Let us Pray: Father - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen
The Christmas story can be summarized this way: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
The Word became flesh, it took on human form, and lived among us, full of grace and truth.
Jesus is the incarnate word, he is the Word made flesh, the word of God, the word of love, the word of truth and grace and beauty.
He is the one who is the love of God in human form.
Jesus is the human form of God's forgiveness, he is the human form of God's mercy, he is the human form of God's justice, of God's truth, of God's love.
This is the Christmas story... the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
God, so that he could help us, decided to walk among us and to live with us, as one of us - born of human parents, nurtured at a human breast, and working at human tasks until he died a human death.
God among us, God made flesh, God for us - in Jesus Christ.
What is remarkable about the Christmas story is not just that God chose to place all his glory, all his beauty, and all his truth in a human form, though that is remarkable enough - it is that he chose such a simple human being in which to take on flesh.
God's word, the Word that was at the beginning of all things, and without which nothing was made that was made, could have come upon a royal princess, but it did not.
God's word - made flesh, could have taken on the form of a philosopher, wise and full of truth living in some imperial palace, but it did not.
No - God's word, the word made flesh, was a simple word - a word made manifest, a word made visible in a simple human being, born to a simple peasant woman, and cared for by a simple carpenter in a land that time still seems to have forgotten.
The Word made flesh. The Word of God, is found in its fullness in a babe who had to lay in a manager because there was no room for him at the inn.
The Word made flesh, the Word of God, is found in all its fullness in a child, who while obedient to his parents, still argued with his teachers, and got lost in the city at the time of his Bar Mitzvah.
The Word made flesh, the Word of God, is found in all its fullness, in a young man who wandered the countryside, teaching the teachers, healing the sick, eating with the sinners, and forgiving those who needed forgiving.
Jesus was the word of God in its fullness, and yet, consider, it was a word that had no home to call its own, it was a word that was denied, and betrayed, and finally killed in the hope that it would not be seen or heard again.
God's word took on flesh, and dwelt among us - it lived among us, first within the body of a simple woman and then in the body of a simple man, and that word was both accepted, and rejected, but IN rejection, and then later in death, it could not be destroyed.
This is the Christmas story, and it is a story that continues today, because the Word of God is an eternal word, it is a lasting word, it is an undefeatable word.
Jesus - the word of God is still among us, He is here as spirit, teaching his followers that which they need to know, comforting his disciples with a comfort that they need, and leading them to the truth that they need to know.
And what is that truth we need to know? Where is the word for us today?
It is in the same place that it was when Jesus walked among us, it is in the acts of love that his followers perform, it is in the mercy that his disciples give to others, it is in the truth that they utter, the justice that they struggle for, and in the forgiveness that they bestow.
God's word is still made flesh today, much in the way that it was made flesh in Jesus.
God's word takes on flesh when a woman brings food to the sanctuary of the Lord to share with the poor, and when a man delivers groceries to the local food bank, and when a brother help another brother in financial need.
The Word of God took on flesh in a unique and tremendous way in Jesus of Nazareth, and it takes on flesh today, wherever the word is believed and done.
God's word wears human flesh, in those who follow the risen word, those who obey the risen Lord, and heed the living God.
And as it was in Jesus, where the word was found in a simple man, born to simple parents, so the word today is found, found in flesh, in simple acts of love and kindness.
The word takes on flesh in those who heal, in those who forgive, in those who seek justice, in those who share, and in those who show mercy. Amen.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Micah 2:2-4, Luke 1:26-38, Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:22-32
Today I wish to share with you a wonderful Christmas tale written by Raymond MacDonald Alden many years ago. It is a story that is delightful and warm and I pray that you may be blessed by it as have many others. It is called "Why the Bells Chimed".
There was once, in a far-away country where few people have ever travelled, a wonderful church. It stood on a high hill in the centre of a great city; and every Sunday, as well as on sacred days like Christmas, thousands of people climbed the hill to its great archways, looking like lines of ants all moving in the same direction.
When you came to the building itself, you found stone columns and dark passageways, and a grand entrance leading to the main room of the church. This room was so long that one standing at the door-way could scarcely see to the other end, where the choir stood by the large altar. In the farthest corner was the organ, and this organ was so loud that sometimes when it played, the people for miles around would close their shutters and prepare for a great thunderstorm. Altogether, no such church as this was ever seen before, especially when it was lighted up for some festival, and crowded with people, young and old.
But the strangest thing about the old building was the wonderful chime of bells. At one corner of the church was a great, grey tower, with ivy growing over it as far up as one can see. I say as far as one can see because the tower was quite grand enough to fit the grand church, and it rose so far into the sky that it was only in fair weather that anyone claimed to be able to see the top. Even then one could not be certain that it was in sight. Up and up climbed the stones and the ivy, and, as the men who built the church had been dead for hundreds of years, everyone had forgotten how high the tower was supposed to be.
Now, all the people knew that at the top of the tower was a chime of Christmas bells. They had hung there ever since the church had been built, and were the most beautiful bells in the world. Some thought it was because a great musician had cast them and arranged them in their place; others said it was because of the great height, which reached up where the air was cleanest and purest. However that might be, no one who had ever heard the chimes denied that they were the sweetest in the world. Some described them as sounding like angels far up in the sky; others, as sounding like strange winds singing through the trees.
But the fact was that no one had heard them for years and years. There was an old man living not far from the church who said that his mother had spoken of hearing them when she was a little girl, and he was the only one who was sure of as much as that. They were Christmas chimes, you see, and were not meant to be played by men or on common days. It was the custom on Christmas Eve for all the people to bring to the church their offerings to the Christ- child; and when the greatest and best offering was laid on the altar, there used to come sounding through the music of the choir the Christmas chimes far up in the tower. Some said that the wind rang them, and others that they were so high that the angels could start them swinging. But for many years they had never been heard.
It was said that people were growing less careful of their gifts for the Christ-child, and that no offering was brought great enough to deserve the music of the chimes. Every Christmas Eve the rich people still crowded to the altar, each one trying to bring some gift better than any other, without giving anything he wanted for himself, and the church was crowded with those who thought that perhaps the wonderful bells might be heard again. But although the services were splendid and the offerings plenty, only the roar of the wind could be heard, far up in the stone tower.
Now, a number of miles from the city, in a little country village where nothing could be seen of the tower when the weather was fine, lived a boy named Pedro, and his little brother. They knew very little about the Christmas chimes, but they had heard of the service in the church on Christmas Eve, and had a secret plan, which they had often talked over when by themselves, to go and see the beautiful celebration.
"Nobody can guess, Little Brother," Pedro would say, "all the fine things there are to see and hear; and I have even heard it said that the Christ-child sometimes comes down to bless the service. What if we could see Him!"
The day before Christmas was bitterly cold, with a few lonely snowflakes flying in the air, and a hard white crust on the ground. Sure enough, Pedro and Little Brother were able to slip quietly away, early in the afternoon; and although the walk was hard in the frosty air, before nightfall they had trudged so far, hand in hand, that they saw the lights of the big city just ahead of them. Indeed, they were about to enter one of the great gates in the wall that surrounded it when they saw something dark on the snow near the path, and stepped aside to look at it.
