Is Christmas Over?

Christmas 1a, December 29, 2013 (Matthew 2:13-23)

For me this Christmas has been amazing. From the experience of worshipping with all of you and the many others on Christmas Eve – with incredible music, the mystery of candlelight and the powerful proclamation of Luke and John to having our 3 daughters and their significant others celebrating with us, opening gifts, even playing games, to hearing that my god son has received his first posting as a member of the Canadian Air force – this Christmas has been one of grand celebration The food we have shared with others and the gifts we have received from and given to others have indeed been gifts to cherish. The cards and letters have all brought joy to my heart. Truly we are not alone – as God comes to us in the Christ.  Again I have been lifted up towards a deeper, more profound reality that surpasses my own thoughts and feelings. God is with us. God is for us and for all creation!

But now Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have passed. Many people are either back to work or soon will be. Our daughters and their loved ones have scattered to their places. The more than 200 people who gathered in this place on Christmas Eve are no longer here either. I wonder if we are still praising God, are open to God entering "our" space again and again?

To all of our living come the texts from Hebrews and Matthew. On the very heels of Christmas Day they speak of horrific suffering and death. Hebrews reminds us that Jesus as a human will be tested. He will suffer and die! Matthew's Gospel tells us that HEROD HATES JESUS! Herod is so paranoid about maintaining power that he is willing to do almost anything.

Once again, God intervenes for Jesus. Through Joseph and Joseph's dream the baby is spared.  But … others are not so fortunate! Once again children, tiny children, two and under pay the price of another's lust for power. If we dare to listen, even this morning, we can hear so many mothers wailing, mothers who have lost and are losing their children to other Herod's. A suicide bomber kills herself and others at a Russian train station. More mothers weep. Christians and Muslims war in the Central African Republic. South Sudan once again appears to be a powder keg. Pastor Hergy's own two sons just recently escaped from the violence of that country. Contemporary Herod's abound, still struggling  to maintain their power, whatever the cost. 

So I ask you, IS CHRISTMAS OVER? 

If Christmas is dreaming of a fantasized "whiteness" or humming catchy commercial jingles reminding us of times past, of continually getting oodles of stuff from others, if Christmas is only some warm "fuzzy" feeling, then Christmas can never last very long. Indeed, then Christmas MAY WELL NEVER COME for many.

However if we are to mature as we are encountered by the reality of God, if both God's law and gospel, God's hunger for justice among God's people, and God's continued willingness to extend mercy to all are fleshed out through Christ's living and dying in our lives, then we will begin to know that Christmas is SO MUCH MORE than any "warm fuzzy feeling".

To be sure, life involves pain and struggle, suffering and death as well as release and delight, deliverance and new birth. God continues to reach out to love us and all people whatever our circumstances. GOD'S REACHING OUT TOWARD US AND EVEN THROUGH US IS ABSOLUTELY MIRACULOUS!

At its heart then, Christmas is God coming to earth, to humanity, to creation, for humanity and for creation. God dares to become human. God makes God's self vulnerable as the baby Jesus is conceived and born. God comes to be with us and for us, for all humanity, for all creation. There and here, in the muck and the snow, in the smell and messiness of humanity and the rest of creation, God comes. There and here, amidst pain and suffering, God comes. Then and now God is for and with those who are being displaced. Then and now God is with and for those who are being born and those who are dying, those being killed, those being terrorized. Then and now, to and for all: This dear people is Christmas!

Matthew won't let us escape from the broad scope of this amazingly good news especially as it intersects, collides with harsh realities. Jesus' parents have to scoop him up in order to run for their lives. Herod seeks them BUT NOT FOR GOOD. We do great disservice to Jesus when we seek to trivialize him as if his birth and life would have nothing to do with changing the status quo, nothing to do with economics or politics, that effects the lives of all people and creation. Indeed since Jesus loves all people and all are to be blessed, things must change. As such change is unfolding the powers that be will not go quietly into the night without a fight! See what Herod does to the innocent children under 2? It is so AWFUL!

Is Christmas over then?

Christmas is done only if we would relegate Jesus to commercial ditties, to warm "fuzzies", to the exchange of gifts, to the putting up and taking down of a tree. Christmas is over only if we refuse to see the power of God especially working in and among human vulnerability. Jesus is Lord of all! In becoming human, being born in the seemingly insignificant town of Bethlehem, suffering and dying on a cross where the powers that be sought to publicly shame him, This Jesus has the power to transform our hearts and minds. Jesus can and has turned the powers that be upside down by becoming One of us and giving His all!

