The Zanforb Incident

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

I know it’s overdone.  I know all the clergy use this sermon illustration but you’ve got to admit, these lessons pretty much demand that I use the Zanforb Incident as a sermon illustration, don’t they?  Wait. Don’t tell me.  You have no idea what I’m talking about do you? Well, great! Then this sermon will make NO sense! Alright... well, I guess all I can do is to pitch THIS thing and tell you the story.  

Zanforb is a planet on the other side of our galaxy. About six million years ago, the evolutionary ancestors of the Zanforbians crawled up out of their red florescent ocean and eventually evolved into the beings they are today. At the same time on the other side of the planet, the evolutionary ancestors of the Zanforbos did the same. 

The Zanforbians and Zanforbos evolved in pretty much the same way. Same number of brains and tentacles… same beautiful, blue-green, shiny scales… same gills and fins... all the same. The one difference is that the Zanforbians have THREE eye stalks and the Zanforbos have TWO. Over time, both got smarter and learned to make fire, tools and all the other normal evolutionary stuff. They learned how to milk the BoBo bird and turn it’s purple milk into the cheese they use to build their homes. They built ships and sailed around their planet and eventually met one another. 

Believe it or not, that went really, really well! I know!  Surprising isn’t it? The different-number-of-eye-stalks thing wasn’t a big deal. They built their cheese homes on the same canals together, worked and played together, and shared their joys and hardships together. Their main hardship, of course, stemmed from the fact that the BoBo bird cheese they used to build their homes is HIGHLY flammable! The homes were forever bursting into flames and melting into puddles of burnt, stinky, purple, cheesy goo. 

Then one day a Zanforbian, named Ethyl, invented a fire fighting robot. Using her third eye stalk, she was able to program the robot to fly around her house and put out the fires on the cheese BEFORE they spread! It was a HUGE advance! Ethyl tried her whole life to adapt the robots so they could be programmed with just two eye stalks but neither she nor anyone else could make it work, no matter how hard they tried. As you might imagine, before this invention, everyone spent the majority of their lives tracking and capturing BoBo birds, milking them, making cheese and rebuilding their homes, over and over and over again. But after Ethyl’s robot came out, the Zanforbians didn’t have to do that anymore. The Zanforbos, unfortunately, still had to constantly put out the fires, milk the birds and rebuild their homes. In a word, the Zanforbians became privileged and sadly over time, with that privilege the Zanforbos and the Zanforbians grew apart. Many Zanforbians grew to assume this was just how nature intended things to be. With three eye stalks, naturally came this privilege.  

But one day, all that changed when a little Zanforbian named George and a little Zanforbo named Betsy were laying out on their school’s neon blue lawn together looking up at their five, green and purple moons effortlessly orbiting around one another. There on that lawn, they had a revelation! What if Zanforbians used their third eye stalk to program their fire robots to watch their own houses AND ALSO watch the houses of their Zanforbo neighbors?  

At first, many Zanforbians thought this was a TERRIBLE idea! What if the robot was putting out a cheese fire on a Zanforbo house when their own Zanforbian house caught on fire!? They didn’t want to risk their own security for those two stalked Zanforbos! But George and Betsy persisted, as the young often do. They insisted on an honest answer to a simple question. How often do two cheese houses melt down on the same canal in a single night? The facts were clear! A double meltdown had never happened in recorded history. In spite of the facts though, a few, living out of their enormous fear, pointed to an ancient legend known as “The Great Melt” which told of five cheese homes melting down on the same night.

They were afraid sharing their robots would make Zanforbians less “great” than they had grown to be, but here and there, small groups of Zanforbians and Zanforbos gathered together in communities of love, compassion, inclusiveness and hope. The Zanforbians courageously shared the privilege of their fire robots! And it worked! Soon, the Zanforbos’ houses weren’t melting down all the time either and now they too had the same extra time, security and peace of mind that their neighbors had. Together with that shared extra time, and having learned the power of coming together in love and compassion, those small groups, BECAUSE of their differences, were together able to discover many new things that they could NEVER have done alone!  By sharing their stalks, they discovered wonderful new possibilities! Among the things they discovered was that with FIVE eye stalks they could control a spaceship that went faster than the speed of light! Together they could explore the galaxy! Apart they would have been stuck in the same place forever.  

