Christmas - Our Birthday Too?

 

Christmas Day, 2009, John 1:1-18 with Hebrews 1:1-2 and Isaiah 52:7-10 in the b.g.

 

Words and music can be very powerful, life altering, life bringing, or even life- taking. Let's see. I wonder if you have ever heard this? (I sing a verse of, This little light of mine – I'm gonna let it shine; This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine; This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine – Let it shine, let it shine – let it shine!

 

I think I learned that when I was 4 or 5 years old. Yet it's stayed with me. In some ways that little ditty has been life shaping. It's been good. You too may have songs or hymns that bring you hope, joy, meaning. I invite you, I challenge you to tisten to them, sing them, dance to them. They are good. They are gifts from God.

 

But not all words, reflect hope, joy, or peace. I remember being in Grade 1. There was a very short boy in my class. His name if you can believe it was Charlie Brown. He wasn't overweight, but he was short. And we, I say we, because I was among those who sang this song, goaded Charlie with a musical rhyme, "Fattie, fattie, two by four can't get through the kitchen door." And when we chanted this horrible song, he would run after us trying to hurt us in retaliation for the hurt we were causing him.

 

Music, her lyrics and poetry can transport us to new realities. They can lift us up – or put us down. I remember when the struggle for freedom in South Africa was at its peak. We had a Swedish group, Fjedur, come to our Seminary. They had been touring South Africa. They had heard some of the African blacks singing songs – songs that were embedded in the soul of their people, songs that would not let them go. Even when they were thrown in prison or refused access to visit their relatives they would sing this song,  "Freedom, oh, oh freedom!" The harmonies still ring in my being. Try dealing with that being sung by people who looked imprisoned, beaten down, but the fire and dream of freedom burned brightly in their souls and would not be doused! Freedom had a hold of them. It was transporting them towards a new life, a new reality. And neither death nor segregation, nor for long parts of time, the ignorance or avoidance by the rest of the world could or would deter them.

 

It's Christmas – thanks be to God! Last night we celebrated Luke's story of the birth of Christ – the beginning of the unfolding of what Jesus came to mean to Luke and to his community.

 

This morning we hear from the Gospel of John. The entire first chapter is a hymn in poetic verse. We need to hear it that way – to not try to dissect it or take it apart word by word in the unechoing silence of our craniums. Instead we need to proclaim and hear it together as community.

 

In the beginning was the Word – (big W) hold up all capital letters WORD. And the WORD WAS WITH GOD and the Word was God. HE was in the beginning with God. This is no disembodied word. This Word is a Person.

 

Listen a bit longer:  What has come into being in him was life (HALLELUJAH BROTHERS AND SISTERS) and the life was the LIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE. Wow – the light of all people!

 

Light enables us to see. If the light is bright enough we can see others and our surroundings, maybe even explore them. If the light is really listening and we have ears, eyes and minds wide open, by the grace of God we may also begin to see ourselves.

 

John calls this Word, the light of all people.

 

And so, John forges ahead with his song – be attentive to the rhythm and the words… But to all who received him, this light, this WORD that brings life, he gives the power (the actual word is authority) to become children of God, who are/were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of humanity, but of God!

 

We may think that Christmas is all about Jesus' birthday. In one sense it is. Look at all the candles in this place. But Jesus' birth into humanity is really all about God and what God wills to do with humanity. We need to see this. We need to be embraced by this. We need to be so embraced! God knows we need new life.

 

There is so much death. We hear, speak and are effected by so many destructive words. Dummy, fatty, non-status, whitey –well you know them. There are so many destructive forces that will to treat people and creation as if they don't matter, as if the water, the ore, the earth itself is merely disposable for material profit.

 

Where is the love? Where is the care? Where is the respect? Where is the responsibility, Is there, can there be any hope? 

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Jesus is that Word of God, holding up before us the love of God FOR US, for all PEOPLE, FOR ALL CREATION. That word is being spoken to you, for you, right now!

 

So, how are we responding to God's love? Are we being embraced by God in Jesus and His birth? Are we sharing that embrace with others in word and deed, with the resources God entrusts to us? Or are we running towards other artificial lights, lights that may attract by their shimmer – but which really are only misleading, misguiding, false words. They deceive and ultimately lead us to more destruction, more pain, more brokenness.

 

Dare to listen to John… Those who receive the Word, who believe in his name, he makes them - children of God!

 

That's who we are, who we are meant to be! This is so because God's Word comes into the world and shines on and in and among us. See, trust, receive this life.

 

You see, our lives are meant to literally sing (join with me now:  THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, I'M GONNA LET IT SHINE; THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, I'M GONNA LET IT SHINE; THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, I'M GONNA LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE! Amen.  Merry Christmas.

 

Remember it's to be our birthday too!

 

Christmas "Bikers"?

A decree went out. No kidding.

 

Decrees come out all the time. Do you know what I mean?

 

When we are in school we get decrees – no, not degrees but decrees. The voice comes over the loud speaker or there's a notice received: exams will begin on Thursday 9 AM, tryouts begin on Monday after school – BE THERE. That's the way it is. Whether you are ready or not, that's when it's happening. You don't have any input.

 

After the exam the marks are posted. After the tryouts, the cuts are made. The team members are posted on the board. You did your best. You may have felt you did really well. But someone else, an evaluator may have a different opinion. They are the ones making the decision. They issue the decree. Their decree impacts your life.

 

And so it goes. The Bank of Canada declares that the prime-lending rate is going up a percentage point. And your mortgage goes up, the cost of borrowing money for a car or a trip all goes up. And your plans are altered because of that decree.

 

Or, the government decides to freeze welfare rates, refusing to link them to the rate of inflation. That is their decree. This means that you or someone you love may be evicted or go hungry the last days of the month.

