"What Are Your Children Up To?" December 27, 2015

I Samuel 1:26-2:11 Luke 2:21-52 How many have relatives who have gone home? How many have Poinsettias that look like this? How many of us have put away Grandma's good china and silver? How many have leftovers left over? How many have taken the ornaments off of the tree? How many have taken down the tree all together? As Americans in the 21st Century, we yearn to get things over with! Advertising for Christmas began before School started! We wait and agonize over, when something is going to come, but the minute it has arrived, we move on to the next. We live in an obsolete, disposable society. It was not always so. The 12 Days of Christmas were not about the days leading up to Midnight the 24th but the Partridge was a Symbol of the Christ. The Partridge is one of the few creatures, which when it senses dangers sacrifices itself, leads predators away from the nest, to save others. Two Turtledoves, symbolizing Judaism and Christianity together, also was the sacrifice Mary made here at the Temple. Three French Hens, referring to the Trinity, was the gift for this 3rd day of Christmas. The 12 Days of Christmas was to be Christmas until Epiphany, and not until the 6th of January did the Wise relatives from the East even arrive. There is an importance to reading these passages from the Bible this morning, the third day of Christmas when all the crowds have left. Because the coming of Christ is not only about Christ coming into the world, but everything that comes because of his entry into this life. The stories of the birth of the Savior, in addition to describing this gift of God to the people of God, tell the stories surrounding his birth and ancestry. We each have stories like this. We research Google, Ancestry.com and the Latter day Saints, for clues of our lineage, who begat us, as indication of the seeds of whom we might be. Are we descended from Royal Blood or Scoundrels? Are we of multiple races, cultures, what blood flows in our veins? We recall if our babies were early or late, how many hours of labor, the weight and length, and stories of giving birth as indication that at that moment, when we came into the world, everything changed. I delivered our first-born. With Vivaldi's Four Seasons playing on the Cassette Tape Deck, and 4th of July Fireworks outside the windows. Our youngest came into the world very quickly, 15 minutes after arrival at the hospital. Born with a full head of hair, and a tooth, and because the chord was round his neck the midwives instructed that during his birth, my wife I hug each other with all the love within us. Different stories, each a recollection of what we hoped for each child. But this morning's readings are about childhood after birth. There are family stories for every person. At 3 I was asked if I would be a minister like my father, and I declared “No, I am going to be a firefighter or a builder” I am not certain that that did not come true. At 4 I was riding a pony bareback at the family farm in Fulton, and rode her up onto my Grandmother's front porch so I could knock on the door. One of our children loved dogs and frogs and pollywogs. The other would squat down to look intently at rocks and earth and water. I recall the children of one of our families who are Korean celebrating the first year birthday of each child, and choosing between a Book, Money and Thread as an indication of their identity. Every culture has their act of claiming our children. When we began reading the Books of Samuel, The Wednesday evening Bible Study, asked “We know who Saul and David and Solomon were, but who was Samuel?” We began in the time of the Judges; after Moses had led them through the wilderness 40 years, after Joshua had led the Nation into the Promised Land; BUT before the rise of Kings and Monarchy and Jesus. There was the story of Jonah, there was Ruth, and there was a particular man Elkanah who had two wives. The one was so fertile, she became pregnant when her husband looked at her, giving birth to many children. The other wife: Hannah, like the Patriarch Jacob's wife Rachel, was the true love of her husband, but unable to conceive. Annually after the family went to Temple for Passover, there would be a great family dinner, and Hannah would realize all the more that she was alone. So one year, after the family dinner, she came back to the altar and prayed. Hannah's prayer was a model of devotion and love of God, her realization that all power belongs to God, and that real power is not about might or wealth but love, is often read in Advent, and remembered as foundational to Mary's Prayer in the Gospels called The Magnificat. Hannah prayed with such devotion and fervor, rocking back and forth with tears and laughter and singing, that Eli the priest thought she was drunk. She confessed to the priest her faith and her desire to give birth to a child, not as her possession, but so that she had a child to give to God. For which Eli blessed her and her prayer. This morning's first Testament, is of Hannah returning to the Temple 3 or 4 years later, to follow through on her vow, to fulfill her commitment and to give her child to God. This is not a public display, not the woman at Solomon's Temple in the New Testament whom Jesus recognized giving a single coin that is everything she has. This is instead, Hannah's fulfillment in private response to God's fulfillment. Later, Samuel would grow to replace Eli and his sons, as the last of the Priests and Prophets and Judges One like Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Gideon and Samson and Deborah. Later, Samuel would be the one God uses to anoint King Saul and later still to anoint King David, creating the circumstance for war. But here, this morning, this passage describes Hannah's Offering, her Sacrifice to God. The story did not end with Hannah giving birth to the child she prayed to have. The story did not skip from birth, to Samuel being an apprentice to the Priest. Instead, on this morning after Christ's birth, we read of Hannah loving her child so much as to fulfill her promise, and regularly she returned