Candy Hearts and Ashes

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 6^th Chapter

"Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

"So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

  "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

  "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Happy Ash Valentine’s Wednes- Day?  There have been endless jokes in the nerdy clergy circles I run in, about Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day this year.  Memes on the internet of little candy hearts that say, “You are Dust!” or “Dust 2 Dust” using the number 2.  And then there have been the hyper-serious clergy types that chastise their colleagues who even hint about joking about this in any way!  But come on!  This is weird!  Ignoring it won’t make it any less strange!  And really, this is the way life happens most of the time, isn’t it?  Life is rarely one thing or another.  Life is almost always a mix of things as bizarre as Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday falling on the same day!  Life is BOTH pink candy hearts AND ashes…  Both “Be my Valentine” AND “You are dust and to dust you shall return.”  So what are we going to do with this day that seems, at first glance, like the worst sort of heavenly calendaring blunder?  Well, I don't think raising one up and ignoring the other is the way to go.  Instead, I think we should try to hold them both together in all their strangeness and see what they have for us when held together.  

Both days do have at least one thing in common.  They've both become a bit twisted over the years.  Ash Wednesday wasn’t originally intended as a day to usher in a season of suffering for suffering’s sake.  Suffering just for suffering’s sake is frankly pretty twisted and twisted isn't really God’s style.  Lent was really meant as a time to focus... to focus people on their upcoming Baptism or focus on a return to the relationship made in the waters of Baptism.  Lent was a time to either give up things or take on things that would help us steer our lives more directly toward, and more deeply into, our relationship with God.  So, for us today, if candy and chocolate distract you from moving deeper into your relationship with God, then by all means give them up for Lent!  But if it happens to be something like over scheduling your life or a need to be perpetually busy or something else that gets in the way of being still and better knowing God… well then, keep eating the chocolate and give up some of the “crazy” that makes life so frantic and distracted.  

That’s really true for Valentine’s Day as well, isn’t it?  It’s become this consumer driven, present buying, anxiety ridden day.  But really, isn't the point of Valentine’s Day to take time out of all the frantic, over busy, distracting aspects of life and do something that will move you toward and more deeply into the relationship you have with your significant other?  So, if candy and flowers and dinner do that… if those things grow your relationship deeper, then by all means do them!  But if what would really grow that relationship deeper is a walk together in a place with absolutely the WORST possible cell service… then maybe THAT’s the thing to do instead.  

It turns out the point of Lent and the point of Valentine’s Day aren’t as different as we first might have thought.  Ash Wednesday, in the best understanding, is a specific day, set aside to reflect on the ONE who loved us into being... into life!  It's a day to take a good look at our mortal selves in the mirror and see where we might have become distracted from the ONE who loved us into life… see where we’ve fallen short in our relationships with God and one another and make a commitment to do something intentional that will both sweep out the distractions and at the same time broaden and deepen that relationship.  Valentine’s Day too, at it’s best, is a day set aside to sweep away the distractions of the world.  Reflect on the gift of the relationships we have in our lives and commit ourselves once again to sweeping aside distractions and focusing again on broadening and deepening our relationships with those we love.  

The REAL goal of both of these days is to give us time to pause in our hectic lives, reorient ourselves back to an orientation around love, and change our focus from ourselves and our wants, back toward God and the others in our lives.  Do your current Lenten plans help you do that?  If they do, that’s great!  But if they don’t, then there’s still time to change plans and do something different.  What REALLY gets in the way of loving God and loving your neighbor?  What REALLY needs to be set aside so that you can focus?  Like I said, there’s still time to change your plans.  

May both your Lenten plans and your Valentine’s Day plans move you closer to the One and the ones you love.  May you honestly confront the things that distract you and courageously sweep them aside.  May you move closer and more deeply into your relationships with God and with the people in your life, so that you may more deeply experience the abundant, meaning-filled life God created you to live.  Amen.  

