"A Time of Purification" December 31, 2017

Isaiah 62 Luke 2: 21-40 On New Year’s Eve, we stand on the precipice between the year ending and the new, literally where Past and the Future meet. I want to challenge us to live into the New Year boldly, with hope, optimism and confidence. We must chose whether to live as in A Time of Mourning over losses or a Time of Purification for what God may do? Either way, the past is over and done, we cannot go back and change things; the future is yet to be, and all we can be certain of, is that the future will be different. In preparation, do we grieve, do we wish with longing to return to our old lives, sad and great, when everybody pulled his weight… or do we look to live into the future, cognizant that doing so we must leave behind our dreams, wishes and expectations, for something different? As a parent, I recall snowy holiday weekends like this for reading to our children, one of my favorites was the Winnie the Pooh Series, in particular whether we want to be an Eeyore or a Tigger. Eeyore forever had his head down, looking back, certain only that the future would never be as bright as the setting sun. Tigger, well Tiggers bounce, bright and happy, hopeful and idealistic without a care to carry. December 31st 1999, the world was poised for technological catastrophe, all the computer systems everywhere had been established in the 20th Century, and no one knew if elevators and traffic lights, banks and telephones, weapons and satellites, could/would transition as we entered the new Century. I recall a Winter, when all the properties in our Township were re-assessed and everyone was in shock at what the Assessors believed our homes and properties could be worth, instead of what we knew about our homes. On September 11th 2001, all the world was shocked, because the isolation and dominance of the United States was attacked. Sixteen years and more have gone by, as our economy, and government, the World Order have been established anew. Growing up, I thought my family enjoyed playing games, but we were babes in the woods compared to my wife’s family. They not only played games, they developed strategies for how to win, and keep the other from winning. That is a lesson we learn playing TicTacToe, that there comes a balance of competitors where it is no longer about who is better or who wants to win, only chance; and yet while you cannot be assured of always winning, there is a strategy for playing to deny the other ever has the ability, and all either can do is stalemate. Nostalgically, it seems there once was a time of compromise, of competitors working together for a common good. We pick up the Gospel of Luke 40 days after the birth. There is much of Ancient Judaism we have forgotten and no longer comprehend. Many have suggested I have a love for History, which actually is not accurate, the truth is that I love Systems, and without knowing history we lack understanding of meaning, of core purposes and relationships. Part of the importance of a Time of Purification, is a time of reflection and cleansing apart from living the past, in order that we can chose our future wisely, with less mistakes. We celebrate Christmas from sunset on the 24th through sunset on the 25th, as Labor and Delivery for the Birth of the Savior; while the for Centuries the Church named TWELVE DAYS for Christmas. In Judaism a birth is a private family thing between husband and wife, the child does not even have a name, is not part of the community until brought out into the world for the Circumcision and Gifting of a Name, as in the Covenant of Abraham. The ending of private, intimate, family claiming, and the claiming by the whole Community, was this Time of Purification. According to the Law of Moses, all Creation Belongs to God. We belong to God as Creatures, and are given dominion only in relationship to our claiming: God as God… Do you believe this? When we receive a Gift from God, any Blessing in life, we owe a debt of First Fruits, demonstrating thanksgiving to God, making an offering of the first and best of what we have received, in hope that God will continue to be generous in the future. Judaism and Christianity never practiced child sacrifice, although other cultures in the Ancient World had done so. Instead, like a graduated Income Tax, there were expected offerings for the birth of the firstborn to a couple of substance and those in subsistence. A Heifer, a Lamb, or two Pigeons in the Carol Two Turtledoves. Only after the Sacrifice and Offering was made, only after the Community had claimed the child, could life begin. As much as we place emphasis on Mary and the Incarnation, on Shepherds and Strangers from the East, Anna and Simeon, two individuals at worship, bear the greatest similarity to our roles. Like each of us, Anna and Simeon are WITNESSES. These two do not passively ignore or tolerate the strangers who come before God. Anna and Simeon commend and encourage, offering blessings to the parents for this child, this gift. Would that instead of our critiquing others, we could be so bold as to offer them blessings and affirmations. As the year ends, we complete our Stewardship & Pledging Seasons. Through