Adoring God

Christmas Eve 2013

            O Come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him … Christ our Lord!   And we have!  We’ve come tonight.  We’ve humbly come for holy celebration here in this beautiful historic sanctuary.  We’ve come because Christmas just wouldn’t be complete without presence – the presence of being with one another and loved ones for this time of worship.   We’ve come to be reminded that holy light still flickers brightly amidst our darkest fears.  We’ve come to be gathered as family with those of blood and those we are bonded to through this faith community.

            Above all, we’ve come to experience the fantastic wonder of how God chose to fully come to us.   Not with thunder bolts and lightening (very, very frightening!) but in a meager, makeshift manger … embodied in a vulnerable, precious new baby named Jesus.   God fully came to us in this natural human way through the Holy Spirit blessed teenage mom Mary, whose fiancée, the carpenter Joseph, stood devoutly by.   Through our hearing of the sacred Scriptures we are here to again experience this one-time wondrous event for the whole world. We do so by the side of Mary and Joseph and Jesus, and well as   alongside some lowly local shepherds and some wise, wealthy strangers from a far off land.  In the company of this first congregation, we are here to adore Emmanuel, God with us.   O come, all ye faithful!

            We’ll return to these ancient adoring visitors in a moment, but I have a quick question – generally speaking, what first comes to mind when you consider adoration of Almighty God? 

            Perhaps like many folks, initial thoughts turn to times when you’ve gazed upon the great beauty of nature and lifted up praise.  We small spectators to so many stunning scenes and scientific curiosities across Creation are constantly reminded that we are connected to sacred handiwork we will never fully comprehend.   God has an endless array of environmental ways to grab our attention and inspire our adoration!   

            And it was through heavenly displays that God grabbed the attention of both the lowly local shepherds and the wise, wealthy strangers from a far off land.   These weren’t just big but fleeting inspirational moments.  These were a profoundly personal invitation to look up, then down, then within.   The shining star and the angelic chorus appeared to lead those shepherds and wise men home to the side of their Savior, the Savior of the whole world.  Both were stunning summons to go and pay reverent homage, to offer full-on faithful adoration.   The soul-stirring sights and sounds and peaceful stillness of God’s sanctuary beyond and within these doors call to us for the same purpose on this holy night.

            So what do we learn about adoring God from the locals, those shepherds who first came to the cradle of Christ?  

            We imagine it had probably been an average kind of night of keeping diligent watch, providing safety and provision for their assigned flocks.  They were just common folks doing their work, pushing through the sleepiness of a long, dark, lonely shift.   They likely grumbled about their lot in life, resenting how shepherds were the ones with such lowly, thankless jobs.   Despite it being the most ancient profession of the Israelite people, the calling that the great King David himself once had ... shepherding was regarded as a dirty and therefore undesirable task.   Not one of them had earned anything but the lowest rank in their society for doing good, solid work day in and day out.   

            But on that silent, holy night long ago occurred a totally unexpected spiritual awakening.  The wonderfully creative Christian author Frederick Buechner imagines they had just slumped down under a tree or against a rock, bone-tired, their glassy eyes gazing at nothing in particular.   You know the feeling?    And then all of a sudden, “the air wasn’t emptiness any more.  It was alive” with “brightness everywhere” and what they usually took for silence “stopped being silent and turned into a beating of wings, thousands and thousands of them.  Only not just wings … but voices – high, wild, like trumpets.”   And with holy glory shining and trumpeting all around them there came a conviction in their souls about good news of great joy for all people -- that in the city of the Shepherd-King David, was born the Messiah, wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

            Though everything then just as suddenly returned to as it had previously seemed, they knew nothing would be the same in their lives or in the world again.  They got right up from their glassy-eyed slumping and hastily headed to the heart of Bethlehem, to the side of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  Once there, they proclaimed all that had been told them while greatly adoring God.

            If you’ve ever found yourself lamenting something or everything about your life, or just feeling underappreciated, resentful and marginalized, or even just uninspired as you trudge through daily duties, perhaps also wondering at times if you are at all valued and valuable to God … then come to the side of the shepherds at the cradle of Christ.   Hear them tell you about unexpected spiritual awakenings and salvation happening in the most humbling, mundane of circumstances.   Look down through their eyes and adore the newborn and eternal shepherd-king.

            And now what of those wise, wealthy strangers from a far off land, the magi, the well-educated, greatly respected, socially high standing, politically powerful counselors to kings?  

            They were Persians and not Israelites. I consider them to have been more spiritual than religious given that they were students of stargazing science and its affiliated superstitions.  Despite their high social ranking, they too were outsiders.   But they kept their sharp eyes and keen minds and hungry hearts open for divine revelations.   So they took immediate notice when it dawned on them that the God of the universe was calling their attention to a specific, never before seen light shining in deep darkness.   They were eager to engage in a holy quest to personally find out what it meant for them, for the world.   Outsiders, yes, yet more deeply aware of and willing to follow what was happening to fulfill ancient Israelite prophecies than any of the supposed faithful insiders of the day.  

            And when they came to the heart of Bethlehem, to the side of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, they were so overwhelmed with joy they immediately opened their treasure chests to offer gifts of precious metal, ritual incense, and anointing oil.    They did so kneeling down to pay homage, to adore the God of the whole wide universe wriggling, crying out in common human form.      