Hey Ma! How 'Bout Some Mini Corn Dogs!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark the 1^st Chapter

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

This Gospel lesson always reads like a Saturday Night Live skit to me!  Jesus and the boys head over to Simon’s place after a hard day of preachin’ and exorcisin’ demons, ‘cause that stuff makes a disciple HUNGRY, don't cha know!  Simon yells out for his mother-in-law.  “Hey ma, whatcha got to eat around here?”…MA!!  Where are you? Ma?”  Simon looks all over the house and then finds her in bed with a horrible fever.  

“OH MAN!” Simon says, “She’s got a fever!  Now we’ll NEVER get something to eat!”  Just then, Jesus hoists himself up off the plaid couch in the living room, walks over to Simon and says,  “Lemme see what I can do.”  Then, with a miraculous touch… WHOOSH!  She’s HEALED and walks out into the living room…  just to have Simon come up and immediately steer her off into the kitchen to whip up a bunch of mini corndogs, cheese dip and quesadillas!

So, that’s probably not EXACTLY how it happened, but every time I read that part that says, “as soon as Jesus healed her she got up and served them”… it always makes me chuckle.  In reality, what Jesus was showing us here is how we are all intimately connected, and interdependent upon one another.  Jesus healed people and cast out demons, NOT ONLY to bring an INDIVIDUAL to health again, but to also bring healing and wholeness to the entire community.  With that individual restored to the community, able to once again use their gifts, now the whole community is made whole again!

Demons and illness aren’t just bad for the person affected.  When sickness, demons or anything keeps an individual from playing their part and using their gifts to build up the people around them, it affects the wellbeing of the whole community!  Simon’s mother-in-law was a widow.  Which means she didn’t have a legal place in the community.  She wasn’t living with her own family or even her husband’s family, she was living with in-laws.  But even without a legal status, her role in the family and in the community was vital.  She mattered because by using her gifts, she built up the community around her.  

By healing the sick and casting out the demons, Jesus didn’t just heal an individual.  He also returned the entire community to wholeness!  That’s why this story isn’t just another miracle for us to marvel at the powers of Jesus.  This was a parable, acted out without words.  With this action, Jesus was teaching something very counter-cultural for his day and sadly it’s still very counter-cultural in our day as well.  Jesus was insisting that EVERY individual is a critical, essential part of the community.  EVERY individual matters, everyone has a place, everyone plays an essential role in making the community whole.  When even one individual is put on the sidelines for ANY reason, the WHOLE community suffers without them being present and active in their lives.  

That’s really the heart of the message Jesus was bringing to Capernaum and throughout Galilee.  In Christ, God is about the business of making bodies whole.  Individual bodies whole.  Church bodies whole.  Community bodies whole and the body of all of creation whole.  Jesus insisted that the path to that wholeness was through the radical inclusion of ALL people.  No person is expendable.  Every person, town, city, state and nation is valuable and essential to the wholeness of the world.  It was quite a lesson way back then and not exactly one we’ve fully learned even now.  It’s a message that insists that until every single individual has an equal place where they can live with health, dignity and purpose and use their gifts… until that happens, none of us will be whole.  Until that happens, the world just isn't working the way God intends it to work.

As Christians though, we’re called to do more than to simply lament over our species' slow learning speed.  We’re ALSO called to transform those words and ideas into a new reality for our world… just like Jesus did.  It’s not enough to stay out of the way and hope for God to bring in the Kingdom; we’re called to actively work with God to MAKE God’s Kingdom come and God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  

For most of us that won’t look like casting out demons in the classic sense or healing someone’s fever with a miraculous touch.  It will look like more like widening our welcoming circle.  It will look like finding a place for each person to fit... and not just a place to sit and watch, but a place where each of us can contribute and build the Kingdom alongside the rest of us.  It will look like keeping our eyes open for those who have been cast out, cast down or cast away and finding a way to bring them in, lift them up and draw them near. 

Jesus brought God’s wholeness to individuals, but he did that as a means to bring wholeness communities and to all of creation as well.  As the Body of Christ bringing wholeness is what we do too!  May we proclaim the message of God’s desire of wholeness for the world!  May we cast out the demons that insist some individuals, communities or nations are LESS.  May we, with even the seemingly simplest of actions, bring wholeness into the world, and may we smile when we realize that even something as mundane as shuffling out to the kitchen to make the "boys" some mini corndogs widens our circles and moves us one step closer to God's Kingdom.  Amen.

