Epiphany 3 - B

DOING IT THE HARD WAY

I imagine most of us heard President Obama’s inaugural address? A remarkable number of people did. Reports say email traffic was at an all time low while everyone watched it on line. The length of the speech was clocked at about 18 minutes. The longest inaugural address was given by President Harrison, and it took an hour and forty five minutes in a snow storm. He died of pneumonia a month later. George Washington’s address was about 135 words. It took less than two minutes to read. It took him eight days to get to New York.

It took Jonah three days to walk across the city to speak eight words.

Eight words… imagine being able to say eight “good” words and those words being powerful enough to change the way people live. He simply told the people that they were doing something wrong. His words were ridiculously effective. Of course, it’s a story about exaggerations, and really it’s not so much about the city as it is about Jonah himself. Jonah learns something about God in the process; he learns that God is all about forgiveness and love and God can change.

Have you ever tried to get anyone to change? In relationships it is impossible. What we are told is that we can only change ourselves.

When we look at the world in which we live we are faced with some pretty serious dilemmas really. Daily we must decide if we are going to follow the Way of Jesus Christ and his calling to us or are we going to follow the ways of the world.

To follow The Way of Jesus is not easy; it means going against the culture we live in.

There are many examples of ways to challenge our culture and society; the Moncton market offers products and produce locally made and grown as a way of resisting the big stores that often leave the farmer short-changed and the customer over-charged. We see things like this all the time. Lobster fisherman selling out of the backs of trucks; people selling corn and potatoes by the side of the road.

Somewhere along the way we forgot that simple acts like this is what Jesus calls us to – resisting the empire; changing the world from the ground up; substituting love for greed. The Bible, our faith, is counter-cultural.

But even while I say that I think that I should let you know that without even thinking about it, most of us already do a thing or two that resists the empire…

We shop at the market, we sort the garbage into the blue and green bags, we visit in the homes, we donate to many worthwhile organizations, we smile in the grocery store, or a hundred other worthwhile things that others would say are a waste of time.

This week there 2 such examples right here within our church. The Men’s group putting on a supper to raise money to help people who will be unable to pay their oil bills this winter. With the men we raised around 500L of oil to give to our neighbours.

Then this week, I received a call from the United Way. They asked Mountain View to join with them and ReConnect to help someone in need to a new apartment by way of a loan for a couple of weeks. The benevolent fund is low right now and so I called the UCW and without hesitation the money was on my desk with word that it was not a loan but a gift – freely given. Amazing really, here we are a church community working side by side 2 other organization is our city to help our friends and neighbours in the city.

These are examples of being counter cultural – of following the Way of Jesus as we hear read in the Gospel stories.

When Jesus spoke to people, he wanted to show them to a new way of seeing the world; the Kingdom Way, counter cultural, standing against the empire of today. Jesus was talking about God’s love being lived through how we treat each other and the strangers in our midst. To create a world that followed God’s grace and love for all creation – that that would become the norm, the dominant culture and everyone would know justice, freedom, peace, and love.

This was his hope for his followers.

In the Gospel story today, Jesus calls the disciples to join him, to leave what they have known and join him on a journey of challenging the way people lived. It would mean overturning the existing order of power and privilege. In this story – we can hear the call being extended to each of us. Jesus is inviting you and me to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege.

Are you willing to that? Am I willing to do that?

Are we willing to leave the places within ourselves that allow corruption to happen, that allow for oppression, that allow for exclusion, that allow for toleration, that allow for the quiet yet subtle work of racism, homophobia, sexism, the marginalization of the poor, the condemning of those who aren’t Christian, and more specifically are we willing to allow our faith in Jesus Christ to transform us into change agents in the places we find ourselves?

There are no miracles in today’s Gospel. No voices from heaven. No diseases cured, water turned into wine, or anything else. But something divine is happening here. Because a group of people have gathered together to resist the powers of the world and to show the people around them that there is a better way to live.

Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be about today? When I woke up this morning it was like any other day: stumble out of bed and try to help get the girls ready, rush around trying to get organized and get out of the house too late… for the most part my life has become routine.
But life is meant to be anything but routine. A life of faith – following Jesus helps us to see and live beyond the routines - it starts with the decisions we make that express our faith are against the empire.

I know a lot of you give money to this church that you could use for other things in life, a better television, a nicer car, an extra trip, a new gadget – and instead you give of your resources to help ministry happen in this place and in the world through the Mission and Service Fund. You volunteer your time here and in other places because you believe the world can be changed in small ways.

Whether or not anything in this service moves us or gives us great insight, the very nature of our gathering should be enough because we gather to resist what the rest of the world wants us to believe: that there can be no peace, that back room politics will rule the day, that you are a consumer who will be consumed, and that there is no hope.

But none of that is true. How do we know that? Because Christ walks along the shores of our lives and calls us by name to follow him because the kingdom of God is near.

In the next few weeks, we’re going to be reading about some pretty impressive miracles. I’d like you to consider that miracles are symbolic actions. Let me explain. When Martin Luther tacked his thesis upon the door of the cathedral with his criticisms of the church, this was more than a monk posting a note on a door. It was a symbolic action of resistance against what he thought was wrong. When Martin Luther King Jr. knelt and prayed in front of police dogs and water cannons, or when people sat at lunch counters or in the front of city buses, they were engaging in symbolic actions. When Jesus heals people and performs miracles, it’s not about magic, he does it to challenge the powers around him, to show what the kingdom of God looks like.

Jesus came, the Bible says; that we might have life, have courage, have faith. But living the life that God wants of us takes a lot of courage. And we are here this morning to encourage one another in the journey of life. So today I want to encourage you as you leave this place to be who you are, where you are. You are a child of God. You are part of God’s world. And together, as a church, we can make a difference to not only resist what is wrong, but to celebrate what is right.

Epiphany 2

Something New…

Is there anything new under the sun?

It is pretty easy to think that nothing ever changes isn’t it? Or rather, it is easy to become pessimistic about the state of the world.

Think about this. IBM, Nortel, Microsoft Canada, GM, the Globe and Mail, to name a few companies, have started laying off thousands of employees. GM alone is cutting 30% of its manufacturing work force. Economists who are supposed to know about these things say there will be about 250,000 jobs lost in Canada alone this year.

Oh, and then there is Iraq, Afghanistan, Ghaza, and the whole slew of warfare ravaging the planet. You can look it up – there are currently 9 major wars being fought – that means with casualties over 1000 people per year, Sri Lanka, Congo, Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somali, the second Intifada War (which we know as Gaza), and the Mexican drug war. 4 million people have been killed in the Congo, and 400,000 in Somalia… but we somehow forget to rank them as high as Iraq, or places where Americans are involved.

There are 16 smaller scale wars being fought right now, in case you were wondering.

This is to say nothing of Global Warming, the rise in the drug trade, violent crime, or any of the other things darkening our doorsteps.

I don’t want us to ignore this stuff when it comes to church. I think it is important to set everything in the real world context; because it is exactly in the real world that our Biblical heroes find themselves.

Hear this: ‘Now the boy Samuel was ministering in the temple under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rarely heard…’ In other words this was a time when people questioned God’s presence, when not a whole lot of people could look around and say, God is with us! We’re told that in this time visions were not widespread. In other words people groped in the dark, and they lacked direction and God didn’t seem to be communicating too well… See what I mean?

The author is communicating to us on so many levels, trying to help us envision just how terrible everything seemed. Think about this, Eli’s sight was dim. Do you think we are only talking about his eyes, or are we also thinking about the fact that Eli, as a priest, is no longer really connected to God, his “vision” is failing.

Then there is that great line; ‘while Samuel slept in the temple of the Lord… Before the lamp of God had gone out…’ Of course the setting of the story is night-time and at one level the reference is doubtless to the actual lamp that illuminated the temple and that was dimming to a faint glow. But surely there is something deeper here: it was the very light of God’s presence that was flickering and stuttering and about to be extinguished, leaving the land in a state of utter spiritual abandonment.