careful spending, we end the year $11,000 Under Budget on Expenses; and through your Generosity we received $10,000 more than anticipated! Eight years ago, our Session made a bold move, that instead of continuing as we had always been, we might Call an Associate Pastor. In this way to offer a youth program and technology, a solo pastor could not provide. After studying this, and prayer, our Session chose to intentionally enter into a time of spending from the Reserves we had accrued over the prior twelve years. Yet since that time, there have been grave concerns and dire fears of using Reserves HOWEVER, OVER HALF of those making a pledge did so with significant increases. Where churches across the Nation are closing, and cutting back; where the pundits are afraid because changes in the Tax Laws might reduce incentive for giving to NonProfits, we continue to have new believers take up the mantle of those who have laid this foundation. Like old stories, especially at the Holidays I enjoy old Movies. One recently described a parable of a couple in a Village who received the gift of a child. Everyone said “What a blessing!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” And the father gave his son a horse and Everyone said “What a blessing!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” Then the boy fell from the horse Everyone said “What a tragedy!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” And war came Everyone said “What a tragedy!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” Because of his bad leg, the boy could not fight and Everyone said “What a blessing!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” The reality is none of us know what the future will be. We live in a time of preparation a time of purification for what will be. May this be a time of hope, a time of purification, in order to embrace the future as new and exciting, filled with possibility.

December 24, 2017, Midnight "Christ Is Come"

Matthew 3: 1-3, 13-17 Luke 2: 1-20 The most beautiful and painful part of this night, is our giving over control to God. Advent was all about our preparations, our lighting the Candles, getting in the mood, our decorating the Tree, wrapping the gifts, cooking the feast, our singing the Carols. But to tell the Gospel truth, similar to being congratulated for having a Birthday, we had very little choice and little to do with Christmas happening. We began this night “Joy to the World”, the message from Heaven, the message to the world this night. We respond to the Scriptures and Sermon, by joining together singing “O Come All Ye Faithful”, sharing Communion, passing Christ’ light of “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Different from other Christmases, where we have read from Isaiah, this evening we also read a passage from Matthew, not of Jesus’ Genealogy or Joseph’s story of the birth. The Gospel at a different beginning time in Jesus’ life, also describing Jesus being announced to the world and a voice from Heaven. The point being, that while we can be filled with the warm glow of the Nativity story, as we have received it from the Evangelists Luke, Bing and Mariah Carey; Christmas, in both of these Gospels, Announces from Heaven and throughout the World that Jesus Christ is COME, the Immortal, Eternal, Incarnation of God present in Human History. As your Pastor, I have a Christological Pet-Peeve. In large part, Christianity in the 21st Century has forgotten all about the Trinity. We replaced Faith in God, with Worshipping Jesus, and the Holy Spirit does not enter into our imagination. If God cannot be God, then there is no reason for Jesus… The beauty of the Trinity, is the Spiritual Mysticism, the claims of Transcendence over what is tangible. God is still God, the Creator of reality, time and space, who chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; who as Savior entered into the History of Egypt during the building of the Pyramids, becoming Law Giver to Moses. The Holy Spirit continues to brood over the face of the waters, blowing upon the Church, inspiring ideas we never would have imagined. No Where, in all of Scripture, does Jesus invite us to worship Him as God. Repeatedly, Jesus announced that his purpose is to bring people into covenant relationship with God. THAT itself is monumental! Philosophy, Science, Other Religions, never approach declaring an Incarnation. Judaism continues to await the coming of the Anointed Messiah sent from God. Islam claimed The Great Prophet Mohammed was transported to Heaven to return. Philosophy separated the mind and pure thought, from reality of life’s aches/ pains. Only Christianity describes God the Creator and Sustenance of Life, entering in to save us. Faith requires a kind of Quantum Physics, that God was/is and will be, and can be in all places and also in the particular life of Jesus of Nazareth born at Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph. In the early Church, there was a great division between the more Mystic emphasis of the Eastern world, and the more Rational of the Western. The Holy Roman Empire following Emperor Constantine looked to the Crucifixion, the Suffering and Death and Resurrection as being