"He's Calling!"

Posted below is the sermon I preached at Peace Presbyterian Church the Sunday that the congregation voted to receive me as their pastor:

1 Samuel 3:1-10 and Matthew 4:18-22

Peace Presbyterian Church

March 23, 2014 – Call Sermon

“He’s Calling!”

God’s been calling us since the beginning of time.  God said, “Let us make humankind in our image.”  God speaks the words and man and woman are created.  Adam and Eve ….. you and me…. exist because God called us into being.  And God said it was very good.

God calls Abram to be the father of all nations.  God tells Abram and Sara that even though they are biologically too old – they will have many descendents.  They laugh!  It seems impossible. Sarah is 99 years old! But God calls and overlooking a few “I’ll help God” escapades, Abraham and Sarah trust God and follow his call. 

God calls Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt.  Moses protests – I’m not a good speaker, He tells God.  But God calls Moses anyway.  And fighting and kicking all the way…. Moses responds to God’s call.

Each of these people, God calls personally - by name.  I could continue to list folks that God calls by name… Ruth, Rehab, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah.  And Samuel.  

I like Samuel; I guess because I can relate to Samuel’s response when God calls him.  Even though Samuel was in the temple when God calls, he doesn’t recognize God’s voice because he isn’t expecting to hear from God.  So the first time God calls Samuel, he figures it was the priest - Eli.  No.  It wasn’t Eli. 

The second time God calls, Samuel still doesn’t think its God. He doesn’t even consider it could be God calling him.  In fact, God doesn’t even enter into the equation.  It has to be Eli. Samuel goes into Eli’s house again - only to be told that ‘No, I’m not calling you, Samuel.’  This happens a third time and this time Eli, who is very wise says, ‘Aha. Samuel, its God calling you, not me!  Go back and listen.’   Wise advice.   Go back and listen.

So, when God calls Samuel a fourth time, Samuel knows it’s God – thanks to Eli of course!  After four tries, Samuel recognizes God’s voice.  God calls Samuel and Samuel responds.

You see, I get this.  It’s a little bit like when God first called me to ministry.  Back in 1999, successful in my career, I felt like I needed to be doing something different.  It was odd actually.  I felt like I needed to do something where my faith was a part of all of me – not just a Sunday compartment.  Hmmm - God was calling but I wasn’t expecting to hear his voice – so I didn’t.

I was restless.  I didn’t understand why suddenly all my goals; a career I loved, no longer satisfied me.  I took a bunch of personality & career tests to try to figure out what I wanted to do.  Three out of three tests – 100% - said I belonged in ministry, counseling, or teaching.  I remember going home and telling my girls about these tests.  My oldest daughter, Jessica, was about 12 years old at the time.  I remember her looking at me and saying, “Mom.  I want to support you in this, but I just can’t be the daughter of a minister!”  My response was just as adamant.  “Oh, don’t worry.  I’m not going to be a minister!”   God was calling me again, but I didn’t recognize his voice.

Flash forward a few years – it’s 2003.  I have this deep desire to go to seminary.  I didn’t know why but it was overwhelming.  So I applied to seminary and to my shock I was accepted!  Of course I knew I was NOT going to be a pastor.  After a semester of classes, I met with my advisor and he asked me why I wasn’t working toward a Master of Divinity.  “Oh,” I said, “because, God is not calling me to be a pastor.  I don’t really know why I’m here.  I just want to learn more theology.”  “Well,” he said.  “I would like to ask you to pray about that.  Because we think you are called to pastoral ministry.”  

Did you recognize it?  The third time God called me?  Well I didn’t.  God used my advisor, a battery of personality tests, a yearning in my own heart to call me…. but I wasn’t expecting to hear God’s voice so I didn’t.  It took me another year to hear God’s voice; to hear God calling me.  I thought I was in charge of my future.  I thought I was making the decisions.  It never dawned on me that God would call someone like me.  After all, I was too broken, too full of sin for God to call me.

But God doesn’t call the people we might expect him to call.  Just look at who Jesus calls as his disciples.  Not the leaders of the community.  Not the folks we would consider qualified – those that are well-educated and well-spoken and well-respected.  God doesn’t call the perfect people.  Jesus calls a bunch of ordinary folks – people like you and me to follow him.