It was a poor woman who had fallen just outside the city, too sick and tired to get in where she might have found shelter. The soft snow made of a drift a sort of pillow for her, and she would soon be so sound asleep in the wintry air that no one could ever waken her again. All this Pedro saw in a moment, and he knelt down beside her and tried to rouse her, even tugging at her arm a little as though he would have tried to carry her away. He turned her face toward him so that he could rub some of the snow on it, and when he had looked at her silently a moment, he stood up again and said:
"It's no good, Little Brother. You will have to go on alone."
"Alone?" cried Little Brother, "And you not see the Christmas Festival?"
"No," said Pedro, and he could not keep back a bit of the choking sound in his throat. "See this poor woman. She will freeze to death if nobody cares for her. Everyone has gone to the church now, but when you come back you can bring someone to help her. I will rub her to keep her from freezing, and perhaps get her to eat the bun that is left in my pocket."
"But I cannot bear to leave you, and go on alone," said Little Brother.
"Both of us need not miss the service," said Pedro, "and it had better be I than you. You can easily find your way to the church; and you must see and hear everything twice, Little Brother, - once for you and once for me. I am sure the Christ-child must know how I should love to come with you and worship Him; and oh! if you get a chance Little Brother to slip up to the altar without getting in anyone's way, take this little silver piece of mine, and lay it down for my offering when no one is looking. Don't forget where you have left me, and forgive me for not going with you."
In this way he hurried Little Brother off to the city, and winked hard to keep back the tears as he heard the crunching footsteps sounding farther and farther away in the twilight. It was pretty hard to lose the music and splendor of the Christmas celebration that he had been planning for so long, and spend the time instead in that lonely place in the snow.
The great church was a wonderful place that night. Everyone said that it had never looked so bright and beautiful before. When the organ played and the thousands of people sang, the walls shook with the sound and little Pedro, outside the city wall, felt the earth tremble around him, for the sound was so great.
At the close of the service came the procession with offerings to be laid on the altar. Rich men and great men marched proudly up to lay down their gifts to the Christ-child. Some brought wonderful jewels, some baskets of gold so heavy that they could scarcely carry them down the aisle. A great writer laid down a book that he had been making for years and years.
And last of all walked the king of the country, hoping with all the rest to win for himself the chime of the Christmas bells. There went a great murmur through the church as the people saw the king take from his head the royal crown, all set with precious stones, and lay it gleaming on the altar as his offering to the holy Child. "Surely," everyone said, "we shall hear the bells now, for nothing like this has ever happened before."
But still only the cold old wind was heard in the tower, and the people shook their heads, and some of them said, as they had before, that they never really believed the story of the chimes, and doubted if they ever rang at all.
The procession was over, and the choir began the closing hymn. Suddenly the organist stopped playing as though he had been shot, and everyone looked at the old minister who was standing by the altar holding up his hand for silence. Not a sound could be heard from anyone in the church, but as all the people strained their ears to listen there came softly, but distinctly swinging through the air, the sound of the chimes in the tower. So far away and yet so clear the music seemed - so much sweeter were the notes than anything that had been heard before, rising and falling away up there in the sky, that the people in the church sat for a moment as still as though something held each of them by the shoulders. Then they all stood up together and stared straight at the altar to see what great gift had awakened the long-silent bells.
But all that the nearest of them saw was the childish figure of Little Brother, who had crept softly down the aisle when no one was looking, and had laid Pedro's little piece of silver on the altar......
There was once, in a far-away country where few people have ever travelled, a wonderful church. It stood on a high hill in the centre of a great city; and every Sunday, as well as on sacred days like Christmas, thousands of people climbed the hill to its great archways, looking like lines of ants all moving in the same direction.
When you came to the building itself, you found stone columns and dark passageways, and a grand entrance leading to the main room of the church. This room was so long that one standing at the door-way could scarcely see to the other end, where the choir stood by the large altar. In the farthest corner was the organ, and this organ was so loud that sometimes when it played, the people for miles around would close their shutters and prepare for a great thunderstorm. Altogether, no such church as this was ever seen before, especially when it was lighted up for some festival, and crowded with people, young and old.
But the strangest thing about the old building was the wonderful chime of bells. At one corner of the church was a great, grey tower, with ivy growing over it as far up as one can see. I say as far as one can see because the tower was quite grand enough to fit the grand church, and it rose so far into the sky that it was only in fair weather that anyone claimed to be able to see the top. Even then one could not be certain that it was in sight. Up and up climbed the stones and the ivy, and, as the men who built the church had been dead for hundreds of years, everyone had forgotten how high the tower was supposed to be.
Now, all the people knew that at the top of the tower was a chime of Christmas bells. They had hung there ever since the church had been built, and were the most beautiful bells in the world. Some thought it was because a great musician had cast them and arranged them in their place; others said it was because of the great height, which reached up where the air was cleanest and purest. However that might be, no one who had ever heard the chimes denied that they were the sweetest in the world. Some described them as sounding like angels far up in the sky; others, as sounding like strange winds singing through the trees.
But the fact was that no one had heard them for years and years. There was an old man living not far from the church who said that his mother had spoken of hearing them when she was a little girl, and he was the only one who was sure of as much as that. They were Christmas chimes, you see, and were not meant to be played by men or on common days. It was the custom on Christmas Eve for all the people to bring to the church their offerings to the Christ- child; and when the greatest and best offering was laid on the altar, there used to come sounding through the music of the choir the Christmas chimes far up in the tower. Some said that the wind rang them, and others that they were so high that the angels could start them swinging. But for many years they had never been heard.
It was said that people were growing less careful of their gifts for the Christ-child, and that no offering was brought great enough to deserve the music of the chimes. Every Christmas Eve the rich people still crowded to the altar, each one trying to bring some gift better than any other, without giving anything he wanted for himself, and the church was crowded with those who thought that perhaps the wonderful bells might be heard again. But although the services were splendid and the offerings plenty, only the roar of the wind could be heard, far up in the stone tower.
Now, a number of miles from the city, in a little country village where nothing could be seen of the tower when the weather was fine, lived a boy named Pedro, and his little brother. They knew very little about the Christmas chimes, but they had heard of the service in the church on Christmas Eve, and had a secret plan, which they had often talked over when by themselves, to go and see the beautiful celebration.
"Nobody can guess, Little Brother," Pedro would say, "all the fine things there are to see and hear; and I have even heard it said that the Christ-child sometimes comes down to bless the service. What if we could see Him!"
The day before Christmas was bitterly cold, with a few lonely snowflakes flying in the air, and a hard white crust on the ground. Sure enough, Pedro and Little Brother were able to slip quietly away, early in the afternoon; and although the walk was hard in the frosty air, before nightfall they had trudged so far, hand in hand, that they saw the lights of the big city just ahead of them. Indeed, they were about to enter one of the great gates in the wall that surrounded it when they saw something dark on the snow near the path, and stepped aside to look at it.
It was a poor woman who had fallen just outside the city, too sick and tired to get in where she might have found shelter. The soft snow made of a drift a sort of pillow for her, and she would soon be so sound asleep in the wintry air that no one could ever waken her again. All this Pedro saw in a moment, and he knelt down beside her and tried to rouse her, even tugging at her arm a little as though he would have tried to carry her away. He turned her face toward him so that he could rub some of the snow on it, and when he had looked at her silently a moment, he stood up again and said:
"It's no good, Little Brother. You will have to go on alone."
