Merry Christmas

Luke 2:1-20

Do you remember the first infant you held?  The first infant that was yours, or a close family or friend’s?  It is a miracle in itself.  Each child is a little miracle and while holding the baby, you realize how helpless they are.  A baby can’t walk nor do much of anything independently from parents, honestly they are not even aware they are independent from others.  Every baby is a miracle and the Baby Jesus is no different. 

Imagine one of the shepherds being a boy who comes to Bethlehem after hearing the angel, to see the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.  This young shepherd is encouraged the hold the infant, his first baby to hold.  Of course the chorus of Heavenly Hosts, he heard in the field would resonate in his heart, but you know that first time of holding a helpless infant is just as special.  Imagine with me, that 50 years later he holds another baby and recalls that time in the City of David.  Perhaps he even tells his experience to Luke.  50 years after that this baby, now a man, holds a baby, experiencing the miracle of a child.  And another 50 years or so that child does the same, and so forth.  That would mean that it would take only 40 people or so to have been directly connected to holding Jesus.  

I share this illustration to emphasize that our movement, the church, is not as old as we think.  First of all when the incarnation happened, Judaism in which Jesus entered was already over 3,000 years old.  It is arrogant for Christians to believe their generation is the end of the Age.  Jesus makes it clear we are to be ready and only God in Heaven will know. Calling the time of the incarnation “ancient,” and living in a time we call “post-modern,” keeps us from understanding the reality that we may simply be in the infancy of our faith.  God’s time is not human time.

Jesus as a baby demonstrated His greatest power.  The power of vulnerability.  All babies posses that power and that is why they thrive, for the parents, and even society does what is necessary for each child to live.  Jesus is no different and yet he walks into adulthood without shedding that great power.  Jesus served.  Jesus went to the cross and through that great vulnerability, the Divine Love was revealed in the empty tomb. 

As Christians, we need to follow Emmanuel who demonstrated the power of vulnerability, servitude, and love.  We must understand we are still each learning to do that, and even our movement, we call the church, is struggling to learn to be vulnerable for Love.

 

Father Richard Rohr’s Wish inspired this Christmas Day Sermon

Joy

Luke 1:26-56

As we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus, I think of other birth stories.  Those on sit-coms are quite neat and honestly, unreal.  We know that birth is hard word, labor even, and it is even stated in Genesis.  I think of my own son’s nativity, which did not resemble a sit-com and rather ended with an unplanned c-section. (I encourage you to read my wife’s theological reflection based on her experience).  This week good friends had a baby girl, who had to be taken by helicopter to a larger hospital for her lungs were not developed enough.  The new mom commented that when people ask “How are you?” they are generally expecting you to answer “good.”  She was not.  She would honestly say, “empty, sad, angry, lost, heartbroken, scared, & just really, really sad.”  not Happy.  I share her words to help us understand joy.  Many times joy and happy are simultaneous, but I believe when we use it as Christians we don’t simply imply happy.  For I believe it is safe to say this new mother is not happy within this hard developing nativity, but she does feel joy.  For joy is knowing hope, peace, and love, despite our human condition.

As we approach Christmas, we must be aware that Mary is pregnant, just as our mothers were.  Jesus does not come down from Mount Olympus nor does he come riding a creature such as only Ezekiel could describe.   Jesus is born just as any person is born.  God incarnate is unique to Christianity and it is very good news, for we are not to ignore our humanity and the desires associated with the physical world.  We are to try to bring our desires in line with the desire of divine incarnation which Jesus demonstrates and does with agape; Love. 

Mary would certainly answer, “How are you?” like my friend.  To have your first child and have to lay Him in a manger.  To have had angels tell her how special this baby was, and yet still need to feed Him and take care of Him as any human mother would.  I believe she would have thought of her own words and perhaps even said them again when she looked at Jesus worrying about Her son’s responsibility to the world and her own for Him to survive in the world as she felt “empty, sad, angry, lost, heartbroken, scared, & just really, really sad” and yet great and overwhelming JOY:

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ (Luke 1:46b-55)

Jesus brings that Joy despite the human condition.  Not simply because He was a baby, but that He entered our humanity.  Through His great love took on our human condition to the point of death, even death on a cross, thus giving us incarnate divine desire of love as our model.  So despite our human condition we find hope, peace and love and celebrate Joy that only the Divine can provide.

Gifts of Prophecy

Matthew 2: 1-15

Christmas gifts are wonderful to give and receive.  And in my home our boy who is just two still does not expect or understand gifts.  He enjoyed many of the new items, including a shirt box and a empty tube.  In my family we receive and exchange Christmas tree ornaments each year.  It is wonderful to look at our tree each year and remember and recollect on the pass years.  Some especially from my childhood are slipping from my memory and/or are physically deteriorating.    My first ornament that started the tradition was given to me when I was but six months old.  It is a small glass bird, but I have no memory of that gift, save the memories of being told about it by my mother.  I recall she went out in the snow on Christmas Eve to get this special gift that started this Christmas tradition that now spans three generations. 

