Epiphany 2 - A

That Voice… I Keep Hearing that Voice

Introduction

Do any of you have trouble doing nothing? I know lots of people do. When they have time off they spend it doing chores. When they go on vacation they spend it frantically sight seeing or visiting long lost relatives. I know others who simply cannot stop talking. If you let a moments silence enter into the room they begin to fill it.

Part of that is reflex. We are a people who work hard at life, at surviving... part of it is old fashioned religious folk tales which we have somehow adopted, like “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.”

But part of it, I am sure, is fear.

I don’t know what each person is afraid of – but we all have trouble just sitting and thinking. We all have trouble with silence. And there must be some deep seated reason for that. Perhaps we are afraid that we do not have any deep thoughts so we better not test the theory. Perhaps we are afraid other people will think we are lazy. Each of us might be different. And each of us might be better or worse at this... but we all suffer from it, at least a bit.

But here is the thing. If you are the one talking all the time, you are never listening. If you are the one doing all the time you are never being done for. Which means you are not learning, and you are not letting yourself be loved.

It is also true that if we are always active, if we are always moving, if we are always talking, then there is no room for God.

The Divine, the Spirit, God... that is what you find in moments of candlelit silence... that is what you find when you stand still at the edge of the ocean.... that is what you find lying on the grass at night watching the stars and fireflies... that is what you find when you listen to other people saying things you never imagined...

It begs the question... what are we filling our life with?

Isaiah 49:1-7

The Servant’s Mission

Listen to me, O coastlands,

pay attention, you peoples from far away!

The Lord called me before I was born,

while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow,

in his quiver he hid me away.

And he said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my cause is with the Lord,

and my reward with my God.”

And now the Lord says,

who formed me in the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him,

and that Israel might be gathered to him,

for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,

and my God has become my strength—

he says,

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to restore the survivors of Israel;

I will give you as a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Thus says the Lord,

the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,

the slave of rulers,

“Kings shall see and stand up,

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

Time for the Young at Heart:

A teacher walks into a classroom and sets a glass jar on the table. He silently places 2-inch rocks in the jar until no more can fit. He asks the class if the jar is full and they agree it is. He says, “Really,” and pulls out a pile of small pebbles, adding them to the jar, shaking it slightly until they fill the spaces between the rocks. He asks again, “Is the jar full?” They agree. So next, he adds a scoop of sand to the jar, filling the space between the pebbles and asks the question again. This time, the class is divided, some feeling that the jar is obviously full, but others are wary of another trick. So he grabs a pitcher of water and fills the jar to the brim, saying, “If this jar is your life, what does this experiment show you?” A bold student replies, “No matter how busy you think you are, you can always take on more.” “That is one view,” he replies. Then he looks out at the class making eye contact with everyone, “The rocks represent the BIG things in your life – what you will value at the end of your life – your family, your partner, your health, fulfilling your hopes and dreams. The pebbles are the other things in your life that give it meaning, like your job, your house, your hobbies, your friendships. The sand and water represent the ‘small stuff’ that fills our time, like watching TV or running errands.” Looking out at the class again, he asks, “Can you see what would happen if I started with the sand or the pebbles?”

Reading

John 1:29-42

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

Wrestling with the Texts:

Let me say my opening remarks a different way.... if we are the ones who are always talking and doing ... we are probably going to miss a lot.

Let me tell you a story... this man was going to a party where he would be meeting his wife’s coworkers from her new job for the first time. He felt anxious as the time for the party grew near, and wondered whether they would like him or not. He rehearsed various scenarios in his mind in which he tried in different ways to impress them. He grew more and more tense.

But on the way to the party, the man came up with a radically different approach, one which caused all of his anxiety to melt completely away.

He decided that, instead of trying to impress anyone, he would spend the evening simply listening to them and summarizing what they had just said. At the party, he spent the evening listening carefully to everyone, responding with phrases like, “I understand what you’re saying, you feel strongly that. . .” and “Let me see if I understand what you mean. . .” He also avoided voicing his own opinions, even though at times it meant biting his tongue to keep from doing so.

