TODAY!

Epiphany 3c, Nehemiah 8:1-10; I Cors. 12:12 –31 a; Luke 4:14-21

 

Main thought – being joined to Christ, being members of his body, calls us to new life and service now.

 

Malady – it's about me/individual; it's about the future; it's only spiritual.

            Over the last while I have had a number of young people inquire about their faith. What might it mean, what should it mean for them to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a practicing member of a Christian community? These are questions that are important. One of the many reasons that the body of Christ has younger members is that so we don't get complacent. We must hear and live with the difficult questions.

How would you answer such a question?

Today's lessons give some shape to a response, at least the outer boundaries, boundaries which may not be hard and fast, boundaries that are in flux allowing for a variety of experiences. Nevertheless there is still some shape to these boundaries.

In the Nehemiah lesson the people have lost their way. In losing their way they have lost their sense of identity. It is like they are suffering from dementia. They no longer know who they are because they don't realize whose they are. They have been in exile in a far off country. Other values, other religious convictions have infiltrated their conscious way of being. So much of their being is muddied. Eventually they are able to come back home, back to the land that once had embodied a deep sense of the promise of God. But now it's nothing like they had imagined. The city walls have crumbled. The temple is in ruins. Their language has been forgotten. There are few if any music makers. 

            But then some of the old scrolls are found. The people gather in the city square to listen. The scrolls are read, interpreted, discussed in ways that the people can understand. My God, they begin to realize how God loves them, how God continues to choose them, to free them from so many things. Even now God is directing them. They begin to see how they have forgotten God. How often they have done things to others, to themselves that are contrary to God's direction and hope for their living. Looking around they see the consequences of their actions. The city is in ruins. So many lives have been broken. Each person seems to be fighting for alone, for themselves against everyone else. As the people hear and are encompassed by this reality they begin to weep.

            But, those reading and those interpreting say, "Stop it". Stop crying. But they can't help themselves. The readers and interpreters beg them to see this: this day can be a new day because of God. God has brought them back to this place, this moment. God is opening a new future. Turn. Listen. See.

The people in the book of Nehemiah are our forefathers and foremothers in the faith. They were encouraged and learned again and again to hear God speaking to them through the stories of those who had gone before them. These stories shared their ancestors' experiences of God in the midst of their living and dying, their celebrating and mourning. To be followers of Jesus we need to hear these stories read, interpreted, and addressed to us so that we can know, rediscover, and be encountered by the living God who reminds us both of who we are, what we are doing and who we are called to be. This is not easy. But  without these stories, our stories being told again and again, we suffer from dementia and lose our way.

If we dare hear the stories, be touched and moved by them, we will be caught up in the rituals they enact. At the center for those who are joined to Christ is His cross. That symbol has a central place in all our spaces of worship. This cross is not for decoration – or solely for admiration. Nor is it a piece of jewelry or a good luck charm. The cross points us at one and the same time to who we are – as well as to who God is. We are people of violence, of jealousy, of longing to be in control of at the very least our own lives, maybe even others. History tells us this. But many do not read history. Some readers of history refuse to admit the implications of history for our own lives, individually and collectively. But the cross shows us. We as human beings kill the one of God who wills to lead us beyond hatred, apathy, religious certainty wrapped in doctrines – to see our own need to turn around, to be open to God, to depend on God for love and forgiveness, first for ourselves, but then also for our way of living and relating with others and all of creation.

            The cross is what joins us, reconciles us to God and to each other. The cross is what leads us collectively into and through suffering – not as the end – not even only as a means, but as part of life – leading to new life.

            We are not alone. We are joined to Christ in his cross. We are not alone. In Christ we are joined to others – red and yellow, black and white, old and young, intellectually brilliant and challenged, musical geniuses and those who are capable of only monotones. In Christ we are joined to a body – His body in this world.

            I love what Teresa of Avila says. She puts it something like this: Christ has no body on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours. Ours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out upon the world. Ours are the feet with which he goes about doing good. Ours are the hands with which he blesses his people now.

            What a call! What a commission this is! How we so often fall short,  because we forget who we are, we try to go it alone by refusing to depend on God and get trapped by our own anxieties, our own limitations.

