Blog Archives

December 30, 2018 - Singing the Lord's Song

12/30/2018

*OPENING SENTENCES & GREETING                    (from the angels’ song in Luke 2)
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you;
he is the Messiah, the Lord.
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
OLD TESTAMENT READING                                                           Isaiah 52:7-10, NIV

7 How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.

PSALTER                                                                                                   Psalm 98, NLT

1 Sing a new song to the Lord,
    for he has done wonderful deeds.
His right hand has won a mighty victory;
    his holy arm has shown his saving power!
2 The Lord has announced his victory
    and has revealed his righteousness to every nation!
3 He has remembered his promise to love and be faithful to Israel.
    The ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

4 Shout to the Lord, all the earth;
    break out in praise and sing for joy!
5 Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and melodious song,
6 with trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn.
    Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!

7 Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
    Let the earth and all living things join in.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands in glee!
    Let the hills sing out their songs of joy
9 before the Lord,
    for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice,
    and the nations with fairness.

GOSPEL READING                                                                              John 1:1-14, NCV

1 In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him. 4 In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.

6 There was a man named John who was sent by God. 7 He came to tell people the truth about the Light so that through him all people could hear about the Light and believe. 8 John was not the Light, but he came to tell people the truth about the Light. 9 The true Light that gives light to all was coming into the world!

10 The Word was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him. 11 He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.

14 The Word became a human and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father—and he was full of grace and truth.

NEW TESTAMENT READING                                                Colossians 3:12-17, NCV

12 God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So you should always clothe yourselves with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Bear with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you. 14 Even more than all this, clothe yourself in love. Love is what holds you all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful. 16 Let the teaching of Christ live in you richly. Use all wisdom to teach and instruct each other by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.

CHRISTMAS MEDITATION      Singing the Lord’s Song

We probably find it easier to sing the Lord’s song this time of year than any other. For all the commercial and theatrical Christmas songs out there, plenty of people sing or play instrumental versions of traditional Christmas carols that share the story of Christ’s birth. Christmas carols come from and are loved by peoples of many different nations.

According to one history site the first “Angel’s hymn” sung for a worship service in Rome was in the year 129. But Christmas carols in various languages became popular in the Middle Ages after St. Francis started the practice of Nativity Plays in Italy. Music told the story as the play was enacted, and out of this perhaps, a new generation of Christmas carols was born. The trend spread across Europe with carols in French, German, Spanish and other languages, not just Latin anymore.

Not every carol told the biblical story. There were some embellishments, localized versions or some based on legend. In spite of the Puritans who eliminated many forms of music from worship, carols survived in England until a time they could again be enjoyed in official Christmas Eve performances. Carols finally flourished in the Victorian era with orchestral accompaniment. Street singing of carols was popular as were candlelight Christmas Eve worship services that included much singing. Into this tradition 100 years ago came the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, as we shared here on Christmas Eve, with carols and scriptures combined to tell the story from the fall of humanity to the birth of our Savior.

(the above information comes from this website: https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/carols_history.shtml )

Perhaps you noticed the common thread running through our scripture choices today.
The opening came from the Christmas narrative in Luke 2; it is the song the angels sing to the shepherds. In the prophecy from Isaiah, as good news comes in a foretelling of Messiah, the watchman is to shout for joy and others respond with joyful songs. Do you hear in Isaiah the future hint of the angels bringing good tidings of great joy for all people?

Psalm 98 tells us to sing a new song as we tell of God’s wonderful deeds. We are called to break into songs of joy and praise with instruments as well as voices, because God has remembered his promise of faithful love to all people. Isn’t that exactly what both Zechariah and Mary did? The words to their songs are recorded in Luke 1; we cherish them as the Benedictus and the Magnificat. We sang versions of each of these during the season of Advent. In these songs of praise each expectant parent is grateful for the blessing their child will bring, John as the Baptist and Jesus as Messiah. But the songs also remember the promises God made to their ancestors and give thanks that God keeps those promises. Magrey deVega actually calls Luke the “Ultimate Advent Playlist” in his book, Awaiting the Already. He compares it to a Rogers and Hammerstein musical where, “Something happens to someone, and then they sing about it.” (p. 48)

As John’s Gospel begins, his topic is the Word and the Light. He doesn’t refer to singing, but these verses could themselves be a hymn. They are laid out as a poem in most Bible versions, just as the songs of Zechariah and Mary are set. There is a rhythm to reading them I can easily imagine set to a melody, and indeed we know some verses have inspired great music including Handel’s Messiah. “And the Glory of the Lord” is one of my favorites.

Then we come to Colossians and a summary of Paul’s teachings on the aspects of being a good Christian. As he extols virtues like kindness and patience, the necessity of forgiveness, the importance of love and obedience, he also expects us to “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” with gratitude in our hearts. Singing the Lord’s song is part of what it is to be a Christian. Maybe only a few of us have the talent to sing in RiverChor, for example, but we can still sing hymns here in worship or sing along with a radio or CD at home or in the car. Maybe you just hum and think the words in your head, but all of this is a way to offer our thanks and praise to God.

Music is one of my favorites among God’s many gifts. I said years ago I would rather go blind than deaf, because I would miss music too much. For me music can be both exciting or soothing. It has a profound capacity to carry my memories, and it is an excellent form of teaching. You pick up as much theology from repeated hymns as you do from any one sermon.

