"God is Real" December 21,2014

2nd Samuel 7: 1-11 & 16 Luke 1:26-38 This morning I have a question for you? Do you believe God is an active person in your life today? More than Do you believe in God, or do you believe in Santa Claus, that God is alive? The last several days I have heard one interview after another of personalities confessing under their breath I used to go to Church, almost like I used to believe in the Easter Bunny. I fear most of us are like the Bette Midler song of a few years ago “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us from a distance.” God is in the high hills where our help comes from. Like King David we believe in the footsteps poem, that we never see God, or know God, but are assured whenever we have needed, when overwhelmed God was there. In that kind of belief, God is an energy of Moral Good, of Right, that there was a time long long ago at the dawn of the universe when God was real, and there shall come a time when we will be judged, but this is the 21st century, this is reality, the height of technology and information, when provided we have batteries enough and reception bars we are the Masters and Kings of our World. King David was a success story, the shepherd boy who became King of a Super Power! David the seventh son of a seventh son, exiled from the court of King Saul, who led a guerrilla army to become ruler of the Ancient world, with all the power of a Pharaoh. Although he was Prophet to the King, when asked for God's blessing Nathan tells David what David wanted to hear. Until in the dark night of the soul, Nathan encounters the reality of God. And instead of telling Nathan to say to David “Well done Good and faithful servant, you have proven yourself over a little, now I will set you over kingdoms...” God says “Just whom do you think you are?” You thought because King Hiram of Tyre built a cedar house for you,You thought as a demonstration of your power and wealth, you could bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and you thought you could build a lovely cedar box to keep it to visit when you wanted? God is not a thing to be kept in a box! God is not housed in a place! When Abraham and Isaac and Jacob wandered the face of the earth, when Moses and Joshua led the people through the wilderness, did God ever ask, how come you never built me a temple? NO! Who do you think took you from being 7th son of a 7th son, from being a shepherd boy to being king of Israel? I God, will shepherd you. You thought you could build a house for God, I will make a house out of you. This passage in 2nd Samuel is not only declaration that David had been too much involved in killing to build the house of God. This passage is not only setting up that Jesus would be descended from the house and lineage of David. This is the climax of the Nation of Israel from Moses through Judges to Saul to David with renewal of the promise as given to Abraham. This is Nathan's and David's encounter with God, that God is real and active, not a passive bystander in life watching us, waiting to use fate and circumstance for good. Recently, a family asked for a different kind of funeral. Instead of gathering in the church for a worship service. Instead of a public viewing or wake. Instead of the singing of hymns and reading of sacred texts. We gathered in their living room in this season in front of the hearth of their fireplace, and we each reflected on who this person was to us... The one who affirmed “My daughter works so hard!” She could upbraid you and reprimand you like no one else, but if anyone else tried she would defend you. “Grandma was my best buddy and confidant.” It was not the celebration of death we are accustomed to, but was a celebration of who the person was to each who were gathered together as a body. In like manner a wedding, where there was no dress, no aisle, no sand or unity candle, no public profession but sincere confession of love and devotion. In so many different occasions, we have come to realize what seemed impossible is real. It is perplexing. We cannot imagine why this would matter, why it is important to say the words, to confess God as real, or why God would want to enter into our lives when so often we wish we could escape. But God does! That is Luke's telling. In Mark, the only reference to Mary, is that along with Jesus' brothers, Mary comes to take Jesus home when they interpret he is crazy. In Matthew, she is only one of the visitors at the tomb. In John, Mary is not even mentioned. But Luke takes time to demonstrate for us, instead of being a Saint, instead of being Mother of God, instead of being Holy and Pure, Mary is the first Believer. Time and human culture have seized upon the miracle of Mary being a Virgin, Luke's point was in contrast to her cousin Elizabeth who was far beyond the age of conception but who like Hannah of the Old testament of Israel prayed to be given a child and was the mother of John the Baptist, so Mary was too young. The scandal and miracle of Mary being the mother of Jesus, is first that she was a commoner, like any of us. