Stay Salty My Friends

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Today’s Gospel text was the last text Pastor Martin Niemöller preached on before being sent to a concentration camp. The Nazis had been insisting that genuinely patriotic churches and religious leaders would support them without question. Niemöller said the Church’s salt was in danger of “being thrown into the same pot as the world.” Niemöller had been a prominent and influential pastor until he began to resist the “pot” the Nazi’s were cooking up. The Nazis told him, “When you start to suit your message to the world around you, then you will again be influential and powerful.” But for Niemöller, the church’s call was NOT to “suit the world” around them but to stay SALTY regardless of the cost! “If the salt remains salt” he said, “we may trust God will use it in such a way that it becomes a blessing.” The world around him was cooking up a stew that openly rejected the teachings of Jesus and was pressuring the church to throw its salt into that horrible stew.

Niemöller reminded his congregation that the Church’s “saltiness” is meant to be used to ENHANCE the love of God, LIFT UP the Way Jesus taught us to live in the world, and BRING OUT the worth and dignity of all people. In food, that’s what salt does. It enhances, lifts up, and brings out flavors. The Church’s saltiness therefore, is there to LIFT UP justice, to ENHANCE the lives of the poor, and to BRING OUT the truth, particularly when the world is working hard to hide it. Pastor Niemöller told his church to save their salt. NOT to keep it safe for better times, but so that when they saw others, even in the midst of all the horror around them, cooking up a dish that lifts the lowly, welcomes the stranger and gives bread to the hungry, they could then add their salt to THAT pot and enhance THOSE flavors!

When Niemöller turned to preach about the light, he told his congregation they also needed to resist the temptation to hide their light away from the gale-force evils of the world blowing around them, EVEN if their intention in hiding it away was to protect it. Our calling, he told them, is to put the light of Christ on a candle stand, NOT hide it under a bushel! He told them to let God worry about the winds of the world, but for us he says, “Away with the bushel!” He was absolutely right! Because what is the bushel? THE BUSHEL IS FEAR. It is fear that temps us to cover the light which God has given us to shine into the world. It’s fear that causes us to shy away from standing up to the powerful. It is fear that leads us to horde what we have and not share with our neighbor. It’s fear that plows the soil for racism, anti-Semitism, increasingly violent oppression, and evil to grow. We must not let fear lead us to mistakenly believe the lie that sharing God’s light in times such as these could somehow make it grow dim or even blow it out. With fear, the Nazi’s convinced many religious leaders to throw their salt all-in to the horrible stew of denial and anger, hatred and genocide. Then they convinced nearly all of the rest to hide their light away and not speak out about the horrors happening all around them.

The world around us today is once again brewing a horrible cauldron of cowardice and hate, exclusion and scarcity, violence and horror... all fueled once more by the flame of fear. Many religious leaders and people of faith have once again thrown their salt into this latest boiling stew of fear and hatred or they have bowed to the pressure to hide God’s light under a bushel, not wanting to make waves in their congregations or denominations by talking about politics.

But like Isaiah, Jesus, and Pastor Niemöller told the people of God in the past, I’m going to tell you now... WE MUST STAY SALTY! We must care for one another and help each other stay out of the world’s simmering caldron of fear. But NOT to simply hide from the fray. We stay out of THAT cauldron to be ready to add our saltiness to the small, little pots that, if we look closely, are even now cooking up savory little dishes of justice and loving kindness all around us.

In that same way must also not hide our light under a bushel, fearful of it being blown out by the blow-hard winds of our times. Instead we must hold it high and light the paths which promote the dignity of all people, lift up the poor, the refugee and the stranger and in doing that, bring life into our world. YOU ARE SALT! In your Baptism you were given more salt than can be found in all the oceans of the world! You are light! In Baptism you were given the light of Christ! A light that shines in the darkness! A light NO darkness can overcome! So be ready with your salt and away with the bushel! May you resist the temptation to throw your salt into the horrible stew brewing in our world and instead throw it into those pots that are even now, cooking up the radical message of Jesus. May you be part of enhancing the flavors of unconditional LOVE and LIFE in our world and may you let your light so shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify God in heaven! Amen.