            If you’ve ever felt like an outsider to your traditional faith, more spiritual, really, than religious, or if you’ve been searching for signs on a life-long quest to find sacred meaning … then come the side of the wise men kneeling at the cradle of Christ.  Trust and adore that all quests for what is sacred find their true home in Him.   Open your precious hearts as wide and joyously as they did theirs and their treasure chests.  

            O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, and may we all continuously adore Christ our Lord!

            The heavens don’t ever stop announcing God’s glory in the Good News of Jesus Christ.  That soul-stirring starlight, those life-transforming trumpets of truth resounding through silence don’t ever cease reaching for us.  In faithful reply, our adoration should not be momentary or occasional, but ongoing.  

            Every moment we allow ourselves to be filled with faithful adoration, we fall in love with God again and are inspired to work hard to maintain a healthy relationship.   It’s the same with the human beings we most adore, right?    May Christmas inspire you every single day to honor and trust Almighty God’s intimate presence in all facets of your life, in the lives of all whom you love, by the side of every brother and sister in the human race.   Adoration is continuously coming home to Jesus Christ, who keeps coming to us all with His redeeming hope, peace, joy and love.  

            Let us adore our Lord through average kind of days.  Let us adore our Lord through the daily grind.  Let us adore our Lord while contemplating the heavens as well as our hearts. Let us adore our Lord through lonely, dark times and hours of high anxiety.   Let us adore our Lord in the midst of unexpected spiritual awakenings as well as through ongoing quests to experience holy truth.    

            And as you do, I pray you’ll come to know deeper in your heart the life-transforming truth that Mary, Joseph, those lowly, local shepherds and those wise, wealthy strangers from a far off land all came to know so intimately -- God absolutely adores you.   God has the utmost love and respect for you.  God came in person to be with you.  Nothing will ever change this.   No need to wonder why, to feel insecure and unworthy, to feel so lost in sin that there is no hope.   It’s just freely and wonderfully true that God is always with you and with us all in Jesus Christ.  Accepting this, may we all go and do as those first adoring attenders at the cradle of Christ did – let the whole world know this true meaning of Christmas.     

            I rejoice that you have come tonight, all you faithful.   Angel wings are fluttering and trumpeting Good News. Stars are shining and summoning.  Holy light and love are aglow and redeeming darkness.   Here we are, adoring God who adores us.    Amen.    

Labors of Love

Psalm 17:3-7; Matthew 1:18-25

Fourth Sunday in Advent 2013

This Advent and Christmas season is certainly a special time of year to recognize and celebrate labors of love.  Especially the quite extraordinary ones that start out small but then blossom to have a big, beautiful, blessed impact on world.

            One such small labor of love was started in 2003 by a man named Bob Carey for his wife, Linda.    Bob is a photographer.    He finds his work to be all about the reaction, getting people to think.    Linda gives a glowing report about how he isn’t afraid to be himself, to really put himself out there, and about how really knows how to make her laugh.     

            Being this way, Bob came up with a uniquely selfless labor of love to offer comfort and encouragement during Linda’s treatment for an aggressive form of breast cancer.  This kind-eyed, gentle-smiling man with a bit of bearish build decided … are you ready for this? … to put on a pink tutu and little else and then take several self-portraits in various locations.   The over-the-top photos had the desired effect of inspiring her laughter and of helping them both stay positive as she endured grueling rounds of radiation and chemo therapy.    

            What happened next was simply wonderful and I believe divinely blessed.   Linda freely shared these photos with her fellow patients.   It’s not hard to imagine the empowering buzz this created.  Inspired by Bob and referring to her treatment, one fellow patient I saw interviewed on the Today Show said, “I immediately felt like, ok, I can do this.”    

            Recognizing the broader positive impact of his labor of love, Bob decided to create more self-portraits.   And then a website, www.thetutuproject.com, to post them on.  It’s global popularity then led to his starting a non-profit foundation to raise funds in support of all kinds of cancer-related costs.   Countless people have been helped and inspired by this husband’s decision to offer a bold and beautiful labor of love. 

             And I have to say, for such a quirky concept, his artistic work is really quite well done.  I can see how his locations and posturing resonate even more deeply than his tutu wearing with the pink advocacy color.  I think the one of Bob standing mid-stage surrounded by white swan ballerinas at the Metropolitan Opera House is my favorite … or maybe it’s the one of him with his back towards us while standing at Lincoln’s feet in Washington, DC … or it could just be the one of him atop a crumpled stone wall just across the water way from a blue bridge at Roosevelt Lake in Arizona.   Truth is, they are all my favorites and I’m delighted to celebrate the work of this fellow human being.

            There are thousands of stories like this to be discovered and celebrated and, pray God, emulated in new ways.    I encourage you to find them as 2013 sets and 2014 dawns.  By being on the lookout for and identifying little labors of love, we can help them to grow into even greater blessings.   And significantly for today, this fourth Sunday in Advent, so close to Tuesday’s evening worship services … our doing so will honor the long ago loving labor of another very special husband.

