Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas 2010

"Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing which the Lord has made known to us. So they went with haste and found the babe..."
Four weeks of Advent are nearly behind us. Our focus has shifted from the second coming of Christ to the celebration of our Lord's birth in Bethlehem. The shift began on the Third Sunday of Advent with the lighting of the pink Advent candle; the candle that symbolizes both hope, and the liturgical change. Then there was the singing of the Great 'O' Antiphons which many know better as the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. This beautiful hymn and the antiphons are sung between the 16th and 24th of December. The angel visitations, which began with the announcement to Mary that she would bear a child of the Holy Spirit, and proceeded with the news to Elizabeth and Zechariah, and finally to Joseph, on Christmas Eve come to a crescendo with the visitation to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. "Do not be afraid for I bring you good news of great joy. For to you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord." What began as a quiet visit to Mary becomes an event in which the sky is torn apart with light, and an entire host of angels appears glorifying and praising God.
It sometimes gets by us that the incarnation is the center of history. Everything that came before points to the incarnation, and everything since flows from it. Yet, all of the theology of the incarnation would be lost upon us if the story of Jesus birth was not also a great love story.
From creation's fall to the birth of Jesus our relationship with God was always about God's unfailing love in the face of continuing rejection, unfaithfulness and sin. He gave us the commandments, the Torah, the prophets, and finally to win us back forever, he sent His Son, born of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary.
As the shepherds waited out the night in the fields around Bethlehem, they had no reason to expect that if the Messiah came they would be part of the story. They lived on the edge of society. Their occupation made it nearly impossible for them to meet the demands of Torah. And since they could not meet the law's demands they could not expect to have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. However, God always works in ways that are beyond our vision and expectations. So the angels appeared to the least likely recipients of God's grace; shepherds living on the edge. Through the visitation of the angels, the shepherds were drawn into the very center of the story.
So it is with God. First Mary, then Zechariah and Elizabeth, then Joseph, and on Christmas night the shepherds became part of the story. And the story continues. When we gather on Christmas Eve we will once again be reminded that the story of the shepherds is our own story; God coming to the least likely and inviting them to become part of the story. It is a love story we cannot resist, so let us go and see the love of God in the face of a child,-- our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

With little more than a week before Christmas Eve, I wanted to use a few moments to speak of the nature of our Christmas celebration. I have seen all of the usual laments attached to car bumpers, on billboards, and even on the airwaves. Yet, I have tryed over the years not to become involved in the Christmas culture wars. Because of my calling, I have had somewhat limited success in this endeavor. Years ago, I lived in a city in which the creche had been banned from city property, and as a result, the war flared up, with heated talk on both sides of the issue. My own response was to take into consideration that state appropriation of religious symbols usually works out badly. Secondly, I do not want our sacred symbols used in any sort of coercive way; again this usually works out badly, especially for the coerced.

Based on what I have seen in the churches in which I have been priviledged to serve, I don't need to remind people that "Jesus is the reason for the season," or to "keep Christ in Christmas." For the most part, I think such slogans are counterproductive. One cannot legislate love for Christ or impose it. And although, I can probably be accused of many things, I try to avoid being a hypocrite. What I mean by this is that I plan to enjoy many facets of the Christmas season. There will be gifts under the tree, we will have our great family celebration, we will sing our favorite Christmas carols, and alongside these we we sing some of our favorite secular Christmas songs. What I can also say, is that at the very center of all of our celebration will be the birth of Jesus Christ. As one of my sons said years ago, he couldn't imagine missing Christmas worship. It is the incarnation after all that gives meaning to "Peace on Earth goodwill to all," and "Merry Christmas" (merry from the old English, meaning "blessed").

Someone may object, but the culture wars are not mine to fight. For those to whom the child of Bethlehem has been revealed as the Savior, there is no need to fight. Living out our calling is enough, and hopefully, by extending peace and goodwill to all, more people will want to have that peace for themselves.