As On The Day of Midian

Isaiah 9:1-4

But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Matthew 4:12-23

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Wow!  It was just as it was on the Day of Midian!  What’s the day of Midian? Good question! On the original Day of Midian, God asked a leader named Gideon to select 300 soldiers from his army to make an against-all-odds attack on the Midianite army. God and Gideon did this by picking the 300 soldiers who lapped up water from the river like dogs (instead of any other way you might drink from a river). Then, in the middle of the night those 300 rushed into the Midianite camp while everyone was sleeping and slipped Bibles into every single one of their bedside tables and that’s why the Gideons put Bibles in hotel bedside tables to this day! Okay, that’s not entirely true. The choosing 300 soldiers by how they drank part? That’s actually true. The slipping Bibles into the Midianite’s bedside tables part.  Not so much. What they actually did was sneak up at night with trumpets, and torches hidden in jars. They smashed the jars all at once, blew the trumpets, and overran the camp. The point of picking so few troops, was to show the people this could only have been a victory given by God.  So, anything that is “AS” on the Day of Midian is an unexpected victory given by God against impossible odds.

So, with the Day of Midian explained and a bonus Gideon joke to boot, it’s time to go back to the beginning of that passage from Isaiah. This passage is the take-home portion of a sermon Isaiah preached to a specific people in a specific time. They were living in between a “former time” filled with gloom, anguish, and darkness, and a coming “latter time” where the people would experience glorious light, overwhelming joy and unexpected victory. The “former time” was led by King Ahaz. An oppressive, horrible, failure of a king. The time to come, would be under his son, Hezekiah, and that time to come, Isaiah preached, would be a time where the darkness would be overcome with a great light which would begin a time of peace and prosperity. The take-home message of Isaiah’s sermon for that time and that place was that God turns darkness into light, anguish into joy, and defeat into victory as on the Day of Midian.

Even though Isaiah preached that sermon to a particular people in a particular time, his hope-filled take-home message couldn’t be contained to just that one moment in time. Even by the end of the Book of Isaiah, that same hope-filled take-home message is being recycled and preached again to a new people in a new situation. In this new place and time, the darkness took on the form of living in exile in Babylon.  But into that new darkness, Isaiah’s same message gets preached again!  The people, place, and situation were different but Isaiah’s take home message still rang true!  God turns darkness into light, anguish into joy, and defeat into victory, as on the day of Midian.

Fast forward now to Matthew’s Gospel and Isaiah’s take home message is pulled off the hard drive and preached once more. This time the dark shadow comes in the form of the arrest of John the Baptist. The overwhelming odds this time take the shape of the imperial powers of Herod and Rome. But Isaiah’s sermon preaches just as well into THIS darkness A.D. as it did when Isaiah first preached it into THAT darkness, 600 years B.C. This time the light, the joy and the unexpected victory come in the person of Jesus whose whole life, death and resurrection are a lived-out version of Isaiah’s same take-home message to all of creation.  God turns darkness into light, anguish into joy, and defeat into victory, as on the day of Midian.

When Isaiah first wrote his sermon, he didn’t have foggiest notion about the Babylonian exile or the anguish caused by the Roman empire or our darkness today! Isaiah simply preached a message reminding his people of the truth about God, trying to instill hope in the people he loved. But as it turned out, the truth Isaiah preached about God THEN, was JUST as powerful and JUST as true when it was preached again between exile in Babylon and coming home to Israel.  The truth Isaiah preached THEN was JUST as powerful and JUST as true when it was preached next between the Imperial occupation of Rome and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus!  And the truth Isaiah preached THEN is STILL, JUST as powerful and JUST as true for US… TODAY… when it’s preached into our world’s particular darkness, gloom and anguish. Isaiah’s hope-filled take-home message, recycled and preached over and over again for thousands of years is that God ALWAYS turns darkness into light, anguish into joy, and defeat into victory, as on the day of Midian! Always has. Always, always, always will!  

May you and I encourage one another to not despair in our age’s present darkness, gloom and anguish.  May you and I instead support one another as we turn our attention away from the perpetual onslaught of darkness, anguish and gloom, and TOWARD the bright, dawning light of Christ.  May you and I together, follow the One who calls us out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary life we were created to live... a live of loving God and loving neighbor.  May you and I together follow the One who knew and modeled that extraordinary way of living in love, trusting that His way of love is indeed, the way and the truth and the life which leads all of us and all of creation ever more deeply into God’s gifts of light, joy and victory, as on the day of Midian. Amen.

The Rubberband of Baptism

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

The longest rubber band chain was assembled by the kids of Gettysburg Elementary School in California and it stretched 19 miles long which may seem to be an odd way to begin a sermon BUT this seemingly random fact from the Guinness Book of World Records AND today being The Baptism of our Lord, actually combines to offer some incredible hope!

The Baptism of our Lord is not just an occasion to remember Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. It is that. But more than that, it’s an occasion for us to remember what Baptism does for us and WHO is the One who does it. The WHO that does it, is God. The first lesson today starts by hammering that notion home… I am the Lord. I have called you. I have taken you by the hand. I have kept you. I have given you to be a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners and free those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord. I give to no other. New things I now declare.