 

Or a  company, small or large decides to impact their bottom line by downsizing or outsourcing. Now, you wonder, will you still have a job in the New Year? The decree has been passed. At times it can be so devastating.

 

There are more interpersonal decrees too. One person in the relationship tells the other one, "It's over – I don't want to be with you anymore" Or one person in a relationship asks the other one, "Will you marry me? I love you!" Either decree can have a lasting impact – even become a defining moment for your life.

 

No one is a stranger to decrees even if you have experienced the ones that I have just cited.

 

So, tonight I invite you to imagine this. You notice two very young people, a man and a woman. Some might say that the woman is so young that she's not really a woman yet. But looking at her closely you notice that she is pregnant. That baby is all out in front of her. Accompanying her is a young man. He is a bit older than she is, but probably not that much older. You watch them walk together. You observe now that she is kind of shuffling. If you listen to all the people around you, you hear that these two young people are walking a long ways, some 70-90 miles. The man has received a decree from the government. He must go to his ancestral home to be registered for of all things, taxation purposes. Some things don't change!

 

Not only are this man and woman young, they are also poor. They don't' have a car, a truck or even a bicycle. Where they live there is absolutely no public transit. Still, the decree stands. There are to be no exceptions. They must go now. So it is that she is shuffling, from side to side as they move along that long distance.

 

Today these young people could live almost anywhere. Poor people, old or young, often have decrees made which drastically affect them and by which they must abide. Poor people are extremely vulnerable. They can be forced by the military or the government or some combination of the two to move at almost any time regardless of the inconvenience to them. And we think that we have struggles?

 

So, that young man and woman get up. They go. They have to. Eventually they arrive at their predetermined destination. Then a different kind of time makes it way into ordinary time. Such time is called a kairotic time.  Kairos time is a critical time, a time that forever makes a difference in people's lives.

 

Luke puts it this way, "The time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

 

In many ways this doesn't seem unusual. Luke only employs 2 verses to tell us of this child's birth. Two measly verses, shorter than a 30 second infomercial during which we could jump up off the couch and make our way to the fridge or the bathroom.

 

But what does this particular child's birth mean? I ask you, because 2000 years after the fact, people all over the world are still gathering to celebrate this one baby's birth, this child of this oh so young, poor woman.

 

We may come to this celebration for many different reasons, as many if not more than all the numbers of people who will sing Silent Night or Away in A Manger tonight, numbering in the millions if not over a billion. It's amazing that over 2000 years later we are still celebrating this baby's birth, this one called JESUS.

 

Think about that. When I last checked few if even one person continues to celebrate the then leader of the world at that time, Augustus Caesar's birth. Truth be told, every king, every emperor, every world and military leader that has ever lived since then time doesn't have a birthday that is celebrated like this wee baby born so long ago to such a young mother in such exceedingly humble circumstances.

 

Why is that?

 

Listen to the reality of some other economically poor people who were at work that night. They were the bikers of their time, people whose word wouldn't be accepted in a court of law – people who did "dirty" jobs that nobody else wanted to do. In our story from Luke they are called shepherds. Those shepherds are on the job. But something out of the ordinary happens that draws them, compels them, moves them beyond what logic they may have been capable of. In this happening they are moved beyond everything they thought possible or real up to that point in time.

 

Let me tell you these shepherds knew a lot about life, about any and all kinds of decrees, about the reality existing among and between animals and people. These shepherds had learned all those things the hard way. But that night – something amazing happens to them.

 

That something else is this: THEY HEAR A MESSAGE FROM GOD. I can't tell you exactly how that works. You see God is God - beyond us. God is Spirit, Creator, initiator, lover of the universe. I realize that these are faith statements, but they are also my experience. But that night, God sends a messenger to speak to those "biker/shepherds". The message is this: "There is good news of great joy for all people!" What could that be? Did they win the lottery? Was there even one then? Is there some beautiful maiden coming to do them all favors? Remember these are shepherds. Or, was there some inheritance coming to them that they hadn't known about before? Or, are they just imagining all of this – all of them at the same time, hallucinating together?

 

No! It isn't any of these things. God's messenger tells them that there is a sign for them regarding this good news of great joy for all people. This is the sign. There will be a child wrapped in bands of cloth and laying in a manger – a feeding trough.

 

Would you have been, are you skeptical? Speaking personally – ABSOLUTELY, YES. But instead of checking their thermoses, or wondering if they hadn't all lost it, they get up. They go to see if indeed the sign is there as they have been told. As they go they are led to our young woman's child. Once there the shepherds cannot contain themselves. They tell that young mother and her fiancée about their own experience. Mary, the young mother, having just given birth, ponders all these things in her heart.

 

Now, we may want to romanticize this, to see it as being cuddly and nice, like the romantic paintings, removing the blood, the smell, the pain, the oppression. Or, we may even desire to distance ourselves by staying in our heads, to laugh skeptically at people who may be embraced by such reality.

 

But my God – was there anything warm and fuzzy about it? These are people who are living in an occupied land. These are not idealistic wealthy young students. This is a young woman who has just given birth to a child without the help of even so much as a midwife. If you are seeking to be purely logical about it all – here we are 2000 years later, celebrating in some manner or fashion this baby's birth. Can you even begin to grasp all the things that have happened since then – all the people who have been born?  Yet so many continue to celebrate this one's birth!  

 

Is it possible that God through this child born of this very young woman could be attempting to communicate to you? Is it possible that God comes, just as God did to Mary and Joseph in the midst of all the decrees of their lives and bring good news even to us, who when I last checked would be numbered among all people?  