the Central Core of Christian Faith because Constantine’s Mother Helena was a Roman Christian. As the Protestant Church arising in the Enlightenment, we required understanding to be part of faith. While the Eastern Church, recognized a change in Reality, in Time and Space, in History. God Almighty, the Creator and Judge, had entered into our lives. For the Eastern Church, this emphasis is just as real, and just as much about the challenge of Christ to the world. as the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Western Church, but Christ in the Eastern Church is not focused on understanding Jesus “Becoming” the Christ, he has been the Anointed one from the very beginning of time and space. Making the Angels’ message to Shepherds, the same as John the Baptist’s announcement, that we need to “Repent”, to stop and reflect upon who we are and what we are doing in life, whether God is in our lives or not. Whether we have any room for JOY and WONDER whether all that matters to us: is winning? Our Christmas story has been heavily influenced by our Western Europe Ancestors. At the time of the Crusades, in Europe they celebrated Madrigal plays, as we did my 2nd Christmas here years ago with a Boar’s Head Feast, with everyone dressed up as Lords and Ladies gathered, when a troupe of local people and children with a Burro and Lamb acted out the story of Joseph and Mary being told there was No room for them at the Inn. Ironically, as we read the story over this night, there was no Inn, and No Inn Keeper. The question is whether there is any room in Us, in imagination for God to be in us? The difficulty with our proving Christmas, is historically, during the era of Herod, there never was a Census during the era of Emperor Caesar Augustus. Had there been, women would not have been counted as persons, so there would have been no need for Mary to make the journey. Instead, where Augustus Caesar was acclaimed to be the Prince of Peace in the enforced Pax Romana, Jesus is recognized as being the True Prince of Peace for all the world. Having been to Israel this year, there are few trees, mainly Olive and Fig Trees and Myrtle, so the Manger would not have been made of Wood but of Rock. Joseph being a Carpenter meant he worked in both Wood and Stone. How much more stark an image, that instead of the infant sleeping on clean straw in a wooden trough, the Newborn is laid in a cold stone feed trough. A Feed Trough, representing both the humility of simple poverty; but also, the Manger is the first Communion Table, the Altar of God holding the Bread of Heaven for all to see. Christmas is our recognition that there is more to this life than the harsh brutality we so often focus upon. There is Divinity in our midst. What if, we realized we are The Missing Link! The link between Humanity and God? What if we looked at every person we met, our children Christmas morning, our Spouse, our Parents, Neighbors and Friends, Strangers, the guys at the Transfer Station and Fire Department, and Mail Delivery, as having God in them. How differently we might regard one another, if we saw the Divine in each person. If we believed God is God, Christ has Come for us to STOP our MerrygoRound, and that the Holy Spirit continues to inspire and blow our minds. But also, while Jesus is the Messiah Sent from God, the Perfect Union fully Divine and Fully Human, so also as Followers of Christ, are we.

"God With Us" December 24, 2017 9:30am

Isaiah 40 Luke 2: 1-14 Twenty-one years ago I brought my family to Skaneateles from Milwaukee. There were not a lot of accommodations for us to make. Wisconsin had lakes & cold temperatures, in those days CNY got more Snow… We could continue to root for the GB Packers, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, along w/ Syracuse Orange Basketball. Skaneateles and Onondaga were no more difficult than Oconomowoc, Winnebago, and Manitowoc. But there were nuances… In Wisconsin, a Drinking Fountain was a “Bubbler”; a Traffic Light was “the Stop & Go”; sentences could be made into questions by adding “Eh?” and instead of “May I go with You?” Accommodation to the Other was Assumed by saying “Can I Go with?” That assumption, that there is no accommodation on anyone’s part, is what I want to address this morning. Life, Change, is not simply about adding another experience. Every relationship, every commitment demands that we re-evaluate, acculturate to a different reality. The purpose of those ubiquitous Family Christmas Letters, was not bragging rights of how marvelous your life was compared to your siblings; but opportunity to name what circumstances have happened, have impacted and altered our lives this year. For the Tracy family the addition of Jacoby makes this Christmas an entirely new adventure that Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa have never before witnessed. The addition of Thomas to the Corsello-Morabito family, brings changes that the first born and first two did not initiate, because each of us is unique. In America in the 1920s, Women were finally granted the Vote as Equal Citizens. Prior to that time, while there were loving and affectionate relationships, women “could” be treated as second-class, without