Baptism is God’s work. Period. We see it again in the Gospel story itself. The heavens were opened. The Spirit of God descended like a dove. A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” God wasn’t well pleased with Jesus because of anything Jesus had done. Jesus hadn’t done anything yet! God was well pleased with Jesus simply because God decided, with immeasurable love and unconditional grace, to be WELL PLEASED with Jesus. And here’s the thing… God didn’t just decide that for Jesus. God has decided that God will be WELL PLEASED, for no other reason than immeasurable love and unconditional grace, with every single one of God’s Baptized Children which includes even the likes of YOU and ME as well.

When our heads came up out of the water… whether we were young or old… whether that was in a river, stream, pond, tank of water, or baptismal font… whether that was with a dunking, a splashing, a pouring or a sprinkling… regardless of ANY of those details. When our heads came up from that water, the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Child, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Did you hear that? Did you hear what God said about YOU? “YOU are my Child, Chosen and Marked with my love, my eternal delight.” YOU are God’s eternal delight! Not because of anything you have done, said, confessed, believed or anything else, but simply because God, with immeasurable love and unconditional grace has decided… THAT is how God wants to see you in God’s Divine eyes… forever.

Now here’s the spot where that 19 mile long, Guinness Book of World Records rubber band chain enters back into the sermon. Because while God is 100% certain that naming you and claiming you as God’s beloved child was and is and will always always be, a brilliant idea. It may happen in your life that YOU might begin to suspect that the all knowing creator of the entire universe was WRONG about that decision. Actually it is almost certain, that you will, more than once even, in all of your flawless humanity, decide that God, in all of God’s deeply flawed Divinity (that’s sarcasm if you couldn’t tell), was wrong about you and you actually SHOULDN’T be God’s child, chosen OR marked with God’s love, nor should you be God’s eternal delight. (Yeah, it sounds dumb when you put it that way, but we all do it… many of us more than once). BUT God has connected with us in our Baptisms like that 19 mile long rubber band chain, so that no matter what we think or how far we go… no matter how we fail to live our lives in a thankful response to the gift of our Baptisms by being a light to the nations, or giving sight to the blind, or freeing those who sit in darkness… No matter how well we do that or how poorly we do that... The Guinness Book Rubber Band Chain of Baptism remains firmly attached to us and will, at some point, snap us back into the embrace of God’s immeasurable love and unconditional Grace.

Some of us will stretch that Rubber Band just a little in our lives before returning to God’s embrace. Others will stretch that sucker out to the full length over our entire lives! Some will learn how securely we are attached to God by stretching it out and being snapped back just once. Others of us... the slower learners among us (raising hand), will stretch it out and get snapped back over and over and over again, never seeming to fully believe the strength and resiliency of God’s Baptismal Rubber Band. It might have even entered your mind that while you, yourself are not currently in doubt of God’s ability to hold onto you personally with that Baptismal Rubber Band… you may have wondered recently if God could, or even would, hang on to humanity as a whole, as we, in our collective hand basket, stretch God’s love for this creation to what in human logic, must be FAR beyond it’s breaking point.

The hope-filled Good News for today is that neither you nor me, NOR even all of humanity in our collective hand basket can ever, ever, EVER break the bond that God has made with you and me and all of creation in Baptism. We ARE God’s Children! Simply and only because we have been Chosen and Marked with God’s love, attached forever to God’s eternally resilient rubber band of Baptism and because of that, God is even now, snapping you and me and all of creation back into God’s unconditional, loving embrace to remind us yet again, we are indeed God's eternal delight. Amen.

Home, Another Way

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.

While we were all still working through our refrigerators full of Christmas leftovers, the lectionary squeezed in the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents. They snuck it in, completely out of order, since chronologically it happens after today’s story… but snuck it in they did… in-between Christmas Day and Epiphany… in-between leftover cheese and slices of Christmas ham piled high on crackers, eaten in sweat pants, feet up by the fire.

I don’t know why they stuck it there... right after the crackers and before the two and a half pieces of manicotti warmed up and eaten right out of the container it was crammed into on Christmas Day. But that’s when they wanted us to remember that all of the male children under the age of two were slaughtered by Herod in and around Bethlehem. Herod had hoped, that amongst that carnage, would lie the body of that infant would-be King of the Jews the Wise Men had told him about. Joseph had, however, listened to yet another dream. Joseph, the patron saint of men who listen… yes, there are TOO men who listen! Joseph had listened… twice now! And this time he took Mary and Jesus and fled for their lives to another country. There is no rational objection to seeing the Holy Family’s status here as refugees, but then fear has never fancied itself as rational… neither in ancient times nor in our own.

