A sermon given for Christmas Day 2011 at United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH.
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-12
Luke 2:1-20
The first Noel looked quite a bit differently from today’s celebrations.
I know it may surprise people to find this out, but the response of Mary and Joseph to Jesus’ birth was not to set up a Christmas tree.
The shepherds didn’t go out and buy lights to decorate their sheep or lawn ornaments for their fields.
The first Christmas was not full of toys and wreaths and mistletoes.
“Well that doesn’t sound like any fun.”
I think we all can agree that the Christmases that we celebrate for all of their activities and decorations and music and gift-exchange and food are fun and worth continuing.
But I think we can all equally agree that the Christmases that we celebrate, for all of their activities and decorations and music and gift-exchange and food are exhausting and we should just quit making such a fuss.
Some hate Christmas others love it. Some hate it some days and some hours and love it other days and other hours.
And perhaps there are some, bless their souls, who love it all the time and can’t stop smiling when they hear the first Christmas song in the beginning of November.
I don’t know all of the history of how we came to celebrate the day in the way that we do. And I don’t jump on the bandwagon of Christmas-haters who want all of it to cease and desist.
I like cinnamon buns and stockings and trees and presents and santas and eggnog and all those things.
But I do think that every Christmas needs a Linus-moment.
Frustrated with Christmas as he sees it, Charlie Brown yells, “Isn’t there someone who knows what Christmas is all about?!”
And Linus says very confidently, blanket in hand, “Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”
Linus proceeds to quote Luke 2:8-14.
“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,* the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,* praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’”
He turns to Charlie Brown and says, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Every Christmas needs a Linus-moment. Otherwise the carols can become empty words. Celebration can lose its heart.
We respond to Christmas in a variety of ways, singing, eating, decorating, gift-giving, welcoming family, fighting with family, did I mention eating?
I want to look at how those who are part of the story respond to the first Noel.
So Luke 2 is where it all happens.
In verse seven the nativity happens: “And [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
The verses that Linus tells speak of two main groups: angels and shepherds.
Angels announcing, and shepherds hearing good news.
Two responses to the first Noel. When the one angel finishes telling about Jesus’ birth, the rest of the angels burst out singing: “GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO! ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’”
The angels MUST sing. They are witnessing a great thing that God is doing in history. God is going to deliver humanity from sin and death and all of the evil consequences of sin and Peace will begin to be manifest among human beings wherever they experience God’s salvation.
The angels so full of wonder at God’s goodness and grace, sing boldly and excitedly and triumphantly the new song of God’s salvation.
The angels respond with praise and joyous song.
And so the shepherds hear the news and their initial fear at being confronted by celestial aliens turns into hopeful curiosity as they believe that what they just heard was not a hallucination but a revelation of God’s action.
They decide to go check it out.
When they arrive at the stable they “found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child.”
When they went and saw that there really was a stable with a manger with a child wrapped in swaddling cloth they were amazed and just started blurting out all they had seen with the angels and to their astonishment Mary and Joseph were not freaked out! They were amazed and Mary treasured their words.
Something was happening and the shepherds had somehow been allowed to witness it.
The shepherds went out “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
The shepherds were so full of excitement and amazement at all they had seen and heard from angels, from Mary, from Joseph. They could not BUT got out praising God, amazed at this new hope.
The shepherds respond with glorifying and praising God.
And this is THE Christmas response: worship and praise.
C.S. Lewis says this about praise:
“all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise -- lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game -- praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars…I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are, the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” (Reflections on the Psalms, pp. 93-95)
And so with the shepherds and angels we might respond this Christmas in praise of God not because we are told to or feel like we have to give our dues to the “reason for the season.” But maybe because we recognize in the nativity something special, something world-changing, something full of possibility and full of goodness, the goodness of God’s love made known to a world in need of that kind of knowledge.
“O sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvellous things.”
The songs of the angels and the shouts of the shepherds are shouts and songs of praise for God’s new marvelous work in the world.