rights, given as property from Father to Husband. When finally those archaic laws were changed in America, it appeared as though the battle of the sexes was over. But throughout the last Century, America has continued to struggle with change and acceptance of races, sexes, boundaries, roles, relationships and what are appropriate and inappropriate Manners. The scandals of sexual abuse coming out of the shadows over the last many weeks are a realization that many of us have continued to act as if everyone else did not matter, and culturally there had been no adaptation to human equality in the last Century. Isaiah 40 is an incredible passage of Scripture, because “Comfort, comfort my people is not simply “And they lived happily ever after”… From the beginning, whether the Dawn of Humanity, the Exile from the Garden of Eden, or the Children of Noah, … Humanity had evolved in height and stature, migration and survival, we had advanced from the Stone Age to the Iron, to the Bronze…while at the same time, the history of the Bible is that we evolved further and further away from God, away from our Natural selves and trusting relationships. Abram and Sarah and their descendants had received the Covenant of God, but “election” did not mean God has to forgive you no matter what. You are a chosen people, who will be blessed. However, being “Elect” and chosen is a representation of all humanity, so when humanity separates from God, the children of God would feel that exile most of all. The Nation of Israel, which conquered the world under King David and King Solomon, itself fell to the Assyrians and Babylonians, who gave way to the Persians and the Medes and the Greeks. “Comfort, comfort, my people says your God” is the WORD of God through Prophecy that Atonement is more than Being Caught, or Serving your punishment. God recognizes that Israel exiled to Babylon 70 years, has served their sentence, but more, even though God put Israel away, God loves the people and wants the Children of God to be redeemed. YET, at this point, there has been so much broken trust, so many violations, how can we ever look to God and worship God as Good, Awesome and Loving. So God promises to enter into our reality, our relationships, our lives, anew differnt. This last year, in February, I was given the gift of going to the Holy Lands, and even in the locations most sacred to the Church, there is dispute whether this was the location of the Tomb and Crucifixion, or that was; whether this was Mary’s house or that one, because the Empire’s control of Christianity did not begin until 300 yrs after, when the Roman Emperor Constantine became Christian, and his mother went on a quest for the place of the Crucifixion and the Birth. Imagine Today, trying to find the House where Ben Franklin was born, and he had been revered? It is awesome and powerful to Celebrate Communion in The Upper Room above the Sarcophagus of King David; even with replaced knees to kneel and touch the place Jesus’ body laid, and the tomb of the resurrection… But the point of the story in Luke, is not about the details we focus on: the Stable, the Manger, the Magi… most of which has been shaped and changed by our Western European forbearers. There is something very earthy and raw to the reality. Maybe Joseph and Mary gave birth in a stable… but culturally, in Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, homes had beneath them an underground cellar hewn like a womb from the earth. Have you ever been in a severe storm, tornado or hurricane, and sought shelter in the basement. As scary and creepy as we often imagine, we feel safe going into the earth, into this stone womb. Customarily in the Middle East, this is where women went to give birth, away from the family, in the womb of the earth beneath the foundations of their family household. There are stark contrasts between the softness of a newborn and the stone floor, or a Manger carved from Rock. All the more powerful, when the Infant nestled in the earthen Rock Manger is the Divinity of God. And why a Manger, because that was the Food Trough of the Creatures, Just as Christ is the Bread of Heaven. Our Daily Blessings, the experiences and relationships of a lifetime, are not disposable throwaways. Our reality is composed of all these many points of light, like an immense mosaic or puzzle. Recognizing that as much as we take one day after another, one year lived, one life like every other, God loves us, each of us, and enters in to change and shape us by our experiences. Twenty-one years ago, in my first sermon that first Joy Sunday as your Pastor, I recall emphasizing that Jesus is both fully God and fully Human, and that as a culture we had at times over-emphasized God being separate from us in goodness and purity, more recently Jesus being one with us in suffering, emotion and compassion. But years ago, a trusted friend challenged me with: There Being The DIVINE in Us! As much as Human culture has searched for the Missing Link, the connection between Apes and Humans, the first Adam and Eve; quite possibly, we are the Missing Link, between Humanity and God, bringing our children, and grandchildren and neighbors, and strangers to God.

