It's Not OUR Business!

Christmas 1c, December 27, 2015

Luke 2:41-52 with Colossians 3:12-17 in bg

Have 1 or 2 people read the text 2 times – listen – see if you can approach it as one of the characters in the story. Have them share what they noticed, what they heard, where they stopped and wanted to stay – what stood out for them. Listen. Then share following.

 

It is 2 days post Christmas. That's right only 2 days. But "now" in today's Gospel text Jesus is 12 years old. We notice that Jesus' family are religiously observant Jews. They walk 75 miles each way once a year for the high holy days of Passover. That commitment would be a 10 -12 day commitment.

 

Following the Passover celebrations we notice that there is a conflict between Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph. They are going home. I mean, "It's time to go home". But unbeknownst to them, Jesus stays behind. It takes them 3 days to find him. They find him in the temple listening and asking questions, completely oblivious to their angst.

 

What happens between them then is not at all 'smooth'. Joseph and Mary are upset, anxious. Can we blame them? What we observe here is a serious conflict between Joseph and Mary's expectations, and Jesus' self understanding.

 

It's fascinating. From early on Mary had some inkling of who Jesus was and would become, is being called to be. Yet, at the same time Jesus is her son. He is just twelve years old.  

 

Now, as a twelve year old, he speaks to both of them of a higher allegiance to God than to his family. I don't know what those folks who are always trumpeting 'family values' would do with Jesus' response to his mother. More importantly I am not even sure what we shall do with this response.

 

Jesus' response to Mary demands that we ourselves, "Does God sometimes call us (always) to put our allegiance to Jesus first – even before pleasing mom or dad, husband or wife, friends and family? If so, what does that mean for us now?

 

And, how do we balance the questions of our ultimate allegiance with the 4^th commandment – "Honour your father and your mother that your days be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you?" How can we do both – seek to do God's will first and foremost, and also honour our father and mother, husband and wife, son or daughter, close friend? What shall we do when there are conflicts between the two? 

 

Then, just as we might begin to wrap our mental muscles around such questions, in only 2 chapters forward we are thrust another twenty years ahead in Jesus' life. Then he is in his home synagogue. There, during his first public speech, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written: "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."

 

Is this Jesus' father's business - good news for the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, a freeing from that which binds us? Does this have anything to do with Jesus going back to Nazareth as a 12 year old after that blowup with his mom and dad? Was that necessary for him to increase in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor, as Luke tells us?

 

Finally, but not unimportantly – what does this have to do with us?

 

Are we with Mary and Joseph, sometimes more than a bit peeved that Jesus doesn't do what we expect him to do – stay with us, where we can keep an eye on him? Or, somehow keep things the way they were, the ways we were somewhat comfortable with, while letting us do our things with him (this fully human and yet divine one) at our pace and our understanding? Are we like Mary and Joseph, sometimes hearing Jesus but not understanding what he is saying to us?

 

Lastly, are we willing to be about God, our Father and Mother's, business? Do we want to be – even if it means practicing things that we do not yet understand, like being faithful, misunderstood, even excluded by some?

 

Yesterday, a learned woman said to me, "Prayer is not so much about understanding, but it is a practice". I think she meant that prayer is something to regularly be done. Show up, make yourself available to God, and listen.

 

Jesus continually strives to be about his father's business. Because of his faithful obedience we sometimes get a glimpse of him, full of grace and truth. Yes, Jesus continues to be about his father's business. Sometimes we live out the reality of the clothing he provides for us- exuding compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (Colossians 3:12).

 

After all, Jesus' entire life, suffering, death and resurrection continued to be about his father's, God's business. As a result we and this world can be brought through death to new life, from despair to hope, from apathy to action.

 

And so, because Jesus continued to be about his father's business – whether we understand him as fully human and fully divine or not – we are being given new life.  Merry Christmas.

 

 And a blessed New Year attempting to be about our heavenly Father and Mother's business. Amen. 

 

The Cosmic Present

Christmas Day, 2015 (a revision of a sermon proclaimed Christmas Day 2012)

Have you ever been waiting? I mean DESPERATELY WAITING – waiting to hear the results of tests. And then the doctor or a doctor's representative tells you, "GOOD NEWS – YOU, OR THE ONE YOU LOVE, ARE GOING TO BE... OK!"

