The Whole Why of Christmas

Luke 1:39-55

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

If you are looking for the genuine “Why” of Christmas, this Gospel lesson is it.  If you are looking for the “What” of Christmas that’s Christmas Eve, the incarnation… Emmanuel… God with us… Jesus being born into this world.  The “Why” of Christmas is what Mary sang about in today’s Gospel lesson.  God came to be with us in the person of Jesus in order to show the the world the power of God’s kind of strength, the strength of sacrificial and mutual love.  God came so that the proud would have their “way it’s always been”, shaken right down to their shoes and after that shaking, to make sure the ways of the world would settle back to the way God had created them to be.  

God came so that the powerful would be brought down and the lowly brought up… so that the hungry would be filled up and the rich sent away empty.  But not so that those who had been on the bottom could finally give those who had been on the top a taste of their own medicine.  Jesus didn’t come for retribution… to add a heavenly wrong to humanity’s wrong to try and make one big right!  

The “Why” of Christmas was to begin the great turning of creation… to shake the world like a snow globe, and let it all settle back into the place and the way God created it to be in the beginning.  The “Why” of Christmas was to sweep up all of creation, from the very, very bottom to the tippy, tippy, top... to scoop ALL of it… all of us… into the healing, loving, presence of God without missing even the tiniest molecule of creation along the way. 

This genuine “Why” of Christmas, however, seems to be very difficult for us humans to do as a whole.  We either just  declare “Peace on Earth” without doing the real shaking that genuine peace requires OR we hijack God’s version of revolution and make it look like one of ours, where the former winners are turned into the new losers, and the former losers triumphantly give the previous winners a whole lot of what for! 

But God was not born into this world as a child to play humanity’s zero sum game!  That’s not Good News!  Christmas is the moment when God reached down to the very bottom, down to the most backwater of backwater towns, into the most scandalous sort of family and scooped up the poor and the rich, winners and losers, women and men, Jews and Gentiles and all of creation… scooped it all right up with a mighty hand and outstretched arm.  Scooped it all right up into the Presence of God.  And it is there… in the glorious Presence of God… deeply nestled in the loving embrace of Christ, that all of creation finally experience what God intended from the beginning… that we really and truly are neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are now one in Christ Jesus!  THAT is the “Why” of Christmas!  

As Christians it is our goal to celebrate that WHOLE of Christmas all year long, never pretending there can be Peace on Earth without the Earth being first shaken loose from the way it is.  And if we are to celebrate the WHOLE of Christmas we must stop the never ending insanity of simply changing the current winners into losers and the historical losers into winners by trying to play humanity’s game of retribution.  But celebrating the whole of Christmas even on one day, let alone all year long, turns out to be very nearly impossible for us.    

And THAT is why God in person has come to shake the world for us, shake it in a mysterious and divine way that is filled with endless inclusion and completely free of anger and retribution.  God has come to shake the world in a way we don’t seem able to do ourselves.  God has come, in person, to do what needs to be done FOR us.  For the "us" at the very lowliest bottom right up to the "us" at the tippy top.  Then God stays with us, is still with us, making sure you and I and all of creation settles gently back into the place God created for us all to belong before even time began… back into our places as beloved children of God.  Amen. 

You Want Them On Your Bus!

Luke 3:7-18

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

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

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

“You brood of vipers!”  If John was anything, he was honest.  But ‘honest’ was strange in John’s day.  Nobody was honest.  Living like a snake is how the world had always been.  It’s how you got by.  But what if the people gathered there knew it wasn’t right?  Wished it could be different.  What if they were there because they genuinely, really, and truly WANTED life to be different… but they knew that if they changed just on their own… If they started being honest in the middle of a world that relies on dishonesty… well, how would they get by?  Those people gathered there in front of John?  I think they knew they were like a brood of vipers… like a tangle of snakes, brooding in a hole.  Trapped.  No where to go.  Scared out of their minds, wanting something better out of life, but completely paralyzed with fear, not knowing any other way to live.