The new song is the change from advent expectation to Christmas celebration.
The good news of great joy for all the people” has come
“for us and for our salvation” “is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
The Messiah, the light in darkness, the one who will break the curse and reign of sin and death and usher in light and life and love. That one has been born. Gloria In Excelsis Deo.
Let us ponder these things with Mary and let us enjoy all that it means: God’s life-giving gift, God’s entrance into our world, God with us.
And perhaps, with the angels and the shepherds we’ll respond to this event with a new song of hope, of joy, and of praise for God’s peace to us in Jesus. Amen.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas Eve
A meditation given on Christmas Eve 2011 at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH.
scripture: John 1:1-14, Isaiah 9:2
My favorite image in the scriptures is the contrast of light and dark. It is a very powerful image. Ever present with us, a very real experience for all of humanity.
Now in this time of winter we experience more darkness on a daily basis than we do light. Many leave home for work in darkness and return in darkness. We look forward to the time when light will be the prevailing experience and darkness will retreat.
The words from the prophet Isaiah speak of people who have “walked in darkness” and people who have “lived in a land of deep darkness.”
We walk in darkness. Often wondering what the point is for all that we do – unable to see meaning in all of the particulars of our life story, of our various activities. We feel caught in cycles of anger or depression, we feel lonely or afraid. We find ourselves caught in inconstant ways of living. Now giving selflessly, now hoarding selfishly. Now loving everyone, now hating everyone. Now feeling happy, now feeling depressed. Now feeling hope but more often feeling despair.
We walk in darkness.
We live in darkness. All around us people are suffering, wars are being fought, nations are fighting against nation, politician against politician, all accusing one another of wrong and firing back and forth words of accusation and angry insult. We live in the confusing darkness of pride and selfishness. And that darkness is causing many to suffer.
We live in darkness.
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.”
We “have seen a great light.”
On US “light has shined.”
The story of humanity is story of hope in deliverance from darkness. This is the story that we’ve been singing and speaking this evening.
From the beginning when humanity first broke its relationship with the God who is love (and the results of that brokenness we still feel deeply in our world today) to God’s promise to Abraham that “by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves” to the prophet Isaiah’s words of promise and hope to Israel in the darkness of their exile from their homeland, in the oppressive society of Babylon, to the foretelling of the birth of a Savior to Mary, to the angels’ great announcement to shepherds watching their sheep. All of this, all of these events are part of the great story of hope we find in the scriptures. The scriptures look to a day when those who walk in darkness will see a great light. And today, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the light coming to darkness, the hope being made manifest in our world.
“The light shines in the darkness,”
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.”
What is this light? It certainly didn’t fix the world of darkness. It certainly didn’t dispel all fear and hate and pride and selfishness. What is this light?
The light that is revealed is the light of God’s love for humanity.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…”
It is God’s love that we see in the birth of Christ. God reveals himself and not only shows us the way of life that God had always intended for humanity, but makes it possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us to die to darkness and become alive to the light of God’s love.
The light that comes into the world is God’s love, God’s outstretched arm to prodigal humanity to come out of the darkness of hate, of selfishness, of pride and to follow the way of Christ, the way of love. To receive God’s love, God’s light, and to let that light penetrate the darkness of our own souls and allow us to reflect that light to others who, walking in darkness, need to see the great light.
The light did not fix darkness. But the light provides a way in the darkness, a way forward, a way of healing and being healed. All our broken relationships, our cycles of hatred and resentment, our bouts of hopelessness and grief, do not go away overnight, are not fixed. But we find the power to be children of God, children of the light of God’s love in the midst of a world of darkness.
In the dark streets of Bethlehem shines the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not (and will not) overcome it.”