"One More Thing" December 17, 2017

Luke 1:45-55 Mark 1:1-8 There are EXPERTs for everything today. Librarians are Information Specialists. Sommeliers who have expert taste-buds. Medical Specialists. Roofing Specialists. Information Technology Specialists. Expert Heart Surgeons. Expert Fly Fishermen. What I had not realized was that there were even SPECIALIST Stringers of PEARLS. The Jeweler claimed that in addition to size & quality of the Pearls, the expertise of the Stringer threading and tying the knots could decrease or increase the value of a necklace. The Jeweler added the advice that a really good string of pearls should be restrung annually; if worn often, twice a year. Which got me to thinking that while there are Pearls from the Sea and Fresh Water as the irritation of Oysters; there are also Pearls we have grown, from the irritations in our lives working upon us. Pearls of Wisdom. Pearls of Belief and Ethics and Values. What we do at Advent is to worry those Pearls, not over their value or safety, but handling, rubbing and restringing our irritants, as being Pearls of Great value to us. This is one of the most stressful times of all the year! We have our normal routines of every day, our work, responsibilities, doctors’ appointments, maintenance of the house, car, stretching finances to cover bills, when suddenly, we are expected to have gifts, cookies for all the events, and the number of events goes from monthly/weekly to every group having a Holiday. And if we are willing to go there, the most stressful circumstance for each of us is the deaths, having the reminder of “their ornament”, “their recipes” for us to make, what to do with “their stocking”, “their empty place” at the table. Christmas feels like the JENGA game of a tower of stacked blocks, ever withdrawing one more foundation, and ADDING ONE MORE THING until we collapse. Advent questions “Who are we?” This morning, we have those who instead of seeing Christmas and faith in God, as one more thing added on, each recognize RELATIONSHIP TO GOD as their one thing, their core identity, and everything else develops from that faith. Instead of being a Virgin, betrothed to Wed who suddenly finds herself PREGNANT… MARY identifies as being The Handmaid of the God, God’s instrument of Incarnation, that her life, her whole existence, her purpose in being, is to magnify the Lord. JOHN the Baptist refuses to see himself as a Prophet, a religious professional, born into the family business, rejects all the world’s claims that he might be The MESSIAH … instead is devoted to Calling others to REPENT, to be Baptized, to start their lives over rejecting everything else and beginning with God. Funny, the Scriptures actually tell us Very Little about Mary. JOHN’s Gospel does not mention her. MARK begins at Jesus’ Baptism as an Adult so nothing about Mary. MATTHEW names her, but the whole Emphasis is on JOSEPH. Only LUKE provides this speech, called The MAGNIFICAT, both as Scripture, in Theology and in Music, not because it is magnificent, which it is… The LATIN word “MAGNIFICAT” means MAGNIFIES, because Mary’s opening words are “My Soul Magnifies the Lord.” Modern Translators have made this “My Soul PRAISES God” or “My Heart REJOICES” Instead MAGNIFIED to me, emphasizes that this is not about REVERING MARY, so much as about THIS GIFT OF GOD’s LOVE, solely and completely about God’s Love, and the relationship of Mary to God. As a MAN I dare to say, that there is something awesome and incredible in the choice of a couple to give birth. At one moment, you live your life for yourself, in the next and for the rest of your life, a part of you exists in the life of this other. You may never understand their feelings, their thoughts, their experiences, but they are a part of you and you are part of their life. So how much of a stretch is it for us to see GOD Our Father, as integral to our lives? The GOSPEL of LUKE actually begins before Mary with the birth of John to Elizabeth and Zechariah, as this High Priest praying in the Temple becomes HYSTERICAL… The DICTIONARY explains “HYSTERIA” as “an UNCONTROLLABLE EMOTIONAL OUTBURST AS FROM FEAR OR LAUGHTER”. Plato and Aristotle had reasoned that MEN are different from WOMEN because women possess a WOMB, in Greek “HYSTERA”, which is also why removal of the Womb is called an Hysterectomy. Greek Philosophy prized REASON at the expense of Emotion. They reasoned that a PERSON’s Soul was located in his CORE, and the perfecting of a MAN was moving his soul from his BOWELS to his BELLY. Where as a woman, Plato and Aristotle believed was governed by the Womb at her Core, so when a person was ruled by Emotion they were Hysterical. In the year 70 AD, as the Early Church was forming, immediately before the writing of