A Whole Christmas

Luke 2:1-14

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

Christmas for me includes a Swedish Julbord... a Christmas table with Köttbullar, potatismos, gravlax, three kinds of herring, salads, limpa bread… the works! Christmas as it should be! Christmas as it has always been! Well… except for the part of it that’s not like it’s always been. You see, my Swedish mom grew up with a Julbord which included lutefisk. Lutefisk is salt cod rehydrated with a lye solution in a giant, smelly tub in the basement. After that, the water is changed over and over and over for several more days until the lye is gone. In the end you’re left with a jellied, jiggling, mostly flavorless mass to be boiled and served with a white sauce. When my mom makes a Julbord, it NEVER includes lutefisk because, to quote my Swedish mom, in her native language... “It’s nasty!”

Christmas is rightly about tradition! Mine includes a Julbord. Yours might have a feast of seven fishes or maybe tamales or stollen or pierogis! Whatever beloved traditions you have from the past SHOULD continue! If Christmas Eve means hearing and remembering the Christmas Gospel story once again, that should continue!  If it means a candlelit worship with carols and a choir in a little stone church in Sheffield, who am I to say that’s wrong!? In my opinion, you’d be hard pressed to get it much more right!

So those traditions (minus the lutefisk) ARE important. They ARE good. They are, I would say, even HOLY! They are exactly one amazingly beautiful HALF of a WHOLE Christmas. Now, don’t get me wrong. They aren’t the “wrong” half by any means! They are one wonderful, priceless, beautiful half and I’m not giving up my herring, candlelight, or little stone Sheffield church for anything and you shouldn’t give up your traditions either! But as good and priceless and holy as that half is… it’s still only HALF of a WHOLE Christmas and the last thing I want for you tonight, is for you to leave here this evening with only HALF a Christmas!

That first half of Christmas lovingly turns our heads to see the past. In that direction we see the Christ child born in a manger… the shepherds out in their fields and the hosts of heaven singing! That half helps us look back and see again God’s gift of unconditional love and inclusion given in the person of Jesus 2000 years ago to all of creation. That half sings the carols, hangs the stockings, and helps us see that our own family members, long since gone, are still standing behind us from throughout the ages, reminding us always that we are each the product of a love passed down through countless generations. Looking back is the first beautiful, precious and holy half of Christmas.

Just as that first half of Christmas gently and lovingly turns us to look to the past to see all that God has done, the other half of Christmas just as lovingly turns our heads so we might look to the future and see hope for the days to come. When we are turned in the direction of what is to come, Christmas helps us to see that the same loving God who was there in Bethlehem, is still present with us now and will be into the days to come as well. This other half of Christmas shows us that God continues to shine light into the dark places of our lives. This other half of Christmas allows us to see, even though the world says it’s impossible, that God is even now bringing each of us the gift of JOY! The kind of joy that comes with “enough”… enough to eat, enough shelter, enough dignity, enough justice, enough purpose and enough meaning for our lives and for all people. In this other half of Christmas we begin to hear the new song that God has written for each of us.  A song we can sing into the darkness... a song with the power to give hope to the hopeless! In this half of Christmas we see that God is not only back then, but here now… pulling for us and pulling ON us with a strong and unflinching love… nudging, coaxing, and maybe sometimes, even being a little bit tricksy with us, in order to keep us walking and growing toward the new creation God knows each of us are meant be!

My wish for you this Christmas Eve is for a WHOLE Christmas! A Christmas that includes  the beauty of the past where we hear again the ancient story of Emmanuel… God with us and enjoy the foods and traditions passed down in love by our families. And also a Christmas  that allows you to see a path toward abundant life reaching out into the future… a path of REALLY LIVING life and not just trudging through it day after day. A path of light, not darkness. A path of kindness, not greed. A path of compassion, generosity and love… not a path of fear, anger or hate. A path of hope and not worry. A path of community, lifting one another up, not tearing one another down.  A path for all people.  A path with every step lit with the love of God. My wish for you this Christmas Eve is that you might embrace a WHOLE Christmas this year, and live into the love, hope and fullness of that Christmas light all year long.  Amen.

Will You Dare?

Isaiah 35:1-10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Matthew 11:2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Will you dare, like Isaiah, to take the risk, and really see the endlessness of the wilderness, the dry land, and the desert that surrounds you? It’s not just about dry dirt. It’s about a people clawing their way through a horrible, dusty, dry existence without the waters of love, compassion, and grace that are needed to grow this life into something full of meaning, purpose and joy. Will you dare, like John the Baptist, to look out and really see the world as it genuinely is? He saw his personal imprisonment as nothing compared to the world full of people imprisoned, bound, and captive to sin, injustice and an enormous tyranny, from which any rational mind would tell you it is absolutely impossible to break free.

