heaven only asks for God’s forgiveness, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13)  These men are the same in their struggle with their deep sense of unworthiness, their shame that burdens them yet they seek to be redeemed of their shame through different means.  The Pharisee looks up at heaven while pointing down to the tax collector arrogantly thinking that he will gain worthiness from God as a result of his own actions.  The tax collector on the other hand is humiliated before God and others, recognizing his brokenness through his chest beating.  And yet both of these men are equally worthy in the eyes of God.

            Let me unpack this a bit, theologians have long grappled with the definitions of sin and redemption.  Is sin something we do, or is it who we are.  Reformed theologian Calvin believes that all of humankind is complete and utterly depraved as a result of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eve.  The doctrine of original sin is the theological view that the sin of is imputed on all humanity. As Calvin puts it “[Adam] cosigned his race to ruin by his rebellion when he perverted the whole order of nature.”  Calvin understood scripture to teach that the entire person is subject to sin leaving no one immune to Adams original sin.  This doctrine is most referred to as total depravity: the idea that a human being cannot not sin.  In other words we are doomed to sin.[i]  In other words we are not perfect, we will mess up.  All of us – no exceptions.

            Personally I have come to believe that the manifestation of the stain of original sin is the overwhelming sense of unworthiness that is the burden of shame that many of us are forced to carry in our psyche since we were children.  Since childhood we have been bombarded with messages that we are not good enough.  How many of us as children have had a stressed out adult wag their finger at us saying, “Shame on you.”  What they were trying to communicate was disappointment in our behavior and yet the words “shame on you” cuts to the quick makes us feel that it is us who are bad and not our just behavior.  Then there’s the politics of the playground, the classroom and eventually the workplace that place people in a competitive pecking order based on power and prestige.  Governments and unfortunately the church have used shame to try to control people in order to keep compliance and order.  Then we have advertising that tells us that we need to make our skin look younger, our wardrobe hipper and our homes more beautiful as if there isn’t beauty already in our wrinkles, clothing and homes we already have.  With all these voices telling us that we are not good enough is it any wonder that we are inclined to do anything we can to make ourselves feel worthy.

            One of the ways we have tried to ease the anxiety of our shame, our sense of unworthiness, is by seeking out another different from ourselves and making them unworthy.   Picking a scapegoat shifts the focus from ones own feelings of unworthiness and shifts the burden onto another.  This is dangerous as we’ve seen happen in our history, we only need to look at the destruction of the Holocaust to know what happens when a minority group is made the scapegoat.  Unfortunately as a culture we will avoid looking the systemic evil that causes such things as economic injustice, environmental destruction and world conflict by vilifying a small group of people as the source of all our problems.  If we could just get rid of them, we think, the problems would go away.  But then if they go away, will that make us the unworthy ones.

            However the good news is this, our worthiness is not up to us, we don’t have to save ourselves because God has done it for us.  We are justified, that is we are made in good standing with God through our faith alone.  By claiming our utter dependence upon God for our justification we are able to acknowledge our shortcomings and be assured that God will forgive us.  We have no need to diminish others in order to claim our worthiness because all of God’s creation has been deemed worthy by God.  As Jesus said at the end of the gospel reading, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”  In other words all things will be made equal.

            At the beginning of my sermon I talked about the show “Glee” where cheerleaders and goth chick, football players and the Broadway diva and everyone in between coalesced to become a show choir.  In the beginning, these kids did not get along with each other.  They competed against each other for the solos, they avoided each other in the halls and sometimes they threw slushies at each other.  However as they got to know each other as people rather than just as jocks or nerds, they were able to work together as a team and they grew to love each other in friendship.  They began to see the worthiness of themselves by seeing the worthiness of the other.  Let us go out into the world and do likewise.

May it be so.

Amen.

---

[i] Robert Leach, “Luke 18:9-14” Feasting on the Word.  214.

