Isaiah 63:7-9
Matthew 2: 13-23
After the last person had left following the Midnight Service Christmas Eve, so on Christmas morning, I walked the Village quiet. All through each house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. What caught my eye was not some miniature sleigh and reindeer, but the tree, the end of the pier, on the lake. The waters were calm as glass, and the tree which shown as a blaze of light, the light on the top shining brightest, as if a star, was reflected beneath with brilliant trees of light each extending five times as big. Suddenly it occurred to me that while we had each been hustling and bustling to create Christmas, that singular event was over in a moment, while the reflection “After-Christmas” stretched many times as large in every direction. We, none of us, create Christmas, not even Jesus has that control, Christmas is God's gift. But what we do with “After-Christmas,” how we reflect, extends that event through all our lives in every direction.
Funny, we have amalgamated all the traditions and stories of Christmas as if one. The only description of there having been No Room in any Inn, of the baby being born in a Stable, laid in a manger, visited by poor shepherds, angels, of Dedication at the Temple with two turtle doves, is in the Gospel of Luke. John retold Genesis' creation. Mark began at the Adult Baptism and beginning of Jesus' ministry. Matthew seems to suggest that Joseph and Mary were residents in Bethlehem, and in days “After- Christmas” were visited by Kings before whom they would bow down.
Threatened by announcement of a new king, Herod killed all the babies about the age of Jesus. There is an ethical dilemma for us in this story... That Christ came to save the world, to suffer for all humanity, why then, in his birth, were all the others killed? We can make the Suffering Servant Argument, which the Sanhedrin would discuss regarding the killing of Jesus, that one person suffer for the salvation of all the rest, but Why should only one be saved by God when hundreds were put to death? Worse, we could make the argument that the others were not even at risk from Herod, until the coming of the Savior, the birth of Jesus, so did his birth cause suffering for the world? Everything would be so much simpler, if we remain with the pieces of the story we want, rather than reflecting and extending the events of life in differing directions from each of our perspectives.
How different the world might seem IF ONLY.
I have shared previously, that my mother died in an odd circumstance of my birth. So, much like Jimmy Stewart in “A Wonderful Life” had I not been born, what might her life have been?
When the Sudanese first arrived, Jacob was filled with questions: You have given us gifts we did not even know existed, but what we want is a Bible, where is the Bible? There were over 6000 Refugees at Kakuma, out of the 26000 who began, why were the three of us Chosen? And why, when the Civil War had gone on for decades, had it taken so long for America to get involved?
Recently someone gave me a family letter, translated from German, written after World War I. The Letter describes the devastation of the economy, repressions that led to the rise of Naziism. To suddenly go from a comfortable life to having only one cow to provide milk for your family, and she is stolen and slaughtered by those who were starving. The letter names “How different the war would have gone, if only the Americans had not entered in.”
The Afterward of Christmas is what gives meaning to all that occurred.
History is written by the circumstance of what comes after.
The point of marriage, is not how beautiful the wedding day, but the commitment of the couple.
The point of the birth of a child, is not how many hours of labor; though we take pride in announcing the weight and length of the baby, this has no effect on our height or weight as adults. The point of the birth of a baby is that this new life has entered the world, entered and changed our lives, forever.
A Century ago at the World's Fair in Paris, The Eiffel Tower was unveiled as the world's tallest free standing steel structure, after which in America we created the Empire State Building, as an even taller steel structure, but one that could be occupied with offices for business and apartments for residence. When the Soviets were first to launch a dog into space, we pledged to have a man orbit the earth, and within a decade to set foot on the moon.
I would dare to say, that there is not one gift given by any of us this Christmas, that we could not have lived without. And yet, there are gifts and relationships and circumstances, that do change the world, change our lives.
Because of the Anger of Herod, Joseph took Jesus to Egypt both that the child was saved and, that like Moses of Old, the Savior would come Out of Egypt to set free a new people of God. The point here is not what Jesus experienced in Egypt. There is no record of this upon the family. But that those who came after, reflected upon the events.
We are in the midst of cultural change, as the postal service becomes more expensive, and electronic communication becomes a norm. One of the things I hope is not lost, is the communication that comes from people in reflection upon the year. More than a ubiquitous Christmas Letter bragging of all the accomplishments of our children, the opportunity at least once a year, to connect with people who touched our lives and changed us. To hear, at least once: what happened AFTER?
How different the framing of reality, if instead of focusing upon “IF ONLY” we perceive life through how our lives are touching the life of others, the difference we make. Time and again this last year, we have encountered difficult times. And persons have come up afterward, not having rescued, but having said “We were watching to see what you would do, and to learn from you.”
One of the circumstances of this year, I hope to remember, is having tried to assist a church using two Open-ended Questions:
What do you reflect on as being the best thing this Church has ever done?
Sponsoring the Sudanese? Making a difference, and challenging perceptions about race.
Rebuilding and reinvesting to make a resource for this community?
Creating a Pipe Organ, and place for Skaneateles Festival and for Masterworks to rehearse?
Supporting Alternative Education and Nursery Schools, the Early Childhood Center?
Several times in recent days, I have heard comment about the Church Cookbooks?
Maybe it was the group that used to remake misfit toys from Larabee's Train Co for the Mission-field?
What does this community need, that isn't being done?
Monday, December 27, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
December 24 Midnight Las Posadas
Luke 2:1-20
We rush through Christmas. We rush through life, trying to get it over with. Since before Halloween, we have been anxiously trying to get everything done, so as to have time to celebrate, and we continue rushing right through to New Year's. We even rush through the story, for the Christ to be born, so that the Kings can come bearing presents, missing the point of the gift that has come for us all.
LAS POSADOS is a Mexican tradition of the Church. Remembrance that the world Christ was born into was overcrowded, busy, just as our world is an overcrowded place, with people having other priorities and their own commitments. Historically, this was during the time of Emperor Caesar Augustus, that is after the time of Julius Caesar, when Quirinius was the Governor of all Syria. The Government mandated not only a new set of taxes, but that to determine how much tax was owed, every person needed to leave their home, their business and property, to go to their ancestral hometown, to be counted in a Census. This was not only the story of Joseph and his pregnant bride Mary. The roads and countryside were mobbed with crowds of thousands and thousands of people, all on the move, all making their way, to Villages and Cities where their grandfather's grandfathers had been born. Cities and Villages their families had left, perhaps for better opportunities, possibly because family and town had been divided over some problem. They returned to the Towns and Cities of their ancestors, because they were required to do so. Where at one time, a family of 12 had lived in an apartment, now those 10 children had grown up, married and had children of their own, who had married and had children of their own, all returning, all seeking refuge.
The point of Las Posados is that this circumstance was not only Mary and Joseph's, but for thousands of people that night, and millions of people throughout human history.