To his amazement, he discovered that no one noticed or remarked on the fact that he was just listening. Each person he talked to during the evening seemed content to be listened to without interruption. On the way home, his wife (whom he had not told about the experiment) told him that a number of people had made a point of telling her what a remarkable person he was. The word “charismatic” was used by one person to describe him, while another said he was one of the most “articulate” people she had ever met.

Interesting, no? When we take the time to listen not only do we become better people, but those around us start to think better of us. We have become open to other people and we begin to understand them.

So let me put this in the context of our Bible readings for today... there were in and around Galilee and Jerusalem a group of unhappy people who were looking for wisdom. They were followers looking for a leader. And they spent a lot of effort looking for a leader. They were used to following after people... asking them tough questions.... getting them to jump through hoops. Because they knew exactly what they were looking for.

So imagine their surprise when they are just hanging around, sitting with their master John, and Jesus just walks by. He seems a rather un impressive and un remarkable man. He seems like no one... just a local carpenter... and then John the Baptist says, look.... there goes someone really important.

Most of them ignore this. Most of them are so sure of what they are looking for they do not take the time. They are so full of wisdom and talking that they cannot imagine just sitting there listening.

But not Andrew. He decides to just go and see. To follow. To listen. Then he goes and finds Simon his brother and says, you better come... and they actually just spend the day with Jesus. They just relax and listen. And in the end, to their surprise. They have found their Messiah.

Conclusion of Theme:

There is a band that I really like called the Fray. I guess I really liked them because their songs were "interesting" in terms of the way they saw the world.

One of their first hits was a song called You Found Me... which was about God. And it presented God in a very non traditional way... Here are the opening verses:

I found God

On the corner of first and Amistad

Where the West was all but won

All alone, smoking his last cigarette

I Said where you been, he said ask anything

Where were you?

When everything was falling apart

All my days were spent by the telephone

It never rang

And all I needed was a call

That never came

To the corner of first and Amistad

Lost and insecure

You found me, you found me

Lying on the floor

Surrounded, surrounded

Why’d you have to wait?

Where were you? Where were you?

Just a little late

You found me, you found me...

I didn't say it was a happy image. But it was a surprising image about finding God hanging out alone on a street corner smoking his last cigarette.

This is not the first of last time someone wrote a song with God unexpectedly showing up. Back in 1995 Joan Osburne had a popular hit with What if God was One of Us... and the chorus went like this:

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make His way home?

The power of these images is that they break through our traditional conceptions about God and faith, and what it is all about... which is something we desperately need.

That is part of what Jesus came to do, right, to change people's conception about what religion means, what faith looks like, how to live in God's way.

And perhaps we find ourselves there again. So completely sure we have it right that we are not looking, we are not listening, and we are not expecting. ... what if we started looking for something new? What do you think we might find?

New Years

Ringing In

The Seasons of our Lives

Ecclesiastes 3:1–1

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

So...

Ali and I did an interesting exercise the other day - getting Facebook to compile the words we used the most throughout 2016. Luckily, they were all positive, hopeful words... with a few travel locales thrown in.

During the year, for the most part, we have tried to be positive and it seems we have succeeded, at least in social media.

But really, in more than that, we have worked hard to learn, to grow to start new jobs, to help our kids with their growing up, we even got married....

Of course, a lot of bad things happened as well. There were fights, there were cooking disasters, bad decisions, and a lot of stress.

Does that mean that the year was a right off?

I have seen so many people say that 2016 was a terrible year. So many beloved celebrities and musicians died. Some people were upset that Bob Dylan won the Nobel prize. More people were upset with the election of Trump south of the border.

But is it the worst year? Is it even close? No... it is just a year.

The deeper message in Ecclesiastes is not that good and bad things happen, it is that good and bad things ALWAYS happen. That is not exceptional, that is life. Nothing is black and white. You cannot have good without bad, pleasure without pain, sunrise without sunset.