Before Jessika was born, I often sang to her what I called teaching songs. The ABC song was to get started on the alphabet. Ten Little Indians was for counting, but I added a verse of Ten Little Maidens for gender equality. Jesus Loves Me was the beginning of her Christian Education. I don’t remember why I chose to do that, but I was very diligent about it, and I repeated those songs to Tali.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that having a song on your mind can brighten your day. I know people who need music to get going in the morning or to tackle the chores. It has been demonstrated that students do better on tests with classical music in the background. I was playing string versions of Christmas carols while I wrote this message. Karla and I talked about music in the office this week. I need to find the CD player that used to be in there. Friday she listened to KLove on her phone and asked if country was ok, too. Meanwhile I listen to either Kpop or contemporary Christian on my computer, and some days bookkeeping requires classical.

What I’m saying is that more than one genre of music can allow God to work in and through you. I believe God loves many forms of music, each style as unique as the children he created. Magrey deVega referred to a study reviewed in Social Psychology and Popular Science journal showing that phenomenon of getting a chill down your spine when you listen to some music is a real thing. Music can trigger a response in your hypothalamus causing goosebumps. But here’s the thing, it seems to depend more on your “openness to experience” than to what genre of music is played. My guess is different things might trigger a response in different people, or perhaps a well sung phrase would do it for me no matter what genre. (p.48)

The whole time I was reading deVega’s chapter on the music in Luke, I was thinking to myself of another verse from Psalms that poses a different scenario. It’s the verse behind one of the songs in the musical “Godspell.” The verse asks, “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4, GW)

For the exiles in Babylon, it was very hard to keep singing the Lord’s songs when they were surrounded by a foreign culture and expected to participate in that society, especially when they were to bow down and worship the king or his statue. On the one hand, the loss of their homeland and way of life would fill them with so much sorrow they didn’t feel like singing, or all they could sing were laments. On the other hand, when you are in a foreign culture for decades and encouraged to blend in, eventually you absorb that culture and sometimes forget aspects of your own.

I think this intersects our own experience in some ways, because for us older folks the world today can feel pretty foreign compared to our youth. Technology has brought so many changes, but there are changes in values as well. Many of us struggle with what that means in terms of worship and sharing our Christian faith. We feel like the faithful remnant of the exile when we come on Sunday morning. Not everyone is looking for the same style of worship, but the foreign feeling comes when we realize many people aren’t looking for worship at all. Many live day to day lives without recognizing a need for God or the need for a Savior. So, how do we sing the Lord’s songs in that foreign landscape?

I’ll be honest, I’m raising the question for you to ponder more than I am offering you answers. It is a question each of us has to answer in our own way. But let me refer you back to some of today’s scriptures for a hint. Our passage from Colossians began “God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So…” and it goes on to give us clues of how we are to live as God’s people in this world. Metaphorically they are all ways we sing the Lord’s song even in a foreign land. We do it with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, unity, peace, gratitude and obedience.

If you look at the other scriptures from Isaiah and Psalms we are to sing or shout the good news, and bring glad tidings to others. If you can’t sing it like the angels, then be like the shepherds who went out of Bethlehem rejoicing and telling everyone the things they had heard and seen. Dare to talk about the things God has done in your life!

When you need encouragement, turn again to John, and remember that as dark as things may seem at times, the light shines in the darkness (even the darkness of your own soul or the darkness of the world gone awry) and the darkness cannot put that Light out! Perhaps there is a bit of melody singing itself in your mind. If the message of that song is something appropriate, perhaps it is the Light making itself known within you.

As we continue to enjoy a few more Christmas carols today, sing your heart out and rejoice. Make your melody to God our Creator and Jesus our Savior, as you share God’s good news in song.

0 Comments

December 23, 2018 - Radical Renewal

12/22/2018

1 Comment

*OPENING SENTENCES & GREETING                                                   Psalm 36:5-7, NCV
Lord, your love reaches to the heavens,
    your loyalty to the skies.
Your goodness is as high as the mountains.
    Your justice is as deep as the great ocean.
Lord, you protect both people and animals.
God, your love is so precious!
    You protect people in the shadow of your wings.

OLD TESTAMENT READING                                                                  Psalm 113:5-9, CEB
Who could possibly compare to the Lord our God?
    God rules from on high;
6     he has to come down to even see heaven and earth!
7 God lifts up the poor from the dirt
    and raises up the needy from the garbage pile
8         to seat them with leaders--
        with the leaders of his own people!
9     God nests the once barren woman at home--
        now a joyful mother with children!

Praise the Lord!

NEW TESTAMENT READING                                                     Matthew 1:18-25, NLT
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

SERMON                                         Radical Renewal
Throughout the Advent season, everyone asks, “Are you ready for Christmas?” By today that becomes a dangerous question, because what most folks mean when they ask are some of the following:

Have you decorated?
Have you baked?
Are your cards in the mail yet?
Are the gifts purchased and wrapped?
Is the house ready for company or are you ready to travel?

That being the question, my answer is no, but I give myself grace by remembering that there are 12 days of Christmas, and my family doesn’t celebrate until we are halfway through them. I still have time for some of those things and others won’t happen this year. Christmas is almost here, but there may be ideas that have to wait until later or even next year. As you heard in the announcements, we aren’t quite ready as a church for Christmas Eve either. While many things are ready to slide into place, we still have a couple hospitality roles to fill.

I like the decorations, the cookies, the cards and the travel plans. I love our Christmas Eve worship service. They are all a work in progress and so are we. As individuals, as a church, as a society, we are not a finished product. God is still at work in us and through us.