"Alone?" cried Little Brother, "And you not see the Christmas Festival?"
"No," said Pedro, and he could not keep back a bit of the choking sound in his throat. "See this poor woman. She will freeze to death if nobody cares for her. Everyone has gone to the church now, but when you come back you can bring someone to help her. I will rub her to keep her from freezing, and perhaps get her to eat the bun that is left in my pocket."
"But I cannot bear to leave you, and go on alone," said Little Brother.
"Both of us need not miss the service," said Pedro, "and it had better be I than you. You can easily find your way to the church; and you must see and hear everything twice, Little Brother, - once for you and once for me. I am sure the Christ-child must know how I should love to come with you and worship Him; and oh! if you get a chance Little Brother to slip up to the altar without getting in anyone's way, take this little silver piece of mine, and lay it down for my offering when no one is looking. Don't forget where you have left me, and forgive me for not going with you."
In this way he hurried Little Brother off to the city, and winked hard to keep back the tears as he heard the crunching footsteps sounding farther and farther away in the twilight. It was pretty hard to lose the music and splendor of the Christmas celebration that he had been planning for so long, and spend the time instead in that lonely place in the snow.
The great church was a wonderful place that night. Everyone said that it had never looked so bright and beautiful before. When the organ played and the thousands of people sang, the walls shook with the sound and little Pedro, outside the city wall, felt the earth tremble around him, for the sound was so great.
At the close of the service came the procession with offerings to be laid on the altar. Rich men and great men marched proudly up to lay down their gifts to the Christ-child. Some brought wonderful jewels, some baskets of gold so heavy that they could scarcely carry them down the aisle. A great writer laid down a book that he had been making for years and years.
And last of all walked the king of the country, hoping with all the rest to win for himself the chime of the Christmas bells. There went a great murmur through the church as the people saw the king take from his head the royal crown, all set with precious stones, and lay it gleaming on the altar as his offering to the holy Child. "Surely," everyone said, "we shall hear the bells now, for nothing like this has ever happened before."
But still only the cold old wind was heard in the tower, and the people shook their heads, and some of them said, as they had before, that they never really believed the story of the chimes, and doubted if they ever rang at all.
The procession was over, and the choir began the closing hymn. Suddenly the organist stopped playing as though he had been shot, and everyone looked at the old minister who was standing by the altar holding up his hand for silence. Not a sound could be heard from anyone in the church, but as all the people strained their ears to listen there came softly, but distinctly swinging through the air, the sound of the chimes in the tower. So far away and yet so clear the music seemed - so much sweeter were the notes than anything that had been heard before, rising and falling away up there in the sky, that the people in the church sat for a moment as still as though something held each of them by the shoulders. Then they all stood up together and stared straight at the altar to see what great gift had awakened the long-silent bells.
But all that the nearest of them saw was the childish figure of Little Brother, who had crept softly down the aisle when no one was looking, and had laid Pedro's little piece of silver on the altar......
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38,46-55
Gracious God, source of hope, peace, joy and love - attend this time of speaking and this time of hearing - this time of prayerful seeking and this time of meditation. Move in me and in all here assembled - that your saving word may be experienced and your name glorified in us and through us, now and evermore. Amen.
We have looked at three ways of being prepared for the coming of Christ this Advent Season.
We have stressed the need to keep the vision of God's kingdom alive in our hearts - that vision that gives hope as it tells us about the purpose and meaning of life.
We have looked at the wonder of how God's peace comes as a gift to us when we seek it, when we turn from those things that build walls between us and our neighbours and our God nd follow in the path shown to us by Jesus.
And we have briefly spoken of how God grants his gift of joy to those whose hands are open to give and receive the blessings that he pours out on his faithful people.
Today - as we see Christmas approaching, I want us to consider the importance of our saying Yes to God's love, and how our saying yes to love is able to bring to birth in our world a new and marvellous thing, how it prepares us and others for the coming of the Messiah.
You know the Christmas Story is strongly reliant upon something that most people find very strange. It is reliant upon two people saying yes to God. And saying yes in most unusual circumstances, to a proposal that seems most strange indeed.
We are all keenly aware of Mary and how she said yes to God, and so came to be the earthly mother of the Messiah, the earthly mother of the one we call the Son of God, the earthly mother of the one who would die so that we might live.
But have you considered how this Yes profoundly changed the course of Mary's life? How her willingness to trust the angel of God and to accept his word altered her entire world?
Engaged to be married, she is suddenly to be with child by one who is not the man she loves.
The risks are tremendous.
And what is this child of God's love to be? This child that she says yes to when she opens her life so totally to God?
At the time that Mary conceived there were many Messiahs, many people who proclaimed that they had been chosen of God to take the throne of David - to take David's throne back from the corruption of the rulers who sat upon it - to take it back from the control of the many who had manipulated it since the fall of Jerusalem: from the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians - and now the Romans - to take it back and to sit upon it and bring to Israel that time that God had promised would come.
There were many Messiahs at the time Mary conceived. Most of these were either ridiculed or were killed or both.
So why would her child - this child that she was told would be of God be any different?
Truly Mary had a lot to store up in her heart and ponder, as the scriptures tell us over and over again that she did, she had not only to store up the angel greetings and the words of shepherds and wise men and prophets, she had to ponder what all these would do with her life and the lives of her child and of her husband.
And Joseph?
What did it mean for him to say yes to God?
How easy could have it been?
Joseph is the odd man out in the Christmas Story, isn't he?
A minister that I know tells the story about how once a worried mother phoned the church office on the afternoon before the annual Christmas program to say that her small son, who was to play the role of Joseph in the Christmas Pageant, had a cold and had gone to bed on doctor's orders.
"It's too late now to get another Joseph," the director of the play said. "We'll just have to write him out of the script."
And they did! Joseph just disappeared! And few of those who watched that night actually realized that Joseph was missing."
Joseph is often forgotten. But consider his role in bringing Jesus into this world for a minute.
Without Joseph how would Mary have been supported? Her family would have been bound by the law to reject her if Joseph had rejected her. Her baby would have been seen as illegitimate. Her life, and his, would have been in a ruin.
Joseph nurtured and protected and watched over and loved both Mary and her child. And so brought into the world - as much as did Mary - that child whom we call the gift of God's love.
But how easy could it have been at first?
How easy could it have been for him to say yes to the Angel who came to him and told him that the story that Mary had told him was true?
It is hard to believe many of the things that God tells us, hard to accept, especially when our feelings have been hurt and our sense of what is really possible in our world is limited by the pain that we experience and the pain which we see in the world around us.
Could it have been any different for Joseph?
Joseph, the scriptures tell us, was a righteous man, a good man, a kind man.
He didn't want to expose Mary to public disgrace, but he certainly didn't want to marry her either, in fact he had resolved to cancel their betrothal just before the angel finally appeared to him.
It must have been hard for him to accept what he heard - yet, with the same kind of faith with which Mary said yes to God, so did Joseph. He said yes to God and he took Mary to be his wife. And what would the future bring? What would Mary's and Joseph's Yes to God bring?
