“Is that all there is?” I can’t help it, that’s the question that I always have when Christmas Day ends. After 364 days of waiting, preparing, anxiety, anticipation and buildup when the 24 hours of Christmas Day come to a close I am left wondering, is that all there is? It usually only takes a couple of days to get all the mess dealt with, eat up the leftovers, get deep into the cookie and treat stash, the new stuff sorted and stored, the new video games played a time or two, and life’s routine to settle in. And of course you need to hit the stores for those after Christmas sales to round out the gifts and get a jump on buying for next Christmas.
And who can forget that in just a few short days we arrive at the momentous break where one year ends and the new one begins. After indulging in all sorts of less than the best for us activities for a week or a month or more we get to look back over our year and assess it for how well we did on our goals and plans; lose weight, get enough sleep, read important stuff, attend a lecture series, volunteer more, eat more vegetables, do more good, spend less, save more, work to bring about world peace…
No wonder the weeks after Christmas are seen as the darkness and most depressed weeks of the year. So you’ve come to Church today and I cannot help but wonder if part of the reason is to try and hold on to just a few more moments of Christmas. And instead you get me reminding you of all this and a passage of Scripture that is far from uplifting. I can hear you all whispering in your minds “What a bummer I’m already feeling low what with the post holiday let down and now you’re talking about death and tears.”
And like it or not, we’ve come to the harsh reality of Christmas: life goes on. Jesus was born but he was born into our world – a broken world filled with hurting people were the cries of mothers carry on the wind that just a few short days ago carried the angel’s chorus. Our passage from Matthew forces us to re-enter the real world, the world that is our everyday life.
This escape into Egypt story of Matthew is often lost or overlooked by most of us. We go straight from Wise Men and gifts to John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism. We skip over this uncomfortable reminder of the harsh realities of human power and greed. But it is critical for us to not forget in our focus on angels and wise men and “Heaven’s all gracious king” that Jesus was born into our world, as one of us – into the rough world of political survival…of hungry people…of rulers and murder.
The reality of life, human life, our life, cannot be forgotten even on Christmas. The mundane stuff still needs doing – dishes, dogs to be fed, spills to be cleaned up. And the pains of the world still ache – wars, refugees, illness, suffering and death.
But the good news of all this bucket of cold water reality I’m dumping on you is that Jesus WAS born into the rough and mundane life we know. From his first breathe – who he is and what he represents – upsets the status quo – makes the powerful insecure and causes those in control to show their true colors. In this rough and mundane life where we know we can’t possibility make it on our own we don’t have too, God is with us, Emmanuel.
So this “First Sunday after Christmas” and often the last Sunday of the year we are reminded that life goes on. This story of the Holy Family escaping to Egypt is essential to the story of Christmas because it lets the reality of our lives and world into the crèche and places them at its core which is the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus came to help us understand that what God desires for all people is justice and peace, peace and justice not by violence and intolerance but instead through love. Jesus is the symbol of all that is right with human nature and challenges all that has been held up as our hearts’ desires. Jesus calls our ideas of power, status, wealth and peace through security into question and he makes everyone uncomfortable. This is the real story of Christmas.
The reality is that when the people who are in power see and understand that something else has come that will challenge or even displace them; they strike back, seeking to use violence and injustice to maintain their power and hold. The Empire Strikes Back! We see this all the time. We’ve even been a part of it, cheered it on, supported its efforts and felt justified in doing so. But whenever the Empire Strikes Back something always feels wrong, out of sorts, maybe even unclean about it.
The good news is that once a new way is seen, known, experienced the violent and unjust will be displaced by love, justice and peace. Rob Bell writes in Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived “Love frees us to embrace all of our history, the history in which all things are being made new.” This is why we have to hear the cry of Ramah. We have to be free enough to see the reality of what is and the reality of what Jesus is and how the one reality affects the other. We all know that there can be only one Lord. You cannot serve two masters. This means that people of faith – folks like you and me – have to ask ourselves, “How do I live in the world and still be a citizen of the commonwealth of God?” The New Year comes and with it a desire to be different, better, more. How do I be God’s partner when the world tells me it doesn’t work? How do I live in a world where violence and injustice reign and still practice justice and love?
The institutions, multi-national corporations, and governments are the ones with the power, they are the Empire. Anything that challenges their hold on things is suspect. When love and justice break out, they try to suppress, quash, and annihilate it. What can I do – what can we do, in the face of such power to bring love and justice into the world? As partners of God and Christ we live lives of love and justice, witnessing by our words and actions to God’s ways. Violence and injustice will not prevail when love is shared and justice is practiced. We are a community of love and justice; we show how it is meant to be in this world now that our King has come. Empire cannot, will not win if we love and work for justice. Our God calls us to lives of love and justice, today, tomorrow and forever. In the end violence, greed and injustice cannot prevail.
If you want peace, work for justice. If you want the world to change be the change you want to see in the world. You are the way to stop the Empire. The force is with you – the force of love and justice – use the force. Amen.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Love Changes Everything
I remember as a kid we use to get all over someone who would say “I love _____!” We’d say “Well why don’t you marry it?” Or “Should we leave you alone with it?” Or we’d say some other equally obnoxious thing. It did not matter what the item in question was – candy, fried chicken, playing basketball, going camping, sneaking into Grant Pool after hours, watching the stars, when you said you loved it you opened the door for swift and immediate sarcasm. You can only imagine what happened when we started to get interested in others in romantic ways the kind of mockery that came when you could not deny the dread accusation of “liking” someone. When the inevitable happened and we began to seriously fall in love it changed everything because love was no longer a source of scorn and disdain it became critical to our lives.