 

It all sounds so far fetched. But I challenge you, watch him. Dare to see his life unfold. He encounters many forms of darkness and death. He lovingly embraces so many that others shun. He challenges those who think they have it made in life, with others or with God. He does all this by entering into the very middle of life as a vulnerable human being and then eventually by emptying his own life, so that death, hatred, jealousy, despair and apathy can be overcome in our lives and the life of the world.

 

This Christmas Eve, tonight are you open to Him? You see (pun intended), God continues to send messages to people, ordinary people like shepherds and bikers, people like you and me. But these messages are not disembodied, like a text message. Now God's messages often come through people in the flesh who have been moved by this One whom tonight we remember dares to take on our vulnerable human flesh. This baby, God in the flesh, can grab our hearts and minds and bring to us and even through us good news of great joy.

 

In some ways might we be like those early shepherds, those long ago bikers? We can be brave. We can go and look for the sign God is puts right in front of us, a sign of good news for great joy for all the people. Or, we can seek to entrench ourselves as we are, captivated by so many decrees and fears, limited by our own limited sense of what is and what might be.

 

Don't you realize? It's Christmas. The baby is born The light shines in the darkness!

 

God help us to see!  Amen. 

 

Sharing the imagination of Mary

 

Advent 4c, December 20, 2009

Christmas – the very word evokes memories, memories that flood one's being like water flooding an outdoor rink. Memories find their way into the nooks and crannies of our being. And just like the water that floods an outdoor rink memories may create a smoothness in our beings. Yet, on the other hand memories may also function like water rushing in a river that then cuts through the rock creating  canyons where everything is anything but smooth, where danger and pain can erupt at any moment.

 

As Christmas approaches what are your memories? What is your experience?

 

I remember so much. I remember Christmas pageants where I was dressed in a white shirt and black bow tie. Always there was a Christmas tree, with "pine" aroma wafting through the house.  Late each advent my mother would put a small pine bough in boiling water. In the background Mario Lanza would be singing as only he could – Ave Maria. And of course for a white middle class family that only had one child – there were still many gifts under the tree. Let me tell you, Christmas morning couldn't come soon enough for that boy of 5 or 7, 10 or even 12. His expectation, excitement though unnerving was incredibly tangible.

 

Soon childhood gave way to teenage years and then being away from home. How I would speed over icy highways to get home for Christmas. For me home was never so much a place as it is people who know and love me, accept me for who I am. And such people couldn't wait for me to get "home".

 

Those teen years too passed, opening to adulthood, to pursuing a calling, to becoming a pastor. In most of my adult years I have caroled the week before Christmas. I have been privileged (and continue to be so privileged) to be among those who would deliver hampers to a few people who had particular needs. I remember some of them distinctly:  the single mother who called me on Christmas morning. She had no money –not one gift for her 10 year-old daughter. Nor was there hardly any food in the house. As she spoke I thought of my home – fridges overflowing, wine on ice and gifts around the tree. She asked, "Could we, would anyone from the church be able to help her now at 7 o'clock Christmas morning?" I will never forget the look on her face, the tears in her eyes, when I was able to stop by and drop off grocery certificates and other gift certificates at her home. For that day – her needs were met. And yet I suspect that her struggles continue.

 

I remember too the older man. Life's trials and tribulations had led him to a place of bitterness. He told me point blank that he didn't believe in God. To him Christmas was so much sentimental mush. He set his chin and defied me or anyone else including God to PROVE otherwise. I listened. I wondered – is there anything I can say, is there anything I can be with him and for him, that might show him otherwise?

 

And I remember our own children, two sitting on my knee, one scrunched in close on a living room chair while I read to them from a marvelous storyteller, Walter Wangerin. How Wangerin captivated them as he spelt out the Christmas story. How they listened with rapt attention. Such reality borders on the miraculous. Three young children sitting still for over 10 minutes on Christmas Eve. Wow!

 

I also remember Judy, a friend and parishioner. She had been hospitalized for surgery just prior to Christmas. She lay in a four-bed ward, somewhat weak but recovering. That year she would have to remain in the hospital over Christmas. She told me what that was like. She was thankful that her surgery was over and that she was re-covering.  BUT she longed, she pined to be home especially for Christmas. I read her part of Matthew's account of Jesus' birth. What she did next completely caught me off guard. Judy made a request, "Pastor Tim would you sing for me?" I wasn't sure that I had heard her correctly. She gave flesh to her request, "I want you to sing a Christmas Carol for me. Silent Night would be great."

 

I paused. Her face was insistent, almost pleading. So, with my lone uncertain voice, wondering for a split second what others in that ward might think I sang in a quiet but gentle way, "Silent Night, holy night, all is calm" … Judy's face lit up. When I had finished the carol, she touched my hand and said, "Thank you!"

 

I am older now. The Christmas memories still come a-flooding. Some of them bring a sense of peace and hope to my being. But others cut to the heart causing me to ask, "Will there ever be peace, joy, enough love, food, compassion in a world where we human beings experience and too often cause both joy and pain, literal starvation among many while others literally gorge themselves?

 

I am also ever aware that many desperately wonder if anyone cares, while so many others of us are awash in plenitude, including love. This Christmas I will sing again, "Sleep in heavenly peace". But God must know that we also desperately need earthly peace.

 

Such questions go to the core of human existence, to the very being of all creation. At times I am paralyzed by the living reality of these questions as I read of a person on a Vancouver street burning to death as she was desperately trying to keep warm…

 

Yet, my paralysis is encountered by the Gospel text for today, Luke 1:39-55. Meet Mary and Elizabeth. Here there are two very surprising and surprisingly pregnant women. Mary is only 13 or 14. She is not married. What would people be saying and thinking about her? What might she be thinking about herself and that child growing in her womb? What will the future of her child be, this one of God vulnerably entering a world where her own people are viewed by the majority of the powerful as being insignificant, unimportant, even disposable?