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, and described her as “favored” the point is not that she is recognized for having been good, but like any of us this is announcement of God's grace. You have been chosen. You are blessed by God. However, whereas in some parts of our nation today being a teen-ager and getting pregnant is status, Mary's world makes the Taliban Honor Killings seem pedestrian. Accepting this gift from God put her life at risk, put her engagement and marriage at risk. She was accepting family disgrace, probable stoning and at the least shunning not only of her family but her world. Luke's Gospel reads too quickly. When Gabriel announced that Mary was favored by God, she responds by being perplexed. We ought to stop there, because that is where each of us stop adjusting our reality. You want to marry me? My parent, my partner, my child has died? I have cancer? There is a disorientation that is perplexing. God is real? Then there is confusion? Why me? Why now? Does God not have better things to do, more important than me? Has God thought this through? Being incarnate, becoming human? Being human means feeling, suffering, dying, being afraid, being vulnerable, God wants that? Afterward, Mary responds with Commitment... “Here am I” and the Angel departs. That, I believe is the hardest part of all for Mary, the point at which we too often idealize Mary . Once you make the commitment. Once you accept your Calling, saying “Here Am I Send Me” there is a point of loneliness of realization, God what have we gotten into as the Impossible becomes real. Too often, we see ourselves as being King David, ruler of all we command, with everyone telling us what we want to hear, believing we are self- made, and in control. Too often we believe we are pure and holy and righteous, as if we were the Mother of God. This morning's passages demonstrate that we, all of us are human. But God is real, and God enters into our lives to challenge us with accepting blessings that will turn our lives upside down and inside out, not because we are so good, but because God chooses to use us. Nothing is impossible for God. God has formed every element of creation from a baby's eye lashes to a spider's web to volcanoes, tsunamis and polar vortex. God stood toe to toe with King David, and confronted Mary with the reality of God being born, and God is with each of us at all those perplexing times, Calling us by saying “YOU ARE FAVORED!” To which the awaited reply is “Here am I.” “You are favored...”

"Peace of God" December 7, 2014

Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark: 1:1-8 In all the Nativity Creche Sets, all the Christmas Pageants over all the years, we have had Joseph, Mary and the Baby, Shepherds, Sheep, Angels, Wisemen, Camels, a Donkey, Cows, an Inn Keeper, some years even Martians, Giraffes and Pigs. The one figure in the Gospel not in our Pageants or Creches is John the Baptist. What would it be, if going to see the Lights, one house after another were illuminated with icycles and wildly changing colors, Dancing Snowmen, Jolly Fat Santas, The Grinch, Rudolphs and Reindeer, then as you stopped in front of the Church there was a man, with long unkempt hair, wearing a camel skin and leather belt, his beard and tunic matted with smeared honey, pieces of locusts in his teeth, and a voice that bellows over all the Ho Ho Hos, Jingle Bells and Carols, to proclaim “Repent, For the Kingdom of God is coming!” John the Baptist is not what we think of as Christmas, or Advent. We expect Love & Joy, Light, Hope, Peace and Good Will. But this is December 7th, A Day that will Live in Infamy, when over 2,400 Americans were killed and 1178 wounded, an act of hostility designed to destroy us, instead forcing our Nation into War. The last several weeks, we have heard reports of ISIS beheading Journalists, and of race riots against the police in Florida, Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. Isaiah and Mark were correct this is not a time to preach Peace on Earth, Good Will among men! But Repent! for this season this time in human history is about the Peace of God coming into the world! Before we make out our Wish Lists of all we want and desire, there is a forgotten step, of sitting on Santa's Knee questioning if we have been Good or Bad. If we are planning our dress for a Christmas Party Christmas Eve or if we are planning to come to worship? If we have been distracted by Piano Recitals and Meetings, Parties and Cookies, or if we have considered lowering our Pride, and Rising from our depressions? We tend to hear Isaiah as having been the High Priest at Jerusalem prophesying the judgment and history of punishment of Israel and all the Nations of the Ancient World. For the first 39 Chapters, that would be accurate. There is a credible understanding, that after the 39 Chapters of historic judgment, we were then to read the Book of Lamentations, as the people mourned their loss. But Chapter 40 announces something new and different. No longer in the Past