Have you ever had anyone ask you why you go to church? There is a preacher in the states, he fills his church with hundreds of thousands of people every Sunday, his name is Joel Osteen, and he is the minister of Lakewood church; where there are no less than 8 church services every week. His church seats 16,000 people and his sermons are seen in over 100 countries, he was named by ABC News as one of the 100 most interesting people in the world, and, well, he is famous.

Here is his message: God is nice, I am nice, be nice.

Which is not a bad message; if it were not for one thing: life sucks.

Each and every one of you gathered here today has had something happen that is so terrible it has made you question everything. Each week we hear about, read about, or experience something happening that makes us wonder about this so called nice god. 1 out of every 3 women is raped, 1 out of every 4 people gets AIDS, and 1 out of every 2 people has a cardiac incident… for example.

And although a lot of people through the centuries, a lot of good people, and a lot of religious people, have offered escapism from this real dark vision of our existence, the Bible does not.
The Bible shows us people who can barely lift their heads.

Eli is alone and heartbroken trying to find some good of his life while taking care of the temple and its young apprentice Samuel.

And then there is Nathaniel; perhaps the most interesting story of the calling of a disciple ever. Here he is, sitting under a tree while there is a religious revival going on, not even bothering to listen, when his friend Philip comes running over and says, “you gotta come see this, there is a preacher over her who is going to change the world, and he comes from Nazareth!”

Philip is all excited about this new thing and he gets a jaded, cynical response… “Really, there is something good out of Nazareth?” How would we say that? “Really, you are trying to tell me there is something good out of Ottawa? Or Moncton, or…”

We don’t tend to look too closely at the historical situation of Ancient Palestine. It is strange that we do not because it adds so much depth to the story. So look for a moment at the situation behind Nathaniel’s cynicism. What we need to know about Nazareth is that it was more than just a dull and despised place. It was also a dark place. Around the time of Jesus there were a number of rebellions and uprisings against the Roman occupiers in the area where Jesus lived. Such rebellions were put down ruthlessly. The Romans did not meet insurrection with half measures. One such rebellion occurred in a place called Sepphoris, just a few miles north of Nazareth, around the time of Jesus’ birth. The Roman response was swift, capturing and burning Sepphoris and reducing its inhabitants to slavery. And what do you think happened to small villages adjacent to Sepphoris? What do you think happened to the tiny hamlet of Nazareth just four miles away? Well, we don’t know.

But we do know what happened next time a rebellion broke out at a place called Gerasa, which also features in the Gospel story. We’re told that the Roman general ‘put to the sword a thousand of the youth, who had not already escaped, made prisoners of women and children, gave his soldiers license to plunder property, and then set fire to the houses and advanced to the surrounding villages. The able-bodied fled, the feeble perished, and everything left was consigned to the flames.’ Locals in the vicinity of places associated with rebellion faced murder, rape and enslavement.

So – can anything good come out of that? It is like asking, can anything good come out of Auschwitz? Can anything good come out of Rwanda?

But we didn’t start with cynicism, we started with Samuel. Let’s cast our eyes back to the silent darkness where the lamp of God glows so dimly and so faintly and if we listen very carefully, what do we hear? In the stillness there is a faint voice to be heard: ‘Samuel, Samuel…’ And the voice of the child replies, ‘Here I am…’ Of course in the fading, tired order of things Samuel can only interpret what is happening in terms of the old, the familiar. It must be Eli that is calling. And Eli likewise at first cannot discern the voice of God in Samuel’s story for God doesn’t speak any more. But it is not Eli calling and Samuel is not mistaken. It is the voice of God, gentle but firm, easily mistaken, yet persistent. And so God enters into that dark, empty place and suddenly something new is stirring. God is there, and at work.

History has been memorably described as ‘just one damn thing after another’ but perhaps that is wrong. The voice of God is heard in dark times. Something new does come out of scarred and despised places like Nazareth. But the task is to discern it. Like Samuel, Like Eli, we can all too easily fail to recognize it. Like Nathaniel, our prejudices and presumptions can cloud our eyes so that we are oblivious to it.