When my psychology guru, Kevin Polk, talks to people who are stuck like the people who came out to see John, he doesn’t use the image of a brood of vipers.  He says it is like you’re a bus driver who wants, more than anything, to drive your bus toward the people you love, toward the ways of living you value, toward a world that gives life and doesn’t take it away.  You know where you want to go… or at least a direction you’d like to try.  You’re in the seat, the engine is warm, you’ve even put it in gear… BUT you find that your bus is surrounded by a horrible, seemingly infinite, menacing, zombie-like horde.  And as you look closer at that terrifying horde you realize that THIS horde is made up of all of your personally curated, hand selected, custom designed, and meticulously crafted fears.  Not even the smallest, most insignificant fear is missing from the horde!

Surrounding your bus, they block your bus from moving even an inch.  This is how its been.  This is how it will be, your fears tell you.  There isn’t another place you can go!  There’s no changing now.  You couldn’t survive there anyway.  Sure, where you’re stuck right here isn’t perfect, but at least you know it.  It’s familiar.  And look at us!  Your fears!  We’re familiar too!  So just shift that bus of yours back into park, turn off the engine, and climb out of that bus and stay right here… and brood some more with us.

That’s how the tax collectors and soldiers were stuck!  They didn’t like shaking down people… but the Romans had told the soldiers that was their side hustle.  They weren’t paid enough to live.  They needed a side hustle.  They were stuck.  The tax collectors were stuck too.  The only pay they got was what they got out of people over and above what the people owed.  That was it!  They weren’t paid another way.  They were stuck, like a brood of vipers… without the first clue how they might drive their bus out of that situation and toward a new live… toward what they valued… toward the people they loved!  

What John did for this brood of stuck vipers, was to help them see, not their final destination, but just… one… next… step.  He didn’t tell the tax collectors to stop collecting taxes.  He told them to collect no more than was prescribed.  He didn’t tell the soldiers to desert the Roman army.  He told them stop shaking down the locals!  

But how could they?  How could they even move an inch surrounded by such a horde of fears shouting at them, “How will you make a living?  How will you eat?  This is the way it’s always been done.  You didn’t build the world this way.  Sure, this may not be perfect, but at least it’s known.  It’s familiar… it works, pretty much… sorta.  So just put your bus back into park, turn off the engine and climb down here and brood with us.  We’re familiar after all.” 

So how… HOW do you move your bus forward when surrounded, not by little, silly, insignificant fears, but by huge, genuine fears, created by very real and very powerful traumas?  How about waiting until the crowded horde of fears starts to wander?  Just wait the fears out?  Well, if you wait for the day your fears move out of the way on their own, you’ll find that day never comes.  John knew that.  The brood of vipers knew that... and you know that too.  Deep down anyway.  So how?  

Here’s how.  You invite that whole horde of fears onto your bus with you.  I know, it sounds crazy but what you're driving isn't a bus by accident!  It’s a bus on purpose!  It’s a bus so there’s room for each and every one of them to take a seat.  They’ll be happy because they get to stay with you, but what they never count, is with them on the bus, they are  no longer blocking your way forward!  Now YOU can start driving!  Yeah, once they realize it, they will probably make a giant fuss in the back but by then it's too late!  You're driving your bus toward what you value… toward the people you love… toward the Kingdom of God… toward really living again, or maybe even beginning to live for the very first time.  

You say that sounds hard?  Darn tootin! It’s hard!  Impossible even!  But I am here today to tell you that ONE, more powerful than John the Baptist has come; one whose sandals John wasn’t worthy to untie.  So invite your fears onto your bus.  Ignore the racket from the horde behind you, and get your bus rolling.  Now, once it’s moving, notice the heat growing under your drivers seat.  Notice how good it feels.  That’s no seat warmer.  THAT is Christ’s unquenchable fire lit beneath your seat so you'll keep moving!  And that One, with impossible to untie sandals and an unquenchable fire... That ONE will be with you single inch of your way.  Amen.  

