John 1:1-14
Funny, how much we have invested in Christmas being about Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem. While every Christmas pageant in every Christian Church for 800 years has portrayed it that way, only Luke's Gospel of the four has the couple going to Bethlehem, only Luke and Matthew even have the story of a birth. What we celebrate at Christmas is the incarnation of God becoming one with humanity. While the crucifixion and Resurrection of Easter are about the Atonement for our sins, Christmas is ALL about the grace of God, God's desire that we not be alone and broken; and in response, our desire for God
John's Gospel is a different Christmas reading.
Not about a Manger, or Shepherds or Kings, a Virgin, or a Star, not even about a birth of a baby. Instead, the Beloved Disciple identifies the birth of the Savior as having happened before time and space, before humanity, before Moses or Abraham, even before Noah and the flood.
“In the Beginning was the WORD.”
A strange identification for the Savior, the Messiah sent by God, and yet, going back to Genesis, what we hear is that “In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” In the Beginning in Genesis is about creation of Time and Space to fill the shapeless, formless void. And according to John, Creation is also about the Light of God and the Word of God (which already exist) coming into Creation. Human Thought, Reasoning, Language about God, stories of the Divine in Human life offer light in the darkness. Our language, our words, betray our allegiances, our convictions. When we speak of CREATION, what do we imagine? If “Life,” this planet and universe, and the balance between all things, by calling this Creation, are we not naming our predilection that there is a CREATOR?
Genesis 1 tells the Order of Creation, and identifies that before anything or anyone else, rather than hypothesizing a Big Bang (that all life as we know it was formed by the accidental cataclysm of gases), that instead, before anything else, the Creator was/is God.
Genesis 2 tells a different story of Creation, not in contradiction of the first, but emphasizing the role of humanity with God in Creation, having power to name all that exists.
Genesis 3 tells another story of Creation, again not in contradiction of the first two, but explaining the origin of Good and Evil...how it is that God could have formed all creation and Blessed Creation calling it very Good, when there was evil.
Genesis 4 tells yet another story of Creation, as to why there are generations of humanity, and anger and jealousy between us as family members, why as family systems we pass on behaviors.
After which Genesis tells the story of Noah and the flood...
But what about all the rest, all of human understanding and words, language about God...When, How and Why did our caring about who God is, about the possibility of changing our lot in life, come into being? The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ according to John, is not about the birth of a baby at Bethlehem, but another Genesis of how human thought, human desire to change, human want to know God, came to be.
How much we try to hide in life, how much darkness and gloom and control we try to exercise, how little of life is really creative and how much of all we do is killing? According to the Gospel of John, our darkness, our human control, death, could not extinguish the light that is the WORD from God. This is what the whole of the Good News from God will be about, This Cosmic struggle between the forces of Darkness and of Light. The Empire, Civilization, all Human Knowledge, Logic/Reason, Death and our Fears of Death, human understanding on one side, and a man sent from God on the other. Can one person make a difference? Can one individual change the nature of the whole human race, change the nature of history?
Written down in the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, when taxation for the sake of taxation was the norm, when the Roman Military had been used as a weapon against Rome's own citizens and people, during the worst of human existence, John witnessed that humanity had another nature.
First, there was a man sent from God, whose name was John, who came calling people to “repent.”
He was not the Light, he was not the Word, but he came to bear witness to what was coming.
That John (John the Baptist) and the John who authored the Gospel are not the same individual, but the similarity of their names is not by accident... as John came to bear witness to the Light of God, so also John the author of the Gospel will witness to what he has seen and believes. This is one of the elements we have lost today. The ability to “Witness,” I am not necessarily talking about knocking on doors to ask if the person knows Jesus, but that at somepoint in our lives we speak to those we love, whose lives, whose existence are important to us, to whom our lives are important, naming what we believe and why.
I have a close friend, with whom I have worked on the Clinic for 7 years now, and suddenly yesterday, a woman I knew as a friend in college 30 years ago asked “Do you know my brother?” Until that moment, I never had put the two together, never had thought of other human connections for someone I work with. That is the power of a witness, not to accuse and name the culprit, but to make connections, to identify meaningful relationships without realizing they are meaningful.
Even with this witness testifying that this is the true light sent from God, no one received him, no one believed. People were caught up in their own lives, in their own existence and survival, in the struggles of power and control, good and evil, struggles of women and men, struggles of family systems. As much as humanity has developed, as great of civilizations as we had developed in Egypt, Israel, Babylon, Greece and Rome, as great as our Law, and our philosophy and reason, no one had considered whether we are born of the flesh as animals, or what it might mean to be born a child of God. The Great Philosophers debated whether humanity is basically Good or Evil? The Greeks and Romans theorized a whole civilization of Gods separate from and parallel to Humanity. But no one had considered whether God might care about Creation, or whether Creation might care about God. SO according to this story of Creation, God became human to dwell among us, full of grace and truth.
When did the relationship between God and Humanity begin? It is basic to human life, basic to our Created Order. As we accept the rotations of Night and Day, as we believe in a firmament an atmosphere we cannot see, so also there is a bond and tension between us and God. Is it any wonder then, that Jesus would refer to God as Father? Judaism identifies God as Law Giver. Islam as giver of Prophecy. Christianity claims relationship with God as Father, because the Word of God became Flesh as a Human Messiah.
Even so, while the bond between God and Humanity is intrinsic to who we are and who is our Creator, as Human Creatures one of our Creations is history, the orderly progression of developments in Time and Space. SO when did the Word of God become flesh? For as Poetic and Mystic as John's Gospel, he is also witnessing to the reality of Jesus Christ. According to John, FAITH is not simply thought, not only Philosophy, but that in TIME & SPACE, in our relationship to all the world around us, within the STRUGGLE OF GOOD & EVIL, in our FAMILY SYSTEMS the life and witness of Jesus Christ matters.
So we return to the earlier question, IF at a particular time (actually the most debauched corrupt, evil time in human history) the Word Became Flesh to dwell among us, when in our lives will we witness, will we share with one another not only a tie and perfume, not only a gift in your honor to this wonderful cause, but how precious it is to our lives that this other is part of who we are?