They basically learned what Paul teaches us in the lesson for today. They learned what our congregation knew back in 1866 when our ancestors, right after the Civil War, welcomed all people regardless of race into this church. They learned what we will again celebrate today in our annual meeting... that when we come together, in love, compassion and inclusiveness, we will always be greater than the sum of our parts! They learned that God makes no distinctions... male, female, black, white, gay, straight, Lutheran, Episcopalian, two eye stalks or three... God created everything and everyone in the whole of creation to be connected with one another. Those aliens learned from the Zanforb Incident, the same thing God tells us over and over again… that when we use our wonderful and diverse gifts together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish. So now you know the lesson of the Zanforb incident.  Amen.

Actually, hold on a minute.  It just occurred to me, that since you didn’t know any of THAT story, you probably also don’t know that story’s postscript either. It turns out that in addition to controlling fire robots, and mastering faster than light space travel, Zanforbians and Zanforbos were ALSO able to use their eye stalks together to program an electronic camouflage device so when they visit other planets they can look EXACTLY like the creatures from that world. Their camouflage is almost perfect… almost. Because you see, their camouflage device has one, unique, quirky feature... and if you know it, you can tell who among you is really from Zanforb and who is from Earth.  That quickly little feature, you see, always makes the camouflaged creature from Zanforb appear to be wearing... a black shirt... with a little, white, tab in the collar!

The Great Convergence

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

It happens, perhaps appropriately, only here… in the season of Epiphany. Like a cosmic star stopping briefly in it’s long celestial orbit, it happens only here… only in this story… only on one Sunday every three years. This is the moment when my Master’s in Food Science cosmically aligns with my Master’s of Divinity. Like an obscure planetary conjunction that only a few esoteric astrologers from afar would ever even notice… today is the day my thesis on wine making and my first career as a beverage scientist, intersects with my current life as a pastor and a priest. THIS is that day!  

Jesus had six stone jars each holding between 20 and 30 gallons of water.  At 8.34 pounds per gallon, Jesus had between 167 pounds and 250 pounds of water at his disposal. So class, how many 750 ml bottles of wine did Jesus make? Correct! Between 600 and 900 bottles. That’s between 50 and 75 CASES of wine! That’s more than you can move at one time… even with a fork lift! That, technically speaking, is what we referred to scientifically in the beverage industry as… a LOT of wine for one wedding!  

This was the first of Jesus’ SIGNS. Jesus didn’t do miracles in John’s Gospel… he did SIGNS. A perfect seven of them in total it turns out and they are not SIGNS meant for Jesus to read. They are SIGNS meant to guide you and me along our life-long journey as we try to walk in our lives the Jesus Way. This first SIGN calls us, for one thing, to expect to take a different path from the one we might have planned on taking before.  Jesus hadn’t planned to make wine from water as his very first sign. But when “Hail Mary full of grace” turned into “Hail Mary, do what your mother tells you to!” plans change. Even for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords... plans change! So we, sure as shootin’, better pay attention to the signs along the way that ask us to walk our journey in new and unexpected directions.  

The second SIGN planted for us in this story is how Jesus handled his own changing plans. He objected at first, so when we’re first asked to change directions there seems to be some grace for that built into the mix, but quickly Jesus came around. When he did come around, he didn’t just do the minimum to just get by. He responded with ABUNDANCE! He made ALL the wine! Enough, more than likely, for every man, woman and child at that wedding to have two or three bottles each! That SIGN directs you and me toward living our lives, giving of ourselves with that sort of ABUNDANCE.  Living by lavishing out an ABUNDANCE of grace, love, forgiveness, compassion, generosity and hope to every man, woman and child we encounter along our way! 