And we with John go out to testify to the light, so that all might find new life and hope through the everlasting light shining in Bethlehem’s manger. John himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
This is how God heals the world. We, like the moon to the sun, reflect God’s light and shine hope and love to a dark world. And we look forward in this time of winter when darkness seems dominant, for the time when God’s love will bring light to all the corners of this world by the power of God’s healing love. Amen.
scripture: John 1:1-14, Isaiah 9:2
My favorite image in the scriptures is the contrast of light and dark. It is a very powerful image. Ever present with us, a very real experience for all of humanity.
Now in this time of winter we experience more darkness on a daily basis than we do light. Many leave home for work in darkness and return in darkness. We look forward to the time when light will be the prevailing experience and darkness will retreat.
The words from the prophet Isaiah speak of people who have “walked in darkness” and people who have “lived in a land of deep darkness.”
We walk in darkness. Often wondering what the point is for all that we do – unable to see meaning in all of the particulars of our life story, of our various activities. We feel caught in cycles of anger or depression, we feel lonely or afraid. We find ourselves caught in inconstant ways of living. Now giving selflessly, now hoarding selfishly. Now loving everyone, now hating everyone. Now feeling happy, now feeling depressed. Now feeling hope but more often feeling despair.
We walk in darkness.
We live in darkness. All around us people are suffering, wars are being fought, nations are fighting against nation, politician against politician, all accusing one another of wrong and firing back and forth words of accusation and angry insult. We live in the confusing darkness of pride and selfishness. And that darkness is causing many to suffer.
We live in darkness.
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.”
We “have seen a great light.”
On US “light has shined.”
The story of humanity is story of hope in deliverance from darkness. This is the story that we’ve been singing and speaking this evening.
From the beginning when humanity first broke its relationship with the God who is love (and the results of that brokenness we still feel deeply in our world today) to God’s promise to Abraham that “by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves” to the prophet Isaiah’s words of promise and hope to Israel in the darkness of their exile from their homeland, in the oppressive society of Babylon, to the foretelling of the birth of a Savior to Mary, to the angels’ great announcement to shepherds watching their sheep. All of this, all of these events are part of the great story of hope we find in the scriptures. The scriptures look to a day when those who walk in darkness will see a great light. And today, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the light coming to darkness, the hope being made manifest in our world.
“The light shines in the darkness,”
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.”
What is this light? It certainly didn’t fix the world of darkness. It certainly didn’t dispel all fear and hate and pride and selfishness. What is this light?
The light that is revealed is the light of God’s love for humanity.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…”
It is God’s love that we see in the birth of Christ. God reveals himself and not only shows us the way of life that God had always intended for humanity, but makes it possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us to die to darkness and become alive to the light of God’s love.
The light that comes into the world is God’s love, God’s outstretched arm to prodigal humanity to come out of the darkness of hate, of selfishness, of pride and to follow the way of Christ, the way of love. To receive God’s love, God’s light, and to let that light penetrate the darkness of our own souls and allow us to reflect that light to others who, walking in darkness, need to see the great light.
The light did not fix darkness. But the light provides a way in the darkness, a way forward, a way of healing and being healed. All our broken relationships, our cycles of hatred and resentment, our bouts of hopelessness and grief, do not go away overnight, are not fixed. But we find the power to be children of God, children of the light of God’s love in the midst of a world of darkness.
In the dark streets of Bethlehem shines the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not (and will not) overcome it.”
And we with John go out to testify to the light, so that all might find new life and hope through the everlasting light shining in Bethlehem’s manger. John himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
This is how God heals the world. We, like the moon to the sun, reflect God’s light and shine hope and love to a dark world. And we look forward in this time of winter when darkness seems dominant, for the time when God’s love will bring light to all the corners of this world by the power of God’s healing love. Amen.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Possibility where there is no possibility
A sermon for the fourth Sunday of Advent, given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on December 18, 2011.
2 Sam. 7:1-11,16
Ps. 89:1-4,19-26
Rom. 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
As we enter into today’s scripture from the gospel of Luke, we join Mary in the amazement and hope of the announcement of her conceiving of her son our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This birth of all births has received the most attention.