Not only that, but each thing happens in its own time. In its own way. With its own season. To try and deny that it is happening, to try and force only happiness, to try and focus only on pain. This denies the reality, complexity and beauty of life.

This is a lesson I constantly need to remind myself of, a way of thinking that I find hard to do. That it is ok if things go wrong, it is ok if things go right. And both will happen.

All Things New

Revelation 21:1–6a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

A New Thing...

That is the promise of this passage. That is the hope Revelations promises. God will do a new thing.

We are used to hearing this passage at funerals - but really, the guy who wrote it had never even been to one of our funerals. He was a political prisoner. Rome seemed to be winning. The Christian Faith was in real danger of being wiped out. Jesus idealism was giving away to pessimism .... and so he wrote saying not everything was as it seems. That God really was here. That things really could change. That tomorrow would make all things new.

Now, this passage was not meant to superimpose Ecclesiastes. The author knew his scripture, he knew there was a season for everything. The problem, in his opinion, was that too many people, were forgetting the good things. Too many people were focused on the bad.

If I had a nickel for every time someone has said they will be glad 2016 is over... well, I am sure you have heard it too... and I am pretty sure you probably heard someone say it about 2015... 2014... 2013...

And each time, those people are looking backwards negatively, they are focusing on the death and destruction, and thinking that life would be better without it.

But again, to go back to wisdom that is only four thousand years old.... life would not be life unless it was full. Unless life included the good and bad and the seasons which bring richness and depth to our existence.

So I take these two passages as speaking about the same thing, both of them are about life and the way it is meant to be lived. Both of them speak of the negatives we encounter and say that they are a part of what is meant to be. And both of them suggest that we accept the way things are without falling prey to the negativity that would mean we have lost hope.

Life is meant to be lived, and we are meant to find God in each and every thing that happens, in each and every person we encounter.

Conclusion

"For Auld Lang Syne" means "for the sake of old times"

That's a rough translation. More literally, Auld Lang Syne means "old long since" or "long long time".

It is a song that is meant to evoke the sense that we should be looking back on old friends, on old times, fondly and allowing those memories, as bittersweet as they may be, to be present in our hearts as the year changes from one to the next.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!

And surely I'll be mine!

And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,

And pou'd the gowans fine;

But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,

Sin' auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,

Frae morning sun till dine;

But seas between us braid hae roar'd

Sin' auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fere!

And gie's a hand o' thine!

And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,

For auld lang syne.

So, for everything there is a season. We once played in the fields and paddled in the river. But now we have loved and lost and still, it is ok, the days of old help us appreciate the new things that God is doing. This is what we celebrate today.

So this is my hope, that when 2017 comes to a close we will look back at all the good and bad that happens next year and not wish it away so easily, but realize that it is part of the bittersweet beauty of the life we live.

Advent 4 - A

A SIGN

Introduction

I cannot tell you how many times in my life I have looked for a sign. Some little signal from God to let me know that everything was going to be all right... I have prayed, I have hoped, I have bargained... I have even decided that the sign was there....

Sometimes I make it a 50/50 split with God. “Ok, God, if I drive around the corner and there is a tree still with leaves on it, I am going to take that as a sign that you want me to do this...”

Part of me knows full well that I am talking to myself – that a sign from God would not be leaves left on a tree randomly by the side of the road just when I wanted there to be leaves. I am talking to myself and justifying my decision.

But O for a sign. Some divine answer written across the sky in giant gold letters saying – THIS IS WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO DO! - I think there are times we all wish the answer was a little clearer, a little more obvious, a little more black and white.

Times when we knew what was the right thing to do.

We have been preparing for Christmas throughout the weeks of Advent by talking about ancient prophesies and bits of wisdom that people were hoping for with the Messiah. We even got nine months out and talked about what Mary was hoping this birth would be.

Well – lets move a little closer now to the due date. Lets advance to the point where Mary is showing, obviously, that she is pregnant – and let’s take a moment to consider this all from a different angle – that of the fiance. I am pretty sure Joseph was looking for a sign. He wanted God to tell him what to do...