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
"You Shall Be CALLED: Sought Out" Midnight Christmas Eve 2011
Isaiah 62:6-12
Luke 2:1-20
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Skaneateles is an idyllic place, every season of the year, perhaps every home town is. But of all the moments of all the year, this is one of my favorites. After the Candle Glow, just before Midnight.
From January until September every year, we hear the High School Seniors anxious to get out of this tiny town, where there is nothing to do and no where to go, and whether we want to or not, we know every family's scandal, be it football, or divorce, saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing.
Yet, something happened in the last four months, or 16, or 4 years or however long it has been, by being gone, home has been missed. Even more, traveling the world with Rotary, going to college and discovering new ideas, falling in love, marrying, having children of our own, we have come home to question whether everything we knew and experienced growing up, is still true... or whether like leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for reindeer, our perspective of what is real changes as adults. Once you've been exposed to Bowen's Law of Thermodynamics; once you understand Pascal and Fortran; Plato and Aristotle, and Freud, Niebuhr and Tillich; can Silent Night still warm our hearts? Can we still believe?
The same is described in Isaiah, the Old Testament people had taken faith in God for granted. We had David and Solomon as our kings, we had the largest economy, the grandest palaces, the mightiest army, the world had ever known! Then, everything seemed to fall apart and everyone was dispersed, they called it the DIASPORA. The best and brightest, were sent to Babylon to be immersed in a new and different world, with different foods, languages, ideas and customs, as if being thrown into the deep end to see if you can swim. Others, for survival – escaped, to far distant places, seeing the world. Still others were made slaves, bought and sold by the very economy they once cherished.
Generations later, the word of prophecy, the call of faith is to return to God's Holy Mountain.
Come from the four corners of the earth! Go through the gates! Prepare the way for others! Say to one another: “Behold, Salvation Comes!” and you shall be called holy, redeemed, sought out, a city not forsaken!
Everything is different. That is the point of redemption, of being Holy and being sought out.
We have now been taught to know about micro-biology and plate-tectonics, and virtual worlds. Must there be an either or choice? Rather than leaving behind all we knew, we are now adults with minds that can think and debate. Dictators have been overthrown. Terrorists put to death. Can we recognize there is more to life than the stuff of survival?
Redemption is more than putting in your time, serving your sentence, working 40 years and retiring. Redemption requires reflection upon who we are and what we are doing and why.
The fact of the matter, is that as much as we thought, adolescents grinding on the dance floor, or divorces, or pregnancies, or our daughters and sons and peers being arrested, CHRISTMAS is redemption of the greatest scandal that could ever be. Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, the Force behind all that is, the Ancient God of Ishmael, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who gave the LAW to Moses, that God created humanity with Free Will, so as to be able to choose to love God; but instead because of our own vanity, our own desires, our own blindness to everything except our reflection, we turned away from God, seeking what shimmers and sparkles, but can never satisfy. For thousands of years, Almighty God watched helplessly, as we destroyed ourselves, as we built up for ourselves what rusts and rots in decay. Could there be any greater tragic lovestory? Could there be any greater scandal?
But God has done what seemed impossible. The Divine stripped off divinity. Could anything be more naked? The ruler of Heaven and Earth, left Heaven to be one with us. The Creator stepped into creation but rather than coming as a God, as all knowing, all powerful, invincible and immortal, God came to us in the most humble most vulnerable way of all, as a newborn baby.
Each of us is unique, individual. Imagine what you have wanted more than life itself... I am not talking about the red bike, or the third Lexus, or the house in St. Croix... Imagine the Father of the Prodigal Son, willing to accept the indignation of his child wishing he were dead, willing to face the embarrassment of the world by longing for his child to come home... Imagine you trained for a career and now have been without employment since 2007... Imagine, you want to be reconciled with your family, to be validated and respected... Recognize you have wanted this so long and so painfully that giving up the dream seems the only way out. When suddenly, there is hope, there is a way forward. Redemption, Being “Sought Out,” cannot be taught. There is no mathematic equation, no chemical formula, no technique or training of the voice, this is not linear thinking... But belief that life is HOLY.
In the time of Ancient Rome, not of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, but when the Empire was falling into ruin and decay; when the Legion the Army of Rome had attacked her own people; when taxation for the sake of taxation was the norm, and humanity was powerless to stop, one individual, one person came forward to make a difference in the world, one person can change the world and all human existence. Not the most powerful, not the most influential, not the wealthiest, or smartest, truly one possessing nothing out of the ordinary, who never gave in, never compromised being faithful.
SO which is the great scandal? That God formed humanity to love God, and humanity did not? Or that God so wanted to redeem the world, that God would cheat? God became human in order to redeem us, to love us. More than having a title, having an identity, a career, “You/we are Sought Out,” we have a Calling, to lead as Christ leads, to serve as Christ serves, to trust as God trusts, to love.
Luke 2:1-20
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Skaneateles is an idyllic place, every season of the year, perhaps every home town is. But of all the moments of all the year, this is one of my favorites. After the Candle Glow, just before Midnight.
From January until September every year, we hear the High School Seniors anxious to get out of this tiny town, where there is nothing to do and no where to go, and whether we want to or not, we know every family's scandal, be it football, or divorce, saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing.
Yet, something happened in the last four months, or 16, or 4 years or however long it has been, by being gone, home has been missed. Even more, traveling the world with Rotary, going to college and discovering new ideas, falling in love, marrying, having children of our own, we have come home to question whether everything we knew and experienced growing up, is still true... or whether like leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for reindeer, our perspective of what is real changes as adults. Once you've been exposed to Bowen's Law of Thermodynamics; once you understand Pascal and Fortran; Plato and Aristotle, and Freud, Niebuhr and Tillich; can Silent Night still warm our hearts? Can we still believe?