Behind Stone and Stained Glass

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark the 1^st Chapter

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. 

“I bet you can think of something that matters to you, that you WISH mattered to more people.”  That’s how Nina Simon, the director of the MAH, the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, California, opens her TED talk.  When she arrived as it’s new director they were out of money.  But actually, that wasn’t their biggest problem.  More people in town knew the building that housed the MAH was the former jail, than knew it was now a museum… and it had been a museum for 20 years!  They had to find a way to make their museum matter to those on the outside.  But you can’t just scream, “WE MATTER!” and expect those on the outside to come piling in, can you?  Those on the outside have to DECIDE you matter and to do that, they have to find a way inside.

In the synagogue, the things Jesus was teaching, mattered!  People were ASTOUNDED, after all!  In Corinth, what Paul had to say also mattered.  And right here behind our own stone and stained glass, what we have to offer really matters!  We have a radical welcome here, in a world that spins people apart instead of pulling them together.  In here everyone has a place.  In here there’s a deep and genuine caring for one another which is very unique.  In here everyone matters and that’s ASTOUNDING! 

The trouble in that synagogue where Jesus was teaching, was that unclean spirit with all of it’s drama, was in effect, slamming the door shut on what Jesus had to say.  In Corinth too, the door to people being able to hear and experience God’s infinite love was being slammed shut as well.  The Christians were buying meat that had been sacrificed to idols.  To Paul and the Christian insiders, they knew idols weren’t real.  To the insiders, this was just meat!  But to the outsiders, Christians saying, “There is only one God” and then eating this meat sacrificed to idols was confusing.  That confusion kept the outsiders outside.  

You and I… we’re insiders here.  We KNOW the astoundingly good stuff here behind our stone and stained glass!  We KNOW we’re welcome… we KNOW we have a place… we KNOW we’re loved and cared for here just as we are!  But as outsiders drive by every day, they’re asking themselves, “Is what happens in there… behind that stone and stained glass… Is it worth the effort to try to find a way inside?”  We KNOW it is!  But they can’t see past the stone and stained glass any more than the people could hear Jesus over the rantings of that demon or the Corinthians could see past their confusion about the meat sacrificed to idols.  Casting out that demon opened a new door that let in the outsiders.  Choosing to avoid meat sacrificed to idols opened a new door which let Corinthian outsiders inside that Christian community.  At the MAH they brought their museum out to a bar so those who had always driven by before, might find a new doorway to get inside.

But demons, change and new doors are't easy.  Demons always promise to be quiet if we just do things the way we’ve always done them.  Change is easier to swallow if it’s those on the outside who do the changing and it’s always easier to open old doors wider than it is to knock a hole in a wall and put in some strange, new door.  But God sent Jesus, not more commandments and Paul asked the insiders to change for the sake of those on the outside.  

It’s true, the old, familiar ways work for insiders, but “insiders” aren’t EVERYONE and God is obsessed with including everyone!  So, demons need to be confronted, comfortable ways need to change and new doors need to be opened so that those folks who have always just driven by might now see a way to come inside and see what’s going on in here behind the stone and stained glass.  

What’s that look like?  THAT’S a good question!  I’m not sure, but I suspect, it will feel a little itchy.  At the MAH, Nina Simon did a VERY provocative pop-up museum, not at the museum, but in a bar.  People who had never been inside the MAH before, suddenly had a way to experience it!  But their museum in a bar made the MAH insiders a little itchy.   She had, in effect, blasted a hole in the wall of the museum and installed a crazy, new, neon-pink door to get inside.  “Why do we need this crazy new, neon-pink way in to our museum?  The regular door's always worked fine for us!”  The the insiders asked.  To which Nina Simon replied, “Because the outsiders never used that door and we needed to find a way to let them in so they could see! 