What Advent could ask of a more spiritual nature is this, “Are you ready for Jesus?” That’s a far more serious question. You may or may not have made room in your holiday and your life for Jesus to play a starring role. I may be more in tune with God this Advent than in some seasons past, but I still have a long way to go.

Jesus comes to bring a radical renewal of the way we think and the way we live in this world. You caught some of that in the reading tidbits as we lit the advent candles. In God’s timing, things will change. Empires come and go whether we are talking about Old Testament regimes from Babylon to Persia to Greece and even Rome or equally true of leadership in any sector in our world today. No one holds office forever, though some may stay in one position for a very long time. When we perceive humans leading out of a greedy or arrogant nature, it helps to remember their power to control or coerce, to dominate and even manipulate does not last forever. That baby of Bethlehem still invites us to a radically new way of life based on godly principles at every level: government, economics, health care, community, church, education, commerce, immigration, environment and more. The power structures of society must be transformed, but on a more personal level, the power struggle within our own lives must also be resolved. Our dark sides (and we all have them in some form) cannot continue to control us.

We do not do this alone. We bet on the baby. Brueggemann points out that the king born in “filth & poverty” in Bethlehem (Celebrating Abundance, p. 54) is God keeping God’s promises but with a twist. God is intent on “turning the world back to its sanity,” because society goes insanely overboard in unhealthy, unbalanced ways. For example:

We lament a world filled with violence, yet our focus on blame does not resolve it.
We have economic strategies that fail to anticipate all the consequences.
We argue over the effects of global warning while hesitating to do what it would take to reverse them.
We fill our lives with stuff and activities rather than nurturing relationship and reflection.

In the midst of this reality, not all that different now than it was back then, God came not as a warrior but as a baby. Think about how people respond to babies. Their innocent look and playful nature can disarm the crankiest among us. God did not threaten us with punishment but invites us to change. God came to build relationships not policies, yet out of those relationships our policies will be more compassionate and realistic.

Psalm 36 used in our opening sentences invites us to trust God’s faithfulness. It is a common theme in the psalms to recite that God’s faithful love endures to all generations. In this psalm God’s love and loyalty reach beyond the skies, God’s goodness, high as the mountains and God’s justice, deep as the sea. It reminds me of a psalm that warns us not to put our trust in princes, (Psalm 146:3) and another that warns not to trust chariots or horses. (Psalm 20:7-8) The things of this world, wonderful as they may be, will ultimately fail us, but not God. God may seem hidden for a while, but God remains; just as the sun is still there behind a cloud or shining on the opposite hemisphere. One day sun and stars may burn out, but even then, God remains.

There are certainly times we want to hide or retreat from concerns and responsibilities, days we can barely drag ourselves out of bed. But it does us no good to run away or bury our head in the sand like an ostrich. We read in Psalms that we take refuge under God’s wing. (Psalm 91:4) or as Luke writes, Jesus wants to gather us like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. (Luke 13:34) I think it means metaphorically to climb into God’s embrace and remember that we are loved.

A significant concept in either of today’s psalms is to begin with affirming who God is. Before we pray, before we begin our day, before the work or the food or the play, let us begin by affirming who God is in our world and in our lives. We are meant to focus on God and not ourselves. As I read one of the devotions this week, I scribbled in the margins, “When you are discouraged, make it a practice to list all the positive attributes of God you can remember. Let that exercise become a prayer and that prayer become a way of life.” So, I challenge you, list out loud, write in your journal or pray quietly that God is good, God is faithful, God is kind, God is just, God is merciful, God is radiant, God is creative, God is… you keep filling in those blanks and see how far you can go. It will add color and texture as you build up your faith.

Another concept for Advent is turning. We think of it in the word repentance more often for Lent, but once upon a time, Advent was also a season of repentance. Think how often in these four weeks I have brought up John the Baptist and his admonition to “Repent!” For radical renewal to come, we must indeed turn. John reminded people of the great prophet Elijah. Malachi ends our Old Testament with these words that in our Christian heritage tie the two men together.

“Look, I am sending Elijah the prophet to you,
        before the great and terrifying day of the Lord arrives.
Turn the hearts of the parents to the children
    and the hearts of the children to their parents.
            Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

Turning is significant. When we are turned toward the world, we are distracted and led astray. When we turn toward God, we find our focus and our path again. When we turn away from each other we become lonely or self-absorbed, maybe both. When we turn back to those God has put in our lives, we find relationship and sometimes, purpose. When we even turn away from ourselves, we get truly lost and become something we are not until we can’t even recognize the person God created us to be. When the world turns toward greed rather than generosity, to power and control rather than sharing, to violence rather than caring, we are in big trouble. The turning back, as Brueggemann points out, brings healing. It brings reconciliation. He sees that in Malachi’s promise of Messiah, a reconciliation between generations, between states or gender or anything else that divides us. Our world needs that healing.

So, how do we live into God’s Kingdom of radical renewal? We’ve been touching on this all through Advent. I’m reminded of the Ghandi quote, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I’m reminded of Walter Rauschenbusch whose work on the Social Gospel I read in seminary. In researching his thinking anew I found this quote: “The essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God.” I fully believe that, but sadly he goes on to say, that so far this has been a failure.

In order for the radical newness of God’s kingdom to come about we are called to be active participants. That doesn’t necessarily mean letter writing campaigns or protests or bumper stickers and yard signs, although you may be called to such activities for a worthwhile cause. But more importantly living as citizens of God’s kingdom now means many of the basic behaviors called for in Romans 12. Brueggemann points out. generosity, hospitality and forgiveness. Looking further I would add sincerity, empathy, devotion, equality, honesty, compassion, and shalom in the fullest sense of that word. If we live with such integrity and in partnership with God, it will affect the world around us, and in time the world can change.