Thinking Inside the Box

Jeremiah 31:27-34

1 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8

Ok, I must start this sermon with a confession.  You see I have a problem that has plagued me and my loved ones all of my life.  I am a whiner.  I whine about almost anything.  Those close to me (Beloved Partner, my best friend , my family, my cat) tolerate it well although some in my life have established ground rules.  Beloved has graciously asked me to wait a half an hour after she comes home from work before I start whining and that I do not whine the half hour before she goes asleep.  My cat wonderful listener that he is has made it clear that he’d rather party then hear me whine.    

I whine because I am a diva.  Really I am. I earned this illustrious title in seminary when I went on a mission trip to Guatemala with my seminary colleagues in 2005.  This title was given to me because of my varied reactions to staying in youth hostels and having to share one bathroom with 12 other women, if there was a bathroom to be had.  These kinds of living conditions are a bit of a stretch for a woman whose idea of camping out is staying in a hotel where they don’t put a mint on my pillow at night. 

So you can imagine my reaction when I was asked to stay out all night in a cardboard box in front of the state capital on a brisk October night in order to raise awareness about homelessness in our city.  Yes, that happened in 2008.  At first I thought it was a good idea, it would be an opportunity to participate in an act of protest in solidarity with folks who are homeless or were formerly homeless and it would also be a time to bond with other advocates for the homeless under the starry night skies of Small City, New England State.  Sure this is a stretch for a diva like myself to be sleep in a box; however I have been known to be a good sport and “to take one for the team.”

So I signed up to participate in the event called “Gimme Shelter”.  However, as the date of the event grew closer and closer my anxiety got higher and higher.  Also the weather got colder and colder and to top it all off it rained everyday that week until that Friday night on October 12th at 6:00 pm.  So I decided to get all my whining out of my system the week prior to the event so that I would be a brave little pastor at the event.  I whined to beloved, I whined to my collegues, I even whined from the pulpit pleading for prayers and sponsorships, (which worked by the way).  I whined up until I packed my little cardboard box and sleeping bag into my car and drove to the State Capital to participate in this event.  We aren’t talking about the persistence of the widow in the bible story saying, “Grant me justice.”  Rather we are talking about a homeless advocate pleading, “God if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.”

I wish I could say that it was not that bad sleeping in the box but it was bad.  It was cold and wet.  It was noisy and I didn’t feel all that safe.  I got claustrophobic trying to sleep inside this teeny tiny box through the night and I spent most of the night pulling the tarp on and off the box so that I could breath.  At about two o’clock in the morning I saw an odd shaped shadow outside my box and I got very scared.  I lifted the tarp slowly and saw that it was a pug puppy out for a walk sniffing the boxes. The owner of the pug was apologetic and because of the cuteness of the puppy I was forgiving.  Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that night and so all I could do was be silent and think inside the box.  I tried to ease my fear and chill by thinking of ways to get through the night and the thing that kept playing through my mind over and over again was I’ll be home tomorrow morning in my bed, with my blankets over me and my cat at my side.  Unfortunately for people who struggle with homelessness they don’t have this saving grace.  All kidding aside, I can’t imagine how anyone can live this way from day to day.  It is cold, it is uncomfortable, and it is not safe.  The night that I spent thinking inside the box transformed me. 

I had spent years working with the homeless but I did not know first hand what it is like to be homeless.  In many ways still I don’t know what it is like to be homeless, however now I know what it is like to sleep outdoors on a sidewalk in unlivable conditions.  Prior to this night I had thought sleeping out in the streets was like camping…it is not.  Prior to that night I was tempted to believe the myth that people who are chronically homeless choose to be that way…I now know from my personal experience that this is not true!  There is no way on God’s green earth anyone would choose to sleep night in and night out in the conditions that I slept in on that Friday night.

Sleeping in that box on that cold October night has made me very feisty.  My whining was transformed into a hunger and thirst for justice that longed to be satisfied.  The United States of America is one of the richest countries in the world and yet we have homeless on the streets of every town, city and hamlet in our country and homelessness is on the raise nationally. 