The Magi brought three gifts to Jesus.  Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, are gifts one would present a king.  Gold is of course very valuable, but so were the special resins, Myrrh being more valuable then gold at times in the ancient world, because of its scarcity.  The child Jesus I assume enjoyed playing with the boxes more then the gifts themselves, if not for Him acting like all other toddlers, but because the gifts were way too valuable for a family of meager means.  A family that would need to finance an extended stay in Egypt.  Once he was old enough to understand, I imagine His parents shared the story of the wonderful visit of the foreign Magi, and Joseph’s dream to save the family from Herod’s infanticide.

Jesus must have known He was Divine, yet being also fully human I know He must have pondered these gifts.  Why would they bring gifts for a king to a child of meager means?  Why were they foreigners who knew of His heavenly kingship?  And why Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh?  Of course Gold, was a valued metal as it is still today, and both incenses were of great value, but of course these foreigners from the East would bring treasures from their land that was not native to Israel.  It would had been strange enough for this poor family to have Gold and frankincense, but it was the myrrh that certainly seemed the most prophetic.   

In learning the Jewish religion, Jesus would be exposed to the Torah.  Within the tradition God was present in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple, and to anoint the altar and the priests there is a recipe for holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:33).   The recipe includes other ingredients especially cinnamon and oil, but the text begins with liquid myrrh, thus concentrated, and verse 32 states, “It shall not be used in any ordinary anointing of the body, and you shall make no other like it in composition; it is holy, and it shall be holy to you.”  This is interesting first of all because Jesus is the “anointed one,” the Christ (in Greek).  And why does God tell Moses to have this anointing perfume created?  This was to anoint the priests and the altar for the worship of God, and as specifically mentioned in verse 10 of Chapter 30, for the yearly rite of atonement.  This is the pivotal point.  Jesus will fulfill the law, the Torah.  It will not be a yearly rite, rather one horrific sacrifice of this anointed one, and atonement becomes communicable through the resurrection of the Christ.

Joseph hears God in a dream to save the child from death, as it was not simply Jesus’ mission to die, but to love, heal, and preach the good news.  Knowing full well that humanity would reject this perfect love with violence.  Herod’s fear and distrust that lead to lying and infanticide foreshadows, Jesus’ passion.  Rejected by His own people and the powers and violently killed, the young boys whose sins were that of babes were slaughtered by the King that should have protected them.  The Magi foretold that this child was not simply the King of Israel, but the King of the entire world. 

Can you imagine being a child that ponders these strange gifts, reserved for earthly kings?  Coming across the recipe for the anointing perfume and knowing it relates to not simply the yearly atonement but something even more profound and important.  A one time atonement for all, even beyond the Jordon and to the ends of the earth.  And perhaps while in Egypt learning that myrrh was a primary ingredient in preparing their dead, Jesus knew that people and powers would react like Herod.  However, as the King of Kings, as the anointed one, atonement would be achieved through His blood, and known by the resurrection.  Like a star that shows us the way.

January Newsletter (Pastor's Pondering)

“Appearance” or “manifestation,” are the English words for the Koine Greek word epiphaneia, epiphany.  The feast day of Epiphany is the day after the twelve days of Christmas, January 6.  In the Western tradition we celebrate the Magi’s arrival, the manifestation to the non-Jewish nations, the Gentiles. In the Eastern Tradition, it commemorates Jesus’ baptism and thus His being revealed to the world.  Many will also commemorate His dedication to the temple and/or His first miracle, as both commemorate Jesus’ appearance to the world.   This celebration and season of the church year is important as we are looking for the manifestation of Christ.

During the season we are not looking for Christ historically, or just in our Bibles, but in our very lives.  We are to seek and search our soul, our relationships, our body, and our hopes for the hand of Jesus.  We will find His work and His Love.  When we experience the appearance and manifestation of Jesus, we will agree with Simeon’s words in Luke 2:29-32:

“‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation,  which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles  and for glory to your people Israel.’”

We know that the Jesus is our Salvation and available to everyone, so let us keep our “eyes” open for His manifestation in our very lives. 

Knowing Christ revealed in our lives and our church should compel us to share this news with others.  I encourage everyone to share what Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “Come and See,” with friends, family, and especially the stranger.  What a wonderful invitation to receive from someone who has “seen” the manifestation of God, “Come and See.”

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor J.C.