By the power of God's grace we too can serve God, seeking to love as Jesus loves, extending the forgiveness He gives us, working for a world where all, everyone and everything is valued, contrary to the way so much is now. Do we dare to believe in Christmas, the birth of our Saviour, by so living His way?

Christmas time often can and does bring some warm fuzzies. That can be beautiful. But if the transforming warmth and love of the Christ's child's birth is to be real and lasting, it will always be born amidst great struggle. Christmas means being opened to the vulnerable way of Christ, as one who seeks to be obey God and who, in all of such struggle, continues to be God with us. From the moment of his conception and certainly from the instant of his birth Jesus swims against the tide of popular opinion, the powers that be. Jesus seeks first and foremost to do God's will.

Regardless that the first returns of his obedience often look like they will have few if any lasting positive results, he continues on, trusting that God will somehow use his obedience to bring about God's good and gracious will then and in the future.

Don't we see? Christmas is never over as we seek to follow Jesus. Instead, Christmas is just beginning.         Amen. 

             

           

           

Beyond Ourselves!

Christmas Eve (Luke 2:1-20 with Isaiah 9:2-7 and 11:1-9 in the b.g).

Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you know what I know?

 

Ridiculous questions, right? You might not care what I see, nor what I hear nor what I know. Even if you did care, how could you ever see, hear or know my experience? Each of us is unique. We live in a complex time – a time of many paradoxes, shifting  paradigms, wildly fluctuating economies. It may all make us want to parachute somewhere else or simply give up and over to apathy, to be literally paralyzed, immobilized into inaction.   

 

BUT it is important to listen to each other. It matters to  work at beholding what the other is seeing, to strive to listen to what others are hearing, to be stirred by others' questions. We can help each other. We can benefit from other's insights, questions and experiences. How limited our world is if all we know and experience comes from ourselves or those somehow "like" us - from what we only we can see, hear or explain.  

 

Tonight I want to tell you a little of what I see,  hear and know from others and through others.

 

I hear about this strangely named guy Qui – Qui – rinius. He has something to do with a place called Syria. It's some of the same Syria that on THIS Christmas Eve millions of refugees have fled , including at least a million children.

 

At the time of Jesus' birth there was a powerful leader, Augustus, who called himself, the peacemaker. But his peace, a military "peace" was exacted at great expense from the majority of people.  That expense  was not only drachmas and dollars but peoples' lives. The "collateral damage" of Augustus bringing peace was that many children grew up without a parent or any parents. In Augustus' peace, many were hungry.  Many found themselves without any place to call home, again and again and again. . .

 

Tonight too, some will be cold without a place to sleep. Others will feel cold or experience being alone because there is no one they know who fully accepts them, no one they know who cares about them or  what is happening to them. These people may be financially rich or poor.

 

Tonight I also see the effects of the vagaries of our weather – icestorms in the east – people shivering, and cold. That's the ones we know about – coming across our television waves on our ipods or tablets.

 

But that's not all I see. Especially not on Christmas Eve. I also see a group of Jewish people – 15to 25 gathering in this place earlier this afternoon, preparing turkey sandwiches, all kinds of good food, salads and drinks for people on the Lower East Side – people who don't have enough.  Our Jewish friends  gathered  in this church – because the food they were preparing wasn't kosher and because they are welcome here.   

 

They said to me – what better time for us to do this then at Christmas, when we don't have  a big celebration but so many others do and some don't have anything. What better time?

 

I also see nurses, doctors, police officers, fire fighters and emergency response people, janitors and technicians working to care for those in pain, those suffering loss, those needing surgery, those dying, those being born. Such people work for our safety. I see the  hydro workers and city workers in Ontario and further East coming to the aid of those without power,  working 24/7, while giving up holiday time with their friends and families to aid others. Truly,  life in this world is a strange mixture of wonder, and beauty, giving and fear, selfishness and selfishness,  sacrifice for and disregard of others.

 

So it has been – and so it continues to be ...

 

But, what do you see and hear? What do you know in your mind and heart - of your friends, of your family, of your city, your country and world? LISTEN CAREFULLY ....