 

What's that like? Only the moment before everything that you knew had been in limbo – not knowing where you were at or how things would be. And then THE MESSAGE came – GOOD NEWS! How now will you live – with this good news?

 

Will we simply fall back into the way we were – allowing ourselves to be shaped by the weather, the markets, the ways other speak or don't speak to us, by what we want or have or don't have? Will we merely try to exist, attempting to make it to the next day?

 

Or, will we live?

 

 In the light of such good news might we breathe deeply, dare to sing, move our feet, really look into someone else's eyes, compose poetry, with wonder enter into the deep questions of life, not being afraid of what or whom we may encounter? How will we live in the face of GOOD NEWS?

 

I ask, because IT'S THE PRESENT, IT'S CHRISTMAS.

 

John's Gospel is caught up in cosmology from the get go. John refuses to get trapped in one little place in history. John takes a panoramic view. It's like we are allowed to be transported outwards – deep into space, far above the earth, perhaps even beyond our solar system. There we are gifted with an overarching view – greater even than the one from the space ship CHALLENGER.

 

And here's our view – "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." ... In the beginning – not just our beginnings nor the beginning of the Church nor Judaism nor even the beginnings of humanity, nor even the first evolutionary stirring of life on this planet, earth. No, instead - THE BEGINNING. No one can go back any farther than that!

 

So let's hear, let's begin to glimpse this view.

 

In the beginning was the Word. That's Word with a capital W. And that Word was with God. That Word was God.

 

For John, God is the Word – One who wants to communicate with we mere mortals, with we dusty human beings.

 

But how can God do this? How can this cosmic Creator of an ever expanding universe, so beyond our comprehension, explication, even our imagination, how can this great God communicate with us, we creatures fashioned from dust?

 

Listen. Let our ears, our hearts, our minds be on "red" alert.

 

The Word becomes flesh and tents among us, full of grace and truth. Can this be true? Would the great God dare to take on our mere flesh, ligaments and tendons, bones and feelings, our vulnerable and often messy mortality? Would this God, even then be willing to wait and wait and wait for we hard-headed, often stubborn, delusionally independent, sometimes heartless people to grasped by, embraced by, caught up by and transformed by this God's ongoing act of love, this INCARNATION?

 

Would God do all of that with no guarantees, that we might respond, might see, hear, and so then love and forgive ourselves and others? 

 

The answer is, YES! Miraculously – God loves us. God dares to become one of us – in order to communicate with us. God approaches – God draws near- to us!

 

It's a bit like being at a Grade 7 dance. The boys sit in chairs on one side of the gym. And the girls sit in chairs or gather in clusters, huddled in groups on the other side of the gym. These are no longer little kids. Nor are they yet, adults. They may be unsure of what they hope happens in that moment - whether they want someone from that other side to have courage to approach them and ask them to dance or not.

 

But how different God is!

 

God not only takes the first step but all of the steps in becoming one of us.

 

At times we don't notice this. God's light is so brilliant. Occasionally we live by squinting, donning dark glasses or even crouching down in the fetal position to attempt to evade God's brilliant light. We do this in so many different ways- by becoming so busy, so happy, so upset, so angry, so hurt.

 

But God is not deterred by our behaviour. Instead God's love reaches out, down, beside – towards us, whatever it takes. God becomes ones of us in order to communicate with us in languages that we may begin to hear, to be grasped and embraced by, to be transformed!

 

You see – GOD LOVES US!

 

Not after we perform all the religious duties we should. Not after we get straight A's, B's or F's. Not after our marriage or significant relationship is exactly the way we'd like it to be or even after our kids, or the people at work or our friends have finally appreciated us. Not after we finally treat others the way we should. NO. GOD LOVES US NOW!

 

And so, God comes to show us God's love by becoming One of us.

 

God loves us even when, especially when much of the rest of our "news" is bad. The Doctor may come in the midst of our desperate waiting and give us devastating news. We may be caught up in patterns that hurt others and or ourselves. God comes in love right beside us – to help us, to lead us – to new and different ways in those moments and all their aftermaths.