Indeed, it’s fear that’s at the very bottom of all of the horror that happens in this second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. The text doesn’t just hint at it either, it just spits it out! “When King Herod heard the news from the Wise Men about the birth of the King of the Jews, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.” Indeed it’s fear that is the seed of every horror inflicted on the innocent in every age. Fear of losing power, privilege, status or place is what leads weak and fear-filled men to justify all sorts of horror. Each horror acquires a different name in it’s infamy… the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents, The 100 Year’s War, The Inquisition, Manifest Destiny, The Holocaust, The Killing Fields, The Rwandan Genocide, The War on Terror, and all that is happening around us right now.  More mass shootings than there are days of the year and child refugees held in cages until they die. Those don’t yet have an infamous name of their own, but one day they will… they all do. But no matter the name of the horror, or the culture, country, or religion of origin... no matter what people point to as the reasons for the horror, either real or imagined... Down at the very deepest depths of every horror from every time there is always that dark, pervasive, all consuming and festering fear which drives them all.

Fear is what incubates in the muck infested bottom of systemic racism, lived in for so long it has made people nostalgic for infested muck. Fear is at the core of the need to build concentration camps and separate families for the crime of following in the Holy Family’s footsteps fleeing certain death. Fear is at the deepest essence of the once again growing number of anti-Semitic attacks. Fear is at the corrupt dark heart that rhythmically pumps out the stinking dregs of white nationalism.

Fear is not new. It has motivated humans since Adam and Eve hid from God, as the Divine walked through the garden looking for them hiding in the bushes. It existed long before Herod and it has endured long after his death. And ever since the garden, good and faithful people have stood up and spoken up, fought and marched and even gone to war to stop the horrors that inevitably grow out of the worst of our festering human fears. Yet, through the ages, fear continues to fester in the darkest parts of our human souls.  Fear continues to grow out of the shadows where it had been chased and out from the shadows it drives fear-filled men to once again repeat the horrors of the past.  The horrors are always exactly the same. They just sport a new slap-shod paint job, in the present age’s trending colors. Fear festers. Horrors grow. Good and faithful people rise to confront the horrors. The horror of the moment is beaten back into the bushes, but then as surely as the sun rises, the hatred, violence and horror grow out of the shadows of fear once again.

What I am wondering this Epiphany… and I’ll warn you right up front that I don’t have an answer to my wondering. My wondering for this Epiphany is:  Have we missed the lesson those Wise Men were trying to teach us when they listened to a dream and went home by another way? Our inclination as good and faithful people has been, for as long as humans have walked the earth, to rise against each horror. Protest every hatred. Stand with the oppressed and even place our own lives in between the fearful and the latest color of an age old horror. Each of those chapters eventually end the same way, with the faithful exalted as heroic winners and the fear-filled men, who launched the latest horror, retreating into the shadows as resentful losers, left to fester there until they come out once again in another time and place, bringing with them the same old horror in another new paint job. Have we missed the lesson of those Wise Men they were trying to teach us by going home another way?

Through the ages, as each horror rises, we’ve gone at them head on, right into the horror itself. We don’t, however, seem to ever confront the fear which lies at every horror’s core.  What would it look like to confront the echoing, repetitive, horrors of our world in another way?  How can we get ALL of creation HOME, another way? What does HOME look like? Are the fear-filled men welcome in this place called HOME? Can we call it HOME without them? It seems, after all, they are the ones who need HOME the very most.  What does the WAY to this place called HOME look like? How can we know the WAY? 

I don’t think the Wise Men are asking us to abandon the faithful, holy work of standing up and speaking out against the horrors of this world.  I think they are asking us to consider taking on an additional, harder part of the task at hand. I think they are asking us if we can stand up to the latest horrors that fear-filled men endlessly launch into the world AND ALSO find another way... a way to get at that festering fear-filled core… to heal the fear which drives horror after horror into the world.  Like I said, I don’t have the answer to this wondering, but I think perhaps the place to start is to pay closer attention to our dreams.  Maybe if we, like Joseph and these Wise Men, would listen to our dreams, they might show us a WAY to a TRUTH which just might lead to a LIFE... a life free of a perpetual parade of fear-fueled horrors... A way for all of creation to find its way home by another way. Amen.

A Whole Christmas

Luke 2:1-14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will You Dare?

Isaiah 35:1-10

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

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

Matthew 11:2-11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our God of Ax and Shoot

Isaiah 11:1-10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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