Les Patins de Hockey

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!”

What is the BEST thing about Christmas?  No, not Jesus, but to be fair, that IS the answer to 99% of questions asked in church!  What’s the Best thing about Christmas?  Friends and family?  No.  Friends and only select members of the family?  No.  But maybe closer.  Food, lights, music, tree?  Nope.  You clearly need help.  Bishop… what is… the best thing about Christmas?  (THE PRESENTS!)  That is correct!  The best thing about Christmas is the presents!  Do you remember the best present you ever got?  Mine came one Christmas, way back in the days when phones were all attached to the wall with wires.  

The summer before that Christmas, my family had moved from Florida to New Jersey and my parents had bought a house on a little lake.  The guys in the neighborhood talked non-stop about playing hockey.  They couldn’t wait until the lake froze over.  It was so hard to wait they played street hockey every day in anticipation.  My new friends had me so excited about ice hockey I couldn’t wait either!  There was one problem.  This Florida kid had no “patins de hockey.”  Those were the words on the side of every unattainable box of hockey skates in the sporting goods store.  All I wanted for Christmas was Les Patins de hockey!  

That year the lake froze MONTHS before Christmas… maybe it was really weeks… okay, maybe days… but a torturing time none the less!  No amount of hinting or begging would get me my hoped-for Patins de Hockey early.  In fact, my mom made a point of saying she had no idea if that would even BE one of my presents!  Each day was torture!  But then… it came.  Christmas Eve!  The night we opened family presents… BUT ONLY after church, after the Swedish Julbord dinner, and AFTER my sister and I had cleaned the kitchen!   

FINALLY, we opened our presents but NOT ONE of my presents that night was Patins de Hockey!  I went to bed in a near total panic.  BUT… there was one last hope.  That’s right… Santa.  Santa might still come through with Patins de Hockey where my cruel parents had utterly failed.  Morning came and there beside the fire were presents, wrapped in the paper only Santa used.  Of course my sister and I couldn’t just dive in like maniacs.  We had to wait for mom and dad to wake up… SLOWLY.  Then to make coffee… SLOWLY.  THEN to gather by SLOWLY.  Finally I picked the most promising looking box and peeled the paper off one end.  There under the wrapping I saw the words slowly reveiled… Patins de Hockey.  Santa had come through.  

So at that point what did I do?  I just put them in the box, taped it up and stuck them in a attic with the rest of Christmas, right?  Heck NO I didn’t!  I put them on and skated!  I skated on that lake.  I skated in hockey leagues.  I even skated as Bananas the Bear, the mascot of the University of Maine between periods of a college hockey game!  I unwrapped and put that gift to use like no other gift, before or since!  And THAT my friends, is this Christmas sermon’s take home message.  

We’ve each been given this incredible gift called LIFE and on Christmas we are given the additional gift of the ONE who shows us how to live this life… not as a day to day slog but with joy filled abundance!  That way of living this life is called the Jesus Way!  It’s not a dogma… although sometimes dogma can help.  It’s not a particular denomination or church… although community always helps.  It’s not something you get with a magic conversion or a particular prayer.  Nope. 

The Jesus Way is a way to live this life using Jesus’ life as a model.  The Jesus way is a life lived in kindness, compassion, generosity, and love.  A life with good, healthy boundaries and always speaking the truth, even when the truth is hard for people to hear.  It’s a life lived caring for all of our neighbors no matter who they are, what they look like, or who they love.  It’s a life lived feeding the hungry, healing the sick… Seeing… really SEEING those people around us who are considered by the world to be the least, and the lost.  It’s a life of being the voice of those who have no voice and lifting them into the life of dignity and abundance that God created all of us to live.  

The best thing about Christmas IS the presents!  Particularly the gift of LIFE and the Christ child who shows us how to live the heck out of this life we've been given!  So this Christmas, don’t pack the life you’ve been given away with all the other Christmas stuff.  This year, keep this life you’ve been given out and give a go live the heck out of it the Jesus Way… with compassion, generosity, care for your neighbor and love for everyone you meet.  Live this next year THAT way… the Jesus Way… no matter what might be happening all around you… live it like Jesus showed us to live it and what you’ll find, is that each day you live that way it will feel like Christmas all over again.  Amen.  

Don't Mess with Mary!

Luke 1:46b-55

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.”

Today we’re taking a new look at Mary.  Neither through a Roman Catholic lens nor a Protestant lens (which is typically an over reaction to the Catholic lens).  We’re certainly NOT going to look at Mary through an evangelical lens which turns her into a model for women to be submissive, meek, and mild and do what they’re told.  Today we’re going to do our best to look at Mary through this text alone.  

