Out of Fear Into Dreams

Matthew 2:13-23

Now after they 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.”

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

We don’t often read this Gospel text.  It comes up in the lectionary, but when that happens we usually opt for something… well, less slaughtery instead.  We do the Name of Jesus where Jesus gets his name… which turns out to be… you guessed it… Jesus or we move Epiphany to a Sunday.  We do almost anything really, because, well, this Gospel story is not filled with the “peace on earth” vibe we would all like to hold onto in the holiday season.  None of us wants to add a violent, fear-filled, Herod figurine or a set of ceramic murderous brutes to our Nativity sets in the middle of our cattle peacefully lowing!

And yet, here he is… both Herod and his murderous goons, a real and not to be forgotten part of the Christmas story, even if we’d like it to be forgotten.  It reminds us that this dark, fear driven Herod side of Christmas still plays out in our world today.  Just last week on Christmas Eve, three more busloads of South and Central American migrants were sent by Gov. Abbott from Texas to the Vice President’s house in Washington where they were left outside on a night with freezing temperatures. Ten years ago this December, just before Christmas, 6 adults and 20 children were slaughtered in Sandy Hook, about the same number of children they estimate were killed in Bethlehem by Herod.  Families from Central and South American… families from Ukraine, South Sudan, and Afghanistan… they will all leave their homes this very day for exactly same reason the Holy Family fled to Egypt all those years ago, because powerful men, acting out of fear, continue to bring darkness and death into the lives of vulnerable people everywhere.

But this Gospel insists, even with Herod on the prowl, that acting out of fear is not the Way, the Truth, or the Life.  Fear is not the path to follow into the abundant life God created us to live.  This Gospel is here to remind us that regardless of what happens around us, you and I were created to live our lives, not out of fear but into the dreams God has for us.  It was by living into God’s dreams that Jospeh went through with the wedding.  It was by living into God’s dream that Joseph gave Jesus his name.  It was walking into God’s dreams that brought them to safety and the way they knew it was safe to come back home.  

To live into fear as Herod did or to live into God’s dreams as Joseph did… these are our choices too.  Our choice may not lead to Herod or Abbott level horrors, but whether we live into our fears or into God’s dreams... even for us… it does make a difference.  That difference then ripples out into the world in ways we may never know.  That choice, though, choosing dreams over fear, isn’t simple by any means.  We humans are hard wired to first react out of fear.  When you meet a tiger in the woods, reacting out of fear without thinking is what will save your life.  That's why to choose to live out of God’s dreams instead of fear requires us to somehow mentally and emotionally swim up through our fears and into the human parts of our brain.  It’s only there, on the other side of fear, that we can even begin to consider living into God’s dreams.

Hopefully you’re better at that than I am.  I typically KNOW what I need to do… I need to swim through my fear… but it’s almost always impossible to do on my own.  I don’t think that makes me a failure though… I think that makes me human, which is just one of the many reasons we humans need each other.  This story shows us that too.  The wise men had each other to swim up through their fears together and live into God’s dream for them to go home by another way.  The shepherds had each other.  Mary and Joseph had each other.  The only one who was doing all of this all alone was Herod.   

Woody Allen once said that , “Eighty percent of life is showing up.”  I’d tweak that a bit and say that 80% of what it takes to swim up through our fears and into God’s dreams is showing up… here.  Sure the music is great, the eucharist is a gift and the people up front all wear dresses!  But it’s showing up to be community with one another… that’s the piece that we so often miss these days.  So for this New Year I commend to you the Spiritual discipline of showing up.  Showing up and hanging out.  Showing up and being vulnerable with one another.  Showing up for one anotehr and helping each other swim up through the fears and walking with one another into the bold and beautiful dream that God has for you and all of creation.  Amen. 

A Christmas Boost

 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!”

Since you’re here tonight, I suspect you all know this story… at least the basics… the ground floor version… right?  Mary and Joseph head to Bethlehem.  An angel, then a heavenly host!  Shepherds.  The Messiah born, wrapped up in a Biblical style onesie and lying in the sheep’s supper.  It’s a great story just like that.  But… if you’re willing… I’d like to offer you a tiny little boost tonight.  A boost, to see this same story from a slightly different perspective because with a boost, this story also gives us a peek at how God chooses to work in our world.  So, up you go and take a new look! 

The first thing you’ll see from this angle is God’s overwhelming preference for working through people the world routinely labels as the least, the lost, and the last.  God chooses to work through Mary.  She’s not a royal, not rich, not well connected, not married, and in that time and culture that meant she wasn’t even a legal person.  It’s not that God didn’t have movers and shakers to choose from that night in Bethlehem.  Bethlehem was jam packed with people like that.  It was like Great Barrington on the fourth of July weekend!  Every suite, room, and Air BnB… had been snatched up.  Every restaurant table, for every time, from five to nine thirty, was completely booked and the line at the Bistro Box stretched way down almost to the senior center!  So, God COULD have chosen to work though literally anybody.  But God didn’t.  God chose to work though Mary… for a reason.