Have a very Merry Christmas

Monday, December 6, 2010

Thoughts in preparation for the Third Sunday of Advent

The Gospel for this coming Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, has John the Baptizer sending a question to Jesus from his prison cell, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another
From the moment that Mary visited her Elizabeth some thirty years earlier there had been a special relationship between John and Jesus. They were not only cousins, but when Mary visited Elizabeth, John leapt in Elizabeth's womb at the greeting. In John, Elijah the prophet had returned, preparing the way for the messiah and calling for repentance. John was the final prophet to appear before Jesus, baptising him and literally introducing him to the public.
John seemed heedless of the danger in which he placed himself both by his criticism of the Pharisees and Saduccees, and his calling Herod to task for his adulterous relationship with his brother's wife. Herod had him arrested and put him in prison. Those are the circumstances under which he sent his question to Jesus.
For a man raised in the countryside, who lived in the wilderness, imprisonment had to be difficult, but it was endurable. However, as he gathered news of Jesus ministry in the dim light of a prison cell, he began to question whether his prophetic work had been in vain. His faith was being tested as Jesus' ministry didn't meet his expectations. John may have pondered several things. First, seemingly little had changed. Rome still ruled Judea, Herod was still ensconced in Jerusalem, there had been no change is Temple leadership, and Jesus didn't exhibit the wrath that John expected.
John's questions could well be our own. Our own faith is challenged from many directions. In the back of John's mind there must have been a question along the lines of "if Jesus is the Messiah, how can all of these things be happening?"
There is no way to overstate the importance of these kinds of questions nor the need for an answer that sustains faith. There is an answer of course, and we will hear more of that on Sunday morning. For now, you might want to consider asking yourself why Jesus says, "and blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me?" In that phrase lies the answer.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Penultimate Things

Meditation on In the Bleak Midwinter
Approximately forty-six years ago I learned this Christmas carol. I was eight years old, and my brothers and I sang in my home congregation's junior choir. Thus I have had many years and several life phases to think about the hymn's imagery. In the Bleak Midwinter, was written by Christina Georgina Rossetti, and her poem appeared in the January 1872 edition of Scribner's.
In 1906, Gustav Holst put the poem to music with the tune, Cranham.
Holst had a difficult task. The poems irregular syllables made creating a melody quite difficult. (I can remember our choir director giving very specific instruction as to which syllables went with the correct notes.) Perhaps it is fitting that a carol that says, "Our God, Heaven cannot hold him, Nor earth sustain..." cannot be so easily put to music.
I have contempated these particular words many times. What does it mean that Heaven cannot hold him? The Prophets and St. John (writing in the Book of Revelation) have shared with us marvelous visions of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Prophets are at times stunned into silence it seems, and John's vocabulary is tested to the limit has he seeks to describe heaven's wonders. Here is the place where Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim and Saints offer up their continuous praise. Yet, heaven cannot hold Jesus Christ. It is as if the measure of Jesus' grace, love and mercy cannot be contained even within the wide portals of heaven, and as a result, the incarnation is a divine necessity. Jesus must be poured out upon the earth.
"Nor earth sustain..." The creation cannot sustain the Creator. Jesus Christ came to Bethlehem, his ancestral home, and the reaction of the powers and prinicpalities (Herod) was to destroy him. St. John's gospel tells us that he came to his own people and they did not receive him. Jesus, the first and greatest gift of Christmas, is the gift we sought to return. We sought first to deny him a place in which to be born, and tried to return him by way of Calvary. However, if heaven cannot hold him nor earth sustain him, certainly the grave can make no claim upon him. Thus it is that the grace, mercy and love poured out from heaven upon the creation is the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth as the book of Revelation promises. Indeed, "heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign." Gone are the former things, there shall be nor more grief or crying our pain. The One who cannot be held back, the one creation cannot sustain, is the one who restores and sustains all things. Alleluia!