Last Sunday the readings directed us to Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan, and there is a very striking phrase in the description of what happened there. We are told that as Jesus emerged from the water John ’saw heaven being torn open’. Then the Spirit descended on Jesus and a voice came from heaven, declaring Jesus to be the beloved of God. That’s dramatic, eye-catching stuff! The skies splitting apart - this is an epiphany, a manifesting of who Jesus is. Here something new is breaking in from above, tearing open the skies, invading the world. But that is not how it usually happens. More often, rather than breaking in from above, God emerges without fanfare from below with offers of new life and new hope - a voice in the night, a stranger from Nazareth.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yes, to our surprise, Jesus does. Can something new emerge from old, tired, scarred places? Yes, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it does. And in dark places today, places like Nazareth, God will be at work. In Nazareth itself, as well as in Gaza, in a land where Palestinians face all kinds of oppression and humiliation, people will be caring for one another, sharing with one another, supporting one another. And in other places like Congo, or Somalia, or Zimbabwe there will be stories of heroism and love and self-sacrifice. Here God will be found and God’s voice heard, if only in whispers, and Jesus will emerge.

This is why I come to church. This is what I believe in. This is a dark and cynical world where we are told that there is no hope, there is no good, there is no love, there is no peace… and too often church can begin to seem a little bit like it did in Samuel’s day; like that candle of hope is flickering…

I know that is not the last word, however, I know that there is that quiet and unexpected voice, where something good surprises us in the midst of all this pain and darkness. There is always something new, and that something new is the love of God bubbling up and changing everything.

We need to keep our eyes and ears open.

Baptism of Jesus

A Little Touch of God

Why did John baptize Jesus?

Biblical scholars will tell you all kinds of things about prophecies, and messiahs, and fulfillment.
I’m asking from a more basic, simpler perspective. Why? Here are these two guys, preachers in their own right, who for some reason seem to get themselves interconnected. Why? And for that matter, what does it have to do with us?

It is a very short story, there are in fact only two main facts that we know – John is supposedly Jesus’ cousin. And Jesus chooses to begin his ministry by having John baptize him. I guess when you read through the whole Bible you find out a few other things; John had followers before Jesus, he wanted people to turn their lives around, he baptized them when they did; and he got Herod mad enough to kill him.

All of this is important because in one way or another, Jesus chose to follow in John’s footsteps. He adopted some of his disciples, and he took over preaching to his followers after John died. There was certainly a relationship there.

Have you ever stopped to think about the relationships in your life? Have you ever stopped to think what it is that connects us to people; how we share values and ideals, and why we know some people and not others?

Most of us have this amazing web that connects us to the people around us. We have children, we have parents, we have cousins and uncles, friends and relations, colleagues at work, church goers, and acquaintances from the gym, bowling buddies, and service clubs...

You know the actor Kevin Bacon? He has had a long career and made a phenomenal amount of movies as a supporting actor, and at one point someone developed a parlour game called 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. The idea being that within 6 steps you could connect Kevin bacon to anyone in Hollywood.

Just in case you are curious it actually goes back to a conjecture made in 1929 by Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy, who said there was a chain link to between any person. Then in the 60’s Michael Gurevich conducted a study in social networks for MIT. Finally, American psychologist Stanley Milgram continued Gurevich's experiments in acquaintanceship networks at Harvard University, publishing a “small world theory” in 1978.

You don’t need to know all that; I am just pointing out that this goes further than a Kevin Bacon parlour trick.

Here is an example, I know Lois Wilson, who used to be moderator, who is now a Senator and knows Stephen Harper, who knows George Bush, who knows Vladimir Putin. So I am only four people away from the Prime Minister of Russia.

You could supposedly pick any person on the planet and within 6 people; you would be back to yourself.

Think about that. There are 6.7 billion people, give or take, on the planet. And yet, despite everyone saying they are individuals, we form ourselves into communities and groups that are so overlapped that we are no more than 6 steps away from each other.