Because let’s face it. This was a tough situation. He had not slept with Mary, she was claiming no one ever did, the family and crowds were talking, Mary’s life was on the line, maybe his too... at the very least their reputation was on the line...

The easiest thing and best thing for him would be to cast her out, let her take her own chances, forget about this and move on. After all, it was probably an arranged marriage, it was not really about love yet. He probably hardly knew this girl.

What is the right thing to do for his family? For his reputation? For his carpentry business? Or for that matter, how did he feel about all this?
This is part of the Christmas story too...

With the Kids

- cards and feelings – getting in touch with who we are and what we feel about the season...

Wrestling with the Texts

Have you ever seen a family coping with some stressful situation that seems beyond your own ability? Like a child getting cancer, or a child being born blind, or the death of a ten year old in a tragic car crash...

Almost every time I meet these people my first response is always to say, wow... they are coping with things with such grace, they are being so strong, look at how much love that family has for each other even when things are tough...

I see it every day in other relationships as well. Students looking out for each other, adults struggling with their aging parents, sickness and death taking one spouse... and for the most part what I see is that we are way stronger than we think.

Still....

The other side is true as well. Perhaps, sadly, even more true. We see marriages end, we see kids estranged from parents, we see abused runaways on the street. We see mental illness lead to drug addiction and prison. Just as often as I see people being strong, I see people being broken.

And I know there is a there but for the grace of God moment in all of this.
I have been broken. I have given up. I know what it feels like.

...

Ok, so I want you to see this as very human, I want you to understand that we are made of strong stuff but that any one of us could find ourselves broken by the weight of the world.
Now, look again at Joseph. He is not rich, he does not live in a city where there are hundreds of prospects, he does not come from a high society family, and yet, miracle of miracles, he gets engaged, to a young, seemingly happy and bright women. Her parents have the dowry, it is perfect.

Then she becomes pregnant.

Pregnant because she sleeps around? Pregnant because a Roman soldier raped her? There really is no good possibility here. Think about how a rape victim is treated today. Think about what society thinks of High School students who get pregnant. Think about the rumours when a wife gets pregnant after a man has a vasectomy.

Imagine how bad it was 2000 years ago? There were no women's rights, there were no divorce laws. This was a society where if a man says out loud three times that he is divorced, then he is. A woman is property. A woman exists to serve the man and bear him offspring. Which, by the way, in the thinking of the day do not even contain DNA of the woman – just little versions of the man growing up to carry on the name.

By law Mary must be put to death. By custom Joseph needed to move on and forget about this marriage. By the thoughts going on in the average persons head he needs to get angry and leave her. Why should he raise another mans son? Why should he be with an immoral and untrustworthy woman. Who, by the way, is probably a lair or insane ... saying she has never had sex...

But... we are told... and angel appears to Joseph. He has a vision. This child is going to grow up to change the world.

One night, one vision, one moment in time.... and Joseph marries his young bride and raises this child from another father as his son.

What we often gloss over in these stories is that so many amazing things had to happen for this to work out, including picking just the right step father for Jesus. A man who would believe the ramblings of a crazy young girl and show love and compassion despite all wisdom and tradition telling him not to. A man who would listen to the voice of the angel in his vision and see the possibility that perhaps Mary was telling the truth.

Conclusion

An angel talking to you at night is a pretty convincing sign from God. You could take the story to be telling us that. But I actually do not think that is true.

Scrooge saw a ghost talking to him and managed to convince himself, for a minute or two, that it was only some bad food he ate the night before playing havoc with his thinking.

And we have all done that. Dismissed the sign as being a coincidence. Dismissed the vision as being a dream. Seen someone smile at us and thought to ourselves they really cannot be smiling at us. Had someone tell us they thought we could do it, and known in our heart that we could not.

Joseph could have woken up and forgot about the night before. He could have dismissed it as a dream of wishful thinking. He could have said that God is not real anyway or else why would I be in this situation. He could have done a million things to convince himself to put her away quietly, he even could have put her to death himself. It was within the law.

