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