Malachi my Guy!

Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Do you see that window over there of the apostle holding a thing that looks like a canoe paddle?  That, my friends, is James the Less, one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus.  He’s also called "the Minor", "the Little", "the Lesser", or "the Younger", none of which are much better than the others if you ask me.  He has that title so that he is not confused with James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Great, James the Elder, James, son of Alphaeus or as James, the brother of Jesus.  

But enough about them!  Today we’re less interested in James the Great or James the Less and more interested in that funny canoe paddle looking thing he’s holding!  It turns out it’s not a canoe paddle.  It is supposed to be a “Fulling Hammer.”  It is the tool that “Fullers” used to “Full” of course!  Which should in turn, completely clear up the lessons for today, right?  No?  Well so much for a super short sermon!  Because now you need to be finally, fully filled in on fulling.

Fulling involves the cleaning and thickening of cloth, particularly woolen cloth.  Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woolen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands.  In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs, which fullers sang to set the pace (and I can only assume always needed more cowbell).  Starting in medieval times the cleaning stage was done by a water mill that drove fulling hammers, then the cloth was stretched on giant frames known as tenters attached by… you guessed it… tenterhooks!  Which is where the phrase being on tenterhooks came from, meaning to be held in suspense. 

In Jesus’ day though, the work was conducted by slaves working the cloth, ankle deep in urine.  The natural ammonia in the urine cleaned and whitened the cloth.  After the cleaning, the cloth was beaten to mat together the fibers which gave it strength and made it waterproof.  Then all of the “Fuller’s soap” as the Scriptures called it (pee) was rinsed away with clean water.  ALL of which leads us back to the lesson from Malachi for today and also indirectly back to the Gospel lesson from Luke where Jesus quotes from Isaiah.  It also hopefully leads to at least one good point for this sermon!  

We hear these lessons every year and because of Handel and his obscure little work you may have heard of known as “The Messiah” we end up hearing these lessons probably more than most other lessons in Scripture!  I for one can’t hear them read without hearing Handel’s music in my head!  That’s not a bad thing, but sometimes that level of familiarity can inadvertently allow us to miss the deeper content, and the content in these lessons is profoundly deep. 

You see, these things…  making roads straight, filling valleys, tearing down mountains and hills, building roads, all by hand... refining silver in a furnace burning at over 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, and fulling cloth by standing ankle deep in urine to make the cloth clean and bright.  All of that stuff… all of that hard, hot, dirty, nasty smelling, work… THAT is the kind of work that God is willing to do FOR YOU, so that YOU and God might be in relationship with one another!  

These lessons don’t show us a laid back God on a throne waiting for us to make ourselves right while God meanwhile plucks grapes off the stem!  These lessons show us a proactive God… OUR God… busting the Divine Backside, doing literally the most labor intensive, back breaking, undignified work imaginable ALL to get us ready to be with God now and through eternity, regardless of what we do or don’t do in this life!  This God… our God… YOUR GOD… is willing to move mountains for you… sweat over a thousand degree forge in the blazing heat for you… march and pound and walk ankle deep in urine for you… ALL so that YOU, and the God who created you, can be together, bound together, now and forever.

And if this God… our God… YOUR GOD… is willing to do ALL OF THAT for you…  Do you think, even for a moment, that there is ANYTHING God won’t do for you to insure that you and your God will be together?  If God is willing to do the Fuller’s job for you, I think the answer to that is clear.  My God… Our God… YOUR GOD will do literally ANYTHING… and has, in Christ, done literally EVERYTHING to hold onto you forever!  No matter what.  Amen. 

The Talk

Luke 21:25-36

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The Season of Advent has a bit of a split personality.  The first half of the season is focused, not on the baby Jesus, but on Jesus’ apocalyptic return sometime in the future!  After a few Sundays though, even Advent gives in to the pressure and looks back to the Baby Jesus.  But for this first Sunday, Advent goes full on Apocalypse!  Now, if you’ve gotten your information about the Apocalypse off the street, it’s likely to be just as good and accurate as what you got off the street in Middle School about sex.  