What is happening here? Why so much excitement?
All throughout the Bible, God is bringing a way where there was no way.
Possibility where there was no possibility. This is the substance of hope.
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
We can become so full of fear when we think of all that can happen to ourselves, all that can happen in the world, all that can happen to our loved ones. Mary was afraid when she was confronted by the powerful presence of such a majestic messenger as the angel Gabriel.
He said “do not be afraid.” Stilling her momentary fears and preparing her for his announcement of great hope which will banish fear: the coming of Jesus Emmanuel.
“And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”
Jesus is the greek way of saying the Hebrew “Joshua” – Joshua was the great hero of Israel who fulfilled the hope of bringing the people of Israel into the promised land after they were brought out of slavery in Egypt by God’s prophet Moses. The name Joshua (and the name Jesus ) literally mean God delivers – God saves – God brings liberty from to the captives, and homecoming to the exiled.
Jesus will be a new kind of liberator, a new kind of salvation.
“Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. “
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Nothing will be impossible with God.
All throughout the scriptures we have stories of nothingness in which God creates something new.
Sarah conceived her son Isaac after nearly a century of infertility.
Moses leads the people of Israel out of slavery into the desert where blossomed a new hope, a new community, worshiping the God who delivered them.
When exiled from their homeland for 150 years, God brought back the people of Israel through the decree of the Persian King Cyrus.
Now in the context of poverty and oppression in the Roman Empire, God promises to Mary that she will give birth to a new Joshua – a new salvation of God.
And Matthew’s version of the story adds, “and he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21)
The great deliverer is promised who will not just bring people to a new community where love is the rule and justice is the goal, working to abolish all systems of hate and oppression, but the deliverer promised will also save people from their greatest adversary – their own bent way of life, their own selfishnessness and hate – this internal deliverance from the greatest of slaveries God will accomplish through Jesus’s death and resurrection, freeing humanity from their bondage to sin and by the power of the Holy Spirit enabling a new life, a rebirth to a life of love.
It may seem impossible for this kind of newness, for this kind of deliverance to come,
It may seem impossible for this kind of change, this kind of rebirth to break into our world.
It may seem like utopia to imagine a community so full of God’s love by the power of the Holy Spirit that differences of race, class, or gender no longer remain walls preventing community.
It may seem unreal to imagine being released from a past of guilt, a present of bondage, and a future of fear.
But this is the deliverance conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary. This is God’s salvation, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
As we long for God’s presence, for new life, for new hope, let us remember that it starts with us – let us turn to God from our own bent way of life and receive God’s full forgiveness and love shown to us in the coming of this baby in Mary’s womb – let us catch the train of deliverance on the railroad to freedom. Let us say with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
2 Sam. 7:1-11,16
Ps. 89:1-4,19-26
Rom. 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
As we enter into today’s scripture from the gospel of Luke, we join Mary in the amazement and hope of the announcement of her conceiving of her son our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This birth of all births has received the most attention.
What is happening here? Why so much excitement?
All throughout the Bible, God is bringing a way where there was no way.
Possibility where there was no possibility. This is the substance of hope.
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
We can become so full of fear when we think of all that can happen to ourselves, all that can happen in the world, all that can happen to our loved ones. Mary was afraid when she was confronted by the powerful presence of such a majestic messenger as the angel Gabriel.
He said “do not be afraid.” Stilling her momentary fears and preparing her for his announcement of great hope which will banish fear: the coming of Jesus Emmanuel.
“And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”
Jesus is the greek way of saying the Hebrew “Joshua” – Joshua was the great hero of Israel who fulfilled the hope of bringing the people of Israel into the promised land after they were brought out of slavery in Egypt by God’s prophet Moses. The name Joshua (and the name Jesus ) literally mean God delivers – God saves – God brings liberty from to the captives, and homecoming to the exiled.
Jesus will be a new kind of liberator, a new kind of salvation.
“Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. “
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Nothing will be impossible with God.
All throughout the scriptures we have stories of nothingness in which God creates something new.
Sarah conceived her son Isaac after nearly a century of infertility.
Moses leads the people of Israel out of slavery into the desert where blossomed a new hope, a new community, worshiping the God who delivered them.
When exiled from their homeland for 150 years, God brought back the people of Israel through the decree of the Persian King Cyrus.
Now in the context of poverty and oppression in the Roman Empire, God promises to Mary that she will give birth to a new Joshua – a new salvation of God.
And Matthew’s version of the story adds, “and he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21)
The great deliverer is promised who will not just bring people to a new community where love is the rule and justice is the goal, working to abolish all systems of hate and oppression, but the deliverer promised will also save people from their greatest adversary – their own bent way of life, their own selfishnessness and hate – this internal deliverance from the greatest of slaveries God will accomplish through Jesus’s death and resurrection, freeing humanity from their bondage to sin and by the power of the Holy Spirit enabling a new life, a rebirth to a life of love.
It may seem impossible for this kind of newness, for this kind of deliverance to come,
It may seem impossible for this kind of change, this kind of rebirth to break into our world.
It may seem like utopia to imagine a community so full of God’s love by the power of the Holy Spirit that differences of race, class, or gender no longer remain walls preventing community.
It may seem unreal to imagine being released from a past of guilt, a present of bondage, and a future of fear.
But this is the deliverance conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary. This is God’s salvation, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
As we long for God’s presence, for new life, for new hope, let us remember that it starts with us – let us turn to God from our own bent way of life and receive God’s full forgiveness and love shown to us in the coming of this baby in Mary’s womb – let us catch the train of deliverance on the railroad to freedom. Let us say with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
A Liberating Love
A sermon for the third Sunday of Advent preached at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on December 11, 2011.
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Luke 1:47-55
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Exile is not the end
Upon returning to their homeland after 150 years of displacement, the people of Israel were confronted with a picture of hopeless desolation.
Here is a land that does not look at all like the stories that were told and passed on through the generations in Babylon.
Here is a land of ruins. A land of devastation.
But the prophet sees beyond this.
“What is” is not “what must be”
We are tempted at times when looking at devastations and difficulties in our midst to become resigned to the necessity and inevitability of painful destruction and tragedy.
The prophet looks at the world and grieves what it is – but receives new vision of the hope of God’s love:
“They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” (Isaiah 61:4)
God will do this. God who is faithful to continue the work of redeeming and transforming what everyone else may call a “lost cause.”
This is the shape of God’s love.
In Advent we take part in the expectant waiting for God’s coming to us.
We sing with longing – O come O come Emmanuel.
Emmanuel. God with us.
Light in the midst of our darkness.
Hope in the midst of our despair.
Rest in the midst of our anxious toil.
God with us. Emmanuel.
Our lives, our communities at times become unrecognizable to us.
They become ruins which faintly point to what once was.
Perhaps they’ve been weather-worn – years of economic or personal difficulties, family tragedies, family feuds.
Perhaps they’ve become disfigured by hatred or anger that never sought resolution.
Perhaps they’ve become enslaved to fear: fear of becoming an object of hate or anger by saying or doing the “wrong thing” and receiving public reaction.
We look around at our own lives and the life of this community and see so many good people with so many good things to contribute to the future of this place.
But we also see a shadow that hangs over these people. The shadow of fear, the shadow of entrenched hatred – resentment bitterness complaint after complaint.
This shadow of fear and hatred clouds our vision as members of this community. This darkness needs to be revealed and chased away by the light of truthful and loving action.
We must be in this place, in this community, in this nation, in this world – we must be in this place, the light of God’s love.
The church has a role in the community. The church is to be God’s love to the community. To remind the community that there is a better way.
In our text today from the prophet Isaiah we read the prophet’s declaration of what God is calling him to do through the power of the Holy Spirit:
It is a mission of love.