The story of Mary and Joseph is a story repeated by refugees, immigrants and exiles in many different times and places throughout the world. The story of Mary and Joseph on Christmas Eve is the story of the pilgrim and the sojourner, hoping for a new land and a new home, and a new way of life. It is our story as well. Our ancestors, and we, have all been sojourners, at some point in life. We have all sought refuge and safety, security and sustenance.
Tonight, we do not rush to the arrival of the Magi 12 days later, we rejoin the journey of the refugee, the immigrant, the forced traveler, and in the spirit of this season, we welcome one another by the grace of God into LA POSADA: The Inn: God's House of refuge, sanctuary, hospitality: sharing the gifts of faith with all who desire to receive.
Could we join in the first verse of: O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
This night in Sudan, there are thousands of people walking, searching for a place of rest, for a home. The Referendum is two weeks away, on 9 January. Deng and his young bride Anon, each lived in Khartoum in Northern Sudan for ten years. In 1980, Deng had been the eldest of 12 brothers and sisters. It had been Deng's turn to keep watch over the cattle in the Cattle Camp, when soldiers came in the night. Finding the Village asleep, they lit the on fire the thatched roofs of the tukul huts and when families ran out, they were shot. Such a choice: to be burned alive or shot to death. Deng had seen the fires, had smelt the smoke. That night, he and the other boys at the Cattle camp began walking, seeking help, seeking family, refuge. 26,000 children walked hundreds of miles across Sudan to Ethiopia. You could follow the path of their migration by the bodies of those who did not survive. Swimming across the river to Ethiopia, they were safe for a time. But then war came to Ethiopia. Again Deng had a choice to make, swim back across the river filled with crocodiles, back across to the other side, to war in Sudan, or remain to be shot. Deng and the others walked hundreds of miles south in 120 degree heat, avoiding soldiers and other predators, to Kenya, to the Camp at Kakuma, where they lived in refuge again. Word finally came that over 3500 of the refugees would be going to America, but Deng was not one of those chosen, so Deng had left Kakuma to go home, when he was arrested, he was beaten and taken to be sold as a slave in Khartoum. Now, a decade later, he had been set free by his master, told to return to his village, return to the place where his family had been killed. He had met Anon, they had fallen in love and engaged to marry. There, in their ancestral Village, he would Register and cast his vote for freedom, that there would be two Sudans, two nations under God. In two weeks the Referendum will take place, there is great expectation for Peace, and there is great fear of the renewal of war.
Could we join in singing IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER
John and Mary had come to America, searching for religious freedom.
England, Holland, France, each had known persecutions of those who practiced faith differently.
The journey on the sailing ship had lasted for months, without enough food, many becoming sick and dying before they ever reached land.
This new country was a hard place. The soil was different, and crops that were planted withered and died. The Iroquois and the Sioux taught them to bury a fish with the seed to act as fertilizer.
These strangers kept the Pilgrims alive through the first long winter.
In generations to follow, how many different peoples have been treated as foreigners, as strangers, as aliens, and when have we welcomed them as we were cared for?
There were among our ancestors Exiles sent as a Penile colony to America.
Those who came from Ireland during the Potato Famine.
Those from back woods farms, seeking work in cities at the Industrial Revolution.
There have been Refugees of war.
Those escaping Russia.
Armenians escaping the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
Those fleeing The Netherlands, Germany, Poland.
Those who came to America, rather than Concentration Camps, leaving behind everyone, everything, changing name and identity.
Those who escaped Cuba under Castro,
Those who escaped Viet Nam after Saigon fell.
Those who came from St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans, who endured Hurricane Katrina, then floods as the levies gave way and were rescued off the submerged rooftop of what was their home.
Those from Zambia, who watched both their parents die of AIDS, and as orphans came together to create families.
What is it to be alien, in America?
Where is home, when you cannot go back home?
Could we join in the first verse of IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR
Some are searching, not for a geographic home, but desperate for a safe and healthy spiritual home. There are those who seek simply to be welcomed, for who we are, as we are. Is there such an Inn?
Jeffrey was always a little different.
During High School he struggled with depression, that led to escaping his feelings, first with liquor, then with drugs.
Jeffrey became hurt and angry at the world, and the world was disappointed and angry with him for failure.
Jeffrey left home, certain his parents hated him, if they cared at all.
Jeffrey attempted suicide, doubting that anyone cared.
Helen is Jeffrey's grandmother.
Helen always believed in God's love and in forgiveness.
But now her home stands empty and hollow.
Helen cannot welcome her grandson without alienating her daughter and daughter's husband.
Who makes the first move?
When do we stand up to one another, and when do we help?
Who creates a place for the other?
Who welcomes whom?
Could we join in singing AWAY IN A MANGER
Love Came Down At Christmas recited
HYMN 41 O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL
We rush through Christmas. We rush through life, trying to get it over with. Since before Halloween, we have been anxiously trying to get everything done, so as to have time to celebrate, and we continue rushing right through to New Year's. We even rush through the story, for the Christ to be born, so that the Kings can come bearing presents, missing the point of the gift that has come for us all.
LAS POSADOS is a Mexican tradition of the Church. Remembrance that the world Christ was born into was overcrowded, busy, just as our world is an overcrowded place, with people having other priorities and their own commitments. Historically, this was during the time of Emperor Caesar Augustus, that is after the time of Julius Caesar, when Quirinius was the Governor of all Syria. The Government mandated not only a new set of taxes, but that to determine how much tax was owed, every person needed to leave their home, their business and property, to go to their ancestral hometown, to be counted in a Census. This was not only the story of Joseph and his pregnant bride Mary. The roads and countryside were mobbed with crowds of thousands and thousands of people, all on the move, all making their way, to Villages and Cities where their grandfather's grandfathers had been born. Cities and Villages their families had left, perhaps for better opportunities, possibly because family and town had been divided over some problem. They returned to the Towns and Cities of their ancestors, because they were required to do so. Where at one time, a family of 12 had lived in an apartment, now those 10 children had grown up, married and had children of their own, who had married and had children of their own, all returning, all seeking refuge.
The point of Las Posados is that this circumstance was not only Mary and Joseph's, but for thousands of people that night, and millions of people throughout human history.
The story of Mary and Joseph is a story repeated by refugees, immigrants and exiles in many different times and places throughout the world. The story of Mary and Joseph on Christmas Eve is the story of the pilgrim and the sojourner, hoping for a new land and a new home, and a new way of life. It is our story as well. Our ancestors, and we, have all been sojourners, at some point in life. We have all sought refuge and safety, security and sustenance.
Tonight, we do not rush to the arrival of the Magi 12 days later, we rejoin the journey of the refugee, the immigrant, the forced traveler, and in the spirit of this season, we welcome one another by the grace of God into LA POSADA: The Inn: God's House of refuge, sanctuary, hospitality: sharing the gifts of faith with all who desire to receive.