There are four basic types of love – the English language is woefully inadequate in words for love so we have to put adjectives with the word love to make clear what type of love we are talking about. These are four kinds of love are: agape, philia, storge, and eros. Agape is unconditional love, like God has for humankind and Jesus calls us to have for one another. There is philia the love that exists between close friends. Storge is the love that grows between family members. And eros is a special intimate love between two people that is often so deep and intense that it can last a lifetime.
Today is the final Sunday of Advent. Today we talk about the coming of Jesus as the coming of love, Jesus is the lord of Love, Love is king. How can we say love is king? How can we live as one who loves as Jesus loves? We love our families. We love our friends. We even love many strangers. But sometimes our love is limited, hedged, calculated. Jesus as Lord of the Universe brings love to the fore. No longer can we just love those that love us. We are to love everyone. But how do we do this? We are challenged by our Lord to love everyone.
The theological gymnastics of Advent sometimes means you have to play a bit fast and loose with the scriptures for a Sunday in order for the passages to match up with the theme word of the day. Today’s passages fit into this category. In Isaiah we hear about the sign God will send that will alert the people to the coming of their salvation. “Look, a young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Now Immanuel means God with us so it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that this young woman’s son as a sign from God is a sign of love because we can see how promising “God with us” would be understood as “because God is with us then God loves us.”
The passage from Matthew about Joseph and his reaction to the whole Immaculate Conception is a bit harder to bend around to the theme of love. It does contain the quote of the Isaiah passage about the young woman and her child Emmanuel so we can always carry to this passage the same argument we used for the one from Isaiah. But I think we can do better than that. Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic but I think regardless of the arranged marriage thing Joseph had feels for the girl. Why else would he seek to “dismiss her quietly”? Then there is the love Joseph had to have had for God since he so readily went along with the angelic dream. You can add to this the love Joseph felt for his fellow human beings because the name he gave his son, Jesus, means “the Lord is Salvation” or savior.
But the more reasonable way to get to the theme of love is through understanding the gift that is given and why it is given – the gift of a baby for our salvation. Today we celebrate the young woman’s son, this Emmanuel, this Jesus. It is the gift of love, God’s love given that we might find our way in life. God with us, savior are ways to see and understand God’s involvement in our lives and desire for creation. We have received a priceless gift, God incarnate, God with us, God as us, God as our lord and savior. This is all four loves tied up into a neat package and placed under our trees. This is why Joseph stayed with Mary and why 2000 later we still tell the story of Joseph’s angelic encounter.
This gift of Emmanuel, Savior is why we give gifts each Christmas. Ours are tokens, pale representations of God’s gift of love. But gift giving has become a problem, we worry about what we should give and how much we should spend when we aren’t sure who will give to us and how much they will spend. And if we allow this to be our gift giving mindset we have missed the point. The gift we give and the gift we receive are not mean to in any way have a value other than as a symbol of the love we share and as a reminder of the love God shares with us. It is the same with giving love. Our society is overly cautious about loving – trusting others. Love is calculated, it is used only as much as is needed to find security and comfort. We find that loving those who are strangers and even strange are beyond many in our world today.
We all know love is the answer. How do we love others so that they can love others and Jesus can be the Lord of love?
Our answer may be found in Joseph. He loves Mary but social convention and the situation seem to dictate that his love is not enough. But he discovers that love is enough. Everything changes with love. By our loving we show others how to love. It’s not the gift it’s the love that lies behind the gift that matters. We are partners of the Lord of love and our loving sets the stage for others to love. We love first, last and always. The best gift I can give, that we can give is love. What the world needs is love and we can give it.
Willie Nelson sings a song that catches the flavor of what it is I am trying to say.
Love is king.
He is born.
There’s a reason now to carry on.
Love is here.
Seated at your table now.
Not living in a stable now.
Love is here.
As partners of God and followers of Jesus Christ we profess that Jesus is the Lord of all there is, not the tyrannical despot but the serving, loving Lord who asks for our loyalty and our hearts. We love and by doing so we show the world how to love and we proclaim Jesus is the Lord of love all the various kinds and degrees of love. Love is here. Amen.
There are four basic types of love – the English language is woefully inadequate in words for love so we have to put adjectives with the word love to make clear what type of love we are talking about. These are four kinds of love are: agape, philia, storge, and eros. Agape is unconditional love, like God has for humankind and Jesus calls us to have for one another. There is philia the love that exists between close friends. Storge is the love that grows between family members. And eros is a special intimate love between two people that is often so deep and intense that it can last a lifetime.
Today is the final Sunday of Advent. Today we talk about the coming of Jesus as the coming of love, Jesus is the lord of Love, Love is king. How can we say love is king? How can we live as one who loves as Jesus loves? We love our families. We love our friends. We even love many strangers. But sometimes our love is limited, hedged, calculated. Jesus as Lord of the Universe brings love to the fore. No longer can we just love those that love us. We are to love everyone. But how do we do this? We are challenged by our Lord to love everyone.