 

God's Word in the flesh does not shy away from us. Because God approaches there can be new life - confession, healing, reconciliation, hope. Isaiah tells us that even the ruins of Jerusalem can rejoice. So, too, eventually - Edmonton, Paris, San Bernardino.

 

To some this sounds ludicrous – too good to be true, a fairy tale, devised by people seeking a crutch, out of touch with reality.

 

But is it?

 

When teachers, mothers or even strangers sacrifice their lives as people brandishing guns enter schools, theatres, even nursing home facilities – is the love of God drawing near us in the flesh merely a fable?

 

As a father and son embrace after not speaking for 40 years? When two brothers who haven't spoken to each other in 25 years tell each other they are sorry and invite each other's families over for dinner?  When Jews and Christians gather together to hear and respect each other's stories? When a person of any age caught up in the throes of addiction goes to a meeting and admits, "My name is Joe and I am an alcoholic" and then is embraced by others who promise to accompany him on this new journey towards life?

 

The Word became and becomes flesh dwelling among us full of grace and truth. Look around. See!

 

Christ the Saviour, the Word become flesh has been born. He lives. His Spirit moves among us.

 

O God, open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to watch, to see to hear and live. Flood our lives with grace and truth.  

 

A blessed Christmas to you! Amen.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Christmas Eve 2015 (Luke 2:1-20)

Anti – text – 1 – In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Text – 11 – to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

Christmas Eve. I always wrestle with what to say – not too much, not too little – it's a little bit like being on a first date. What you say is so important. But you can't say it all – on that first date.  

 

So here's what I offer.

 

On the one hand you have, ORDER. On the other hand you have, CHAOS.

 

Often as people we vacillate between the two. To be sure we have our preferences. Some people like order – predictability, things in their place. Others prefer chaos – surprise, adventure – the unknown.

 

To explore this reality let me employ a winter metaphor. It's a bit like being on an ice rink. Most of the people like to skate round and round – at least to start with, clockwise. Some hold hands while doing so. Others like to take long graceful strides. Others, perhaps less experienced skaters are a bit more tenuous – carefully moving away from the boards, wanting to be sure of their balance. But most people are going with the flow. There is some order to it, some predictability.

 

But then along comes a little boy or a group of boys – or bigger boys, even "men" that act like little boys. They throw their shoulders forward, move their legs like mad, move in and out of the other skaters. Then suddenly they turn in the middle, racing against the flow and soon - all is disrupted. The order has given way to some chaos. There is laughter. There is falling. There is crashing, screaming, adventure and even possible injury.

 

In living our lives there is never only order and predictability or chaos and surprise. Instead there is always some - or lots of both - order and chaos, predictability and mayhem.

 

Some people want to have babies and do. Some people want to have babies and can't. Some people don't want to have babies and do. And other people don't want to have any children and are questioned about their choice.

 

Some people want to find intimate companionship and do. Sometimes it's wonderful. Some people want to find intimate companionship and don't – at least for long periods of time. Others make choices to not have intimate companionship with others – and are fine with it.  

 

Most of us want to live long healthy lives. Some of us do. Others die much younger. Some live lives which are marked by ongoing pain, accident, great loss.

 

Order and chaos – predictability and surprise – wonder and awe, incredible sharing – horror and emptiness. These are part and parcel of human life – our lives, all lives. 

 

Joseph and Mary know all about this.

 

So do we.

 

We know about this individually. We know about this collectively. Even now, as a nation, we are just beginning to wrestle with how we might welcome people whose lives have been marked by chaos through no fault of their own.

 

Life roars on. Time stands still for no one.

 

Again, this is true for us as individuals - with news of new births, of engagements, of graduations, of learning to walk and ride, sing and play. But alongside such news there is also news of critical illness, job changes, falls and the need to begin to use walkers.

 

Order and chaos also erupt into our lives on a grander scale: climate change, wars, collapsing and rising economies. Whether we are aware of it or not, such realities exert influence upon our lives.

 

But tonight  - we are here.  We have gathered for myriads of reasons.  Some of the reasons we know. Some of the reasons transcend our understanding.