Could we join in the first verse of: O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
This night in Sudan, there are thousands of people walking, searching for a place of rest, for a home. The Referendum is two weeks away, on 9 January. Deng and his young bride Anon, each lived in Khartoum in Northern Sudan for ten years. In 1980, Deng had been the eldest of 12 brothers and sisters. It had been Deng's turn to keep watch over the cattle in the Cattle Camp, when soldiers came in the night. Finding the Village asleep, they lit the on fire the thatched roofs of the tukul huts and when families ran out, they were shot. Such a choice: to be burned alive or shot to death. Deng had seen the fires, had smelt the smoke. That night, he and the other boys at the Cattle camp began walking, seeking help, seeking family, refuge. 26,000 children walked hundreds of miles across Sudan to Ethiopia. You could follow the path of their migration by the bodies of those who did not survive. Swimming across the river to Ethiopia, they were safe for a time. But then war came to Ethiopia. Again Deng had a choice to make, swim back across the river filled with crocodiles, back across to the other side, to war in Sudan, or remain to be shot. Deng and the others walked hundreds of miles south in 120 degree heat, avoiding soldiers and other predators, to Kenya, to the Camp at Kakuma, where they lived in refuge again. Word finally came that over 3500 of the refugees would be going to America, but Deng was not one of those chosen, so Deng had left Kakuma to go home, when he was arrested, he was beaten and taken to be sold as a slave in Khartoum. Now, a decade later, he had been set free by his master, told to return to his village, return to the place where his family had been killed. He had met Anon, they had fallen in love and engaged to marry. There, in their ancestral Village, he would Register and cast his vote for freedom, that there would be two Sudans, two nations under God. In two weeks the Referendum will take place, there is great expectation for Peace, and there is great fear of the renewal of war.
Could we join in singing IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER
John and Mary had come to America, searching for religious freedom.
England, Holland, France, each had known persecutions of those who practiced faith differently.
The journey on the sailing ship had lasted for months, without enough food, many becoming sick and dying before they ever reached land.
This new country was a hard place. The soil was different, and crops that were planted withered and died. The Iroquois and the Sioux taught them to bury a fish with the seed to act as fertilizer.
These strangers kept the Pilgrims alive through the first long winter.
In generations to follow, how many different peoples have been treated as foreigners, as strangers, as aliens, and when have we welcomed them as we were cared for?
There were among our ancestors Exiles sent as a Penile colony to America.
Those who came from Ireland during the Potato Famine.
Those from back woods farms, seeking work in cities at the Industrial Revolution.
There have been Refugees of war.
Those escaping Russia.
Armenians escaping the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
Those fleeing The Netherlands, Germany, Poland.
Those who came to America, rather than Concentration Camps, leaving behind everyone, everything, changing name and identity.
Those who escaped Cuba under Castro,
Those who escaped Viet Nam after Saigon fell.
Those who came from St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans, who endured Hurricane Katrina, then floods as the levies gave way and were rescued off the submerged rooftop of what was their home.
Those from Zambia, who watched both their parents die of AIDS, and as orphans came together to create families.
What is it to be alien, in America?
Where is home, when you cannot go back home?
Could we join in the first verse of IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR
Some are searching, not for a geographic home, but desperate for a safe and healthy spiritual home. There are those who seek simply to be welcomed, for who we are, as we are. Is there such an Inn?
Jeffrey was always a little different.
During High School he struggled with depression, that led to escaping his feelings, first with liquor, then with drugs.
Jeffrey became hurt and angry at the world, and the world was disappointed and angry with him for failure.
Jeffrey left home, certain his parents hated him, if they cared at all.
Jeffrey attempted suicide, doubting that anyone cared.
Helen is Jeffrey's grandmother.
Helen always believed in God's love and in forgiveness.
But now her home stands empty and hollow.
Helen cannot welcome her grandson without alienating her daughter and daughter's husband.
Who makes the first move?
When do we stand up to one another, and when do we help?
Who creates a place for the other?
Who welcomes whom?
Could we join in singing AWAY IN A MANGER
Love Came Down At Christmas recited
HYMN 41 O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL
Monday, December 20, 2010
December 19, 2010 "THE SIGN OF THE ORDINARY BEING SET APART"
Isaiah 7:10-25
Matthew 1: 18- 25
One of my favorite amusements on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, is to listen to the Radio on NPR, to a Broadcast called “What Do You Know?” Amid all the trivia of the past week's news, they play a game, of offering some obscure word no one has ever heard, and asking not only for definitions, but then to choose among these for what is right. “Poplollies” & “Bellibones”, Barlafumbles” and “Lubber-wort”.
What a marvelous word for our time!
Because the word is not what we thought it meant, the Word of God is Sign of the Ordinary Set Apart!
For like King Ahaz, we have sought to create the best and brightest of human culture, to create miracles, to surpass anything and everything anyone has ever known. We look to our military, to technology, to science, to human will, and to our Government to resolve all the world's dilemma. It is as if we believed, that if we worked harder and applied ourselves more, we could fix ourselves, having no need for troubling God with the ordinary.
Like Joseph, we try to do what is right, integrating faith and life. We follow the law, we obey the commandments, we attend Church on Sunday and go about our lives, when suddenly there are insurmountable circumstances which we cannot fix.
Perhaps our circumstance is as huge as replacing Social Security and Health Care, resolving the International Debt Crisis, preparing for a Referendum of Secession and creation of a New Nation, with the shadow of impending war; or it is as intimate and personal, as the serious illness of a child, the closing of a business you have worked at a lifetime, being unable to pay for your children to go to college, confronting family about old issues, confronting depression, coping with an unplanned pregnancy, the death of a loved one. Each of which, are enormous and insurmountable, in our reality.
The answer is not in ignoring the reality of God, taking everything upon ourselves, as if kings;
nor in making so many concessions, in our faith and reality, so many accommodations to what we know to be true that we create belief in half truths. But instead, the SIGN that comes from the Prophet Isaiah, taken up and fulfilled in the time of Joseph the Carpenter, is that the Ordinary can be Set Apart as miraculous.
We have to be careful in appropriating the Word of God. For the Old Testament had an independent and full heritage as the Scriptures of the Community of Faith before the first Christians were baptized. When the Prophet Isaiah confronted King Ahaz in the 8th Century BC, some 720 years before the Census of Quirinius of Syria, Isaiah was not saying:
“Behold, Centuries from now, none of this will matter because a young girl will give birth to a Savior!” NO, Isaiah was speaking of their time, pointing to a young girl already pregnant and stating that within the intervening years of this child being born, nursing and growing to eat solid foods (curds and honey), God will intervene changing the circumstance of the world.