It would bring to them a wonderfully intimate experience of God's love. It would bring to them and to the world not just the marvel of a new and tender life. It would bring to them and the world the King of Love, the Shepherd of the Sheep, the one whom we await this day and the one whom we know already in our hearts if we too have said Yes to God.
You know the promise is to us - as well as to Mary and to Joseph. The promise that if we say yes to God and his gift of Love that we and our world will be blessed.
But it is no easy thing to say yes. To say yes involves risks. To say yes involves overcoming our sense of pain and hurt.
Think of the number of people whom you know who seem to live by the maxim: "once burned, twice shy." The number of people who are unwilling to risk accepting love. The number of people who are afraid to show the love that God puts into every heart. The number of people who have erected a wall around their life so that they will not ever again feel hurt or pain because of how an imperfect love has let them down.
Yet, ultimately, love is what it is all about - what living is all about, whether that love be the perfect love of God or the imperfect love of human kind.
Pain and hurt will come to us all - whether we love or not. Pain and hurt will afflict us all - whether others love us or not. They came to Mary. They came to Joseph. They came to Jesus.
The big question for us - is will that pain and hurt have any meaning? Will it have any sense???
People unfamiliar with our God, marvel and wonder at the sign of his love that we display. They marvel and wonder at the cross - a symbol of suffering and shame - yet also a symbol of so much more. That cross signifies that God loved us so much that he gave his only son so that we might not perish. That cross signifies that God loves us so much, that he walks with us into the worst that life can deal out, and helps us to overcome it.
When we say Yes to God's love, we say Yes to that which will change our lives and give to them meaning and purpose.
When we say Yes to God's love, we say Yes to that which will transform our lives and give to them a radiance that transforms others.
Christmas, as most people over the age of five know, can be a very difficult time of year.
It is a time when we feel that we are supposed to be happy and joyous, a time in which we and the world around us, so it seems, puts upon us this expectation that we should be full of good cheer and at one with all of our family and with all of our friends.
We can really lay a trip on ourselves and allow others to lay a trip on us during this season.
And it is so hard - when we do see others full of joy and expectation - and we have in ourselves little but a sense of pain and loss, it is so hard to really embrace what this season is truly about: which is nothing more or less than making room in our lives for God's love - than saying yes to the wonderful gift that God offers us through Christ our Lord.
There are no 'shoulds' at Christmas, other than the should of saying yes to God's love, and that should always comes to us as a gentle knock at the door, rather than an overwhelming pressure to be happy and to be a million and one other things that we simply are not and cannot be.
I have talked to you over this Advent Season about be being prepared for the coming of Christ into our lives.
I have spoken about hope - about peace - about joy - and now about love.
I urge you as you prepare for Christmas day to remember that these things, hope, peace, joy, and love, are gifts to us, not demands upon us.
They are gifts by which God comes to us and changes us and our world.
Say yes to God's love as did Mary and Joseph even though the saying yes involves risk and sacrifice.
Say yes. Keep the vision alive. And walk in the path of Jesus with open hands and hearts, and God will come to you and to our world, and make the rough places smooth.
He will come and as he did at the creation of the world, and at the tomb of Jesus and he will bring order of chaos and life out of death.
This is the mission of our God in and through Christ Jesus our Lord, who by the power of the Holy Spirit can accomplish all things.
Praise be to God day by day. Amen.
We have looked at three ways of being prepared for the coming of Christ this Advent Season.
We have stressed the need to keep the vision of God's kingdom alive in our hearts - that vision that gives hope as it tells us about the purpose and meaning of life.
We have looked at the wonder of how God's peace comes as a gift to us when we seek it, when we turn from those things that build walls between us and our neighbours and our God nd follow in the path shown to us by Jesus.
And we have briefly spoken of how God grants his gift of joy to those whose hands are open to give and receive the blessings that he pours out on his faithful people.
Today - as we see Christmas approaching, I want us to consider the importance of our saying Yes to God's love, and how our saying yes to love is able to bring to birth in our world a new and marvellous thing, how it prepares us and others for the coming of the Messiah.
You know the Christmas Story is strongly reliant upon something that most people find very strange. It is reliant upon two people saying yes to God. And saying yes in most unusual circumstances, to a proposal that seems most strange indeed.
We are all keenly aware of Mary and how she said yes to God, and so came to be the earthly mother of the Messiah, the earthly mother of the one we call the Son of God, the earthly mother of the one who would die so that we might live.
But have you considered how this Yes profoundly changed the course of Mary's life? How her willingness to trust the angel of God and to accept his word altered her entire world?
Engaged to be married, she is suddenly to be with child by one who is not the man she loves.
The risks are tremendous.
And what is this child of God's love to be? This child that she says yes to when she opens her life so totally to God?
At the time that Mary conceived there were many Messiahs, many people who proclaimed that they had been chosen of God to take the throne of David - to take David's throne back from the corruption of the rulers who sat upon it - to take it back from the control of the many who had manipulated it since the fall of Jerusalem: from the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians - and now the Romans - to take it back and to sit upon it and bring to Israel that time that God had promised would come.
There were many Messiahs at the time Mary conceived. Most of these were either ridiculed or were killed or both.
So why would her child - this child that she was told would be of God be any different?
Truly Mary had a lot to store up in her heart and ponder, as the scriptures tell us over and over again that she did, she had not only to store up the angel greetings and the words of shepherds and wise men and prophets, she had to ponder what all these would do with her life and the lives of her child and of her husband.
And Joseph?
What did it mean for him to say yes to God?
How easy could have it been?
Joseph is the odd man out in the Christmas Story, isn't he?
A minister that I know tells the story about how once a worried mother phoned the church office on the afternoon before the annual Christmas program to say that her small son, who was to play the role of Joseph in the Christmas Pageant, had a cold and had gone to bed on doctor's orders.
"It's too late now to get another Joseph," the director of the play said. "We'll just have to write him out of the script."
And they did! Joseph just disappeared! And few of those who watched that night actually realized that Joseph was missing."
Joseph is often forgotten. But consider his role in bringing Jesus into this world for a minute.
Without Joseph how would Mary have been supported? Her family would have been bound by the law to reject her if Joseph had rejected her. Her baby would have been seen as illegitimate. Her life, and his, would have been in a ruin.
Joseph nurtured and protected and watched over and loved both Mary and her child. And so brought into the world - as much as did Mary - that child whom we call the gift of God's love.
But how easy could it have been at first?
How easy could it have been for him to say yes to the Angel who came to him and told him that the story that Mary had told him was true?
It is hard to believe many of the things that God tells us, hard to accept, especially when our feelings have been hurt and our sense of what is really possible in our world is limited by the pain that we experience and the pain which we see in the world around us.
Could it have been any different for Joseph?
Joseph, the scriptures tell us, was a righteous man, a good man, a kind man.
He didn't want to expose Mary to public disgrace, but he certainly didn't want to marry her either, in fact he had resolved to cancel their betrothal just before the angel finally appeared to him.
It must have been hard for him to accept what he heard - yet, with the same kind of faith with which Mary said yes to God, so did Joseph. He said yes to God and he took Mary to be his wife. And what would the future bring? What would Mary's and Joseph's Yes to God bring?