Connection is a big thing.

The first thing that happens when a baby is born is that it is put on the mother’s chest. When a toddler falls and hurts their knee they instinctively want to be picked up and held. When we greet someone or are introduced to someone we shake their hand. At the end of church, many people want to give me a hug.... it is instinctive to want contact with another person.

In fact, people who have a disease which makes it harder to be touched, or that people are afraid of; burn victims or AIDS victims, will tell you that having someone willing to touch them is very healing.

It does not surprise me in any way that Jesus recognized something that I often miss – the need not only to rely on connection, but to deepen connection.

∞

Are you thinking about connection? Considering all the ways that you interact with people? Good. Because one of the main points about Jesus getting baptized is that it is a beginning. In fact, a new beginning; and here we are at the beginning of another year, our 50th as a church, and I guess I am trying to start out asking the same basic question I have about Jesus choice.

Why?

Why are you here? Why do you choose to renew your faith and come back to church one more time?

Let me suggest that we are here for the same reason that Jesus got baptized; connection.

The connections we have here in church make life more meaningful.

I see it all the time; I see someone hug someone who is in pain in our midst; I see people truly listening to each other over coffee; I see people joking and teasing each other. All of which are deep, deep signs of connection. They are signs of love.

But it is a choice, just like the choice Jesus had. If you really stop and think about it, Jesus did not need John’s touch. He could have stayed at home and trained in his father’s trade. He could have went off alone to become a charismatic prophet without any help from anyone, or he could form a religious community of people he cared about who worked together for God’s kingdom.

Jesus, however, recognized that there is something holy at work in the relationships we have with other people.

This decision to be submerged in the waters of the Jordan helped everyone to see that God rarely works though anyone alone, in fact, in the very real, very physical contact of one loving touch to another, God is there.

So here is where I can connect back to those theologians and scholars and tell you in a very simple way what the theology behind this story is:

There is a little touch of God in this act, and if you can find your way to giving someone a smile, a handshake, a pat on the back, or even a hug, there will be a little touch of God in that as well.

Where do you see God?

I am nervous every time I encounter another person – do you hold the door open or not, do you shake hands, do you hug, what is the person thinking, are the mad at me, do they care, how are they going to interpret me, who is watching, what did I miss, am I playing favourites... the list that runs through my mind is huge; and it is tempered with a whole set of rules, both written and societal.... Don’t flirt with members of the opposite sex, don’t get too close, maintain professional boundaries, keep a safe distance... all of these things get in the way every time we try and establish a deep and rich connection.

Then something happens. There is this moment of recognizing the person standing in front of you, and seeing, truly seeing them, and knowing their need, their pain, and their joy. And it just seems right to reach out.

That’s when that inner voice speaks softly; “this is my beloved child; I am well pleased.”

Epiphany

The Myrrh’s the Thing

So... I had a rough Christmas. First off, things have been stressful for the last few years. Secondly, I have two young daughters who try as they might just don’t have the emotional strength to handle stress. Third, it was hard to do anything in the house because of renovations that have torn everything apart. Finally, I got sick, with everything under the sun, culminating in shingles of all things...

My life this season has been about being told to live as stress free as possible while managing households, relatives, shopping, cooking, kids and endless regimes of brightly coloured pills.

Why do I tell you these things? Mainly to set the stage for a concrete understanding of Christmas and the seasons of our lives; you see, sometimes we fantasize that there is a “perfect” life out there somewhere. Most of us have far more troublesome times than good ones though. The Bremner’s are struggling with the near fatal accident that their grandson was in. Helen Patterson and June Oke lost their mother. And that is just the two things I know about that went wrong in our community.

I keep bringing up these aspects of our lives because I know that the Bible is not ancient history.

One can read the stories and think of them as just something that happened half way around the world to people we never met. But these stories were not written as history – they were written as stories to bring us closer to seeing our own lives the way they should be seen.