Jesus’ ministry begins in Galilee – a fishing village, where much of his ministry takes place.  Galilee wasn’t a metropolitan business center.  It wasn’t an academic center or a cultural center or a political center.  It was an ordinary fishing village.  It was a town of hardworking, regular folks.  And it was among these regular, hard-working people that Jesus’ chose his disciples.  Twelve men that would travel with Jesus for three years, learn from him, become his friends, and eventually be responsible for continuing his ministry; responsible for starting a world religion.

Like God, Jesus’ calls his disciples by name.  “Simon…Andrew.” he calls.  “Come follow me.”  “James and John.  Come follow me.  Matthew, come follow me!”  One by one, Jesus calls his disciples – very personally – by name.   When Jesus calls Simon, and Andrew and James and John and the other disciples, it changes their lives.  It’s radical.  “Come follow me” he says.  When He calls them, things will never be the same. Their lives belong to Christ.

Jesus calls each of us as well.  Like His call to His first disciples, he calls us by name.  “Lynn, come follow me.  Brad, come follow me.  Jane, come follow me.”  (pause)  Do you believe that Jesus calls you?  Have you heard Jesus call you by name?  

Don’t worry.  He doesn’t call everyone to go to seminary and become an ordained pastor, but don’t be mistaken… he calls every one of us. And when he does, our life is never the same again.  We belong to Christ.  Jesus knows your heart.  He knows who you are.  And he calls YOU by name.  He says, “Come follow me.”  I guarantee he’s calling you!   Why do you think you are sitting here today?  Why aren’t you sleeping in or watching T.V.?  Why are you sitting in this church on this morning in March?  Because Jesus called your name, He put a yearning in your heart, and He brought you here.  I believe that each of us is here today – sitting in this church in this community in this worship service because Jesus’ called us to this church. 

Over the last couple of years you’ve done some soul searching about this church as you’ve gone through a transition in leadership.  You’ve had to think about who Peace Presbyterian Church is and what Peace Presbyterian Church is all about.  I hope that you discovered that this church is not the building. If these buildings burned down this afternoon, Peace Presbyterian Church would still exist.  I hope you came to understand that this church is not the pastor.  Pastors come and go but the church remains.  The church is not even the programs of the church.  The church isn’t any of the things we sometimes think it is.  The church is the Body of Christ.  It is God’s people.  It is each of us journeying together on this path called faith – a journey following Christ. 

A journey that takes a life time.

Although Jesus calls each one of his disciples personally; each one of us individually, he calls us into community. He calls us individually to take this journey together.  The disciples follow Jesus as a group as he travels in his ministry.  He teaches them in community and he sends them out to do ministry in community.  The disciples are called to be a new community which ultimately becomes the foundation of his church – the foundation of the Body of Christ – the People of God.

And in the same way, God has called each of us individually, He has also called us to be in community; to walk this journey of faith together.  To love one another.  To learn from one another.  To support one another.  To hold one another accountable.  To comfort one another.  To challenge one another.   To grow together.  To wrestle together with what it means to follow Jesus.  To become Christ-like together.  Our call to discipleship is both individual and communal.  God’s call is personal but we need one another to live successfully into His call.

And here’s the kicker.  God doesn’t just call us once.  He continues to call us throughout our lifetime.  You may have first heard him call your name when you were very young and you decided to follow Jesus.  You may be a lifelong member of Peace.  Perhaps you were married here.  Your children grew up here.  Or maybe you are a new follower.  A newer member or friend of Peace.  It doesn’t matter how recent or how long ago God called you.  He calls again and again.  His call on your life doesn’t end.  God always has plans for you.  There is always a place for you in God’s Kingdom ministry.  Do you hear His voice? Do you hear Him calling?

So here we are – you and me – called to this church in this place in this time because God has plans for us and plans for His ministry here in this part of Eugene.  We are here because God called us HERE.  He called you…. and you… and you… and I believe he is calling me here; to Peace.  We are the Body of Christ, the people of God here in this neighborhood.  He’s calling us to reach out to our neighbors, he’s calling to us to be His body and spread His good news in this particular community.  He’s calling us to be about His kingdom right here, right now.

I don’t believe that we just “GO” to church like its’ some event or social outing.  The church isn’t a destination.  We ARE the church.  And the call Jesus places on our lives is to BE the people of God.  It’s as much or more about being as it is about doing.  We are called to be the people of God wherever we are – at church, at work, at home, or at the grocery store.  It’s not a Sunday-only label.  It’s who we are.  It’s WHOSE we are.