Will you dare, in the spirit of Isaiah and John, to open the front door of our church and see our world as it really is?  Not look through our beautiful, protective stained glass lenses, but look through the door with unobstructed, brutal, clarity? Don’t answer too quickly! Because there is SO much out there, on the other side of those beautiful angels, that, when you dare to look, it will overwhelm you like a fire hose, no matter how well braced you think you are. It will knock you to the ground, even if you dare to only crack the door! Even a quick peek will certainly bowl you over!

Those prophets, Isaiah and John the Baptist, they are calling us to dare. Not because they want us to burn like we would in the desert or feel helpless like we would in chains, or be knocked to the floor breathless at our front door by the relentless flood of news about the injustice in our world. And make no mistake, the injustice out there IS like a firehose on the other side of that front door! Racism is rampant. Pumping gas at the Big-Y up by the turnpike on Saturday, someone coming off the pike took the time to roll down their window and yell a racial slur at the people pumping gas next t0 me. Our climate is in crisis. You can not rent an apartment anywhere in our country making minimum wage. 700,000 people are under threat of being removed from Food Stamps and a million kids risk losing free school lunch with the same rule change. Adults and children fleeing violence and horrors in their own countries are dying from our intentional neglect in places we refuse to call concentration camps AND as of December 1, which was the 335th day of the year, there have been 385 mass shootings in our country.

Those prophets are calling us to dare! But not so that we will be burned, trapped, or knocked on our backsides, but because they KNOW… they know there is life… real life… abundant life for ALL of creation on the other side of the injustice and horror that lies in wait at our door. Beyond that door, they KNOW there is a world where people are given sight. Not just physically healed of blindness but healed of their inability to see God at work in their lives. Beyond that door is a life where the lame walk. Not just physically able to use their legs but healed of their fear of going out into the world and living more deeply into the abundant life God has created for them to live! Beyond the injustice that claws at our door, lepers are made clean. Not just skin deep, but down deep in the places where people hear they are unfit, unwelcome, and unclean. Beyond the terror, the deaf hear.  Not just ears opened, but minds opened as well to truly understand that God IS at work in our world! Beyond that door the dead are raised. Not just from physical death but from the death of believing they live outside of God’s loving embrace!

And finally but most importantly, beyond that door and through the gauntlet of injustice, desert, terror, prison and fire hose which all lie in wait... beyond all that, the poor have Good News brought to them. And that Good News is that the terrible world lying in wait at that door is even NOW being so radically transformed that soon you won’t be able to recognize it! That desert? It’s being transformed into a lush river valley. Trembling hands are being made firm and feeble knees are being made strong.  THAT’s the level of transformation that God has set loose on this world beyond that door!

THAT is why Isaiah and John the Baptist DARE us… DARE US… to bravely open that door and risk taking the full force of the world’s injustice squarely in our chests and being knocked to our butts. They dare us… dare us… to see the world not through the rose colored lens of our church’s stained glass, but they dare us to see the world just as it is, in its rawest and most honest truth. Isaiah and John the Baptist DARE you… DARE us to open that door in spite of the terrifying noise the world is making outside, because they KNOW... they know... that through the terrible truths of the unimaginable injustice in our world, God is in this moment reaching out to us through all of that to right all that is wrong and redeem all that is so broken. Isaiah and John want us to KNOW, as they knew, that God’s mighty hand is even now, sweeping aside the terror that claws at our door and the injustice that scorches like a desert. Even now God is reaching through our most barren deserts, breaking every last link of binding chain and draining the relentless fire hoses of this life to bring us... us and all of creation... to the everlasting joy and gladness and it is the Christ child who shows us how to meet God at the door.  May we dare to open it and see.  Amen.

Our God of Ax and Shoot

Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Who Paul Bunyon-ed the Israel-tree and made it into a Jesse-stump? Well, you don’t need Scooby-Doo to solve that mystery. Just look back a couple of verses and you’ll see the one lopping off branches with terrifying power and bringing down the majestic tree of Israel is  the Lord of Hosts! It was God who went full “Lizzie Borden” on God’s chosen people, leaving them at the end of Chapter 10, a lifeless, hopeless stump!

What is it that led God to take up the ax? Well, God has always insisted that God’s creation run with a radical form of economic justice. God wanted (and still wants) God’s people to make the world work so that everyone has enough… enough to eat, enough shelter, enough dignity, enough respect, enough purpose, enough security. The people of Israel had done the exact opposite. To borrow from another prophet; they weren’t doing justice, they weren’t loving kindness and they certainly weren’t walking humbly with their Lord! They were making the poor, poorer and the rich, richer and THAT’s what led God to cut them down into a lifeless, hopeless, stump.

Cutting down an entire people into a lifeless, hopeless stump is admittedly pretty harsh and because of that I think we often try to tame this ax-wielding God. We say, “that’s the Old Testament God and I’d like the New Testament God instead, if you please.” But here’s the thing… there’s not two gods! The same God who demanded justice for creation then, is the same God who is demanding justice for creation now! We have that same God who still has a radical bias for the poor, the marginalized, the weak and the sick. We still have the same God who doesn’t think feeding the hungry should come with conditions. We still have that same God who doesn’t think being poor should be a death sentence. And BECAUSE we still have that same, justice obsessed, ax-wielding God, WE WOULD DO WELL to look around and not ignore these lessons from the prophets as just relics of a bygone “Old Testament God.”