∞

This is 10 days into the season of Christmas... long enough in the past that we can let go of some of the sentimentality and try to see the “real” picture...

So imagine this, all of you men out there... Someone comes to your home and tells you to go off to Toronto next Monday, so that the government can access you a new 25% tax. If you don’t go, the American Marines will come and burn your house down. Your wife is 10 months pregnant, and only 16 years old, and all alone with all those soldiers milling about. So, you put her in the station wagon and head off down the highway... hoping as you hit each pothole that she doesn’t go into labour. You have 100 dollars for gas, food, and lodging because pay day is next week, and there is a blizzard coming. How are you feeling? Is this your idea of a good time?

Okay... all you women back there... think back to being sixteen... now, imagine you are pregnant out of wedlock, and it is NOT your boyfriends. It really doesn’t matter whose it is, the main thing you and his family care about is that it is not his. And here you are overdue, in pain, barely able to walk, nauseous so you cannot eat; and the invading soldiers are making it impossible to get any help. Now you have to drive to Toronto – through roadblocks and sleeping in bed bug infested motels that are all you can afford. When you get there aren’t even any rooms, but someone lets you sleep on an old army cot in a garage behind the hotel. Paint and gas fumes make it hard to breathe, the blizzard hits, and you go into labour.

That is the story of Christmas.

∞

What do you think Joseph was thinking when Jesus was born? What do you think was going through Mary’s mind? Do you think it was magical? Do you think they were standing there, hands folded on their laps, watching the little baby as it slept quietly, halo softly glowing?

I have just one corrective to offer you... lack of anaesthetic.

Mary was probably passed out from the pain and effort, the baby was probably cold, hungry, screaming, and barely alive. Joseph was certainly out of his depth; not knowing how to care for either one; midwives did that sort of thing, or mother in laws, certainly not men.

I bet there was not a single person who could see God at work in all of this.

You’ve been there too... I bet. I would be willing to wager there are moments of every holiday, about every day, where we sit back, sigh, and say, this is not how I dreamt it would be. This isn’t how I thought it would turn out.

I also know that most of our lives we find it very hard to see where God is at work in all of this. We could be sick, we could be alone, we could be broke, we could be scared, we could be hungry, or we could simply be overwhelmed... and this is what God wanted our lives to be about?

∞

There was this writer once who wanted to tell a story that would help us see how God relates to us in these moments. He chose the most unlikely of characters, an unwed couple, a baby, some shepherds, and some Persian astronomers and fortune tellers... the so called Wise Men.

And Matthew says that all of a sudden, out of the blue, these people showed up in the lives of a poor labourer and his child bride and gave them unbelievable gifts. They brought gold in a world where a copper penny was a month’s wages; perfume in a world where even water was impossible to find, and Myrrh.

Myrrh is a spice so precious that most people got a little bit and kept it all of their lives, they kept it for something so special, so sacred, that it only happened once... anointing the body after death.

What if someone showed up this afternoon and did something so unbelievable that you knew, without a doubt that you had worth; that you were loved; that there was a God?

I have heard a lot of people say that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle... Which simply is not true; first off, God doesn’t cause pain. Secondly, there is going to be a whole lot in life we cannot handle. No matter how strong you think you are, something will happen that will leave you slumped at the foot of the bed.

It is in those moments that God does give you something.... God gives you a reminder of how special you are. The messenger who brings you that Good News will probably be someone you never expected. Angel is Greek for “Messenger” by the way. It could be a shepherd, or a fortune teller, or a friend, or a stranger, someone will come with the most precious of gifts – something that you can hold on to until you need it most.

In that moment, God will be reborn in this world once again.

CHRISTMAS EVE

And So This Is Christmas

Let me ask you a simple question on this Christmas Day. How many times have you heard the story that we just read from this gospel in Luke?

How many times have you heard the story about the simple shepherds in the field watching over their flocks at night, and suddenly in a starlit sky there comes the angel and the heavenly host proclaiming good news to all of humanity, and the shepherds go and follow the directions of the angels and they find Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus lying in the straw surrounded by the silent, innocent animals in the stable? How many times have you heard that story, and how many times have you seen it portrayed on greeting cards around the Christmas season, in pictures that we see on television-every Christmas-this wonderful, warm, loving image?