to give her son a handmade robe and Linen Ephah. While there were other Gospels which the Christian Canon chose to not include, stories which described Jesus' childhood with abilities and insights and gifts other children did not have; the Gospel of Luke alone describes Mary and Joseph presenting their child Jesus at the Temple. This might be expected in Matthew's Gospel, where connections from the Old Testament to the New are frequent, obedience and fulfillment of Jewish Law is vital, characters like Anna and Simeon are expected, and Wisemen are remembered. But Luke who only references the Old Testament and the Law 9 times, with his focus on the Shepherds in the field, is the only writer to describe Mary and Joseph going to the Temple to fulfill the Law for Purification and the Bris of Circumcision. Inextricably linked to the Circumcision is the giving of a Name. In Judaism, outside the mother and father, a child has no name until presented in worship and Named before God. This is why, although we in our immediate family knew and have been addressing Dante from before his birth as Dante, Double D or Piquito, in his Baptism we asked “And what is the name of this Child of God?” Independent of the Virgin Birth narrative, are these affirmations of Jesus even at infancy as being The Messiah, Son of God, Savior. Luke had in the first Chapter told of the birth of John the Baptist, whose parents Elizabeth and Zechariah were pious and advanced in age, his father one of the High Priests of the Temple. Here at the end of the 2nd Chapter, a couple like Zechariah and Elizabeth appear at the Temple, Anna and Simeon offering blessings and statements of the Salvation. Strangely, Luke has only nine places in the whole Gospel that cite the Old Testament and four of them are right here. Also, Matthew and Mark never use the word GRACE, and here in Luke, Grace is what this gift is all about. One of the things I love about Simeon and Anna is that routinely in rituals, we ask the individual what their intentions are, we invite them to make vows, the Ordained pray over and lay hands upon them. Think here of a Wedding, Confirmation, Ordination,even a Memorial. But Simeon and Anna are two present at this first appearance that the Temple, and as two people in the Temple they each offer their blessings and affirmations. Here we have no record of the words of Mary or Joseph or the Priest, but what Simeon and Anna did say. Would that we could record the words said in affirmation, to be recorded and remembered over our lifetimes. Hurtful words we remember and we replay. What if we each had a book of affirmations of what wise, pious, experienced people, those not in your own family have said? In polite conversation, there are routine questions we ask. Where are you going to college? What are your children doing? Would that more than providing moral expectations, we as the Community of Faith in this place and time...if we extended to each individual our caring, our hopes and affirmations for them. If we interpreted our responsibility as the church, not only as teaching, and questioning attendance of children baptized, but if we held them up by name before God? At Christmas Eve the Sanctuary was filled with children, almost all of which we have baptized, but most of whom we have not thought of since.

"This Changes Everything" December 24, 2015 Midnight

Luke 2:1-20 Christmas is layered in tradition. We decorate an evergreen tree because, on his way home from worship Christmas Eve, Martin Luther saw a tree glistening with icicles and snow in the moonlight. We hang stockings by the fireplace, because according to tradition, everyone wore stockings and after they were washed, dried them by the fire; so where better to hide chocolates, little presents, surprises. We sing Silent Night A Capella because a mouse chewed through the leathers of Franz Gruber's Organ. Santa Claus has a long white beard, a round belly and a red suit, instead of being a skinny old Elf in green, because according to a tradition, begun by Coca-cola in 1931, that is how they envisioned him. How many traditions are true and which have been created, none of us know. But whether we live in Berkeley, Brooklyn, or Barranquilla; whether we live part of the year in Indiana, Florida, or Carolinas; or if we live year-round in Skaneateles; Like Mary and Joseph we come to our ancestral home of what is familiar at Christmas. The smells of cookies and gingerbread, the flicker of candlelight, adults talking all night long, we each have in our hearts what makes the Perfect Christmas. My 16 year old nephew Tom's whole concept of Christmas is connected to Candlelight in this Sanctuary, because for the first thirteen years of his life, his family drove after work from Washington DC to Skaneateles and he was awakened to the pipe organ at 11:00pm, having been miraculously transported from home to Christmas. Our Humanity, following from Greek Philosophers, seems to expect that if God reveals himself at all (And that is a BIG IF), then God could only be revealed in universal truths, and not particularly in personal space and time. Greek Philosophers described this as finitus non capax infiniti. “The Finite Being InCapable of Containing the Infinite.” When actually, that is the miracle of Christmas! Tradition is also about change, personal change changes everything, the violation of expected routine. Grandma is no longer here to make her cookies, so we have to come up with our own way of doing so. Dad has cancer, and every day becomes vital/precious because we know not how many more we have. A new fiance or partner has been added to the family, so a new stocking, a new place at the Table. A new baby, and everything is different, everything is changed and new. Our Reading begins with a setting of international political world super powers, with Caesar Augustus of the Roman Empire and Quirinius like modern day Bashar al Assad of Syria, and Immigration Law; instead of building a Wall, the Roman Empire had constructed A Road, and declared that millions of people be forced to travel in order to be Taxed. YET in contrast to this historic