Jesus did just that.  He opened new doors.  It’s not that the old doors were bad or broken or obsolete.  It’s just that there were still too many of God’s children stuck on the other side, who, for one reason or another, couldn’t find a way inside.  A new door needed to be opened so that ALL of God’s children could find their way in!  

What we’ve got in here, behind our stone and stained glass, isn’t meant to be a secret.  It’s WAY too good to be kept a secret!  May we trust Jesus to sweep away and cast out the things that get in the way of people finding their way to this side of our stone and stained glass.  May we trust God to get us through the itchiness that always happens when you open new doors.  And may the people of Sheffield, who have always driven by the outside of our stone and stained glass… may they discover a new door through each one of us, so that they too, might come in and be ASTOUNDED.  Amen.  

Let There Be Light!

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The Road Not Taken 

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

When Robert Frost wrote that poem, he wrote something that communicated deep truth.  It had pattern and meter, rhythm and rhyme.  It connects with people deeply, powerfully… even spiritually.  What he DIDN’T write were literal directions to be followed when walking in a wood… yellow, or otherwise.  He wasn’t being literal.  He wasn’t trying to be Google Maps!  SO, using this poem literally… to find your way home after church, for example… well, that’ll probably just get you LOST!  But that doesn’t mean it has no value.  That doesn’t make this poem un-true.  When read as intended… it’s DEEPLY true.  

In a similar way, when we open up and read the first Chapter in Genesis, like we did today, we too should ask what were the authors intending to do when they wrote this?  Were they trying to record natural history?  Were they communicating scientific observation?  Or, maybe something else?  That requires a little educated sleuthing.  This part of Genesis was written by priests when the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon.  Read in Hebrew, it has pattern and meter, rhythm and rhyme that suggests this was liturgical… it was worship material.  These were words said over and over and over again every time they gathered for worship.  Just like we say, “Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit…” they said, “And God said, let there be light.”    

Were they attempting to out-science Neil deGrasse Tyson in astrophysics?  Probably not. The people of Israel were in a bad spot when this was written.  They had been beaten and marched out of Israel and now were stuck, living in exile, in Babylon.  In those days, if your army beat my army, most people believed that meant that your god was stronger, bigger, and more powerful than my god.  These word come from a time when the Babylonians were likely telling the people of Israel day after day that, not only were they were losers, but their god was a loser too and they should just give up their worthless faith!  

This liturgy was written to be the Jewish community’s reply to that Babylonian taunting and trolling… This was the way the people of Israel stood up and countered that Babylonian message.  Using the timeless, powerful technique all people use when taunted by a bully… The people of Israel stood up and liturgically proclaimed… “NUH UH!”  Your Babylonian gods are NOT as powerful as our God!  NUH UH!  Our God has NOT abandoned us!  NUH UH!  We will not abandon our faith!

Now, the reason it had to be written as liturgy and the reason it had to be repeated week after week, Sabbath after Sabbath is that frankly, if the people of Israel were honest, the actual situation out the window looked bleak.  They WERE in captivity.  They HAD BEEN beat.  There didn’t look like there was any hope.  Their kids WERE abandoning the faith!  So to push back against ALL THAT darkness… they had to speak their deeper truth over and over and over again, to help them faithfully wait for the day when the words they spoke finally became reality!   Every week they repeated them like a mantra, “Let there be!  And there was!  And it was Good!  Let there be!  And there was!  And it was Good!  Let there be!  And there was!  And it was Good!”  They said it over and over and over.  It had happened before when God first said, “Let there be light” THEREFORE we believe God will say the Word again and light will shine in our lives once again!

This wasn’t written to be astro physics.  This was written as a statement of faith.  A liturgy proclaiming God’s faithfulness and light, even in the face of overwhelming darkness.  That’s why insisting Genesis is science isn’t just bad science.  It also abandons this liturgy as a powerful witness of faithfulness in the face of overwhelming darkness.  For those who insist this is a literal, scientific account, that means it can’t be anything else.  BUT, if we allow this text to live as it was intended… as a poem, as liturgy, as a powerful, transformational truth spoken in faith into the depths of despair… if you can recognize THAT’S what this was for the people back then… THEN this liturgy is FREE to function in that VERY SAME way for us, in our darkness today!  