The fastest group of people becoming homeless now is due to economic reasons.  The cost has become more expensive now that it is more of a struggle to pay rent, mortgage etc then in other time of our economic history.  At one time a person working a minimum wage job could find a one bedroom apartment using a only a third of their income to pay their rent.   Now a single parent with one child will have to work more than two full time minimum wage jobs to afford one bedroom apartment in the city of Small City.[i]  We used to say that people are one paycheck away from homelessness but now people are living so close to the edge that they are only one flat tire from homelessness.  When people have to put over half their paychecks toward their housing it is impossible to save money for life’s necessities and emergencies.  If the car which is a sole source of transportation for a breadwinner to go to work breaks down, he/she risks losing his/her job and then the fragile pieces of the household fall down like a row of dominoes.  God forbid that the breadwinner or one of the family members become sick because over 50 million Americans that still do not have health insurance[ii] and many families are forced to go into bankruptcy because of one illness or injury.

Programs such as Section 8 housing vouchers help elderly, disabled and low income working families pay for housing in market rate apartments however there is a waiting list of 7000 people waiting for vouchers in the state of New England State which means if you apply for section 8 housing tomorrow, your expected wait time will be five years before you can receive a voucher.[iii] 

The widow in this morning’s gospel reading faces similar systems of injustice as she seeks to care for herself and her family.  The Gospel of Luke continually lifts the care of the widow and the orphan because these were the most vulnerable populations in Jesus’ time. A widow at that time had no rights, not over her late husband’s property, not over the welfare of her children and not over her own welfare because all of her economic wellbeing was dependant upon male power and authority.  She would have been thrown on the mercy of her male in-laws.  The widow in Luke’s story was asking the judge to act on her behalf, to grant her justice against her opponents. The judge stands as a symbol of the impersonal nature of the system.  Feeling like he doesn’t have to answer to anyone he dismisses the widow but she refuses to take no for an answer.  Eventually he grants her justice because the widow kept bothering him.  As Jesus often does in his parables he turns the power dynamics on their head and in this story the judge becomes vulnerable to the widow’s strength and persistence. 

I know that it is tiring to fight persistently for what is just and right, especially when all too often attempts to bring justice are frustrated by the institutions of power in our society.  It is hard not to become worn down, maybe even become cynical about fighting for justice.  However Jesus’ lifts up the story of the widow as an inspiration for us to keep fighting the good fight.  Jesus says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day or night?  Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.” (Luke 18: 6-7)  As we go about the work of building the Kingdom of God on earth Jesus tells us to be persistent in our prayer life, asking God how can God use our hands, feet and voice toward the bringing about of God’s reign on earth.  The act of constant prayer doesn’t change the nature of God rather it changes our nature.  God’s aim has always been toward the good of all creation and praying helps us to realize what this right relationship looks like and what part we play in co-creating it.  Praying changes our perspective, rather than seeing things as they are and asking why…prayer gives us the imagination to see how things can be and to ask why not! 

Many of the great movements of our time have started with a small group of people of faith who prayed persistently and refused to take no for an answer from the powers and principalities.  In the history of our United Church of Christ is rich with times where our forbears have thought outside the box to bring about justice. This has included the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement and continues on in our denominations participation in seeking economic justice.  Let us also think outside of our boxes to address the unjust systems that cause poverty, hunger and homelessness in the first place. 

These words from the prophet Jeremiah are as true today as they were to the ancient Israelites, “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals.  And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant says the LORD…The days are surely coming says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant…I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.”  (Jeremiah 31: 27-28, 31, 33)

Let us make it so.  Amen.

---

[i] The American Friends Service Committee and The National Council of Churches USA, A Just Minimum Wage:  Good for Workers, Business and Our Future.  October 2005.  http://www.umc-gbcs.org/atf/cf/%7B689FEA4C-8849-4C05-A89E-C9BC7FFFF64C%7D/A%20Just%20Minimum%20Wage.pdf

[ii] Richard Wolf “Number of Uninsured Americans rises to 50.7 million”, USA Today September 17, 2010.  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-17-uninsured17_ST_N.htm

[iii] “Many Wait Years for Federal Housing” WMUR News June 6, 2010.  http://www.wmur.com/money/23820951/detail.html

I preached the gospel from my heart

and it went well.