 

Do  we see, can we hear and know beyond ourselves? Beyond the safety of "proof", the familiarity of taste and smell? Do we remember our "experience" in  those moments when life overwhelms us. Then we are moved to  WOW or THANK YOU. Like when we have just witnessed something so amazing that we are speechless. In such moments our mouths are gapped, and our hearts are softened, to become receptive, FULLY OPEN.  

 

It can be like that when a baby is born TO US, FOR US, THROUGH US! Nothing remains the same.-The familiar ways in which we once thought, heard or felt, all are changing. Everything becomes new. Truth be told, we are being made NEW. 

 

By God's grace  we are growing  older. The deadly temptation of growing older is to think, to act, to "live" as if nothing really changes or can change – people nor systems.  

 

But is that the way of life? Does our life have to be that way - a closed system?

 

Have you ever noticed that often it's the  very young or the more elderly who see most clearly? Live a Christmas with young children. Is their joy, their excitement naiivete, or is it faith? There may be an overlap but there's also a distincet difference.

 

Sometimes  it's those on the margins, among those who are most vulnerable where that which is of God, that which is good for everyone is perceived, seen, beheld.

 

So it is in our story tonight. I say OUR purposefully. It is this story that can direct/shape our lives with meaning,  purpose and hope. The truth of this story can fuel us for steadfast love, far beyond our own human capacity.

 

The guys of that day on the street corner, huddling over the heat grates, the guys or girls whom no one in polite or powerful society would trust were the first to hear GOD THAT NIGHT. The message they receive from God is very good news! Actually the message to those outcast shepherds is one of good news of GREAT JOY!  It's greater than anything we can imagine- like the Canucks winning the cup – or greater even than if you won a lottery of 10 million dollars or greater even than having a clean bill of health after a serious health scare.

 

How can I say any of this? Have I been into the Christmas schnapps, early? Nooo – even if that sounds really good.

 

I can speak of this good news of GREAT JOY because this baby's birth to that young Mary in that backwoods place – seemingly so ordinary then – is God's chosen way of intentionally showing us – each and everyone of us, all of us, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, black and white, red and yellow, male and female, whatever our sexual orientation may be, how much we matter. GOD KNOWS US FULLY and GOD LOVES US!  

           

Jesus is God's way of communicating, of showing us who we are and whose we are. Jesus is God's way of showing us how we can be. We are people of many talents but also of serious brokenness. We hurt the ones we love, ourselves, and the creation we are part of. On our own we don't seem to be able to stop such hurting. But God intervenes, coming to our aid, to change the way things are by becoming ONE WITH US.

 

This seems unbelievable. In many ways it is: that this baby of Mary's, parented for a while by Joseph in a backwater town, in a seemingly insignificant part of a vast empire is God's ownself, become human for us and for all creation. Really? Come on!

 

But here we are,  2000 years later – singing carols , reading stories, wondering, maybe even like Mary, pondering these things in our hearts.  Even if we accept the truth of it, experience him ourselves, we can't explain it. His birth, his entire life, death and resurrection are all MYSTERY. He is beyond explication or analysis. But these inabilities of comprehension, our limitations don't mean – that He isn't real, that He can't love us or change the world, our world. God's love in Jesus for you, for me, for the world has transformative power.  Do you see? Do you hear? Will we dare to know?

 

Don't be afraid to listen, to be opened- to see, to hear,  to know beyond yourself. The shepherds do. It wasn't their plan that night. Yet, they are moved to hear  the messengers of God. Trusting this message from beyond themselves they see the baby in the manger, the One who later in extending His arms on a cross, wills to draw all of us to him. 

 

How can we respond to such love, this love of God for us and for the world? Like the shepherds, once we begin to glimpse, to hear or know this good news of great joy, we too can keep on going, seeing and telling others, with our own unique God given abilities, gifts. 

 

What will happen then? Only God knows? I suspect that the world will never  be the same! Amen.

On The Edge

Advent 4a, December 22, 2013 (Matthew 1:18-25 and Isaiah 7:10-16 with Romans 1:1-7 in b.g.)

 

I have to confess. I am relieved that at least some of you are here. Last week was our big splash: The Children and Youth's Christmas Pageant. We had about 140 people here – to see our kids, to hear that story – told in a post modern idiom – Advent – IN ACTION. Looking ahead:  in two days well, you know - it will be Christmas Eve.  There will be amazing carols, glowing  candles and special music. Thanks be to God, this place and many others like it around the world will be PACKED. But that's in two days. So, I thought that today without any Sunday School, sandwiched in between last week and two days from now, NO ONE, OR EVEN FEWER OF YOU MIGHT COME.