Tense, the Chapter begins with God speaking to the Heavenly Host announcing Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. The shift from past to future declares that human history was on a trajectory toward death; the Nations have been judged, have faced Exile and Punishment and Almighty God declares, the time is over. When a criminal has served their time, we envision their release, with stern warning and expectation of recidivism. Instead, God proclaims, compassion and concern. There is a recurrent image in these passages. According to Isaiah, the Captives set Free are to be brought home to the Promised Land through the Wilderness where this disembodied voice speaks. What Isaiah describes is a Renewal of The Exodus. In order to come to Promised Land, Israel needed to wander through the Wilderness. John the Baptist came from the Wilderness, embodying the Wild. Jesus immediately after being Baptized was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The Wilderness is not a place of Comforting the Afflicted, or Speaking Tenderly. Wilderness is a lonely place, a reflective retreat, a place where we are not concerned with how many presents under the tree, or whether this tree is better than all the rest, but only with survival, with absolute dependence upon God. But in this Exodus, there is no complaining about how much better it was to be slaves, no longing for the flesh pots of Egypt, no weeping for Jerusalem, instead all the obstacles have been removed, all the high places, all the rough, all the depressions. The difficulty is that on December 7th, after 353 planes bombed Hawaii, after 4 of our 8 Battleships were sunk and 3 others damaged, 188 planes destroyed and 159 planes damaged, 3 Cruisers, 3 Destroyers destroyed, 2,400 killed and more than 1100 others wounded, you do not simply say PEACE and have everyone accept it. When a young Black Man reaches through the window of a police car to take the officer's gun, when commanded to stop he does not, but instead charges the officer. When for months tensions escalate, stores and neighborhoods are destroyed, and the Police Force is embarrassed Peace, Comfort seem irrelevant words. When a young Black Man was shot by a White Police Officer, who then collected the evidence, while the young's dead body lay in the street for hours; is followed by another man in another city being choked and held down by Police, protesting he cannot breathe as he dies, Speak Tenderly of Peace and Consolation, seem hollow. Instead, Isaiah describes there are two different Orders in the World. The Human Order compared to the Divine Order of God. All Flesh is grass, the grass withers, the flower fades. Like waves of the Ocean, the Prophet describes the collision of these two orders. Human History, growing in progress and dying. Like some great Greek Tragedy, we have accomplishments building upon accomplishments, only to realize we are mortal and our greatest Empires and Societies fall to decay. There is an order to Human Development and History, but at the horizon of history is this other order declaring that human struggles are not in vain, there is human greatness in history, there can even be righteousness, there are nations which have created freedom and a level of equality, all of which are subject to arrogant Laws of Self-Destruction. But just as we have glimpsed the Divine, knowing reality greater than our own, so also God acts, unexpectedly, in paradox, the Weak display a strength, the poor know riches beyond wealth. Like the Book of Job, when rationally pushed for explanation of Why, why there is suffering, why there is death, why there is not Peace, God points to the greatness of Creation which cannot be measured according to human righteousness. In the tension of our struggles: 1) Humanity recognize our World is not God's World, we cannot make Peace. 2) Humanity ultimately is dissatisfied with everything we have done, all flesh withers. 3) But Humanity is gifted a glimpse of something greater & the infinite within our finite is touched. 4) While we can never force Peace, or Perfect Humanity, the truth is that The Divine Order and the Human Order are each within the other. God becomes One With us. What is beautiful about John the Baptist, is that he did not suddenly proclaim himself to be the Messiah sent from God. Instead, this man embodying Wilderness, embodying that disembodied voice called, and all the World responded. As uncouth and unkempt and wild as John the Baptist was, he displayed a vulnerability of saying “It's Not Me!” After me comes one for whom I am not worthy to even untie the sandal. And Jesus, did not come onto the scene in Mark declaring himself to be the first, but recognized the life accomplishments of John, the Law and Prophets before him. The Gospel of Mark begins in this unique manner. Realize that Matthew with the Genealogy of Jesus, and Luke with historic identification in the time of King Herod, Augustus Caesar, Zechariah was Priest, John's eloquent poetry about the spirit of Christ being present at Creation, were not