If Christmas were a Marathon –this is almost the finish line. Here you are tonight... most of the presents are wrapped, hopefully all of the food is bought, the plans are laid in, and really, it is time to sit back, relax, and wonder...

This is when we let the stories and songs of Christmas remind us of the real message deep within our celebration; the message of Love.You know, the truth is no matter what your faith is like, no matter what you believe, every Christmas we all turn into traditionalists. If you are like me, you are, just as I am, an absolute sentimentalist whenever it comes to this Christmas season. I don't want Christmas to ever change. I don't want to ever stop hearing this story in Luke. I never want to stop seeing that image of the baby Jesus in the manger. I want to feel that again and again and again. I am so nostalgic for it. It is so comforting to me. I never ever, ever, want my Christmas to change.

Ah, but... there is another image of Christmas we all contend with right, the stress, the pain of lost loved ones, the sickness, the fear, the chaos of the malls, trying to please everyone... these are a very real part of the season – a very real part of Christmas. And there are moments for all of us, aren’t there, where we wonder if this is all there is.

Do you remember the Christmas song; I have only heard it once this year, about Snoopy and the Red Baron? There is a line in that song, that goes like this:

"The Baron had Snoopy dead in his sightsHe reached for the trigger to pull it up tightWhy he didn't shoot, well, we'll never knowOr was it the bells from the village below.Christmas bells those Christmas bellsRinging through the landBringing peace to all the world; And good will to man."

See, there is something about Christmas that cuts through everything else. There is a sense, and each of us gets it at different moments in different ways... Here tonight when we sing Silent Night, or home in front of the tree with just the lights turned on and a glass of eggnog, but a sense that something miraculous really does happen at Christmas.

It is like watching it’s a Wonderful Life. Every time the ending comes there is a tear in my eye; I don’t know why, I know it’s coming, but it is just so much a part of what I think Christmas is all about – it is about love; the miracle of love.

Tonight we celebrate the fact that to Shepherds in cold fields abiding, and to visionaries who travelled from distant lands, and to poor parents struggling to survive, and to honest fishermen who wanted change but didn’t know how to go about it, and to every other person in every sort of position in life... all poor and humble ones, all rich and haughty ones... even you and me... God came.

A baby was born so that we might know Hope, and Peace, and Joy, and Love... and we might realize that despite our sometimes painful lives, and despite the stress of it all, there is a vision that can bring light to a darkened world.

It is God’s vision of love that we celebrate tonight.So it is worth being a little sentimental about. It is worth hanging on to past traditions. It is right and proper that we should put aside some of our deeper questions and concerns and just let Christmas be. Revel in it, celebrate it, remember it...

Enjoy those visions of angels and shepherds and the manger and the baby in the straw and the animals and Mary and Joseph and keep it exactly the way it's always been for you.
The Celtic faith held that there were thin places, thin moments, when you could almost see through this world into the next, when God feels closer. This is one of those special moments. So tonight, and tomorrow, and maybe all this week, may we be able to relax into the peace that is holy and into a time where time itself seems to stand still and the winds and tides of change are held back with the sounds of angelic voices drifting through a starry, cold night.

ADVENT 4

Is Anything Too Wonderful For the Lord

A Sermon inspired by William Willemon – Duke Chapel - 1997

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?

A couple of thousand years ago there was this writer named Luke who certainly thought that nothing was. Each of the gospel writers has their own slant on what was happening. Matthew for example sets the context in terms of making sure we understand that Jesus is descended from King David. John wants to begin by telling us that Jesus is and always has been related to God.
Luke uses historical information to set Jesus’ birth in political time – Jesus was born when Herod the Great was King of Judea and Augustus was Emperor. This is not just any political situation; but a violent time of constant insurrection, of torture and foreign rule.