The theological gymnastics of Advent sometimes means you have to play a bit fast and loose with the scriptures for a Sunday in order for the passages to match up with the theme word of the day. Today’s passages fit into this category. In Isaiah we hear about the sign God will send that will alert the people to the coming of their salvation. “Look, a young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Now Immanuel means God with us so it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that this young woman’s son as a sign from God is a sign of love because we can see how promising “God with us” would be understood as “because God is with us then God loves us.”
The passage from Matthew about Joseph and his reaction to the whole Immaculate Conception is a bit harder to bend around to the theme of love. It does contain the quote of the Isaiah passage about the young woman and her child Emmanuel so we can always carry to this passage the same argument we used for the one from Isaiah. But I think we can do better than that. Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic but I think regardless of the arranged marriage thing Joseph had feels for the girl. Why else would he seek to “dismiss her quietly”? Then there is the love Joseph had to have had for God since he so readily went along with the angelic dream. You can add to this the love Joseph felt for his fellow human beings because the name he gave his son, Jesus, means “the Lord is Salvation” or savior.
But the more reasonable way to get to the theme of love is through understanding the gift that is given and why it is given – the gift of a baby for our salvation. Today we celebrate the young woman’s son, this Emmanuel, this Jesus. It is the gift of love, God’s love given that we might find our way in life. God with us, savior are ways to see and understand God’s involvement in our lives and desire for creation. We have received a priceless gift, God incarnate, God with us, God as us, God as our lord and savior. This is all four loves tied up into a neat package and placed under our trees. This is why Joseph stayed with Mary and why 2000 later we still tell the story of Joseph’s angelic encounter.
This gift of Emmanuel, Savior is why we give gifts each Christmas. Ours are tokens, pale representations of God’s gift of love. But gift giving has become a problem, we worry about what we should give and how much we should spend when we aren’t sure who will give to us and how much they will spend. And if we allow this to be our gift giving mindset we have missed the point. The gift we give and the gift we receive are not mean to in any way have a value other than as a symbol of the love we share and as a reminder of the love God shares with us. It is the same with giving love. Our society is overly cautious about loving – trusting others. Love is calculated, it is used only as much as is needed to find security and comfort. We find that loving those who are strangers and even strange are beyond many in our world today.
We all know love is the answer. How do we love others so that they can love others and Jesus can be the Lord of love?
Our answer may be found in Joseph. He loves Mary but social convention and the situation seem to dictate that his love is not enough. But he discovers that love is enough. Everything changes with love. By our loving we show others how to love. It’s not the gift it’s the love that lies behind the gift that matters. We are partners of the Lord of love and our loving sets the stage for others to love. We love first, last and always. The best gift I can give, that we can give is love. What the world needs is love and we can give it.
Willie Nelson sings a song that catches the flavor of what it is I am trying to say.
Love is king.
He is born.
There’s a reason now to carry on.
Love is here.
Seated at your table now.
Not living in a stable now.
Love is here.
As partners of God and followers of Jesus Christ we profess that Jesus is the Lord of all there is, not the tyrannical despot but the serving, loving Lord who asks for our loyalty and our hearts. We love and by doing so we show the world how to love and we proclaim Jesus is the Lord of love all the various kinds and degrees of love. Love is here. Amen.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Joy, The New Way
In the Magnificat – Luke 1: 46-55 and the various classical pieces by that name – Mary, the mother of Jesus sings a song of joy at the coming birth of her child. She envisions a world turned on its head where justice and peace are the norm; a world where God’s mercy is known by all and where the promises of God come to be. It is a dream of what might be, of what God intends for God’s creation and humanity – a world, a universe of justice and peace. This dream is a reason to sing for joy to all the earth.
But is this dream of a teenage mother from a small country town still possible after 2000 years? We struggle to find joy in the world, in our lives. It would be easy to dismiss this young mother-to-be except we know her vision has merit we’ve heard stories, seen things and known firsthand the joy of which she sings. But Christmas is TEN days away and right now joy seems light-years from here. Where is it we find the joy Mary has in her heart? How can we sing for joy? As we walk through the mall or around downtown streets we see many faces locked in scowls, clouded over in a daze. We hear others talk about all that they still need to do and how they don’t have the time or energy to do it all. Joy seems far from them and their preparations for Christmas. And we ask how can joy be found among the hustle and hassle of the countdown to Christmas?
The thing is joy isn’t something that can be forced or manipulated. Joy isn’t something you dig up or plan for. Joy is something that you discover. It is something that just happens. It is something unexpected. Joy isn’t calculated it is spontaneous. Joy isn’t often reasonable or logical it is always surprising and special. Each and every one of us has known joy in our lives. That moment when you realize your love is being returned – that’s joy. The first sounds of your new born – that’s joy. The unexpected call or visit from family or friend – that’s joy. The lick of a puppy’s tongue as it vaults into your lap – that’s joy. The quiet moment when your favorite Christmas song plays – that’s joy. When you receive your one year of sobriety token – that’s joy. When the doctor says, “The tumor is gone” – that’s joy; when you hand a poor child a gift –that’s joy. When you smile and look at a homeless person who smiles back – that’s joy.