 

Then there is Elizabeth - too old by anyone's standards to have a baby. But she is growing rounder by the day. The baby within her is moving, even jumping! Very soon Elizabeth will give birth.

 

See these two women as they come together. See Elizabeth fully accepting Mary, maybe even mentoring her, encouraging her. The two of them stay together for three months. As Mary first comes to Elizabeth that day, Elizabeth affirms her and the child she carries. In that moment, from that reality Mary is moved to sing. The Spirit of God overcomes them. God is at work through her and her yet unborn child. It's true. It's true!

 

Mary's song compels me, sometimes forces me to move through my memories and their varied waters. God becomes humanly vulnerable in Jesus. How amazing this is! This child growing in Mary is fleshing out the fullness of God's love now become human.  And such love, this vulnerable love of God, so soon to be in the flesh will not be eradicated by death, hatred or any of the other canyons that irrupt in our lives.

 

So, LISTEN, listen carefully. Strain to hear it. Willingly lend your ears, your eyes, your mind, your heart to hear a baby's cry. Very soon, his cry will assure us that we are not alone. The things that sometimes play such a commanding and damaging role in our lives – hatred, hunger, pride, hurt and enmity cannot maintain their hold on us as this baby will come. God is our Savior. God looks on the lowliness of his servants. God works to bring down the proud from the imagination of their hearts, the powerful from their self-made thrones. God will lift up the lowly.

 

To be sure, at times/always this is impossible to believe. We must admit that at times we are the proud, the powerful. But when we are, my goodness what damage we do! So realize, we are not on our own. Nor are we left to even to the device of our own memories. This new-born baby's cry is meant to begin to usher us to new life beyond our memories, to IMAGINATION. Such imagination is never fantasy, for its source is the heart of God.

 

Christmas isn't here yet. But Christmas is beckoning. Advent, our time of waiting, of expectation of preparing, is nearing its end. See beyond your limited sense. Glimpse God's action. Ponder what your part may be in that. Mary can be an amazing role model. May we, caught by the Spirit, join her in saying, "Let it be with me/us according to your word." Then we too will be moved to sing in our own unique way individually and collectively, "My soul magnifies the Lord!" Somehow, some way, by the amazing grace of God it will be, it can be very good! Amen.  

Out of the Canyons, Over the Mountains

Advent 2c, Luke 3:1-6 with Malachi, 3:1-4 in the b.g., December 6, 2009

The last 2 weeks have been very interesting for me. And no I am not talking here about a particular Grey Cup game. I have had the privilege of flying on clear days from Seattle to Tucson. Part of that flight path takes one directly over the Grand Canyon. Even 6 miles above it, it remains a grand spectacle. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to climb, to hike through such landscape. It takes quite a while even to pass over the Grand Canyon when one is traveling over 500 miles per hour.

 

While in Arizona I also did some hiking. My counter parts headed off to some mountains – seemingly close on the horizon. But they were large mountains. And although they appeared close at hand – it took over 2 ½ hours to reach them by car. Once there, crawling over the landscape only scratched the surface. Mountains are often like that. They draw us towards them – we think we can conquer them, but once there we are dwarfed by our smallness – by their grandeur and ruggedness.     

 

So, too it can be with winding rivers. Once again flying over a number of rivers these last weeks it is amazing to note their paths. Some of them are relatively straight while others meander and turn almost on a dime – to wind, wind, wind. I can only imagine that if one were able to actually be on the river one would also experience their ups and downs, their rapids and water falls, their roaring in one moment and absolute stillness at another.

 

In some ways, perhaps many ways, human life can be like the landscape I have just described. This can be true of us as individuals, true of us in small groups and true of us as collectives.

 

We may have a grand canyon or two in our lives – the deepest valleys. These are places where events have plunged us into despair. These events may be many and varied – as many and varied as we are. Whatever these events: great loss and pain at the death of a loved one or friend; the loss of one's capacities to speak, to hear or work; the betrayal of one or ones we had trusted. When those events run over us, we may realize that our hopes and dreams had been ill placed. In these "moments" which sometimes last for years that we are moved from a somewhat even keel – to an uneven place, a place that sometimes encounters us as being deep and dark, a place where light may only be experienced periodically if at all.

 

Such experiences can occur for entire groups and even nations. I have heard some people as as they scan the present economic order, "Who won World War II?" I personally wonder if anyone can ever "win" any war?

 

Some other events that can create chasms, valleys and mountains between and among nations are international debt, trading embargos, the build up of arms, catastrophes of nature. There are so many valleys and resulting mountains that come out of such conflict: hatred, misunderstanding, personal and collective guilt – displacement and an ongoing questioning of value and values.

 

Some people necessarily wonder, where is God in all of this? Is there a God who would allow humanity to do the things that were and are being done to each other, not only in Europe and Asia but right now in cities and towns, villages all around the world? Even  as I speak children are being born with AIDS, others are growing up in "homes" where domestic abuse and other untold horrors are being perpetrated.

 

To be lifted out of such valleys, such canyons can seem as impossible as having the Grand Canyon filled, or as an elderly man or woman being able to climb Mount McKinley or Everest. There are incredible obstacles to life, to hope, to meaning. These don't just disappear because we would like them to.

 

John the Baptizer knew something about this. He grew up in an occupied land. His so-called freedoms were limited. He was also the son of a priest – an old priest who probably knew something about the wonder of life as well as the shortcomings of people including himself. Now John is living in a place that Luke calls the wilderness. I have an ongoing suspicion that this wilderness may be both literal and symbolic.

 

It is in this wilderness, amidst this seeming chaos that the word of God comes to John. As that word comes John is obedient to it, calling the people to repent, to be washed. They need this. We need this. John's words are both warning and admonition. There are consequences to what we do, how we live. We need to hear this so that we don't pretend that everything is alright, that somehow we can live on our own, that either the mountains, hills and valleys of our lives aren't real, or that they can be easily navigated.