God, it turns out, doesn’t work from the top down.  Wealth and fame are NOT signs of Divine favor in spite of what the jet setting televangelists would like you to believe.  God doesn’t believe in trickle down.  God works from the very, very bottom and then on up from there.  God works through the people the world yells at, and bullies, and legislates, scams and threatens… all to send the message that there’s no room here for the likes of YOU in the inn or anywhere else for that matter.  God chooses to work through the people who the rich and powerful tell both literally and figuratively to move to the back of the inn.  No, to the VERY back of the inn.  No, to out back BEHIND the back of the inn… OUT there with the other… animals.  

God chooses, on purpose, to work through the least, the lost, and the last to heal the world… the whole world… from the bottom up.  That’s how God works and for those who choose to follow in God’s Divine footsteps, we too are called to work in this world in that very same way… to change the world into the vision God had for it from the beginning… a world where everyone has neither too much nor too little but everyone has enough… enough food and shelter, enough love and dignity, enough hope and equity, enough purpose and joy.     

The other thing I want to show you with this Christmas boost... the thing I REALLY want you to see, is that on Christmas it’s not JUST that a Savior was born…  But I want to you see that it’s very, very specific here, that this Savior has been born TO YOU!  I want you to see that the baby in the manger... that sign that God’s unconditional, unlimited, unbreakable love... has been given tonight and every night… specifically TO YOU!  Yeah.  You.  TO YOU this child has been born.  TO YOU this child is given.  This child… the physical flesh and blood embodiment of God’s immeasurable, unconditional, unlimited love… has been sent specifically TO YOU.  All of it.  Why?  Well, it turns out that unconditional, unlimited, unbridled LOVE is the way God chooses to work in this world in spite of anything you might hear to the contrary from the loud, hateful, and angry people of our world.  LOVE is how God works!  And for those who choose to walk in God’s Divine footsteps as a way of life, we are called… you and me… we’re called to do absolutely everything we do in this world… with LOVE as well.

That’s Christmas!  YOU have been given the entirety of God’s love as an unconditional Christmas gift from God tonight.  It’s yours!  God does love... not take-backsies!  It’s all wrapped up and ready to go with you when you leave tonight.  So take it with you!  Unwrap it, put it on and wear it throughout the year to come.  And when you're ready… go ahead and share it with the world... there is more than enough of God's love to go around... so share it beginning with the least and the lost and the last and join with God in changing the world... with love. Amen.

Tiny Package. Big Prayer.

 Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this
way.  When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.  But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive

and bear a son,

and they shall name him

Emmanuel,”

Which means, “God is with us.”  When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Joe's clothes smelled like oak.  It was from the custom front door he had been working on all day.  He had saved this bit of the remodel for the very end.  He would not have handled some careless sub-contractor putting a gouge in it very well, especially with the other stuff going on in his life right now.  It was work that required his full concentration and that’s exactly what he needed.  Not just to finish the door without messing it up in the home stretch but also because of that other thing.  It turned out, you see, that his soon-to-be wife was pregnant.  It also turned out that his soon-to-be wife was pregnant and he hadn’t been a part of making that happen!

Joe was generally a relaxed guy.  Mostly go with the flow.  Weather the stormy times and enjoy the sunny days just the same.  People were used to seeing him brush off the sawdust every evening as he went into the grocery store to figure out his dinner.  The fact that sawdust always ended up under his hat as well was a mystery he had not yet solved.  But in spite of his usual easy going nature, this news about Mary had thrown him… and thrown him hard!  

But now, as he put a piece of meat in the cart with a yellow sale sticker for dinner, he settled finally on what he would do.  He’d call the wedding off and move on.  It was an impossible decision.  He loved her.  Even after she had gone and gotten pregnant without him.  He still somehow loved her.  But a decision had to be made and he had made it.  It was done.  When he got home he grilled the sale meat, cooked up a summer squash and some onions to go with it, ate dinner, showered, and climbed into bed… still firm in his decision.  

THEN, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “you know that decision you just made after agonizing over it for a week?  Yeah, we’re changing that!”  Isn’t this just the way it goes?  Not just for Joe but for all of  us too?  We agonize, worry, and fret for days or weeks or even years and then when we’ve finally come to a solution, THAT’S when God lets us know what would be best!  It’s never before all the worry and sleepless nights begin.  It’s always after!  Where was that angel of the Lord last week when Mary first told Joe she was pregnant?  Couldn’t he have popped by then?  Cleared it up before all the worry and pain?  Where was God then? 