Joy is a hundred, a thousand, a million different moments, activities, actions, events, and each one is like the song Mary sings. Each one is a brief reminder that God’s promises are for real and being realized each and every day. Each is a glimpse of the commonwealth of God that is and yet to be. Each one is – even if it is very short lived – a peek into what God dreams for the universe. One moment of joy can erase hundreds of moments of despair and heartache. One moment of joy can give you strength to continue partnering with God. One brief encounter with joy can give you the dedication to push on in your efforts to transform your life, the lives of others and the world.
(Sermon slide)
You see, we are living in the world that Mary sings about: “He has…lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry.” When Jesus came joy came with him. With Jesus came a new world order – peace, hope, joy, and love were turned lose upon all creation and the priorities are no longer wealth, status and getting yours. Joy is the banner under which we face the world. It is our strength and shield. Joy colors all we see and hear and do. Joy that is untamed and unfettered; we know the secret, we have the answer, we get it.
The world of pain and oppression, the world of separation and injustice, the world of power and greed has already come to an end. That is the source of our joy. That is why we can smile at the insanity of our post-modern world and sing “Joy to the world the Lord has come.” If you didn’t join us at Vermont Hills Church for our Advent Afternoon “Carols, Cookies & Coco” you missed some moments of joy and the singing a relatively new Christmas song “If I Could Visit Bethlehem.” Part of the lyrics go:
If Mary asked me who I was and what her child would do,
I wouldn’t talk about the cross or tell her all I knew.
I’d say “He’ll never hurt or kill, and joy will follow tears.
We’ll know his name and love him still in twenty hundred years.”
We know that Jesus is the coming of joy – the coming of a new world order – the coming of justice and peace. We’ve know this since his birth twenty hundred years ago.
We know that time and time and time again injustice and violence try to take back the world but they cannot because joy has been released. Every time peace is found, every time hope is born, every time love is made real joy resounds. Every time someone, somewhere helps another, every time words are used instead of violence, every time someone responds to treatment joy is known. Every single time a smile breaks out on the face of a poor person or a person who is hurting in their soul, every time a species is brought back from the brink of extinction, every time someone says “why not” joy rains down from above.
So where do we find the joy Mary has in her heart? How can we sing for joy? How can joy be found among the hustle and hassle of the countdown to Christmas? Easy, just look around and you’ll find joy busting forth. Pause for a moment and you’ll even find joy leaking out of you. Be a secret Santa to everyone you meet giving the gift of joy. You know how to do this, you can make it happen. In case you’ve forgotten or don’t think you know how I refer you to the movie “Scrooged” and the ending where they sing together “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” Here are the words: (Words and Music by Jackie DeShannon, Jimmy Holiday, and Randy Myers )
Think of your fellow man lend him a helping hand
Put a little love in your heart
You see it's getting late Oh, please don't hesitate
Put a little love in your heart
And the world will be a better place
And the world will be a better place
For you and me you just wait and see
Another day goes by still the children cry
Put a little love in your heart
If you want the world to know we won't let hatred grow
Put a little love in your heart
And the world (and the world) will be a better place
All the world (all the world) will be a better place
For you (for you) and me (and me)
You just wait (just wait) and see, wait and see
Take a good look around and if you're looking down
Put a little love in your heart
I hope when you decide kindness will be your guide
Put a little love in your heart
That’s what I’m talking about, living you joy each day. As partners of Jesus we share our joy with others as yet another way of celebrating Christmas – a way that emphasizes what can be when love and justice rule. Jesus is the coming of joy – the coming of a new world order that makes peace, hope, joy and love the priorities of our lives. Christmas is the time to reclaim joy as the banner under which we face the world. Joy to the world our Savior reigns! We celebrate the world of love and justice that comes into being wherever faithful people live out their joy, sharing it with others. The birth of Jesus is the birth of Joy.
Come Jesus, Joy of the world, come.
(Sermon slide)
But is this dream of a teenage mother from a small country town still possible after 2000 years? We struggle to find joy in the world, in our lives. It would be easy to dismiss this young mother-to-be except we know her vision has merit we’ve heard stories, seen things and known firsthand the joy of which she sings. But Christmas is TEN days away and right now joy seems light-years from here. Where is it we find the joy Mary has in her heart? How can we sing for joy? As we walk through the mall or around downtown streets we see many faces locked in scowls, clouded over in a daze. We hear others talk about all that they still need to do and how they don’t have the time or energy to do it all. Joy seems far from them and their preparations for Christmas. And we ask how can joy be found among the hustle and hassle of the countdown to Christmas?
The thing is joy isn’t something that can be forced or manipulated. Joy isn’t something you dig up or plan for. Joy is something that you discover. It is something that just happens. It is something unexpected. Joy isn’t calculated it is spontaneous. Joy isn’t often reasonable or logical it is always surprising and special. Each and every one of us has known joy in our lives. That moment when you realize your love is being returned – that’s joy. The first sounds of your new born – that’s joy. The unexpected call or visit from family or friend – that’s joy. The lick of a puppy’s tongue as it vaults into your lap – that’s joy. The quiet moment when your favorite Christmas song plays – that’s joy. When you receive your one year of sobriety token – that’s joy. When the doctor says, “The tumor is gone” – that’s joy; when you hand a poor child a gift –that’s joy. When you smile and look at a homeless person who smiles back – that’s joy.