 

We gather to sing, to listen, to be still -  if even for a few moments in the midst of our lives, our order and chaos – our rituals and surprises. Maybe we long for just a brief moment as the lights dim and we share the light of our candles. In such moments we may be opened to the wonder beyond ourselves, beyond our analysis and explanation. In those moments we are surrounded by others that love us, those present, those unable to be here, those who have died, going before us.

 

Are we listening? Will we hear?

 

Might we be encountered by God?

 

It's radical claim – a mind blowing possibility.

 

Hearing the stories from Isaiah to Luke, to John, we begin to see that God cannot be limited by order or chaos – by powers that are or that will be. Nor will God be limited by our understanding or status – significant or less than significant.

 

God comes into all that we are and have and will be because God cares. NO, the truth is even more than that. God comes right where we are, wherever that is tonight, because God loves us!

 

God's love for us is not in the sense of a feeling – that comes and goes like the fog on the west coast or like promises in a country melody, or even like your favorite team's winning or losing streak. No! God comes because God steadfastly, presently and forever, cares for and about us, each and every one of us – all of us.

 

God wants us to know that we are not alone – regardless of how we feel or what has happened or will happen that may devastate us.

 

God wants us to know that in God's love there is ongoing help for us and for others, for our world. Because we are so deeply loved, we can love. Because we are offered again and again forgiveness, we can let go and forgive. Because God's love is sacrificial we can be moved to willingly and joyfully sacrifice.

 

At Christmas we don't just remember, we proclaim, we live out of the truth God comes not as an idea or as a set of rules – but as a person – a flesh and blood person – who experiences all that we experience! And this person, this One whose birth we sing about and proclaim in our own ways tonight, this vulnerable baby born in a seemingly insignificant place to a young, young unmarried girl, is the One who actually embodies God's love for humanity, for you and me from manger to cross, through all of life and death to new life.

 

Listen and you might hear God's messengers, the angels, tonight.

 

"To you is born this day a Savior!"

 

Wherever we are tonight, whatever the order and chaos of our lives, God comes with unmanageable love in the flesh.  

 

JOY TO THE WORLD! Amen.   

Yes!?

Advent 4c, December 20, 2015 (Luke 1:39-55 with Micah 52-5a in b.g)

Means - focusing on 1:46 (and the entire magnificat)

 

Once, not so long ago, a  Pastor received a call. This wasn't just a phone call, but a call upon his life. A rural congregation was asking him to come and be their Pastor. So, he and his wife got into their car and went to visit these people. They drove up to the church building on a cold, rainy late September day. A group of mostly men came out to welcome them. Together they walked into that church building – small, dank, only heated on Sundays, no running water. The men wore coveralls and high topped rubber boots. The visit went well. The people spoke. The pastor listened. He responded to their questions: Who was he - what did he really believe? What really mattered to him in life, in the world, in the way a congregation might respond to God's calls upon their lives? Would he, could he actually love them and lead them as they were?  

 

As the visit ended, the Pastor walked out to his car accompanied by the president of that congregation's church council. The president, an older man, said to the Pastor, "You know Pastor, we are JUST farmers".

 

Those words still embed themselves in that Pastor's mind – JUST farmers!

 

That Pastor accepted their call, God's call upon his life, to become their Pastor. Over their years together, that Pastor witnessed God moving, literally working in among and through those people. They grew food not just for themselves but for people around the world. How hard they worked - often beginning before sunrise and lasting until after sunset. They labored in barns and fields, shops and schools, kitchens and church buildings. The dirt in their lives wasn't just under their nails or up their nostrils – it was literally part of their DNA. They were in constant touch with birth and death. They actually lived in the midst of all of that - in and with their livestock intermeshed with the lives of all the people around them. In all of this their Pastor witnessed them sharing the love of God in Jesus Christ not just among themselves but also very specifically within a 20 mile radius of their church building.

 

They helped not only other church members but anyone who was ill or had been injured. They gathered for and celebrated births. They also wept with each other around death and illnesses that pervaded their little community, particularly the malady of multiple sclerosis. Often, without realizing it, they were doing what God was calling them to do. How they sang on some Sundays! It mattered not that they were accompanied by an old organ and themselves had limited musical education.  Their souls would magnify God their Lord. To be sure some of them may have felt that they were just farmers. But the Pastor could often see God living, breathing and loving through them.