 

John would remind us even as he yells, that the obstacles to a full life are real,  that we need help to change and be changed individually and collectively. He tells us to come and be washed. Come, have our minds changed, opened! As we come to God, John holds out the promise that somehow God can level the canyons and mountains of our lives, even make the crooked straight, personally and collectively.

 

It seems so impossible, to only be a pipe dream. God knows, if we are thinking people, John himself s living proof, that none of this is easy or even attainable. But John points to One who is coming, one whose coming will change everything, even what is possible.

Do we wonder about this coming One? Will we ever wait for him? Are we open? Remember, all flesh shall see God!

Wassup?

 

Christ the King Sunday, John 18:33-37 with Revelation 1:4b-8 in the b.g.

November 22, 2009

 

Whassup? Do you know what that means? Our children, now young adults, used that term for some time when they answered their cell phones. I think it meant, What's going on in your life, around you, amongst those you care about, or even in general?"

 

So I ask you, "Whassup?"

 

We may think that we know what's going on, what matters, in some way at the very least what our reality is, what's true in our own lives and in the lives of those we care most about. But do we?

 

The Christmas rush is on. There is a part of that which often makes me feel good. Perhaps it's because I am blessed to be the father of 3 daughters that I have actually learned at times to enjoy shopping. Each year at Christmas time I go out and attempt to select things that they will appreciate, that they may even need. At times it is a blessing to be able to give without wanting or even expecting anything in return.

 

But there are other times during this Christmas rush when I feel anything but good, when I am anything but happy, when I experience little or no peace, by any definition of that word. It is in these times that I briefly glimpse people who don't have enough to eat, who strive to survive in inadequate housing or no housing, whose dreams have nothing to do with something "under the tree". Instead these people dream of a kind word, a compassionate gesture, of one who even for a moment might acknowledge their existence and express some care for, some appreciation of them.

 

Sometimes in this rush I also see the extreme waste, the near obsession to check everyone off our list, so that when all is said and done we are somehow still in good "standing" with them.

 

What does all this cost? Not only in terms of dollars, but in terms of time, in terms of taxing this earth and her climate to produce all the "goods", to transport them from places far and near, so that we may purchase them? How does any of this help the rest of the people in this world, people to whom Christmas may not even be a word – but who simply hope somehow to defy seemingly insurmountable odds and survive? Yes, whassup? What's really happening? What's the truth?

 

I sometimes wonder about this "truth" when I meet people. It doesn't seem to matter what socio-economic class we are part of, truth telling is often difficult for us. Not that we necessarily purposely lie. But there is usually some pretense. We seem unable to become totally or even intentionally vulnerable to just anyone or even any-"ones". We have to protect ourselves! If we have learned anything in this world, we know that you can' t just trust anyone. So, whether it's the person asking me for grocery gift certificates, or a bus ticket to visit their dying mother in Montreal, or whether it's another father at the gym telling me about his son or daughter, or any of you speaking to me, there is always more to our reality than meets eye or ear at first. WE NEED TO KNOW THIS!

 

But there is a dilemma here. This dilemma is especially real for we people who like to think that we know something. This dilemma becomes more difficult for those of us who have a bent to somehow control or influence that which we know, those whom we love. If what we think we know is at most only a part of the truth – perhaps at times in direct opposition to a more fundamental reality or at worst only that which we are comfortable seeing – then, where is the truth, what is truth?

 

This is the very question that Pilate, the prefect of Galilee, the ruling authority in that little province asks Jesus as Jesus is brought to him on trumped up charges by  the religious authorities. Pilate then asks Jesus, "What is truth?" In many ways this may not be surprising. Pilate knows about power. He had some of it himself. Pilate could decide if men or women came or went, were rewarded or punished. Pilate even had the authority to declare that some be executed. Pilate had clout. And yet, even though Pilate had so much of what this world sees as being desireable, tradition tells us that a few years after Jesus encountered Pilate, Pilate takes his own life. So, what is truth?

 

Don't we see that Pilate is standing right there in front of Jesus, perhaps even beside Jesus, the One John's Gospel refers to as the Word of God? But Pilate misses this truth. Pilate not only thinks but believes that the power of the system he wields is all there is. He refuses to see that beyond the element or reality of Rome's power, there is something more. Rome's power like all other earthly powers was also passing away. Regardless of  how many people's lives it claimed, of how many aqueducts and super highways were built, of how many soldiers it sent out, of how much wealth it generated, Rome's power is not all there is!  The Roman Empire had a beginning and an end. Nevertheless at the time that's all Pilate could grasp – was Rome.

 

I sometimes wonder if I if we are any different than Pilate? God knows, our temptations to want to have power are great. We want our kids, our grandkids, our family members to do well. And we model for them a work ethic that is often second to none. Some of that is good. But do we show them what and who truly matters? Is it the beautiful home, that special car, investments and possessions? Again, God knows, we spend so much of our time working for such things, even longing for them.  But, is that what truly matters? Are consumption, materialism, some kind of material "security" what our lives are to be truly about, offered in service to? Think about this carefully. Come to an intentional conclusion. 

 

During Jesus' so-called trial, just before Pilate asks of Jesus, "What is truth?", Pilate also asks Jesus if he is a king. Pilate's exact words are, "So you are a king?!" Depending on one's interpretation this may either be an affirmation or a question. In any case Jesus responds in John's Gospel in this way: "You say that I am king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth".

