Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Fullness in Silence


Many of us look forward to singing silent night, carrying our candles
out of the sanctuary and down to the street. 
We sing the beautiful carol in unison as we light one another’s candles.
Remembering perhaps the words of Jesus, “You are the light of the world.”

We sing together.  A strange thing in a culture like ours of so many individual performances.  We sing this song together and we light together and we walk together.

I remember being a young person and holding my candle, fascinated with the melting wax and wondering how long it would take to touch the soft wax and not burn.
I remember covering the rubber part of my Converse All-Star shoe with dripped wax from the candle. 

But still, regardless of how attentive I was at one or many of those Christmas Eve services, I remember them fondly, and relish the ability to partake again in the yearly tradition.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Let It Be With Me


I went to the Advent service at school again this year,
I always enjoy the music that’s brought together,
It’s been everything from
Ave Maria to
Curtis Mayfield:
You know the song—

“People get ready, there's a train comin'
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket you just thank the lord.”

And during this year’s service, someone got up and shared a reflection
And said something that made me see today’s gospel story in a whole new light.

I’ve always imagined this story of the angel visiting Mary as the only visitation that happened on that day.
But what if Mary was one among many that received a visit from the angel?
Of course she’s the only one we read about because she’s the only one that gave birth to Jesus.
But what if she had not been the only one asked?
How many young women in Israel might have been asked to bear the Savior?
How many times might Gabriel have entered a room and said, “Greetings, favored one!
The Lord is with you”?

Maybe just once.
Maybe just to Mary.
But then again, maybe not.
Mary was there.  The angel came into the room.
And perhaps there was a long silence as they adjusted their eyes to one another.
What was it that happened in that space?
A word was given and word received by faith.
And what was that word?
Don’t be afraid, you will bear a son, named Jesus, who will rule as heir to David’s throne, forever.

And Mary. 
Not drawing back from this.
Not rushing away.
Patient, beginning to recognize the goodness of the messenger,
Beginning to experience the faith and the hope and the love
radiating from the messenger’s presence.
Mary says “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
She stays.  She does not leave the impossible messenger and the impossible and outrageous message.
She stays with it.  And wonders at its impossibility.
Perplexed, unsure. But she stays.

How can this be? She asks.
And with her all of humanity asks again and again concerning the redemption of the world.

How can this be?
How can this be – since we are so violent?

How can this be?
How can this be – since we are so deaf and blind to the createdness of ourselves and all the earth?

How can this be?
How can this be – since history has proved lasting peace, real justice, and enduring salvation
to be the last thing possible for humanity?

How can this be?


The angel stays. 
The angel doesn’t get impatient. 
The angel doesn’t ridicule the young woman.
The angel replies.
The Holy Spirit will do it. 
The uncontrollable power of God who renews lives
and creates form out of the formless waters of chaos.
The Holy Spirit who gives insight and inspiration and comfort to those in the deserts of doubt or sorrow.
The Holy Spirit who gives courage and words
to prophets who speak to the powerful, words of truth and love.
Who gives courage and words to friends who comfort and encourage one another.

The Holy Spirit who longs for the creation to become a place where all people can experience fully the love of their Creator and the abundance of God’s creation.
The Holy Spirit will do it.

The same Holy Spirit who gave the impossible child of blessing to Abraham and Sarah,
The same Holy Spirit who is even now giving Zechariah and Elizabeth their child John in their old age,
Rising up a prophet for God’s way.

“For,” the angel says, “nothing will be impossible with God.”

The God for whom all things are possible,
from whom this angelic messenger comes,
From whom the word of promise comes,
This God is the one who will give a child to Mary.

And then her words.
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Simple words.  But words of revolutionary faith.
Words which give voice to a faith and a hope and a love
Living in the midst of perplexity, uncertainty, and seeming impossibility.

Words that trust God to save, to renew, to heal.

Of all of those visited, Mary shows her willingness to become a part of God’s impossible salvation.
Why does she say yes?

I imagine that Mary was a person who felt deeply the sorrows and injustices of her world.
Mary was young, maybe only 13 or so.
And one of the many gifts of young people in the community,
is their ability to see still with eyes that have been hardened by the cynical realism of adult life,
their hearts still break and they still ache for a better world,

And when the angel said that Mary’s baby would become great and heir to the throne of David,
She probably did not hear this as an individual excited that she just won the lottery and would become wealthy and happy and live a long life in comfort and security.

What she probably heard was that someone, finally, would bring peace and truth and grace
To a land thirsty and hungry for righteousness.
What she probably heard was that God would bring healing to God’s people,
And save them from the oppression of greed and violence and hatred,
And this is the song that Mary sings later on in the chapter:
“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.”
Mary saw the angel in that room.
And saw the faith and the hope and the love with which the good news came to her.
And Mary said, “Let it be.”
(makes me think of a song)

Friends, in the name of Mary’s child, I encourage you to listen to the call of God in your life.
God is longing to bring love into the lives of hurting people,
God is longing to bring healing to a creation that has been despoiled by the limitless desires of human beings,
God is longing to bring peace and reconciliation to communities divided against one another,
God is longing to bring rest to the anxious and worried, who need the support of their community,
And the knowledge of God’s relentless presence with them and for them,

We are in the place of Mary each new day,
As we behold the impossibilities which God declares possible,
We know the way that love bids us go,
And we can follow in faith,
Knowing that hope is not a quick fix, but a lifetime pilgrim journey towards
God’s healing of the earth.

But just because it is not quick, does not mean that it is not a path of joy.
Each new day
even as we see evidence of the brokenness of human society,
We can witness the goodness of the creation,
the image of God in our fellow humanity,
And we can see that God may work very slowly,
But God does not give up,

“People get ready, there's a train comin'
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket you just thank the lord.”

And in the impossibilities of each new day may we hear the words of the angel:
"Do not be afraid,” and “nothing will be impossible with God.”

To which we can respond in those words for which we bless Mary and her courage,
The words of faith, borne of love, looking toward the hope of God’s salvation:
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”


Amen.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Keeping Time Together

Cantata Sunday

Luke 2:8-20

This has been a beautiful work of the people.
Young and old and middlers,
Coming together to sing, to share, to contribute to the common experience.
I’m tempted to say that we need more events like this, 
but that just turns my gratitude into restless discontent.

I’m grateful for what people have done to make this happen.

And it makes me reflect upon what it means to be in community together.
What are communities for?
And I think one thing communities are for
is keeping time. 

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Squinting Towards the Promise


Near the end of the 40th chapter of Isaiah we get a picture of the kind of lament that Israel is giving voice to in the difficult time of their exile in Babylon.
They longed to return to their home, their place, to be restored as a community.
But they also felt that God had done them wrong, that God had promised them blessing
And here they were experiencing what felt like curse.
Here’s the picture we get:

The prophet writes:
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

This was their lament.  God does not care what I do—God does not care if I get what is fair or what is unfair.
This lament is honest and authentic.  And it is a prayer that people raise out of the pain of their own experience and experience of their neighbors, their community.

Where are you God? It says.

This is something that the people felt more and more I imagine as the years turned into decades and the decades into a generation and exile from their homeland became more and more a permanent reality.

It felt more and more that either God couldn’t see the suffering of the people.
Or God didn’t care.

And it’s into this experience, this lament, which is honest and true,
That the prophet brings God’s promise.