Force of the Empire, one particular couple: Joseph and his Mary, gave birth to a baby. There is similarity to an earlier story, of Pharaoh and Egypt, and an oppressed people, when a couple give birth to a baby: Moses. Whether we go backward or forward in time, the common act of the birth of this baby at Bethlehem changed everything, changed the world. The keeping of time, the forces of the Empire, Art, Music, Architecture, would never have been the same without the birth of this child. Viewed spiritually, here I do not mean Religion, but Cosmic forces of Heaven and Earth, Divinity and Corruption. Throughout human history, there had been described an increasing Gulf separating us from God, as if every generation added more hate and division. So much so, the ancient world described an impending END of The WORLD, Creation being attacked by Armies of Angels. The idea of an apocalypse is not new to the Hunger Games or Maze Runner! One of the darkest, most hate-filled period in American history were the McCarthy Hearings, when our leaders demanded that we turn against our family, friends and neighbors. Do you recall how it all ended? Finally, another Senator turned to Senator Joe McCarthy to ask “Sir, do you have no humanity left in you? Is there not a single shred of decency and caring humanity?” When suddenly, on one particular night, just passed the Winter Solstice, the longest darkest night of the year, Shepherds keeping watch over the flocks in the wilderness, were greeted by an Army of Angels. All were declaring a Miracle: that God had bridged the divide, the Creator had Entered INTO Creation. Instead of coming to Judge and Destroy, God gave forgiveness, God had come as a vulnerable newborn to redeem all humanity. The declaration “PEACE ON EARTH” needs to be heard between Superpowers and Governments, HOWEVER in Luke, PEACE ON EARTH was the angels describing an End to our estrangement as Sinners, Humanity from God. The End, the War of the Worlds, the Apocalypse of Time & Space – All came through the birth of this child, as if One person could make a difference! One Person Could Change Everything! The Finite of this life Could Contain the Infinite! We routinely live as if unchanged, as if our lives were an unbroken line that we at least follow if not control. We live estranged, isolated and alone, awaiting someone to come as a Savior, as if Christ has yet to come, when all of this happened 2,000 years ago, changing everything. The question this Christmas is whether we live as if this world, our lives were finite and corrupt, where the Apocalypse is inevitable, war is inevitable, nothing can ever change, every day is just like all the days before; OR if one person could change everything? Sometimes all it takes is for someone to believe in you! While there are changes that weigh upon us; the message of this night is “Good News of a Great Joy for all people.” JOY is such a precious and rare thing in our world today. When the Doctor's Office calls to report that “The shadow we saw on your lung turns out to be nothing more than a shadow.” When you have been searching for a job, and you receive a call asking when you can start. Sunday, as two babies were baptized and with the 3 month old screaming, the 6 month old reached over to touch and reassure him, you could feel the joy in the Sanctuary. When we began the Congregational Meeting naming that someone phoned to commit to support the transition of our church by making a major gift to help with the transition, you could feel the joy like a great burden of stress being taken off our shoulders. This week, when Paul Ariik, one of the South Sudanese refugees phoned to say, “Pastor, my wife and I wish to be married, could you do this today?” There was joy! Other than the Liquid Dish Detergent, you cannot buy Joy. Joy is not tangible. We do not join together to have Joy, it is a byproduct of our sharing! Good News of a Great Joy, lifts our spirits and affirms, we can do this because there is less stress, less worry, less doubt, SOMEBODY ELSE Believes in us and in our star. The circumstances of our life change everything. The Ancient Greek Philosophers had it all wrong, life is not about the capability of the Finite to CONTAIN the Infinite, but the Infinite caring so much about us personally, loving us so completely, as to enter into Creation, Redeeming the lost, that is a great Joy. We have heard reports of killings and suicide bombings, until whenever there is any breaking story, we steal ourselves for how many people were killed. What would it take for there to be announcement of the permanent end of hostility, an act of JOY that makes all hate and war and terrorism totally futile? I am old enough to remember the beginning of the Lottery for the Viet Nam Draft. I recall the constant reporting of the First Gulf War, and trying to explain to the children of the church, our own children: we had wished you would never learn what war was, that peace could last forever. I recall watching incredulously as 747s flew directly into the Trade Towers. There have been so many schools, theaters, houses of worship, made into places of terrorism and fear. Whom would you need to hear it from, to believe “Good News of a Great Joy,” that Peace had come to all people, Light into this darkened world. Our President? The United Nations? The Pope? John Paul II in every one of his writings, declared “Be UnAfraid” yet here we are today. Not a temporary cessation of some singular conflict, but a change that changes everything for ever. Not only between Nations and Tribes, between Political Parties and factions; but within our families, also. Whom would we need to hear what from in order to believe and live as if, This changes everything! Angels in the wilderness, describing the most ordinary thing being the act of Salvation from God? The infinite choosing to be One with us in this finite world? I Bring you Good News of a Great Joy for all people, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The birth of child, every person offers that possibility, that Good News, that THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!