That ax-wielding God?  That IS the God we have! BUT that is not ALL there is to the God we have. The same God that takes up the ax and makes a stump out of the wicked, ALSO IMMEDIATELY calls out to those same chopped-down, stump-people… waves them over and insists they look and marvel and notice the tiny, little shoot… the sign of hope, growing right in the middle of their very own hopeless, lifeless, stump-like lives. Now, you might think that lifeless stumps aren’t much to work with and that’s true for all but the Spirit of the Lord. You see, the Spirit of the Lord is the same Spirit who blew over the formless void before day was even separated from night. So, for the Spirit of the Lord, both a stump and a formless void are material out of which hope can spring!

Those two characters of God, held TOGETHER, make up the fullness of the God we have to this day. We just can’t take the God of the ax and siphon that part off of the God who grows shoots of hope! Our God IS and WILL BE, both! A justice insisting, ax wielding God AND a hope giving, shoot growing God… bound together… inseparably.  And because OUR God is NOT content with the wicked taking advantage of the poor, nor is OUR God content with the meek waiting for their reward in the sweet by and by, our God INSISTS we care for those who live on the edges of this life right now. Which is why our God will NOT leave you and me unchanged.  No matter how badly we fear change and fight and flail against it, our God WILL take an ax to us if that’s the only thing that will move us out of systems of injustice, chopping us down, if need be, to a lifeless, hopeless STUMP!

AND… YET… that same God… our God… will also grow in us a new beginning.  No matter how much we’ve been cut down… no matter if every bit of our stumpiness is our own dang fault. Our God WILL and DOES stay with us, no matter how little and lifeless a stump we have become! Our God WILL and DOES work in us.  Even if we have given up on God... EVEN if there is NO stump left of us and all that remains of us is a formless void! Our God CAN and WILL send the Spirit of the Lord to work with whatever there is to work with, to grow a new shoot in us, and bring new life out of the most hopeless and lifeless sort of place.

As followers of this God of BOTH ax AND shoot, you and I are called, to neither wield the ax, nor grow the shoot, but to NOTICE how our ONE God… the God of both ax AND shoot… the God of counsel and might, has not left us alone to confront the injustice of this world all by ourselves. Instead, God is even now, sprouting and growing a new creation and when we notice what God is doing in us and around us... it is in that noticing that we will find hope! Then out of that hope we are called to walk, in what will be our inevitable, stumbling, human way, carrying our tiny piece of this world toward God’s vision of a creation so radically changed that the hungry are fed, wolves lie down with the lambs, the poor are cared for, bears eat grass, the meek are lifted up and children play with snakes. Our calling is to notice and trust that the God of BOTH ax and shoot, is at work in this world and in each and every one of us, and in that work, find the hope and encouragement we need for our own journey, walking our way toward the realization, otherwise known as the Advent of the Kingdom of God. Amen.

Swords into Plows

Isaiah 2:1-5

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 

Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Recently at Monument Valley Middle School, one student told a number of Jewish students that he wanted to “nuke the Jews” and that they were “on his list.” The Rabbis from Hevreh met with school officials and then together, they all invited community and faith leaders to meet in Stockbridge. We learned, that sadly, this is not a one time thing. Each year the schools see some sort of incident like this. One year it might be racist, another it will be anti-immigrant, and another year it is anti-Semitic... but it’s something every year. That reality was disturbing but the meeting wasn’t all bad. I came away VERY impressed with how much work the schools have been doing now for YEARS to teach students about hate and bias and to create a safe environment for all students. I don’t like that this happens year after year, but those school professionals have come to understand that this work must be an ongoing effort, because new students continually stream together to learn.

Isaiah’s vision also recognizes an ever flowing stream of people coming together from all over the world.  He too recognizes that people coming together bring all their differences, and inevitably they bring their swords and spears as well. That’s why Isaiah’s vision includes the need for “arbitrating” between the people! Isaiah’s a realist! He expects when people come together from all over the world, they aren’t going to just magically begin to live together in a world of rainbows, unicorns and lollipops! When different people come together, they ALWAYS need help working through their differences and they will need to learn new ways to do that beyond the long-studied ways of swords and spears!

In Isaiah’s vision, that learning is described as beating swords and spears, into plows and pruning hooks. They learn a way to live, NOT out of their fear of loosing place or privilege or their fear of scarcity that is always made worse by swords and spears. They learn instead to live in a way that creates a shared abundance with plows and pruning hooks.  They learn to GROW new life... TOGETHER! This new life however, isn’t a life without differences.  Isaiah’s vision is clear! We don’t live on the mountain of the Lord’s house by homogenizing the world into a colorless, flavorless, slurry of humanity. We live on that mountain by working to help each person and each group of people, grow into the fullness that God created them to be! This is a mountain filled with all the different colors, music, flavors, dances and expressions of joy with which God has blessed the earth. God knows, it is in learning how to share and celebrate all our diversity that we will have real and lasting and abundant life!