            I’m speaking, of course, about Joseph.  Now you may say, “Wait a minute, Pastor Rich, we just heard in Matthew 1:18 that he and Mary were only engaged.”    True enough, but understand that in the Jewish culture of their day, engagement was more than a social matter.  It was a legal contract.  So in the eyes of religious law, they were for all intents and purposes husband and wife.   This is important to understand because there were legal protocols in place for breaking off an engagement.   Especially, say, if a husband was to be given the utterly shocking news that his betrothed had become pregnant … knowing full well they had yet to live together or consummate their union.   

            We all know this is what happened, though Matthew doesn’t give the precise details about how Joseph was told.  But believing her to have been unfaithful, I understand he had two legal options – bringing her to public trial with the likely outcome of her being sentenced to death by stoning (study Deuteronomy 22:20 and Numbers 5:11-32) or avoiding this by more discreetly divorcing her.    

            Regarding that crucial, conflicted time of decision making, a popular fellow preacher writes that “We’re not used to this.  We’re accustomed to thinking about the beauty and wonder of the birth of Jesus, and that’s appropriate.   But let’s not forget the distress, sense of betrayal, disappointment, and a host of other emotions that Joseph must have experienced, or the fear and hurt that Mary would likely have also felt as they sorted out their divinely complex relationship.” 

            This fellow preacher asks this of us because by not forgetting this, we can more fully relate to Joseph and Mary, imagine ourselves in their sandals and really realize that like us, they were “people who go through all kinds of things, some quite damaging, and yet whom God uses nevertheless to accomplish God’s purposes.”[i]    

            Wouldn’t you say there is truly no better time to offer labors of love that have a chance to grow and glorify God then when life’s most messy?   The forgiveness, the healing, the reconciliation, the need to turn tears and fears into laughter and hope … it’s honestly got to start someplace.     

            So Joseph, we are reminded in Matthew’s Gospel, “planned to dismiss her quietly.”  (Matthew 1:19).   Being a “righteous” man, he chose this labor of love not just for Mary, but even more so as a labor of God’s love, of holy mercy.   He took the holy high road.  

            And he stayed on it, even in his restless sleep … for God’s will was even clearer to him when he next awoke.   Through divine revelation in the deep watches of the night, it came to him that his labor of love was for a magnificently more merciful purpose.    It was not just to save Mary from stoning or to help him socially save face.   His labor of love helped fulfill God’s purpose of bringing about the birth of the Savior of the whole world!   To be fully present to this, Joseph understood he was not to dismiss her after all.   He was to stand faithfully by her side come what may.  He was to humbly embrace the holy calling of being step-father to Emmanuel, God with us, to Jesus.    

            This was a choice, another colleague of ministry has written, that “he could never have expected to make and yet, it was also a dilemma which will parallel one we will probably all face at one time or another as we sort out how we are called to do the right thing in a situation that at first seems all wrong.  I’ve seen it happen,” she writes, “and so have you. This story of Joseph gets live out again and again and again.”[ii]

            Throughout this year of 2013 -- with its Lenten, Easter, Advent, and regular holy time seasons now come to pass -- what little labors of God’s love have you offered?    Gifted to those who were most in need of acceptance, bold support, holy mercy?  Gifts that by God’s grace then blossomed into big, beautiful blessings for many others?   

            This week and on into 2014, as we faithfully and continually celebrate God’s amazing labor of love who is Jesus Christ, know that I’m truly not expecting to see photos of any of you adults in pink tutus.    And I guarantee you won’t see any of me!    But I do fully hope to labor on in the Lord with you all by carrying healing laughter and profound hope and humbly righteous love to support people’s lives.   By grace and through faith, may we be sure to cultivate this caring, Christ-mass culture in our homes, here at FPC and through all of our relationships and communities.     Amen!

           

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[i] http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2961

[ii] http://words.dancingwiththeword.com/2013/12/just-what-dad-does

Joyful Christmas Presence

Psalm 16; Luke 1:39-56

Third Sunday in Advent 2013

            It had been about 2:30 in the morning when the joyful news was heralded to my heart.   In what had felt like forever, I’d been alone in a half-lit hospital room in Newark, OH very expectantly waiting for it.  For various reasons I’d been instructed by medical staff to stay put there.  I recall feeling overwhelmingly exhausted, fearful, hopeful, and excited all at the same time.   But then there was a truly tremendous burst of profound joy when a nurse finally appeared to offer the words, “Mr. Gelson, you have a daughter.”  That moment announcing Anna’s arrival happened fifteen years ago yesterday.   And the memory of it leads to me to also reflect on the equally amazing joy that arrived with the birth of Rebecca on a mid-summer evening two and half years later.

            The magnificent elation of those moments continues to fill my life right up to this very hour.  Experiences such as this, as well as many others that inspire the same intensity of positive, life-impacting emotion, are much deeper and more lasting than mere flare-ups of happiness.  Happy feelings are wonderful … but we all know that they can also be quite fleeting and sometimes seem downright elusive.   When truly deep joys happen, however, they move into a permanent home in our hearts.  They live on in a formative, foundational way through all of our changing life circumstances.   Faithfully speaking, they are holy gifts from the continuously good, creative, saving and sustaining presence of God.  