The same is described in Isaiah, the Old Testament people had taken faith in God for granted. We had David and Solomon as our kings, we had the largest economy, the grandest palaces, the mightiest army, the world had ever known! Then, everything seemed to fall apart and everyone was dispersed, they called it the DIASPORA. The best and brightest, were sent to Babylon to be immersed in a new and different world, with different foods, languages, ideas and customs, as if being thrown into the deep end to see if you can swim. Others, for survival – escaped, to far distant places, seeing the world. Still others were made slaves, bought and sold by the very economy they once cherished.
Generations later, the word of prophecy, the call of faith is to return to God's Holy Mountain.
Come from the four corners of the earth! Go through the gates! Prepare the way for others! Say to one another: “Behold, Salvation Comes!” and you shall be called holy, redeemed, sought out, a city not forsaken!
Everything is different. That is the point of redemption, of being Holy and being sought out.
We have now been taught to know about micro-biology and plate-tectonics, and virtual worlds. Must there be an either or choice? Rather than leaving behind all we knew, we are now adults with minds that can think and debate. Dictators have been overthrown. Terrorists put to death. Can we recognize there is more to life than the stuff of survival?
Redemption is more than putting in your time, serving your sentence, working 40 years and retiring. Redemption requires reflection upon who we are and what we are doing and why.
The fact of the matter, is that as much as we thought, adolescents grinding on the dance floor, or divorces, or pregnancies, or our daughters and sons and peers being arrested, CHRISTMAS is redemption of the greatest scandal that could ever be. Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, the Force behind all that is, the Ancient God of Ishmael, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who gave the LAW to Moses, that God created humanity with Free Will, so as to be able to choose to love God; but instead because of our own vanity, our own desires, our own blindness to everything except our reflection, we turned away from God, seeking what shimmers and sparkles, but can never satisfy. For thousands of years, Almighty God watched helplessly, as we destroyed ourselves, as we built up for ourselves what rusts and rots in decay. Could there be any greater tragic lovestory? Could there be any greater scandal?
But God has done what seemed impossible. The Divine stripped off divinity. Could anything be more naked? The ruler of Heaven and Earth, left Heaven to be one with us. The Creator stepped into creation but rather than coming as a God, as all knowing, all powerful, invincible and immortal, God came to us in the most humble most vulnerable way of all, as a newborn baby.
Each of us is unique, individual. Imagine what you have wanted more than life itself... I am not talking about the red bike, or the third Lexus, or the house in St. Croix... Imagine the Father of the Prodigal Son, willing to accept the indignation of his child wishing he were dead, willing to face the embarrassment of the world by longing for his child to come home... Imagine you trained for a career and now have been without employment since 2007... Imagine, you want to be reconciled with your family, to be validated and respected... Recognize you have wanted this so long and so painfully that giving up the dream seems the only way out. When suddenly, there is hope, there is a way forward. Redemption, Being “Sought Out,” cannot be taught. There is no mathematic equation, no chemical formula, no technique or training of the voice, this is not linear thinking... But belief that life is HOLY.
In the time of Ancient Rome, not of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, but when the Empire was falling into ruin and decay; when the Legion the Army of Rome had attacked her own people; when taxation for the sake of taxation was the norm, and humanity was powerless to stop, one individual, one person came forward to make a difference in the world, one person can change the world and all human existence. Not the most powerful, not the most influential, not the wealthiest, or smartest, truly one possessing nothing out of the ordinary, who never gave in, never compromised being faithful.
SO which is the great scandal? That God formed humanity to love God, and humanity did not? Or that God so wanted to redeem the world, that God would cheat? God became human in order to redeem us, to love us. More than having a title, having an identity, a career, “You/we are Sought Out,” we have a Calling, to lead as Christ leads, to serve as Christ serves, to trust as God trusts, to love.
"Believing in Christmas" Pajama Christmas Eve 2011
Luke 2:1-20
Grown ups do not "get" Christmas!
When you have seen Christmas 100 times, well okay 30 or 40 or 50 times, you begin to think this is all ordinary, that Christmas is Ordinary, as if Christmas is going to come every year.
If you ask me, the grown ups have seen Dr. Seuss' Grinch too many times, and they actually think that without all the Who-Presents and and Who-Carols and Who-Turkey and Who-Beast, that without Suzie-loo Who, still Christmas would be just the same.
The whole point of Believing in Christmas, is in believing in the Ordinary as Not Ordinary!
And believing that when we are uncomfortable, where we are disappointed, to see that life is not over, God is with us.
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Christmas is believing that God, the God we pray to at night, the God who made the whole Universe, the God who was with Adam and Eve and Abraham and Moses, the God in Heaven who commands Angels, the God who does miracles, WOULD BECOME human!
That God, with all the divinity and holiness and power of being God could become a baby!
AND, that that event, that Baby, that ONE PERSON in all the world, in all the history of all the Nations, could make a difference!
What would happen, if suddenly one ordinary thing changed? If suddenly there was no gravity? What would happen if a second sun appeared in the sky? What would happen if flowers suddenly appeared in winter? What would happen if your greatest wish came true?
So what do you believe would happen, if God was born as a baby?
All the world would change, stars suddenly stop in the sky, we would be able to hear angels singing, wise-men would cross the world to see what had happened and bow down before what is truly great!
Joseph and Mary had had a comfortable life. He was a talented carpenter who worked hard and had a nice business, she lived with her parents, they were planning to get married, everything was comfortable. Then everything changed. A miracle happened and Mary was going to have a baby. Have you ever seen somebody when things do not go their way? They get kind of red in the face and their ears especially, and sometimes they scream and are angry at other stuff because what they planned and what they thought was going to happen in ordinary times, does not. But Mary does not cry. Mary does not get embarrassed, she says, OKAY, this is what I have to do.
Joseph could have made a terrible scene, he could have ruined Mary and her family. He had every right to walked away, in fact it probably would have been right for him to do so, not to stay with her when she was going to have a Baby and he was not the father. But Joseph loved Mary, for better and worse.
Then the Government, the Government announced new TAXES, and even more, everyone was told you had to move! You had to leave your business, your family and friends, and everything you have ever known to get to a different place, all so you could be counted, COUNTED as if you were sheep.