But what Luke really wants us to see, is that this is a story of the imagination. Imagine what it would be like if God visited us? Imagine what it would be like to be caught up in the story of God’s creation of all of this that surrounds us. Imagine what it means that Angels are always asking “is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

But here is the thing about us. We are becoming less and less imaginative all the time. We live in a world that is more and more concerned with facts, with data, all of the time. Even our entertainment has become more about “reality” and less about imagining things to be different.

Can you imagine what we are giving up if we limit the world to that of what we can actually touch, taste, or feel? If everything becomes about facts and figures how limited are we becoming?

And so we have no real way of contending with the imaginative writing of the Bible. What are we to do with all the writings that speak of extraordinary events, supernatural occurrences, and unexpected things?

We say we are suspicious of claims of Christmas angels, expectant virgins, and songs in the night because we are rational, analytical, sceptical, people. But I’m wondering if it’s more truthful to say that we are limited.

So – here is the question. What unexpected thing could happen this Christmas to remind you?
I’m sure some of you have heard this story; but a couple of years ago we went to Kings Landing for Christmas Dinner. It was getting closer to Christmas – but it sure didn’t feel like it. Emily was just wee and we were still experiencing sleepless nights and still filled with the worries of being new parents. Plus evening was stressful, trying to convince a 9 month old that King’s Landing Christmas dinner was the perfect place to be – she wasn’t convinced. There wasn’t a flake of snow to be found and it certainly didn’t feel like Christmas at all.

But we went; and we ate; and it was wonderful in the Inn all decorated with popcorn strings and cranberries lit by candlelight. Finally, it was time to go – our Christmas spirit a bit revived we stepped out into the night... and there was snow. Magically, unexpectedly, the snow had been falling the whole time we were there and all of a sudden it WAS Christmas.

The imaginative part of me was sure that God had restored our souls.

“Faith,” says theologian James Whitehead, “is the enduring ability to imagine life in a certain way.”

I love that. What did Luke imagine life was like when he told the story of Jesus birth? What are we supposed to think Mary is imagining while the Angel Gabriel is whispering in her ear?
In our world, poor, unmarried moms and their babies face bleak prospects. The December heavens seem dark and silent. Christmas carols arrive via FM radio, not by angels. And God seems to be safely aloof from the world.

But here in church, in December, our otherwise week imaginations get strengthened, stoked, poetically pushed by rich stories. Advent is meant to be a time when our stories fill us with metaphors, enrich our thought, broaden the possibilities of what can and can’t be.

They make it possible to imagine, to believe that God just might be at work in the dark and humble stables around the world this week. (pause)

Losing some of that openness to the unexplained is probably the worst thing about growing up. Far too many adults get jaded, stop believing in Santa, and get caught up with facts.

But children, man, Christmas are so different for them. It isn’t because children are ignorant or haven’t yet got clear in their young brains what is “real” and what is not. It’s because children are not yet confined within the narrow restraints of officially sanctioned “reality.” For them, the world is a backdrop for their imagination, a stage on which they can be queens or kings, if they have a towel to drape as a royal robe over their shoulders. They are Mario Andretti if someone will loan them a cardboard box.

If you are a child – the world still has room for wonder. (Remember Jesus once cautioned us that to ‘get’ God we had to become like little children) Everything — a box, a towel, another person — is packed with possibility.

I’m saying all this because I expect that there are a number of you here this morning who are asking yourself questions like, Will my cancer heal? Will this Christmas be a time to be vividly reminded of the painful divisions within my own family, or might it be a time to heal those divisions? You’ve got some difficult decision to make which is on hold until after the holidays. There is a change which you need to make in your life but that move is so risky, so tough, you are paralyzed by fear.

People tell you to “face facts,” but you wonder. People reassure you, “This is the only thing that can be done,” but you’re not sure. A poor woman named Mary breaks into song. A baby cries in the barn out back. Herod the King gets nervous.

Imagine, a whole new world. Imagine, tomorrow not closed but open to the in breaking of a living God. Imagine your life caught up in something bigger than you. Imagine.

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?