             I invite you take a moment right now to think on and thank God for the holy joys you’ve experienced in your lives.   Review your most precious relationships, those times when your life took powerfully blessed turns, when God made a way when it seemed there was no way, the instances when you felt most healed and hopeful.    Doing so now and every day is a way of profoundly thanking God for your past and present.  And I believe it also keeps you faithfully expecting, seeking and confirming God’s loving presence in your life and in this whole world.

            In this morning’s familiar lesson from Luke’s Gospel, we are told about the day two ecstatic relatives, Elizabeth and Mary, got together to celebrate and confirm the arrival of holy joy.   In their time together this faithful elation was magnified, so much so that they came to fully realize that the miraculous blessing they had each received was for the purpose of preparing the way for holy joy to fully enter the whole world.

            Elizabeth’s miraculous blessing was the son, to be named John, whom she was carrying in her womb at what Luke’s Gospel informs us was an advanced age.  Her pregnancy was a joyfully unexpected reversal of her long-standing heartache and social disgrace.   She and her husband Zechariah, a priest of the great temple, had been unable to conceive.  This had led them to experience considerable social shame in the culture of their day.            

            The miraculous and joyful news of a way beyond this was first delivered to Zachariah while he was attending to his temple duties.   And it came by way of a person he understood to be the angel Gabriel.    He was not only informed that they were going to have a child, but that this son, to be named John, would have the power of the great prophet Elijah.  Through the Holy Spirit, his life was to become one of calling the people of Israel back to God in preparation for the arrival of their long-awaited Savior.  Though Zechariah initially found this announcement unbelievable, after a period of time in contemplation and continued faithful service he returned home and the holy news came true.

            Further confirmation and celebration of this divine blessing occurred when Elizabeth was a visible six months pregnant.   Her much younger relative, Mary, engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, traveled with “haste” to see her at that time.  She had her own remarkably joyful news to share, for the heavenly one known as Gabriel had also appeared to her, saying the words, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you!”   And Gabriel did not mean just spiritually, it was meant quite literally, declaring that she had been favored by God to bear a child by way of the Holy Spirit.  This child was to be named Jesus.   This son, it was explained, would grow to be called “great” and “the Son of the Most High” and would be given the faithful kingdom of his ancestor David.   

            Understandably, Mary couldn’t quite believe this was to happen to and through her.  After all, she was just a socially marginalized, poverty stricken young woman trying to start a new chapter in her life.  But those angelic words had also sounded so familiar … they were old words, special words that her people long cherished, words of promise of the One who was to come and redeem her people from sin.  And what an incredible joy to be chosen by God to bring God’s love into the world so intimately, so fully.   Her son was also the Son of God!  Further addressing this, Gabriel told her what was happening with Elizabeth and assured her that nothing is impossible with God.  

            Responding with tremendous faith, Mary then declared herself a humble servant, and proclaimed that all should be according to the holy words.   She then went with a whole lot of hurry up to Elizabeth’s house.  Upon arrival, the joyful holy truth of it all was fully confirmed when John jumped for joy, gave a solidly expectant kick in Elizabeth’s womb.   In that moment, “the future mother of the forerunner” recognized the “future mother of the Messiah.”[i]  

            Continuing to faithfully and humbly respond, Mary then gave voice to all the voiceless in the world by breaking out in a magnificently magnanimous praise song, one that was not a solo aria, but a full on chorus of God’s amazing, liberating love for all of humanity oppressed and marginalized by the power of sin.

            I hope you took good note of when holy joy entered Elizabeth and Mary’s lives most fully.  It wasn’t when their lives had a lot happening to nurture hope.  It wasn’t through moments particularly pregnant with joyful expectation.  Holy joy was instead announced right amidst hard life realities, truly humbling and uncertain circumstances, the deep sorrow of the lonely and oppressed.   God chose this unexpected way to birth the full presence of holy joy to the world -- our Savior’s reign.   It’s the holy joy of the cradle and the cross.   “Where is the divinity, where is the might of the child?” asked one fellow believer, before going on to answer, “in the divine love in which he became like us. His poverty in the manger is his might,” and “only the humble rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair.  God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in.”[ii]

            With humility, where in our lives and in this world do we trust God is marching in?  Where do we proclaim the most holy joy that God’s surprising, life-transforming, redeeming love is on the move?

            I feel compelled to share this in closing, given that yesterday was the one year anniversary of the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary.  First grader Emilie Parker was gunned down that day.  I recently watched a short video featuring her mother Allissa’s voice as narrator and many beautiful, joyful photo images of Emilie’s time on earth.   Allisa reported that for a while she “felt consumed by how evil can be so powerful, and that evil won.”  But then, she continued, “The letters started to pour in, and these letters over and over were accounts of the power of God’s love.  There was an overwhelming response from millions of people, well-wishers, people praying for us, people sending us things.”  Then, with what I hear as a note of holy joy in her voice, she further explained, “I truly started to feel this obvious strength and power that lifted me, lifted my family.”  

            The Parkers responded to this divine gift by faithfully seeking ways to keep alive the holy joy of their Emilie. This led to the birth of several new initiatives for positively transforming people’s lives.  These include supporting arts programs in schools via the Emilie Parker Art Connection website, co-founding a school safety advocacy group, and financially supporting emergency response medical care in Guatemala.  “The only way good can be in us,” Allisa faithfully proclaims, “is if we freely choose it over all else.  Evil didn’t win that day, we’ll carry on the love that Emilie had.  It’s quiet, it’s not on the news, it takes effort to find.  But what I’ve realized through all this is how strong and big God’s love really is.”    Amen.  

