"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.