Lots of supportive comments, two people came up to me and said, "it's about time this church talked about these issues."  Even the head matriarch said I did a good job.

Now, I'm sure I'll get some blow back from folks who weren't comfortable, but the sting of their comments will be softened by the good words I received today.

In the immortal words of the tenth leper, Praise God and thank you Jesus!

Sermon for October 10 2010

In my study of the gospel text, I found out that the biblical affliction called “Leprosy” is different from the disease that we know as “leprosy” in our modern context. Hansen’s disease, which is what we now call leprosy is a serious skin disease caused by a bacteria that causes permanent damage to skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not cause limbs to fall off but limbs can become numb and/or diseased as a result of this chronic condition.


Now in the biblical times leprosy was a term for several skin diseases not just one specific skin disease. The primary symptom was characterized by a change in color. Not only human beings, but objects such as houses and garments could be considered leprous. A house or garment can be deemed leprous because it changed color dew to mildew or mold. A human would be rendered leprous if they had a sore on their skin and the hair on that sore turned white. So basically leprosy would be any condition that would change the color of skin due to disease or infection.

Now we know that many non-contagious skin maladies can cause discoloration – psoriasis, poison ivy, acne to name a few. While our knowledge of medicine knows many skin conditions to be non-contagious, in biblical times those who were diagnosed as a leper were considered unclean and were required to separate themselves from their community. Leviticus states, “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled: and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean’ he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45) This was not for medical reasons but for religious reasons. Just as it was considered against biblical law to plow with two kinds of beasts, raise two kinds of grain in one field, weave with two kinds of thread into one cloth, so too it was taboo to have two colors of skin. What is interesting is that if the skin were covered completely with disease so that the sufferer had only one color of skin, they were allowed to return to the community because they were no longer considered lepers.(1) Biblical scholars note that in essence leprosy was considered the visualization of sin and “these precautions taken not merely for sanitary reasons, or to guard against contagion, for it was not certain that leprosy was contagious, but in order that the people might be taught through the parable of leprosy, what a fearful and loathsome thing sin is in the sight of God.” (2)

This morning we read in the gospel about Jesus’ encounter with ten lepers while he was “going through the region between Samaria and Galilee” (Luke 17:11) Luke is careful to note where Jesus was traveling. In Jesus’ day observant Jews (which Jesus was) did not go anywhere near Samaria or Samaritans. The Samaritans in Jesus’ time were reviled by the Jewish Community of which Jesus was a part of. The Jews and the Samaritans shared a common heritage but differed from each other in worship practices and cleanliness laws. (3) Often the Jews referred to the Samaritans with terms such as foreigners or intruders so as to distance themselves from this group of people that were not like them and here was Jesus walking right through Samaritan territory. And then ten lepers call out to Jesus, “Master, have mercy on us!” (17:13) and Jesus saw them and said, “’Go, and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.” (17:14) Luke does not give a description of physical healing, but rather Jesus restores them as people fit once again for human relationships. Jesus shows them the power of God’s grace freely given by bringing these lepers from banishment to acceptance. However it is only the Samaritan who recognizes what a gift grace really is. The Samaritan turns back and prostrates himself and Jesus’ feet and thanked him. We can only imagine the frustration that Jesus felt when he asked about the other nine, “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except the foreigner?” (17:18)

What might have exasperated Jesus is no surprise to me. It is the outsider who knows intimately what it means to live on the margins. It is the foreigner who knows what it is like to not belong. It is the one who is constantly banished who does not take God’s grace for granted but who are the first to praise God from whom all blessings flow. The insiders ran off to priests, probably feeling entitled to their healed state, but it was the outsider who recognized this gift of grace, turned back to Jesus and thanked him. Then Jesus says to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (17:19)