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[i] http://Presbyterianrecord.ca/2012/12/17/expectant kick

[ii] God Is In the Manger, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 22

The Glorious Gift

Psalm 4:3-8; John 14:23-27

Second Sunday in Advent

            “I think we’re going to have an exceptionally good Christmas,” wrote the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a letter to his fiancée Maria on December 1, 1943.   He shared this hopeful sentiment despite the dire circumstance of his being in a Gestapo prison, having been arrested earlier that year for conspiring to put an end to Hitler.     It’s not hard to imagine what must have been heavy on his heart and mind at that time -- the horrors of the Third Reich’s “new order” and failed attempts to stop it; the fearfully honest thoughts about what was to be his earthly fate; the heavy weight of war in this world; the great and tender longing to be with and care for his beloved Maria and all of his family.   

            Still, it had been Advent, the time of true preparation for Christmas.  Sharing his perspective on this tension, he further wrote to his beloved saying, “The very fact that every outward circumstance precluded our making provision for [Christmas] will show whether we can be content with what is truly essential.  I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious.”[i]   

            By grace and through faith, he set his heart on celebrating the gift of God with us, of Emmanuel, of God enfleshed to directly be with this world of sin and sorrow and to show the Way through and beyond it.   In that time of tremendous tension and turmoil, of anxiety about what was coming next for him and so very many others, he rejoiced in God’s strengthening and redeeming presence coming to us that first Christmas.   Focusing on this glorious gift filled his heart and mind with holy, abiding peace.  

            On this December day, the second Sunday in the season of Advent, we too focus on opening our hearts to the deep peace of Christ.   The peace that fully and forever reconciles us with God, with ourselves, and with all humanity.   The peace proclaimed in traditional Christmas carols, experienced so beautifully with every candle-holding singing of “Silent Night.”  The peace sung about as well as in newer Christmas songs, such as a favorite of mine called “Peace, Peace” by singer-songwriter Sara Groves.  She sings these honest words –

            “Peace, peace, it’s hard to find.  Trouble comes like a wrecking ball, to your peace of mind and all that worry you can’t leave behind you.  Peace, peace, it’s hard to find, doubt comes like a tiny voice that’s so unkind.  And all your fears, they conspire to unwind you.”    Then her faithful, familiar chorus reminds us of the glorious gift, proclaiming, “And in your dark street shines an everlasting light, and all your hopes and fears, are met in Him tonight.”         

            This peace is “more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies”[ii] … it is shalom, which means “universal flourishing, wholeness and delight … a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder” in this world.[iii]   It is, as bible scholar William Barclay explains, “conquering peace,” because it is “independent of outward circumstances,” and “no experience of life can ever take it from us and no sorrow, no danger, no suffering can ever make it less.”   This is in contrast to what Barclay calls the worldly peace of escape, which “comes from the avoidance of trouble and from refusing to face facts.”[iv]

            There wasn’t room in Bonhoeffer’s cell to avoid trouble or refuse to face facts.   There was only space to faithfully prepare his heart to again celebrate the birth of God’s conquering peace in Christ.

            This is always a beautiful, inspiring time of year full of color and light and festive sounds. It’s a time for celebrating joys, blessings, family, and fullness of life.   But I believe we all know it can also be filled with tension and turmoil.  In can be very difficult to experience peace for ourselves and others in the midst of it …

            We know there are many living in confining emotional and physical cells and circumstances, many facing manifold threats to their well-being.  For people near to us and unknown to us, this season can trigger suffocating grief about all sorts of sudden and ongoing losses.   It can let loose bullets of despair and anxiety through the hearts of folks trying to cope with life interruptions, changes and tragedies.   And 24-7 streaming news sources keep us all ever alert to the ever-present foot and handprints of sin.  

            To every worldly woe, Jesus, God with us, our Emmanuel, insists we not let our hearts be troubled.  He keeps reminding us through Scripture, prayer, encounters with faithful brothers and sisters, and through many mysterious ways that His conquering peace is with us.  The promise of it is never broken.   Holy wholeness is always happening.   We don’t experience it all at once, or on demand, and our Lord knows we all can and do sinfully resist it in many ways.  Not to mention we’re all pretty much culturally wired to be impatient about waiting for anything.   But truly, hear the Good News that there is never a human moment Christ’s conquering peace is not abiding with us.   It began in a meager manger, moved on to teach its radically loving and inclusive ways to humankind, and then stumbled with humility to the Cross before marching victoriously out of a tomb.  Through the intimate power of the Holy Spirit it keeps coming and going on earth as it is in heaven.   For us.

            May we help ourselves, one another and others in our lives and across the globe to focus of receiving this glorious gift.  While waiting for new and needed experiences of God with us, it’s a sure strengthening to open our hearts and minds to folks who’ve experienced and gladly shared stories of it blessing their lives and this world.   Voices past and present bear witness to its abiding power.    This is the reason one way I’m preparing for Christmas this year is by turning each day to an Advent devotional based on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer called GOD IS IN THE MANGER.    Who do you know and where do you turn to be reminded of Christ’s conquering peace?    