 

What would a preacher do then, if no one came? To top it off, my long time colleague Richard Hergesheimer is here today. Say what you want, gee, I'd like to make a good impression. You know, I do have a little pride. So what if no one came?  I am relieved, you are here...

 

But then today's Gospel raises its head. Joseph, not in a techni-colored dream coat, but in his dream. There is in this dream some confusing talk of a baby, not even his baby, mind you. Nevertheless, this special baby, is called in Joseph's dream, the Messiah. Let me tell you, that's a loaded word.  How can I talk to you about that – in a way that's real for you, that's true, that makes a difference in all of our lives and the life of the world. This gig of being a Pastor isn't easy...

 

So, let me ask you this. Have you ever been on the edge of anything really important?  When you are approaching something really important, standing or teetering on the edge of it, you have a choice. You can step or crawl forward to go over the edge – or you can take a moment to look either backwards or forwards, and become afraid, be unable to move because of that fear. But then we may not go over the edge, to see or experience what's on the "other side". ..

 

Today we are on the very edge of Christmas? Dare we go over the edge and actually move forward? Dare we in whatever state our lives are in, ask God for a sign:  a sign that we are not alone – that we can go on, that whatever going over the edge may entail – we won't be lost or utterly destroyed?

 

Being on the edge of anything important can be both frightening and exciting.

 

I remember deliberating whether or not to ask Martha to marry me. It took me months. I mean getting married is an important decision. I wasn't worried about her – she was and is amazing, faithful, kind, bright. Well, OK maybe not that bright in her marriage decision.  But my relationship record was horrible. And what did I have to offer her – a Pastor in a very small town with little money. I have to tell you, my future career options were anything but certain. On the other hand,  if I did ask her to marry me and she said yes – well who knows what the possibilities would be for us – and for the world? It was one of those "edge" moments...

 

Edges are frightening because we don't know what will happen next. Often we think or even feel that it's really important to know what's going to happen next. There are familiar rules, conventions, folkways and mores. Especially when the rules benefit us, we like to have them followed. Joseph knew rules of his time and place. His marriage had been arranged. His and Mary's families were working at getting along. There was an expected  timeline for their marriage. All seemed to be in order. Oh, their lives were to be lived out, for sure, but he could see something of the outline. Someday in the future after she had come to live at his home, they would have some children. Hopefully, Joseph thought, there would be a  son to pass on his legacy, to carry his name. Speaking of names, he would be the one to name that child. It was the father's duty, privilege. Joseph very likely had some names in his mind.

 

But then life happens! Joseph discovers, that Mary, HIS BETROTHED, this woman with whom he supposedly would share the rest of his life IS... PREGNANT. He knows one thing for sure: THAT CHILD growing within her isn't his! Consequently Joseph is face with a choice – of two options– according to the "rules" of his time and place. He can choose to exact the punishment due Mary and if possible whoever the father of THAT CHILD might be by outing them. Or, Joseph can DIVORCE MARY, and so end all of the covenantal, contractual relations between the two of them and their families - as quietly as possible. He is strongly leaning towards this latter choice, supposedly to lessen the blow to Mary. She has enough problems already, as a single woman – with THAT BABY.

 

But then more life happens. Joseph has a dream. In his dream a messenger of God speaks to directly to him.  He is NOT TO DIVORCE Mary. Instead he is to take her as his wife. THAT CHILD growing within her is somehow of God. Finally, Joseph is told by the angel, the name that is to be given to THIS CHILD: Jesus – GOD SAVES, GOD DELIVERS.

 

So, Joseph's choice is now to include a third option - one that is anything but conventional or rule observing, but seemingly is from God. Miraculously this is the option that Joseph makes. JOSEPH TAKES THAT CHILD TO BE His child. He takes Mary to be HIS WIFE. He works at loving them. Joseph moves over the edge from confusion, fear, paralysis, exacting what is right from others – to love, obedience, faithfulness and risk taking. The result? THE WORLD HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME SINCE...          

 

Where are we on the edge – personally... collectively... globally?

 

 Are there areas in our lives where we are afraid – where we know that what we have done or not done, is not where we need to be – where  we could be, where dare I say it, GOD WOULD HAVE US BE? Are there places in our lives where we need to confess our wrong doing, our causing pain, in order to seek forgiveness, to experience that and be enabled to move on in new ways?