Because of that, I think it’s probably time for Father Erik to sit you all down and have… THE TALK… about Apocalypse.  In spite of what you learned from the kid in Middle School or a TV preacher (both of whom are more concerned about what they are wearing than passing on good information).  An apocalypse is just a word that means God breaking into our world.  There’s not a set way God HAS to break into the world.  God can do what God wants after all!  So Jesus being born?  That was an apocalypse!  That was God breaking into our world in Jesus.  Was that a violent event with supernatural multi headed beasts, horsemen with flaming skull heads, and fully automatic gun battles?  Nope.  Just some angels singing and a baby being born in a barn.  In spite of what you might hear on the street, an apocalypse does not HAVE to come with a violent dystopian hell scape.  It can come… and it actually HAS come… quietly, peacefully, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.    

For Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds, that apocalypse wasn't at all dystopian.  It was really hopeful!  Here’s what Mary had to say about that apocalypse:  “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… he has scattered the proud, 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.”  However, a few miles away, that very same Apocalypse WAS seen as dystopian by someone.  King Herod.  He heard ‘scatter the proud, bring down the powerful, and send the rich away empty’ and to HIM, that sounded VERY dystopian.   

And THAT is the real truth of this and every apocalypse.  EVERY TIME God breaks into the world, the people who insist on keeping their own power and ordering the world in a way that builds them up by tearing others down, WILL indeed experience that in-breaking of God as unwelcome and disastrous.  HOWEVER, for the people on the bottom, the people who have been used and abused by those on the top, every apocalypse, whether the ones in the past or the ones coming in the future, will look like HOPE!  Same apocalypse.  Two VERY different points of view. 

The second lesson in our little “TALK” is about the futility of predicting the time, place, and character of the next apocalypse.  Jesus says in this lesson that we can do that just as accurately as we can predict the exact moment the first bud will break out next Spring.  The people who tell you they KNOW when it will be, know as much about that as they knew about girls in Middle School.  In other words… THEY DON'T KNOW NOTHIN’! 

So that’s it.  I’m glad we’ve had “THE TALK,” and I hope you are now better informed now about the mysteries of the coming apocalypse.  From now on you can be “On Guard” as Jesus says, so you don’t get sucked into an ever deepening vortex of despair and fear and hopelessness, thinking that God breaking into our world will be some horrible and frightening thing!  And now that we’ve had “THE TALK” you can also be “ALERT” as Jesus says, looking out for economic, social, political, and every other kind of injustice happening in our world and doing all you can to shift that balance… understanding, of course, that only God breaking into the world will complete that work, but encouraging each another to keep at it none the less.  

And maybe that’s the right way to end our talk... letting you know that waiting for the next Apocalypse really is better done together than all alone.  When Jesus prays that “you” may have the strength to escape all these things, the “YOU” in that passage is “Y’ALL” plural not “you” singular.  Jesus was telling us that we shouldn’t try to do “On Guard” alone and we shouldn’t try to do “Alert” alone either.  It is in this community that we do the work of justice.  It’s in this community that we take turns keeping watch.  It’s in this community that we remind one another to be hopeful when one of us inevitably starts swirling down that news-cycle-vortex of dissipation.  It is in this community that we together celebrate God’s past Apocalypse… the one that happened with a child being born in a manger… and it is in this community that we look together hopefully for the Apocalypse that will bring God's Kingdom, on earth as it is in Heaven.  An Apocalypse is nothing to fear... it's something we HOPE for!  Amen.  

Who is this Jesus Guy Anyway?

John 18:33-37 

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

What sort of King is this Jesus guy anyway?  Pilate wanted to know if Jesus was the “overthrow the Roman government” kind of King… or maybe he had just been labeled a “King” by local enemies hoping Pilate would do their dirty work for them… or maybe this Jesus was just a “King” up there in his loony-tune noggin?  What sort of King is he?