But he didn’t.

What Joseph did was look in his heart and realize that this person needed the love of God more than anyone in that moment, and he had it within himself to give it.

There are signs around us all day. God is speaking to you right now. And most of us have the ability to hear, if we just accept that life is never black and white and we move into the mystery of Christmas. God did the unexpected and it changed the world. Joseph did the unexpected and it changed the world.


So go out and do the unexpected. It just might change the world.

Advent 2-A

The Peaceable Kingdom

Introduction

Peace, peace... peace... something hard to define, something hard to achieve, something we all long for... peace is something that seems to be desperately missing from our world, and curiously, I imagine it is hard to find in our personal lives around now too with all of Christmas weighing down on us in one way or another.

So what is it exactly that we long for? What do we mean when we talk about peace? The obvious answer is that it is the absence of violence... but when you stop and think about that for a second, we need to ask another question... what is violence...

It may sound like I am going to go all high brow on you and start to talk about philosophical ideas and theological faith responses... but what I am thinking about it actually far more mundane and practical.

I know a couple who just decided this week to end their marriage. Ali has an ex parishioner who is just a young and troubled man whose mother just died of a heart attack. The malls are so crowded that you cannot hear yourself think while you walk around them. Rush hour in this city... My daughter Rachael had the stomach flu. I could not sleep Friday night.... all of this is violence, is it not?

The noise, the busyness, the pain of life all hurts us. It is painful. And we wish we had a break from it. We wish we had peace, just for a moment...

Peace is also one of those things prophets foretold and Jesus came to offer... The Prince of Peace he became known as, the one who would usher in the prophecies of Old.

And so we gather and worship and wait.... but while we wait, we will take this opportunity to think about how to bring Peace into our lives.

Time for the Young at Heart

God's Dream - Nelson Mandela

Of Prophets and Presents

 I have always thought that in order to have true peace the world would have to be a different place - I started this whole ministry thing with the naive hope of changing the world... I guess I was a vey Old Testament prophet sort of guy in terms of my ministry.

The prophets believed people could change. You hear it all the time in the Old Testament; they preached, often fire and brimstone, trying to convince people that they should change… that the world would be a better place if only they could see that they were not living their lives like God wanted them to live.

Some times forget that this was a very practical and political world. Israel was a place where warfare and chaos reigned. When the prophets hoped for changed, when they preached about peace - it was not an abstract thought... how about people stop fighting... how about people grow enough food... how about we learn to conserve water in a drought.... stop focusing on the wrong things and focus on how to make life better.... that would be peace.

And maybe God would send someone to help us get on with it... someone like Elijah... someone like Moses... someone who would be a leader and help us change....

Sometimes we forget that this is the meaning of Christmas.... We have built up such nostalgia and sense of tradition that we think the holly and the ivy, the Christmas lights and turkey smells, the family and love is what it is all about.

Jesus born in a stable and gifts from unexpected sources. Stars and cattle lowing...

But that is not what it was about. Sometimes we forget that only two of the four gospels talk about the whole ‘birth – manger – shepherds in the fields’ part of the story… Only half of the writers thought it important to start with what we pretty much think is the core message of Christmas…

There is something that all four gospels to agree on, however, There is a concrete part that they all agree began the ministry of Jesus... and that is John the Baptist. "Christmas" ... the whole "Messiah" thing... It all starts with a political protestor. So as we consider peace in our time, let's start where he starts.

let’s start with the political and social situation of Jesus. Jesus was born into an awful world, filled with awful rulers… They were governed by the largest Empire ever known, an Empire that was already crumbling with decay and corruption. The Emperor Caesar is corrupt, so is the local governor, so is the Jewish king, and finally, so is the High Priest of God’s very own temple. Every single person of power seems corrupt.