Joy is a hundred, a thousand, a million different moments, activities, actions, events, and each one is like the song Mary sings. Each one is a brief reminder that God’s promises are for real and being realized each and every day. Each is a glimpse of the commonwealth of God that is and yet to be. Each one is – even if it is very short lived – a peek into what God dreams for the universe. One moment of joy can erase hundreds of moments of despair and heartache. One moment of joy can give you strength to continue partnering with God. One brief encounter with joy can give you the dedication to push on in your efforts to transform your life, the lives of others and the world.
(Sermon slide)
You see, we are living in the world that Mary sings about: “He has…lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry.” When Jesus came joy came with him. With Jesus came a new world order – peace, hope, joy, and love were turned lose upon all creation and the priorities are no longer wealth, status and getting yours. Joy is the banner under which we face the world. It is our strength and shield. Joy colors all we see and hear and do. Joy that is untamed and unfettered; we know the secret, we have the answer, we get it.
The world of pain and oppression, the world of separation and injustice, the world of power and greed has already come to an end. That is the source of our joy. That is why we can smile at the insanity of our post-modern world and sing “Joy to the world the Lord has come.” If you didn’t join us at Vermont Hills Church for our Advent Afternoon “Carols, Cookies & Coco” you missed some moments of joy and the singing a relatively new Christmas song “If I Could Visit Bethlehem.” Part of the lyrics go:
If Mary asked me who I was and what her child would do,
I wouldn’t talk about the cross or tell her all I knew.
I’d say “He’ll never hurt or kill, and joy will follow tears.
We’ll know his name and love him still in twenty hundred years.”
We know that Jesus is the coming of joy – the coming of a new world order – the coming of justice and peace. We’ve know this since his birth twenty hundred years ago.
We know that time and time and time again injustice and violence try to take back the world but they cannot because joy has been released. Every time peace is found, every time hope is born, every time love is made real joy resounds. Every time someone, somewhere helps another, every time words are used instead of violence, every time someone responds to treatment joy is known. Every single time a smile breaks out on the face of a poor person or a person who is hurting in their soul, every time a species is brought back from the brink of extinction, every time someone says “why not” joy rains down from above.
So where do we find the joy Mary has in her heart? How can we sing for joy? How can joy be found among the hustle and hassle of the countdown to Christmas? Easy, just look around and you’ll find joy busting forth. Pause for a moment and you’ll even find joy leaking out of you. Be a secret Santa to everyone you meet giving the gift of joy. You know how to do this, you can make it happen. In case you’ve forgotten or don’t think you know how I refer you to the movie “Scrooged” and the ending where they sing together “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” Here are the words: (Words and Music by Jackie DeShannon, Jimmy Holiday, and Randy Myers )
Think of your fellow man lend him a helping hand
Put a little love in your heart
You see it's getting late Oh, please don't hesitate
Put a little love in your heart
And the world will be a better place
And the world will be a better place
For you and me you just wait and see
Another day goes by still the children cry
Put a little love in your heart
If you want the world to know we won't let hatred grow
Put a little love in your heart
And the world (and the world) will be a better place
All the world (all the world) will be a better place
For you (for you) and me (and me)
You just wait (just wait) and see, wait and see
Take a good look around and if you're looking down
Put a little love in your heart
I hope when you decide kindness will be your guide
Put a little love in your heart
That’s what I’m talking about, living you joy each day. As partners of Jesus we share our joy with others as yet another way of celebrating Christmas – a way that emphasizes what can be when love and justice rule. Jesus is the coming of joy – the coming of a new world order that makes peace, hope, joy and love the priorities of our lives. Christmas is the time to reclaim joy as the banner under which we face the world. Joy to the world our Savior reigns! We celebrate the world of love and justice that comes into being wherever faithful people live out their joy, sharing it with others. The birth of Jesus is the birth of Joy.
Come Jesus, Joy of the world, come.
(Sermon slide)
Monday, December 9, 2013
Abounding in Hope
Hope, it’s so much a part of this time of year, the word appears on cards, in songs and in the hearts and minds of so many. Yet the opposite is also true. At this time of year so many are reminded of how hopeless their situation is, how hopeless their life is, how hopeless they are. It’s like a poor street kid looking into the window of a toy store and watching all the toys being played with my kids who will find them under their trees knowing that his or her hope for a toy will not be fulfilled.
I know about hopelessness. At one point in my life I was hopeless, alone, far from home and felt that I had lost everything, that my world had collapsed around me. A relationship that had pretty well consumed me fell apart. I had no place to live. I had no job. My family was 3000 miles away. And I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. I didn’t want to call my folks and ask for help, it would have been admitting that I was hopeless, a lost cause. But the kindness of a classmate, someone I didn’t know very well and his hopeful nature saved me. He got me a job, gave me his couch to sleep on, and made sure I had someone who cared. Slowly I came around, saved enough money, made some friends and found my way from hopeless to hope. One thing I forgot to mention, my classmate insisted that we pray together each morning and night, nothing self-righteous or preachy just prayers for ourselves, our co-workers, and our world. He kept me connected to God and helped me remember that God is the hope of everyone, me included.