the Four Gospels, the Temple was again destroyed by the Roman Empire, the only evidence existing today is the Wailing Wall. Imagine how revered and holy is The Wailing Wall by Jews and Christians throughout the Centuries, and that is the remainder of one wall of the Holy of Holies. We begin here, because Zechariah was chosen for a once in a lifetime experience, chosen to be the Priest to go into the Holy of Holies to present the Confessions, atonements, and prayers of the People to God, following which he was to come out to grant people assurance of the Forgiveness and Grace of God. But entering the Holy of Holies inside the Temple, atop the Mountain at Jerusalem, the Angel Gabriel was waiting for Zechariah. An Angel who told the Priest, you and your wife are to have a baby, who will announce the coming of the Savior. And instead of being true to the Scriptures of miraculous births for miraculous children, Zechariah became HYSTERICAL. Zechariah demanded a Sign. You are chosen to be the Priest, dressed in the Holiest of Robes, you are inside the Holy of Holies inside the Temple, confronted by an Angel, and you need A Sign? And the Angel says, I will give you a Sign, “You will not speak, you will not be able to offer complaint or question, or even to assure the people of their forgiveness and the Grace of God, until after the child is born, and you Zechariah name him John.” CD Meigs wrote a wonderful little poem descriptive of the faith conceived in Zechariah, the faith present in Elizabeth, and Mary and John who would be Baptizer: Lord, help me to live Day to Day, in such a self-forgetful way, That even when I kneel to pray, my prayers shall be for others. Others, Lord, yes, Others, let this my motto be Let me live for others, that I may live like Thee. Advent is both a time of repentance, and devotion of our lives to others. We were never Created to be OUR OWN, to Possess all we could Get. Instead, we were created to live our lives for others. That is what it means to be a Partner, a Spouse, a Parent, a Child, a Christian… John lived his entire life devoted to announcing the Coming of Another. CS LEWIS once wrote: “If we let God, for we can prevent God if we choose, but if we allow God in, God will make the feeblest and filthiest of us, DIVINE, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating throughout with such energy, joy, wisdom and love, as we cannot now imagine; a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly, God’s own boundless power, delight and grace. The process is long and painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.” Recently someone told me, “These are supposed to be our Golden Years, they seem pretty tarnished to me.” I think our task, beginning in this season of Advent is to polish the tarnish to be a brighter more stainless mirror of God

"Demanding the Impossible" December 3, 2017

Isaiah 64:1-9 Mark 13:24-37 Your Joys are our joys, your laughter brings laughter to us, Your Sorrows are our Sorrows, your Fears and Nightmares we accept, we feel your Tears, because you have become Part of us, God is part of your life, that does not, cannot ever, go away. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless, a void, Shadows of Dark covered the face of the deep where light have never been, while the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters. God commanded “Let there be Light”; and there was light! And God saw that the light was Good; and God separated the light from the dark.” Having witnessed images of the Blackness of Space, having stared into the pitch of night, having awoken with nightmares, this image of hopelessness, black darkness, seems the appropriate beginning. What I love about the Bible, is that we can take a word-picture like this: “The earth was a formless void covered in shadows of deep darkness” at face value. We can also peel back the layers of time and space, to an image before Once upon a time, before the Big Bang, to suggest that that formless dark, deep shadows, where no light had ever yet been, an image before time and space, was WITHOUT GOD. Yet, when God established time and space, reality as we know it, God did so by bringing LIGHT into the world. The difficulty is that life requires balance, homeostasis, order, so God did not eliminate darkness with Light. God called Light into being, and part of the nature of Free Will is our natural selection of Light versus Darkness. There is a certain clandestine fun to darkness. A velvety blanket of Secrecy, where nothing escapes, nothing is certain, everything is hidden. The problem, we spend a life-time learning, is that DARK is a vacuum, SECRETS have power over us. The last several weeks, much like WIKI Leaks, secrets of powerful individuals in every arena, have