Now, we don’t live in exile in Babylon, but we do live in the shadow of two world leaders fighting about the size of their nuclear buttons over twitter!  We’re not captive in Babylon, but we’re certainly captive to an unpredictable news cycle with roller coaster like highs and lows.  But HERE, in the liturgy of Genesis we have been given a gift.  Like the people then, we too gather as a faith community.  Like them we repeat the words of our liturgy like a mantra spoken into our dark times.  And just like the people of Israel, we too proclaim:  NUH UH!  We will NOT accept this as normal!  NUH UH!  This darkness is NOT forever!  We too believe that God, with just a WORD, created LIGHT!  And with God’s WORD made flesh, God brings light into EVERY darkness… EVERY… SINGLE… WACKADOODLE DARKNESS… including ours right now!  

With the words we repeat in our liturgy, we hold faithfully to God’s love for all of creation.  We NEVER have to go a single day without hope!  SO, even when we look out the window and are forced to admit that it's pretty dark out there, we still can hold tight to a DEEPER truth and proclaim confidently into the craziness and shout into the darkness… NUH UH! … God is faithful and God WILL… ABSOLUTELY WILL, ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, NO DOUBT WILL say once again, "Let there be light!"  And there WILL again be light!  Amen.  

What About Mary?

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, the 1st Chapter

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 have a chance to take a new look at Mary.  I say a NEW look, because Mary comes with a lot of old baggage.  There’s Roman Catholic reverence baggage.  Protestant overreaction to Catholic baggage and the baggage of a fundamentalist model for submissive, meek and mild women doing what they’re told.  But, in addition to needing a new look because of OLD baggage, there are a growing number of us who didn’t grow up thinking about Mary in ANY way whatsoever!  And so for all those reasons, it's time for a new look at Mary.

When we set all that baggage we’ve been told about Mary aside and look at the text found only in Luke, Mary doesn’t fit so neatly into ANY of the baggage she’s been crammed into in the past.  The story begins with the angel Gabriel saying, “Greetings favored one!  The Lord is with you.”  The angel continues with “Do not be afraid,” an understandably standard angel greeting.  (I know if an angel suddenly appeared I’D be afraid!)  But here’s the thing… the text doesn’t say Mary had MY reaction of fear, it says she was PERPLEXED.  That’s very different from afraid.  She wasn’t cowering, meek or submissive here in any way.  Confused a bit, yes, BECAUSE THERE WAS AN ANGEL IN HER ROOM, but fully in control of her own mind and her own body.

  

It’s also clear in this encounter that the angel is not forcing anything onto Mary but is 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 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 peculiar 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 baggage that people (mostly men if we're honest) have added to the story for reasons beyond 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 start with a cowering yes.  She starts with 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 The Magnificat where we so clearly hear Mary proclaim that genuine nature of God!  It’s in that Magnificat where 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.  I suspect Mary would say it's not TOO revolutionary, but exactly the kind of revolutionary song to which God shouts AMEN! 

Over the centuries, we've attempted to tame Mary and fit her into one piece of baggage or another, 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 God’s 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 to fly into your room 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 came around.  In spite of the baggage we’ve tried to pile on her over the years, she’s remained blessed!  Blessed with an open mind and a heart for compassion.  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.  May we embrace God's desire for justice as Mary did.  May we bring the light of Christ into the world's darkness.  May we be just as confident, even in the midst of horrible oppression, that God's will for justice and peace will reign and may we, with discernment, find our part in bringing that reign to earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.  

A New Riff on an Old Tune

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, the 2nd Chapter

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!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

God’s like a jazz musician… No, God IS a jazz musician because that night… that first Christmas night, God improvised an unforgettable riff on God’s oldest, most soulful, most wonderful tune.  On THAT night… that first Christmas night, God became truly human… and THAT was a brand new riff… AND yet, at the same time, it had at it's core a tune as old as God.  