Isaiah admits though, making this vision a reality takes a lot of hard work. To beat swords and spears into plows and pruning hooks means heating that metal to over 2000° F. That’s just to get it to the forging temperature, to say nothing of the energy needed after that to shape the metal into something new. And just as the schools seem to have experienced, this is work that never ends.  There are always more swords and more spears brought by more and different people that will always need to be worked into plowshares and pruning hooks. It is simply part of the reality of our world that the ways of swords and spears are taught to our children with both spoken and unspoken lessons. We all do our best raising our kids. But all too often our best comes out of our own brokenness and ends up defaulting to the ways of swords and spears.  The ever flowing stream of people who, out of fear, pick up swords, spears, guns, bias and hate in an attempt to free themselves of what they fear… Those people… US PEOPLE… we need continual Divine In-Breakings to teach us over and over new ways to walk and live together in this world.  

Isaiah’s vision was a Divine In-Breaking, teaching us that embracing our diversity is the way to live and thrive together in the world. It is a Divine In-Breaking that happens in our schools when caring professionals break into student’s lives with compassion and intentionality to teach them new ways to move through their fears. Each Advent is also a Divine In-Breaking where we are reminded that the infant Jesus broke into our world in the most vulnerable way, to teach us how to walk in the Way of the Lord AND that we are also called to look forward to more Divine In-Breakings where Christ enters into our world and our lives again and again, continually teaching us, that the path to abundant life is not made with swords and spears but is grown together with our neighbors by plowing and pruning.

What is our part in this Divine In-Breaking here in South County? How can we help our schools do the hard work of turning fear into calm, hate into compassion and swords into plowshares? What would it look like for us as a congregation… as the Body of Christ… to come to the mountain of the Lord’s House with others, not to homogenize one another into one way of being, but to work together to grow a diverse and abundant life for all people? I invite you to join me in letting those questions become a part of your Advent this year and together see what God’s vision might be for us to join in this Divine In-Breaking work when this year’s Advent season comes to a close. Amen.

X the Rex

Luke 23:33-43

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Today we celebrate The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Sunday. Or, because that’s about 7 too many super chewy church words, we just shorten it to Christ the King Sunday. It was started in 1925 by Pope Pius XI in the dark shadows of a broken world following World War I. He saw that even though the official war had come to an end the old hatreds, rivalries and political manipulations of the world were still at work. He wrote, “as long as individuals and states refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.” He argued that “we must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ” if the world was to have real peace. So, he instituted this feast to lift up the Kingship of Christ.

Now at this point we could get horribly derailed by the Papal origins of this day and the king-like hierarchy of Rome and the baggage that comes with it, or by the very “male” focus that comes along with the word “king” or that some still use this concept as a twisted reason to try to “force” people to declare that Christ is their King. But if it’s OK with you, I’d rather just acknowledge, that along with every other metaphor we use to try to wrap our minds around the infinite nature of God, “Kingship” too has baggage and limitations. So, I propose we just put an asterisk here, acknowledging those very real limitations, but for today, look for what it is about this day might be helpful instead.

So, with a bold asterisk firmly in place to help us resist the temptation to dive into one of those very tempting rabbit holes, I’d like to suggest that ol’ Pius the X-I was actually onto something. He wrote how, “bitter enmities and rivalries… hinder the cause of peace” and how “insatiable greed” hides under the “pretense of public spirit and patriotism.” He saw how patriotism, a thing he said was of “noble virtues and so many acts of heroism” could be perverted into an “extreme nationalism” and lead us to forget that we are all part of “one human family” and that nationalism could lead us to dismiss the idea that “all people have the right to life and prosperity.”

If you ask me, it looks like ‘ol Pope Pius the X-I could just as easily have been reflecting on our own world today! Those reflections on patriotism turning into malignant nationalism and how it’s so easy to forget that other human beings are our siblings, seems hauntingly familiar! I think the core of the lesson Pope Pius hoped the world would learn back then, is still very relevant today, because it flows out of this Gospel lesson. I think he wanted the world to learn that it is not our loyalty to earthly kings, emperors, kaisers, presidents, political parties or doctrines that will lead the world to peace, but it is following the path walked by the One who rules all of creation from the seemingly power-less position of hanging on a cross. THAT is the One, who’s WAY will guide us to genuine and lasting peace.