How many of us tonight, have travelled a long way from our homes and routine, what is ordinary, to be here? And we have to sleep in a strange bed, maybe on a couch, our routines have been changed.
Maybe we lost our job this year. Maybe someone we love died and Christmas is different. When things are not ordinary, we sometimes get afraid.
Mary and Joseph finally got to where they were told to go, and there was no room for them.
Having been treated like sheep, they were offered a place in the Stable and were thankful to have that.
When suddenly, it was time, and the baby was born. Could there be anything more common, more ordinary, a Stable, dark and dank, with the smell of animals and sweat, and diapers and a baby?
There are moments, when it seems time and space are full and ripe.
At the start of the worship, when the room was full of the warm glow of candlelight and all the voices sang “Silent Night,” Christmas morning when you wake up and realize what day it is and the tree glimmers and everyone is happy.
That was the mood of the Stable after the Baby was born.
Ordinary and yet for Mary the mother of Jesus, everything was suddenly different.
For Joseph, as ordinary as this was, as much expected, all of life was now different.
At that moment, you do not need anything, especially not visitors. But suddenly, there are people poking their heads in the door, and sheep, whole flocks of sheep. Do you know how smelly and loud a whole flock of sheep can be. Yet, these uncouth shepherds tell of having witnessed the most amazing thing. The whole sky lit up, and angels appeared, there was singing, and a voice from heaven telling them that the world had changed. Telling them that they needed to go see what seemed to be the most ordinary of things, a poor couple in a stable who had a baby, and the baby wrapped up as you would wrap a baby... but that this would not be ordinary, this would not be common, this would be Christmas!
Grown ups do not "get" Christmas!
When you have seen Christmas 100 times, well okay 30 or 40 or 50 times, you begin to think this is all ordinary, that Christmas is Ordinary, as if Christmas is going to come every year.
If you ask me, the grown ups have seen Dr. Seuss' Grinch too many times, and they actually think that without all the Who-Presents and and Who-Carols and Who-Turkey and Who-Beast, that without Suzie-loo Who, still Christmas would be just the same.
The whole point of Believing in Christmas, is in believing in the Ordinary as Not Ordinary!
And believing that when we are uncomfortable, where we are disappointed, to see that life is not over, God is with us.
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Christmas is believing that God, the God we pray to at night, the God who made the whole Universe, the God who was with Adam and Eve and Abraham and Moses, the God in Heaven who commands Angels, the God who does miracles, WOULD BECOME human!
That God, with all the divinity and holiness and power of being God could become a baby!
AND, that that event, that Baby, that ONE PERSON in all the world, in all the history of all the Nations, could make a difference!
What would happen, if suddenly one ordinary thing changed? If suddenly there was no gravity? What would happen if a second sun appeared in the sky? What would happen if flowers suddenly appeared in winter? What would happen if your greatest wish came true?
So what do you believe would happen, if God was born as a baby?
All the world would change, stars suddenly stop in the sky, we would be able to hear angels singing, wise-men would cross the world to see what had happened and bow down before what is truly great!
Joseph and Mary had had a comfortable life. He was a talented carpenter who worked hard and had a nice business, she lived with her parents, they were planning to get married, everything was comfortable. Then everything changed. A miracle happened and Mary was going to have a baby. Have you ever seen somebody when things do not go their way? They get kind of red in the face and their ears especially, and sometimes they scream and are angry at other stuff because what they planned and what they thought was going to happen in ordinary times, does not. But Mary does not cry. Mary does not get embarrassed, she says, OKAY, this is what I have to do.
Joseph could have made a terrible scene, he could have ruined Mary and her family. He had every right to walked away, in fact it probably would have been right for him to do so, not to stay with her when she was going to have a Baby and he was not the father. But Joseph loved Mary, for better and worse.
Then the Government, the Government announced new TAXES, and even more, everyone was told you had to move! You had to leave your business, your family and friends, and everything you have ever known to get to a different place, all so you could be counted, COUNTED as if you were sheep.
How many of us tonight, have travelled a long way from our homes and routine, what is ordinary, to be here? And we have to sleep in a strange bed, maybe on a couch, our routines have been changed.
Maybe we lost our job this year. Maybe someone we love died and Christmas is different. When things are not ordinary, we sometimes get afraid.
Mary and Joseph finally got to where they were told to go, and there was no room for them.
Having been treated like sheep, they were offered a place in the Stable and were thankful to have that.
When suddenly, it was time, and the baby was born. Could there be anything more common, more ordinary, a Stable, dark and dank, with the smell of animals and sweat, and diapers and a baby?
There are moments, when it seems time and space are full and ripe.
At the start of the worship, when the room was full of the warm glow of candlelight and all the voices sang “Silent Night,” Christmas morning when you wake up and realize what day it is and the tree glimmers and everyone is happy.
That was the mood of the Stable after the Baby was born.
Ordinary and yet for Mary the mother of Jesus, everything was suddenly different.
For Joseph, as ordinary as this was, as much expected, all of life was now different.
At that moment, you do not need anything, especially not visitors. But suddenly, there are people poking their heads in the door, and sheep, whole flocks of sheep. Do you know how smelly and loud a whole flock of sheep can be. Yet, these uncouth shepherds tell of having witnessed the most amazing thing. The whole sky lit up, and angels appeared, there was singing, and a voice from heaven telling them that the world had changed. Telling them that they needed to go see what seemed to be the most ordinary of things, a poor couple in a stable who had a baby, and the baby wrapped up as you would wrap a baby... but that this would not be ordinary, this would not be common, this would be Christmas!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
December 18, 2011 "Nothing is Impossible (For God with Us)"
2nd Samuel 7:1-11
Luke 1:26-38
Earlier this week, someone stopped me to say, “You better be planning something really spectacular for Christmas! We usually have a big family dinner with all the relatives, we sing carols, and tell stories as we eat Christmas cookies staying up late, then we go to bed and get up before dawn to open our presents to one another, before we have a huge breakfast. And you want us to change our tradition, by coming to Church both Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning! All I can say is, you better be planning on doing something really different.”
