Christmas Eve sermon-Dec. 24, 2007

Sermon-Christmas Eve-2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
Tonight is a great story.
Now, I’ve told this one before but it’s worth hearing again. At my first church I had a young couple who actually came and VOLUNTEERED to work with the youth. The man of the couple, Brian, went on to seminary, was ordained, and became a priest. At his first assignment, he was the assistant at a large church. And one of his tasks was to find an appropriate baby Jesus doll for the church manger. So Brian went to the Sunday School classroom of 5 year olds and asked each child to bring to church their favorite doll to audition for the role of baby Jesus.
A dozen kids bring their favorite dolls-with children all very anxious to have theirs chosen. There was a worn out cabbage patch doll (this was the 1980s); a doll named Thelma with short matted hair (she used to have long brown hair but she had her hair “permed” with chlorox”; a doll named Angel with one eye that would not open, another that would not close, and only one leg; and one boy doll-a GI Joe who was naked with the dog’s teeth marks all over his head. And Brian asked the kids to vote on who should be in the manger that year. They chose Thelma. But when Father Brian explained that the doll would have to be in the manger for 2 whole weeks, the owner declined. As did the child with the back up doll. And all the way around the room. 12 dolls, 12 “no’s”. Everyone wanted their doll to be Jesus-but they didn’t want to be apart for 2 weeks. So the very wise Sunday School teacher pulled out a very nice doll from the storage room for the church manger-and suggested to Fr. Brian that all the dolls be blessed as honorary “Jesus’s” and put in mangers-in their homes. Which he wisely did. Everyone wanted Jesus, but no one wanted to give him away.
All great stories of hope are based on stories of love
It’s Christmas eve, when we romanticize stories of babies born in mangers and shepherds out in the hills, and people too poor or lost to even found a room to stay in. But there was nothing pretty about Christmas. And when Mary gave birth in a stable with no diapers or a midwife, no clean sheets or Lamaze coach-she must have thought that all the angels words to her and Joseph about a special child being born to them must have been some kids of cruel joke. There was nothing pretty about Christmas to the people who were there. It was a story that meant almost nothing-until 30 years later. Until Jesus was raised from the dead, no one would ever have remembered or ever retold this story. The only time when looking back matters, is when something extraordinary has happened later.
All great stories of love are based on stories of sacrifice
There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about holidays, like Christmas. One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God become a man? That's makes no sense!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home.A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese caught in the snowstorm and they were disoriented and lost. They just flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. The man wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away.He tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud.He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn--and one by one the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Suddenly it all made sense. The man fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first ever prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming as a human to show me the way out of the storm!"
All great stories of sacrifice are based on stories of hope
Vaclav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic once wrote, “Hope…is not the same as joy that things are going well…but rather an ability to work for something that is good-not just because it stands a chance to succeed. Hope is …not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense-regardless of how it turns out.”
Christmas is the day of hope. Not everything turns out the way we want. Things/ our lives are not always going well. We do not always feel optimistic. But when we hear the story of Jesus being born, we believe that all of this, all of life, makes sense-regardless of how it turns out. Tonight we remember hope.
All great stories of hope are based on stories of love
All great stories of love are based on stories of sacrifice
All great stories of sacrifice are based on stories of hope
Tonight we remember that God loved us, and sacrificed for us, and gave us hope.
Amen.