Years later I find it is so hard to maintain a spirit and attitude of hopefulness in the deafening roar of the pain, torment and suffering of so many. The world seems to be tearing itself apart and hope seems so distant, aloof and out of reach. Look at the world: the rich are getting richer while the poor continue to lose ground. Fast food workers are trying to get a living wage. Millions of people are living in camps and with family and friends as they flee war, genocide, persecution and intolerance. Millions more are forced to live amid rubble and devastation caused by war or natural disasters. Children’s parents are deported, wives live in fear of abusive husbands, and children dread the exploitive boyfriend or relative. Veterans suffer PTSD and it tears their families apart. Add to all of this the apathy and indifference of so many millions of others and the hopelessness of life seems overwhelming. All around us people seem hopeless, apathetic, hardened against the storms of post-modern life. Where can they, we, I find hope this dark, dreary December?
And then you hear a song,
“O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thy justice here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.”(1)
We sing a few phrases:
“Here is peace, when grace surprises
ignorance with words of hope.
Here is peace to light our senses;
see, God’s love has boundless scope.”(2)
We listen as people all over the world sing:
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces, of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands. Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love you."(3)
And hope doesn’t seem so far off, unattainable or unrealistic.
The prophet Isaiah writes about the coming day when all will be as God intends and his vision is one of justice for the poor, of righteousness and faithfulness. He sees a time when the natural order of things will be upended when the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the lion shall lie down together and eat straw. He sees a day when all people will come to know God’s grace and love, God’s justice and peace. (Isaiah 11: 1-10) This is a vision of hope, a prophecy of expectation that tells us what it is God envisions for creation, for this world and for you and me and everyone else. This is something to place our hope in, this God who wants the universe to be at peace, who wants justice and righteousness to prevail, who desires all people to know him or her not as some distant, unattainable other but as a father/mother/brother/sister/friend/co-worker and yes partner.
Every time I think about the millions of ways the people of faith bring hope to the devastation and devastated of the world I’m am hopeful. Every time I think about the hundreds of ways you who are Vermont Hills Church are the light that dispels the darkness of our world, every time I hear the thank yous read for Thanksgiving Boxes and Christmas gifts given to needy families by this church, every time I watch as the record of our giving to SW Hope – Feed the Hungry grows larger each week, each time I see pictures of our families working at the food bank or Neighborhood House, each time I sign a card which already has heartfelt and meaningful messages written upon it, each time I work with our youth on a Habitat for Humanity build, each and every time I come among you I am reminded that hope lives. I come face-to-face with God’s partners bringing hope to the world.
This is exactly what is needed to counteract the apathy and hopelessness that can grab a hold of you if you let all the troubles of the world crowd in. This is not ignoring or glossing over the real pain and need, it is a diving into that pain and need and pulling in with you the hope that is God for yourself and all others. It is the hope Paul wishes for the Christians of Rome when he writes the closing benediction; “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace…so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) You see, we are the light that will dispel the darkness of our world. We are the hope, the harbingers of hope in a world of apathy and despair.
As partners of the Hope of the World we are the living, breathing hope that others need. Our ways of living and loving shine hope into the darkness of our world. We reflect the light of Christ into the lives of others. We will be the hope that our world needs. I am we are the hope that is needed. My faith, our faith brings light to the darkness of others. I will practice, we will practice hopeful living until it is my way, our way and then I and we will practice it all the more. This Advent and Christmas the message that Jesus is the hope of the world is needed now more than ever. As Jesus’ partners we must continue to be hope for others.
It is my belief that God is the hope of all people. As people on the way; people following Jesus’ example and teachings -not as an exclusive club but as a people seeking to live lives that glorify God and welcome others to glorify God with us in their own ways – we have an opportunity to make hope live. This is our hope that all people will be centered upon glorifying God and divisions will end. Jesus is the Lamb of God who comes to put an end to scape-goating and sacrifice once and for all and ushers in a new way of being that transcends differences and recognizes that all people are one.
We abound in hope because we know that life can be good, that divisions and differences can be celebrated not feared, that everyone can have enough and be freed to live up to their God-given potential. We abound in hope because we have seen how simple acts of kindness and generosity can change lives and change the world. We abound in hope because we have experienced the love and grace of God through the hopefulness of people of faith, of all faiths. We abound in hope because 2000 years ago a baby was born in the backwater town of Bethlehem and everything changed.
Come, Jesus, Hope of the World, Come.
(1) “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” vs. 6 Henry Slone Coffin
(2) “Here Is Peace” by Andrew Pratt
(3) “What a Wonderful World” by by Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and George David Weiss
I know about hopelessness. At one point in my life I was hopeless, alone, far from home and felt that I had lost everything, that my world had collapsed around me. A relationship that had pretty well consumed me fell apart. I had no place to live. I had no job. My family was 3000 miles away. And I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. I didn’t want to call my folks and ask for help, it would have been admitting that I was hopeless, a lost cause. But the kindness of a classmate, someone I didn’t know very well and his hopeful nature saved me. He got me a job, gave me his couch to sleep on, and made sure I had someone who cared. Slowly I came around, saved enough money, made some friends and found my way from hopeless to hope. One thing I forgot to mention, my classmate insisted that we pray together each morning and night, nothing self-righteous or preachy just prayers for ourselves, our co-workers, and our world. He kept me connected to God and helped me remember that God is the hope of everyone, me included.