 

Do note: the word testify in Greek is martyria. From that word we derive the English word "martyr". Jesus comes to flesh out with his total being and point towards the truth. The writer of John's Gospel calls Jesus the WORD – that is the WORD of God to the world. And for John's Gospel this WORD is to show us that God loves the world – all people and all creation. God has a dream for this world – that it would live in harmony with God and then with each other: men, women and children, people and creatures, people and the earth. God so loves the world – so that there may be new life. That is God's hope, God's dream, the mission to which Jesus gives his life. In some ways Jesus stands before us today – in the words of Scripture, in the prayers, certainly in the Sacrament. He wills to confront us when we are comfortable – so that we may not depend as Pilate did in things that only seem to be god, that only seem to be permanent, that give a few great benefit, while imprisoning others to death and exclusion. Such powers suck the very life from us and this world. This same Jesus wills to comfort us when we are devastated and lead us through such suffering to new beginnings, beginnings we may never have imagined – beginnings that may not be easy – but which have as their end – their purpose, forgiveness and care, compassion and justice and mercy. Jesus gives His all so that the world might experience this very love of God.

            What is truth? Ahhh, this is not merely a philosophical question. Not at all! But rather  our "truth" is the reality to which we are giving or will give our lives too. What do you see, what do you believe, what do you treat as being true? Be very careful. For that becomes our god.

Please know that Jesus comes even now to bear witness to the truth. As He touches us we may be caught up by the very presence of God, in which everything and everyone is seen and experienced in a new light – in which what we thought we knew before, is now experienced with a humility and an openness to much more. Or, because we may think it easier to try to be in control, or because we are so sure that truth is what we can see, feel, taste, touch or somehow prove or control, we refuse to be open to this Jesus, to his unconditional love, to his questioning of so much of the way things are.

 

So, wassup? Don't forget Jesus is here. Jesus is coming/ Jesus will come again! Amen

Hope Beyond Reason

It is summertime. The little boy is running. He is running so fast over uneven terrain that his body can't keep up with his legs. Down he goes – onto the gravel. His skin is torn – the grains of gravel embedded in his knee – trickles of blood beginning to seep out. His dad and mom aren't far behind. They run to pick him up. They want to ease his pain. They tell him, "Everything will be alright!"

 

Everything will be alright!

 

Sometimes we Christians tell others, "Everything will be alright." But I have to confess, I often wonder about that.

 

This morning's gospel brings that question to the very forefront of our being. Will everything be alright? Biblical scholars refer to the 13^th chapter of Mark as apocalyptic literature. They mean different things by this. At its core meaning they generally are saying that this literature was written to a particular time and place, a time and place when people were suffering greatly. The purpose of such literature is to encourage such suffering people to still trust God, to try to live faithfully, to believe that God is still present with them, regardless of what is happening. Apocalyptic literature means to show the people that somehow, someway God will deliver them to new life. In some ways such scholars are saying that such literature tells the people that  "Everything will be alright, at least for those who trust God!"

 

But I still wonder – in the light or darkness of part of our reality –of a psychiatrist walking onto his military base and killing 13 people, while wounding 29 others, people who just happened to be there that day. I wonder in the light of Krystallenacht, remembered last Monday – when hundreds of synagogues and literally hundreds of shops owned by Jewish people were burned and looted – and the fire departments and police departments of that time and place were told to do absolutely nothing.

 

To help us wrestle more with reality I share 2 stories.

 

I am blessed to have a Palestinian friend, Yosef, living in Israel. Yosef and his family have lived in the same small village very near the Mediterranean coast in what is now northern Israel for over 800 years. In some ways their village seems so simple. There is a circle of small houses made out of rock surrounding a central area where goats graze and turkeys chatter and a lone dog patrols. There are simple cooking pots in the central area. The residents of that village all know each other in ways that we in North America seldom do. In some ways these people's way of life has changed little over these last 800 years. In other ways there have been drastic changes. Between 60 and 70 years ago some Jewish settlers began returning to the land near Yosef's village. These people were seeking refuge in a world gone mad. They brought with them technology, an incredible work ethic and a strong nearly desperate will to survive. But survive they have. Thrive they do. And now next to Yosef's village is a thriving, prosperous Jewish kibbutz of over 300 people. Yosef accepts this. In fact he seeks to build bridges with his Jewish neighbors. Yosef does find reciprocation with some of his Jewish neighbors. Yosef also finds like mindedness with a few of his Palestinian friends and neighbors. But Yosef also encounters great resistance in both communities. Jews and Arabs/Palestinians have been at war for well over a thousand years. Hatred, misunderstanding and suspicion often abound. So, I ask - will everything be alright for Yosef, his 3 young daughters and wife – for my Jewish friends on the kibbutz? Or will car bombs and people moved by fear and hatred win the day? Will each other's culture, faith and lives continue to be torn asunder?

 

Many have already given up! But not my friend, Yosef. He keeps working. He recruits Palestinians and Jews to meet over coffee, to talk, to get to know each other – maybe even to care about one another.

 

A second story: Mary, a vibrant young Chinese Canadian, phoned me one day. She and her husband had just been blessed by the birth of their first child. Mary wanted her baby girl to be baptized. She herself had never been baptized. So, she had a great desire to be baptized with her baby Shelly. I set up an appointment. I heard a bit of her story. I shared some of my faith story. Then that grand day came. Mary and baby Shelly were baptized together. For me, it was the beginning of a wonderful journey with them.

 

Mary was a very fine nurse. She took her Christian faith both seriously and joyfully. She lived her faith out with her children. Eventually she was blessed with two other children. She respected her husband and his reality – not believing in God. But she prayed. And how she loved, mentoring her girls by the grace of the Spirit into amazing faith and life. Even now I am humbled by all of this. 