“he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,”
to those who have felt the oppression of fear and anger and hate in themselves or from others – God is giving good news: love will triumph over hate – perfect love drives away fear –
“to bind up the brokenhearted,”
those who have been hurt or insulted or been beat down by circumstances of loss or tragedy – God calls us to comfort – to be God’s comfort to them just as we have received comfort from God
as we read in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
“to proclaim liberty to the captives,”
those who feel enslaved to fear of people, fear of the uncertainty of the future
those who are enslaved to sins or addictions or literally enslaved to the will of another – God calls us to proclaim liberty, the new possibilities, the new road in the desert that God’s Spirit of grace can make. The liberty of love to free us from the bondage to our guilt, our hatreds and bitterness.
“and release to the prisoners;”
those who are weighed down by circumstances, imprisoned by debts that they cannot repay social, economic, or otherwise – God calls us to proclaim release, to be the love of God in the world is to consider the needs of the “least of these my brethren” and to seek their release from the imprisonment of circumstance and the imprisonment of their own fear or shame.
There are many around us and many of us who grieve and mourn the ruins we see around us and it does no good to ignore the presence of darkness in the world and it does no good to be silent in the midst of it. Let us join with the prophet in proclaiming good news.
But before we can proclaim God’s words of liberation and be God’s love to others, we must in a new way be reminded of that love and feel afresh that liberation.
God’s good news to our own oppression, God’s binding up to our own brokenheartedness, God’s liberty to our own captivity, and God’s release to our own imprisonment.
As we hear God’s liberation, let us rejoice in God’s love.
The new possibilities, the freedom to change ourselves and the world in which we live.
Hear and receive God’s love today. For the first time or hear it and let it renew your spirit.
It is only as we have been comforted that we can be a comfort to others. It is only as we learn the radical nature of God’s all-forgiving, all-renewing love that we can teach that love by the example of our lives.
Just as God has come to our mourning, our frustration, our despair and given us the comfort of God’s hope and the new possibilities through God’s love poured into our hearts, so let us proclaim God’s comfort to others “who mourn…to give them” in the words of the prophet, “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. “
May all of us here, as we receive God’s radical love and breathe afresh God’s grace toward all of our sins and past failings and God’s promise of hope in the midst of ruins,
May all of us here become “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.” – the glory of God’s new life, of God’s transforming love.
In this season of Advent let us see the full character of Emmanuel, God with us.
God is not distant. God is here in our midst, pouring God’s love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Let us not ignore God or resist God’s love.
And then let us take up the prophet’s call to announce this good news in word and deed to one another and to this community.
Love can give new life to us, love can give new life to our relationships with others, love can give new life to this community.
Let God’s love give us a new vision of who we are and who we can be as individuals and as a community.
“For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”
Come, Emmanuel, Come.
Amen.
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Luke 1:47-55
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Exile is not the end
Upon returning to their homeland after 150 years of displacement, the people of Israel were confronted with a picture of hopeless desolation.
Here is a land that does not look at all like the stories that were told and passed on through the generations in Babylon.
Here is a land of ruins. A land of devastation.
But the prophet sees beyond this.
“What is” is not “what must be”
We are tempted at times when looking at devastations and difficulties in our midst to become resigned to the necessity and inevitability of painful destruction and tragedy.
The prophet looks at the world and grieves what it is – but receives new vision of the hope of God’s love:
“They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” (Isaiah 61:4)
God will do this. God who is faithful to continue the work of redeeming and transforming what everyone else may call a “lost cause.”
This is the shape of God’s love.
In Advent we take part in the expectant waiting for God’s coming to us.
We sing with longing – O come O come Emmanuel.
Emmanuel. God with us.
Light in the midst of our darkness.
Hope in the midst of our despair.
Rest in the midst of our anxious toil.
God with us. Emmanuel.
Our lives, our communities at times become unrecognizable to us.
They become ruins which faintly point to what once was.