If he was an “overthrow the Empire” kind of King, that was easy.  Crucify him as a warning to others!  Boom. Done.  But if he was one of the other sorts, that needed a little more investigation.  Not to do what was right, or just, or fair… Pilate didn’t care about that… but to find out what solution would give Pilate the least amount of hassle. 

So once Pilate decided Jesus was no threat to the Roman Empire he just looked to the crowd to see what would give him the least grief.  At first he thought letting Jesus go would make his life easier.  But for whatever reason (he could not begin to care why) the crowd wanted Jesus crucified and giving the crowd what it wanted would give Pilate the least hassle, so Pilate put Jesus on the cross.

Pilate simply used Jesus in whatever way would make his life easier that day.  That sounds pretty cold… and it is.  But don’t we do the same thing all too often?  Pull Jesus close when it suits us… Push Jesus away when he’s not convenient?  It’s like a movie where the actor turns over the picture of Jesus on the wall before he does something bad, so Jesus won’t see.  I think we all do that to one degree or another.  I know I do it.  I’m happy to lean into Jesus when I’m wearing this shirt and playing my role where other expect some Jesus.  But in other situations, maybe where I know my idea of Jesus will clash with someone else’s, I often choose to turn Jesus’s picture so he’s facing the wall, avoid the conflict, and in effect, do with Jesus what will give me the least hassle.  

Pilate decided he could do with “King Jesus” whatever would give him the least hassle, because, Pilate did not see Jesus as HIS king.  You can bet that if Caesar was the one standing there before Pilate things would have been VERY different!  Pilate would NOT have done what was most convenient in THAT case!  Pilate would have treated him as…well as his King!  I admire that in Pilate.  He had the wrong King in my opinion, sure, but what I admire is that he wasn’t wishy washy about his King.  His loyalties didn’t ebb and flow out of convienience.  There was no hypocrisy, even when his King was all the way back in Rome!  Pilate was clear.  Caesar was his full time, full on KING.  Who is your King?  Is your King one of convenience or a full time, full on King?  It may not seem like it makes a difference in how we live day to day… but I think it really does.  

There’s a story about an Abbott of a monastery.  He had a problem.  His monks treated Christ as a King of convenience.  Acting outside the monestary like Christ was their King, but inside, where they thought no one would notice, they did not act as if Christ were their real, full time, full on King.  The  Abbott knew this was causing the monastery to rot from the inside out.  The Abbott went on a journey to seek out the advise of a renowned mystical Rabbi who people of all faiths regarded as a prophet.  The Abbott told the Rabbi about his monastery and asked for his advice.  

The Rabbi told the Abbott that he sadly did not have a solution for him, BUT the Rabbi did have something the Abbott should know before he returned.  He told the Abbott that one of his monks was Christ, returned from heaven.  The Rabbi did not know which one, but he was absolutely certain that one of them was the Christ.

The Abbot returned to the monastery and told his brothers what the Rabbi had said.  Over time each brother began to treat the others better, always wondering if the other was the Christ.  The monastery grew in faith, love, service and even in numbers and no matter who came to the monastery everyone was treated as if they were the Christ.

Is Christ your King?  Is Christ your King only when it’s convenient or is Christ your full time, full on King?  If we began treating everyone we met, all the time, as if they might just be the Christ, returned from heaven, what would that do to us?  What would that do to the world, if Christ really was our full time, full on King?  It’s something to think about for sure.  Amen.  

Wow Jesus... Um, Thanks?

Mark 13: 1-8

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

Sometimes life feels like the world is in such a state that only God breaking into it in person could put things right.  That’s the real meaning of an apocalypse… God breaking into the world.  Mark’s gospel was written to a people who felt that only God breaking into their world could put things… and you know what?  I sorta get it!  A never ending pandemic.  Only a miracle will do.  A climate crisis, way past being JUST a crisis.  Only a miracle will do.  The poor and hungry demonized.  Immigrants made to be scapegoats.  Only a miracle will do.  But Jesus told the disciples and is telling us, “All of this is just the birth pangs!”  Which makes me want to say, “Um, wow Jesus.  Thanks?”