The world changed when God came in a baby born to an unwed mother named Mary, and a bewildered but righteous man named Joseph became step father to God’s Son. Willing to listen to God’s dream and participate in God’s plan, this couple partnered with God accepting the role God asked each of them to play. Though they surely could not see either the big picture or all the details, they were obedient to their portion of it. You could say that they bet on the baby, because they were willing to believe the tidings of God’s messengers.

We sing about Jesus’ subsequent birth as a silent, holy night where all is calm and bright forgetting that event actually heralds a revolution. Jesus came in humble manner, but he came to turn the world upside down just as he turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the courts of the Temple. Jesus came to upset corrupt systems, unfair practices, and business as usual when that business oppressed, victimized, or excluded any of God’s precious people, and we are ALL precious to God!

Advent invites us, like Joseph, to bet on the baby, to do the right thing rather than the easy thing, to trust the promises of the Old Testament, to believe that God is paying attention and will not let corrupt empires or self-serving leaders last forever. Change is always in the air wherever the Spirit of God is blowing. As much as we may dread change, there are things in our world and in ourselves that we know must be transformed for all God’s children to survive. We anticipate the radical newness Jesus wants to bring. Let us then dare to be yoked with Christ, shoulder our share of the load, and work together without fear or anxiety. Let us celebrate the Christmas that has come, and the Christmases yet to come, and the blessings of God’s presence in our midst. Let us sing the good news of “Glory to God and peace on earth.”

1 Comment

December 16, 2018 - What Christ Came to Do

12/15/2018

0 Comments

OLD TESTAMENT READING                                                               Isaiah 65:17, GW
17 I will create a new heaven and a new earth.
    Past things will not be remembered.
    They will not come to mind.

NEW TESTAMENT READING                                                     Matthew 11:2-11, NLT
2 John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

4 Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— 5 the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” 6 And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.”

7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind? 8 Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces. 9 Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. 10 John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,

‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    and he will prepare your way before you.’

11 “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is!

SERMON                                   What Christ Came to Do

What do you expect for Christmas? We are long beyond the age to send our wish list to Santa, though we may have shared it with a family member or a friend. You may have expectations of where or what you will eat for dinner.   You have expectations of how you will prepare and how you will celebrate. Some of your expectations will go exactly as planned, and some won’t. But it will be the little surprises of the holy days that you will cherish later. It will be the card or poinsettia you didn’t expect to receive, the visit or phone call that delighted you, the carolers you heard or even the stranger you helped. Plans and expectations are great, but sometimes the surprises are even better. It was like that with Jesus.

There were among the Jews expectations of what Christ, God’s anointed, Messiah would come to do. Some expected a king to continue the royal line of David. Scriptures said it poetically. “A shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1) This was understood to mean that someone would be born in the family line of King David whose father was Jesse. The prophets spoke of one coming to sit on David’s throne to reign with justice and righteousness and establish a kingdom of peace that would never end. Even Gabriel said to Mary, “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. 33 He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.” (Luke 1:32b-33) But by the time Jesus was born David’s throne was long gone. Their king, Herod the Great, was a worship God or care for God’s people. The Jews weren’t looking for that kind of king, and their memory of King David was more legend, a rosy gold cultural memory and maybe not the whole truth.

Because of King Herod and the Roman occupation, some Jews, particularly the Zealots, were expecting God to send a fighter who would lead a rebellion to overthrow the Romans and kick them out of Judea. Perhaps they wanted someone more like Judah (AKA Judas) Maccabeus and his priestly father, Mattathias, who led the revolt against the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV and those Hellenized Jews who supported him. Stories from that Maccabean revolt, the cleansing of the Temple and restoration of worship is what is celebrated by Hanukkah. We know that revolt against the Roman occupation was Judas Iscariot’s expectation of Jesus.

However, Jesus was different. There’s no getting around that! He was not what was expected, not as God’s anointed, not as a king, not even as a rebel. Jesus didn’t come as royalty or a scholar or a politician or a commander. Jesus came as a commoner, a teacher who knew carpentry and hung out with fishermen and tax collectors. As a literal translation of John 1:14 reads, he put on flesh and tabernacled among us. Tabernacle refers to a tent. In other words, Jesus pitched his tent on our battlefield and joined our human struggle as one of us, and yet as more than us. Jesus came with the knowledge and power and authority and vision of God. We do not have those things on our own, but Christ offers to share them as he invites us to come. We have only to stretch out our hand in response, get up on our feet and follow him.

If Jesus was not what some expected, what did Jesus come to do? We need to remember that even if some Jews had picked up their own interpretations, going back to the scriptures themselves still provides the clearest answer which Jesus himself would point out. Isaiah expected the One sent by God to be filled with God’s Spirit and to come with wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and fear of the Lord. The One who comes from God could be expected to know and share God’s vision for creation and humanity with it. We could expect that One to have the wisdom and power to achieve God’s vision, to know God’s heart but also to understand our human way of thinking and our weakness for temptation. We could expect that One to love and reverence God leading us to do the same.

We had the sense when John the Baptist preached repentance in the wilderness that he believed what God revealed, that this One was his own cousin, Jesus. But months later, in Herod’s prison, John begged for reassurance that his message and his declaration had not been in vain. He sent his own disciples to inquire, “Are you the One we have been expecting? Or should we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3) It may shock you to consider John the Baptist as having doubts. But it makes sense to me that at the end of life or at certain other stress points along the way we may look at how we have lived or what we believed and wonder if we did it right. Why would John be any different; he was human just like us?