Perhaps they’ve been weather-worn – years of economic or personal difficulties, family tragedies, family feuds.
Perhaps they’ve become disfigured by hatred or anger that never sought resolution.
Perhaps they’ve become enslaved to fear: fear of becoming an object of hate or anger by saying or doing the “wrong thing” and receiving public reaction.
We look around at our own lives and the life of this community and see so many good people with so many good things to contribute to the future of this place.
But we also see a shadow that hangs over these people. The shadow of fear, the shadow of entrenched hatred – resentment bitterness complaint after complaint.
This shadow of fear and hatred clouds our vision as members of this community. This darkness needs to be revealed and chased away by the light of truthful and loving action.
We must be in this place, in this community, in this nation, in this world – we must be in this place, the light of God’s love.
The church has a role in the community. The church is to be God’s love to the community. To remind the community that there is a better way.
In our text today from the prophet Isaiah we read the prophet’s declaration of what God is calling him to do through the power of the Holy Spirit:
It is a mission of love.
“he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,”
to those who have felt the oppression of fear and anger and hate in themselves or from others – God is giving good news: love will triumph over hate – perfect love drives away fear –
“to bind up the brokenhearted,”
those who have been hurt or insulted or been beat down by circumstances of loss or tragedy – God calls us to comfort – to be God’s comfort to them just as we have received comfort from God
as we read in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
“to proclaim liberty to the captives,”
those who feel enslaved to fear of people, fear of the uncertainty of the future
those who are enslaved to sins or addictions or literally enslaved to the will of another – God calls us to proclaim liberty, the new possibilities, the new road in the desert that God’s Spirit of grace can make. The liberty of love to free us from the bondage to our guilt, our hatreds and bitterness.
“and release to the prisoners;”
those who are weighed down by circumstances, imprisoned by debts that they cannot repay social, economic, or otherwise – God calls us to proclaim release, to be the love of God in the world is to consider the needs of the “least of these my brethren” and to seek their release from the imprisonment of circumstance and the imprisonment of their own fear or shame.
There are many around us and many of us who grieve and mourn the ruins we see around us and it does no good to ignore the presence of darkness in the world and it does no good to be silent in the midst of it. Let us join with the prophet in proclaiming good news.
But before we can proclaim God’s words of liberation and be God’s love to others, we must in a new way be reminded of that love and feel afresh that liberation.
God’s good news to our own oppression, God’s binding up to our own brokenheartedness, God’s liberty to our own captivity, and God’s release to our own imprisonment.
As we hear God’s liberation, let us rejoice in God’s love.
The new possibilities, the freedom to change ourselves and the world in which we live.
Hear and receive God’s love today. For the first time or hear it and let it renew your spirit.
It is only as we have been comforted that we can be a comfort to others. It is only as we learn the radical nature of God’s all-forgiving, all-renewing love that we can teach that love by the example of our lives.
Just as God has come to our mourning, our frustration, our despair and given us the comfort of God’s hope and the new possibilities through God’s love poured into our hearts, so let us proclaim God’s comfort to others “who mourn…to give them” in the words of the prophet, “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. “
May all of us here, as we receive God’s radical love and breathe afresh God’s grace toward all of our sins and past failings and God’s promise of hope in the midst of ruins,
May all of us here become “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.” – the glory of God’s new life, of God’s transforming love.
In this season of Advent let us see the full character of Emmanuel, God with us.
God is not distant. God is here in our midst, pouring God’s love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Let us not ignore God or resist God’s love.
And then let us take up the prophet’s call to announce this good news in word and deed to one another and to this community.
Love can give new life to us, love can give new life to our relationships with others, love can give new life to this community.
Let God’s love give us a new vision of who we are and who we can be as individuals and as a community.
“For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”
Come, Emmanuel, Come.
Amen.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Exile is not the end.
A sermon for the second Sunday of Advent, given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on December 4, 2011.