And so God's spirit begins to work in that usual and unexpected way... a nobody appears on the scene... the son of a small time priest named Zechariah. And this man, John, becomes convinced that people need to change, that the prophets were right, that we are off track

So he is all about making the paths straight, all about preparing the way… and his message is one of repentance; of turning your life around and focusing on the things of God. Really, he thought it would be that simple… if we stopped thinking about the ways of the world and started thinking about the ways of God, everything would get better.

Do you know what I have observed in my 23 years of ministry? It is very hard to change the world! No, really.... It is almost impossible to change the world. I have come to see that there is a mathematical formula about change. Changing the minds of four billion people is impossible. Changing the minds of a million people is almost impossible. Changing the minds of a thousand people is impossibly hard. Changing the minds of 100 people is unlikely. Changing the mind of a person is possible.

Perhaps these prophetic dreams of peace were aiming too high?

The Imagination of a Messiah

Some people say John Lennon, from the Beatles, was a prophet. That he was one of those voices that God has spoken through to try and bring us a message about how the world should be.

It was 36 years ago, or will be four days, that John was killed… His song “Imagine” is actually a pretty good Advent Hymn when you think about it. In case you have not heard it this is the chorus...

“You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one”

The verses have other sentiments about getting rid of the things that divide us, about no more countries or religion, no more politics or greed. It actually sounds really good, and it is really no different a message than when Isaiah and the other prophets were getting at with the whole lion will lie down with the lamb and we will all be at peace; or that someday God will come and restore the justice of the people….

Prophets had hope, they had a sense that the future was one in which peace reigned; and they believed that this was true because of the fact that there was a better way to live.

But what they needed was something Jesus knew all about... the one on one. Jesus did not minister to institutions or even churches. He talked to people. Mostly one at a time and where he met them.

He knew that to change the world you change it one person at a time. Just like Lennon said, I am going to do something differently... I hope you join me... and someday we will see the world begin to change.

This is how we build the peaceable Kingdom Isaiah spoke of and John preached about. This is how we find the peace we all long for, even if it begins with small changes..

So, two weeks into Advent and I am suggesting that we need to have Hope, and seek Peace. I am not telling you how to do it, some days I know that for my own life, and some days I have no idea….

But still, I believe that life is a journey in which we grow and learn and seek to be a better person.

As we approach Christmas, and think about the voices from our prophetic past, I think that they may have been on to something….

Advent 3 - A

Mother Mary 

Introduction

I guess I am on a Beatles kick for some reason, each Sunday puts me in mind of another song... this week it was Let it Be... and particularly the part which goes:

When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom

Let it be

And in my hour of darkness

She is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom

Let it be

What is it about Mary that captures the attention of so many? Perhaps it is that she was so ordinary, and thrust into circumstances that seem so amazingly and mysteriously more than ordinary.

Imagine this unwed and too young mother of Jesus. Whom Angels spoke to and Joseph forgave. Who, if the story is right, accepted her fate and her position with grace and dignity.

This is not life as most of us experience it. It must have been incredibly hard.... her life must have been filled with emotions - fear, pain, even anger... I wonder if part of what we like and admire about Mary is that even in the midst of that she also found joy.

When Mary finds that she is pregnant she goes off to see her already pregnant cousin Elizabeth... perhaps for advice, perhaps to exchange stories, perhaps just to get some rest and let the men folk go off and be men folk.

And what they discover together is that they are happy to be mothers. And that they are happy that God has plans for their children.

Those plans involve helping to make the world a better place, and as we shall see it is totally in line with Gods promises as well as totally in keeping with what has taken place after their births.

The white Gifts

The tradition of White Gift Sunday has its roots in a small Methodist church in Ohio in 1904. What began as a humble way to reflect on the love and devotion of the giver and not the value of the gift has grown into today’s white gift services in many churches across several denominations. The story is told that a minister’s wife initiated the idea to solve the problem of inequity of gifts given at the Sunday school Christmas party. Instead of focusing on receiving gifts, the focus shifted to bringing gifts to Jesus that could in turn be shared with people around the world who did not have much. All the gifts would come wrapped in plain white paper, so that no one would know which was an expensive gift and which was a more modest one. No one would feel ashamed of their gift and everyone would share in the joy of giving to others.