 

But one afternoon when Mary's youngest girl was still less than one year old and her others were 11 and 8 or 9, I received an alarming call. Mary and her family had returned home from vacation. She hadn't been feeling well. She thought that she had the flu. She went to the hospital late that night as she was becoming more and more ill. Almost immediately she had been air evacuated to a Vancouver hospital. Mary had leukemia!

 

The next few years were touch and go as to her survival. At first her cancer markings had been extremely high. Everyone held our breath. We prayed. We loved her family as best we could – bringing food, sometimes transporting members to wherever they needed to be.

 

To be very frank, I railed at God. Please don't let her die! Can't you see how much her girls need her? Don't you see how much her husband needs her on so many levels? Now, Mary needed a bone marrow transplant. There were only 2 compatible donors registered in the entire world. We prayed some more. But both people refused to donate. Mary's health continued to deteriorate. She was in Vancouver for most of a year away from her kids. We continued to pray. And I continued to rail at God.

 

Then there was some good news. One of the bone marrow donors had changed their mind. The donation was made. Over the course of the next months Mary's health gradually improved. She could come home. She could return to some of her previous responsibilities, the joys and work of a mother, wife and friend. There was a lot of  rejoicing.

 

So it went for between 4 and 5 years. But one day I received another call. Mary was gravely ill. She was hospitalized. This time she died. Her youngest daughter was only  5 years old. Soon her husband called. He asked me, "Tim, will you come and do Mary's funeral?" What could I say to him, to them?

 

I went, I marveled at the 2 older girls' faith and love in the face of their pain. Will everything be alright for them, for their younger sister and their dad?

 

Life can be so amazing, so wonderful, so filled with joy. And life can also be hard, at times even horrific, marked by much pain. 

 

So what do we do? What do we hook our lives on? Whom can we count on? Is there anyone, anything that we can we trust?

 

Be careful. Trusting in the market has more than a few ups and downs. Even fully trusting in other people, even the most inspiring people can lead to great disappointment. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of my heroes. And yet sometimes in the living out of his sexuality he made choices that were sinful and caused great pain to those who loved him. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is another person who greatly inspires me. And yet as we hear more following her death – she struggled greatly with her faith. Not that this disappoints me. But this will disappoint some.

 

Yet, what if we place our trust neither in things nor in people, but in God? Will we still struggle? Then, will things be alright?

 

The Old Testament prophets worked at placing their trust in God. But their lives were far from smooth. The people of Israel throughout the course of what we call the Old Testament vacillated between trust and distrust of God. They experienced both blessing and pain. And Jesus himself, the One we believe to be God's Son is the one who ultimately trusted God. Yet he experienced great hardship to the point of being crucified!

 

Was everything alright for him? Do you remember him crying out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

 

But – and this is a very important BUT – neither his cry nor his death are the end nor the totality of who Jesus is. Somehow on that third day Jesus is raised. Somehow he returns to his early followers enabling them to get up and go out from the midst of all their struggles. They go painfully aware that everything is far from alright. They go convinced that Jesus comes to enable them to live with that, to work to change that – to model a different way, Jesus' way of forgiveness, of care, of trusting that God is at work in all things – to ultimately bring about new life, hope and harmony with God.

In the amazing vulnerability and seeming weakness of Jesus' suffering and death, hatred and evil run the gamut. But they discover that although they may have won that battle they do not win the war. As John's Gospel puts it, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness (as deep as it is) does not overcome it (the light).

 

Know this: everything isn't alright. That's why Jesus comes. But His coming, His ongoing presence, shines a light on all that we experience. Our experience is not the end nor the goal of God's hope and dream.

 

We are called to be part of that hope and dream. By God's grace we can cling to the promise and love of Jesus, his suffering, death and resurrection in all that we do. Then seemingly against much or all rationality we also can see that God is working to bring about something new and different, something truly and wonderfully good.

 

May God help us, wherever we are, whatever we are experiencing to keep on living, to work at loving and trusting that through Jesus there will be a new end, a purpose, a coming together by God's grace that will be good – even though everything else may be falling apart!

 

For this faith O God, and this trust O God in you and Christ, we pray, HELP US! Amen.

Our Two Hands

23^rd Sunday after Pentecost, Nov. 8, 2009

Mark 12:38-44

Would you be the Pastor for a moment? There is an elderly couple in the congregation you serve. They have been married for over 50 years. Their marriage is not perfect, but much of their marriage has been good. There has been a caring for each other, a pulling together in most things. They have both been active in raising their children. They have worked hard at their jobs to provide financially for each other, for their family, their church and different things within their community. There have been some bumps along the way. For years their two children haven't been getting along with each other. At times these 2 grown children play their parents off against each other. Despite this, the couple continues to care deeply for each other. In ongoing ways they attempt to love and care for their 2 estranged children and all their grandchildren. 

 

But the husband now well in his 80's has dementia. As time goes by the dementia worsens. Now, when he goes outside he easily becomes lost. His nights and days are mixed up. He some- times awakens at 3 AM and wonders outside not properly dressed. At times his frustration with his deteriorating memory boils over and he becomes very angry. He has now shoved his wife and raised his hand towards her for the first time in 53 years. He would never have done such things before. The wife is beside herself. She literally stops sleeping soundly. She tries to listen for her husband to stir. Once he moves she rushes to her feet ready to attempt to convince him that it is night time and that he must not to outside.

 

But the care he so desperately needs that she attempts to provide is taking its toll. Their children don't see the fullness of this reality because when they do come to visit they never stay overnight. The elderly wife tearfully asks her Pastor, "What shall I do? How can I continue to go on like this? Shall I literally give my life for this man I love? Or, shall I place him in a home? How could I ever do that? That too could kill me. It would be so very difficult for me to see how not with me, cared for by someone else."

 

What would you tell her? How could you help both she and her family?