Years later I find it is so hard to maintain a spirit and attitude of hopefulness in the deafening roar of the pain, torment and suffering of so many. The world seems to be tearing itself apart and hope seems so distant, aloof and out of reach. Look at the world: the rich are getting richer while the poor continue to lose ground. Fast food workers are trying to get a living wage. Millions of people are living in camps and with family and friends as they flee war, genocide, persecution and intolerance. Millions more are forced to live amid rubble and devastation caused by war or natural disasters. Children’s parents are deported, wives live in fear of abusive husbands, and children dread the exploitive boyfriend or relative. Veterans suffer PTSD and it tears their families apart. Add to all of this the apathy and indifference of so many millions of others and the hopelessness of life seems overwhelming. All around us people seem hopeless, apathetic, hardened against the storms of post-modern life. Where can they, we, I find hope this dark, dreary December?
And then you hear a song,
“O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thy justice here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.”(1)
We sing a few phrases:
“Here is peace, when grace surprises
ignorance with words of hope.
Here is peace to light our senses;
see, God’s love has boundless scope.”(2)
We listen as people all over the world sing:
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces, of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands. Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love you."(3)
And hope doesn’t seem so far off, unattainable or unrealistic.
The prophet Isaiah writes about the coming day when all will be as God intends and his vision is one of justice for the poor, of righteousness and faithfulness. He sees a time when the natural order of things will be upended when the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the lion shall lie down together and eat straw. He sees a day when all people will come to know God’s grace and love, God’s justice and peace. (Isaiah 11: 1-10) This is a vision of hope, a prophecy of expectation that tells us what it is God envisions for creation, for this world and for you and me and everyone else. This is something to place our hope in, this God who wants the universe to be at peace, who wants justice and righteousness to prevail, who desires all people to know him or her not as some distant, unattainable other but as a father/mother/brother/sister/friend/co-worker and yes partner.
Every time I think about the millions of ways the people of faith bring hope to the devastation and devastated of the world I’m am hopeful. Every time I think about the hundreds of ways you who are Vermont Hills Church are the light that dispels the darkness of our world, every time I hear the thank yous read for Thanksgiving Boxes and Christmas gifts given to needy families by this church, every time I watch as the record of our giving to SW Hope – Feed the Hungry grows larger each week, each time I see pictures of our families working at the food bank or Neighborhood House, each time I sign a card which already has heartfelt and meaningful messages written upon it, each time I work with our youth on a Habitat for Humanity build, each and every time I come among you I am reminded that hope lives. I come face-to-face with God’s partners bringing hope to the world.
This is exactly what is needed to counteract the apathy and hopelessness that can grab a hold of you if you let all the troubles of the world crowd in. This is not ignoring or glossing over the real pain and need, it is a diving into that pain and need and pulling in with you the hope that is God for yourself and all others. It is the hope Paul wishes for the Christians of Rome when he writes the closing benediction; “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace…so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) You see, we are the light that will dispel the darkness of our world. We are the hope, the harbingers of hope in a world of apathy and despair.
As partners of the Hope of the World we are the living, breathing hope that others need. Our ways of living and loving shine hope into the darkness of our world. We reflect the light of Christ into the lives of others. We will be the hope that our world needs. I am we are the hope that is needed. My faith, our faith brings light to the darkness of others. I will practice, we will practice hopeful living until it is my way, our way and then I and we will practice it all the more. This Advent and Christmas the message that Jesus is the hope of the world is needed now more than ever. As Jesus’ partners we must continue to be hope for others.
It is my belief that God is the hope of all people. As people on the way; people following Jesus’ example and teachings -not as an exclusive club but as a people seeking to live lives that glorify God and welcome others to glorify God with us in their own ways – we have an opportunity to make hope live. This is our hope that all people will be centered upon glorifying God and divisions will end. Jesus is the Lamb of God who comes to put an end to scape-goating and sacrifice once and for all and ushers in a new way of being that transcends differences and recognizes that all people are one.
We abound in hope because we know that life can be good, that divisions and differences can be celebrated not feared, that everyone can have enough and be freed to live up to their God-given potential. We abound in hope because we have seen how simple acts of kindness and generosity can change lives and change the world. We abound in hope because we have experienced the love and grace of God through the hopefulness of people of faith, of all faiths. We abound in hope because 2000 years ago a baby was born in the backwater town of Bethlehem and everything changed.
Come, Jesus, Hope of the World, Come.
(1) “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” vs. 6 Henry Slone Coffin
(2) “Here Is Peace” by Andrew Pratt
(3) “What a Wonderful World” by by Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and George David Weiss
Monday, December 2, 2013
Finding and Making Peace
We’ve come to the beginning of another new year. We Christians count time a bit differently than our culture. We start a new year with the First Sunday of Advent and use the Advent season as a time to reflect upon the dual nature of the coming of Jesus Christ into our world and lives. We remember the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and we anticipate the final coming of Jesus Christ with the full establishment of the commonwealth of God. Each Sunday of Advent has a particular focus that calls to mind writings of the Old Testament prophets and early Christians. The traditional themes, which we will use, are peace, hope, joy and love.
So how do we prepare for the coming of Christ? Simply put, we are to live honorably as Christ’s partners loving others, making peace and finding peace in our lives. But the world is filled with violence – in the media, on the streets, in our families. How can we find peace, be peace in such a violent world? We have to look beyond what our society shows us, listen for what is sung on the night wind, feel what is vibrating in the soul of the universe, sense the possibility that God’s way will come, and live as if the end is already here and the commonwealth of God has been established. We witness to another way; show another reality that will help set people free from the violence around them and free them from the message of our society that the only way to win, to have peace is through violence.