            There’s someone else we can all turn to this time of year.   St. Nick!   By this I mean the man named Nicolas, who was born 1, 733 years ago in a village in what is now Turkey.    He was born to wealthy, devoutly Christian parents.    Sadly, he was orphaned at the age of nine when they died of a plague.   He, whose name means, “Victorious,” did not go on, as author Max Lucado whimsically puts it, to major in toy making and minor in marketing.  This historical figure who is the seed of all Santa legends, instead studied Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine.    

            Nicolas’ upbringing in our faith and his subsequent studies inspired to him to use all of his sizeable inheritance to assist the needy, sick and suffering.    He dedicated his life to serving the Lord and was appointed the Bishop of Myra.   He  knew tension and turmoil, for he suffered imprisonment and exile during the Roman Empire’s most severe persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian.   This did not break his faith in God’s glorious gift.   Upon release he went on to be widely known for his great generosity and abiding love of children.  Many countries in Europe celebrated his faithful legacy this past Friday, St. Nicolas Day.   So, yes, we can also turn to St. Nick, for this historic figure experienced and extended the glorious gift of Christ’s peace, of shalom, of God with us.

            Inspired by Jesus’ personal promise to abide with us and by generations of faithful witness to this holy happening, may these Advent days be spent preparing our hearts anew to receive and to share true peace.    By doing so, I am confident this will be an exceptionally good Christmas!  Amen.

                       

           

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[i] Letter to fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer, Dec. 1, 1943

[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalom#As_a_Jewish_religious_principle

[iii] ibid.

[iv] Daily Bible Commentary on John 14

Always Look Up While You're Walking

Romans 13:8-14, Isaiah 2:1-5

First Sunday in Advent 2013

            A few weeks before Halloween, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the major stores seemed to have openly welcomed the “Christmas Creep.”   I don’t mean “creep” as in a particular person judged as being odd and disturbing to be around.   I mean “creep” as in that slow, stealthy retail approach of putting Christmas items out for purchase and display.   It’s a creep because it seems to start unsettlingly earlier and earlier every year.    Bags of yellow-orange white tipped candy corn are found shelved next to red and white Candy canes.   Spooky masks suddenly find themselves neighbors with plastic smiling North Pole elves.   Decorative Thankgiving cornucopia gets crowded out by pre-decorated table-top artificial evergreens.    And the “Christmas Creep” really likes to worm its way into our ears, as overhead speakers drop sleigh-bell saturated tunes deep into our psyches.   You know you’re encountering this creep when you shout loudly and defensively within your head, perhaps too aloud, “But it’s not even Halloween or Thanskgiving yet!”          

            Studies about this phenomenon generally reveal a negative public response to it.[i]   Folks resent feeling pressured to buy stuff early, feel upset that they can’t seem to really enjoy the distinctive, traditional features and values of each holiday, and get stressed by the quickening of the calendar.   This said, studies also reveal that from an economic standpoint the “Christmas Creep” is a positive thing.     Stores are very smart to welcome it.  

            One way or another, I believe we all get caught up with this creep.    But as faithful people in Christ, may we be very cautious about allowing it to define what it truly means to prepare for Christmas.   May our spiritual preparation not get overwhelmed and coopted by secular consumer pressures.  Let’s all instead be focused on the fact that we as Christ’s church have our own kind of Christmas creep to catch ourselves up into.   This will happen when we slow down and intentionally invest time into preparing our hearts and homes to watch and wait for the greatest gift of all time – the arrival of Jesus, God with us.

            On the church calendar, this time of watching and waiting begins today and is known as the season of Advent, a word that means “coming” or “arrival.”   Advent is a four week daily journey that helps us grow in our faithful understanding about both advents of Christ – the first one in Bethlehem, and the one yet to come.     “It’s meant to get us ready,” writes a colleague, “not for a present-opening party, but for a transformational celebration of the birth of Jesus.”[ii]

            On this first Sunday of true Christmas preparation, we focus on and light a candle for hope.   One thing I find is always important to remember about hope is the need to spend time recognizing why it is needed.   We say things all the time like “I sure hope so” and “that’s what I’m hoping for.”   It’s a way of expressing a desired, positive outcome.    The measure of how much we sincerely mean this I believe depends on how well we are willing to honestly acknowledge the reality of what is being hoped against.   

            The great prophet Isaiah could not have been clearer about stating what humankind was hoping against.    In doing so, he was equally clear about proclaiming what to hope for – our Savior.    

            While he was alive on earth, he had been speaking to the children of God living around 700 B.C. in ancient Judah, especially its capital city of Jerusalem.    His words about what to hope against comes to us right away in the very first chapter of the Old Testament book bearing his name.    Since we didn’t just hear this read aloud, here’s a quick summary – the people had become “offspring who do evil,” “who deal corruptly,” whose multitude of religious rituals had come to be an “abomination” to God because the people hypocritically continued to perpetrate immorality and injustice.   Their violent disrespect, their desecration of all that God had given to and taught them throughout Israel’s sacred journey had brought and would continue to bring nothing but destruction to them from within and from without.   Isaiah named all this and more as an urgent call to repentance -- for them to turn away from sin and turn back toward the sacred.   He knew well that unless they were fully aware and accepting of their need to do this, they would not be truly prepared to receive his holy vision of hope in “days to come.”   