Count Basie once said, “The real innovators do their innovating by just being themselves.”  That first Christmas night, God was innovating just by being God’s own self.  That night it WAS brand new… never been done before… it was light shining in darkness with the birth of the Christ child.  It was also God being true to God’s own self… playing the same song of love and grace, light and life that God’s been playing since before time began.

Louis Armstrong once said, “What we play is life.”  Christmas is God playing a song that brings life into the world… and not just a get-by sort of life either, but an abundant life… a life full of meaning and substance and purpose… a life given to us in that Christ child.  God had never brought life into the world in that, child-in-a-manger way before, and yet bringing life into the world is at the heart of God’s most beloved tune which God’s been playing since creation took it’s first breath.  

Wynton Marsalis once said, "In Jazz, improvisation isn't a matter of just making any ol' thing up.  Jazz, like any language, has its own grammar and vocabulary.”  Jesus coming into the world wasn’t God just making any ol’ thing up.  Jesus has been part of God’s language of love from before there even was a creation.  God becoming flesh and living among us was completely new, and yet used the most tried and true… most beautifully divine words… words like peace, joy, glory, light and love.  On that night, God moved the Divine presence from out there, somewhere, to right in here!  Right into our seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, touching world, so that NOW, even though God’s fingerprints have always been on every molecule of creation and God’s Spirit has always blown in every breath and every breeze… NOW you and I can hear God’s voice, see God’s face, feel God’s healing touch and taste God’s bread and wine.  

Paul Simon once said, “Improvisation is too good to be left to chance.”  And that night, that first Christmas night was God’s improvisation on God’s oldest most beloved song… A song that left nothing to chance… a song that has always made sure life is stronger than death, that hope calls out in every desperate silence, that the light of love, compassion, generosity and grace shines even into the darkest, deepest holes within ourselves and in the world… and that light… THAT light… is a light that God’s always made sure no darkness has the power to overcome.

Henry Threadgill once said, “If you go back to the roots of jazz it was all about COLLECTIVE collaboration.”  And that night, that first Christmas night, was all about the best of collective collaboration.  God playing a brand new riff on that divine, soulful, old, familiar tune of infinite, overwhelming, insistent love… but playing that night, with a brand new set of amazing, but in the world’s eyes, pretty unlikely musicians.  There was Mary.  An amazingly strong, courageous woman who boldly chose to step up on stage.  Joseph too, who dreamed the music before he played it, going on the road with Mary to Bethlehem.  The shepherds kept the beat, making sure we heard the rhythm of God’s care for the people the world so often forgets and backing them all up was the Heavenly Host singing Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to God’s people on Earth!  

God's a jazz musician… a collaborative jazz musician… an improvising, collaborating, jazz musician, riffing on God’s own, most soulful, most wonderful tune.  But there’s one more thing about God’s Christmas improv you need to know.  You see, the first rule of improv is to agree to what’s been done before, but as Tina Fey, a jazz musician who plays the instrument of comedy reminds us, “The second rule of improvisation is not only to say yes, but YES, AND.  You are supposed to agree AND THEN add something of your own.”  

You see, on THAT Christmas Eve, God and the band improvised a new riff whose name is Jesus… a beautiful riff on God’s oldest song. But on THIS Christmas Eve… THIS night, December 24th, 2017, God’s still playin’ that same old, soulful, wonderful tune… but tonight, as God leads the band, God’s inviting YOU, just as you are, with whatever instrument you have, even if all you have is your own shaky voice… God’s inviting YOU to come up on stage, join the band and add a riff of your own… to play your own YES, AND on God’s oldest, most soulful, most wonderful tune of love and grace, light and life.  God's inviting YOU... THIS night... to join the band and do nothing less than change the world.  Amen.  

The Happy Way or the Sad Way

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 1st Chapter

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Once upon a time there was a toddler.  It got to be time to get ready for bed so the voice of the parent cried out in the living room, “Honey, it’s bath time.”  But she was busy with her toys.  She was content in her little toddler world and did not want it to change.  So she said, “I NOT HAVE BATH!”  The parent said, “You can have a bath the happy way or the sad way.”  The parent, you see, will make certain the child has a bath.  It's what's best for the child.  The toddler’s only choice is to have it happen the happy way or the sad way?