It would bring to them a wonderfully intimate experience of God's love. It would bring to them and to the world not just the marvel of a new and tender life. It would bring to them and the world the King of Love, the Shepherd of the Sheep, the one whom we await this day and the one whom we know already in our hearts if we too have said Yes to God.
You know the promise is to us - as well as to Mary and to Joseph. The promise that if we say yes to God and his gift of Love that we and our world will be blessed.
But it is no easy thing to say yes. To say yes involves risks. To say yes involves overcoming our sense of pain and hurt.
Think of the number of people whom you know who seem to live by the maxim: "once burned, twice shy." The number of people who are unwilling to risk accepting love. The number of people who are afraid to show the love that God puts into every heart. The number of people who have erected a wall around their life so that they will not ever again feel hurt or pain because of how an imperfect love has let them down.
Yet, ultimately, love is what it is all about - what living is all about, whether that love be the perfect love of God or the imperfect love of human kind.
Pain and hurt will come to us all - whether we love or not. Pain and hurt will afflict us all - whether others love us or not. They came to Mary. They came to Joseph. They came to Jesus.
The big question for us - is will that pain and hurt have any meaning? Will it have any sense???
People unfamiliar with our God, marvel and wonder at the sign of his love that we display. They marvel and wonder at the cross - a symbol of suffering and shame - yet also a symbol of so much more. That cross signifies that God loved us so much that he gave his only son so that we might not perish. That cross signifies that God loves us so much, that he walks with us into the worst that life can deal out, and helps us to overcome it.
When we say Yes to God's love, we say Yes to that which will change our lives and give to them meaning and purpose.
When we say Yes to God's love, we say Yes to that which will transform our lives and give to them a radiance that transforms others.
Christmas, as most people over the age of five know, can be a very difficult time of year.
It is a time when we feel that we are supposed to be happy and joyous, a time in which we and the world around us, so it seems, puts upon us this expectation that we should be full of good cheer and at one with all of our family and with all of our friends.
We can really lay a trip on ourselves and allow others to lay a trip on us during this season.
And it is so hard - when we do see others full of joy and expectation - and we have in ourselves little but a sense of pain and loss, it is so hard to really embrace what this season is truly about: which is nothing more or less than making room in our lives for God's love - than saying yes to the wonderful gift that God offers us through Christ our Lord.
There are no 'shoulds' at Christmas, other than the should of saying yes to God's love, and that should always comes to us as a gentle knock at the door, rather than an overwhelming pressure to be happy and to be a million and one other things that we simply are not and cannot be.
I have talked to you over this Advent Season about be being prepared for the coming of Christ into our lives.
I have spoken about hope - about peace - about joy - and now about love.
I urge you as you prepare for Christmas day to remember that these things, hope, peace, joy, and love, are gifts to us, not demands upon us.
They are gifts by which God comes to us and changes us and our world.
Say yes to God's love as did Mary and Joseph even though the saying yes involves risk and sacrifice.
Say yes. Keep the vision alive. And walk in the path of Jesus with open hands and hearts, and God will come to you and to our world, and make the rough places smooth.
He will come and as he did at the creation of the world, and at the tomb of Jesus and he will bring order of chaos and life out of death.
This is the mission of our God in and through Christ Jesus our Lord, who by the power of the Holy Spirit can accomplish all things.
Praise be to God day by day. Amen.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Isaiah 35:1-10; Matthew 11:2-11
Today is the Sunday of Joy. The joy of God. As we saw in the last two weeks, in preparing for the coming of the Christ - we are called to keep alive the vision which provides us with hope and to seek the Peace of God - that peace that only God can give - that peace which comes when we turn, and walk in the path that Jesus has shown us.
Joy is not something that we can seek, it is something that overtakes us when while we are working to keep the vision alive, and walking on the path that Jesus has set before us.
As we walk that path - joy happens to us, we gain glimpses of what it is that God is about, we encounter situations where we see God's promises coming true, and we have, suddenly this great joy in hearts.
Imagine if you will for a minute John the Baptist, in prison, Herod is about to kill him - and undoubtedly John is aware of this though the particular circumstances of his death are still to be shaped by Herod's wife and daughter.
John is uncertain about whether his ministry is completed or not, uncertain about whether or not Jesus is the Messiah that he has proclaimed the coming of. And he sends messengers from prison to ask Jesus - "Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another"
And imagine if you will for a minute how he heard the answer, the feeling that must have overcame him when his disciples reported to him what Jesus said:
"Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Blessed are they who take no offense at me."
Imagine how John felt when he heard that all that he yearned for as a child of Abraham was in fact happening, that God was working a great work through through Jesus, the child of Mary, the kind of work that Isaiah spoke of in our first reading this morning.
Joy should not be confused with happiness.
Joy rather is something rather overwhelming, it is what happens when we witness God at work, whether it is in our family relationships, in our church, or in our community and in the wider world.
I called today's homily "Giving and Receiving The Gift of Joy", not only to as a means of keeping together our Advent theme, that theme suggested by the light of the candles upon our wreath, but to highlight one of the realities of the gift of joy - that reality which relates to the fact that while it cannot be sought, the gift of joy can be given and received by us.
When we see the works of God being done - we receive the gift of joy. And when we allow God to do his works through us - we give the gift of joy or at the very, very least - it's possibility.
That is part of what White Gift Sunday is about - it is about doing the works of God the work of caring, and praying joy may come with the giving, that the hand of God may be seen.
Joy is a wonderful thing, a thing that overtakes us when we are on the path shown to us by Christ.
It is not continuous - at least in this world -- but it pops up whenever we see God at work healing the sick, curing the lame, giving sight to the blind, and proclaiming good news to those who are poor. It pops up when we do the work of God - and understand that God is doing his work in the circumstances around us.
Everlasting joy comes, so testifies Isaiah on the day of Christ's second coming:
On that day, he testifies, the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, on that day, the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
There is a day coming which we are called to be prepared for, a day coming, of an eternal joy, a joy which we receive a taste of in the here and now when we receive the gift of seeing God at work, and when we do the works of God and thereby make it possible for others to have the joy of seeing him.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
Joy is not something that we can seek, it is something that overtakes us when while we are working to keep the vision alive, and walking on the path that Jesus has set before us.
As we walk that path - joy happens to us, we gain glimpses of what it is that God is about, we encounter situations where we see God's promises coming true, and we have, suddenly this great joy in hearts.
Imagine if you will for a minute John the Baptist, in prison, Herod is about to kill him - and undoubtedly John is aware of this though the particular circumstances of his death are still to be shaped by Herod's wife and daughter.
John is uncertain about whether his ministry is completed or not, uncertain about whether or not Jesus is the Messiah that he has proclaimed the coming of. And he sends messengers from prison to ask Jesus - "Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another"
And imagine if you will for a minute how he heard the answer, the feeling that must have overcame him when his disciples reported to him what Jesus said:
"Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Blessed are they who take no offense at me."
Imagine how John felt when he heard that all that he yearned for as a child of Abraham was in fact happening, that God was working a great work through through Jesus, the child of Mary, the kind of work that Isaiah spoke of in our first reading this morning.
Joy should not be confused with happiness.
Joy rather is something rather overwhelming, it is what happens when we witness God at work, whether it is in our family relationships, in our church, or in our community and in the wider world.