 

This day we meet two amazing women – Elizabeth and Mary. At first glance some might say that Elizabeth and Mary were JUST two poor, relatively uneducated women from a little insignificant country that was often under siege. Some might even say that Elizabeth and Mary were just two unimportant women – even disposable people by the standards of the most important nation of the world, the Roman empire.

 

Who is to say? At times Elizabeth and Mary may have even felt that way about themselves.

 

To be sure their lives weren't easy. Elizabeth was married to a priest. Her marriage was stable. She had some community status as a priest's wife. But – and this is a huge BUT – Elizabeth and her husband didn't have any children – nary a one. In that time and that place, she was referred to as BARREN. She was treated as different -  not in a good way, in the eyes of her entire community. She was seen as LESS THAN.

 

For years she had been praying that she might have a child – BUT NOTHING- FOR YEARS. And now – now that she is SO OLD, now suddenly, SHE IS PREGNANT. It's unbelievable – AND NOT WITHOUT RISK!

 

On the other hand, Mary is young and engaged. She has not had sex. And yet, unbelievably, she is pregnant. In her time and place women could be stoned for being impregnated by someone, anyone else, who is not their husband or fiancée. Even given all of this, Mary knows, seemingly inexplicably, that somehow the child growing within her is of God. But who will believe her, her amazing story?

 

She heads off to visit her relative, the much older Elizabeth. Just as Mary enters Elizabeth's house and speaks, the miracle baby growing inside of Elizabeth's womb, leaps.

 

Now these two women are caught up by and with each other, by and with what is happening in and through them. Neither of them are less than! Neither of them are just this or just that. GOD IS WORKING IN AND THROUGH THEM FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE WORLD!

As this incredible realization begins to dawn upon them, Mary breaks into song.

 

There can be new life for the world! God is the One working on this - in most unexpected ways! God is keeping God's promises!

 

Just when you least expect it God shows up big time – in and through people we may never have guessed – old people, young people, poor people, people that many might think of as being unimportant, less than, irrelevant - just kids or old women, or.........

 

Can't we see? Christmas is coming!

 

And where are we? Where are you – in your awareness of God's presence with us, God's calls upon our lives?

 

We experience so many realities: excitement, anticipation, anxiety, resignation, hope, despair, love, loneliness, energy, exhaustion, faith, doubt. We are complex people. Is it any surprise then that our thoughts, our feelings are so many?

 

But know this! As Mary and Elizabeth and their expanding bodies encounter us this morning we can see, we must see that GOD IS AT WORK! God strives to keep God's promises in the very middle of our often muddled and messy lives – in the living of this crazy, horrible, wonderful world. Christmas is coming and God's work is unfolding!

 

Amid the horrible losses that we behold in Edmonton and Syria, in Burundi, Paris and California, that we witness and contribute to in our own broken or damaged relationships – even here, God is working.

 

God is also at work in the abiding, faithful care of people – who gather in nursing homes, in hospitals, doing their best to care for parents, partners, children, friends, former acquaintances whose health is failing. They continue to journey together no matter what!

 

And yes, God is also at work in congregations of all sizes and shapes – whether we gather in small buildings, no buildings or great cathedrals. God is at work among people of all ages, sizes, shapes and colors – of varying abilities and educational backgrounds.

 

You see God's gracious and redemptive word is being carried in and through Elizabeth and Mary's bodies in particularly important ways. God's good and gracious word is also intended to be carried in and through other "ordinary" people, people like us, including us.

 

God does the unthinkable. God is coming to take on frail human flesh in order to free us and all people from the power of death and evil, so that light, abundant life, love and hope may be shared and known among us. 

 

Even now the babies that Elizabeth and Mary carry are being born, living, kicking, crying and die. But – we must know: they and their mothers have not lived nor died vain!

 

In this moment and this place, God wills to be at work in and through us. Dare we listen? How are we responding?

 

Often I see God at work in and among you. Might we join Mary in her "yeses", in her seeing that sometimes we need to be humbled to have our eyes opened, our ears unplugged, our hearts warmed, our minds stirred, so that we can behold God working around, in and among us now.