The point of this prophecy from Isaiah was not about the Virginity of Mary.
The point Isaiah was making was that the girl they both could see was already pregnant, was already showing, soon to deliver. How long, between the time a child is born and eating solid foods, a year, 3? We have neatly excised these words from long ago, removing them from their context, ignoring as Ahaz did the Prophecy of Isaiah. “On that Day, The Lord God will whistle for flies and bees to come up from Egypt, for the Promised land to become a wilderness of thorns and briars and brambles again.” King Ahaz was so distracted by the affairs of State, by wars and rumors of wars, he could not see what was going on eroding the culture from within.
We live in a world of 30 Seconds of Fame. Fifty years ago, in December 1960, two commercial airplanes collided over New York City. It was the worst disaster since the Hindenburg, similar to the circumstance of 9-11. And Yet, the day after, the news cycle had already moved on, there was another local fire, new events in the world. What Isaiah tried to say was that all the political maneuvering, all the Government had spent lifetimes creating would be forgot within 3 years.
As much as any of us have lost in the recent Recession, we look for signs of the return of The Boom. Headlines this week read: Airlines coping with excess baggage! A clear indication that the National Economy is soaring anew, because people flying home for the holidays had purchased presents and were willing to pay the airlines' charge for excess baggage. What is it going to take for us to realize we are already part of a new economy? The former times are not going to return. There are already new times upon us. How long does it take to acclimate to a new normal?
But that was Joseph's dilemma, caught between being Righteous and being in Love, what was he to do? To have have fallen in love (there is no evidence here that this was an arranged marriage of their parents), to have publicly celebrated the union of these families, exchanged the Dowry, in essence answered the “I Do” questions of Intent without yet having stated the vows and exchanged rings, what was he to do with a Woman who was already pregnant? The issue for Joseph was not that his Property had been violated. Not that Mary had been with someone else, or had loved another. What is described here, is that Joseph so believed in Marriage, that finding her to be with child would profane God. Joseph resolved to divorce her quietly, to forsake his dowry, because he was caught between shaming God, or shaming the woman he loved?
The Bible is different from the culture in which the Gospels and Epistles were written. The Greeks and Romans believed in merging the Divine and the Human, as if to say that the Gods are a little profane, and humanity as sinful as we are is also divine. Matthew's Gospel is choosing to make a different point, that Jesus as Son of God, is not HALF-HUMAN and HALF-GOD, not God masquerading as a man, but rather Fully Human and Fully Divine. So rather than choose, between Righteousness and Love, or making an accommodation between the two, God reveals to Joseph in a dream another interpretation. Ironically, according to matthew, it is only because Joseph claimed the child that Jesus is descended from David.
Throughout the Scriptures, the Birth of Isaac, the birth of Moses, the birth of Samuel, the birth of John the Baptist, all were also considered Miraculous Births, Interventions by God visiting a woman. The point in each, is not about promiscuity, but that the Birth of a Child, the Ordinary being Set Apart as Miraculous is somehow a sign of a new possibility.
Years ago, in another parish, there was a family with an only child. They had come to the Church after the child was already a few years of age, so when Confirmation took place, we were looking forward to her baptism as a Believer, rather than affirmation of her parents' faith commitment. During that year, of preparation and study, the fourteen year old was found to be with child. SO, what was the Church to do? Without question, the Church claimed her, baptizing her and her baby and the Church claimed responsibility of standing beside this family in all that was to come.
How often, we make accommodations, we acquiesce, we acclimate to a middle ground, or we stand principles. What if there were another option, of understanding that possibly God is using this circumstance as a sign for others. I am continually amazed how often, after a child graduates, or marries, or a family goes through a crisis, people come forward declaring “We were watching what you would do, not to judge, but as a sign for what we might do when faced with the same circumstance, trying to make the Ordinary, set apart.”
Matthew 1: 18- 25
One of my favorite amusements on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, is to listen to the Radio on NPR, to a Broadcast called “What Do You Know?” Amid all the trivia of the past week's news, they play a game, of offering some obscure word no one has ever heard, and asking not only for definitions, but then to choose among these for what is right. “Poplollies” & “Bellibones”, Barlafumbles” and “Lubber-wort”.
What a marvelous word for our time!
Because the word is not what we thought it meant, the Word of God is Sign of the Ordinary Set Apart!
For like King Ahaz, we have sought to create the best and brightest of human culture, to create miracles, to surpass anything and everything anyone has ever known. We look to our military, to technology, to science, to human will, and to our Government to resolve all the world's dilemma. It is as if we believed, that if we worked harder and applied ourselves more, we could fix ourselves, having no need for troubling God with the ordinary.
Like Joseph, we try to do what is right, integrating faith and life. We follow the law, we obey the commandments, we attend Church on Sunday and go about our lives, when suddenly there are insurmountable circumstances which we cannot fix.
Perhaps our circumstance is as huge as replacing Social Security and Health Care, resolving the International Debt Crisis, preparing for a Referendum of Secession and creation of a New Nation, with the shadow of impending war; or it is as intimate and personal, as the serious illness of a child, the closing of a business you have worked at a lifetime, being unable to pay for your children to go to college, confronting family about old issues, confronting depression, coping with an unplanned pregnancy, the death of a loved one. Each of which, are enormous and insurmountable, in our reality.
The answer is not in ignoring the reality of God, taking everything upon ourselves, as if kings;
nor in making so many concessions, in our faith and reality, so many accommodations to what we know to be true that we create belief in half truths. But instead, the SIGN that comes from the Prophet Isaiah, taken up and fulfilled in the time of Joseph the Carpenter, is that the Ordinary can be Set Apart as miraculous.
We have to be careful in appropriating the Word of God. For the Old Testament had an independent and full heritage as the Scriptures of the Community of Faith before the first Christians were baptized. When the Prophet Isaiah confronted King Ahaz in the 8th Century BC, some 720 years before the Census of Quirinius of Syria, Isaiah was not saying:
“Behold, Centuries from now, none of this will matter because a young girl will give birth to a Savior!” NO, Isaiah was speaking of their time, pointing to a young girl already pregnant and stating that within the intervening years of this child being born, nursing and growing to eat solid foods (curds and honey), God will intervene changing the circumstance of the world.
The point of this prophecy from Isaiah was not about the Virginity of Mary.
The point Isaiah was making was that the girl they both could see was already pregnant, was already showing, soon to deliver. How long, between the time a child is born and eating solid foods, a year, 3? We have neatly excised these words from long ago, removing them from their context, ignoring as Ahaz did the Prophecy of Isaiah. “On that Day, The Lord God will whistle for flies and bees to come up from Egypt, for the Promised land to become a wilderness of thorns and briars and brambles again.” King Ahaz was so distracted by the affairs of State, by wars and rumors of wars, he could not see what was going on eroding the culture from within.