The Word of God becoming Flesh and blood, the birth of God, the coming of the Savior of the World, somehow just does not stack up against our snicker-doodles and rum-balls.
This passage from 2 Samuel 7 is a wonderful word for us at this beginning of the 4th week of Advent. For this Word brings together all the dangling threads of promise that went before, and establishes everything that will come after. Since Genesis 12, we have followed stories of God's promise to a family, that Abraham's children would be a great Nation, would live in comfort and peace in a land flowing with milk and honey. Since the Exodus presentation of the Law and Commandments to Moses, we have followed the movements of the Ark leading in battle, resting only momentarily within the Tent of Meeting. And not since Cain and his brother Abel, have we had a Man who wanted to DO FOR God. In the case of Adam's sons, to each make offerings for God which led to Cain killing Abel; in this case, King David dwelling in peace, given rest from all his enemies, living in the luxury of palaces, wanting to build a house of cedar and gold for God, that will lead to his killing Bathsheba's husband. As Handel's Messiah described “The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, because the Mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Not, we are a people who have dwelt in peace and prosperity, wanting to experience greater and greater spectacles, so show us the glory of the Lord!
How curious that King David, ruler over the greatest most powerful nation on Earth, would seek advice from the prophet Nathan. In our Nation's Capital, there is a role for Chaplain of the Senate, who prays in the beginning of the meetings, but when it comes to decision making and policy, the Cabinet are composed of Political, Financial and Military advisors. I wonder what would have happened if in the course of these long years of wars in Muslim nations, our leadership had sought the advice and counsel of American Muslim Clerics, Jewish Rabbis, Priests and Pastors.
We have to question, what Nathan did not that day. Why does the Great King desire to build a palace for God? Is it purely out of faith, or is it to be seen as being devoted, that David would be remembered as having built The Palace for God? What God reminds Nathan in the night, is that God is the prime actor, and being created in the image of God, we respond and react to God. When we try to be the prime movers, when we define who God is and where God is allowed to be in our lives, we try to make ourselves God. Perhaps, part of the message of this passage is why we need to give the gifts we do this Christmas? Is it as response to the other being in our lives; or is it to be seen as being generous, as ignoring the reality of the economy?
I remember one Christmas long ago... after years of having a Lionel train circle round the tree and presents, neighbors with lights making their houses glow, my brothers and I thought it would be exciting and different if we created a tree-stand that would rotate. More even than the tree, we fashioned a plywood base on which the tree and presents could be placed. In this way, we could stay still and Christmas would spin round and round, showing all the beauty of all the ornaments, and bringing the presents to us. We wired the lights to the stand, and the stand was connected to a rheostat dimmer. When the tree was decorated, we flipped the switch and those large egg shaped colored electric lights began to glow, then we turned the dial and the tree and platform began to move. After three revolutions, we turned the dimmer down, confident all was prepared. Christmas morning, we returned from church, with snow on the ground and the smell of coffee in the air, we came into the living room as the sparkling tree and stacks of presents slowly spun in the middle of the room, but as the dimmer warmed up, the tree began spinning faster and faster and faster, ornaments began flying off the branches as Christmas was out of control. Quietly, calmly, Mother went to the wall outlet and unplugged the tree, which slowed and stopped, bringing Christmas to quiet.
Mothers have a way of quieting things, centering. Mary is described in Latin as THEO-TOKIS the one who bears God. Overtime, this became one of the great schisms between the Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic. Whether Mary was a simple common woman, as the God-Bearer,Theo-tokis or whether Mary was to be revered as being like-God? The point of the Magnificat, is not to venerate the Virgin, but to realize that Nothing is Impossible for God, not even that a common, simple girl could be the mother of the savior of the world, or that we like her could also present God to the world.
Mary gets what the Prophet Nathan, and David the Great King of Israel, both had forgotten. Mary did not volunteer, saying: “Hey God, I am financially secure and ready in my career to have a Baby!” or “I am going to have a baby, and I want him to be the Messiah!” No, but when God acted, when God sought out Mary, saying you have found favor, God has appointed that you bear God's son, who in this way will be fully Human and fully Divine, Mary responded “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to The Word of God.”
The wonder of these passages, is that no matter what, Nothing is Impossible for God...
not that God could make a Father, and lineage out of a man like David;
not that a virgin could give birth, nor even that God could become human through a common person, nor that any of us could be servants of God, Theo-tokis, bearers of God to the world!
The words of affirmation have become a colloquialism, so common to us that we forget the meaning: “You shall call his name Emmanuel,” this is the greatest impossibility of all, that God would be One with us! Rather than Pygmalian's myth of an Artist making a statue so lifelike that it comes to life and becomes real... that The Creator, the author of Life, the Almighty, the Artist of Reality, should choose to enter into Creation and become vulnerable, become human, even forgive the world for all our sins. But that is the real power of forgiveness... Forgiveness is not forgetting what took place, letting the other go. Forgiveness is the realization that the division between us is causing great pain and suffering. Hearing this word tis morning, that not of our own volition, not because we are so comfortable or powerful that we choose to, BUT instead, in response to God, we see ourselves in the role of bringing God to others by our forgiveness.
Luke 1:26-38
Earlier this week, someone stopped me to say, “You better be planning something really spectacular for Christmas! We usually have a big family dinner with all the relatives, we sing carols, and tell stories as we eat Christmas cookies staying up late, then we go to bed and get up before dawn to open our presents to one another, before we have a huge breakfast. And you want us to change our tradition, by coming to Church both Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning! All I can say is, you better be planning on doing something really different.”
The Word of God becoming Flesh and blood, the birth of God, the coming of the Savior of the World, somehow just does not stack up against our snicker-doodles and rum-balls.