To this, to us Christ comes. He comes to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth long ago. He comes to us this morning. He comes TODAY, not only in the past, not only in the future, but today. He states His call then and now. His call is something for His living but far from perfect body to aspire to now. We are part of His body, joined to him in baptism. Listen to him speak selecting parts of the prophet Isaiah:

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

            We could argue – and many Christians have – about who the poor are, about what release to the captives means or even recovery of sight to the blind. Is this literal? Is it merely metaphor? But in doing that we may well miss out on our call. We are to be who we are and whose we are, members of the body of Christ now!

            We are to live following Christ. We are to be open to His direction each day. I am convinced that He will show us individually and collectively who and what we are to care for, and even how to go about that. To be sure there are poor all around us: financially, emotionally and spiritually. Sometimes we are among them. To be sure there are many who are blind among us: blind to what matters, blind to the love of God, blind to freedom that they don't have to please others, that they don't have to have all of those things, that life isn't meant to be a race where one can never actually rest and enjoy. Our truth is that sometimes we are among them.

To be sure there are many who are oppressed. There are people who do not know that they are beautiful, even filled with wonder. They don't realize that they have unique gifts, that God cares about them, that God has incredible dreams for them. Sometimes we are among these oppressed ones.

            But today is the time that Christ wills to make a difference. Today is the time that God wills to take each of us molding us to be a living part of that difference, individually and collectively. Jesus gives His all for us, for others, for the world.

                Are we open to him? Do we see and experience God's love for us, for all people, for all creation? God still claims us in our baptism to be members of Christ's body. By God's grace may we live that way beginning, today. Amen.

Blind and Deaf, but Hopeful

 

Baptism of our Lord, January 10, 2010

(Isaiah 42:18-43:7 with Luke 3:17-22 in b.g.

 

            Have you ever been blind?

            I don't mean – have you ever been unable to see anything with your eyes? But, have you ever missed seeing that which is really important to see? … At different times we are blind to that which is important. We can miss "seeing" because we may be focusing too much of our attention on that which is of secondary importance.

            A popular folk singer, Harry Chapin, penned his experience of such blindness in a song titled, "Cat's in the Cradle". Chapin writes about a young father bent on providing a "living" for his family. As this father's son grows in age, the boy at various times begs his father for time together. When you comin' home dad? But the father, climbing the ladder of "success" replies, "I don't know when, but we'll get together then son, you know we'll have a good time then". The years fly by. The son has become a father with children of his own. Now the much older father asks his grown up son to spend some time with him. However, now the son is busy with a job of his own and says, "Not now, dad. Later." And the older father laments that his son has turned out, just like him. His boy's a lot like him…."

            It's a sad song. Opportunities for relationship, relationships that are glimpses of who we are to be – people who love to play, to cry to laugh, to love, are missed, because of our blindness to priorities.

            There are times when in focusing on things that have some importance we miss seeing what is more important, even most important. Such blindness can occur when we are going through difficult times. Such difficulties may take on various forms. We may not have what we consider to be "enough" time, things or money. We may even be suffering through tremendous losses. Such losses can take on various forms: the loss of employment, the death of a loved one, the termination of an important relationship, the onset of a serious illness.

            From the depths of our pain we may be blind to much of anything else. Yet, even then, especially then, while we are consumed by loneliness, worry, anger or despair, God comes to us.

            God's presence may not manifest itself via blinding light or in an audible bass voice. I mean it could happen that way. God can do anything. But God may also draw near to us in the voices, the concern, the assistance of others – others whom we may or may not have expected to help us.

            Will we see the help they bring us? Will we be open to their assistance? In the midst of our pain, our lack, our worry, will we see the new doors that are opening towards us? Will we see that God is at work now? Or will we continually choose to grovel in our pain, our loss, our busyness and lament, "poor, poor me: Why does this happen, why is this happening to me?"

            Isaiah in those few verses close to the end of chapter 42 speaks of Israel as being blind… That's right, blind! Those people whom God had specifically chosen to work through, to bless the world, were then "blind"!

            Have you ever been deaf?  Some of us live with the experience of being literally deaf – unable to hear much or perhaps anything of that which is going on around us. But all of us are deaf to some things! Aren't there times when some wives complain that their husbands have selective hearing – that they only hear that which they want to hear, which may be very little of what their wives are actually communicating? Isn't there profound truth in that assertion? Don't we all have a degree of selective hearing? Aren't we all, at times deaf to that which goes on around us?

            When our children were quite young I didn't always hear them crying in the middle of the night. At times my choice was unconscious. I was sound asleep and did not hear them. But at other times, my choice was quite conscious. I would hear one of our tiny ones begin to stir – and would remain still myself hoping that my wife would hear them and get up.