God calls us here – into this church building, individually to worship Him as a community.  And then God calls us out – out into the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Maybe he’s calling you to reach out to your neighbor.  To a neighbor you don’t know yet; to visit a shut-in.   Maybe God is calling you to say some words of encouragement to the clerk at the grocery store who is overworked and underpaid.  Or maybe God is calling you to reconcile a relationship.  Is God

nudging your heart?

Maybe God is calling you to something new; to be involved in a new way.  Is he calling you to take a risk – to step out of your comfort zone?  Maybe he’s calling you to commit to a deeper level of prayer for the church, the community, the kids in this neighborhood.  Maybe he’s calling you to invite a neighbor or a friend to church.  Are you listening?  Do you hear his voice?  

What is God calling Peace Presbyterian to be in this next season?  Is he calling us to be more prayerful?  Is he calling us to study his Word together and wrestle with what it means for our everyday lives?  Is God calling us to reach out to our neighbors in new ways?  To meet a specific need in the community? 

I don’t know the answers but I’m excited to discover them together.  The only thing I’m certain of is that He is calling.  God has called you here – here to this church because this is where you belong.  He calls you by name.  He loves you.  He wants you.  He invites you in.  “Come follow me,” he says. 

When God calls, our lives are never the same again. How will you respond? Listen.  Do you hear his voice? 

Let us pray:

Lord, thank you for wanting us so much that you call us by name.  Thank you for the blessing of being your beloved children.  Help us to live into your call both personally and as your community of faith here in this church, in this neighborhood, in this time.  Help us to follow where and when you call, trusting that your plans are good.  Help us to have the courage and strength and faith to respond to your call with a resounding “yes!”    In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.

Radical Love

This is one of those Scripture passages that is great for preaching but hard to live out.  I got excited when I saw that this was the Gospel passage for today.  I can preach this, I thought!   And then God did one of His God-things and reminded me that I needed to pay attention.  You see, there is someone in my professional life that I am really struggling with.  And Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  So, this is personal for me.  Today, I am preaching to myself!  You probably don’t need to listen because you don’t have anyone in your life like Jesus is talking about.  Or do you?

The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of Jesus’ most significant teachings.  If you want to know what Jesus is about – this is a good place to go – chapters 5 and 6 in Matthew.  It speaks volumes about who Jesus the Christ is.  It gives us a good picture of what the Kingdom of God looks like.  These teachings speak clearly about who we are to be if we call ourselves followers of Christ.  It’s good stuff.  But it’s hard teaching. 

Right at the outset of his ministry, Jesus lays it on the line.  To follow Jesus demands a totally different way of life.  A new age has dawned and the Sermon shows what human life must be like after we repent and commit ourselves to Christ.   In His Sermon, we see a sharp contrast between the standards of Jesus and the standards of the world.  We find a distinctive lifestyle, with radically different values and ambitions.   Jesus challenges His followers to do the opposite of what seems normal and reasonable.

Beginning with the Beatitudes we discover that the character valued in the Kingdom of God is upside down from that of the world.   The powerless are lifted up and the powerful are pushed down.  We learn that our reward is in heaven, not on earth.  Radical, radical teaching.

But Jesus is just getting warmed up.  He teaches us that anger toward someone is as great a sin as murder.  I’m no less of a sinner than a murderer?  That’s hard teaching. 

He teaches us that anyone who lusts after another person has committed adultery.  Wow!  Who of us hasn’t taken some pleasure, some delight in dreaming about what it would be like to be with some attractive man or woman?    His challenging teaching continues as Jesus talks about divorce, swearing oaths and retaliation.  Turn the other cheek?  Seriously, Jesus?

And then he ends this part of his teaching – this half of the Sermon on the Mount with a little lesson on love. 

What is love, anyway?  If you flip through the T.V. channels, you’ll find lots – and I mean lots of shows about love.  There’s a show called “The Bachelor” where a young, good-looking bachelor meets and dates 25 women, each week narrowing it down until after 16 episodes, he has found “his soul mate.” Is this love?

There are Soap Operas during the day and sitcoms at night each of which show relationships that come and go – all for the sake of love. People trade partners as often as our mother’s taught us to change our underwear.   Is this the world’s definition of love?  Something found after a few casual interchanges based on superficial information and impressions? 