This passage from 2 Samuel 7 is a wonderful word for us at this beginning of the 4th week of Advent. For this Word brings together all the dangling threads of promise that went before, and establishes everything that will come after. Since Genesis 12, we have followed stories of God's promise to a family, that Abraham's children would be a great Nation, would live in comfort and peace in a land flowing with milk and honey. Since the Exodus presentation of the Law and Commandments to Moses, we have followed the movements of the Ark leading in battle, resting only momentarily within the Tent of Meeting. And not since Cain and his brother Abel, have we had a Man who wanted to DO FOR God. In the case of Adam's sons, to each make offerings for God which led to Cain killing Abel; in this case, King David dwelling in peace, given rest from all his enemies, living in the luxury of palaces, wanting to build a house of cedar and gold for God, that will lead to his killing Bathsheba's husband. As Handel's Messiah described “The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, because the Mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Not, we are a people who have dwelt in peace and prosperity, wanting to experience greater and greater spectacles, so show us the glory of the Lord!
How curious that King David, ruler over the greatest most powerful nation on Earth, would seek advice from the prophet Nathan. In our Nation's Capital, there is a role for Chaplain of the Senate, who prays in the beginning of the meetings, but when it comes to decision making and policy, the Cabinet are composed of Political, Financial and Military advisors. I wonder what would have happened if in the course of these long years of wars in Muslim nations, our leadership had sought the advice and counsel of American Muslim Clerics, Jewish Rabbis, Priests and Pastors.
We have to question, what Nathan did not that day. Why does the Great King desire to build a palace for God? Is it purely out of faith, or is it to be seen as being devoted, that David would be remembered as having built The Palace for God? What God reminds Nathan in the night, is that God is the prime actor, and being created in the image of God, we respond and react to God. When we try to be the prime movers, when we define who God is and where God is allowed to be in our lives, we try to make ourselves God. Perhaps, part of the message of this passage is why we need to give the gifts we do this Christmas? Is it as response to the other being in our lives; or is it to be seen as being generous, as ignoring the reality of the economy?
I remember one Christmas long ago... after years of having a Lionel train circle round the tree and presents, neighbors with lights making their houses glow, my brothers and I thought it would be exciting and different if we created a tree-stand that would rotate. More even than the tree, we fashioned a plywood base on which the tree and presents could be placed. In this way, we could stay still and Christmas would spin round and round, showing all the beauty of all the ornaments, and bringing the presents to us. We wired the lights to the stand, and the stand was connected to a rheostat dimmer. When the tree was decorated, we flipped the switch and those large egg shaped colored electric lights began to glow, then we turned the dial and the tree and platform began to move. After three revolutions, we turned the dimmer down, confident all was prepared. Christmas morning, we returned from church, with snow on the ground and the smell of coffee in the air, we came into the living room as the sparkling tree and stacks of presents slowly spun in the middle of the room, but as the dimmer warmed up, the tree began spinning faster and faster and faster, ornaments began flying off the branches as Christmas was out of control. Quietly, calmly, Mother went to the wall outlet and unplugged the tree, which slowed and stopped, bringing Christmas to quiet.
Mothers have a way of quieting things, centering. Mary is described in Latin as THEO-TOKIS the one who bears God. Overtime, this became one of the great schisms between the Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic. Whether Mary was a simple common woman, as the God-Bearer,Theo-tokis or whether Mary was to be revered as being like-God? The point of the Magnificat, is not to venerate the Virgin, but to realize that Nothing is Impossible for God, not even that a common, simple girl could be the mother of the savior of the world, or that we like her could also present God to the world.
Mary gets what the Prophet Nathan, and David the Great King of Israel, both had forgotten. Mary did not volunteer, saying: “Hey God, I am financially secure and ready in my career to have a Baby!” or “I am going to have a baby, and I want him to be the Messiah!” No, but when God acted, when God sought out Mary, saying you have found favor, God has appointed that you bear God's son, who in this way will be fully Human and fully Divine, Mary responded “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to The Word of God.”
The wonder of these passages, is that no matter what, Nothing is Impossible for God...
not that God could make a Father, and lineage out of a man like David;
not that a virgin could give birth, nor even that God could become human through a common person, nor that any of us could be servants of God, Theo-tokis, bearers of God to the world!
The words of affirmation have become a colloquialism, so common to us that we forget the meaning: “You shall call his name Emmanuel,” this is the greatest impossibility of all, that God would be One with us! Rather than Pygmalian's myth of an Artist making a statue so lifelike that it comes to life and becomes real... that The Creator, the author of Life, the Almighty, the Artist of Reality, should choose to enter into Creation and become vulnerable, become human, even forgive the world for all our sins. But that is the real power of forgiveness... Forgiveness is not forgetting what took place, letting the other go. Forgiveness is the realization that the division between us is causing great pain and suffering. Hearing this word tis morning, that not of our own volition, not because we are so comfortable or powerful that we choose to, BUT instead, in response to God, we see ourselves in the role of bringing God to others by our forgiveness.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
December 4, 2011, "Future Faith"
Isaiah 40:1-15
Mark: 1:1-8
When we cast ourselves in the Christmas story, we readily accept that few among us are kings let alone wise. Few in history have possessed the purity, innocence and humility of Mary. No, the role many of us quickly accept is of the sheep and shepherds, going about our regular routine, waiting for God to do something, waiting for a heavenly host of angels to appear and with Gloria In Excelsis Deo to tell us the miracle of God is ready. Following our routine, doing what we have done for generations, waiting for God to tell us God is ready.
Over and over, throughout the Bible, there is the recurrent phrase “THE WORD OF GOD WAS RARE in those days.” What if the role we have been assigned by God, is not as Shepherds or as sheep, and Lord knows we are no angels. What if we are to be the John the Baptists, of this time and place? John is an unforgettable figure, with an ill-temper, saying whatever occurs to him, a belly full of locusts, his beard, face and hands smeared with honey, clothed in camel skins. He is not the sort your mother wanted you to bring home. Yet, John the Baptizer does what no one else in history has done.