 

Are there areas in our lives where as a congregation we have been "keeping on" without asking why – or experiencing an incredible heaviness, as if it were all up to us? ... Can there be new life – new direction, new birth for us, for others, for this crazy wonderful and at the same time sometimes horrendous world? Will we ask God for help – for transformation, for courage, for faith? ....

 

God knows there is beauty and wonder, horror and tragedy, injustice and mercy in our world. 7 million refugees from Syria. People being gassed by their own leaders. A typhoon in the Philippines. Gang warfare at home – women, young and old on the streets, homeless people while others spend to the max to meet someone's else's expectations. But there is also giving, sacrifice, risk taking for the well being of others by countless people.

 

We need someone to lift us up beyond ourselves – to love us unconditionally, to help us realize that we are important, accepted – that every single person and the whole creation matters! Could we be on the edge of that, on this fourth Sunday of advent? Will we dare to ask God to help us to see, to believe, to work for  all of this becoming reality?

 

May God help us like Joseph to hear the messenger or messengers of God: the people , ordinary, far from perfect, God sends, whom God calls, including... us. May God help us to see in something so seemingly ordinary as a child born to a very young girl in a backwoods place, the very face of God. So it is, God comes to be among us,  for us, to be with and for the world. God wills to push us over the edge - from our limited and limiting ways to new ways, God's ways: of risky love, of delirious joy and hard won peace. These are not  easy ways – but the only ways that bring life in the midst of death, hope with the capacity to transform despair. These are the ways that last in time and through time to beyond time.

 

We are on the edge.  God continues to lead and push us so that we can see, believe and follow the One who is Emmanuel. This is our dream which can lead beyond dreams, so that the world will not stay the same ... Amen.

IMAGINE

Advent 2a, Isaiah 11:1-10 (December 8, 2013)

(Images of Nelson Mandela, of dead stumps and dead hearts, of cut off places)

How are you doing? Really, how are you doing? I invite you right now, wherever you are, to have an internal conversation between yourself and God. Carefully examine those places where you experience joy. Identify them. Sit with them for awhile. Rejoice and give thanks....

 

Take the time to do that. Then later in the light of that joy also identify and listen to those places in your life where there is heartache, regret, anger, vengefulness, disappointment or even hatred. Don't run from those realities but allow them to be taken out, set on your lap and listened too. Don't let them run your life – but identify them. Perhaps even ask God to help you do what most be constructive with them, as warning signs or needing love and attention. (take 5 minutes or so to do this)....

 

I wonder if we have the courage to employ our imaginations? Sometimes as we grow older we may come to think or even "believe" that imagination is only for children. But, wait a minute! Imagination is a God given gift. Sometimes imagination is the vehicle that allows  us for a moment to escape the harshness of reality. At other times imagination is the means to put us in touch with a larger dream than our own, a dream that God may be imagining.  In such a dream, with such imagination we may hear God calling us to work and spring into certain realms of action. So, let's not be afraid to employ our imagination. (Pause)

 

Imagine that you have been born into a reality where you are limited in your movement. I mean REALLY LIMITED. Many times you are prevented from, not allowed to go where you want, even if that might be to visit an aunt or uncle.  You are told from a very young age, for as long as you can remember, "THIS IS THE LAW". In addition you are not allowed to pursue your educational dreams. Many questions are simply forbidden for you to ask. Such declarations foisted upon you and your family aren't only the declaration of a few mean people, a few people who totally dislike you because of our religion or the color of our skin. No , this is the law of the land in which you live and have been born.

 

You watch your children work hard and never get ahead. Deep in your heart you dream someday of a good education for them, or for their children, of an education and opportunity to travel, to contribute to the larger world. But this just isn't possible. It just isn't allowed. It can never be!

 

So, one day, you decide to speak up – AGAINST THE LAW, AGAINST ALL THE OPPRESSION YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIENCED AND ARE BEING PLACED UNDER.  

 

But the powers that be are not happy with you nor your protest. Now the powers that be, threaten you. When that doesn't stop you, they threaten your family. They call you names – names that shouldn't be uttered anywhere, but certainly not in a place that we call holy. They threaten to do horrific things to your mother, to your sister and eventually to your wife and daughters. My God, now you are afraid. You are tempted to shut up, to not speak out against these powers that be – that on occasion have surrounded your family with barbed wire, that pass laws that put further limits on any freedom you know as a human being that you have the right to.