Now, I think this is a good spot to remind us all again about that asterisk we put up before, warning us away from the entrance to the rabbit hole that says, “if everyone just confessed Jesus as Lord” we’d have peace. Because it isn’t REALLY the particular doctrines we believe, or the words we say that really make a difference. What will, as Bishop Curry says, “transform the world from the nightmare it is for so many into the dream that God intends” is our living our lives each day, step by step in the footsteps of Jesus… living our lives modeled after the Jesus-Way of living. Doing what Jesus did... living as Jesus lived... THAT’S what makes the difference!  Searching out the lost, feeding the hungry, embracing the forgotten, maligned and demonized. Speaking truth to power, advocating for justice, lifting up the trampled, healing the sick, reuniting the estranged and raising the dead… THAT is how to live in the Kingdom of Christ! You and I living life on THAT path is how God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Pope Pius saw that earthly kingdoms filled with greed, anger and a thirst for revenge demanding peace by way of a war to end all wars, didn’t bring the world to the peace God intended. He saw that REAL peace is not something that can be commanded from a human throne, but is something that is offered as an undeserved gift from the cross with the promise, "today you will be with me in paradise.”

I know this isn’t easy.  We drive down the road of faith in this life and as we look out the windows we see a world that remains broken and far from the kind of peace God intends. It is very tempting, seeing mile after mile of that sort of injustice, to run off the road into the ditch on one side that says “God can not, or chooses not, to bring peace to the world so it is all on us to make peace happen on our own” or jerk the wheel over and end up in the ditch on the other side that says, “Only God can bring peace to the world so we might as well sit back, do nothing, and wait for God to work it all out.” But faith that “Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done” is found in neither ditch. Faithfulness is holding, in what I admit is a horrible tension, the reality that our King rules us with unlimited power, from a completely powerless place on the Cross. Faithfulness to Christ the King is living and walking in that impossible tension and driving down the road of life as St. Augustine suggested: “Praying as though everything depended on God and working as though everything depended on us.” Amen.

Stay on Target

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

What was the most important thing of 1977? Jimmy Carter being sworn in as president? No. Elvis’s death? Sad indeed, but no. George Willig, brother of our own Steve Willig, climbing The World Trade Center? Close, but still no. The most important thing that happened in 1977 was the release of the movie Star Wars.  So what does that movie from 1977 have to do with this less-than-cheerful Gospel lesson, you ask? Well, let me tell you!  

In the context of the Jesus story, this bit from today happens as Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. Judas is getting ready to betray him and Peter is about to deny him and Jesus is about to walk into a horrible gauntlet filled with betrayal, denial, injustice, and pain.  All the while, the people in power are moving things into position to bring the full force of the Roman Empire down on Jesus which will lead to only one possible, inevitable, end... Jesus’ death on a cross.  

In the Star Wars story, this is Gospel lesson is like the scene where the stolen plans reveal just one weakness in the Death Star.  By flying through an impossible gauntlet and hitting a tiny target… no bigger than a Womprat back home... they MIGHT destroy the Death Star. Han Solo is packing up to leave because this plan is sure to get them all killed and all the while, the Death Star is moving into position to bring the full force of the Galactic Empire down on the rebellion leading to only one, possible, inevitable end… the death of the Rebellion.  

In the Star Wars story things are BAD. BUT! We KNOW that Luke’s X-Wing fighter makes it through the gauntlet of laser canons, tie fighters, the Dark Side and through the relentless progress of the Galactic Empire’s death and terror machine… The Death Star.  We KNOW Gold Five says “STAY ON TARGET, STAY ON TARGET!” and Obi Wan’s voice sounds from beyond the grave saying, “Luke! Let go! Use the Force” and that Luke turns off his targeting computer and fires using only The Force.  We KNOW the Death Star is destroyed, and what had seemed absolutely impossible for a million different reasons… happens! The Death Star explodes into a zillion pieces.  

And we know where the Jesus story goes from here as well. We KNOW that in spite of traps set by the powerful… in spite of being betrayed and denied, Jesus “stays on target.” We KNOW he makes his way through the impossible gauntlet of a Roman Governor, Roman collaborators, and Roman legions and even through the relentless pursuit of the Roman Empire’s death and terror machine… The Cross.  We KNOW... that even with all of THAT working against him, this story ends with Jesus being raised from the dead and Death being destroyed forever.

And so my fellow followers of Jesus and members of the Rebel Alliance. My fellow battlers against the dark side and holders of hope and light in the midst of hopelessness and darkness; my reminder for you this day, is not to get stuck in just one chapter or just one scene and forget how the story ends!  Don’t forget how the Star Wars Story ends.  Don’t forget how the Jesus story ends and don’t forget how YOUR story ends either!  Because I can see all that is wrong.  Children in cages, climate change, gun violence, lies and betrayals and ugliness at the highest levels.  I know that this particular chapter of OUR story is filled with 24 hour news proclamations that “The End is Near” that nation is fighting against nation and that natural disasters and disasters caused by human brokenness are epidemic.  BUT I also know, THAT is not how OUR story ends!  

I KNOW how easy it is to get stuck in just one less-than-cheerful chapter of this life.  A chapter filled with disasters, betrayals or family members who use the dark side of Tofurky in a plot to destroy the joy of Thanksgiving! So we too need to remember that these sorts of stories are not just tall tales meant for an ancient people or for a galaxy far, far away.  THESE stories are meant for us too!  They are made not just out of words and film but crafted with God from Divine promise… infinitely stronger stuff than just human imagination or hope filled dreams!  THESE stories have been made for you and for me, so that we might SEE BEYOND these less-than-cheerful chapters of life and hold on to the Divine promise of light and abundant life that we have been given in Christ!