The third SIGN planted along our path with this story is that quality matters just as much as quantity.  Jesus could have made 900 bottles of the cheap stuff.  Nobody at THAT party was in any condition to notice the difference! But EVEN when NO ONE would notice, Jesus made the very best.  And with this SIGN, you and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to give our very best to God and to our neighbors, even when no one else is looking. Even when no one else will ever know!  

Those signs staked out along our life journey seem to map out a difficult path. They call us to put our own plans aside and go a different way. They call us to live for the needs of others… not with just what we have left over… not with just the bare minimum… not with just what will get us by. Those signs staked out along our life’s journey call us to turn onto an alternative path and care for the other with an overwhelming abundance of our very best.  

And I’ve got to tell you, to this food scientist turned priest and pastor, THAT feels like an overwhelming request. It feels that way, I suspect, mostly because it is!  It’s overwhelming! We can’t do signs like Jesus did!  We can’t turn water into wine!  We can’t manage that level of abundance and we can’t always give our very, VERY best!  We just CAN’T.  We’re just human. Just flesh and blood!... And that’s true.  We are just flesh and blood.  Just organs and bones, muscles and skin. Just dust and mud and clay.  It's true.  We are basically just earthen vessels, filled with, oh, about 167 to 250 pounds of water, which is, oh, about 20 to 30 gallons, which is perhaps… probably just coincidentally…the exact same amount of water in each one of those six water jars which Jesus touched and transformed into wine when he did the first of his SIGNS in Cana of Galilee.   

We ARE just flesh and bone... just earthen vessels filled with water.  BUT when earthen vessels filled with water are touched by Christ, SIGNS happen. In Baptism and there at the Table, we are touched by Christ. There in the font and there in the bread and wine, Jesus does a sign... IN US!  In Christ we are transformed. In Christ you become the miracle!  In Christ you become the SIGN!  This life we’ve been given is a party. These days, I’ll grant you, it seems to be a bit of a disaster of a party. It’s a party in desperate need of a miracle. It’s a party that needs a SIGN. What this little lesson is telling us is that the world out there needs the SIGN... that God has created in YOU!  After all, way back then in the back woods of Cana, 75 cases of the very best wine transformed a party disaster into a party that has been talked about for the last 2000 years! And now YOU have been transformed in the exact same way as that wine! YOU are the SIGN this world’s party disaster desperately needs! So GO! Go and make this world into the party God intends it to be… a party that will be remembered for the next 2000 years. Amen.  

Reminders

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

We all need reminders.  The first lesson is a reminder, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”  That’s exactly what the people of Israel needed as a reminder.  They had been sent into exile by God.  They hadn’t been doing to very well with the whole, loving God and loving neighbor thing… but in spite of that, God still insisted, they BELONGED… since the making of the covenant with Abraham, they belonged.  Even now… in spite of all the mess… and it was quite a mess… and yet in spite of all of that they still belonged to the same God who created all things!  Nothing could ever change that.

We need reminders too, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.”  In Baptism, we are passed through the waters and God makes a covenant with us.  We too are made to BELONG to God.  And even now… in spite of not always doing a great job at the whole loving God and neighbor thing… we too STILL BELONG to the same God who created all things.  Nothing can ever change that for us either and that’s because covenants are God’s work, not ours.  Regardless of how well or how challenged we are at keeping our promises, God keeps Divine promises perfectly.  Belonging to God is a forever thing.  It will never go away.  

When Isaiah spoke these words, Israel had been scattered throughout the world… given a cosmic “time out” for not listening to God.  But they still BELONGED to God and just like a loving parent, their need for a “time out” did not remove God’s love for them.  What the people of Israel needed when Isaiah spoke these words, scattered all over creation as they were, was to be reminded that they would be GATHERED together again… and God also specializes in GATHERING!  That first reminder continues, “Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up,’ and to the south, ‘Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.’”