written Mark was first published. The Gospel of Mark begins “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, The son of God.” The wonderful part of that is that Mark's telling does not have a Resurrection Appearance. This Good News stops with the burial and witnesses who came to the tomb but ran away in fear. So the whole of the Gospel of Mark is only the Beginning. The Evangelist declares this is not just a story, not one that will end “Happily Ever After” but instead this is Gospel, Good News of the son of God who is our Savior. Comfort, Comfort, My People, Says Your God, Speak Tenderly to Jerusalem... In response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demonstrating the power of the Bomb. Would that in response to the deaths of Black Men in Florida, in Missouri, in New York, all of us would stop to reflect and repent on the ways we react to the color of a person's skin, answering violence with violence until double the punishment has been paid. What will it cost for all flesh to see it together? The Grass Withers, the Flower Fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.

Watch, Weep, Witness, November 30, 2014

Isaiah 24 Mark 13:1-37 Last Week was Christ the King Sunday, the Ultimate Climax of the Christian Year, when we declare Jesus born in a manger in a stable who suffered and died on the Cross and rose again, to be the Christ, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, Very God of Very God! “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” On Thursday we watched the parade and gathered at the Table, not Christ's Table, but our Family Feast, because at Midnight began the biggest shopping celebration of the year. Even before we turn the calendar from November to December, we have already entered into the Advent of Christmas. But Advent is more than counting down the number of days until Christmas Eve, more than the singing of Carols and eating of Cookies, we have entered The Season of Shadows. “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” Like so many Christmases of recent years, this is not like our childhood, cutting out snowflakes/making snow-angels. We hear of bombings and war, a gunman shooting indiscriminately; thousands of people killed by Ebola; instead of our leaders offering hope, they trade threats; in order to end the year with lower costs companies experience lay-offs. So we pull on our layers, pull down our caps, cover our ears with earbuds and earmuffs, to go out into the world of shadows and fear. The isolating part, which makes us the more afraid, is everyone seems by themselves. We push passed one another, we cut each other off, we try to get there first, so we can also be first to leave. In the shadows, we never see those crossing in the cross-walk. In the shadows with their caps pulled over their eyes, we cannot see the other's face, their fears, their tears. Rushing faster, trying to make a quota, the truck-driver does not see the black ice and their semi jack-knifes. These fears, these shadows, the darkness that pervades our thoughts, these have become part of our human condition. Nostalgically we fool ourselves that long ago there were White Christmases, and Wonderful Lives in Bedford Falls, but even those stories began with tragedy and fear. “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” In the Bible Study, we were reading Isaiah, when it occurred to me, I have never heard a sermon on Isaiah 24. More than a passage of devastation and destruction, this is affirmation of faith, that from the Old Testament time through the birth of Jesus right through today, there has been tragedy, there have been tears wept, but the words of the prophet are that we have never ever been alone. Everything that has effected us, has effected the world around us, and touched God. One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard about a congregation, was this church, that following years of conflict, tore up the last five years of their Minutes and Actions inscribing the next page, “We recognize that in our hurting each other, we have done harm to God and God's Creation! We have crucified our Lord, by hating one another. Acting in hate we have killed our faith. SO we repent and begin again anew.” “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” It occurs to me that there are many different ways of watching and waiting. There is the watching and waiting from bed, for the night to be over to begin the day. There is watching and waiting for the College acceptance packet or rejection letter. There is watching and waiting for the airline to land, and be cleared for our safe travel. There is watching and waiting for your parents to get home, when punishment will take place. There is the watching and waiting on a street corner, when you hear footsteps, when you feel afraid. There is watching and waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive. There is watching and waiting in the Hospital, during surgery, when the baby is coming, or on hospice. All the while we repeat “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” We