Come-to-Light. People whom we did not know personally; but whom we felt we trusted and welcomed into our homes, every morning, evening, and before we closed our eyes, people whom we trusted with world power... The fact that these men succumbed to their own worst is not surprising… This week, the Hospital created to bring life in South Sudan, Our Staff dedicated to save Mothers and Children, was the scene of our own MASS SHOOTING. NO, the surprising fact, is how long and at what cost these men lived in their own Darkness, telling lies, revealing only half-truths when those were found out, rather than coming out into the light. These armed youth had been bred and nursed to kill their Enemy, believing no one in the outside knew, no one cared. The wonderful part about being a Church, is that as much as History describes us as Saints, In Church we each know we each are Sinners, who have also done wrong. The wonderful simplicity of Faith is that we move heaven and earth lying to others, trying to keep secrets by telling more lies, BUT when secrets are exposed to Light, the world does not end. Especially because we in the Church share in being the Body of Christ, that we will never abandon you, you are not alone. A few weeks ago a young child shared during the Concerns that his hair had been falling out, and he was having tests for his parents to learn why. We vowed, as we do now… Your Joys are our joys, your laughter brings laughter to us, Your Sorrows are our Sorrows, your Fears and Nightmares we accept, we feel your Tears, because you have become Part of us, God is part of your life, that does not, cannot ever, go away. We have many favorite verses from the Prophet and Priest, Isaiah: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord of Hosts: The whole earth full of God’s Glory! Comfort, Comfort my people… A Voice in the Wilderness says Cry… All flesh is grass… They will mount up with Wings like Eagles, they shall run and not grow weary… but this is different, this passage from Isaiah is a PRAYER OF LAMENT, somewhat of an accusation to God, that if you are God “Why not come down here and act like a God?” ADVENT is not simply the DICKENS Nostalgia of Roasted Chestnuts and Bing Crosby. Instead of sitting on Santa’s Lap, Wishing for what we believe we cannot have, ADVENT is DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE: To no longer keep secrets. To approach others: strangers, neighbors, co-workers, family, that person in the mirror, not as those we take advantage of, but as if they are God in our reality! Let us DEMAND A DEATH TO KILLING! Let us DEMAND GOD ENTER OUR LIVES! We cannot have God on Sunday mornings for an hour, then put God away when we want to live secrets. For God to come, Once, for All people, God needs to RIP OPEN THE BARRIERS between us that there would be no power in SECRETS anymore. A problem with Hebrew translation into English comes in VERSE 5: “Behold, God was Angry and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?” None of us were made to Sin, because God was angry. In English we reversed the phrases… BEHOLD WE SINNED & GOD WAS ANGRY, making the emphasis of this verse whether because we have continued to sin a very long time, months, years, decades, generations, Can God still forgive us? ADVENT is a brief 4 Weeks, where we live Knowing God has Come into the World AND ALSO believing in God’s Coming into Each of our Lives. This is the time of “ALREADY/NOT YET”. There is a song about “You better watch out, You better not Cry, Better not Pout I am telling you Why…” Which fits with waiting for the Messiah. Rather than bi-furcating, living ignoring what we believe, saying we want God in our lives, but not when we are cheating, not when we are going to get caught. Instead, live as if Children waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive! Live with Hope and Excitement, rather than fear. Funny, this passage has been used by those believing in THE END TO THE WORLD as proof of a coming Apocalypse. This is not some NOSTRADOMUS Prediction… Here, Jesus describes Reality: The Temple at Jerusalem has been destroyed for ever. There have been and continue to be WARS and rumors of War. This is ASSURANCE… AFTER the Tribulation, the SUN will be DARKENED, the Moon will Not Give Light. Just when it seems DARKNESS and SECRECY have WON, the Messiah Comes Again. IT is NOT about WHEN; Jesus describes that even HE as the Son of God Does Not Know, Only God knows. Pay attention to the World around us… Have the Leaves lost their Trees? Have the Temperatures become Colder? So what is going to happen? For Months the days have been getting shorter and Darkness has been expanding, YET After Winter, what has ALWAYS come? With less time in darkness and greater light upon God’s world.