Jan 5, 2014 2nd Sunday of Christmas

John 1:1-18
  1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
   6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
   9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
   14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
   15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.


“GOD’S LOVE IS FOR ALL PEOPLE”
 
What a text for the first Sunday of a new year!  .
With broad, powerful strokes of the pen John sets the stage for what is to come, not only in his gospel, but in life itself.  .

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth...From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

And the TRUTH is, that God is LOVE.
And the GRACE is, that this if for ALL.

Not just those who know it, accept it,  cherish it, believe it.  But for ALL - even those who don’t know it, accept it, cherish it or believe it.  God loves them too!

As Martin Luther once said: “Nobody is in this life nearer God than those who hate and blaspheme him.  He has no more dear children then they.”
How great the grace of God is.  It goes beyond our logic, it doesn’t always make sense, it is not  reasonable.   If mercy is not receiving what I deserve,  grace is receiving what I don’t deserve.

God is a God of grace, first, last and always!

As the Psalmist says many times in many ways, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  Ps. 103:8

So...what does this mean for us today, as we begin a new year.
What are we to be about in 2011 and beyond?
We are to be INCLUSIVE in our spirituality
“The worst word in the english language is exclusive."  Carl Sandberg

Mother Teresa expresses inclusiveness this way:

“The same loving hand that has created you
       has created me.
If he is your Father
        he must be my Father also.
We all belong to the same family.
Hindus, Muslims and all peoples are our brothers and
        sisters.
The too are the children of God.

Our work among the Hindus proclaims that
        God loves them
        God has created them
        they are my brothers and sisters.
Naturally I would like to give them the joy of what I
         believe
but that I cannot do;
only God can.
Faith is a gift of God
         but God does not force himself.

Christians, Muslims, Hindus, believers and nonbelievers
       have the opportunity with us to do works of love
       have the opportunity with us to share the joy of
              loving and come to realize God’s presence.
Hindus become better Hindus.
Catholics become better Catholics.
Muslims become better Muslims.”    Mother Teresa

We are to be COMPASSIONATE in our attitude and actions; not judgmental.
“Be merciful (compassionate) as your Father is merciful.”  Lk 6:36

For God is love!  First, last and always!  Nothing!  Nothing must ever take precedence over this simple, awesome truth.

And what ever else this means, it does mean I have to let go of being judgmental even where I feel I have every reason to be judgmental and even where I think the Bible is judgmental and I have to seek to love even as I have been loved.  It means that I dare not “quench the Spirit” of God at work in my life (which is always a spirit of love) even as I seek to “test everything; hold fast to what is good; (and ) abstain from every form of evil.”  I Thes. 5:19-22

Our challenge, as Christians, is to let the Word of grace -the light which shines in the darkness - shine in us,  doing as Mother Teresa said - ‘”no great things only small things with great love.”

Dec 29, 2013 1st Sunday of Christmas

Matt.2:13-23

   13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
   14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
   16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
   18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
   weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
   and refusing to be comforted,
   because they are no more.”

    19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
   21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Seems too soon - to face the real world again; the real world which can so often destroy our moments of peace and ridicule our believing a Savior was born.  The Matthew story is “a turn toward lowliness and humility rather than grandeur and greatness....Jesus is to be identified, not with the powerful, but with the helpless, vulnerable people of this world.”

As the writer of Hebrews says he was “one of the dispossessed”.

And as Nelson Trout - first Lutheran African American Bishop in America - puts it:  “In Jesus Christ, God stoops down very low.”

This is the greatness of Christianity - it’s lowliness.  There is no place too unimportant, no event too insignificant that God has not been there and will not be there again.  God has become penetratingly human - nothing is beyond his reach.  This is what Christmas is all about!

Joseph makes real for us the struggle of God coming to us - and asking us to do something we would never do by ourselves.  God touches us in ways which require risk.  It is when we risk that we discover God’s will for us.

Often this means that we follow our feelings; that deep urging from within.
Faith, as P.T. Forsythe defined it, “is a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life”...among the strongest of feelings in our lives.  It turns us on to the spirit of God who is trying to get us to ‘go to Egypt’...to risk our lives in order that we might really find them, and really live!