            Similarly now, I wonder if we hear what others are communicating to us? Beware – we communicate on many different levels. We communicate verbally with words. Yet it's not only the words that we use or don't use, it's also the tone of our voice that carries the words. We also communicate through our bodies. Our eyes, our posture, the tilt of our head, all speak definitive messages to those we love. After that, they will or will not pick up our message. If they don't pick up our message, if the communication from the one we love, who loves us, is not responded to, what will eventually happen to our relationship?… If you or I move again and again to hug one whom we care for and they continually turn away or ignore us, how long will we, how long can we keep trying to hug them?

            It is very important to assess how we are hearing others? Are we listening? Are we actually hearing those we love, those who love us, God?

            Interestingly enough, the prophet Isaiah, near the end of chapter 42 calls the people of Israel DEAF – deaf to God! But even then, God keeps trying to speak, to use people who were so often towards him. God's persistent action with them is hopeful for us!

            We need to realize that there were consequences for the people of Israel being blind and deaf towards God. They suffered significant losses as a result of their blindness and deafness, their refusal to respond to God's directives. They lost their temple, their city, even their land.

            There are consequences for us when we refuse to hear or see others whom we love, others who we are called to love including God. WE cannot live or love or even grieve all by ourselves!!

            But also hear this. Alongside the consequences there is also hope. God did not give up on Israel. God does not give up on us. See the action of God's Son, Jesus the Christ. Hear God speak to Christ, "You are my Son, my beloved, with you I am well pleased." Be aware of Christ's activity on behalf of all people including us in His life, death and resurrection. He wills to overcome the gap of sight and hearing between us and God.

            So, listen to God speaking through "Isaiah" in chapter 43. "But now, thus says the Lord … Do not fear, for I have redeemed (delivered) you. I have called you by name. You are mine!"

            God knows our name. We are God's own children. This is God's good and gracious choice. We do well to both see and hear this decision. We are richly blessed to live with this decision, to receive God's love and direction each day of our lives.  We too are precious, not because we hear well or see well – so often we don't, but because God chooses us.

            By God's grace may we be able to see and hear, God and others. WE and they are God's children by God's grace whether we or they realize it. We all are in need of God's love, God's deliverance from apathy, fear, the power of greed, hatred and violence. And that is exactly what God seeks to do for us, for all others, for this world.

            This is the most wonderful news. You and I, blind and deaf though we so often are, continue to be named, loved, honored and commissioned by God to hear, see and love others and creation. May we so live by God's grace, for the sake of the world. Amen.

             

Joyful, Incomprehensible, Gift

 

Christmas 2c, John 1:1-18

 

MT – Verse 16 – From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

 

This morning is the 2^nd Sunday of Christmas – I know that most of the world has moved on – but we are still celebrating, pondering what the Incarnation, this reality of God becoming vulnerable flesh means. And today we hear that this God/Word becomes flesh. What does that mean for us and for the world, what does that Word do to us – and what will we do with this Word which wills to inhabit us?

 

I want you either to identify – 2 or 3 gifts that you have been given or 2 or 3 gifts of someone beside you that you know well. These gifts must be specific – not I am nice – or even I am musical, but much more specific – I am kind and give of my time, my possessions, to others in this way. I want you to hear them – and then we will name them together.

 

b) Name them – we are a people of many gifts – grace upon grace.

 

c) What shall we do, what might God be calling us to do with this grace in 2010?

 

 

Now I want you to hold what we have just talked about – close to your being. I want to share a story with you.

 

Yesterday I was in Vernon. I was leading a memorial service for one of my closest friends aged 50 who died of cancer on Christmas Day evening. He had coached literally hundreds of young people in soccer over the years. Between 400 and 500 people attended the service. After the service over tea, coffee, and sandwiches we all milled around, to be near each other, to perhaps touch for just a moment my friend Andy's wife and children and his extended family who had flown in from London England. During that time I was able to see many people that I hadn't seen in a number of years. I share two of those encounters with you.

 

The first was with 2 young women – now aged 16 and 14. They are amazing people. I first began to know them when they were 3 and 5 years old. How they have grown since then. I didn't notice them at first in the masses of people. But the younger one, Candice, she or short stature and the deepest blue eyes, literally drew near to me and said, "Hi, Tim. We hard you were coming today. At first we thought it was a misprint, but we wanted to come to Andy's service and to hear you."