            What to hope for is mentioned some in chapter 1 and then more fully in chapter 2.   He does so using the beautiful imagery of the “mountain of the Lord’s house.”    For the faithful folks who heard this prophecy first hand, they would have mostly interpreted this as a hopeful word about God’s physical reestablishment of Jerusalem atop Mt. Zion along with its great temple.   

             More broadly and symbolically, however, this imagery pointed to God’s kingdom on earth beyond that time and place.   It pointed to a future time when holy instruction about how to walk on this earth while looking up to the paths of holy hope, love, joy and peace would be mapped out in a new way.   It pointed to day when the old religious ways would be seen through a new light, a light that was to be both visible to and welcoming of all people, not just the Israelites.   By the gracious, all-encompassing power of this new light, scarlet red sins would look white as pure snow, and death-dealing instruments such as swords and speers would be seen as tools for taking care of God’s creation and people.   We know from Isaiah 7:14 that he knew this Light, the Savior, would come into the world by way of a young woman giving birth to a son and naming him Immanuel, which means “God with us.”    

            On our slow, steady spiritual walk of preparing for Christmas we humbly and joyfully reflect on how Jesus’ arrival back in ancient Bethlehem fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy.   Because of that advent, the hope of salvation was firmly and forever established on earth.  The hopeful, peaceful, loving and joyful transformational light of our Savior has been shining ever since from the “mountain of the Lord’s house” for all to see.  It is visible and welcomes everyone wherever on earth faithful people are gathered as the church.   We are given grace and called upon by God to look up among the many lowered heads of despair and see beyond the horizon, to a glimmer even in the midst of darkness … to hope.[iii]   

            So as we continue to swiftly prepare for Christmas, may we take great care not to forget to walk in this illuminated, holy way.   May it not be overrun by all the other things we feel we have to do.    Giving this Advent season proper faithful attention will help -- journeying here to be together for worship;  lighting Advent candles and opening calendar windows at home, accompanied by prayer, Scripture reading and reflection; making extra time to be a hopeful light to folks suffering all sorts of darkness;  giving additional effort to live honorably and kindly and with generosity and compassion. As Romans 13 reminds us, we know this is not a time for spiritually sleeping through to Christmas eve and dawn.  

            The commercialized, secularized Christmas creep isn’t going anywhere.    If it keeps growing, it just may mean that more and more people will just have to be pay attention to Christmas all year long … which is not a bad thing when considered in the right Light!  Amen.

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[i] http://consumerist.com/2013/11/04/why-does-christmas-creep-bother-people-so-much/#more-10142365

[ii] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/introduction-to-advent/

[iii] http://www.ministrymatters.com/followthestar/hope.html

First Place ... In Everything!

Proverbs 8:22-31, Colossians 1:11-20

Christ the King Sunday 2013

            I’m already getting excited to follow the 2014 Winter Olympics.   The games will begin seventy five days from today in the Black Sea coastal city of Sochi, Russia.   Do you have a favorite event?  Freestyle skiing?  Luge?  Figureskating?   Oh, I know!  Given that Presbyterianism has some Scottish roots and this game originated in the frozen ponds, lochs and marshes of Scotland back in the 16^th century … your favorite is most likely Curling!   

             I usually most enjoy the Short Track Speed Skating.    A good reason for this is because this is the event of the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time,[i] Apolo Ohno.   While I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the Olympics in months to come, today I’m wondering  -- do you know what Ohno is up to these days? [ii]    Well, he’s currently hosting the cable television game show “Minute to Win It.”     Yes, this great global victor is now cheering and coaching contestants to compete in a variety of silly, fun party games that are a speedy one-minute in length – games like stacking cups in a certain order or way, strategically shaking your body to get the jingle bells inside a tissue box attached to your back to all fall out, and using only your face muscles to guide and Oreo down from your forehead and into your mouth.

            During Camp Johnsonburg youth and family retreats, it’s always a crowd favorite when we play our unglitzy version of “Minute to Win It.”     Campers play the games I just mentioned, among others. I haven’t ever played the host and wouldn’t dare try to step into Ohno’s shoes!   

            Our contestants, of course, don’t play for hundreds of thousands of dollars.    Nor do they play to gain or increase their fame.    As with all of our other Presbyterian camp activities, our focus is having building up the Body of Christ.    Winning is about just spending time together in fun fellowship and encouraging one another to faithfully accept challenges.

             There sure is a lot of social pressure to be a winner in this world, to be the best, to take first place in all kinds of real-life contests.    As Christians, how have you faithfully responded to this?    From the high level of becoming an elite athlete, on down to becoming a master at moving a cookie across your face, and through all the ideas of winning in-between, here’s the Gospel -- first place in everything belongs to Jesus Christ alone.     And what’s really wonderful about this biblical truth is that we have every minute now and all throughout eternity to share in our Lord’s winning power.    The crown of victory is His, but it’s for us!    It’s for our everyday values, attitudes, and priorities to the glory of God.