Dec 22, 2013 Advent 4

Matt.1:18-25

  18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
   20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
   22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
   24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.


The Christmas story as told by Matthew is a reminder that all things were not easy for Joseph or Mary.  It is no small thing to believe that “that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

Joseph was a special sort of person who risked much on a dream and on a willingness to be used by God.

He did not reject Mary openly; he did not even “put her away secretly”, but took her as his wife and became a part of the greatest drama to ever happen - the birth of  Immanuel - God with us!

As we celebrate Christmas the question looms - Is it possible God would do something through us, like God did through Joseph, if we only dared dream enough and risk enough?

Marry Christmas as you pounder “how Jesus the Savior came forth to die,for poor ornery sinners like you and like I...” and how God would use you
to make Christmas live again through you!

“It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you... yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand."    Mother Teresa

Dec 15, 2013 Advent 3

Matt.11:2-11

 2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
   4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[a] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
   7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
   “‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
   who will prepare your way before you.’
   11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

 “Looking For Christmas”

E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, once said:  “I wake up in the morning torn between the desire to enjoy the world and to improve the world.  That makes it difficult to plan the day.”

I wake up during Advent torn between the desire to enjoy Christmas - and all that goes into getting ready for it; and the desire to change what we have done with this holy event.

To stop all the noise, distortion, sentimentalism, and commercialism which reeks with hypocrisy and distorts terribly the meaning of Christmas.

The important thing in all this is that we anticipate, prepare, look, wait for Christmas to happen anew, now where it is obvious, but where it is hidden.

This is the mystery and miracle of Christmas:  it comes in the most unlikely places.  John wasn’t sure it was in Jesus - who was too soft for John.
We too are not always sure where God is in our midst - is God really there in the infant holy, infant lowly?


“Who’s Who In God’s Kingdom”

John the Baptist, according to Jesus,  was greater than any man who has ever lived.  Yet not even John was fit for the Kingdom of heaven.  Our greatness does not make us fit; God’s grace does.

Dec 8, 2013 Advent 2

Matt.3:1-12:

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
   “A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
   make straight paths for him.’”
   4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
   7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
   11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

“Journey of Hope - John the Baptist”

John the Baptist was different.  His life style was different and his words were different.  He spoke the truth, clearly, bluntly, correctly:  “Repent!”
“Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

Repent:  turn around.  Face your inner most self and confess your inner most secrets, your hidden ambitions, your not so holy intentions.

Everything written in the Bible is written so we might have hope.  (Rom 15:4)
The call to repentance sounds out of step, yet it is very much in step.  For repentance is the source of real joy.  It is the means by which we are set back on course.  It is something we need to do often.  It means turning around, changing direction; it is positive not negative, helpful not hurtful, necessary not optional, healthy not harmful, and even humorous, not always heavy.

Our challenge is to practice repentance until it not only feels good but also becomes a part of our very being; something we do often and joyfully because we know it leads to the joy of forgiveness.

Bear fruit:  Good fruit will come as we honestly and sincerely confess our sins.  It just will.
For out of a forgiven heart comes fruit worthy of repentance - compassion, forgiveness, kindness, thankfulness, helpfulness, etc. etc. etc.!

Then we will be instruments of hope in a world which always has enough hopelessness, but never enough hope!


 “Streaked With Hope”

John came as a voice in the wilderness crying, “Repent...” -
and many didn’t hear; and many of those who did hear didn’t heed; and those who did hear and heed were ushered into the greatest experience of their lives - they discovered the joy of repentance (turning around) and the joy of a life of hope with God.

A sense of judgment is necessary for happiness in life.  It keeps us from the world of pretense where nothing is real, and nothing is lasting.
It leads us to the joy of repenting and discovering what lies beyond our pretense.

The gift of God’s son is reason to hope.
Hope is a vital ingredient to life and to faith.
A quote from a Dr. Lowen expresses it well;  “And the sorrow associated with the loss is streaked with hope.”

Streaked with hope.  That’s Advent.  Born of our faith; enriching our lives; even giving new meaning to suffering.  Redemptive suffering which leads to joy in hope.