Jesus responded by asking John to examine the evidence. Did Jesus fulfill the expectations Isaiah had set forth in other prophetic proclamations, that the blind would see and the deaf hear, the lame would leap, that captives would be released, that Good News would be preached to the poor. These expectations Jesus set forth as his mission. Was it happening? As we read the stories from the gospels, we know the answer is yes.

Jesus asks John, what do you see? What do you think? Jesus asks the same of all of us throughout time. Don’t believe just because someone told you to believe. Look at the evidence, but not just in the Bible, the witness of the past. Look at your own life and the lives of those around you. Do you experience Jesus with skin on in anyone today? Do you see evidence of answered prayer? Does the work of transforming hearts and lives continue? Does healing of body, mind and spirit still happen? Is there any justice, mercy or kindness in the world? Then Jesus is still at work among us!

We can also continue to ask, what do you expect to see and hear? I realized maybe people don’t come to church to listen to preachers, because they already know what they expect us to say. I might think that way myself, if God hadn’t insisted I become a preacher. There are many preachers and teachers who speak to me through their books or their video presentations. However, there are also other voices I hear as prophetic: musicians, poets, dancers, artists. There’s a South Korean rap artist through whom I perceive God’s voice not only in the lyrics of his music, but through a letter he posted online for fans last Memorial Day or through his UNICEF speech at the United Nations. In his band’s message to Love Yourself before you can authentically love others, I hear an echo of Jesus quoting the Old Testament, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39)

Jesus came to bring something new into being, just as Isaiah had said long before, to create a new heaven and earth. I think that is not so much a new physical place for the future as it a new way of life here and now leading to the future. That is why the former things cannot dominate our minds. If we focus on the past, we won’t be open to God’s vision for the future. But as we await something new without knowing exactly when or what or how, we may also lose confidence.

We can’t put God on our timetable, but we also can’t ignore God’s intentions. Brueggemann’s devotion on this topic challenged me. For example, there are those among Christianity who try to read a timeline into Revelation, so there have been debates between pre-millennial and post-millennial theories. I’ll be honest that doesn’t interest me in the least. For me those phrases are better suited to mean before or after the year 2,000 rather than a theological stance on eschatology. Even as I banty those words about some of you wonder what I’m talking about. For some of us such debates are irrelevant.

Here’s the truth I do see. We live between Christ coming once and Christ coming again. We live between Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22. We live between the paradise of Eden or the paradise of heaven, between birth and eternal life after death. We cannot realistically live in the past or in the future. We have nowhere to live but between, for that is where the here and now exists.

The journey from paradise lost through our chaos to paradise reborn is not determined by humans alone. The winds of change come with ruah, meaning wind or breath, God’s breath as we identify the Holy Spirit. When the ruah blows over the chaos, as we read in Genesis 1, the world is re-created. That breath of God was in Jesus and blew through the disciples at Pentecost. God’s wind still blows over the chaos in us and in our world to re-create us and to give life to that stump of a faithful community which sometimes seems dead. Out of our decay, God can still bring new life if we are willing to let go, to be caught in the whirlwind, and trust God to set us refreshed and renewed in a new world where hope comes true. The Spirit blows over the embers of our passion to bring the flame back to life. Perhaps for now only artists and poets can imagine it, but God awaits all God’s plans to be fulfilled and for that stump to grow again and bear fruit.

In one of this week’s devotions, Brueggemann shared views that some hold of God or heaven to which I had strong reactions. I know there have been and still are people who believe that God is either dead or irrelevant. I never thought the God issue is closed as one person put it. I believe God is on-going and still in the process of creating, in other words that God is still actively involved in our world every day and always will be. For me heaven is not closed, nor is it empty as some might claim. I don’t think of heaven as a physical or future place, but as a spiritual dimension where we meet God, just as Moses went up the mountain or into the tabernacle to meet with God. A particular location may aid you in focusing your attention on the spiritual world that surrounds us, but the point is not the location, it’s opening yourself to meet with God. If that heavenly realm is where humans are invited to live with God, then heaven is hardly irrelevant.

Brueggemann suggests that for some… (and don’t be too shocked by this, but listen to what he means) for some, God is a capitalist consumer with an insatiable appetite, meaning that God wants what God wants, and it’s our job to provide it. If there really are people who have created that self-projected image of God, I pity them. I wouldn’t believe in that fake god either. But I can see that as people wrestled in the past or struggle in the present with the greed or lust of power-hungry authorities that rise in any society from time to time, it would be easy to suspect that God is like that, too. However, our God is the opposite of a self-serving, greedy or demanding consumer. Our God is instead a self-emptying, generous giver of all good gifts in abundance far beyond most human recognition. That is some of the good news Jesus still brings to the poor! God and heaven and kingdom are NOT what we imagined from the stereotypes of the world and society around us.

If you ask me what the new thing is that God wants to bring to us, I would say it’s a set of values that are very old and dear, but that the world often loses along the way. I believe God’s vision includes justice with mercy and forgiveness. I believe God wants kindness and respect to be a foundation for peace. I believe God wants us to care for other forms of life, to nurture and restore what we can of the environment. I believe God wants compassion to flow from us like a healing rain, so that hope and healing can blossom and bear fruit. That would look like paradise to me.

Here’s what is needed for that to happen: First, dare to believe that God is still at work in our world re-creating in and through us a new day. Second, repent, literally turn away from the old ways of the world and turn toward God’s vision. Third, come and follow; join a new way of living out God’s intentions.