 

The text we hear from Mark's Gospel is familiar to many of us. For years the Biblical title over this account was 'The Widow's Mite'. I have preached on this text many times. But these past years I have begun to see it in a different light.

 

Did you hear the few verses that preceded this account? Listen: "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in market places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widow's houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."

 

Christ says this in the temple. His teaching seems quite straightforward. Beware of the leaders of any system - religious, political or economic where those with influence make decisions to destroy or devour others who are vulnerable in order to satisfy their own greedy selfish wants. Beware! Avoid! Do not emulate such people. In fact don't give into them. Mark may have been playing on words when he says that Jesus sits opposite (was that opposed to the treasury?) All of this is the first part of the text. Then follows the story of the widow's mite.

 

Given such a context would Jesus be telling any who are poor to give everything they have to a system, religious or otherwise that was already destroying them? It's obvious that the "poor" widow, (Mark's way of saying a beggar), has already had her house devoured by the systems she lived in. Would Jesus be expecting her, demanding that this poor widow give what little she has to a system that in manipulative ways now would claim that by such giving she would be blessed? I wonder!

 

Fast forward to our time: Would Jesus be telling the elderly woman in our story, the wife of the man with dementia to keep giving her life until she is killed or all used up, while her family and others including the people of the church do so very little or nothing to help either her or the man she loves?

 

Remember who Jesus is. He is the very Son of God, the Beloved, who is on his way to Jerusalem. Why is he going to Jerusalem? To watch the Grey Cup where BC's own Lions would like to be? To make his millions? To become more famous? No! Jesus is going to Jerusalem to give His all. Why? Because, we human beings need to be freed from ourselves, from our desire and obsession to secure ourselves at the cost of others' lives and well being. Jesus gives his all because the world needs to be freed from our mentality of blame and violence. Jesus gives His all because despite ourselves, God loves us! Yes, God loves all of us, including the scribes Jesus is speaking about and the widow, our elderly woman and man, you and me, all of us, all who are broken.

 

We are often shattered in our relationship with God. We are broken in our relationships with others, people  and creation. Think about that! When did any of us last make time to sit down or kneel in order to speak honestly with God about who we are, about our joys and fears, about the places where we are feeling trapped, squished or spent? When did we last open ourselves up to God, saying, "Your will … not mine be done? Guide me, help me, forgive me, help me to change?" When did we last admit to those we deeply love our wrongdoing to them, either by our action or our inaction? How could we go above and beyond to help them?

 

I realize that many of you do the latter. I am blessed to live with a woman who goes above and beyond for me, for our children and for many others often. But I don't consistently do that. Some of you may be able to identify. The hockey game's on, it's the third period and the dog starts to bark because she needs to go outside. What do I do? "Hon, could you take her out?" 

 

What seems small, like my laziness, or selfishness also works itself out on a much larger scale. Do we honestly see our relationships with others outside our family, outside our denomination, beyond our religion, our country? Do we ever allow them to carry us – to provide us with the luxuries we enjoy by giving their all while we give significantly less?

 

Remembrance day is only 3 days away. Sometimes I do reflect on the sacrifice of those who have gone before us. Perhaps this is because both of my parents are WW II veterans. Yet as I read the history accounts of many different wars, as I continue to see the caskets and the wounded come home from Afghanistan, I also ask, "How long, O Lord, how long, will we send our young men and women off to war to pay the price of our collective human hatred, human greed, our stubborn refusal to spend money, time and serious effort at getting along with each other, working together so that all may have their daily bread?

Why God do we turn our back on seeking to obey you in your command to love our neighbors as ourselves? Nor is it only the soldiers and their families who pay such a great price. The land, the civilians in all war zones pay an incredible price, as so many of you know better me.

 

So, Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem. There He suffers. There He dies. But He doesn't die in vain! In all of this - His life, suffering and death, Jesus seeks to obey God. His life, suffering, death and resurrection are given to bridge the gap between humanity and God, between humanity and humanity, between humanity and creation. 

 

As Christ's sacrificial love washes over us our selfish impulses can be drowned again and again. We don't need to devour others by word or deed. We can choose to resist, to say no to those impulses that demand that we demean or take advantage of others. We can say no to participating in systems that would seek to devour any. As Christ's suffering, and dying love washes over us we can become part of God's transformation.

 

Being loved and accepted by God we will want to give to others on many levels. We can give as we are receiving. Is the reason that God has given us 2 hands is that with 1 we are to receive and with the 2^nd to give away? 

 

We don't have to do anything to get right with God, despite the fact that so often we do things that cause rifts between ourselves and God, between ourselves and others. In Jesus, God gives God's all FOR US both to bridge the gap between us and to bring about new hearts and minds within us.

 

I can't tell you for sure what the poor widow's attitude was as she placed her only 2 coins in the temple offering. She may have meant well and truly believed that by giving what she had she would be honoring God and helping others. Or she may have dropped those coins out of a sense of duty. In any case she was destitute.

 

But I can tell you that God wants us to beware of people in any and all systems and institutions who seek to take advantage of ourselves or others so that they can benefit. I can also tell you that Christ gives His all for us to prevent us and the world from being devoured. 

 

We can begin to realize even now that all we have is a good and wonderful gift from God. Each person, each creature is important to God. We who have voice and influence are called by God to listen to the vulnerable, to give them voice and when necessary to advocate for and on behalf of them.  

 

Finally, this life that we are given by God in Christ, is a life that also open to the contributions of others in this world. All others are also children of God. We can only benefit by listening with open ears, eyes and minds to God speaking through all around us. God in Christ's life, death and resurrection wills to bring new life to all and for all.

 

May God help us so to listen. As we listen may we also respond humbly and joyfully in all of the decisions of our lives, however clear or difficult they may be. May we both receive and give for the life of the world! In this God is glorified. Amen.