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
These words, these promises, are given in the midst of suffering.
Today’s scripture in Isaiah speaks to a the people of Israel in a dark time in their story as a community. They have experienced great loss—
The homeland was destroyed along with their place of worship and they were forced to move themselves and what little belongings they could take with them to a distant foreign land, Babylon.
We hear the mourning of the exiled in Psalm 137.
By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
We catch further glimpses of the misery and emptiness felt by the captive Israel in the book of Lamentations.
She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her;
her downfall was appalling,
with none to comfort her.
Zion stretches out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her;
They heard how I was groaning,
with no one to comfort me. (Lamentations 1:2, 9, 17, 21)
Loneliness, estrangement, disillusionment, meaninglessness, hopelessness.
The pain of discouragement, the shadow of fear and uncertainty.
These feelings are not foreign to us.
There are those among us today are living with pain, discouragement, guilt, sorrow.
There are those among us who “weep bitterly in the night” with no one to comfort them.
We live in a culture where all of these difficult emotions and experiences must be kept inside – don’t reveal yourself to others – put on a strong face.
We experience the feelings of exile.
We walk through shadowy valleys which remind us of death – of emptiness, of hopelessness.
And it is in this darkness that the light of God’s promise comes to shine.
Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2)
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2)
Exile is not the end.
The story of Israel goes on that under the reign of King Cyrus, 150 years after they were exiled and the city destroyed, the people of Israel were able to return to their land and rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Today’s scripture from Isaiah anticipates that return. It speaks to the people in exile, promising the coming of God’s deliverance.
After years of exile, there was a joyous homecoming.
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ (Isaiah 40:5)
Prepare the way for the great work of God the deliverer, the God of hope!
The desert, a place of wandering aimlessly, a place of going nowhere – the desert will have a highway for God. There will be purpose where there once was aimless wandering.
The glory of the Lord in bringing deliverance and hope to a people who lived in bondage and despair. That glory—the glory of redemption – shall be revealed – and all people shall see it together.
Exile is not the end.
Discouragement and helplessness, fear and anxiety wither the grass of our faith and fade the flower of our hope.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
God speaks to us in these dark times with words of deliverance and the hope of overcoming our exile.
Exile is not the end.
Be filled with the hope of God’s coming. In today’s gospel reading John points us to the coming of “The one who is more powerful” –
God the deliverer – Jesus our Emmanuel who frees us from sin and all of its consequences – restoring our relationship with God through forgiveness and the presence of the Holy Spirit, healing our broken relationships by giving us the courage to give and receive God’s unconditional love, building a new community formed by God’s love within which exile becomes homecoming.
Exile is not the end.
And so we’re called in the scriptures to announce the coming of such good news.
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
Good news! We can come home to our true place as those whom God loves, as those whom God has rescued from the darkness of meaningless, hopeless, lonely, despair and guilt. We were once exiles but now we are citizens of God’s kingdom – children of a new family founded in God’s healing and love.
God “will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.”
Exile is not the end.
The darkness of fear and loneliness is not the end. Hear from the mountain the good tidings of God – salvation is here – homecoming is here.
Jesus has restored our relationship with God and by the power of the Holy Spirit brings us into fellowship with God, pouring his love into our hearts and giving us courage to share that love, to share the good tidings.
Breathe deep the hope of God’s salvation.
Exile is not the end.
While we may feel like the fading flower, the withering grass – let us remember that in our desert, God is building a highway – God’s word endures and will endure. Our dark times will come and go. Like the grass, like the flowers we will experience the pain of sorrow, fear, and brokenness – the darkness of exile. But hope in God’s deliverance. The pain that is felt, the loneliness, the hopelessness, God will heal.
Put your hope in God and trust him, only in God will we find true comfort. Only in God will we find our way back home.
Amen.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Magnificat
And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour 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 1:46-55
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour 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 1:46-55
Thursday, December 1, 2011
On the Beatitudes (Part 2): The Wordle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)