Who are the lepers in our midst? Who are the ones who are pushed to margins because they are different? Recently we’ve heard of a number of suicides of young people because they were bullied. And as I read through this morning’s scriptures I cannot help but reflect on the ways in which people bully, terrorize, shame and torture those who are different. What is disconcerting is that in our modern day culture with all that we know about medicine, sociology, psychology etc., we still mistreat those who are different or simply ignore those who don’t fit the mold. What hurts is that some use the bible to rationalize their banishment of those who are different. If you ask the average person who is not comfortable with homosexuality why they think its wrong, their number one answer is going to be “because the bible says it’s wrong.” Ok, yes there are six or seven verses in the bible that allude to homosexual behavior and we can spend all morning picking those apart in regards to text and context but I’m not going to go there. Instead I harken to Paul’s letter to Timothy, where Paul tells his protégé very directly, “Remember Jesus, Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—That is my gospel.” (2 Timothy 2:8) I remember that Jesus is our bottom line as Christians. I remember the man who preached and lived the word of God’s grace freely given to all. I remember the man who was willing to touch lepers, eat with sinners and associate with women. I remember that Jesus preached “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and..you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37-40) That my brothers and sisters in Christ is our gospel!

Paul instructs Timothy, “Remind them [your congregation] of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.” (2 Tim:14) These words hit home more so this week than most others as I think of the children who felt that death was a preferable to the loss of friends, family, homes and their faith communities.

In the movie “Chocolat” a small village in the French countryside struggles to maintain their culture in the face of changes that are happening all around them. They are shocked when a group of Irish gypsies sail up the river in their boats and decide to drop their anchors and settle in near this village. The townspeople are horrified that “These people…these rootless, godless drifters…would contaminate the spirit of their quiet town…now they realize that cannot force the gypsies to leave but they can help them understand that they are not welcome.”


It begins with a “boycott against immorality” where the gypsies cannot use any of the pubs, stores or services that the town has to offer. This exclusion escalates to where on the night before Easter, one citizen of the town sets the gypsies’ boats on fire to permanently rid the town of these outsiders. While most of the townspeople don’t condone the arson attempt, they do not see how their exclusionary behavior had led up to this horrible act of violence.

On Easter Morning, their local parish priest Father Henri looks out into the congregation and timidly says,

“I'm not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be.

Do I want to speak of the miracle...

of our Lord's divine transformation?

Not really, no.

I don't want to talk about His divinity.

I'd rather talk about His humanity.

I mean, you know, how he lived his life here on Earth.

His kindness.

His tolerance.

Listen, here's what I think.

I think we can't go around...

measuring our goodness by what we don't do.

By what we deny ourselves...

what we resist and who we exclude.

I think we've got to measure goodness...

by what we embrace...

what we create...

and who we include.” (4)



May it be so.

Amen.

May it be so.

Amen.

(1) Metzger, Bruce Manning, and Michael David Coogan. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 431-432.
(2) William Mackergo Taylor, The Miracles of Our Savior. (New York: Armstrong, 1910), 112
(3) James D. Purvis, “Samaritans” The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul J Aichtenmeier Gen. Ed (San Francisco:  Harper Row Publishers, 1985), 898-899.
(4) Chocolat Miramax Films 2000.

Meditation for World Communion Sunday

1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; 11: 23-26

John 6:35, 41-51

A little over five years ago beloved and I visited an African American Baptist church on communion Sunday. We were definitely out of our element, being the only white people in the room and not knowing to expect in the context of the worship service. After the sermon which was 45 minutes long, the Pastor moved to the communion table and with his gloved deacons surrounding him, he gave the words of institution and then consecrated the elements behind a cloth that his deacons lifted up at the appropriate time. Indeed it felt like a mystical time as he called upon the Holy spirit to use bread and wine to make visible the presence of God in Christ.  After the cloth was lowered, he offered the elements to the congregation stating, “Anyone who is baptized is welcome to join us for communion.” 