We live in a world of 30 Seconds of Fame. Fifty years ago, in December 1960, two commercial airplanes collided over New York City. It was the worst disaster since the Hindenburg, similar to the circumstance of 9-11. And Yet, the day after, the news cycle had already moved on, there was another local fire, new events in the world. What Isaiah tried to say was that all the political maneuvering, all the Government had spent lifetimes creating would be forgot within 3 years.
As much as any of us have lost in the recent Recession, we look for signs of the return of The Boom. Headlines this week read: Airlines coping with excess baggage! A clear indication that the National Economy is soaring anew, because people flying home for the holidays had purchased presents and were willing to pay the airlines' charge for excess baggage. What is it going to take for us to realize we are already part of a new economy? The former times are not going to return. There are already new times upon us. How long does it take to acclimate to a new normal?
But that was Joseph's dilemma, caught between being Righteous and being in Love, what was he to do? To have have fallen in love (there is no evidence here that this was an arranged marriage of their parents), to have publicly celebrated the union of these families, exchanged the Dowry, in essence answered the “I Do” questions of Intent without yet having stated the vows and exchanged rings, what was he to do with a Woman who was already pregnant? The issue for Joseph was not that his Property had been violated. Not that Mary had been with someone else, or had loved another. What is described here, is that Joseph so believed in Marriage, that finding her to be with child would profane God. Joseph resolved to divorce her quietly, to forsake his dowry, because he was caught between shaming God, or shaming the woman he loved?
The Bible is different from the culture in which the Gospels and Epistles were written. The Greeks and Romans believed in merging the Divine and the Human, as if to say that the Gods are a little profane, and humanity as sinful as we are is also divine. Matthew's Gospel is choosing to make a different point, that Jesus as Son of God, is not HALF-HUMAN and HALF-GOD, not God masquerading as a man, but rather Fully Human and Fully Divine. So rather than choose, between Righteousness and Love, or making an accommodation between the two, God reveals to Joseph in a dream another interpretation. Ironically, according to matthew, it is only because Joseph claimed the child that Jesus is descended from David.
Throughout the Scriptures, the Birth of Isaac, the birth of Moses, the birth of Samuel, the birth of John the Baptist, all were also considered Miraculous Births, Interventions by God visiting a woman. The point in each, is not about promiscuity, but that the Birth of a Child, the Ordinary being Set Apart as Miraculous is somehow a sign of a new possibility.
Years ago, in another parish, there was a family with an only child. They had come to the Church after the child was already a few years of age, so when Confirmation took place, we were looking forward to her baptism as a Believer, rather than affirmation of her parents' faith commitment. During that year, of preparation and study, the fourteen year old was found to be with child. SO, what was the Church to do? Without question, the Church claimed her, baptizing her and her baby and the Church claimed responsibility of standing beside this family in all that was to come.
How often, we make accommodations, we acquiesce, we acclimate to a middle ground, or we stand principles. What if there were another option, of understanding that possibly God is using this circumstance as a sign for others. I am continually amazed how often, after a child graduates, or marries, or a family goes through a crisis, people come forward declaring “We were watching what you would do, not to judge, but as a sign for what we might do when faced with the same circumstance, trying to make the Ordinary, set apart.”
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Nurturing Blossoms
Isaiah 35
Matthew 1: 2-11
“The Ransomed of the Lord shall be returned and come to Zion with singing! Everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, and Sorrow and sighing shall flee away!”
Would you do me a favor? Take a deep deep breath, and sigh out your last sigh. Come on, sigh out your breath, as if expelling all the pent up sorrow and frustration and helplessness hidden in your being.
For this morning is about a new way of life, a fresh beginning. Sorrow and Sighing are filled with regret about circumstances past and present, we feel hopeless to change. The GOOD NEWS of this season, is the focus of life has shifted, away from the past and present, to believe in a future of Love.
This week, Elizabeth Smart who at age 14 had been kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, and made a slave for 9 months, testified against the man who had enslaved her and he was imprisoned. In 2002 and 2003, her Kidnapping was one of the top stories, second only to the Olympics. This week in Sudan, 306 people were set free from Slavery, that number brings the total this year of Sudanese who had been held as slaves and now are free to 2000, 2000 people freed this year. And yet the estimate is that there are another 35,000 people still enslaved. It's hard for us to imagine that Slavery still exists. People treating other people as if inhuman, punishing one another for the past, for hate.
These are not words that can be recited monotone, they are words of passion, alive with possibility of what has not ever before been! Words and ideas that are foreign to us in the 21st Century in Upstate New York. “Ransomed,” “Healed,” “Redeemed,” “Restored,” “Salvation” these are ideas that require us to have a different perspective on life. We have been taught to believe that we are all Middle Class, some more so, some less, but all Middle, all Equal, all Free. We may be on the Right or the Left politically, yet as much as we may fight with our opposition, we know there is room for compromise. We believe in education, that every person has the ability to make a difference in their own life. We live in a land of freedoms and opportunities, we too often take for granted. “Ransomed, Healed, Restored, Forgiven, Salvation” these are realities we cannot do for ourselves, you cannot succeed at making yourself “Ransomed,” yet here they are named as not only possible, but promised to those who believe.
The question of John the Baptist from Prison to Jesus, is of One who believed at one time, but now struggles to have hope. Are you the One, or must we continue seeking? What is life about? Is there only what we have known, or can there be something more to life? And the word of hope sent from Jesus to John is that the enslaved are set free, the blind given sight, the deaf made to hear. Not simply that the crippled can stand up, but that those who were once lame will leap and dance like a deer. Christian Faith does not suggest that Jesus was a good man, a holy man, a great teacher, but that people can only take themselves so far and Jesus is Savior. Routinely, at Baptism, Confirmation, Membership, Ordination, we affirm Jesus as “Lord and Savior”, LORD meaning that God is the greatest Authority, the supreme goal of our lives. But claiming Jesus to be the Christ, the Savior, redefines life, redefines reality, not on the basis of power, or authority, but to imagine possibilities never before thought possible, that we could be saved.
Years ago, when I interviewed to become your pastor, I knew this to be a good church, rock solid, with caring and love, if you had not been, I would never have been interested. When I came for the initial face to face interview we made a list of all the things that needed to be done. And upon arrival, we began clicking them off together. Success built upon success. Then one evening, leaders of the Church came together describing that in business the common vernacular for what we had done was “to pluck the low hanging fruit,” not that these had been wrong each needed to be done, not that any were easy, they had been costly and required dedicated hard work to bring to fruition. But in addition to picking the low hanging fruit, accomplishing what was ripe and ready, we needed to see the world with fresh perspective imagining where are there branches that have not yet ever borne a blossom and to question what is needed?