It’s healthy to honestly acknowledge the less-than-cheerful chapters of this life.  And I’ll be the first to admit it can look bleak out there these days!  And when cold grey days are strung together between 14 hours of pitch black darkness it doesn’t do much to improve the view! BUT as we acknowledge the reality of these less-than-cheerful chapters, don’t forget to look beyond that chapter and ALSO acknowledge God’s Divine promise and remember, THIS is not where the story ends!  

This is the take-home for today:  Our calling is to remind one another that we need not to drink full time from the 24 hour news fire hose.  Remind each other that our politically off center uncles will not be converted to a newly enlightened political position, no matter how good the cranberry sauce might be and remind one another that the way the Star Wars story and the Jesus story ends is meant to be a reminder of God’s promise for how OUR stories will end as well.  God will see us through every gauntlet, God will care for us until empires fall, God will make sure the dead will rise, no matter how impossible life might look in any one particular chapter or scene, God will be with us… always. Amen. 

All the Saints

Luke 6:20-31

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I think my favorite image for All Saints comes from Isaiah. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” In my mind this looks like the sort of table that a single dining room just can’t contain. It bursts through the walls of both sides of the house, down the street, and out farther than the eye can see in each direction! Everyone, in all of creation is gathered at the table… the saints who are living… all the saints who have gone before us… and those who are yet to be… all included… all fully able to be themselves… all whole, and all enjoying, with full throated laughter and joy, God’s feast of “rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.”

And while the FULLNESS for you and me sitting at that feast is yet to come, God’s Table exists now and each week we are offered a momentary seat at that table when we come to Holy Communion. In some mystical way, our little bit of communion rail, in our little town, in our little corner of the world, becomes woven into God’s Table. As we stand or kneel there, I like to think that if you look carefully, not with your eyes but with your heart, you might even catch a brief glimpse of God’s Kingdom Table stretching out right through the walls of our church and off into infinity. Because in that moment we are... RIGHT THERE... at God’s Table, side by side with those who have gone before us.  It happens in a mystical, but no less real way, than when we sat with them at the feasts we shared with them while they were alive.

It’s with that vision in mind, that I wonder if the Blessings and the Woes that Jesus shares here in Luke’s Gospel are not so much about who is “in” and who is “out” at the end of time, but more a declaration of Divine Truth and Hope for how we choose to live today. I think these blessings and woes tell a powerful truth about how, when our lives are lived one way we are able to see more clearly, far down the length of God’s Kingdom Table… AND conversely when we live in other ways, our ability to see down that table becomes much more clouded.  

When we feel poor, hungry, anguished or despised… in THOSE times… times of deep vulnerability, we look down the rail… down the length of God’s Kingdom Feast Table to the right and to the left and we are able to see more clearly that great cloud of witnesses sitting beside us. In those times of vulnerability we are blessed with greater clarity ... the cloud of our ego doesn’t get in the way. In those vulnerable times we are truly blessed to see friends and family and colleagues and mentors beside us at the rail… those who have gone before us… there, present, with us... caring for us in those darkest of times. But then when are rich, full, happy and popular, is it simply the truth that in those times, we are much more likely to have our ego clouding that vision and we are more likely to look left and right and see, not a great cloud of witnesses, but just a whole lot of cloud. 

God ALWAYS, CONTINUALLY, UNCONDITIONALLY and DEEPLY desires for ALL of us to come to God’s Table.  God invites us ALL to come, regardless of whether we’ve been able to do the past week’s living in a way that has led to more blessings and clarity or to more woes and clouded vision.  Either way, God WANTS us at God’s Table, regardless!  God wants us to come... to look to the right and to the left.  God wants you to SEE the great cloud of witnesses that are always there, whether this is a time we can see them clearly or not.  God wants us to believe, and if possible to even SEE that they are there, giving us their care and support. It is BECAUSE that is God’s DEEP and CONTINUAL desire, God sent Jesus to teach us the way to live our lives so that we might have the greatest possible clarity of vision each time we come to God’s Table.  

Clarity of vision happens, Jesus teaches us, when we love our enemies, when we do good to those who hate us, when we bless those who curse us and pray for those who abuse us.  We come to God’s Table with more clarity of vision when we stand up to abusive power with the creative but non-violent power of the Holy Spirit. We grow in clarity of vision when we live lives of generosity and when we refrain from seeking revenge for the times when we have been wronged.

In some mystical way, God in Christ has given us the incomparable gift of being fully included at God’s Table IN THIS LIFETIME, if only for the time it takes to receive the bread and wine. There, God invites us to look up and down the infinite length of that feast and see just as far as we can possibly see… see all those who have gone before us… parents and grandparents… back countless generations… husbands, wives, partners and children… friends and siblings and those family members who don’t share blood, but something much deeper. Then, with that powerful image of infinite love and support from every age and time, from up and down that table, firmly embedded in our souls, Jesus calls us to go out and do unto others as we would have them do unto us, inviting them to join us at God’s Table so they too may be blessed and strengthened in their lives by All the Saints. Amen.