I called today's homily "Giving and Receiving The Gift of Joy", not only to as a means of keeping together our Advent theme, that theme suggested by the light of the candles upon our wreath, but to highlight one of the realities of the gift of joy - that reality which relates to the fact that while it cannot be sought, the gift of joy can be given and received by us.
When we see the works of God being done - we receive the gift of joy. And when we allow God to do his works through us - we give the gift of joy or at the very, very least - it's possibility.
That is part of what White Gift Sunday is about - it is about doing the works of God the work of caring, and praying joy may come with the giving, that the hand of God may be seen.
Joy is a wonderful thing, a thing that overtakes us when we are on the path shown to us by Christ.
It is not continuous - at least in this world -- but it pops up whenever we see God at work healing the sick, curing the lame, giving sight to the blind, and proclaiming good news to those who are poor. It pops up when we do the work of God - and understand that God is doing his work in the circumstances around us.
Everlasting joy comes, so testifies Isaiah on the day of Christ's second coming:
On that day, he testifies, the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, on that day, the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
There is a day coming which we are called to be prepared for, a day coming, of an eternal joy, a joy which we receive a taste of in the here and now when we receive the gift of seeing God at work, and when we do the works of God and thereby make it possible for others to have the joy of seeing him.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:-13; and Matthew 3:1-12
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
The good news - the Gospel - began before Jesus arrived on the scene. It began with John The Baptist, and John's message was received with the same great joy that the message of Jesus was received with.
John was the one spoken of by Isaiah. He was the voice crying in the wilderness; "prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!"
And people heard John this way - they saw him as the promised one, the one who was to come before the Messiah, and they went out to him in the wilderness, out to him from Jerusalem, and Judea, and from all the region around the Jordan, and they listened to his message - and they responded to his call - and in the thousands they were baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
"I tell you", said Jesus later on, "I tell you that among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist..."
And why is this?
Why this praise?
Looking back I think we often see John as strange character.
With his camel hair clothing and leather belt, and his long hair and his diet of locusts and wild honey, John often ends up reminding us of the cartoons we have seen, the cartoons of a strange looking character who stands on the street corner waving a sign that says - "repent , the end is near."
John seems scary - frightening almost - telling people that they are a brood of vipers, and that the axe of judgement is even now being laid to the roots of their lives, and yet - yet thousands heard his message that the kingdom of God was near - and thousands responded to his call to repent of their sins - thousands were baptized and made ready to welcome Christ into their lives.
What are we missing in our picture of John? In our picture of what he did and said as he spoke of repentance and the one to come after him?
I don't want to belabour any points today. I think what we are missing is the marvel of what John called the people of Israel to receive as they came out to him at the Jordan.
John called people to be ready for the coming of Christ, by letting go of their burdens and receiving the forgiveness of God.
John said to all who came near to him that they could get a fresh start in life; that they could begin again as newly washed individuals - pure and holy in God' eyes; and that God would visit them and redeem them as promised by all the prophets of old.
John proclaimed the love of God, the forgiveness God, and the day of God's coming, and he made this personal and particular, by giving that love and forgiveness to all those who came to him and entered the river with him.
What John proclaimed and gave was hope, the hope that peace in our lives is possible, that the past can be forgotten, that it can be washed away, and that when the new comes, when God comes, we can meet him and stand before him without fear.
The call of John for us to repent is not a word of criticism nor a word that claims that somehow he is better than we.
No, on his lips the call to repentance is a word of opportunity
- it is a way into the future with God,
- it is a renewal of our relationship with the Lord.
- it is a new beginning in our relationships with each other.
It is a foreshadowing of the message of the one to whom he pointed, the one who preached peace to those who were far off, and to those who were near.
Peace in forgiveness.
Peace in the Spirit,.
Peace in a new life.
Peace in a new heaven and a new earth.
Despite how John railed against the sins of those who thought they had none, his message was that of the one who followed him: There is none so lost, that they cannot be found, none so bad, that God still will not seek them out to save them, none so hopeless, that their life cannot be changed.
Previously I spoke of how important it is to have a vision of God, to hold onto his promises.
Today I tell you - it is important that we open our hearts to God, to admit to him what is wrong in our lives, to ask for his forgiveness and to vow each day to live as he has shown us.
It is important, not only to have a vision of what God has done, is doing, and will do; it is important that we be willing to confess our need for him and to accept from his hands the forgiveness he offers, the new life he gives - the life which leads us to his Son.
It is what, in the end, we all need, and it is what God offers to us, it is what John pointed to as he spoke in the wilderness of the one who was to come after him.
At the last few bible studies we have had on Wednesday evenings we have started having lengthy periods of silent prayer - time in which I ask each person present to close their eyes and to get relaxed, to focus at first on their breathing, and to allow thoughts and images of God to come into and then to pass out of their minds, time to listen to the thoughts that they have, and time to let them pass - and sometimes as they do this I provide some words for this time of deep prayer. It has proved to us to be a powerful experience - one in which we have felt God and heard God speak to us.
I would invite you all now to close your eyes, and to think of John the Baptist, standing by the River, calling to you to be ready, ready for the one whose sandals he is not worthy to carry, calling you to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and to start new today, walking in God's way, knowing that Christ will appear to you, very soon.
Close your eyes...and see John and listen to John and pray to God as the Spirit leads you...
wait
Oh Lord, we think of the gift that John offers us in your name...the gift of forgiveness, the gift of washing away our sins, the gift of making our hearts ready for Christ to enter in, and we thank you....
Oh Lord, we think of John, and we confess to you that the path in our life is not smooth, we confess that we have sinned against you, we have put up road blocks....we are sorry Lord, please ake them away Lord, make the path straight once more
O Lord, we listen now to John. We listen now to Jesus. We listen now to you as the water of forgiveness pours down upon us. We listen as you proclaim the word of peace, the word of your coming.
And now we thank you again O God, we give you thanks for your servant John who prepared the way in your people for your son. We thank you for levelling the mountains and filling in the valleys and making straight his path. We thank you for the message of forgiveness and hope he proclaimed. We thank you for the new life you give to us through him.
We praise you and we adore you, God of God, Light of lights. We praise you God, Lord of Lords, King of Kings. You who enter every trembling heart. Glory and honour be to your name, now and for ever and ever, Amen.
The good news - the Gospel - began before Jesus arrived on the scene. It began with John The Baptist, and John's message was received with the same great joy that the message of Jesus was received with.
John was the one spoken of by Isaiah. He was the voice crying in the wilderness; "prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!"
And people heard John this way - they saw him as the promised one, the one who was to come before the Messiah, and they went out to him in the wilderness, out to him from Jerusalem, and Judea, and from all the region around the Jordan, and they listened to his message - and they responded to his call - and in the thousands they were baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
"I tell you", said Jesus later on, "I tell you that among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist..."
And why is this?
Why this praise?
Looking back I think we often see John as strange character.
With his camel hair clothing and leather belt, and his long hair and his diet of locusts and wild honey, John often ends up reminding us of the cartoons we have seen, the cartoons of a strange looking character who stands on the street corner waving a sign that says - "repent , the end is near."
John seems scary - frightening almost - telling people that they are a brood of vipers, and that the axe of judgement is even now being laid to the roots of their lives, and yet - yet thousands heard his message that the kingdom of God was near - and thousands responded to his call to repent of their sins - thousands were baptized and made ready to welcome Christ into their lives.