 

Now, you realize – if you are quiet about these injustices that you have been forced to endure – well the very stones would cry out. If you are quiet now, you will be so far less than what God intends for you and your people. So, you continue to speak out. Now,  OTHERS BEGIN TO HEAR YOU. People around you and even people far away have ears that are being opened. Some of these others begin to publically question these so-called laws. The collective heart of your own people begins to stir. You are simultaneously excited and afraid. You are excited because others are catching the vision – a vision you are convinced that God has placed not just in your mind or only on your lips but in your heart. So, you keep speaking, you keep working against the oppressive laws. And the THREATS that emanate from the powers that be GROW.  

 

One day they come and take you. But they cannot silence you. They throw you in prison for 27 years, but they cannot cage your yearning for freedom. Indeed the vision, the fire, the dream of freedom for all, including your own people cannot, will not be silenced! That movement within, without, throughout the world now is GROWING EXPONENTIALLY.

 

Can you imagine any of this?  Of course, I have been trying to have us imagine just a little bit of the life of Nelson Mandela... So, keep imagining: after 27 years you are freed. You keep on speaking and dreaming as God is at work through so many now.  The winds of change are whipping.  Your people will be free. Your country is surely being transformed. Amazingly you are now being asked to be the President of your country. Can you imagine that? President in the country you love so much but in which you have never even been allowed to vote.

 

So what will you do? Will you hate those who have unjustly persecuted you, thrown you into prison, committed hateful atrocities against your people, your brothers and sisters? Will you seek to have them prosecuted to the full extent of the law?

 

What would such exercise of the law do for them, or for your country?

 

Or, will you forgive them – not pretending that what they did is OK? It wasn't! It isn't! But can there be healing? Can there be new life in this, your country, where for so long there has been hatred, ignorance, prejudice, bigotry - oppression? Can God be at work, bringing about God's dream of new life, equality, hopefulness, a mutual sharing and caring, right now? What would you do?

 

Mandela, by God's grace, courteously invited his former prison guards to come and be in the front row of his inauguration. Can you imagine? And then Nelson Mandela oversaw a commission where people who had been wronged could tell their stories and invite others, including those who had wronged them, to come and hear those stories.

 

This is not just an amazing story – this is the reality of one man's life and his country – of God working through people.

 

There are too many times when we only see with our eyes or hear with our ears. Sight and hearing are wonderful gifts. But sight and hearing are not all there is. God can take what are seemingly dead stumps: systems, hearts, minds, (individually and collectively) and bring from them a new shoot.

 

The most important sign of this is the birth we are about to remember and celebrate as God dares to take on our frail human flesh. The very Spirit of God calls us in trusting this One who has come, is here and is coming again, to live with HOPE. We are by God's grace to be open to transformation for ourselves. And as our transformation is being birthed we are also called to work for transformation in the world. Justice, equality, and mercy are not fairy tales. They are part of God's good and gracious will. For someday there will be a security that is not over against or dependent upon sophisticated alarm systems or seemingly forged through the violence of militarism. Instead some day there will be a security that comes from God where all can live together – and raise their voices not in hatred, but in love and praise of God who makes us all brothers and sisters.

 

For the child that arises out of the seemingly dead stump of Jesse, which was Israel, shall lead us. May we somehow hear his voice, even as Mandela did. For his voice has the power to transform us and this world. Amen and Amen.

Yo - Brothers and Sisters!

Advent 1 a, December 1, 2013 -Matt. 24:36- 44 with Isaiah 2:1-5 in the b.g.

 

Advent is to be a time of hope in God. That's a mouthful. For God is mystery. We can't actually see God the way we can see each other. Nor can we fully comprehend God's ways – the miracle of birth, the vastness of the universe, the detail of our own DNA. There are realities that devastate us – illnesses, sudden death, inequity, prejudice, bigotry.

 

And yet God promises to be present in certain realities. Some would say this is foolishness, utter darn nonsense, that the great God, Creator of the universe would somehow be present:  in the water and the word; in the wine and the bread: coming in ways that comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

 

All of which delivers us into today's Gospel. Jesus is speaking of his return calling Himself (in a multi layered metaphor) the Son of Man. Were you listening? Jesus employs two images to speak of the Son of Man's coming. One is the flood, although here there is nothing mentioned about the wickedness of the people – only their unpreparedness for the flood. The second image is just as alarming. Jesus employs the image of  a (are you ready?) thief in the night.