One of the things we profess as Christians is that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So what does that mean? What do we mean when we say this, when we sing that line and use it on our greeting cards? This title comes from the writings of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah who was writing about the coming liberator of the people of Israel, a savior that would free them from the oppression and tyranny of their captors and bring about the commonwealth of God, the original intent of the covenant God made with Israel. You hear these words in Handel’s Messiah often sung this time of year. But I like the verses from a different part of Isaiah, the ones that say:
“He'll settle things fairly between nations. He'll make things right between many peoples. They'll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore.” - Isaiah 2:4 (The Message)
This is a foreshadowing of what the commonwealth of God will be like when the Prince of Peace comes.
But there is another aspect to Jesus being the Prince of Peace that is much more personal which we hear in these comments of Paul’s to the Romans:
“But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” - Romans 13:11-14 (The Message)
What Paul is writing about here has to do with how we are to be partners of the Prince of Peace; how we live, how we engage others, how we present ourselves and how we are in the world. We are to ask ourselves: In what ways do I live a peace-filled life? Do I make peace around me? Do I expect peace in this world? Do I call for peace and do I work for it? We who are partners of Christ recognize that we are set free from the cycles of violence that hold human society hostage. There is no other time to do this, the time is now. Jesus has come to show us the way and liberate us from the anger and violence that permeates our world. We are the peace that our world longs for because we are citizens of the new world order, the commonwealth of God.
Jesus, the Prince of Peace has come, born 2000 years ago in a stable in Bethlehem but he hasn’t come yet because our world still exists in a violent and fractured reality. We have encountered Christ; know him as a living part of this world as it is and as it will be. It is our calling, our vocation to live as peacemakers, as the light of peace in a violent world. As partners of the Prince of Peace our role is to practice peace in all the facets of our lives. We let peace be the way, the only way we interact with others and the world.
The message of this First Sunday of Advent and its focus upon peace is that we are to celebrate Jesus as the Christ, the promised liberator who frees us from our endless cycles of violence and that for this to be our way we must live as an ambassador for the Prince of Peace. To proclaim Jesus as the Prince of Peace and to be his representatives to a hostile and violent world means faithful practicing peace-filled living in all aspects of our lives.
There is no way to peace, peace is the way. The way of Christ is the way of peace. Come, Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace!
So how do we prepare for the coming of Christ? Simply put, we are to live honorably as Christ’s partners loving others, making peace and finding peace in our lives. But the world is filled with violence – in the media, on the streets, in our families. How can we find peace, be peace in such a violent world? We have to look beyond what our society shows us, listen for what is sung on the night wind, feel what is vibrating in the soul of the universe, sense the possibility that God’s way will come, and live as if the end is already here and the commonwealth of God has been established. We witness to another way; show another reality that will help set people free from the violence around them and free them from the message of our society that the only way to win, to have peace is through violence.
One of the things we profess as Christians is that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So what does that mean? What do we mean when we say this, when we sing that line and use it on our greeting cards? This title comes from the writings of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah who was writing about the coming liberator of the people of Israel, a savior that would free them from the oppression and tyranny of their captors and bring about the commonwealth of God, the original intent of the covenant God made with Israel. You hear these words in Handel’s Messiah often sung this time of year. But I like the verses from a different part of Isaiah, the ones that say:
“He'll settle things fairly between nations. He'll make things right between many peoples. They'll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore.” - Isaiah 2:4 (The Message)
This is a foreshadowing of what the commonwealth of God will be like when the Prince of Peace comes.
But there is another aspect to Jesus being the Prince of Peace that is much more personal which we hear in these comments of Paul’s to the Romans:
“But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” - Romans 13:11-14 (The Message)
What Paul is writing about here has to do with how we are to be partners of the Prince of Peace; how we live, how we engage others, how we present ourselves and how we are in the world. We are to ask ourselves: In what ways do I live a peace-filled life? Do I make peace around me? Do I expect peace in this world? Do I call for peace and do I work for it? We who are partners of Christ recognize that we are set free from the cycles of violence that hold human society hostage. There is no other time to do this, the time is now. Jesus has come to show us the way and liberate us from the anger and violence that permeates our world. We are the peace that our world longs for because we are citizens of the new world order, the commonwealth of God.
Jesus, the Prince of Peace has come, born 2000 years ago in a stable in Bethlehem but he hasn’t come yet because our world still exists in a violent and fractured reality. We have encountered Christ; know him as a living part of this world as it is and as it will be. It is our calling, our vocation to live as peacemakers, as the light of peace in a violent world. As partners of the Prince of Peace our role is to practice peace in all the facets of our lives. We let peace be the way, the only way we interact with others and the world.
The message of this First Sunday of Advent and its focus upon peace is that we are to celebrate Jesus as the Christ, the promised liberator who frees us from our endless cycles of violence and that for this to be our way we must live as an ambassador for the Prince of Peace. To proclaim Jesus as the Prince of Peace and to be his representatives to a hostile and violent world means faithful practicing peace-filled living in all aspects of our lives.
There is no way to peace, peace is the way. The way of Christ is the way of peace. Come, Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)