Sermon for Dec. 23

Sermon-Year A- 3Advent Dec. 16, 2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
Did you all hear the story a week ago about the Dunkin’ Doughnuts employee who was being robbed, and the clerk started hitting the robber with a tin cup? Did you hear about it? The clerk said that he fought back because he knew the robbery would be YouTube : "What was going through my mind at that point was that the security tape is either going to show me run away and hide in the office or whack this guy in the head," the clerk said. "
We live in a world where we EXPECT to get our 15 minutes of fame. Even in the middle of a robbery, people are thinking, “wow, how will I look on tv? And the clerk, “declared that he planned to upload the video on YouTube, a video-sharing website.
"There are only a few videos like that on YouTube now, so mine's going to be the best," the clerk bragged. "
That’s the world we are in.
I’ve told you that we read the Bible on a three year cycle, which means that every third year we hear this morning’s gospel. I’ve told you this before, but two out of those three years we hear all about Mary. But in year A, only in year A, we hear something that we only hear once. It never comes up in the other gospels. We hear about Joseph. The next two years on the 4th Sunday in Advent we’ll hear about Mary, but in year A we are reading the gospel of Matthew-and Matthew is the only one who talks about Joseph. In Luke’s gospel Mary talks with the angel-but in Matthew, Joseph has dreams-and the angel talks to him in a dream. And what does the angel say?
“…do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus-1-
And so Joseph does what he is told. And he doesn’t get his 15 minutes. Mary is worshipped and revered. Joseph, if you notice, doesn’t even get to talk. Joseph is the forgotten man, the “foster father” as one scholar refers to him. In theological circles Mary is called, “Theotokos” Greek for “Godbearer.” You know how Joseph is known? He is the Patron Saint of a Happy Death. There’s a big chasm between these two titles.
We know almost nothing about Joseph. The last time he is mentioned in the gospels is when Jesus is 12 and it says that Joseph and Mary take him to Jerusalem. And then Joseph disappears. There is a story about Joseph from one of the gospels that didn’t make it into the Bible, one of the apocryphal gospels, that goes like this:
(from Catholic Encyclopedia) “When forty years of age, Joseph married a woman called Melcha or Escha …or…Salome. They lived forty-nine years together and had six children, two daughters and four sons, A year after his wife's death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age. Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalem among the candidates; a miracle manifested the choice God had made of Joseph, and two years later the Annunciation took place.
No wonder Joseph didn’t live long enough to see Jesus’ ministry-he was over 100 years old when he died. According to legend.
We know so little about Joseph. Here is what we know-he did the right thing-he did his job. He wasn’t called to be famous, or to do anything spectacular-he was simply called to do the hard thing at the right time, Joseph had to decide to allow Jesus be born-to come unto the world. He had to step out in faith, even though it cost him his reputation and honor and pride. Theologian William Loader writes: … Matthew describes Joseph as "righteous". He is righteous because, faced with two possible applications of the Law, the one severe, the other compassionate, he chose the compassionate option.
Joseph wanted to run away. He wasn’t going to expose Mary to scandal, but he wasn’t going to marry her either. Until he had the dream. Can you imagine how hard that had to be for Joseph? He was known as a righteous man, a good man, he had a reputation in his community-and here he was going to have to live with a woman that everyone knew was pregnant with someone else’s child. When you think about the birth of Jesus every person in the nativity story is carrying a burden. But few more than Joseph. He has to marry a young girl who tells a fantastic story, who talks with angels, who is pregnant with “God’s child”. And he has to do all this secretly and honorably. He has to let the Christchild be born into his life, too.
So Joseph does his job. He becomes a husband to the girl, he raises the boy as his own, he gives him the name that the angel gives him-not his own name. Joseph does what he is told to do. And how hard that had to be. Theologian Loader goes on to write that in Matthew:
(Joseph) becomes a model … obeying the… (Law) with the focus on compassion.”
With all the focus on Mary at this time every year, her obedience, her trust, her faithfulness, perhaps we can take one day every three years to honor and learn from this almost forgotten man, this patron saint of the happy death.
Joseph had a terrible responsibility -a child to raise, a wife to support, a murderous king to avoid, a barn to find, shepherds and wise men to entertain, and dreams to bear. How tough it had to be, to be a man who just wanted to put his betrothed aside and get on with a righteous life. There are a million things at Christmas we do that are hard. Perhaps the hardest of all, is the million ways we are called to let Jesus be born into our lives-especially when we don’t want to. As one author described it, Peter could have take “the geographical cure” (meaning, that he could have run away) or he could wed Mary. It is always a challenge to let Jesus be born in us. But we have this wonderful role model, this righteous man, who overcame every instinct and inhibition so that a child could come into the world. The next time that Christmas is hard for you, and that means sometime today or tomorrow, remember this forgotten saint, who gave up so much so that his dream could come true. A righteous man who obeyed the law and focused on compassion.
.
We won’t be on YouTube for being righteous and compassionate. We will do it because it is what Christmas brings out in us-a focus on compassion.
Matthew 1:18-25
1:18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
1:19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
1:20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
1:21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
1:22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
1:23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."
1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,
1:25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

An employee who fought back against a robber admitted his heroic deed was prompted by his concern of how it would look on YouTube if he did not. Dustin Hoffmann, a Dunkin' Donuts employee, was reported to have whacked a robber on the head with the store's tip cup, after the thief attacked him and started taking cash from the register.
"What was going through my mind at that point was that the security tape is either going to show me run away and hide in the office or whack this guy in the head," Hoffmann said. "So I just grabbed the cup and clocked that guy pretty hard."
The thief, according to police, came in after 5:30 p.m. Sunday, and ordered a blueberry cake doughnut, handing Hoffmann a dollar bill. As Hoffmann opened the cash register, the robber lunged at him and started emptying out the cash register.
Hoffmann then grabbed the robber's wrists and started repeatedly hitting him over the head with the metal cup.
The AP reported that according to Police Chief Donald Ingrasselino, the thief managed to escape with some cash, but lost his baseball cap. Police intend to use it to retrieve possible DNA evidence.
Hoffmann declared that he planned to upload the video on YouTube, a video-sharing website.
"There are only a few videos like that on YouTube now, so mine's going to be the best," Hoffmann bragged. "That'll teach this guy."
The Record reported that police suspected the robber to have been responsible for two other Dunkin' Donuts robberies that occurred in the last two weeks. The thief robbed a store on Route 10 in East Hanover, and another on Route 46 and Parsippany, from which he managed to make off with $1,500.