Wrestling with the Texts

The Beatles believed that Mary would come and bring them wisdom. They are not alone in this. Monks worshiped her, poor peasants built shrines to her. Mary is at the heart of the emotional connection we all have for God.

Maybe because she is a mother, and a woman, and those qualities are rare in the Bible and yet important for most people. We all understand what it is to be a parent, and we all know what a perfect mother would be.... whether we are one, or even if we did not have one.

A mother is protective, a mother is fierce, a mother loves unconditionally, a mother has high hopes for her children. A mother gives beyond measure and yet, does it with a smile. Well, our perfect mother would do this.

And again, for many people Mary took on these feminine characteristics of God. Mary was the compassionate one, Mary was the caring one, Mary was the wise one... and became venerated so much that there have been times when the Catholic Church tried to ban praying to Mary - people were praying more to Mary than to God....

As the Beatles reiterate, it is Mary who is standing beside them in times of darkness.... and she is speaking words of wisdom.

So what were the words of Wisdom Mary had to offer in the first place? Surprisingly there were very few of them captured, or imagined, by the folks that wrote the story of Jesus... But there is one place, one poem, one song, that got included.

My soul Magnifies the Lord, sang Mary when the pregnancy became real and the baby kicked for the first time...

And then, like any mother, she goes on to speak of the hope she has for her child.... of the way God will be at work through Jesus. There are some wonderfully high hopes I this song, the powerful being overthrown, the proud being humbled, the starving get food and the rich go away empty handed.

Again, we are talking about a vision of the Kingdom of God ... of what it "could" be like if we finally listen to the wisdom and compassion of God. It sets Jesus up with a huge and impossible seeming task; a lot of pressure on an unborn baby....

But you have to see how this set the stage. This really was the expectation that people had of the Messiah, this really is what people were praying for.

Mary was overcome with Joy because God was finally answering her prayers.... not only her prayers, but everyone's prayers. Could it be that the hope Mary feels is part of the reason that so many people look to her for guidance?

Conclusion

And when the broken hearted people

Living in the world agree,

There will be an answer, let it be

And though the night is cloudy,

There is still a light that shines on me,

Shine until tomorrow, Let it be...

Whisper words of wisdom.... Let it be...

Who knew the Beatles were so into Christmas? Well, okay, that is a stretch... but they were religious in their own way and they were part of the movement of people who believed at the world could become a better place.

And they saw in Mary, the same as we can, a person who sees the joy of life, who sees the simplicity of faith, and who is there to offer us wisdom....

As we approach Christmas we do so with a sense of joy that allows us to see the goodness of the world around us, even as we know there is pain and sorrow. There is so much joy and love, so much hope and peace.... let's celebrate that this year.... knowing that we are helping to birth Gods love into the world once more.

Pictures of God

Introduction

What is your favourite image of Jesus?

In the 1960s someone did a portrait called the laughing Jesus which I kind of like… The only problem being I cannot get over the fact that he sort of looks like a white hippy from the 1960s. The is Leonardo's version from the last supper, Rembrandt has famous paintings, we have probably seen a movie or two with Jesus in them…

But there are other possibilities. We have made him pretty much like us over the years. What if Jesus was black? What if he was Arabic? What if he was fat? What if he shaved? None of us really knows….

But how we picture something really does affect how we think about it. The picture in our mind affects our beliefs. If you do not believe me go home and google the Korek mountain ski resort in Iraq – tell me if it does not totally blow your conception of what Iraq is like out of the water.

First Reading

So here is Paul describing Jesus to the church in Colossae. I wish just once he would have acted like a modern novelist and said, “then Jesus turned his green eyes towards the crowd, brushed back his Chestnut hair from in front of his eyes and said…” But Paul never so much as gives a glimmer of the physical Jesus…. Here is what he says in Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

With the Kids

Close your eyes…. No seriously, humour me a second and close your eyes. Now. I am going to say a word and I want you to think of the first image that comes to mind. I’ll do a practice one first… everyone ready…. Doctor. If you are like me, you probably pictured a guy in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck…. Or something close.