 

Christ is coming. Because of Him, no one, not a single person is 'less than' or 'just this' or 'just that'.

 

All are loved by God. All are to be loved. Some are still waiting, so desperately longing to experience that. And we, we are being called to share that love. Will our souls join Mary's in magnifying the Lord?

 

Our lives, similar to Mary's can be "yeses!" Amen.

 

More Than You Know

Story for our children (as part of their Christmas Pageant)  Advent 3c, December 13, 2015

Texts – Hebrews 1:1-2a ; John 1:1, 12-15;

How many of you like words? How many of you use words?

 

Ahh - you know there are 'bad' words – words that hurt us and other people.

 

Long ago and far away – there were a bunch of grade 1 kids. Sometimes they had fun. Occasionally they were mean to each other. Now there was boy in that grade 1 class. His name was Charlie – Charlie Brown. He was pretty short for his age. And so, I suspect because sometimes we kids can be mean to each other, the kids in his class would make fun of him. They would sing a kind of chant  – "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, fatty fatty two by four, can't get through the kitchen door!" Those words hurt Charlie. In his pain he would run after those kids as fast as his legs would carry him, attempting to hit them.

 

Those were 'bad' words, words that caused a lot of pain.

 

But there are also 'good' words.

 

A middle aged man tells the story of his elderly mother. As he tells this story his face expands in a large smile, a grin that runs from ear to ear. He tells this story with joy - an abiding joy that sometimes runs over, flowing from his eyes as tears streak down his face. Even now he knows,  that his mom loves him "abundantly". When he was little, his mother would come to all his games cheering her heart out. He could easily hear her voice over everyone else's. When he fell off his bike and skinned his knee she would take him on her lap, wipe his tears, hold him close and bind up his cuts. When he was older she would have all his friends over to their house for the most wonderful meals. And when eventually he brought girls home, she made them feel like the most important girl in the entire world.

 

But now his mother is old. She can barely see. She can't hear. But she still can speak. And when that man leaves his mom, in fact whenever she speaks to him, she always says goodbye with these words – "Son, I love you more than you will ever know!" Even now that middle aged man says, his mother's words make him cry – not tears of sadness, but tears of love, now from him to her. Her love has helped him, no really showed him, how to love. It's like a piece of her heart has been grafted into his heart. It's like his heart has somehow begun to flow from her heart. Her words to her son, "Son, I love you more than you will ever know", are GOOD WORDS.

 

So, I tell you one other story today. It's short – but it's REALLY GOOD. God wants to speak to us. God tried to use words for a long time, but somehow we weren't capable of hearing those words of God. So then God acts on an idea. God would become One of us actually showing us how us how much God loves us through this person, this God in the flesh, this One named, Jesus.

 

And that's what Christmas is – Jesus' birthday for sure – but even more. In Jesus' birth God is speaking to us, saying, "I love you, each one of you, more than you will ever know! Just see me. Trust me. And you too will...................be enabled to love.

 

That word of God to us, this Jesus is a great word.

 

Sing a lot. After all is said and done, we are loved more than we can know. Amen. 

Lunacy? Audacious Hope

Advent 2c, Luke 3:1-6 (December 6, 2015)

Advent is a time for craziness, even lunacy...

 

To wait while we live in a time that demands instant gratification?  To dare to hope that all flesh, (yes ALL), will see God's deliverance while we ourselves are so often caught, stuck, even trapped?

 

Nevertheless, such waiting and hoping are intergral parts of the practice of advent. 

 

Our reality is that often we are not sure that we need to be delivered, so why wait, or why hope? In our times of struggle we tempted to think that if we just try harder we can do it ourselves. Or if things become even more trying, we are convinced that we can see someone - a counselor, a doctor, a weight loss specialist, a financial advisor and then - things will be "just fine".  But all of this is merely scratching the surface before daring to get down on our hands and knees to actually examine who we are and where we are at with others and the world.

 

Truth be told - the expectation that we might even listen let alone hear – borders on insanity. Nor am I only thinking of a preacher, who while carefully crafting a sermon delivers it only to observe some people talking during the delivery, glancing at their watches, yes, waiting only for "it" to be over. To strive to listen to another, to live in the moment is for us a  HUGE STRETCH.