That change comes one person at a time. We cannot change others, but we can choose to change ourselves. I watch a show that travels to various places around the world and sometimes showcases environmental issues. For example, in Chile or Antarctica where the ice cap is melting or this week in the Maldives where the coral reefs and dying and as the waters sink the islands of the Maldives are disappearing. One explorer recognized that he could not change the entire situation, but he could change his own way of doing things toward a healthier world.

Please know each of us can only do our part and live as witness to this coming of the kingdom of God. It’s an invitation, not coercion. We each have a choice, but the choices of many will affect the direction of society in general. We can choose to continue to live a greedy, selfish, pleasure-seeking, addicted, power and status-hungry way of life as the world often presents to us. Or we can tip the balance toward a healthier, more compassionate and caring way of life for all people and all creation.

Advent asks us to make these choices. Advent asks us to hear the stories of our past as God’s people, and to see where we went wrong at various times in our history. Advent asks us to look at the world around us now and honestly, objectively view not just the world, but our own attitudes and participation in society. Advent asks us to repent where we have gone astray from God’s intentions, to turn back to God’s vision, to change the world by first asking God to change us. Advent asks us then to live with hope and faith, to celebrate peace and joy and love wherever we find them, to be prophets pointing to God’s kingdom wherever it is evident. Advent asks us to prepare ourselves and witness to others, just as John the Baptist once did, that God comes to live among us.

We prepare with anticipation for the ways Jesus will continue to come and to work in our world. Some of our expectations will go exactly as planned and some won’t. There will be surprises along the way, but some of those surprises of how God chooses to work among us will bring the most delight and be the very things we cherish. God does not work according to human agendas, but invites us to turn, to come, and to participate in God’s vision for this world God is still re-creating. That, my friends, is good news worth celebrating!

0 Comments

December 9, 2018 - A New World View

12/8/2018

0 Comments

OLD TESTAMENT READING                                                                Isaiah 9:6-7, NIV
    For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

NEW TESTAMENT READING                                                            Mark 6:49-52, GW
    49 When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought, “It’s a ghost!” and they began to scream. 50 All of them saw him and were terrified.

Immediately, he said, “Calm down! It’s me. Don’t be afraid!” 51 He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped blowing. The disciples were astounded. 52 (They didn’t understand what had happened with the loaves of bread. Instead, their minds were closed.)

SERMON                                        A New World View
As we have said more than once this year, we will be challenged by many kinds of storms. Life is about how you handle them. Will we cower in fear as the disciples did in Mark’s brief version of the storm at sea? Because they lived out of fear, they didn’t see their reality accurately. They thought Jesus was a ghost. But Jesus immediately reassures them, “Calm down. It’s me. Don’t be afraid!” As Mark’s comments suggest, “their minds were closed.” (from Mark 6:49, 52) Jesus had fed thousands with a few loaves of bread and fish. Since he had overcome their scarcity, he could also overcome their chaos. But for Jesus to overcome our problems, we have to let go of preconceived notions and be willing to believe. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, continues to remind us, “Calm down. It’s me. Don’t be afraid!”

That’s a message that rings through the Advent and Christmas story. “Don’t be afraid.” It’s what the angel says to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph and to the shepherds. “Don’t be afraid.” It is God’s message in other Bible stories as well. Such encouragement doesn’t offer false hope. It admits the reality of the world around us. But it also challenges us with a choice. Are we going to give up or hide? Are we stubbornly going to fold our arms across our chests and DEMAND proof that all will be well? Or will we lean on faith and rest on God’s promise? Are we going to trust and obey?

Magrey deVega agrees that for the characters in the Advent and Christmas stories, fear was a reasonable response, but he says, “it is also a call to resistance, and a refusal to let the trauma of external circumstances consume” us. Zechariah had to learn the hard way and was rendered silent for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, but that gave him time to see God’s promise growing in her belly until John was born. Joseph chose trust over fear and took Mary as his wife in spite of the scandal. Herod chose fear over faith and it led to the slaughter of innocents. Mary questioned the angel yet chose to believe that if God could give Elizabeth a child, indeed “Nothing is impossible for God” just as the angel said. (Luke 1:37) Fear gave each of them a choice as it does for us. Some chose God, but Herod chose fear.

Fear often dominates our world. We’re afraid of terrorists, of illness, of a stock market crash, of assorted phobias, and of people different from ourselves. Out of fear we develop a scarcity mentality, that there won’t be enough time or money or resources or help to meet our needs. Out of fear we run away or hide from challenges that might have helped us grow. Out of fear we draw lines and set barriers to keep others out and lock ourselves into a particular way of life. Out of fear we label people, but God doesn’t see us as our color, gender, position, nationality or even religious membership. If God is behind Paul’s claim that, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female,” then we are all free as children of God to enjoy a world where lines aren’t drawn in the sand, where there is room and welcome for everyone.

When I was young, I was afraid of bombs and of the world coming to an end, then later of cancer and car accidents and becoming handicapped. Lately I’ve been impatient and anxious over things that don’t work. These too are fear. I need to hear Jesus’ voice, “Calm down. I’m here. Don’t be afraid,” just as friends have reminded me.

I think God let me experience that, so I could glimpse what is true for so many, the anxiety of living in a time when things don’t always work out the way we think they should. We look around us or listen to the news; we hear other stories along with our own concerns, and we wish things would change. But I suspect that some of the change has to take place within us and come from us. Too often we only want our circumstances to change, but what if God asks us to change? We aren’t sure we like that idea!