The text beings with the angel Gabriel saying, “Greetings favored one!  The Lord is with you.”  The angel continues with “Do not be afraid,” an understandable and very standard angel greeting.  But here’s the thing… the text doesn’t say that MARY was afraid at all.  The text says Mary was PERPLEXED, yes, but that’s very different from afraid.  She wasn’t cowering, meek, or submissive here in any way.  Confused a bit, yes, BECAUSE THERE WAS A FREAKIN’ ANGEL IN HER ROOM, but fully in her higher, thinking brain.

  

It’s also clear from the text that the angel isn’t forcing anything onto Mary but is simply passing on the message that God has noticed Mary.  Noticed her NOT for her meekness, looks, or even her available uterus… but for her GRACE.  It was the courage and boldness she already possessed that found Gods favor.  It was her faith… her trust that the God of justice WOULD ACT in her world… THAT’S what God saw.  Her own passion for lifting the lowly and scattering the proud... THAT is what God both noticed and honored that day. 

It’s also important, as we take this new look at Mary, to see what’s NOT in the text.  The text has NO mention of Mary’s age and the word we translate as a “virgin” is a very particular word in the original Greek.  It refers ONLY to a person who has not yet had a child.  Nothing more than that.  All the rest of Mary’s intimate life details we've heard over the years are bits of made up tradition that people (mostly men if we're honest) have added to the story for reasons far beyond and often contradicting what’s in the text.

As the encounter with the angel draws to a close, it’s VERY important to see that agreeing to carry the Christ child, ONLY happens with Mary’s informed consent.  She doesn’t give a cowering yes.  She gives the angel some hard questions.  She doesn’t just go along submissively.  She was an active, informed participant in God’s work, just as she had been before the angel arrived.  In the end, it was HER decision to say, “let it be with me according to your word”...  it was only Mary’s “YES” that moved things along and I am quite sure that if Mary had said “NO,” God would have honored that choice as well, because THIS is a God of justice!  These things are why using Mary’s story as justification to date underage girls or permission to ignore a woman’s choice is not only an abuse of the text, but is also blaspheming the genuine nature of this God of justice!

  

And it's in this text that we so clearly hear Mary proclaim THAT particular nature of God!  It’s in that Magnificat where we see how God’s nature matches the independent, strong willed, revolutionary nature of Mary.  When Elizabeth proclaimed Mary “blessed” it wasn’t just because of who was in her womb, but because, as the text tells us, Mary was one who doggedly believed God would fulfill God’s promise of justice for the world!

It was in that spirit that Mary let loose with The Magnificat… which is nothing less than the ultimate political manifesto, proclaiming the fall of the wealthy, proud, and powerful and the rise of the poor, hungry, and forgotten of the world.  It has remained such a perfect insistence on JUSTICE as the will of God, that The Magnificat has been banned by three governments over the years for being too revolutionary. 

Over the centuries, people have attempted to tame Mary, but Mary isn’t anyone who will be tamed!  She’s an independent, clear thinking, justice-oriented woman in charge of her own comings and goings, in charge of her own mind and in charge of her own body.  She’s clear about what she values and was willing to collaborate with God in a unique, new, way to move the world toward her and God’s shared values of justice, compassion, and peace.  

She’s a powerful model for ministry, demonstrating a faithfulness so strong it drew God’s favor.  She's also a powerful model for discerning God’s call.  She shows us the importance of not simply accepting any new idea that just happens along without question, but also the importance of being open to God doing a new thing… both of which require listening, questioning, and reflecting.  

She was neither tricked nor intimidated into bringing Christ into the world.  She saw, after genuine discernment, bringing Christ into the world to be her next opportunity to collaborate with God to bend the arc of the moral universe toward the justice God intends for the world... the same justice she had embraced long before any angel showed up on the scene.  She is blessed.  But blessed for being willing to bring God’s light into the darkness in a new way.  Blessed for her powerful witness to God’s desire for justice which, even today, continues to humble the proud, bring down the powerful, fill the hungry, and lift up the lowly. 

May you and I be blessed, as Mary is blessed, by embracing God's desire for justice as Mary did.  May we be just as confident as Mary, that God's will for justice and peace WILL reign and may we, like Mary, find our way to  collaborate with God in bringing God’s reign of justice to earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.  

Thanks to Ben Wildflower for the artwork!

Asps... Very Dangerous... You Go First

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.

John T. Baptist hated snakes.  The trouble was… his world was chock full of em’!  That’s because once the snakes came to power, nobody, it seemed, could beat ‘em… and if you can’t beat ‘em… people figured they might as well join ‘em.  It seemed to be the way of the Roman reptilian world.  That’s why, when folks showed up to hear what John T. Baptist had to say, the first thing he did was hold up a giant mirror and tell the crowd to look at themselves.  You brood of vipers!  Y’all are de-volving!  You’re living each day, more and more like a snake… much less than God created you to be!