Everywhere we look in the world today, this is the question. We have evolved and reasoned, building strength upon strength, success upon success, but still we can only go so far. We need to imagine new paradigms, new realities and possibilities of what has never been and could be with faith.
This week, results were published of the State of Education for America in the World. Where historically, America had been a leader, we ranked 19th and 29th in the world, in Language and Mathematics. I am told that The Empire State Building was built because just prior at the World's Fair the Eiffel Tower had been unveiled as the world's tallest structure, and our Architects and Engineers and Builders determined that we could not only build a taller steel structure, we could create a building that scraped the sky. Our determination for the Apollo Moon Landings was driven because the Russians had launched Sputnik, and being second to orbit the Earth, we resolved to be the first to the moon. What will it take for us to Nurture Blossoms in Education? How can we nurture blossoms of human dignity and human rights, that slavery will be no more?
I am not suggesting that we make ourselves to be God, trying to change the world to fit our expectations, but that at times there are limitations based on where we have gone before, and we need to believe in God anew. None of this is easy, acting in faith in a world with instantaneous communication, with a lack of privacy, with ever changing expectations is intimidating. But this is the only way that slaves can be liberated. It will not happen slowly and gradually by reasonable folk, but by those who believe demonstrating different possibilities.
In the Wednesday evening Bible Study, we have dared to name the question of what does it mean to be “Saved” to believe in “Salvation”? Is this about life after death, or being able to claim a day and hour when suddenly you were convinced, and began living life differently? I have to believe that the Coming of the Savior, is about more than claymation movies of a red-nosed reindeer and a cartoon Grinch, even if with computer animation we can make it look real. Salvation is about living with life after marital problems, after extended job loss and the end of a career, is about life lived after having been very afraid. In another Church, we had a man, who had been a Prisoner of War during the Korean Conflict. He described having lived in a cage four feet square, suspended between heaven and earth. He described often hoping he would die, as the end of suffering and fear. Yet one Christmas Eve having been liberated and set free. He described, “Joy to the World” does not begin to name what I feel.
Two of my favorites stories come from World War I, what at the time was described as The War to end Wars. The first is reported to have occurred on Christmas Eve. The fighting had been quite brutal, with many casualties and deaths on both sides. As night fell, it began to snow, and in the darkness the fighting stopped. After a few hours, the soldiers began singing Christmas Carols. Which side began, I have no clue, but many that were in English were also known in Europe. And those in Deutsche had been translated into English. After a few more hours sitting in the darkness, the men began crawling out of their trenches and crossing over to meet in the middle with scraps of fruitcake and cookies to share as presents.
The other was of four friends in France. One was killed, and the other three carried him to the nearest Church. They knocked on the door, asking if they could bury their friend in the Church Cemetery. The priest asked if the man were Catholic, and they said no, and sadly the priest said I'm sorry. They turned and walked away, but just outside the grounds of the Church Cemetery they dug a grave and prayed and buried their friend. Years later, after the war, the three friends returned to honor the grave of their fallen comrade, but now everything looked different. What had been bombed and scarred, was growing with new life, and with the trees in bud, and flowers in the fields, all the landmarks seemed different. Reluctantly, they knocked at the door of the Church and the priest answered. They described that they had gone ahead and buried their friend just outside the gates of the Cemetery, but now everything seemed different. The priest smiled and confessed, that he had seen what they done as an act of faith in honor of their friend. So while the man could not be buried on Catholic Church soil, the priest had moved the fence to encompass the place where their friend was buried. Maybe what we need to do, is to make our fences wider, or even to take down the fences, declaring all ground to be holy unto God.
Matthew 1: 2-11
“The Ransomed of the Lord shall be returned and come to Zion with singing! Everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, and Sorrow and sighing shall flee away!”
Would you do me a favor? Take a deep deep breath, and sigh out your last sigh. Come on, sigh out your breath, as if expelling all the pent up sorrow and frustration and helplessness hidden in your being.
For this morning is about a new way of life, a fresh beginning. Sorrow and Sighing are filled with regret about circumstances past and present, we feel hopeless to change. The GOOD NEWS of this season, is the focus of life has shifted, away from the past and present, to believe in a future of Love.
This week, Elizabeth Smart who at age 14 had been kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, and made a slave for 9 months, testified against the man who had enslaved her and he was imprisoned. In 2002 and 2003, her Kidnapping was one of the top stories, second only to the Olympics. This week in Sudan, 306 people were set free from Slavery, that number brings the total this year of Sudanese who had been held as slaves and now are free to 2000, 2000 people freed this year. And yet the estimate is that there are another 35,000 people still enslaved. It's hard for us to imagine that Slavery still exists. People treating other people as if inhuman, punishing one another for the past, for hate.
These are not words that can be recited monotone, they are words of passion, alive with possibility of what has not ever before been! Words and ideas that are foreign to us in the 21st Century in Upstate New York. “Ransomed,” “Healed,” “Redeemed,” “Restored,” “Salvation” these are ideas that require us to have a different perspective on life. We have been taught to believe that we are all Middle Class, some more so, some less, but all Middle, all Equal, all Free. We may be on the Right or the Left politically, yet as much as we may fight with our opposition, we know there is room for compromise. We believe in education, that every person has the ability to make a difference in their own life. We live in a land of freedoms and opportunities, we too often take for granted. “Ransomed, Healed, Restored, Forgiven, Salvation” these are realities we cannot do for ourselves, you cannot succeed at making yourself “Ransomed,” yet here they are named as not only possible, but promised to those who believe.
The question of John the Baptist from Prison to Jesus, is of One who believed at one time, but now struggles to have hope. Are you the One, or must we continue seeking? What is life about? Is there only what we have known, or can there be something more to life? And the word of hope sent from Jesus to John is that the enslaved are set free, the blind given sight, the deaf made to hear. Not simply that the crippled can stand up, but that those who were once lame will leap and dance like a deer. Christian Faith does not suggest that Jesus was a good man, a holy man, a great teacher, but that people can only take themselves so far and Jesus is Savior. Routinely, at Baptism, Confirmation, Membership, Ordination, we affirm Jesus as “Lord and Savior”, LORD meaning that God is the greatest Authority, the supreme goal of our lives. But claiming Jesus to be the Christ, the Savior, redefines life, redefines reality, not on the basis of power, or authority, but to imagine possibilities never before thought possible, that we could be saved.
Years ago, when I interviewed to become your pastor, I knew this to be a good church, rock solid, with caring and love, if you had not been, I would never have been interested. When I came for the initial face to face interview we made a list of all the things that needed to be done. And upon arrival, we began clicking them off together. Success built upon success. Then one evening, leaders of the Church came together describing that in business the common vernacular for what we had done was “to pluck the low hanging fruit,” not that these had been wrong each needed to be done, not that any were easy, they had been costly and required dedicated hard work to bring to fruition. But in addition to picking the low hanging fruit, accomplishing what was ripe and ready, we needed to see the world with fresh perspective imagining where are there branches that have not yet ever borne a blossom and to question what is needed?