When we experience this world as chaotic, we need a new world view, not a fear-based, limited perspective of our circumstances. We need God’s vision for all the possibilities God has in store. Brueggemann suggests that fear comes from a hardened heart. I think that phrase means that we are “set in our ways.” If we are unwilling to be flexible, to be stretched, to be shaped by the Creator of the universe, we become too hard and stiff. When we set “in stone” our perspective of how things ought to be, we can’t receive God’s new vision for us.

At a time when Babylon was marching toward Jerusalem to conquer Judah and other territory building an empire, Isaiah shared God’s vision of one coming to establish God’s kingdom with justice and righteousness. It was a vision that kept the faithful remnant going, enduring, hoping, praying, waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled. This is how we should wait not only through the practice of this Advent but in an extended Advent season as we wait for the fullness of God’s kingdom, for justice and righteousness to truly reign here on earth.

Luke records a time when Jesus hinted to his disciples that there is a whole other layer of reality that most of us miss. They had just come back from a two by two mission, going about living out what Jesus did, teaching and doing good. They were amazed at what God allowed them to do in Jesus’ name! He said to them, “Happy are the eyes that see what you see. I assure you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see and hear what you hear, but they didn’t.” (Luke 10:23-24) Their mission had briefly exposed a glimpse of the power and glory of God’s kingdom and the privilege of working within it.

The very next story is the young lawyer who asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tests him asking what the law says. His response summarizes the law “to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27 paraphrased) To live out these commandments is to live in the Kingdom of God “on earth as it is in heaven” (from the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:10)

The Kingdom comes in God’ steadfast love and our response to it. Brueggemann describes that love as “solidarity in need” and “transformative.” (Celebrating Abundance, pp. 24-25) First, God’s love meets us in our need. It is the constant love of Psalm 25 as used in our prayer of confession earlier. God coming to earth in Jesus is God’s ultimate expression of solidarity with humanity. But God wants to do more than meet our need. God wants to transform us and the world around us. We are called to be extensions of God’s steadfast, constant love to the world, as we love our neighbor in ways that meet their needs and bring the transformation they also need.

Jesus, Messiah, Emmanuel came and comes and will come again to transform this world toward God’s vision. Jesus works in us and through us to accomplish that purpose. His work continues when we participate in that mission. The Bible tells us that the Kingdom of God is near, is among us, is in our midst. Christ is still with us as the Holy Spirit works toward this vision. But the Kingdom is not yet complete. It will come one day in all its fullness. This is what we wait and prepare for and remember in the season of Advent. For me that future fullness of God’s Kingdom is the promise left us in Revelation 21-22 at the end of the New Testament. It echos the hope-filled visions and promises of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets.

Remember that Jesus said God’s purpose is sometimes hidden from those in power. God often reveals his visions to the poor, the powerless, the oppressed or the vulnerable, instead of to the ones whom society sees as best suited and most able.
Wasn’t that true in the Advent stories? King Herod didn’t get it at all, because he could only see his own desire for power. For him everything else was an obstacle. The Magi from the East did see the vision whether or not they fully understood it. They were willing to submit to the mystery and travel to a foreign land to see its fulfillment in a culture and religion not their own. Zechariah, as a priest, should have understood it best, but he hesitated to trust God beyond his immediate circumstance. Joseph and Mary were skeptical at first, but each chose to put their faith in the vision shared by the angel, even without seeing all the details.

As you hear God’s Word this season, and as you look at the world of need around you, consider what God’s vision for this world might yet be. Ask yourself where Jesus is still at work and where you might participate. Learn to seek God’s kingdom where you don’t expect to find it. But when you do, I pray you will choose to hear God’s message. “It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” I hope you will choose, in spite of your fears, to share in God’s mission wherever you find it.

0 Comments

December 2, 2018 - Awaiting the New

12/1/2018

0 Comments

OLD TESTAMENT READING                                                   Isaiah 65:18-19, 25, NIV
But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
    and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
    and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
    will be heard in it no more.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
    and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.

NEW TESTAMENT READING                                                           Luke 3:15-16, CEB
15 The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. 16 John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

SERMON                                        Anticipate the New

Though we think of December as the end of the year, today is the first day of the Christian calendar, the first Sunday of Advent. This is a season of anticipation and preparation. Although the commercial world has been heavily Christmas focused for a month already, and radio stations have been playing Christmas music, Christmas itself isn’t here for another 23 days. In our fast paced, hurry up world, we don’t know how to wait for Christmas, but you can’t understand the impact of Christ’s arrival if you haven’t spent a long time waiting. Really, 4 weeks is nothing compared to the 400 years or more that God’s people, as we read about them in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, were quietly, stubbornly, intentionally waiting for Messiah, whom we believe came in Jesus.

A few churches ago, I wrote a skit for the youth group and children’s choir to perform for Advent. The repeated theme was “Wait, wait, wait, wait,” and it had lines in between with individual kids asking, as if a child in the back seat, “Are we there yet?” “Is it time yet?” Let’s admit that we can be like impatient children when it comes to Christmas. But as adults, we miss out on the spiritual richness of Advent if we skip over it too quickly.

This year, I invite you into a spiritual retreat with me on these four Sundays of Advent, to hit the pause button, to take time to slow down just as the snow storm may have forced you to do earlier this week, to think in ways perhaps you haven’t thought before about what God was really up to, what God is still up to, as we consider the deeper meanings of the season. My commitment to Advent 2018 is to stay a week ahead reading a devotional by Walter Brueggemann, Celebrating Abundance.  The very first day, even before I finished the 2-page reading, God invited me to go find an empty notebook and start journaling. Much of what I will share with you comes from those reflections. I’ll also draw from Awaiting the Already, an Advent study we are reading in the Wednesday morning group.