God GATHERS us together in Baptism as well.  God gathers us from different walks of life, from different sides of the track, from different ethnic backgrounds, from the North and from the South… from the East and from the West… from the Lutherans and from the Episcopalians and every other sort under the sun!  It is that GATHERING which God has done… it is that BELONGING which God has made, that prompts the heavens to open and the voice of God to call down and say to YOU… “YOU are my Child! YOU are Beloved!  With YOU I am well pleased.”  You are beloved simply because God has made you BELONG!  God is WELL PLEASED with you because God has GATHERED YOU IN!  So the question for us is not whether or not we belong or whether or not we’ve been gathered in.  Clearly we have, with an unbreakable Divine love we are!  The question for us is… what now!?

What now?  Because we also need a reminder that we belong to God for a purpose.  God GATHERS us together for a purpose.  We’re gathered together for abundant life!  To be fed and nourished at God’s Table.  To care for one another… and receive care when we desperately need.  We’re gathered together to share each others joys and sorrows.  We’re gathered to wipe one another’s tears and we’re gathered to work on God’s Kingdom… so that God’s Kingdom might come, and God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!

That may seem like an overwhelming task.  I would be the first to acknowledge that the world seems far away from the Kingdom of God these days.  The Kingdom of God where everyone has enough… enough food, clothing, shelter, security, dignity and purpose.  I’d be the first to look around and say that communities of caring and compassion and kindness are often hard to find and never make the evening news.  How is it then, that we can do what God has gathered us to do… beloved or not!?  

It turns out that it’s not just Jesus who had the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descend upon him like a dove in his Baptism.  With each and every Baptism, prayers are offered just like Jesus prayed.  With each and every Baptism, the heavens open up and the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove, just like it did for Jesus.  So when God gathers us all into a community with other Beloved children of God, ALL those folks that God has gathered… they… YOU… You ALL have been empowered by the Holy Spirit!  

And so, with the Divine embrace of BELONGING… brought together into a fellowship of Holy GATHERING… and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we end up right where we began today for one more reminder from God… Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.   I have called YOU by name; YOU are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.  Do not fear, for I am with you.  Amen.

Practice Being Wise

Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We got a dishtowel as a gift this year that said, “Three wise women would have asked for directions, got there on time, helped deliver the baby, brought practical gifts, cleaned the stable, made a casserole and there would be peace on earth!” Those gifts would have been much more practical for a birth in a barn and I am fully counting on the women of this world to move this world toward peace, because God knows, us guys have been messing that up for millennia! BUT, even with that, I’m still going to go out on a limb this morning and defend my three guys AND their choice of their seemingly impractical gifts. Because you see, Scripture refers to these three… as WISE. WISE… MEN, admittedly not a two-word combination that honestly comes together very often, but that rarity, in and of itself, is worth noticing. Those guys are not remembered as good looking, powerful, or even rich men. What has stood the test of time about these visitors from afar, is that they were WISE.  

And from this story, it seems to me that perhaps wisdom has something to do with the ability of a person to notice the small or seemingly insignificant things in life that end up really being the things that matter most in the end. These wise men noticed a new star at it’s rising. I would never notice a new star. I notice “stars” from time to time when I let the dog out to water the trees at night, but I’d never notice a new one. They noticed a new one. They also noticed that this was a star that should be followed AND they listened! MEN… LISTENING… another unlikely word combination, but none the less... WISE. Those sages then got up, left their contemplations and followed the star until they noticed the star had stopped. I would never notice a star had stopped. They asked for directions… DOUBLE WISE! They LISTENED to the directions… TRIPLE WISE and then noticed in a dream that they should not return to the one who had given them those directions and went home another way.  LIFE SAVING-LY WISE!

These men were WISE! They NOTICED a new star. They NOTICED that it was moving. They NOTICED when it was time to go. They NOTICED when it was time to stop. They NOTICED that Herod was not the friend he pretended to be. They NOTICED that small, easily transportable, highly valuable gifts might be just what that Holy Family would need to finance an escape into exile in Egypt if a guy like Herod decided to slaughter every child under the age of two in Bethlehem and it’s suburbs AND they NOTICED that there was indeed another, better, less-angry-king-filled path for them to return home. This story makes me wonder if it’s just that… the ability to really take NOTICE of the world around you, that makes a person wise?  