It's the Blood!

Romans 3:19-28

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

Reformation Sunday happens at this time of year because it was on All Hallow’s Eve… Halloween… that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the Wittenberg church and kicked off the Protestant Reformation. It also seems appropriate that we have this lesson from Romans every year too, because it talks about THE BLOOD! “A sacrifice of atonement by his BLOOD!” You almost can’t help but read it in a Béla Lugosi accent… THE BLOOD!

When we hear about… THE BLOOD… what comes first to mind, for a lot of people, is that sort of gruesome, blood-going-everywhere, Passion of the Christ, sort of image. I don’t think that’s an accident either. It’s an image that’s been pushed for centuries by the people who really love the theory that God was so mad at humanity and God just couldn’t get over it without some blood being spilled! It’s called the Substitutionary Theory of Atonement. It’s basically the idea that in order for you and me to achieve atonement, or “AT-ONE-MENT” with God... in order to be re-connected with God, God (the One who created the entire universe out of nothing, by the way ) was simply UNABLE to reconnect with us without payment IN BLOOD.  But lucky for us, Jesus substituted his blood for ours. It’s a super popular theory. Evangelicals and Fundamentalists of all sorts seem to love it. Mel Gibson’s movie, Passion of the Christ, pushed it with tankers full of cinematic Hollywood blood and the only problem with it, is that I think it’s horribly, gruesomely, terribly WRONG!

With Jesus God gets OUT of the retribution business, not more gruesomely into it! God isn’t unable to forgive without first receiving payment… God can do whatever God wants! God doesn’t need showers of blood to quench the fires of some sort of uncontrollable Divine rage. It’s people who have PUT that vengeful rage ONTO God because they themselves can’t imagine forgiving without payment first. They themselves want (a what John-Arthur?  Quid-pro-Quo.  Right!) retribution and punishment in order to quiet their OWN rage. They’ve plastered their own human nature onto God, because making God work like they do is MUCH easier for than accepting that God, in Christ Jesus, has just HANDED atonement to us as a FREE GIFT! Because, you see, if it’s true that God has given it to us as a GIFT… well, then we might be expected to forgive others as a gift as well… and honestly… most of us really want some BLOOD to be spilled!

I know that BLOOD spilling stuff has been pounded into us for centuries, but for just a minute, try to put the Dracula, Halloween, gruesome, horror-movie-style-bloodbath stuff away and try to SEE this passage, NOT through all you’ve heard before, but just as it is on the page. Because when we focus so intently on the blood flowing-out-in-a-horrible-death part, we miss something really important. So let’s hear it again… “The redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by Jesus’ blood, effective through faith.” What does this mean? (That’s a little Martin Luther humor there!)

Redemption is what happens when a brokenness is repaired or healed. But that can happen in many ways. If it’s a monetary debt, it can be healed by the debt being paid off OR simply forgiven. If it’s an injustice it might be healed with recognition and a commitment to walk a new way with something like reparations and then forgiveness and healing. If the brokenness is a bondage like sickness or addiction or incarceration or slavery, it would be healed by being set free. The take home on redemption is that blood-spilling as payment is NOT the only way that redemption can happen nor the only way brokenness can be repaired.  St. Paul uses LOTS of different images to try to get people to understand this in his letters depending on his audience. 

BUT, Pastor Erik, it does say, “God put Jesus forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his BLOOD” and indeed it DOES. BUT what it DOESN’T say is that it was put forth by the SPILLING of Jesus’ blood. Blood does a whole lot of other stuff… hopefully for years and years, decades and decades, on our insides before it does any fatal spilling! So, might it be, that God gave us his Son to give us the gift of atonement… A way to be AT-ONE with God… through MORE than just the SPILLING of Jesus’ blood? Could it be that God gave us, not just the Jesus of the Passion, but the rest of Jesus as well?  Including the part where Jesus’ LIVING blood allowed him to walk around and teach us about God’s infinite love? The part where Jesus’ LIVING blood brought healing to the sick, food to the hungry and life to the dead? The part where Jesus’ LIVING blood flowed through him as he walked on water, calmed the storms, stood up to oppressors, and insisted on lifting up the least and the lost and the last of the people of creation?

I think we have unfortunately been tricked over the centuries to not pay close attention to Jesus’ LIFE BLOOD and focus only on Jesus’ DEATH BLOOD. I think we not only MIGHT want to work on fixing that, but rather that we MUST! And we MUST because it is Jesus’ LIFE, and yes, his death as well as HIS RESURRECTION… ALL OF IT… that makes up the FULL gift of God, given to all of us and all of creation without any strings attached. 