The people have been searching for a Messiah, a leader, a Savior sent from God to change the world, and John responds “Not Me. There is one coming, whom I am not worthy to kneel before, whose shoes I am not worthy to untie.” When is the last time we heard a leader, someone running for office, describe that anyone before or after them is better than they are? What if Steve Jobs last speech, instead of announcing the latest technological advancement, had proclaimed “Together we are creating the means for great ideas yet to come!” or if the College students who invented Social media had said “Thank you Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, because without having had electricity, the telephone, the personal computer, we never would have had the experience or desire to create this!” We look for Saviors, to ordain as Kings. We search for individuals with the ego and the charisma, the self-assurance to say “I am It!” John's word, in all sincerity and humility is “The world is not yet ready! We are not yet prepared to greet such a one. We are so many separate individuals in competition with ourselves/ let alone one another. I can only prepare the way for the coming Savior.”
The Gospel of Mark begins differently than the other Gospels. Not only in the absence of stories about the Virgin Birth and Manger, The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Mark begins with two monumental shifts in reality. In response to John, all the people across the countryside, from farmers, to soldiers, from prostitutes to parents, professors to lawyers, everyone who heard his word reflected upon their own lives, repented of something that had happened, repented of something they were doing, and confessed their desire to live their life differently. Everyone it seems has some story of repentance, everyone is searching for what we have not been. Without that realization, without the recognition that we are imperfect, incomplete, without naming to ourselves that we are in need, we are not ready to hear and receive the Good News. The Great Swiss Theologian Karl Barth, described that the Gospel reaches out and grabs you, the Words engage you not merely as history of people long ago, but as our story.
About a year ago, we asked this congregation repeatedly, if you were to describe this Church, this people of God, what we believe and represent, described either to someone who does not know what Church is, or as unique compared to other Churches, what would you say? Among the adjectives used, was Believing in REDEMPTION, no one is ever thrown away or abandoned. The Good News of Jesus Christ, according to John the Baptist, is that all of us have a past, all humanity are searching for God, searching for redemption. Confessing this need, bending our knee, to be baptized, bending down to serve, kneeling to untie the sandal and wash the feet of another, that confession is the only way to be prepared for the coming of the Savior.
We described that the Good News of Jesus Christ begins with two shifts in reality, according to Mark. First is that all humanity need to, want to, be redeemed to live life differently. BUT ALSO, reading on in the 9th and 10th verses of the Revised Standard Version of Mark, when Jesus did come to be Baptized Heaven opened. The Greek is more explicit: the perimeter between Heaven and Earth, the gulf between the divine and the mortal, the limitations of reality, were irreparably ripped open by God. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that all Humanity want to and can be redeemed, every person is worthwhile, no one is lost; BUT ALSO that God wants to redeem us, God does not want to see us damned, God's desire is to forgive, to see us whole, to love.
This same truth was declared Centuries before in the time of the Prophets Isaiah. There is this monumental shift at the end of the 39th Chapter, before the beginning of the 40th. The first 39 Chapters have dealt with the Fall of the nation of Israel. The Prophets preached and preached , and people's ears were thick and their vision cataracted. The people of God were conquered and destroyed, the Great Temple of Solomon was desecrated before their being carried off as slaves to Babylon, where they would labor for 150 years. George Steiner the great Literary critic and author of descriptions of the Holocaust at Cambridge University describes that a powerful thing happens when language and circumstance coincide, when our hopes of what is beyond reality and our belief in God agree. Steiner describes that in our minds, the PRESENT and the PAST are as One. Not only do we continue to live out the continuing effects of what has gone before, we also replay both in our minds, and in our experiences the events and relationships of the past, again and again. The power of language, that occurs in Chapter 40 of Isaiah, is that instead of continuing to describe the past, instead of present circumstances being a continuation of what is fact, what is dead and no longer living, God speaks of a future faith. God uses a Grammar of Creation, of WHAT SHALL BE, WHAT WILL COME, and IF. These are the passwords to a different reality. Instead of living according to what is and has been, what is fact but no longer alive, faith calls us into a different living future of what could be. Rather than a people who HAD needed to be punished, who HAD deserved retribution, who were Conquered and Abandoned and Enslaved, in Chapter 40 God commands Heavens Angels “Comfort, Comfort, My People says your God! Her Warfare will be ended, She will be Pardoned for the past. Every Valley shall be lifted up, every mountain hill shall be made low. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed as we prepare the way of the LORD.
Isaiah proclaims this double edged prophecy, that humbles the powerful, and provides hope to the oppressed. Quite simply, the Prophets asks: What should I Cry? And God 's Word is “All flesh is Grass, beauty is like the flower that fades and grass that withers, though the word of God stands for ever.” As we began this day, we search for what was before. Who created God? Who taught God? Who provided counsel and wisdom to set God up? And part of the nature of God is that God is older than time itself, and God shall always be.
In this season as we seek the latest, biggest, tiniest, fastest, the leaders of the next generation, we need to listen to the power of words. Whether we are stuck in the past, hiding only to relive our sins; or whether we can own our failures, name our brokenness and confessing faith live a future reality of being redeemed by God. There is a marvelous movie, just released, titled HUGO. While the critics will have many different story-lines, I think that what the film is about is a child who sees the world as a great machine. Machines are designed to work, perpetually to be wound up and run. Machines do not come with extra pieces, every part, every person has a purpose. The boy comes to realize that his function in life is to repair what is broken, to mend human lives, to comfort and to redeem. May we be like this, like John the Baptist, calling one another to claim our pasts as very real to our present and to claim faith as a means for embracing the future with God.
Mark: 1:1-8
When we cast ourselves in the Christmas story, we readily accept that few among us are kings let alone wise. Few in history have possessed the purity, innocence and humility of Mary. No, the role many of us quickly accept is of the sheep and shepherds, going about our regular routine, waiting for God to do something, waiting for a heavenly host of angels to appear and with Gloria In Excelsis Deo to tell us the miracle of God is ready. Following our routine, doing what we have done for generations, waiting for God to tell us God is ready.