Kelly and I thought about the people we think of as WISE and that seems to be true. She mentioned Anne Frank who said, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Anne Frank NOTICED the smallest shimmering light in the hearts of people, even in the pitch black darkness of the holocaust around her. Martin Luther King said, “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” He NOTICED that moving in the RIGHT direction is far more important than the speed with which we travel.  

Eugene Peterson said, “You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.” He NOTICED that a stop along the way is just as faithful, just as powerful… just as necessary as any other part of a journey. Kelly also suggested Maya Angelou who said, “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.” She NOTICED that people don’t always show you who they truly are, but when they do, it’s something worth NOTICING and believing! Nelson Mandela said, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.” He NOTICED there was more than one path out of that prison gate and only one of them led to genuine freedom.  

Perhaps as we enter the season of Epiphany, God is calling us into a deeper practice of NOTICING. Perhaps God is suggesting a New Year’s resolution of sorts, to take an extra moment, as we reach for the handle or knob on any door, to make an intention to NOTICE more fully what it on the other side. To look more deeply into the darkness for an unexpected light. To notice when it is time to move AND when it is time to be still and see what God is doing around us while we are doing nothing at all. To notice what those around us need in this moment AND what they will need farther along down the road as well. To notice new light, new paths, and new companions on this journey of life. Perhaps you and I are being called to practice being wise.  Amen. 

Herod in Our Mirror

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. These were the first Christian martyrs. Children killed by an infuriated King Herod who thought he had been tricked by the wise men. He was paranoid, afraid and desperate to hold onto power. Desperate enough to slaughter children in an attempt to relieve his ever growing fear. Their story is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel:

Now after (the wise men) had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” - Matthew 2:13-18

Many have made the obvious, and I believe accurate, connection of the Holy Family’s life or death escape from that horror, with the life or death escape of families from Central and South America coming to seek asylum in our country. In that scenario, our country plays the part of Egypt in today’s retelling this terrible story. A country that welcomes those plagued by danger and violence in a distant land.

But on this Feast of the Holy Innocents, I would challenge us to look more deeply into our national mirror and see our national self more clearly. We are not playing the role of Egypt, but rather more disturbingly, we are playing the part of the infuriated Herod. On this Feast of the Holy Innocents, it seems to me impossible, however uncomfortable, not to connect the children who died at the hand of an infuriated King Herod, with the children now separated from their families, being held and dying in the concentration camps of our own infuriated king’s making.

Our country will not move forward until we confront ourselves in this most painful of mirrors. We, as a nation, will continue to falter until we confess our nation’s sins. This latest horrible sin is just the latest in a line that stretch back to before our country’s founding. We will never actually become who we imagine we are, until we do the hard work to make those past and current wrongs right. Racism, slavery, genocide, separating native children, Japanese American interment camps, Jim Crow, and now our slaughter of these most recent holy innocents. Our country has an unhealthy tradition, once we see what we have done, of simply trying to “put those sins behind us” instead of doing the hard but essential work of honest confession and real repentance. Until we do that hard work together as a nation, we will never break free of this horrific cycle. We will forever be cast in the role of Herod in this story, no matter how much we desire to play the part of the heroic, rescuing Egypt.

The prayer assigned for this feast day is below. Perhaps a beginning for us might be to pray this prayer both as it is written and in the way it is too easily modified to fit who we continue to be as a country today:

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem by order of King Herod. Receive into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims. By your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the innocent children at our border by order of our president. Receive into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims, including Jakelin Caal and Felipe Alonzo-Gomez. By your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Past the Cinco Bayou Bridge

Luke 2:41-52

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Florida is flat.  The state records Space Mountain as the highest peak!  Like I said… it’s flat.  So growing up there and riding my bike there, whenever I got to ride down the other side of the Bayou Bridge, it was a huge thrill.  But even though coasting down that man-made hill was a huge thrill… there was always more to come.  