Everywhere we look in the world today, this is the question. We have evolved and reasoned, building strength upon strength, success upon success, but still we can only go so far. We need to imagine new paradigms, new realities and possibilities of what has never been and could be with faith.
This week, results were published of the State of Education for America in the World. Where historically, America had been a leader, we ranked 19th and 29th in the world, in Language and Mathematics. I am told that The Empire State Building was built because just prior at the World's Fair the Eiffel Tower had been unveiled as the world's tallest structure, and our Architects and Engineers and Builders determined that we could not only build a taller steel structure, we could create a building that scraped the sky. Our determination for the Apollo Moon Landings was driven because the Russians had launched Sputnik, and being second to orbit the Earth, we resolved to be the first to the moon. What will it take for us to Nurture Blossoms in Education? How can we nurture blossoms of human dignity and human rights, that slavery will be no more?
I am not suggesting that we make ourselves to be God, trying to change the world to fit our expectations, but that at times there are limitations based on where we have gone before, and we need to believe in God anew. None of this is easy, acting in faith in a world with instantaneous communication, with a lack of privacy, with ever changing expectations is intimidating. But this is the only way that slaves can be liberated. It will not happen slowly and gradually by reasonable folk, but by those who believe demonstrating different possibilities.
In the Wednesday evening Bible Study, we have dared to name the question of what does it mean to be “Saved” to believe in “Salvation”? Is this about life after death, or being able to claim a day and hour when suddenly you were convinced, and began living life differently? I have to believe that the Coming of the Savior, is about more than claymation movies of a red-nosed reindeer and a cartoon Grinch, even if with computer animation we can make it look real. Salvation is about living with life after marital problems, after extended job loss and the end of a career, is about life lived after having been very afraid. In another Church, we had a man, who had been a Prisoner of War during the Korean Conflict. He described having lived in a cage four feet square, suspended between heaven and earth. He described often hoping he would die, as the end of suffering and fear. Yet one Christmas Eve having been liberated and set free. He described, “Joy to the World” does not begin to name what I feel.
Two of my favorites stories come from World War I, what at the time was described as The War to end Wars. The first is reported to have occurred on Christmas Eve. The fighting had been quite brutal, with many casualties and deaths on both sides. As night fell, it began to snow, and in the darkness the fighting stopped. After a few hours, the soldiers began singing Christmas Carols. Which side began, I have no clue, but many that were in English were also known in Europe. And those in Deutsche had been translated into English. After a few more hours sitting in the darkness, the men began crawling out of their trenches and crossing over to meet in the middle with scraps of fruitcake and cookies to share as presents.
The other was of four friends in France. One was killed, and the other three carried him to the nearest Church. They knocked on the door, asking if they could bury their friend in the Church Cemetery. The priest asked if the man were Catholic, and they said no, and sadly the priest said I'm sorry. They turned and walked away, but just outside the grounds of the Church Cemetery they dug a grave and prayed and buried their friend. Years later, after the war, the three friends returned to honor the grave of their fallen comrade, but now everything looked different. What had been bombed and scarred, was growing with new life, and with the trees in bud, and flowers in the fields, all the landmarks seemed different. Reluctantly, they knocked at the door of the Church and the priest answered. They described that they had gone ahead and buried their friend just outside the gates of the Cemetery, but now everything seemed different. The priest smiled and confessed, that he had seen what they done as an act of faith in honor of their friend. So while the man could not be buried on Catholic Church soil, the priest had moved the fence to encompass the place where their friend was buried. Maybe what we need to do, is to make our fences wider, or even to take down the fences, declaring all ground to be holy unto God.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
December 5, 2010 "Future Shock/Future Hope"
Isaiah 11:1-13
Matthew 3:1-10
One can hardly read these words from Isaiah without conjuring up the image of the painting “The Peaceable” Kingdom by the Quaker painter Edward Hicks. In this immense mural a lion and ox eat straw together, a bear and cow are feeding on grain, the wolf and the lamb lay together, as also the leopard and baby goat. Even more surreal, down in the lower right corner is depiction of William Penn the founder of the State of Pennsylvania bartering and trading together with Native American Indians. According to Hicks this New World/this great continent/this Enlightenment experiment was to embody that Peaceable Kingdom; where because we act with justice and righteousness in peace, all Creation would live together in tranquil harmony. The Peaceable Kingdom has been humanity's future hope of starting a new world order where violence and fear and isolation are not possible. Rather than a Berlin Wall, or a Cold War, rather than an Arms Race, or Oil Embargoes, to Peaceable Kingdom has been humanity's vision of what could be. It was a grand vision of reality beyond profit, beyond greed, beyond concern for winning and losing, recognizing that the balance of all creation, the future hope of the world depends upon humanity acting to trust one another.
This passage from Isaiah and Psalm 72, we sung as a prayer, each describe a common future hope, when a King Solomon, or a future descendent of David, would execute justice and righteous faith. Much like ending the baseball season declaring “Just wait till next year”, or the hope during an election the future always seems bright, filled with unrealized potential. The ancient world was created with balance and dependency between the rulers and leaders of faith. Not necessarily religious leaders, but the faithful, the meek, those seeking for the poor to be fed and wars to cease. It is as if this prophecy of Isaiah has two parts in perfect balance, description of the Messiah to come and a new Order to Creation. The balance of the world is not set by Wall Street, any more than on ecology and recycling, on whether hydro-fracking is permitted or not, not on moral issues of embryonic stem-cell research or abortion, but as basic as whether we hope for a future of peace among peoples and cultures.
In 1970 a book was published by the Sociologist Alvin Toffler, titled “Future Shock.” Toffler's treatise was that while Europe took a Century to shift from a Rural Agriculture based society to an Industrial one, and parts of the world had never changed from Nomadic and Tribal, in the 1800s America had shifted to Industrialization within 3 decades, and now approaching the next Century change was about to come converting culture from an Industrialized Society to a Super-Industrialized Highly Technological Machine. According to the supposition of Future Shock humanity would experience an Information Overload, causing people to be stressed-out, burned-out, disoriented and alienated from all life. Forty years ago, Toffler hit the nail on the head, describing what we have come to take for granted, that humanity would not be able to cope with so much change.
This has been a hard year. What was accredited as The Greatest Generation who survived the Depression and World War are dying. What was to have been a swift and decisive action in retaliation for the terrorism of 911, has become the longest war is American History, and on the other side the longest war on Afghan soil in their heritage. What we imagined was the blip of the Dot Com Bubble bursting, was followed by the Housing Market Bubble, and has involved the economies of the world. We have hidden unemployment and compounding debt with shame. This has been a hard year. Do we imagine all that is going to go away, simply because a new year comes on the Roman Calendar? Are the singing of a few Carols going to put us in a different mood? Perhaps. Belief in the coming of a baby is sentimental and nostalgic...