 

To the totality of our reality comes this text making such audacious claims.

 

THE WORD OF GOD COMES TO JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS. The word of God! God directly communicating, somehow, someway, to this strange guy who is out there – in a wild place, doing wild things. God communicates with that guy. Strange!

 

And then-  that guy runs with it. He makes no apologies. He demands that people from all walks of life turn to God. He expects that in doing so they will see their own faults, their own limitations, the ways they fall short of God's intention – at home, in the wild world in which they live. He doesn't expect excuses or rationalizations – just the bare, naked truth. "Turn to God!" he cries. 

 

Amazingly he is not ignored. Many, many people come out to that wilderness place. They willingly go down into the water undergoing this baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It's crazier than – professional wrestling, political pundits running inaccurate polls, even the radicalization of people to ISIS. People come out to hear and obey this word of God that is given to that guy, John. 

 

But John is not self-satisfied. He is not one to slap himself on the back and say, wow, look at me, I am so successful. Instead he declares, THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING. One is coming who will completely free these people from themselves – and enable them to live with hope, both for themselves and for all others. He employs metaphors that meant more to people then than they do to us now. After all we drive on super highways and fly over mountains, valleys and hills instead of needing to climb them while grunting, needing to tread carefully while hoping and praying that we don't fall to our injury or even death. But John's metaphors will also work upon us, if we dare to be moved beyond the literal.

 

What of the mountains of hatred and the valleys of despair we know? What of the mountains of financial and social inequity that lead people to be so completely dissatisfied that they long to hurt or even kill others and think that somehow that is God's will?

 

Can these mountains and valleys somehow be levelled out? Can people come together with humility, respect and care knowing each other as brothers and sisters because we are all children of God? Might we start anew? Can people who now function as predators literally and figuratively be transformed to caringly live with, even be transformed to be advocates for the gentle and the vulnerable? Can we who are caught up in all kinds of addictions – to things, to status, to fear, to food, to leisure, to alcohol and other substances, be freed from such powers as we turn to God? God is already reaching out to us. That's what John says then and continues to say now.

 

To be sure, this advent time is a time for craziness. We are being called to live our lives against the flow of rushing, of ongoing, ever increasing anxiety. Advent is a time that calls us to stop, to wait, to hope.

 

Yes: stop running, stop racing, stop doing things that lead us to race and run, to believe that it's all up to us. Stop - in order to be in this moment – with God, with ourselves so that we might hear one another.

 

Advent calls us to WAIT FOR SOMEONE  to come to us. Such waiting may not mean simply shuffling  our feet, or being saturated with boredom, or sitting on our hands. Such waiting may mean many things. Here, now, waiting may mean being attentive to God's word coming to us, leading us in a certain way. Such waiting becomes pregnant with hope.

 

For the word that comes to John and to us as we wait for God's direction is from God. This sounds crazy.  It is a word that ultimately leads us beyond ourselves to God and through God again and again to ourselves and to others. It is a word that leads us to be convinced not only up here, but deep within, that God cares about us and this world. We begin to KNOW that God is always working so that there can be life, love and new beginnings - for all.

 

I know – some of "this" sounds crazy. As we look around at this world – and surely as we look within, such overarching hope appears as lunacy. We see and know so much loss, pain, death, suffering, hunger and inequity. At times the pain is overwhelming!

 

But John calls us to also see more  – to look to God – to look to THE ONE who - is COMING. We, too, are called to look to this One, this Jesus, whose very name means, God delivers. We are called to look to him and hope – not only for ourselves, as amazing as that is, but also to hope for the world. As we look and listen, we are promised the abilities to see and also obey! Such dazzling counter cultural audacity!

 

Advent is a crazy time. It flies in the face of so much of what we know and experience. But Advent is also a wondrous, miraculous time - a time gifted us by God. Advent is a time when God's own Word comes to that guy John and then through him – to us!

 

Even now, through John God seeks to open to us to God's action, God's direction. Listen, watch, wait and hope. By God's grace – even we can! Who knows what will, what may already be happening? .............Amen.