 

What might Jesus' approach, His surprise coming,  rob us of?

 

Perhaps Jesus' approach, His coming into our lives daily and ultimately, will rob us of our delusions of self-control. This delusion of self control is one serious problem. Our delusions of self control include the following: we have to be happy or somehow we must make ourselves or others happy. How foolish and impossible this is. Such delusions also include the insatiable drive to have more, get more, just "enough" (as if such an insatiable drive could ever be satisfied). Do you remember that old country song, "Looking for love in all the wrong places". When we give in to this delusion of "more" we are looking for meaning, purpose, even fulfilment in all the wrong places. Finally such delusions also include the feeling that we have to always work to experience meaning. All these delusions of self control  shroud us in a darkness that is very deep.

 

Nevertheless to whatever darkness is ours that accompanies our delusion and striving after self control comes light. The light that comes is the light of God.  Such light may first approach us as a flickering candle or a baby crying – or even some seemingly ordinary, or perhaps to others unreliable, witnesses refuse to shut up. They have seen something amazing and are joyfully compelled to tell others, any who will hear.

 

So, dear people, as would be followers of Jesus, we are called not to escape from this world but to live in it. We are called both to face the darkness outside of us and inside of us. We are not to run from nor deny the realities of  Syria where over a million children are now refugees. We are not to run from nor deny the magnitude of  the damage from the massive typhoon that struck the Philippines. Nor are we to deny the powers of  violence, hunger, and homelessness right here in the Lower Mainland and across Canada. Instead in facing all of this we are to examine the causes around us and within us. We are to seek God's direction in working to change the things that deny or limit life.  We are to see what we can do. To be sure we can't do everything. Just as surely we must do something. Remember, know, God is with us and for us, with the world and for the world. This reality, this promise, this presence of God is THE LIGHT, the light that dispels darkness.

 

John's Gospel  calls Jesus the light of the world. Jesus in Matthew calls himself the Son of Man. The Son of Man promises to be coming AGAIN.

 

I am convinced today that He comes around us. Are we too busy doing our necessary daily tasks to see Him? Look. See. Two have people have walked out into the traffic on the Queensborough Bridge so that a mother duck and her babies can safely cross. There is a homeless woman who looks right into your eye, maybe into  your soul as you drop a loonie or townie into her hat and says "God bless you!" There are even a group of teenagers who are daring to lustily sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as they host the Salvation Army kettle outside a local Safeway store. Do we see Him coming?

 

Can we, do we like the prophet Isaiah, see this very word of God?  Can we envision like MLK Jr.  a new world where former enemies are being transformed into friends – and then where countless new possibilities irrupt? Can we like Isaiah envision God changing the hearts and minds of people and the powers that be so that all the money (literally BILLIONS OF DOLLARS) now being spent to develop weapons of war are redirected to peaceful means of education, health care and food for all? Is this only pie in the sky? Or is this truly God's will?

 

Even now God is working to accomplish this. God's modus operandi is often people. It may be  hard to imagine – perhaps impossible for us to see right now. Remember the darkness is sometimes SO DEEP!  But  also remember and know:   Jesus comes to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. The oppressed will be liberated!  (Luke 4)

 

How amazing this will be for all who are oppressed:  people suffering domestic violence, the hungry, the homeless, the addicted, the fearful, the refugee fleeing for his or her children – people, including you and me.

 

The  darkness is great! But the light of Christ comes – bidding to shine on and through all.

 

Do we see it? Are we intentionally living in ways that will increase our ability to see, to behold, to celebrate, to hope, to share, to love, to forgive? Are we?

 

I close with an image from my colleague Pastor Michael Rodgers.... A rabbi in the middle ages once posed this problem to his students: "How can you tell," he asked them, "the precise moment that night becomes day? How can you tell that morning has begun?" "Morning begins," answered one student, "when you can tell the sheep in the pasture from the goats." "No," answered another, "morning begins when you can just make out the path ahead."

 

Finally the rabbi gave his answer. "It is not morning," he said, "until you can recognize the face of a sister or a brother in the face of everyone you meet."

 

Oh people of God: may this morning be such a morning for us. People get ready there's a new day coming. Amen.