Something tells me this isn’t the kind of love that Jesus is commanding us to have!  Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  BUT I TELL YOU:  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

Love is the central theme of all Jesus’ teachings – the central theme of his life and ministry. Love is the very core of who Jesus is.  So it should be no surprise that Jesus challenges us to love in radical ways.   He demands unlimited love.  Love the just and the unjust he says; love the good and the evil; love those who love us back, and those who are our enemies.  Jesus demands that his followers have undiscriminating and undifferentiating love toward everyone. That is a tall order! But that is the mark of our Master and so it must be the mark of His disciples.  We are called to love as God loves.

I will never forget the feeling I had when my oldest daughter was born and I held her for the first time.  My heart swelled with love.  I was completely overwhelmed with the intensity of my emotions.  These were feelings I had never experienced before in my life and the only other time I have ever experienced this intensity of emotion, was when I held my second daughter moments after she was born 2 years later. 

Perhaps you know what I’m talking about?  I am still overcome with emotion when I remember those first moments with those babies.  The feeling of love I felt for my beautiful babies completely and irrevocably swallowed me up and from that moment on, I would do absolutely anything to protect them. 

But you know what I find amazing?  This is only a small taste of how much God loves us!  You see, God loves us more than we can possibly love one another – even our children, because his love is truly unconditional.  It’s not conditioned on how cute we are or how well we behave or anything about us.  He loves us because we belong to Him.  

The love that Jesus describes is an intentional act - even for those we really dislike.  Jesus commands us to “choose” to love; to decide that we will love our enemies; to “will ourselves” to love those we hate. It is not an emotion.  It is a decision that we will love because God loves us. Christ’s disciples are commanded to reflect the generosity of God, who sends blessings upon both the righteous and the unrighteous.  Jesus says, “God shines his sun on evil people and on good people.  He sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  Why should we be different – we who call ourselves Christians?  That’s tough love.  That’s radical love.

How can we possibly do this?  How can I possibly love this person that has been so cruel to me?  That has hurt me?  Not on my own, that’s for sure!  We are able to be gracious, forgiving, hospitable, generous, and loving because we are children of the God who showers us with His abundant grace, mercy, and love – grace, mercy, and love that we don’t deserve either.  Those who know God’s love, can love their enemies; those who experience God’s forgiveness; can forgive those who persecute them; those who claim God’s gift of generosity, can give back to those who have little or nothing. 

In a 1938 sermon, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When you confront your enemy think first of all about your OWN antagonism with God and about God’s compassion towards YOU.  “Think first about your own antagonism with God and about God’s compassion toward you.”  It sure makes me pause.

Can you say you have never sinned?  Can we as a Church say that we have always exemplified the life of Christ?  Can we say we have never hated?  Never held onto anger?  Never retaliated? 

Every time we sin; every time we fall short of the glory of God every time we oppose God, we become his adversary.  And isn’t an adversary the same thing as an enemy?  Yet unbelievably, God continues to love us.  Jesus commands us to be no different. 

If we call ourselves Christian, we must choose to love… will ourselves to love, as

God loves us.  God loves us with a perfect love that knows no boundaries.  A love that doesn’t discriminate.  A love that is more than an emotion based on the behavior of another.  In this teaching, Jesus shows us that our loveless attitude toward our enemies is identical with that of the very people we despise.  This is tough love. But just because it’s hard – just because it seems impossible doesn’t make it less of a truth.

If we really listen to this passage and take it to heart, we realize what a radical thing Jesus is asking us to do.  It is easy to love our children, our spouses, our parents, our friends – especially during the good times.  We all do.  Even those “unloveable” people in our lives are somebody’s daughter, son, mother, father, or friend and love or are loved by friends and family.  I believe it is how God created us.  After all, He created everyone in His image.

Jesus says in John 13:34, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  But to love those who rub us the wrong way and those who we find un-loveable is a challenge.  To love those who actually disagree with us, who believe differently than we do – is difficult.  To love people we don’t even know, perhaps have never heard of is even more complicated, for they almost don’t exist. But to love our enemies – serial killers, suicide bombers, terrorists – now that is another matter altogether.   To love as God loves “unlovable us” is what we are called to do every moment of every day.

Does Jesus love me more than He loves you because I am a pastor; a “supposed woman of God”?  Does Jesus love you more than the person on the corner because you come to church most Sundays and he doesn’t?  Praise the Lord that God’s love is not conditioned on who we are or what we do.  Because friends, I am a great sinner.  What about you?  Jesus destroyed any illusion that we are somehow better than others when he compared those with harbor anger in their hearts to murderers!  What a gift that we don’t have to earn God’s love but rather He freely gives it to us.  That is why we are called to love others – because God loves us and he loves them too. 