Once upon a time, it got to be time for the world to work the way God intended the world to work from the beginning of creation… to work in a way where everyone had enough… enough food, enough shelter, enough dignity, enough justice, enough self worth, enough purpose… in other words it was time for the world to provide everyone with the abundant life God created them to have.  So, a voice cried out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  But the people of Isaiah’s day and the people in John the Baptist’s day and the people in our day… Well, we’re busy!  We’ve got packages to buy, careers to build, decorating to do, food to make, kids to raise, wealth to grow, trips to take and people to see.  We don’t want our little world to change as much as valleys filled in and mountains made flat, so we say, “I NOT PREPARE FOR THE WAY OF THE LORD!”  And the voice says in reply, “You can prepare for the way God wants the world to work the happy way or the sad way.”  Because God, you see, will have God’s creation work the way God intends it to work.  Our only choice in the matter is do we want that to happen the happy way or the sad way?  

It is unfortunate but toddlers are slow to learn and fast to test the will of their parent and for that reason, more times than seems sensible, the toddler chooses the sad way.  On those nights the toddler gets a bath, but the sad way means screaming, kicking, running, and flailing.  There are no toys in the tub, no soapy horns made with hair, no bath tub finger paints… no real joy.  There is only water, soap, shampoo, rinsing and drying.  But in the end… the toddler gets a bath.

It is unfortunate but the people of Isaiah’s day and the people in John the Baptist’s day and the people in our day are slow to learn and fast to test the will of God and for that reason, more times than seems sensible, we too choose the sad way.  In those times, God’s Kingdom still comes and God’s will is still done on earth as it is in heaven.  But choosing the sad way means it happens in the midst of inequality and hunger and violence and injustice.  There’s no time or money for the arts, there is kicking and screaming and violence of every sort, no rest for the weary… no real joy.  But make no mistake, no matter how much the people of Isaiah’s day or the people of John the Baptist’s day or the people of our day kick and scream, God will get God’s way with the world. 

But with each new day the happy way is an option again.  When the toddler chooses the happy way they pick up their toys and put them away… not perfectly, but they try.  They begin to get undressed… not perfectly… their big, toddler head gets stuck in their shirt, they forget they still have on one sock and inevitably get into the tub still wearing it.  They get distracted by the dog and run around the house naked and squealing for a bit… but over all, they’re doing their best to head in the direction of their bath.  

Each new day the happy way is always an option for us as well.  We can choose to prepare the way the Lord and stop living our lives focused only on ourselves and caring only for the people who look just like us.  We can begin to clean up our act.  We can look at our lives with a new and serious honesty.  We can see that we have some privilege we’ve never considered before, see the part that we’ve played, both passively and actively, in unjust systems.  We can open our eyes and begin to see our own brokenness and look for ways to address it in a healthy way so we don’t just pass it on to others.  We can begin to see our neighbors, people we’ve all too often looked past or even demonized and begin to see them instead as the beautiful gift to our lives that they are. 

We won’t do it perfectly.  We’ll get our big heads stuck for a bit, not wanting to admit we really didn’t get where we are all on our own.  We’ll get distracted and run around for a while chasing this or that and fail to see we’re still wearing one little sock of prejudice or privilege, even when we think we’ve shed it all.  But over all, we’ll be heading in the right direction… we’ll be preparing the way of the Lord.  

This was the choice laid out to the people of Isaiah’s day and the people of John the Baptist’s day and it’s the choice laid out for you and me again this Advent.  God will have creation be the way God intends it to be.  It's what's best for us and no amount of toddler-type tantrums will stop God’s Kingdom from coming.  So the choice is ours… as God’s beloved toddlers… how will we choose to prepare?  The happy way or the sad way?  I don’t know about you, but I think we should choose the happy way.  The chance to splash in the bath, playing with gifts of the Holy Spirit sounds like a life filled with the sort of joy I’m desperately longing for these dark days.  Amen.