 

I have to tell you- that my heart sang, firstly that they recognized me, that they even remembered their old pastor, but then that they called out to me in such a personal loving way. We still have a bond that goes back to when they were much younger and they would sit or lay on the couch in my office while their mother or father worked around the church. Then I would listen to them talk and be caught up by their wonder of the world.

 

The second encounter I tell you about is with an older woman, now in her 90's. I have known her for over 20 years and love her deeply. I was privileged to walk awhile with she and her husband as he struggled for mental health. I walked with them when he was placed in a care facility. And I was privileged to accompany she and her family as he died and was buried. Together we journeyed through some of life's significant events. In some ways she knows me better than I know myself. But in these last years she has been suffering from dementia. Her children reminded me that each time I saw her, I needed to tell her who I was. Something then would click and we could visit in the reality of our relationship. But if I didn't do that – if I didn't in some way announce who I am – she would likely smile but not realize who I was or in some ways then, even who she is.

 

I share these stories, these realities of life because John's prologue speaks about these realities on a much deeper level. We have gifts – the gifts we mentioned earlier. But before and under all of our gifts comes the most incredible gift: God reaches out to us, even though we can't see God or fathom or begin to fully comprehend God. God reaches out to us with this incarnate Word, this Word made flesh in Jesus. In doing so God begins to give us even more gifts. God loves us! God loves the world! God does not abandon us to anything or anyone including the power of death or evil.

 

But this reality is not welcomed nor understood, nor even recognized by many, including ourselves. Sometimes we are like my older friend. We need to hear God's love for us announced, proclaimed, given again and again and again so that we may recognize it, trust God, receive God's gifts. You see that incredible reality must flow/filter/eke from our heads into our hearts so that we know, that we realize, we are children of God even with all our frailties, failings and shortcomings.

 

At the same time we need to become like my 2 young friends Candice and Jennifer – absolutely delighted to share our gifts, particularly the love of God held up in this amazing Word from God, whom we call Jesus. We can share Him, His love – our gifts  with others. For this particular Word is not just a message – that should cause us to think, although hopefully He will do that too. Rather, this Word is a message that is meant to change us bit by bit, lot by lot, moving us from within ourselves of fear and hesitancy, to  a love that wills to be part of this Word's working to save the world, to deliver her, her people and creatures from the power of death and evil.

 

Yes, we have received grace upon grace – 'tis true, 'tis true. May we delight in that grace. May we welcome that grace. May we by God's grace share the amazing love, forgiveness and hope of that Word made flesh joyfully with others.

 

How's that for a wonderful New Years resolution! Amen. 

 

Pondering Hearts

 

Christmas 1c, Luke 2:41-52 with Colossians 3:12-17 in the b.g.

 

I love this Gospel story. It is the only Gospel story in the entire canon, (that which Christians call the Bible) that speaks of an event in Jesus' life which occurs sometime between his being circumcised at 8 days of age and his public ministry which began probably around his 30^th year. However, I am also troubled by this story.

 

Let me say more. These past few days my family has been looking for one of our daughter's VISA card and license. She thought she had it when she boarded her plane Wednesday night –but she hasn't been able to find it since. We turned our home upside down. Never mind that someone may be spending using her VISA, the real crux of the matter is that she wants to go out on New Year's Eve. To do that she needs photo ID. There's the rub. Although we may chuckle at it, if you have ever lost something that's valuable, you will know that feeling of angst that grabs hold of you until you find it. I once lost my wedding ring for a number of weeks only to find it in a pair of board shorts early on a summer's Sunday morning while out for a walk.  The relief was palpable.

 

But if that which is lost is not a thing – even a ring or a VISA card or a family heirloom, but rather a person, can you imagine the anxiety? I have watched some of my parishioner's agonize over their spouse as he or she suffers from Alzheimer's disease. The disease often progresses to the point where the person has no idea whether it is 2 o'clock in the afternoon or 2'oclock in the morning. And in these still somewhat early stages of the disease that person may decide to get up and go outside for a walk. The problem is that once they have walked a little ways they no longer know their way home. They are truly lost. On occasion at this stage of their illness they may remember their first or last name. They are extremely vulnerable. As their spouse wakes to find them missing, panic sets in.