In Christ, we are called to a radically different way of being in this world; one that is often difficult and hard to swallow.  God’s love for the world trumps our wish for vengeance and our need to be self-righteous before others.  God’s love is for all of God’s creations and that happens to include those who do not love us and who wish to destroy us.

Yet God walks with us even as we struggle to love those we don’t want to love and who do not love us.  He walks with us to do good to those who wish us harm.  Nothing can separate us – or anyone else, from the love of God in Christ Jesus, not even our own bigotry and hatred of those who are different than we are. 

What would happen if we took Jesus’ teaching to heart?  What would it be like if we truly loved as Christ commanded us to love?    What would happen if we loved so radically that it drew people to Christ?  Christ’s love is transforming – after all, it has transformed each of us so why couldn’t it transform the world? 

Let us pray:  Loving God:  You love people whom we do not love, You read the hearts of others, whom we do not understand, You know the inmost suffering of those whom we ignore.  Open our eyes and our hearts.    Enlarge our heart that it may be big enough to receive the greatness of your love.  Stretch our heart that it may take into it all those who with us around the world believe in Jesus Christ.  Stretch it that it may take into it all those who do not know Him, but because we know Him, are our responsibility.  Stretch our hearts that it may take in all those who are not lovely in our eyes, whose hands we do not want to touch; but whom you love unconditionally in the same way that you love us.  Teach us to love with your perfect love. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior.  AMEN.

Looking Forward

A friend posted this on their Facebook page today:

“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book.  Write a good one.” 

Signed 2014

I like that.  Tomorrow starts a new calendar year and for many of us we think of it as a fresh start; a chance to start over.  For many it was a tough year and I’ve heard many people (me included) say that they are looking forward to a new year.  It’s as if rolling the date is going to make a difference somehow.  Like writing 2014 instead of 2013 is somehow going to align the stars differently or change bad luck into good.

But this post reminds me that how we look at life, how we choose to make decisions and spend our time and focus our energies determines the quality of our life.  It’s not just a new year but each morning we awake to a new day; a gift from God.  How we choose to spend each day is up to us.  Make it a good one.

So along these lines, there are a few things I’m going to try to do differently.  These aren’t your typical New Year’s resolutions.  I stopped making resolutions a long time ago because I never kept them.  They just tended to make me feel bad; make me feel guilty; ashamed of my lack of self-discipline.  Rather, these are changes in attitudes and behaviors that I am going to try to emulate during the year.  These are things that Jesus did so well that people were drawn to him because they knew he loved them.  I want to be more like Jesus.  I know that I will sometimes fail because these things are really hard for me.  I am truly imperfect.  But , this is part of my journey and I think spiritual growth is all about trying and sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding. 

So here’s my list of things I’m going to try to do differently in 2014:  

1.  Instead of worrying, I’m really going to try to trust God and believe what I say I believe – that God is in control.

2. Instead of being judgmental, I’m going to try to genuinely love people because they are created in the image of God – everyone.

3.Instead of thinking that I’m in control and trying to figure things out on my own, I’m going to pray about everything - first.  I repeat:  instead of thinking that I’m in control and trying to figure things out on my own, I’m going to pray about everything – first.  Repeat… (well, you get it)

4. I’m going to observe the Sabbath.  I’m going to make self-care and rest a priority.  Jesus did.  God commanded it. 

5. I’m going to focus on relationships rather than work/stuff.  Jesus spent more time with people than he did anything else.  Plus, relationships feed me.

I think if I’m able to do these things better – even 50% of the time in 2014 then I did in 2013, then I will write a pretty good book in the coming year.  Please pray for me!

May the Lord richly bless you in the New Year.

Different Than Expected

There’s a Christmas song on the radio that I love.  It’s a song that is sung from Joseph’s perspective and it says:

Why me, I'm just a simple man of trade
Why Him, with all the rulers in the world
Why here inside this stable filled with hay
Why her, she's just an ordinary girl
Now I'm not one to second guess what angels have to say
But this is such a strange way to save the world  

This is a strange way for God to save the world.  When we look beyond the words that we are so familiar with, the Christmas story is not the type of story we might expect to find for the birth of the Lord and Savior of the world.  It’s not a grandiose story.  It’s certainly not as romantic as we make it out to be. 