The people knew he was right.  They felt themselves slipping deeper into the snake pit every day, but the folks who stuck around to hear the rest of what John T. Baptist had to say were the ones who still didn’t like it.  They knew it wasn’t right.  They knew it in their guts.  They knew God had given them spines for standing up, not slithering around!  But it was hard!  Lots of people in power, and a great number of ordinary folks back then decided to get a gut-ectomy and their spines removed in order to slither with the brood.   

BUT, there were folks who felt themselves being sucked into the Serpentocracy who wished… hoped… even prayed it could be different.  They REALLY WANTED life to be different… but they were scared to be honest in a world that ran on dishonesty… how would they even get by?  They were hemmed in by fear.  Their dreams of running away and living a new life among the Visigoths SOUNDED wonderful, but it wasn’t reality.  They were stuck, like Indiana Jones and Marilyn in the Well of the Souls… surrounded by asps (very dangerous) with just one torch… and it was going out. 

When my psychology friend, Kevin Polk, talks to people who are stuck like that, he invites them to imagine they are all bus drivers.  Each one with their own bus.  He asks them, “if you weren’t afraid, WHO would you drive your bus toward?  If you weren’t afraid, WHAT would be the names of the towns you’d put in the GPS?  Would you drive toward a spouse… kids… friends?  Would you put in town names like Honesty, Kindness, Hospitality and such?  If you had a bus and you weren’t afraid, you’d drive toward the people you love, wouldn’t you?  Toward some town that promised to give life and not take it away?” wouldn’t you?  “Sure BUT” you say… the fear IS here and real!  All my fears are like a menacing, zombie-like horde all wearing matching trucker hats!  Every single fear I’ve ever had is out there!  Even my smallest, most insignificant fear is out there in that horde!

THAT is what those people who came out to see John T. Baptist felt, living in their “Brood of Vipers” world.  They each had a bus, sure, but it was completely hemmed in by this fear mongering horde!  THIS, your fears told them, is how it will always be!  There is no place to go!  No changing it now!  “We LIKE that you don’t like it”, the fears told their people, “but HEY! at least you know us!  We grew up with you!  Can’t we just be friends again?”  The tax collectors who came out to see John had already given up.  Same with the soldiers.  They were stuck because the brood of vipers signed their paychecks.  If they left that way of life… the way of the serpent… their families would LITERALLY starve!  How could they EVER drive a bus toward what they valued… toward the people they loved! 

 

The brilliance of John T. Baptist was that did not have them focus on their final destination, but on just… one… next… small… step.  He didn’t tell the tax collectors to stop collecting taxes.  He told them to collect no more than was prescribed.  He didn’t tell the soldiers to desert the Roman army.  He told them stop shaking down the locals!  But for them, even moving an inch while being surrounded by such a horde of fears shouting at them, “How will you make a living?  How will your family eat?  This is the way it’s always been done” was hard.  The people knew this isn’t how the world SHOULD work, but they also knew this was how it DID work.  “So how, Mr. John T. Baptist… HOW do we move our bus forward when we are completely surrounded…  not by little, silly, insignificant fears, but by huge, genuine fears, created by very real and very powerful snakes?  Should we wait for the Brood to disperse on their own?”  No, because the truth is,  fears never go away on their own.  We know that too, don’t we?  Don’t LIKE it, but we know it.  

So, John told them… here’s how you do it.  You invite that whole horde of fears onto your bus.  THAT’S why you have a bus!  You invite them on your bus.  They are happy because they are still with you, right?  But now that they’re on the bus, guess where they aren’t?  Blocking your way!  So start driving!  Yeah, once they realize it, they will probably make a giant fuss in the back but by then it's too late!  You're driving your bus toward what you value… toward the people you love… toward the Kingdom of God… toward really living again, or maybe toward beginning to live for the very first time.  

Now, I hear you out there… You say “that sounds hard?”  Darn tootin, it’s hard!  Pertinear impossible even!  But wait… There’s more!  You see, there is ONE more powerful than John T. Baptist.  One whose sandals John wasn’t worthy to untie, and it is with THAT ONE on your side that you will have all you need to get your bus moving… even just an inch or two at a time… even with inelegant clutch work… even with all your fears hollerin’ their trucker-cap-wearing heads off in the back… It is with that ONE that you will have what you need to drive each moment of your life… even just a little bit at a time… toward the people you love and the ways of life you value and it is THAT ONE who will be with you single inch of the way.  Amen.