Then, when we imperfectly step into each day of our lives, putting one of our imperfect feet after the other, clumsily into the footsteps of the Jesus who LIVED, the Jesus who DIED and the Jesus who ROSE AGAIN... THEN we are living our FAITH, and in that imperfect walking we will begin to really understand that we are already, AT ONE with God. Amen. 

A Divine Kick in the "Hip Socket"

Genesis 32:22-31

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

ALL change, transformation, new life, recovery, growth, healing… all of it… and not just the religious bits… ALL OF IT... happens by way of death and resurrection. It happens all around us every day in ways we often hardly even notice and then it also happens in ways we can’t possibly ignore, even if we wanted to. It happens in the simple things like going to sleep and rising in the morning to a new day. It happens out in nature every year as the trees change into vibrant shades of reds and yellows, mottled browns and tangerine orange and then, in a fiery, swirling, show… they let go of life for the winter, always to rise again in the spring. It happens when we end a career and begin a new life in retirement. It happens when we surrender ourselves in an operating room and then wake in recovery. It happens when we are finally able to move through an old trauma, forgive the ones who hurt us, and rise to a new life no longer needing to carry that old grudge. It happens in our Christian Sacraments when we die to sin in the waters of baptism and rise to new life in Christ and when in the Eucharist we say together, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” And of course it happens in that one monument-raising-moment that comes for every single one of us when we physically die.  For that one, we try very hard to believe from this side of that death, to trust that we will indeed rise in glory to the fullness of eternal life.

But there’s the rub, isn’t it? On this side we can only TRUST that to be true. We can’t ever be fully certain, can we? We only see now through the glass dimly, as Paul says. THEN we’ll see face to face… but NOW isn’t THEN, is it?! And because NOW is not THEN and I can’t clearly see the… “THEN”... I, at least, tend to NOT approach change, transformation, new life, recovery or growth with the fiery, flamboyant, confident show with which the trees make it all look so easy. I don’t let go of the old as easily as the trees let go of their leaves. I’ve been in situations that were far less than wonderful… some were even horrible… but they were KNOWN! To give up the KNOWN, even a horrible known, for only the HOPE of something better… what if it’s worse!? I can see that death and resurrection is the way God designed creation to work but, dear Lord, was the “death” part of all that really necessary? Can’t we do it another, less painful, less scary, less unknown, less... deadly way?

That’s what wrestling with God looks like. God told Jacob to go back home and face the brother he had cheated out of everything. God told Jacob to die to his former scheming ways and rise to the new life of a healed relationship. God told Jacob to go through the waters of the Jabbok river and let the person he had been up to that moment, FULL-ON-DROWN, and then rise up on the other shore into a new life. Jacob wasn’t so sure. His brother was big. Really big! Jacob had been a big jerk.  A really big jerk!  So he approached the river without any confidence it would work out.  Then there in the middle of the river, Jacob met God and Jacob told God for an entire night, just how God should REALLY have the world work! Death and resurrection was a TERRIBLE idea, Jacob told God. The death part is scary and unknown and sometimes VERY painful. God had CLEARLY made a mistake, Jacob told God, and when God saw that Jacob would not let go of what was… would not stop fighting no matter what, God kicked him right in the “hip-socket” and yes, Virginia, it was not the “hip-socket”… It was indeed the “HIP-SOCKET” and low-blow and behold, after that… Jacob stopped fighting God.

One of the great bits of wisdom from this story is the truth that God created creation to work by way of Death and Resurrection and is sticking with it! The irony is that even though Jacob fought that truth and did NOT win his argument, MANY of us still insist on continuing Jacob’s argument with God about it even to this day! I do it.  I have wrestled with God over God’s “death and resurrection” plan… more than once! In each of those fights, I too have left the fight with a Divine kick to the hip-socket, limping into the new life God was determined I have... And determined God is! DETERMINED to get you and me and all of creation all the way THROUGH… EVERY SINGLE ONE of those changes, transformations, deaths, growths and recoveries we face and bring us into a new and abundant life AND GOD WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to get us there!

We do have some say in God’s death and resurrection plan though. We can take the beautiful reminder that the trees give us every autumn, and approach each of life’s changes, transformations, deaths and opportunities for growth and recovery with a flurry of color and a beautiful release of what was, confident that the promise of new life and spring will come... AND spring does ALWAYS come... OR we can choose to fight and wrestle and struggle against each of those changes, transformations, deaths and opportunities for growth and recovery with the God who decided Death and Resurrection IS how the world is going to work and end up… still on the other side, mind you… but with our “hip-sockets” out of joint and a very painful, lingering, limp.

Either way God IS GETTING us to the other side, either as a beautiful dance partner full of color and light or by whatever means it might take, up to and including a Divine kick to the ol’ Hip Socket! EITHER WAY we get there God will bless us. EITHER WAY it happens we will be transformed into a new creation. Because you see, God is perfectly WILLING to do anything it takes to get us there, but God is totally UNWILLING to just leave us to settle for anything less than a new, abundant, and eternal life. Amen.