Jesus was born to a poor, unwed teenage mother.  Mary’s pregnancy brought tremendous shame to Joseph; the disgrace of being engaged to be married to Mary who becomes pregnant was unfathomable.  The long, arduous 80 miles journey to Bethlehem by donkey – Mary nine months pregnant.  Normally it would take about 4 days to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem by donkey. However, Mary, nearing her due date would require more than 4 days for fear of miscarriage. So perhaps it took them a week (or more) to arrive in Bethlehem.

Mary gives birth in the filth of a barn, probably lying on top of stiff, dirty, itchy straw.  The Christ child is laid in a feeding trough for barn animals, not the nice cradle that we find in our nativity scenes. 

The shepherds – the first ones the angels tell of the birth of Christ – the first ones to see the infant Jesus - were outcasts.  Not the most upstanding part of society back in Jesus' day; certainly not the most important people.  Yet these rough, unrefined shepherds were chosen by God to get the first look at the Savior.  The most significant event of the universe witnessed by the nobodies of society.  Unbelievable.

 

God allows his Son…. The Christ to be born into humble beginnings, without any outward splendor.  This Messiah, this Savior is “good news of great joy for ALL the people.”  The long awaited Messiah was not unapproachable royalty.  Was this what Mary expected?  Is it what we expect?

I can almost hear Mary’s gasp of relief when the birth is over; Joseph’s smothered joy at seeing this child;  the cry of the newborn Christ.  Jesus birth was so humble, so seemingly routine; grace took on human flesh and scarcely broke the hush of midnight.  Of course the night wasn’t over yet !  Christ’s birth was a gift and it was one God intended to share.  There was nothing under-the-radar about angels shouting the news of Christ to startled shepherds, singing at the top of their angelic lungs.  Celebration!  Adoration!  Good news for all people!

I don’t suppose the shepherds were expecting divine revelation when they gathered their flocks that night, but after seeing Jesus for themselves, they too, “spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.”

And more than two thousand years later, we proclaim the same thing.  “He has come!” we proclaim on Christmas Eve!  As the prophet Isaiah proclaimed so many years ago; “A child has been born for us and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father; Prince of Peace.” 

We hear this story every year.   I don’t get tired of hearing it.  But this year, something caught my attention.  Something really touched me. Tucked in the middle of the reaction of the shepherds. “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”    In the midst of the humbleness, the unexpectedness of the situation, Mary treasures all these words and ponders them in her heart.

I remember every detail of the births of each of my daughters.  The miracle of the child I held in my arms after so many months of waiting.  Memorizing the shape of their face – their little nose… their mouth.  Fingers and toes.  Their smell.  How beautiful they were.  How perfect.  I guess you could say that I treasured everything about my newborn daughters; “I treasured these things in my heart”.  It’s why I can still recall every detail today.  More than 25 years later I can still feel my emotions when I held my babies for the first time.  I can still put myself back in that hospital bed.  That new baby… still wet with birth fluids wrapped in my arms.  Such a miracle.

I imagine Mary had similar thoughts and feelings.  She had carried her baby for nine months.  She had waited to give birth.  I imagine she was amazed at the simple miracle of birth; I imagine that she was enthralled by the shape of his face… his nose… his mouth.  I imagine she counted his fingers and his toes.  I imagine she treasured the same things about her newborn child that I did.

But this wasn’t an ordinary child.  The shepherds told Mary and Joseph what the angels had told them about the child.   They told Mary and Joseph that they had traveled to Bethlehem to see the Christ child for themselves.  And Mary treasured these words in her heart.  She considered them precious; she cherished them.  She tucked these words; the news that angels had come to a field and proclaimed the birth of her son to these unsuspecting shepherds; that they had traveled to Bethlehem to see for themselves; these reminders of who this child was, in with her thoughts and feelings about the child she had birthed.  This baby boy.  And she treasured them.  She cherished them.  In the Message Bible, Eugene Peterson says that, “Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within her.”  I like that.  She treasured them deep within her.

These words of the shepherds, the proclamation by the angels, are added to her other experiences of God’s revelation – Gabriel’s visit to her nine months before.  She ponders what this all means.  She deeply and thoroughly considers all these things.  She stores them deep within her.