What are we missing in our picture of John? In our picture of what he did and said as he spoke of repentance and the one to come after him?
I don't want to belabour any points today. I think what we are missing is the marvel of what John called the people of Israel to receive as they came out to him at the Jordan.
John called people to be ready for the coming of Christ, by letting go of their burdens and receiving the forgiveness of God.
John said to all who came near to him that they could get a fresh start in life; that they could begin again as newly washed individuals - pure and holy in God' eyes; and that God would visit them and redeem them as promised by all the prophets of old.
John proclaimed the love of God, the forgiveness God, and the day of God's coming, and he made this personal and particular, by giving that love and forgiveness to all those who came to him and entered the river with him.
What John proclaimed and gave was hope, the hope that peace in our lives is possible, that the past can be forgotten, that it can be washed away, and that when the new comes, when God comes, we can meet him and stand before him without fear.
The call of John for us to repent is not a word of criticism nor a word that claims that somehow he is better than we.
No, on his lips the call to repentance is a word of opportunity
- it is a way into the future with God,
- it is a renewal of our relationship with the Lord.
- it is a new beginning in our relationships with each other.
It is a foreshadowing of the message of the one to whom he pointed, the one who preached peace to those who were far off, and to those who were near.
Peace in forgiveness.
Peace in the Spirit,.
Peace in a new life.
Peace in a new heaven and a new earth.
Despite how John railed against the sins of those who thought they had none, his message was that of the one who followed him: There is none so lost, that they cannot be found, none so bad, that God still will not seek them out to save them, none so hopeless, that their life cannot be changed.
Previously I spoke of how important it is to have a vision of God, to hold onto his promises.
Today I tell you - it is important that we open our hearts to God, to admit to him what is wrong in our lives, to ask for his forgiveness and to vow each day to live as he has shown us.
It is important, not only to have a vision of what God has done, is doing, and will do; it is important that we be willing to confess our need for him and to accept from his hands the forgiveness he offers, the new life he gives - the life which leads us to his Son.
It is what, in the end, we all need, and it is what God offers to us, it is what John pointed to as he spoke in the wilderness of the one who was to come after him.
At the last few bible studies we have had on Wednesday evenings we have started having lengthy periods of silent prayer - time in which I ask each person present to close their eyes and to get relaxed, to focus at first on their breathing, and to allow thoughts and images of God to come into and then to pass out of their minds, time to listen to the thoughts that they have, and time to let them pass - and sometimes as they do this I provide some words for this time of deep prayer. It has proved to us to be a powerful experience - one in which we have felt God and heard God speak to us.
I would invite you all now to close your eyes, and to think of John the Baptist, standing by the River, calling to you to be ready, ready for the one whose sandals he is not worthy to carry, calling you to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and to start new today, walking in God's way, knowing that Christ will appear to you, very soon.
Close your eyes...and see John and listen to John and pray to God as the Spirit leads you...
wait
Oh Lord, we think of the gift that John offers us in your name...the gift of forgiveness, the gift of washing away our sins, the gift of making our hearts ready for Christ to enter in, and we thank you....
Oh Lord, we think of John, and we confess to you that the path in our life is not smooth, we confess that we have sinned against you, we have put up road blocks....we are sorry Lord, please ake them away Lord, make the path straight once more
O Lord, we listen now to John. We listen now to Jesus. We listen now to you as the water of forgiveness pours down upon us. We listen as you proclaim the word of peace, the word of your coming.
And now we thank you again O God, we give you thanks for your servant John who prepared the way in your people for your son. We thank you for levelling the mountains and filling in the valleys and making straight his path. We thank you for the message of forgiveness and hope he proclaimed. We thank you for the new life you give to us through him.
We praise you and we adore you, God of God, Light of lights. We praise you God, Lord of Lords, King of Kings. You who enter every trembling heart. Glory and honour be to your name, now and for ever and ever, Amen.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 12:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
One way to describe the Season of Advent - which has begun this day, is to say that Advent operates in three tenses all at once.
In Advent we await the birth of the Christ child as the recollection of a past event, of a birth that happened over 2000 years ago - and a celebration that will happen - is beginning to happen - right now.
This past event has great significance in the present. In Advent we once again await the birth of the Christ Child into our lives, into our families, into our church community. We await this Christmas - and a Holy Evening, not 24days away, where - bathed in candlelight - we will say: "Yes Lord! Thank You Lord" and rejoice in his presence, his having come among us as a babe, a child, a man, a human like us - to love us.
And as we wait we savour those things that remind us of all the good Christmas's that have past. We savour them and make them part of this Christmas - songs and carols, special dinner dishes and treats, candle lit worship, visits and phone calls, prayers and readings, and cards and notes, and the wonderful smells of the season.
In Advent we await a past event and indeed we prepare our lives for it. And the preparation we do enriches our lives and makes this time a special time.
And, in Advent we await the future - a special future: we await the unveiling of the reign of God, something which is continually being revealed, but is yet to be fully realized.
We await a time that Isaiah, and Jesus, and Paul describe as a time of judgement: a time when accounts are settled - not always comfortably - but always rightly - a time when two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left, and a time when at long last all the swords are beaten into plowshares and all spears into pruning hooks, and peace - lasting peace - comes at last.
We await a time of judgement and a time of salvation, the time of Christ's return - the time when the whole world is of God's Kingdom - the time when all who have passed through judgement are as one, one in joy - and in faith - and in hope - and in love - the time when sin, suffering, pain, and death are no more.
Come, says Isaiah as he proclaims the word of judgement and of salvation in today's reading, "Come - let us walk in the light of the Lord!"
That "come" is a word about what to do now - today, as we await tomorrow.
"Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord" says Isaiah, "Stay awake, be alert", says Jesus. "Put on the armour of light." says Paul, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
That is the third tense of Advent. The present tense. The active tense.
Advent is not just about preparing for Christ's coming as a child from the past.
Nor is Advent just about preparing for Christ's coming as the righteous king in the future.
Advent is also - and primarily - about preparing for Christ's coming in our lives - right now.
For his light to be around us and shining from within us - today. For his spirit to be dwelling in our hearts and our minds - this minute. For his living presence to be seen in all that we say and do and all that we see and hear - second by precious second..
In this sense advent memory and advent hope are joined together: together our past experience and our future expectations about the reign of God and about the Christ, the Messiah, are realized now, not simply because of our preparation for it; but because of the divine truth about God's past and God's present and God's future: the truth that God has been with us - and will yet be with us - and even now is with us.
Advent as a season of the church year helps us to be prepared, it reminds us to keep our ears, eyes and our hearts open, open for the in-breaking of the saving presence and power of Almighty God.
These are indeed times like the times of Noah. Ordinary times:
- times when men and women marry and are given in marriage;
- and children play games and go to school;
- and adults go to work or to the market every day.
These are ordinary times with our wars and our rumours of war - ordinary times with our good - and with our evil - with our love and with our hate, the ordinary times - when it is easy to forget the extraordinary - and to forget to be ready for it.
For all time, but especially for this time, this ordinary time, this time right now - the question is: is your home in order? Is it ready? Does it even now embrace our Saviour?