Ok, keep your eyes closed or close them again… Ready for another one? I would like you to think of an image of… God.

Ok, open your eyes… What did you think of? I mean, I did do it this way because I was trying to get at the emotional brain. Not when you reason it out, not when you think about it, but spur of the moment what comes to mind. I always find it weird that for me it is the old white guy in the clouds with the white robe.

Don't get me wrong, that is not what I think God is. It is just the first thing that comes to mind when I try to think of God. So seriously, some people think of other things, but it is hard to find an image to capture God.

Second Reading

So I want to read you another story – one you are probably familiar with. It is about a visit of Jesus to Mary and Martha… Now, normally we hear this story and think about the two women, who is Mary, who is Martha… But I want you to listen today from another angle… Who is Jesus? What does this story say about Jesus personality and character? What do we learn about him?

Luke 10: 38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Engaging the Text

One of the things I really thought was funny in the art world came about when I learned about the medieval and renaissance religious painting movement. You know, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and the boys… there was a period when they all began painting religious scenes. Maybe because churches would actually pay them for their art…

Now, here is the thing that blew me away. When they painted they usually sat down in front of something and painted it. People posed for portraits, or they went into the countryside and painted the landscape.

The thing is, they had to make up what they thought Jesus and the disciples looked like – which is fair enough – but what they did not make up was the background. And so we have paintings of Jesus knocking at the door of a house in Venice. Or Jesus preaching from a mountain just outside of Paris. Even the last supper takes place in an Italian living room.

But that is what we came to believe the Jerusalem of Jesus day looked like… it forever coloured how we saw things.

The same is true for me of the Charlton Heston movie The Ten Commandments. I have in my head what ancient Egypt, Israel, and even Moses looked like because I always picture that movie….

I guess the thing I am trying to say is that our mental pictures can have a profound impact on the way that we see and understand the world. They influence the value and importance that we place on certain people, activities, and things.

If God, and Jesus, basically look like me and behave like me… then that means I am made in the image of God, right? And if I dress in the white linen robe and put a rope around my waste, it gives me even more authority, right?

Just like if I put on a white coat, draped a stethoscope around my neck and walked into your room in the hospital and told you to start drinking more tomato juice in order to make you better… would you question me?

No, because we have a mental image and when things fit that image we are content.

It is always a problem when they do not fit though, isn’t it? When I was in Whitehorse I went to the emergency department in the hospital and the doctor on call was a 20-year-old surfer from France. He had blond spiky beach hair and a great tan. And it was honestly hard to imagine he was a doctor.

You have probably had that happen… like getting pulled over by an RCMP officer who seems to be a little shy kid….

And the religious writers of the ancient church only made this worse.

Paul’s letter invites us to picture Jesus as “the image of the invisible God” and as “the head of the body, the church.” Well, think about it. How does our own mental image of Jesus affect the way we see God and the church? Clearly, it did. God is really just a grown old Jesus in most of the images, right. And certainly a man with a beard…. Not a woman, not black, certainly not a Mediterranean Jew.

Conclusion

It is something to think about, isn’t it? How does our image of Jesus, our image of God, affect how we see others? How does it impact our understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus right here in Marysville or Penniac? How does it shape our ministry?

Because trust me it does… even the stories we tell affect us. I read the story of Mary and Martha to you…. How has this affected us over the years? I know I was always told, by my grandparents and preachers that Mary was the one who was doing what God wanted. That we should sit and listen. That being faithful means basically to listen and pay attention to the words of Jesus…

Never mind that Martha was the one actually doing the work of hospitality and caring for the people around her.

But God forbid that we are “worried and distracted by many things” like that old Martha…

Maybe if we stop and think about how the images affect us. Maybe if we realize that we are always making judgements based on what we see… maybe we will be able to see the world they way Jesus actually saw it and be freed from the judgements that we all make.