This is God’s Son.  The promised Messiah.  The Savior of the world.   What do you suppose she was thinking?  What do you suppose she was feeling?  For nine months Mary carried God’s child in her womb.  For nine months she must have wondered what he would be like – God’s Son.  She must have thought about what it would be like… how it would be… to give birth to the Messiah – the promised Savior of the world.

I wonder if it was what she expected.  I wonder if she expected that she would have to travel on a donkey for days when she was nine months pregnant.  Do you think she expected to be told there was no room for them to stay?  No place for her to give birth?  Did she expect to give birth to God’s Son in a dirty, smelly stable filled with animals? Did she anticipate that the Savior of the world would lie in a feeding trough filled with hay?  Do you suppose this is how she expected God’s Son to come into the world?   

As Mary held her son that night… as her maternal instincts kicked in, did she wonder how this defenseless baby could be the promised Messiah?   God’s revelation to Mary nine months prior; the angels glorious revelation to the shepherds matched the momentous news that God had come to earth in the person of this baby Jesus.  Did the praising, the worship, the angelic chorus that night, match the reality of her experience? 

 

I imagine that Mary pondered why the promised Messiah – the Savior of the world, would be born in a barn, laid in a feeding trough.   I wonder what Mary was thinking?  Was she thinking that this was a strange way for God to save the world?  Is it what she expected?  Is it what you expect?

The Christmas story is a beautiful story.  I will always love hearing it.  But it’s more than just a story.  This story is life changing and life saving.  God changed the world that night so many years ago in Bethlehem.  This precious baby boy grows up and turns the world upside down.  This precious baby boy grows up and makes the ultimate sacrifice so that every one of us will be forgiven for our sinful ways.  This precious baby boy is our way to eternal life.  This baby boy is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

This night, long ago in Bethlehem, God took on human flesh and came and lived among us that we may not perish, but have eternal life.  This is worth pondering.  This is worth sharing.  This is very good news.  “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”    Amen.

Advent Thoughts

This is the Third Sunday of Advent; the season of the Church when we are reminded to wait and prepare for the coming Messiah – to wait for the coming Christ child.  Advent is a time of longing; a time of anticipation; a time of hope.

But why?  Why is such a big deal made out of waiting for a baby to be born in a manger?  Why the fuss?  What is it that we are hoping for?

This is a time when Christians are reminded that there is a big difference between waiting for Christmas and waiting for Christ.  Christmas – the holiday that most of us celebrate; the holiday that retailers count on to make their profits for the year, has come to have little to do with Christ.   Waiting for Christmas is about getting the decorations up, the shopping done.  It’s about scurrying and over scheduling.  It’s about running to get everything done until we are so tired we can’t enjoy it.  But this busyness; what the world has us believe is Christmas has nothing to do with Christ. 

And so each year, while we simultaneously prepare for the holiday of Christmas, the church teaches us to slow down; to prepare ourselves; to wait and watch for the coming Christ.  But again, I ask you:  why?  What’s the big deal?

Advent is a time when we are filled with new hope and great anticipation for what the coming Christ child means for a hurt and broken world.  Waiting for the Christ child requires us to draw on our collective memories of God’s people as a source of hope for the future – hope we sorely need today.  We anticipate and long for the coming Christ because He is the way of redemption and salvation for all the world.  But why?

We hope and anticipate the coming Christ because He is God hidden in human form, who comes to reveal the power of the powerless in his self-giving act on the cross.  And it is through his self-giving act on the cross that our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled to God.  It is through his self-giving act on the cross that we who believe are saved from death and by grace receive eternal life.  This is good news!

But for too many of us, the story stops here.  I am saved, we say.  That’s it.    That’s all that matters.  Yet if we call ourselves Christians – followers of Christ, we need to ask ourselves what this means.  For what reason; for what purpose am I saved?  You see, our individual salvation is not the end-all. 

The prophet Isaiah tells us God’s purpose for the world.   And when Jesus’ began his ministry, he stood before the synagogue and read these same words from the prophet Isaiah. “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,  ² to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,” (Isaiah 61:1-2)   And when he finished, he closed the scroll and said, “"Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21)  

How many of you are familiar with the story of Alice in Wonderland?  When Alice falls through the rabbit-hole into Wonderland, she is convinced that she has fallen right through the earth and is destined to come out where people will be upside down.