Look around you.
I think you know and I think the church knows how to embrace the coming of the Christ Child. How to be ready for the celebration. How to decorate that which is outside - and how to decorate, how to hallow, that which is inside.
And I think as I listen to you pray at your homes and here in this sanctuary that you know how to read the signs of times - and to pray for God's kingdom to come and for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I know your longing for peace as you hear the news from the mid-east about all the turmoils going on over there, and as you think of the children who go hungry, and of the recent typhoon which hits the Philippines, the recent earthquakes and floods that afflict the world. I know what you hope - for we all hope for it - we all hope for the time of eternal blessing - we hope for us and we hope for the world for the Christ to return in power and in glory.
But what about now?
What about the God who is here now?
The Christ who is here now?
Is our house completely ready for him?
Are we making him comfortable?
Do we let him live with us - and own us completely?
Are we able to invite him into every nook and cranny of our homes - or are there beds we hope he will not look under and rooms that we hope he will not enter.
The room where we hide our anger and resentment at someone. The chamber which we often disappear into when it seems that doing the right thing might cost us more time, or more comfort, or more money than we care to think about. That area where we separate out people - one from the other; that place where we make judgements about people and what they need and what they deserve.
Advent speaks to us about God's coming to us, about Christ coming to us, about light shining into the darkness, and spears being turned into pruning hooks, and about judgement coming upon the earth, and salvation to the people of God.
That speaking is for yesterday - and for tomorrow - and - most of all - it is for today.
Thank you Isaiah - thank you Matthew - thank you Jesus - for this word - for this promise.
And thank you Isaiah, thank you Matthew, thank you Jesus, thank you Paul for the call to keep awake and to walk in the light - clad in the armour of light.
We have good words - and good advice in our readings today. This is a good words and good advice from God. Not just for the coming of the Kingdom over all the world, But for the coming of Christ in our lives today.
Clean house. Open the doors to the secret places. Let the Lord who knocks come in and dine with you. Let him ready you for the fullness of his promises, day by day. Amen....
One way to describe the Season of Advent - which has begun this day, is to say that Advent operates in three tenses all at once.
In Advent we await the birth of the Christ child as the recollection of a past event, of a birth that happened over 2000 years ago - and a celebration that will happen - is beginning to happen - right now.
This past event has great significance in the present. In Advent we once again await the birth of the Christ Child into our lives, into our families, into our church community. We await this Christmas - and a Holy Evening, not 24days away, where - bathed in candlelight - we will say: "Yes Lord! Thank You Lord" and rejoice in his presence, his having come among us as a babe, a child, a man, a human like us - to love us.
And as we wait we savour those things that remind us of all the good Christmas's that have past. We savour them and make them part of this Christmas - songs and carols, special dinner dishes and treats, candle lit worship, visits and phone calls, prayers and readings, and cards and notes, and the wonderful smells of the season.
In Advent we await a past event and indeed we prepare our lives for it. And the preparation we do enriches our lives and makes this time a special time.
And, in Advent we await the future - a special future: we await the unveiling of the reign of God, something which is continually being revealed, but is yet to be fully realized.
We await a time that Isaiah, and Jesus, and Paul describe as a time of judgement: a time when accounts are settled - not always comfortably - but always rightly - a time when two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left, and a time when at long last all the swords are beaten into plowshares and all spears into pruning hooks, and peace - lasting peace - comes at last.
We await a time of judgement and a time of salvation, the time of Christ's return - the time when the whole world is of God's Kingdom - the time when all who have passed through judgement are as one, one in joy - and in faith - and in hope - and in love - the time when sin, suffering, pain, and death are no more.
Come, says Isaiah as he proclaims the word of judgement and of salvation in today's reading, "Come - let us walk in the light of the Lord!"
That "come" is a word about what to do now - today, as we await tomorrow.
"Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord" says Isaiah, "Stay awake, be alert", says Jesus. "Put on the armour of light." says Paul, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
That is the third tense of Advent. The present tense. The active tense.
Advent is not just about preparing for Christ's coming as a child from the past.
Nor is Advent just about preparing for Christ's coming as the righteous king in the future.
Advent is also - and primarily - about preparing for Christ's coming in our lives - right now.
For his light to be around us and shining from within us - today. For his spirit to be dwelling in our hearts and our minds - this minute. For his living presence to be seen in all that we say and do and all that we see and hear - second by precious second..
In this sense advent memory and advent hope are joined together: together our past experience and our future expectations about the reign of God and about the Christ, the Messiah, are realized now, not simply because of our preparation for it; but because of the divine truth about God's past and God's present and God's future: the truth that God has been with us - and will yet be with us - and even now is with us.
Advent as a season of the church year helps us to be prepared, it reminds us to keep our ears, eyes and our hearts open, open for the in-breaking of the saving presence and power of Almighty God.
These are indeed times like the times of Noah. Ordinary times:
- times when men and women marry and are given in marriage;
- and children play games and go to school;
- and adults go to work or to the market every day.
These are ordinary times with our wars and our rumours of war - ordinary times with our good - and with our evil - with our love and with our hate, the ordinary times - when it is easy to forget the extraordinary - and to forget to be ready for it.
For all time, but especially for this time, this ordinary time, this time right now - the question is: is your home in order? Is it ready? Does it even now embrace our Saviour?
Look around you.
I think you know and I think the church knows how to embrace the coming of the Christ Child. How to be ready for the celebration. How to decorate that which is outside - and how to decorate, how to hallow, that which is inside.
And I think as I listen to you pray at your homes and here in this sanctuary that you know how to read the signs of times - and to pray for God's kingdom to come and for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I know your longing for peace as you hear the news from the mid-east about all the turmoils going on over there, and as you think of the children who go hungry, and of the recent typhoon which hits the Philippines, the recent earthquakes and floods that afflict the world. I know what you hope - for we all hope for it - we all hope for the time of eternal blessing - we hope for us and we hope for the world for the Christ to return in power and in glory.
But what about now?
What about the God who is here now?
The Christ who is here now?
Is our house completely ready for him?
Are we making him comfortable?
Do we let him live with us - and own us completely?
Are we able to invite him into every nook and cranny of our homes - or are there beds we hope he will not look under and rooms that we hope he will not enter.
The room where we hide our anger and resentment at someone. The chamber which we often disappear into when it seems that doing the right thing might cost us more time, or more comfort, or more money than we care to think about. That area where we separate out people - one from the other; that place where we make judgements about people and what they need and what they deserve.
Advent speaks to us about God's coming to us, about Christ coming to us, about light shining into the darkness, and spears being turned into pruning hooks, and about judgement coming upon the earth, and salvation to the people of God.
That speaking is for yesterday - and for tomorrow - and - most of all - it is for today.
Thank you Isaiah - thank you Matthew - thank you Jesus - for this word - for this promise.
And thank you Isaiah, thank you Matthew, thank you Jesus, thank you Paul for the call to keep awake and to walk in the light - clad in the armour of light.
We have good words - and good advice in our readings today. This is a good words and good advice from God. Not just for the coming of the Kingdom over all the world, But for the coming of Christ in our lives today.
Clean house. Open the doors to the secret places. Let the Lord who knocks come in and dine with you. Let him ready you for the fullness of his promises, day by day. Amen....
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