sermon-Dec. 16, 2007

Sermon-Year A- 3Advent Dec. 16, 2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
You all do realize that winter begins in 6 days? Scary isn’t it?
Have you seen these commercials on tv. Somebody does something to help someone. Another person sees them doing it. And then you see the bystander do something to help someone. And someone watches them. And you usually see about 8 different interactions from picking up a child’s doll, to pushing someone out of the way of a car. And at the end of the ad the woman’s voice says:
When its people doing the right thing, they call it being responsible. When it’s a company, they call it Liberty Mutual.
Here’s the thing, almost every time it’s a bystander watching that is affected-not the person that is helped. Someone is watching, and sees the “good deed” and the connection we’re supposed to make is this, people see goodness, and try to imitate it.
John the Baptist is in prison. He will be beheaded. He sends his disciples out to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
John had tried to get the people of Israel ready for the messiah, and he wonders-is this him? John thought the Messiah would be more like-John. Harsh, judgemental, Spartan, severe. And he doesn’t understand. He had been getting people prepared a Savior. Is this how the Savior looks? John had been getting people ready for Jesus-even though he didn’t know what Jesus would be like.
A few weeks ago I flipped on the tube one Saturday afternoon and they were showing the Ford Ironman Triatholon. This is a race where people have to swim 2.4 miles then bike 112 mi. •then run 26.2 mi.. It’s grueling. And they kept giving the stories of different people in the race. Of course anyone who finished was considered a winner. But they showed this one woman, ending the race by laying down and rolling across the finish line. It was pretty weird. Until they showed the race from 2 years ago. In 2005 a young man, Jon Blazeman had just been diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and he said, “even if I have to have someone roll me across the finish line, I will finish the race.” Then they showed the finish line in 2006, and a guy, Brian Breen is finishing the race, he stops just a few feet before the end, and rolls across the line. There to greet him-in a wheelchair now and barely able to talk, was Jon Blazeman. Brian had watched the race on tv the year before and decided that he would be Jon’s legs. This year when they had the race, a woman, Karen O'Riordan, rolled across the finish line. And there to greet her was Jon’s family-because Jon had died a few months before. One guy doing something extraordinary. Another person watching them do it. The world had been prepared for Jesus by John the Baptist, his cousin. Jesus saw the way people responded. Do you think Jesus thought about John, his cousin? Do you think he was scared off because John was put in prison? Jesus saw John preparing the world, and he came forward preaching and teaching and healing. He was changing everything. And he had watched his cousin get things ready.
A few years back, the teens started ringing the bells for the Salvation Army. They spend a whole day now, every year outside ringing bells, and it’s always COLD, and yet they and their adults, try to raise money for those who are in need. A few years ago, I thought, I can do that, and so every year in December I sign up to ring the bells. They showed me something. They taught me. I saw them doing this good thing, and I was inspired.
John prepared the way for Jesus. Jesus prepared the way for us. We prepare the way for others. People are watching. People see what others do, and when the action is noble enough, or powerful enough, or inspiring enough-they will do it, too.
John’s disciples asked, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" And Jesus answered, "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.”
People were watching Jon Blazeman roll across the line. People were watching our teens ring bells. People were watching Jesus change the world. People are watching us. We are called to prepare the world for Jesus, just like John the Baptist, getting folks ready. What are they seeing when they watch us?
Matthew 11:2-11
11:2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples
11:3 and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
11:4 Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:
11:5 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.
11:6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
11:7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?
11:8 What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.
11:9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
11:10 This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'
11:11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Back in 2005, a young (33 yrs old) committed was diagnosed with ALS. His name was Jon "committed" Blaws. Jon had always been a determined individual, and once diagnosed, he was more determined than ever. 5 months after his diagnosis, he became the first and only ALS patient to ever complete the Blaws, Coni which consisted of a 2 mile swim, 112 miles of biking and 26 miles of running. It was Jon's determination that helped him finish the race, and give a face and a name to ALS, the disease that was surely taking his life...So Others May Live. Jon rolled across the finish line to send a message to everyone watching, and people started to notice.In 2006, Jon returned to Kona, wheelchair bound to watch another athlete, Brian Breen, run the race on behalf of Jon and ALS patients everywhere. After watching the NBC coverage of the 2005 Ironman, and seeing Jon's story, Brian became inspired to do something to make a difference. He contacted Jon and told him of his plan, to be Jon's legs in the 2006 Ironman, because he understood Jon would not be able to run again. The War on ALS was on, Jon had rallied the troops, this time with Brian sending the message. Jon was there to meet Brian as he crossed the finish line with his "Blazeman Roll." Again the story was covered by NBC news and gained more attention from the public at large.Since 2006, the Blazeman Foundation for ALS has been committed to rallying the multi-sport (aka: triathlete) community to raise funds to increase AWARENESS and find a cure for ALS. It always frustrated Jon that more people didn't understand the extent and cruelty of this "bulldozer" disease. Thus it is our first priority to build the awareness and educate the public on ALS. The Blazeman lost his personal battle in 2007, but the war rages on. At this year's Ironman, Kona, the president of the Blazeman Foundation for ALS, Karen O'Riordan, rolled across the finish line in memory of the Blazeman and for ALS patients everywhere. Karen lost her grandmother and mother to the disease and has a 50% chance of getting the disease herself. She, like so many of us, was inspired by Jon to do more to make the public aware of ALS.