 

Similarly mounting anxiety rises when a young child wanders away from a campsite or from his or her parent in the mall. That parent may have looked away for only a moment – but presto their child is gone. Can you imagine a more horrifying experience? Yes, the child may only have wandered over to the toy section or the candy bar shelf. But that child may also have been taken by some person who wills to do them untold harm. The depth of such foreboding is unimaginable unless you have experienced it.

 

Mary and Joseph were small town people. But once a year, since they were pious Jews, they would travel to the big city of Jerusalem for Passover. This time since their eldest son Jesus has turned 12, they are bringing him with them. It's quite the journey. There are the 4 or 5 days to walk with family and friends from their hometown of Nazareth. Then there are also the 2 or 3 days in Jerusalem at and around the temple. Then there is the return journey home.

 

But this year, something horrible happens on the way home. They are with family and friends including numerous young children. They assume that Jesus is with their kin, cousins and friends. But that first night as they go find him, he IS MISSING. They look everywhere. A number of people join in the search. But Jesus is not there. So, they detach themselves from everyone they know and love. Then Joseph and Mary race back to Jerusalem, literally as fast as their feet can carry them. They search all the likely places in Jerusalem where a 12 year-old boy might be – extended family, friends.

 

But do you know where they find him. That's right -at the temple precincts! Thank God. But yet – how could he do this to them? Didn't he know that they would be worried sick? Mary confronts him.

 

Now Jesus asks her a question. How could she not know that he would be about his father's business, in a very real sense at his father's house, the temple? It's an important question. But obviously Mary doesn't understand.

 

Once before in Luke's Gospel, on the day or evening of Jesus' birth, Luke tells us that Mary pondered things in her heart. Then it was what those mangy shepherd's had told her about the message they had received via an angel from God. This child, her baby, Jesus, would bring good news of great joy for all the people. He was, he would be the Savior, the Messiah, the one who would somehow deliver his people.

 

Now, again, listening to her 12 year old's words – how could she not know that he would at such a tender age be about his father's business? Unable to comprehend this, she has no recourse but to stop and ponder – indeed to wonder. Who is He? How can any of this be? Where will it end?

 

Here we are only 2 days after Christmas Day when we celebrated in such grand fashion Jesus' birth. Our celebration was wonderful. Jesus' birth is marvelous for the world. But now, as we are beginning to head back down to more "normalcy" or at the very least, to what we perceive as being "normal" what might Jesus' birth mean for us now? 

 

In the midst of all the things that are going on in our lives – in terms of money, work/school, expectations, hopes and dreams, fears and losses, births and deaths, our relationships – what does Jesus' birth and life mean for us and for the world?

 

This Jesus is certainly human in defying as a 12 year old his parent's wishes. Yet the reason that he defies his parent's wishes is unique – that he might be about his father's, that is God's business. This Jesus is also divine. And yet that day he leaves the temple to go back to that small town of Nazareth. He does this to obey his earthly parents. Years later Jesus leavrd Nazareth to proclaim far and near that God's kingdom is near. For Luke Jesus' ministry begins with his proclamation in his hometown synagogue that he is the One who has come to fulfill the ancient promise of bearing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and HEAR THIS, to let the oppressed go free. That would be the year of the Lord. Then all debts would be forgiven.

 

This Christmas what does it mean for us that Jesus comes to bring good news to the poor – those who are poor in any way, man, woman, child, creature? What does it mean that Jesus comes to bring release to the captives – to those enslaved to addictions, to low self esteem, to pride, to fear, to apathy? What can these promises, His life mean now? Certainly the fullness of his all encompassing work is beyond our understanding.

 

Perhaps then we do well to join Mary. Would we watch, pray, even yearn to see Jesus grow, live, suffer and die? Truly, some of our hopes may well be dashed. Dare we with Mary ponder all these things in our hearts?

 

Such "pondering" will not eliminate our losses nor the losses of the world. These all continue, even grow. But such pondering Jesus' presence and action may enable us as it did Mary to keep on keeping on, hoping against hope that because of Jesus' living, loving, suffering, dying and being raised, the losses of life are not the last things nor even the lasting or defining words of our lives or the lives of others. To be sure, much of this exceeds logical explanation. But so much of life, particularly that which is good, transcends our understanding. 

 

Let us pray: Oh God, may we ponder and hold your Jesus in our hearts so that we can be amongst those whom he frees to live, to love, to risk, even to die - for the sake of your love for the world. Amen.