            For deeper insight into this Good News, we turn today to our New Testament lesson, which was originally a letter written to a first century church located near what is now the modern town of Honaz, Turkey.   In case you’re wondering, I didn’t choose to preach from this passage right before Thanksgiving because of this turkey connection!   I chose it because Colossians reminds us of the following three Gospel truths worth briefly speaking about – Christ has been in first place since the beginning of Creation, Christ is first to rescue us from the darkness of sin, and Christ is first in all we do as the Church.

I.                     

            So first and foremost let’s understand that Jesus has always been first in everything.  I mean, from the very beginning of everything, of all Creation.    I know this is more than a bit of a mindbender because when we read the story of creation in Genesis, there isn’t any mention of the name Jesus.  But keep in mind the Bible as a whole teaches that we have only one God.  This one God is revealed to us in three ways, as the Holy Trinity.    I think most of us are taught to think in a progressive straight line, so when reading the Bible we seem to first meet God as the Creator, then as the Savior, Jesus, and then as the Holy Spirit.    But truly, we are meeting all three at once in every page of the Greatest Story Ever Told.    

            And so Colossians reminds us that Jesus, the Son of God, is the “firstborn” of heaven and earth, and that “all things have been created through him and for him.”   Especially each one of us!  We were created through Jesus Christ and … here’s a really big point … for Jesus Christ.    We have the faithful obligation of placing Him first in the center of our lives.  

II.

            When we center ourselves in the Lord as the first priority of every day, we stay focused and live according to our belief that He has rescued from all the darkness of sin in this world, and fully forgiven us for our participation in it.     We keep aware that long ago worldly powers entrenched in this darkness worked together to push Jesus of Nazareth into very last place behind them.  They did so by executing Him on a Roman cross.    Well they sure didn’t get the victory on that score!    His resurrection fully demonstrated that His powerful holy love, forgiveness, justice and peace prevails in first place.    

            This was not a one-time win.   Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s glorious power continues to rescue and forgive all God’s children from the sufferings of sin.   By grace and through faith, it strengthens us and empowers us to endure everything we go through in this life with patience and joyful thanksgiving.    That powerful Christ light of Easter morning eternally keeps shining upon and through us.    Generation to generation of believers inherit it and pass it on as great, global torch of hope.  This is the first and sole source of all our truly holy transformations and new beginnings.  

            In 2012, Cy Young Award winning baseball pitcher Barry Zito played a pivotal role in helping the San Francisco Giants win the World Series.    But he has told the world about how he’d been mentally and physically very broken down in the two years before this great victory.    It had really showed in his performance.    As he endured lots of pain and struggle, he also took a deep personal inventory.   He considered his reputation as sort of a Zen surfer dude.   He reviewed how he’d grown up “testing and reading and trying all different religious things and kinds of philosophical approaches.”[iii]    He came to face to face with his narcissism, his living for attention.  He realized that for far too long he had been relying on his own strength.    He came to confess how many things he’d been putting before God.  

            In the middle of 2011, he found himself fully accepting and placing Jesus Christ first in his life.    So much more than just his career was strengthened and turned around for the better as a result.   And a key part of all this is how the Christian faith provided something he hadn’t known he’d spiritually needed – structure.

III.

            When we think and talk about structure and Jesus Christ, we find ourselves considering church.  Not just buildings, but what happens through faithfully structured community.  And just as our human bodies have only one head, so too does the human institution of the church.    Colossians 1, verse 17 reminds us that this is Christ.    Christ, who has been ahead of all since the beginning of Creation, who is first to rescue all from the darkness of sin, is always to be turned to first in all things we choose to do as an organized gathering of those who believe and find salvation in Him.    When making decisions on every level of faithful life together, we need to first prayerfully pause and ask whether or not our priority is to shine the crown of Christ.  

             “The Christ whom we follow,” writes a pastor and professor who lives on the other side of the world whose writings I like to read, “is not just a founder of a religion, nor even a religious figure who was raised from the dead to delight and encourage a religious sect … He embodies both what humanity was made to be as the image of God and …the very wisdom which makes sense of the universe and helped set it in motion.”[iv]   This is the wisdom speaking to us in Proverbs 8, the wisdom that rejoices in this world and delights in the human race.    As those who have inherited Christ’s wise and wonderful kingdom of light, we shine His crown as we make it both our personal and collective priority to make the time to pray and to worship and to study and to serve together in His name.  To quote this same professor again, William Loader of Murdoch University in Australia, “In the best sense church is where the reconciling compassion of God is making some headway and is recognized and valued as such.  Our joy is then not the power of influence and control, but that love flows and change happens.  It’s when destructive powers … lose their deity and people see that what matters is love because love lies at the heart of the universe and is God’s wisdom and will.”[v]

IV.

            In a few moments, we will share in the sacrament set before us.   We partake of this holy supper because Christ our King commanded us to do so.    We do so as humble, grateful, rescued and ready servants of His kingdom of light.  We do so to ardently remember what he has done for the whole world since the beginning of everything and first and foremost through the saving grace of the Cross.   We do so to receive the cup and the bread as a physical reminder that we are “made strong with all the strength that comes from His glorious power” and so we may be further “prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks.”    Amen!

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[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/sports/olympics/21ohno.html?_r=0

[iii] http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/barry-zito-talks-god-guns-interview-gq-magazine-191158721--mlb.html

[iv] http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/CEpChristKg.htm

[v] ibid.