Beloved and I were relieved because we were already baptized, but behind us was a little boy who asked his mom, “Can I have communion?”

“No baby,” the mom said “You can’t, you are not baptized yet.”

 “Mama, what is communion?”

“Well honey,” she said reluctantly “It’s the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

To which the boy replied very loudly “Eeeeeewwwwwww, why do they do that?”

Good question, the sacrament of Communion is very hard to explain, to both children and adults. Throughout its history, Christians all over the world have participated in this ritual where we recall Jesus eating with disciples by breaking bread and share it with each other and pouring the fruit of the vine and drink it together as a remembrance of the crucified and risen Christ. In our denomination the United Church of Christ, we recognize two sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. These rituals are an outward sign instituted by God to convey a spiritual grace. It’s pretty overwhelming if you think about it. Through our baptism, we are initiated into the Christian faith, whether we had water sprinkled on our heads or were fully immersed, we were marked by the grace of God and participated in the death and resurrection of Christ. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s supper we gather around Christ’s table and share bread and wine the same way Jesus did with his disciples at the last supper. The elements of bread and wine represent to us the crucified and risen Christ. It is through the broken bread that we participate in the body of Christ and through the cup that we participate in the new life that Christ brings.


In the Gospel we hear Jesus proclaim “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35) In a time where making bread was an all day laborious task this was a very bold statement. It is no surprise that some people scoffed at Jesus. But for others, the people who were cut off from the community, who were unable to worship in the temple because they were either a sinner, a Gentile, an outsider these were words of comfort. Even though they were not welcome to eat at the tables of those who considered themselves religiously pure, they were welcome to eat at Jesus’ table and they will be sustained by God’s grace which is freely given.


“Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (6:49-51)


The language that we use in communion is a bit disconcerting because it sounds so cannibalistic. However if we look at the context of when Jesus first said the words, “My body broken for you, my blood shed for you.” We remember that he said these words on the night before he died on the cross. He knew what was going to happen to him. He knew that his actual body would be broken on the cross and his actual blood would be shed, but he loved us so much that he was willing to lay his life down for us.


In the marriage ceremony a couple vows to each other to love, honor and cherish each other body and soul. And many of us who are married know that we would not hesitate to lay our lives down for our partners if their lives were in danger. Jesus is making that same vow to all of humanity to give himself whole-ly to his ministry and to bring about a new covenant to redeem all of creation and make all things new. In our UCC tradition we believe that “The broken bread and the poured wine represent-present anew-the crucified and risen Christ. The wheat gathered to bake one loaf and the grapes pressed to make one cup reminds [us] that we are one body in Christ, while the breaking and pouring announce the costliness of Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.” (1)


Today on this World Communion Sunday we remember that all over the world, our Christian sisters and brothers are at table sharing with the bread of life and the cup of liberation. From the prairies and pampas of the Americas, the dusty deserts of Africa and Asia, from the majestic mountains of Europe to the vast outback of Australia (2), we all come to the table humbly expecting the fruitful harvest that God has graciously enabled us to bring forth.


Today we break bread and drink of the fruit of the vine to celebrate Jesus…the bread of life who came to us both divine and human to share in our lot. We come to the communion table to connect with God and to know God through his son Jesus. We gather around this table knowing that Christ is the host, Christ set this table and Christ welcomes us all and following Christ’s example we invite those who feel disconnected from God to know God through our communities of faith. We invite people to know God the same way we do, through a man whom we know as the bread of life, whose ministry was about love and justice. And emboldened by the promise of new life that Jesus promises through the broken bread and cup of blessing, we can taste and see the presence of God in Christ.


May it be so.


Amen.


(1) Communion: Practices of Faith in the United Church of Christ,  Cleveland:  United Church of Christ Local Church Ministries.
(2) Ana and Tod Gobledale, Come for the Meal is Ready! World Communion Liturgy.  (Cleveland:  Local Church Ministries and Education Team, United Church of Christ, 2008), 2.