Over and over, throughout the Bible, there is the recurrent phrase “THE WORD OF GOD WAS RARE in those days.” What if the role we have been assigned by God, is not as Shepherds or as sheep, and Lord knows we are no angels. What if we are to be the John the Baptists, of this time and place? John is an unforgettable figure, with an ill-temper, saying whatever occurs to him, a belly full of locusts, his beard, face and hands smeared with honey, clothed in camel skins. He is not the sort your mother wanted you to bring home. Yet, John the Baptizer does what no one else in history has done.
The people have been searching for a Messiah, a leader, a Savior sent from God to change the world, and John responds “Not Me. There is one coming, whom I am not worthy to kneel before, whose shoes I am not worthy to untie.” When is the last time we heard a leader, someone running for office, describe that anyone before or after them is better than they are? What if Steve Jobs last speech, instead of announcing the latest technological advancement, had proclaimed “Together we are creating the means for great ideas yet to come!” or if the College students who invented Social media had said “Thank you Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, because without having had electricity, the telephone, the personal computer, we never would have had the experience or desire to create this!” We look for Saviors, to ordain as Kings. We search for individuals with the ego and the charisma, the self-assurance to say “I am It!” John's word, in all sincerity and humility is “The world is not yet ready! We are not yet prepared to greet such a one. We are so many separate individuals in competition with ourselves/ let alone one another. I can only prepare the way for the coming Savior.”
The Gospel of Mark begins differently than the other Gospels. Not only in the absence of stories about the Virgin Birth and Manger, The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Mark begins with two monumental shifts in reality. In response to John, all the people across the countryside, from farmers, to soldiers, from prostitutes to parents, professors to lawyers, everyone who heard his word reflected upon their own lives, repented of something that had happened, repented of something they were doing, and confessed their desire to live their life differently. Everyone it seems has some story of repentance, everyone is searching for what we have not been. Without that realization, without the recognition that we are imperfect, incomplete, without naming to ourselves that we are in need, we are not ready to hear and receive the Good News. The Great Swiss Theologian Karl Barth, described that the Gospel reaches out and grabs you, the Words engage you not merely as history of people long ago, but as our story.
About a year ago, we asked this congregation repeatedly, if you were to describe this Church, this people of God, what we believe and represent, described either to someone who does not know what Church is, or as unique compared to other Churches, what would you say? Among the adjectives used, was Believing in REDEMPTION, no one is ever thrown away or abandoned. The Good News of Jesus Christ, according to John the Baptist, is that all of us have a past, all humanity are searching for God, searching for redemption. Confessing this need, bending our knee, to be baptized, bending down to serve, kneeling to untie the sandal and wash the feet of another, that confession is the only way to be prepared for the coming of the Savior.
We described that the Good News of Jesus Christ begins with two shifts in reality, according to Mark. First is that all humanity need to, want to, be redeemed to live life differently. BUT ALSO, reading on in the 9th and 10th verses of the Revised Standard Version of Mark, when Jesus did come to be Baptized Heaven opened. The Greek is more explicit: the perimeter between Heaven and Earth, the gulf between the divine and the mortal, the limitations of reality, were irreparably ripped open by God. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that all Humanity want to and can be redeemed, every person is worthwhile, no one is lost; BUT ALSO that God wants to redeem us, God does not want to see us damned, God's desire is to forgive, to see us whole, to love.
This same truth was declared Centuries before in the time of the Prophets Isaiah. There is this monumental shift at the end of the 39th Chapter, before the beginning of the 40th. The first 39 Chapters have dealt with the Fall of the nation of Israel. The Prophets preached and preached , and people's ears were thick and their vision cataracted. The people of God were conquered and destroyed, the Great Temple of Solomon was desecrated before their being carried off as slaves to Babylon, where they would labor for 150 years. George Steiner the great Literary critic and author of descriptions of the Holocaust at Cambridge University describes that a powerful thing happens when language and circumstance coincide, when our hopes of what is beyond reality and our belief in God agree. Steiner describes that in our minds, the PRESENT and the PAST are as One. Not only do we continue to live out the continuing effects of what has gone before, we also replay both in our minds, and in our experiences the events and relationships of the past, again and again. The power of language, that occurs in Chapter 40 of Isaiah, is that instead of continuing to describe the past, instead of present circumstances being a continuation of what is fact, what is dead and no longer living, God speaks of a future faith. God uses a Grammar of Creation, of WHAT SHALL BE, WHAT WILL COME, and IF. These are the passwords to a different reality. Instead of living according to what is and has been, what is fact but no longer alive, faith calls us into a different living future of what could be. Rather than a people who HAD needed to be punished, who HAD deserved retribution, who were Conquered and Abandoned and Enslaved, in Chapter 40 God commands Heavens Angels “Comfort, Comfort, My People says your God! Her Warfare will be ended, She will be Pardoned for the past. Every Valley shall be lifted up, every mountain hill shall be made low. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed as we prepare the way of the LORD.
Isaiah proclaims this double edged prophecy, that humbles the powerful, and provides hope to the oppressed. Quite simply, the Prophets asks: What should I Cry? And God 's Word is “All flesh is Grass, beauty is like the flower that fades and grass that withers, though the word of God stands for ever.” As we began this day, we search for what was before. Who created God? Who taught God? Who provided counsel and wisdom to set God up? And part of the nature of God is that God is older than time itself, and God shall always be.
In this season as we seek the latest, biggest, tiniest, fastest, the leaders of the next generation, we need to listen to the power of words. Whether we are stuck in the past, hiding only to relive our sins; or whether we can own our failures, name our brokenness and confessing faith live a future reality of being redeemed by God. There is a marvelous movie, just released, titled HUGO. While the critics will have many different story-lines, I think that what the film is about is a child who sees the world as a great machine. Machines are designed to work, perpetually to be wound up and run. Machines do not come with extra pieces, every part, every person has a purpose. The boy comes to realize that his function in life is to repair what is broken, to mend human lives, to comfort and to redeem. May we be like this, like John the Baptist, calling one another to claim our pasts as very real to our present and to claim faith as a means for embracing the future with God.
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