The disciples wanted to know, how long, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind an answer to that one either!  But the disciples then didn’t get an answer to that one, and we don’t get one either.  What Jesus gives, both to them and us, is an invitation to begin living RIGHT NOW… right where we are… right in the middle of it… right in the midst of a time where it feels like only a Miracle will do.

A quote attributed to Martin Luther says, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”  And one attributed to Winston Churchill says, “If you are going through hell, keep going!”  Those too, are invitations to REALLY LIVE even in the midst of darkness… even in the depths of worry and fear. 

But HOW?  HOW do you do that!?  People always do that, don’t they?  They say “be happy now” or “start living now” but they never tell you HOW!  And it’s not just a matter of an attitude adjustment either.  God literally created us to react automatically and unconsciously in a certain way when we feel threatened!  We’re hard wired and it’s a really good thing!  God gave us that reaction so we didn’t just walk off the edge of a cliff in blissful ignorance!  God created our bodies so that they would tell us, by relocating our stomachs up into our throats as we got close to the edge, don't take another step!  It’s a beautiful gift!  Without it our ancestors' bones would be piled up at the bottom of some chasm and humanity would be extinct!  It’s a really good gift!  But still… HOW?  How are we to really live in times of fear and darkness when God has prewired us to unconsciously react to fear in this particular way?

The HOW is in realizing... THAT gift... is not the ONLY gift that God has given us!  God ALSO created us with the ability to regroup after we've back up a little, and imagine other ways to deal with a frightening cliff... to see other options beyond just running up to the edge and then running away.  To see the possibility of a life that is more than that sort of endless cycle, with the only option being to wait for an apocalypse to come.  God don't make us for that sort of senseless life!  God created us for an ABUNDANT life!  

But Pastor Erik, you say.  You still haven’t told us HOW we get from here to there?  HOW do we move beyond just lashing out or running away... Only a Miracle will do!  Yes, only a miracle will do, but the miracle we need isn’t a “HOW.”  The miracle we need is a “WHO” and the miracle we need is even now inviting us, poking us, prodding us, and provoking us to follow His Way toward abundant life!  The miracle we need... the miracle we HAVE is Jesus.  In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus literally lived out HOW to do it!  Jesus’ whole life was literally a lived-out instruction manual for HOW to keep going through hell and into abundant life! 

You want an example?  Alright.  One from then and one from now.  Both by being generous.  Back then at the Feeding of the 5000 Jesus told the disciples, “YOU give them something to eat.”  The disciples (eventually) just started doing it and then there was ABUNDANT fish, ABUNDANT bread and ABUNDANT life!  Right then!  Right there!  Even in the midst of the darkness.  And now, we dared to imagine beyond just hunkering down through a pandemic lockdown in fear?  We just started Feeding Sheffield, which grew into Feeding Friends, which now feeds folks all over South County with ABUNDANT Chicken Pot Pie, ABUNDANT Food Boxes, and ABUNDANT life!  It didn’t end the pandemic, but it did deliver ABUNDANT LIFE, right into the middle of pandemic darkness!  

Jesus didn’t lie to the disciples and I’m not going to lie to you either.  It’s dark out there and I’m as certain as Jesus was then, that it’s going to stay dark longer than any of us would like.  So the take home today… is to not put off living, waiting around for some distant apocalypse to fix it all!  Instead, LIVE RIGHT NOW!  Live the Way God showed us how to live during the last apocalypse when God broke into the world with Jesus, the Christ!  Live the Way Jesus showed us to live… through generosity, compassion, grace, love, justice, and peace.  Walk the Jesus Way through pandemic darkness, through climate darkness, through racial, xenophobic, and political darkness... walk until we’re all in the light… or as St. Paul and Winston Churchill might have said together; “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and when the world feels like hell, for God’s sake, keep walking!  Amen.