This week, in preparation mode, we begin with John the Baptist. The Gospel of Mark begins, not with Jesus’ birth, but with his cousin John preaching repentance. John is the new Elijah, a seemingly crazy, certainly passionate, prophet out in the wilderness. John quotes Isaiah, as he tells his audience and us to prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. (Is. 40)

Let’s take a look at those major themes: preparation, repentance, wilderness, and the hope they point toward.

Biblically, the word prepare can mean to create something like a building or a vessel to contain something else. But prepare can also mean getting ready for a great event. As we prepare during Advent, we are asked to get ourselves ready to receive God’s love, to be the vessels through which God’s compassion and mercy will be poured. (Magrey deVega, Awaiting the Already, p. 18) We are also preparing for the arrival of Christ, not just once upon a time as a baby, but coming into our world ever again. This is the same word used when Jesus sent the disciples to prepare the Passover meal, which we remember again today as we celebrate Holy Communion. That night Jesus was preparing himself to be that vessel through which God’s love would be poured out to the world and preparing his disciples to continue the mission.

John’s primary message was “Repent!” John urgently demands change and reform. I love the way the Common English Bible translates repentance as “changed hearts and lives.” Jesus didn’t come into our world to maintain the status quo but to significantly change the way we humans think and behave regarding ourselves, our neighbor, our world, and our God. John’s urgency suggests we dare not wait until the last minute. What if we wait too long to change our ways, not just as individuals, but as a society, as humankind. Haven’t we already waited too long to change our attitudes and actions on climate change, on abuse and harassment, on human trafficking, on affordable medical care for everyone, on equal respect for all peoples? As humanity, we still need to repent, to change our ways. This is how we prepare for Christ in the wilderness of our world.

Everyone experiences wilderness in their lives. It may simply have been the snow last Sunday and trying to dig out on Monday. It may be pain or depression. It may be trying to navigate insurance policies. It may be loss through death or divorce. It may be disasters, the fires in California or the earthquake in Alaska. It may be the fear of violence or the minefield of politics. It may be a spiritual dry spell or wondering what will become of Christian faith and church.

It is in the wilderness that God wants to reshape us and our world. It is not done easily. Every biblical image I can think of to go with this theme of transformation is harsh, pressured, and painful: the potter at the wheel, a woman kneading bread, the refiner’s fire, the grapes crushed for wine, the press squeezing oil from olives, beating grain on the threshing floor. The process of transformation is hard on the one being transformed and hard work for the one transforming us, yet from our raw materials something beautiful and useful is created. God is preparing us to be vessels of God’s love and peace and hope and joy and purpose.

We prepare a way through the wilderness of our lives or our world, not passively, but actively seeking God’s presence, God’s plan, the new thing God is doing. We slow down not to watch TV or take a nap, but to intentionally listen to God’s Word and God’s inspiration and prayerfully ask what God wants us to change. Our Advent devotion earlier suggested ways we might, like John, decrease so Christ can increase. We are challenged this season to decrease fear and increase our trust in God. We are challenged to decrease a scarcity mentality and embrace God’s promise of abundance. One simple example that came to mind last week would be to decrease Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending frenzies and increase Giving Tuesday generosity instead.

To turn away from the way our world thinks and behaves is what John still challenges us to do; that is the repentance he calls for in our day and time. That is how we prepare the way for God’s glory to enter our wilderness and bring about the newness for which we hope. As I sat in my new chair, in my new home, and looked out my new window toward a new view, God was challenging me to think in new ways, to reflect on God’s message to the world today and new ways of expressing it. I pondered what newness looks like to the refugees at the Mexican border, or to David with a new job, or to a friend facing a new way of life.

Advent challenges us to focus not on a quaint story from 2000 years ago, but to look for that new thing God is doing in our world today. Christ comes to us anew each year in every season, but Advent especially reminds us of that, if we are listening on a deeper spiritual level. The poetry of Isaiah’s message, later influencing John’s ministry, speaks to the soul not only of the past, but imagines and wonders and dares to hope in the possibilities of the future. That is what Advent asks us to do.

So, let me offer you one way you might participate. As I reflected on some of the devotions for this week, I thought of the hope many of you shared that you would like to see more people in worship with us. At some point that takes actively going out and inviting people to come to church, but it also takes spiritual preparation. Here’s what came to mind. What if many of you took time over the next four weeks, to come and sit in the sanctuary in meditative imagination? What if you dared to imagine that the sanctuary is full: filled with believers, with seekers, with doubters, here for whatever reason, experiencing God’s presence, together, each in his or her own way? Sit a bit on Sunday after fellowship or when you arrive early. Come during office hours if you’re in the neighborhood or when you come to study or volunteer. Many of you church leaders have a key, so come whenever it is convenient for you, but come and pray and dare to imagine what God might want to accomplish here. Listen for how God is asking you to be part of that transformation. Dare to believe that God continues to prepare us as a vessel to Receive Christ, Reach Out and Share God’s Love.

0 Comments

December 30, 2018 - Singing the Lord's Song

December 23, 2018 - Radical Renewal

December 16, 2018 - What Christ Came to Do

December 9, 2018 - A New World View

December 2, 2018 - Awaiting the New

Author

Archives

Categories