When Jesus came to Jerusalem with his folks, that too was a huge thrill.  Passover in Jerusalem.  That’s bigger than Christmas at Grandma’s house!  Coming from the country to the big city packed with people from all over the world.  Imagine that!  The Temple too, made with those impossibly huge blocks of stone.  The altars… the priests… But even with the thrill of all that… Jesus, even then, knew there was more to come. 

Me and David Weatherill… or as mom constantly corrected… David and I… would ride over the bridge and thoroughly enjoy the thrill of the coast down the other side of the bride, but we were on our way to something more.  We were on our way some serious business at Howard’s Discount Store.  There we would dig out the allowance from our pockets and buy a new slot car for the slot car track!  

For Jesus too, the thrill of Passover in Jerusalem with all of it’s crowds and rituals and holiday drama was not the end of the journey for Jesus.  He too was there for something more.  When his parents finally tracked him down… (the last place you look for a 12 year old boy is in church after all) Jesus told them, “Didn’t you know I must be in my Father’s House?”  That phrase, “In my Father’s house” means both that Jesus was literally in God’s house AND it also meant that Jesus was about God’s business.

That was the “something more” that Jesus was about in Jerusalem.  They had done their duty, saw the sites, experienced the excitement but the excitement of the festival was not the final destination for Jesus.  The festival was only the bridge on his way something more.  God was calling Jesus to more.  God was calling Jesus to be about God’s business in the world.  

I believe that God is forever calling each of us beyond the bridge into the “something more” that is our Father’s business in this world.  The Law sums up our Father’s business by telling us we are “to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds and our neighbors as ourselves.”  The prophets described that business as “Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God.”  Later in his life, Jesus told the disciples about doing the Father’s business when he told them that when they fed the hungry, gave something to drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and gave the naked clothing… when others were sick and they cared for them and when they visited those in prison…. When they cared for the “least of these” they were doing the business of God! 

Our challenge for this time after Christmas… after the festive celebrations filled with lights and drama… our challenge as we come down from the highest points of the exhilaration of Christmas is for us to recognize that… as wonderful as it was… (and it was truly wonderful)… that was not the destination.  For us there is something more ahead.  God’s business is ahead and you and I are called into the Holy Family’s line of work… doing justice, loving kindness, caring for the least of these by welcoming the stranger and feeding the hungry… caring for the sick and visiting those who are imprisoned in every way.  May we all revel in the thrill of the highs of this season and now, with the momentum of a bike coasting down the Bayou Bridge, ride into another year doing the business of our God in the world. Amen.  

Christmas - Right Side Up

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!”

World War I ended one hundred years ago this year. Toward the beginning of that war something remarkable happened one Christmas Eve. A soldier on the German side put a make-shift Christmas tree up on top of his trench, lit it up with candles, and started singing Silent Night.  The English and the French didn’t know the German words but they knew the tune, and they too began to sing.  Then, slowly... here and there... someone would stick their head up out of the trench to see if the other side would shoot.  No one did.  Make shift signs saying, “WE NO FIGHT.  YOU NO FIGHT” and “MERRY CHRISTMAS” were put up. Eventually men climbed out of the trenches and headed across no-man’s-land to meet with soldiers on the other side.  They retrieved their wounded and buried their dead together.  Then they exchanged food, tobacco and souvenirs with one another.  They sang carols together. They played soccer together.   

It has since become known as the Christmas Truce.  It was a truce that didn’t come negotiated by diplomats or ordered from above.  It came literally from the people in the trenches.  It started with just one person... just one tired, lonely, scared, and hungry person who decided to put up a make shift Christmas tree and sing Silent Night instead of choosing to continue the fight.  Words like “unbelievable,” “impossible,” “unprecidented” and “up side down” are always used to describe this Christmas truce.  But what if, in reality, in that brief Christmas Truce, the world WASN’T actually UP SIDE DOWN but instead... in that brief time when grudges and hatred and anger and violence were set aside... what if in those moments, the world was, for once… actually… finally… divinely… RIGHT SIDE UP?  