What if, instead of Future Shock, instead of Information Overload, we believed in Future Hope? If the answer to all life's problems was not how to get more, or how to accept what happened a lifetime ago, or even how to make it all go away with another drink. What if the answer to life was as simple as change from what we have known, to living in trust and hope?
This is radical change, from the violence that the Leopard does to the goat, and the lion to the ox, or the bear to the cow, this is changing the future of the world! But this radical change happens because of the simple shift from a future based on fear, on shock of being unable to cope with excess, being disoriented, alienated and disappointed; to instead hoping and believing in possibility.
We read the Gospel of Matthew of the wild haired, locust eating John the Baptist; we recall John came as precursor for the coming of the Savior. But according to Matthew, both John and Jesus came preaching REPENTANCE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. How different worship would be, how different our faith, if instead of beginning the Sabbath by saying “Good Morning!” Rather than a Call to Worship that invites us to use our imagination, instead we began with a Call to Live life differently, as different as the Lion and Lamb trusting one another.
I am continually amazed by Hope. Hope is unlimited and inexhaustible. Every generation hopes anew. Much of the housing stock in this Village was not built in the last five years, but a hundred and two hundred years ago. More than being quaint, and an invitation for tourism, each homeowner has mortgaged their future on this home. Each have invested themselves in it, not only with new colors and carpets, but moving walls, adding porches and barns, removing them, building new porches and garages. Each believes that they have done everything possible to make this house their home, to realize their dreams. Than a new generation comes, with new hopes and dreams of the future.
This Sacrament is about HOPE. Hope not simply in a baby, not simply in one greater than a prophet of the wilderness, but hope that inspires awe! Hope in a world created in peace.
Matthew 3:1-10
One can hardly read these words from Isaiah without conjuring up the image of the painting “The Peaceable” Kingdom by the Quaker painter Edward Hicks. In this immense mural a lion and ox eat straw together, a bear and cow are feeding on grain, the wolf and the lamb lay together, as also the leopard and baby goat. Even more surreal, down in the lower right corner is depiction of William Penn the founder of the State of Pennsylvania bartering and trading together with Native American Indians. According to Hicks this New World/this great continent/this Enlightenment experiment was to embody that Peaceable Kingdom; where because we act with justice and righteousness in peace, all Creation would live together in tranquil harmony. The Peaceable Kingdom has been humanity's future hope of starting a new world order where violence and fear and isolation are not possible. Rather than a Berlin Wall, or a Cold War, rather than an Arms Race, or Oil Embargoes, to Peaceable Kingdom has been humanity's vision of what could be. It was a grand vision of reality beyond profit, beyond greed, beyond concern for winning and losing, recognizing that the balance of all creation, the future hope of the world depends upon humanity acting to trust one another.
This passage from Isaiah and Psalm 72, we sung as a prayer, each describe a common future hope, when a King Solomon, or a future descendent of David, would execute justice and righteous faith. Much like ending the baseball season declaring “Just wait till next year”, or the hope during an election the future always seems bright, filled with unrealized potential. The ancient world was created with balance and dependency between the rulers and leaders of faith. Not necessarily religious leaders, but the faithful, the meek, those seeking for the poor to be fed and wars to cease. It is as if this prophecy of Isaiah has two parts in perfect balance, description of the Messiah to come and a new Order to Creation. The balance of the world is not set by Wall Street, any more than on ecology and recycling, on whether hydro-fracking is permitted or not, not on moral issues of embryonic stem-cell research or abortion, but as basic as whether we hope for a future of peace among peoples and cultures.
In 1970 a book was published by the Sociologist Alvin Toffler, titled “Future Shock.” Toffler's treatise was that while Europe took a Century to shift from a Rural Agriculture based society to an Industrial one, and parts of the world had never changed from Nomadic and Tribal, in the 1800s America had shifted to Industrialization within 3 decades, and now approaching the next Century change was about to come converting culture from an Industrialized Society to a Super-Industrialized Highly Technological Machine. According to the supposition of Future Shock humanity would experience an Information Overload, causing people to be stressed-out, burned-out, disoriented and alienated from all life. Forty years ago, Toffler hit the nail on the head, describing what we have come to take for granted, that humanity would not be able to cope with so much change.
This has been a hard year. What was accredited as The Greatest Generation who survived the Depression and World War are dying. What was to have been a swift and decisive action in retaliation for the terrorism of 911, has become the longest war is American History, and on the other side the longest war on Afghan soil in their heritage. What we imagined was the blip of the Dot Com Bubble bursting, was followed by the Housing Market Bubble, and has involved the economies of the world. We have hidden unemployment and compounding debt with shame. This has been a hard year. Do we imagine all that is going to go away, simply because a new year comes on the Roman Calendar? Are the singing of a few Carols going to put us in a different mood? Perhaps. Belief in the coming of a baby is sentimental and nostalgic...
What if, instead of Future Shock, instead of Information Overload, we believed in Future Hope? If the answer to all life's problems was not how to get more, or how to accept what happened a lifetime ago, or even how to make it all go away with another drink. What if the answer to life was as simple as change from what we have known, to living in trust and hope?
This is radical change, from the violence that the Leopard does to the goat, and the lion to the ox, or the bear to the cow, this is changing the future of the world! But this radical change happens because of the simple shift from a future based on fear, on shock of being unable to cope with excess, being disoriented, alienated and disappointed; to instead hoping and believing in possibility.
We read the Gospel of Matthew of the wild haired, locust eating John the Baptist; we recall John came as precursor for the coming of the Savior. But according to Matthew, both John and Jesus came preaching REPENTANCE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. How different worship would be, how different our faith, if instead of beginning the Sabbath by saying “Good Morning!” Rather than a Call to Worship that invites us to use our imagination, instead we began with a Call to Live life differently, as different as the Lion and Lamb trusting one another.
I am continually amazed by Hope. Hope is unlimited and inexhaustible. Every generation hopes anew. Much of the housing stock in this Village was not built in the last five years, but a hundred and two hundred years ago. More than being quaint, and an invitation for tourism, each homeowner has mortgaged their future on this home. Each have invested themselves in it, not only with new colors and carpets, but moving walls, adding porches and barns, removing them, building new porches and garages. Each believes that they have done everything possible to make this house their home, to realize their dreams. Than a new generation comes, with new hopes and dreams of the future.
This Sacrament is about HOPE. Hope not simply in a baby, not simply in one greater than a prophet of the wilderness, but hope that inspires awe! Hope in a world created in peace.
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