The Third Sunday of Advent invites us into a world of reversals, a world where the captives are freed, where the hungry are filled and where the rich are sent away empty. It is certainly a world where things are turned upside down. From the point of view of social order, such reversals could be considered Antipathies. But from God’s point of view, they are signs of transformation.

In order to appreciate the strength of today’s message from Isaiah, we must remember that he was speaking to people who were dispossessed, people in need of a message of hope, a promise of some kind of economic reversal. This same description of reversal is found throughout Jesus’ teachings in the gospels. There we see that the lowly enjoy the blessings that God promised long ago. 

God offers us the possibility of a new world. The Wonderland to which we are invited is not some mad tea party attended by an array of strange guests. It is a world established in justice and peace, a world in which all will hear the glad tidings of salvation.

In order to enter the mysterious new world that lies before us, like Alice, we have to undergo some kind of change; some kind of transformation. And so once again today, we are reminded that the preaching of John the Baptist is repentance; repentance in preparation for the coming Lord. Make straight the way of the Lord! Get rid of any obstacle that might deter His arrival. Eliminate from our lives the greed that impoverishes others, the arrogance that tries to set us above the rest, the power that makes us abusive, the selfishness that turns us in on our own concerns alone. Today we are all aware of the destructive evil that such attitudes have spawned. We suffer the consequences of their corrosive power. But our faith reminds us that we do not have to remain victims of these forces.

There is a far better way of living in the world, and on this Third Sunday of Advent we stand at its threshold. The question, however, is: Are we willing to step forward? Or are we afraid to have our world turned upside down? Are we the poor who will hear the good news of reversal, or are we the ones responsible for their poverty? Are we the brokenhearted who will be healed, or have we broken their hearts? Are we the captives who will be freed, or are we the captors who have restrained them? On what side of the reversals do we find ourselves?

Advent is a time to search our hearts, to discover where, both individually and as a community, we need to change. It is a time of expectation, for we are told that there is one who has the power to heal our personal brokenness, to heal our fractured families, to heal our troubled church, to heal our bleeding world. Isaiah tells us that he is coming; John tells us that he is already in our midst. His presence among us should make us rejoice; the saving power that he brings should give us confidence. If we open our hearts to this saving power, we can indeed transform our society; we can renew our church, we can work toward peace in the world—we can turn our world upside down.

Isaiah ties God’s salvation of the Israel to the mission of changing the world.  Jesus proclaims this same missional salvation as his reason for being in the world.  If we claim to be followers of Christ, this must be our mission too.  Our salvation is not an end, but a beginning to doing Christ’s work in the world. 

This next week, rejoice in the realization that Christ is in our midst, ready to work through us to heal our world.  But, let’s also spend time praying that God will shine His light to help you recognize what in your life should be turned “upside down” and for the courage to change it.    Amen.  

Just Waiting - Again

I'm not good at waiting.  Probably because I don't like to wait.  I used to pray for patience but then I realized that way too often God gave me what I prayed for - opportunities to learn patience and that just hurt too much!  I've stopped praying for patience!

Yet here I am, waiting on God.  I'm praying and anticipating that God is calling me back to serve His church.  I'm in the discernment process.  I'm waiting.  I want Him to call me NOW.  But I know that's not how God works - His time has never been my time.  I need to rest in the assurance that God has a plan and His timing and His plan is much better than mine - although a clue would be really nice.  I need to trust that the Holy Spirit is in the midst of the process.   And I do trust; and I do know these things.  My problem is that although God has given me lots of opportunities to learn patience, I've never gotten the lessons right.  I've never learned to like waiting.

It's probably no accident that my season of waiting happens to be the Church season of Advent.  Advent is the time of preparation for the arrival or coming of the Messiah - the Christ child.  So Advent to is a time of waiting.  When we are preparing for something, we are waiting.  At Advent, we wait for the birth of Jesus Christ, who I proclaim as my Lord and Savior.  During Advent our lectionary Scripture lessons help us prepare our hearts for this baby that will be born in a barn to teenage parents and completely turn the world upside down.  "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood."  (John 1:14).

So, as hard as it is, I wait.  While I wait, I pray and read my devotions, and prepare myself (the best I can) for whatever it is God is preparing for me in the future.  I remind myself (sometimes hourly) that God's timing is perfect.  I try to be grateful for what He has already given me and appreciate where I am in the moment.  And if I'm totally honest, I'll also admit that I remind Him not to keep me waiting too long!

Advent Poem

No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God - for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel. God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.

Oscar Romero