Why do we think that returning violence for violence is normal?  Why do we believe hatred and grudges and being divided... is NORMAL… but setting aside all that pain and anger… sharing a drink… some food and a few songs is “unbelievable” or “up side down”?  This 100 year old story reminds us, that with the power of Christmas... with the power of God coming in Christ to live among us, the ways of pain and hurt and resentment that so many in the world call “normal” are really not “normal” at ALL and they don’t have to be our way any more.  

After all, if a soldier that had been shot at, shelled, bombarded and gassed... if a soldier who had been living in the mud and muck of a barbed wire topped trench with not enough to eat or drink... if a soldier who had been through all of that could decide, strengthened by the power of Christmas, to set up a little, candle-lit tree and sing Silent Night instead of holding onto hate and grudges and continuing to fight, isn’t there a chance that with the power of Christmas... with the power of God’s love lying in the manger… we could do it too?

One Hundred years ago it started with just one soldier... just one!  He set up a make shift Christmas tree and let the power of God in Christ begin to work.  The power of Christ, it turns out, had the power to transform the most violent place in the WHOLE WORLD that night!  What would happen if we set that same power of Christ loose in the world again this night?  It started back then with just one soldier. Is there any reason you and I could not choose, right here... right now, this night, to do the same?

May the lights on the trees in our homes... May our glowing candles here tonight… May our singing of Silent Night… and most importantly, may the power of Christmas... the power of Christmas... the power of God with us... strengthen us to pass on God’s infinite and unconditional love to everyone we meet in this coming year.  May each of us choose each new day, not to live the ways that kaisers, kings and presidents say is “normal”, but instead, may we choose to live our lives in the power of Christmas, the power of God with Us, making the world right side up with love and light and life.  Amen.

Keep Singing It!

Luke 1:39-55

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

No sermon this week… okay, just a little sermon. Last month I preached a sermon on Hannah’s song. Hannah’s song goes like this in 1st Samuel:

My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory …The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn…. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.”

In that sermon, I told you that Hannah sang her song boldly and loudly right into the face of a world that lived and believed and sang a VERY different song. Nevertheless, Hannah sang her song into that world! She was able to sing her song louder, longer and more powerfully than the world sang it’s song, because she sang her song as a duet with God.  This week we hear Mary’s song from the Gospel of Luke, which you’ll notice, is an amazing remake of Hannah’s classic hit!  Mary too sang her song boldly and loudly into the face of a world that lived and believed and sang a VERY different song than the song of justice that Mary sang.  She was able to sing HER song louder, longer and more powerfully than the world sang it’s song because she too sang her song as a duet with God.

Now, notice how much time they both spent... how much energy they gave… how much of their songs are spent railing against the evils of the empire and the injustices in their culture. It’s in there, for sure.  Neither woman is in denial about the world around them. Neither has their head buried in the sand or wears rose colored glasses as they sing.  But NOW notice how much of their songs describe the power of God and present a model of the world as God intends it to be. As I read the lyrics of these two amazingly powerful songs…  the realities of the world are acknowledged.  They make up the verses of their songs.  BUT the world as God intends it to be.... THAT is the constant refrain!  Every verse comes back to the truth, that the Holy One... the Mighty One has done, is doing, and promises yet to do great things!  Over and over and over again, the refrain pounds home the truth that God WILL!  That God IS!  Even NOW... making all things new in the lives of these women AND in the life of all of creation! 

In that sermon last month I asked you what song YOU sing into the darkness of the world as a duet with God. I asked you what song you sing louder and longer and bolder... head on, at full volume, into the face of the evils of this world because you sing it as a duet with God.  Today, since I’m not preaching, I’ll just recycle that same question.  What song do you sing?  What song… like Hannah and Mary’s songs do you sing with a powerful refrain of persistent, outrageous, seemingly impossible hope.  Keep singing that song with God, who persists in giving birth to impossible hope... story after story, woman after woman, testament after testament, Advent after Advent, Christmas after Christmas.  Thanks be to God! Amen.  