have created for ourselves the expectation that like Homeland Security, if we are on watch, we can keep fear from coming, we can lock the door and raise the threat level. But the more security we put in place, the more insecure we feel. What if our watching is not for shadows, for clouds, for destruction, but is for God to enter into the world? There is an ancient mantra that has been repeated since the days of the early church “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” It seems odd to begin Advent with Mark's Apocalypse. Jesus and the disciples were in the Temple at Jerusalem, and as they left, one commented “How beautiful the workmanship!” to which Jesus named that all of this would one day be destroyed. More than being pessimistic, the disciples ask “When?” Somehow we think we can wait more easily when we know how long. The difficulty is that in the early church, there were two different ideas. One was that “Just as Creation was a long long time ago, so the end will be a long long time from now, as there was a beginning there must be an end, and we who have faith must keep the faith alive.” The other is that “Christ could come at any minute, when we least expect, so live as if this moment may be when Christ enters in.” Mark 13 would read much more smoothly, if we read verses 1-2, 8, 14-22, 24-30 and again verses 3-7, 9-13, 21-23, 32-37. But we have received the text as it is, so know and believe that Christ has come. Christ is coming. Christ will come again. Jesus' description to the disciples was not to scare them into believing. But just the opposite, that when clouds form, know that The Christ will come riding on a cloud! Just as there are earthquakes, know that all creation suffers birth-pangs. This may be of a time to come. But the sky turning dark, the sun being eclipsed, earthquakes and a tearing of the curtain, are exactly what happened at the Crucifixion, so when Christ had come and died on the Cross, the whole creation and God suffered. There are times of fear in all our lives. Gunmen are real. Accidents on the highway do happen. Wars and Earthquakes all of this make our shadows and long winters seem pretty bleak. But know for certain that Christ has already Come! Week after week we recite his teachings, his actions, his parables, watching and waiting to see similar events in our lives. There will be times for weeping, for sadness and fear and loss. But Christ is coming! Our loss and our fears help us to recognize the need for a savior, the need for hope. Our role and purpose is to name the needs of the world and to direct care and concern to making a difference. Possibly Christ is Coming through you! Christ would not be seen or recognized by another, they might miss recognizing the hope the love the joy, if not for you. Advent takes time, more than four weeks of waiting and watching, because God is becoming Tangible. The Invisible, Immortal is becoming One with us. How many of our stories, how much of our desire is for humans to become like God? But the miracle, according to Holy Scripture is that God actually became human, mortal, one with us in Jesus Christ. Another way to envision Advent is that in the Beginning, and over and over throughout the text, we returned from our cultivated fears, our wars and domination, our Empires and Creations, to Wilderness. Adam and Eve, The Tower of Babel, Abram, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob all wandered in the wilderness. Moses, and eventually the Exiles, even John the Baptist, all were asked to become one with Creation. This Advent is not for us to acquire all the stuff to give to others, but for us to work through all the layers of fear and doubt, the layers we have bundled ourselves in, to get down to who we really are and what matters in a primal sense for each of us. December 25th is going to come, whether we are prepared or not. I believe in the ultimate and absolute power of God to accomplish whatever God desires whether we choose to recognize God or not. But how much more full life will be, how much more Christmas will mean if we prepare ourselves to the reality to recognize “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” We end this week, with a story from our church. That decades ago there was a fight between two siblings, each shaming the other. For years they did not speak. Through their partners, eventually they began to hear about one another receiving that ubiquitous Christmas letter now become an Email. Finally, the one decided too many years had passed, who was at fault what was said really did not matter, only that they needed to forgive and be forgiven. But that very day a card came in the mail. Opening it, the card named that their sibling had died, and their greatest regret had been that they had never tried to get back to being family, to forgiving and being forgiven. The apocalypse may be the end of the world, it may only be the end of the world as we know it, as Jesus is quoted “No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, only God. – WATCH”