That’s not just a Joe question either.  That’s an everybody question.  Where is God!?  Where is God now, when we could use Him the most?  It’s actually a faithful question.  If you didn’t believe in God you wouldn’t be wondering where God was, would you?

Anyway, back to the story.  This angel, apart from scaring the bejeebers out of Joe, told him that he should not be afraid (which he found hard to do since there was a  %&*@%! angel of the Lord in his bedroom).  Then the angel said he should marry Mary because she is pregnant from the Holy Spirit (which makes it okay, I guess?)…  and, “by the way… while I’m here,” says the angel, “You should name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”  FINALLY!  Here was the answer to the question Joe had been agonizing over for a week, “Where is God when I need God the most.”  The answer, it turns out is that God was right there all along.  Right there, between Mary and Joe, bulging out from Mary’s maternity cloths.  God with us.  

You see, this story isn’t just a set up for Christmas.  This story is the set up for the whole of Matthew’s Gospel and it sets all of us up as well, for our entire lives.  This story is trying to get us to hear that no matter what happens, God is with us.  God with us, is the promise that embraces us, shelters and shields us, holds us through anything we could imagine and even through the unimaginable.  It is the promise so important we find it here at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel AND at the very end of this Gospel when Jesus says, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

A long time ago I had a friend who used “God with us” as a prayer.  For her it was a prayer of gratitude for the promise given, a prayer of hope that the promise would always be there and a confession of faith, that even when it didn’t feel at all like it in her life, the truth remained… God is with us.  Big prayer.  Tiny Package.   Feel free to use it yourself.  It’s good through Advent, Christmas… well and pretty much every time and every place so you’ll remember, no matter what’s going on,  God is with you… Always.  Amen.

The Unreasonableness of Hope

Matthew 3:1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the
wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume 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. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Having hope for our world seems all too often to be an unreasonable expectation.  And yet, having Hope for our world, particularly when hope seems entirely unreasonable, is what Advent is all about.

  

Hope often seems unreasonable because… well… have you seen this world?  It feels like the brood of vipers is bigger than ever!  It all too often feels like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones and Marion are at the bottom of the Egyptian tomb surrounded by snakes with just a torch… the torch is going out… and Nazis are sealing them inside.  There is so much slithering and venom spewing around us these days, and frankly, that would be enough… but we've even got Nazis again!

Hope seemed unreasonable in John the Baptist's time too.  He stood in the desert and called out the snakes that had locked the world in hopelessness.  Some came out and committed to doing their best to NOT live that snake-like way any longer.  Others denied there even was a snake problem at all!  John the Baptist preferred it when people saw how they contributed to the hopelessness of the world and committed to live differently.  But John the Baptist also KNEW that no matter how they would try... a permanent fix for hopelessness was beyond them. 

He told them, "Look, we all are like little orchards, not individual trees.  No one is made up entirely of trees that make bitter, mushy fruit and no one has trees that only make sweet and crispy fruit either.  My advise to you",  John the Baptist told them "is to feed the trees that make the good fruit and not the ones that make the garbage fruit.  But remember, a permanent fix will only arrive with the ONE who is coming with an axe. It's only that ONE who can change the mix of trees in your orchard for good.  We are now both Saints and Sinners, Hopeful and Hopeless.  Both impossibly entangled together like chaff around the grain."  

John the Baptist KNEW that for us to be fully transformed we needed “One more powerful” than even the bug and honey fueled John the Baptist.  For us to be able to hold onto Hope even in the pitch black darkness of the world surrounded by snakes and Nazis, we needed the One who’s sandals John was not worthy to even carry.  For Hope to live and Hopelessness to die we needed the One who would Baptize, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and with fire!  

"The Good News" John told them is "THAT one is coming!  THAT one will cut the dead wood out of our orchards.  That one, with his own death, will pull hopelessness down and lock it away in hell, and rise to new life with an unconquerable hopefulness!  It is an absolutely unreasonable expectation to have Hope for this world, when we look around us and see no further than the darkness and the vipers.  Hope, however, becomes more than just possible... it becomes a forgone conclusion when we look to the One who has so many times before before, is now, and will continue to do the unreasonable, the unlikely, the impossible, the improbable, and the unbelievable work of changing the world from what it is, into what God envisions it to be.  

Advent reminds us to look beyond the end of our noses.  To look beyond the endless darkness.  To look beyond what all the snakes of the world say is inevitable and see the God who has always been there… the God of love, the God of life, the God who makes the unreasonable and impossible happen in truly the most unbelievable and unlikely ways.  Advent calls us to look beyond hopelessness and see the hope for all of creation in what God has done, is doing, and promises yet to do.  Amen.