You Brood of Vipers!

Luke 3:7-18

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 

In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

On Easter, I get to say, “Christ is Risen!” and you all say, “He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!” At Christmas I get to say, “A light shines in the darkness” and you all get to respond with, “A light no darkness can overcome!” So, why is it during Advent I don’t ever get to say, “You brood of vipers!” to which you would respond, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come!” I suppose it’s because calling people “A brood of vipers” and telling them to “flee from the wrath that is to come” is hilarious, right up to the very moment, out of the corner of our eye, we just happen to catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror and wonder… “Could it be that all this time, I’ve been one of the snakes calling everyone else a brood of vipers?” 

When we end up seeing our own snake-like reflection in that mirror, we humans often respond with the intricate, deep, and theologically nuanced reflection of, “NUH UH!”  Nuh uh! I am NOT a snake in the grass!  Nuh uh! I grew up in the church!  Nuh uh! But John cut that argument right off, reminding them that God could make better church members out of a box of rocks, so that just wasn’t going to fly. 

The other reaction to realizing our slithery-ness is to ask the question the folks in this lesson asked, “What then should we do?” John’s answer was that they should stop slithering!  Stop living a reptilian life… stop running from, or eating everyone you met, and stop spewing venom!  John’s answer boils down to a classic… love one another! Share what you have, don’t steal… particularly from the weak and poor, don’t use might to make whatever you want right. You know… Love one another!  

But John knew, even here, right at the beginning, even before Jesus showed up on the scene, that you and I, even doing our very best to not act like a bunch of snakes is good, but it’s not a permanent solution. John knew that we humans, in spite of our best efforts, would eventually, inevitably, have days where the venom leaks out. You and I trying our best was important, but it was the One who was coming… the One who would walk through the orchard of our lives with an ax… the one who would go into the harvest of our lives with a winnowing fork and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire… THAT’S the one who had the power to finally transform us from our snakey-snake-ness into the human beings we were created to be.

John KNEW, that you and I… we’re all both Saints AND Sinners… each of us with trees in our personal orchards that give wonderful fruit AND each and every one of us have some trees that just make bad apples. He KNEW that our darkness was impossibly wrapped up around our light, like the chaff is impossibly wrapped around a grain of wheat.  

On our own, John knew that we could try… and John was clear… we REALLY ought to try! But John knew on our own we did not have the power to clear the dead wood from the orchards of our lives… and we would never be able to separate the wheat of abundant life from the chaff of our brokenness.  Without the One who was coming, we would always have sour apple days, crusty chaff-like times and spew a bit of venom when we weren’t able to be our best selves.

To change who we are THAT deeply we needed the One who’s sandals John was not worthy to carry.  To be transformed from a brood of vipers into Children of God, we needed the One who would Baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire!  The Good News that John proclaimed was THAT One was coming!  The Good News for us, is THAT One has COME!  And… Christmas Eve spoiler alert here… His name is Jesus, and with power beyond you and me and with even more power than the bug and honey fueled John the Baptist could ever muster, God in Christ has removes the dead wood from the orchards of our lives in the waters of Baptism.  Through Jesus's life, death and resurrection, God in Christ has separated the wheat from the chaff of our beings and feeds us now with the bread of life.  

There’s an icon of the resurrection that shows Jesus reaching into the grave and pulling out Adam and Eve. But the part of it I love the very most, is that it shows Jesus pulling them out… pulling humanity out… pulling you and me out… by the wrist! We may WANT to help… and John the Baptist insists that we should do all we can to TRY to help… but in the end, it is not our work that gives us new life. It is the work of the life, death and resurrection of the One who is coming and the One who has already come. It is Christ who, each and every day grabs us by the wrist, cleans out the dead wood from our lives, who burns the chaff that binds us in our brokenness… who transforms you and me and all of creation from a brood of vipers into Children of God!  Thanks be to God for the One who is coming… the one who has come… the One is Good News for all people. Amen.