Photo:  This is "Two Crows" by Peter Ralston.  It sprang to mind when I thought about really living this life we've been given, even when we are not quite fully in the light.  Peter is one of the most incredible photographers of our time.  But more than that, Peter is a friend and one of the rare people you meet in life who really seems to "get it" in a way I long to "get it".  Visit his gallery, Ralson Gallery or visit in person in Rockport, ME.  

Sing Into the Tomb

John 11:32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Lazarus died but the disciples wanted to soften it and say “no, Jesus, Lazarus is only asleep!”  But Jesus wasn’t having it.  He said straight out.  He died.  When Jesus got to Mary and Martha, they weren’t having any of the disciples’ denial either.  Why weren’t you here Jesus!  If you had been here he would not have died!  Our culture so often wants to soften or deny the reality of death.  People don’t even want to say the word… death.  Instead we say, he passed, she’s gone home, and the most recent… he has transitioned.  For that one I was very glad that I read the comments before sending congratulations on their gender reassignment surgery!  

But denying the reality of death was not what Jesus modeled for us.  Jesus, Mary, and Martha all knew that facing death head on was a hard, but healthy part of the process.  Covering it up only pushes the pain down and then inevitably, the pain leaks out somewhere else in an even more terrible way.  I don’t want to encourage others to deny the reality of death, so I’ve picked the first hymn for my funeral in the hopes it will give them permission to reject the cultural denial of death and face it head on.  Have you picked your first hymn yet?  For me, it’s this one:

I want Jesus to Walk with Me 

Our stoic Lutheran and proper Episcopalian ancestors didn’t do us any favors in this area.  Jesus, Mary, and Martha are better role models for us to follow.  It’s hard, but it really is better for us to go ahead and honestly feel and proclaim our trials and troubles.  And not just at the funeral but also when those trials inevitably circle back and push you down in the days, weeks, months and years ahead as well.  So go ahead and be honest with world!  TELL the world when your heart is almost breaking.  Be sad, be angry, be heart broken, be relieved, be whatever you really feel in each and every moment of your grief.  God gave you all of those emotions to use right when you feel them.  It helps absolutely no one, to push them down or away.  

Facing death head on is ONE of the things we learn about grief from Jesus, Mary, and Martha today.  Another is that gathering with your family and community in deep and honest prayer has the power to change everything.  In deep and honest thankfulness and sorrow, Jesus prayed his longing prayer.  He prayed right into the mouth of the forever-darkness of Lazarus’ tomb.  He prayed right into the reality of death, but he also dared to pray for the impossible as well, that Lazarus would “come out.”  That prayer opened up just the smallest crack of hope for everyone.  The song for my funeral that pries open a crack of hope is this one:

Children of the Heavenly Father

  

Through that tiny crack of hope you find tenderness and safety… safety in God’s arms enveloping you just as you are.  That’s the truth this song dares to sing into the darkness of the tomb.  It’s a song for the time between when Jesus said “Lazarus come out” and when Lazarus actually came out!  In the passage, those two follow one another instantly, but you know for Mary, Martha and the people gathered there, that moment took forever.  This is my song to sing while we emotionally teeter between complete hopelessness and that first, tiny daring of hope.

Then after what must have felt like forever and at the same time as quick as a blink of an eye.  Lazarus was there.  Ready to be unwrapped and live again!  Can you imagine the faces of Mary and Martha?  Mouths hanging open.  First in disbelief. Then in growing belief and finally it shouts of impossible joy!  THAT mouth-hanging-open-confusion-turned to wonder-turning to joy is what I want for the sending hymn at my funeral and for me this is the song for that!

When the Saints Go Marching In

So sing to face death head on.  Sing when you gather with friends and family.  Sing, while leaning on one another in prayer.  Sing and reclaim the promise, that death is not the end!  Sing out the Promise that death does not have the last word!  Sing like you fully believe it (even when it’s impossible to believe)  Sing until that Promise comes out fully into the light.  Sing until we all unwrap it together with ALL the Saints… and every last one of us has Marched on in!  Amen.