A Good Night's Sleep

Sermon-4 Advent- -December 19, 2010
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.”
The Very Rev. Samuel G. Candler is Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip tells this story: “It was a few days before Christmas. A woman woke up one morning and told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" "Oh," her husband replied, "you'll know the day after tomorrow."
The next morning, she turned to her husband again and said the same thing, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" And her husband said, "You'll know tomorrow."
On the third morning, the woman woke up and smiled at her husband, "I just dreamed again that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" And he smiled back, "You'll know tonight."
That evening, the man came home with a small package and presented it to his wife. She was delighted. She opened it gently. And when she did, she found-a book! And the book's title was "The Meaning of Dreams."
The writer 16th century writer Rabelais once said, "I never sleep comfortably except when I am at a sermon."
I know this is rather personal, but do you sleep very well? I mean, most of the time. I was in a group of guys, this is years ago, and someone mentioned that they usually slept in a chair most nights-something to do with their breathing and acid reflux. And someone else said that they didn’t sleep much either. One guy said that his wife’s snoring kept him awake most nights, and around the group it went. Out of about 8 guys there were only 2 that actually slept most nights all the way through. I am a terrible sleeper. I wake up often in the middle of the night, sometimes go out and work, watch tv, talk to the dogs, then back to bed. I asked my doctor about it, and he said I needed to drink less decaf. But one of the main things going on is that I fret-I stew-I worry. There will be something that’s heavy on my heart, and I just can’t seem to let it go. How many of you have looked at my e-mails at 4am and wondered, “what’s he doing up at this hour?” Sometimes I’ll go back to bed and get another hour or two of sleep.
And almost always when I finally get to my morning prayers, the problem, whatever it was, won’t seem so bad. You know how your mom always told you to “sleep on it”. It turns out she was right. There’s just something about getting up the next morning and whatever it was-it just doesn’t seem so overwhelming. It’s not that the problem has gone away-it just seems like I can handle it better-I can put it in perspective. I always realize the next morning that the world isn’t going to end, that life will go on, and that I will survive another day. It’s happened so often to me that I actually go to bed (the first time) knowing that whatever is troubling me, will be ok the next day. That’s a great comfort. Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes with the morning psalm 30:5
I tell you all this for two reasons-one, because I suspect that you have had this experience often, also. And secondly, because it is what happens in today’s gospel story. Joseph is described as “a righteous man” a good man-like most of us. This will come up a lot in the next year as we listen to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is always working at defining what it is “to be righteous”. What he means when he describes Joseph this way is that he was obedient to the Old Testament Law. Joseph was a good man, he followed the rules, he did the right things-and yet here his fiancé becomes pregnant. That might keep you up nights.
And so he goes to sleep, planning to break the engagement and not expose Mary to public humiliation. That is what a righteous man, a good man, does, that would have been the “right” thing to do. Brian Stoffregen of Faith Lutheran Church wrote this: “Perhaps what is at least as miraculous as the virginal conception is how Joseph's mind was changed. In the first century, marriages were still arranged. Their families may have determined that Joseph and Mary would be married when they were still young children. When Joseph finds out that Mary is pregnant, his "righteous" decision to divorce her is what the law and society expected him to do.
[Biblical scholar] Keener (A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew) notes: "Jewish, Greek, and Roman law all demanded that a man divorce his wife if she were guilty of adultery. . . . Mediterranean society viewed with contempt the weakness of a man who let his love for his wife outweigh his appropriate honor in repudiating her" (p. 91). Divorcing pregnant Mary was the right thing for Joseph to do.”
But in the night, Joseph has a dream. An angel speaks to him and tells him not to be afraid-he should go ahead and wed Mary-that Mary is pregnant with God’s child-and that this child will save his people. And when Joseph woke the next morning, he had a new attitude. And he understood is own righteousness in a new way. He decided to do what the dream angel had told him. He married Mary, and named the child Jesus-which means, God saves. Matthew, the gospel writer, tells us that this fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah-that a child would be born that would be called Emmanuel-God with us.
I always think that despite what the angel told Joseph, that he had to be afraid. He must have been afraid of marrying this young woman. He must have been afraid of raising God’s child. Joseph was a righteous man, a good man-like most of us-and he had to be scared of doing this very hard thing. Joseph would have known his liabilities, his shortcomings. He had to think to himself, “I can’t do this, I’m just a normal Joe. I’m nothing special-why would God choose me?”
Mary gets all the glory for agreeing to do this hard thing that God asked her, but Joseph, too, had to do a very hard thing. He had to set aside his honor, he had to swallow his pride, and to a degree, he had to do something that was unrighteous. He had to wed this pregnant woman, and care for someone else’s child.
When we hear this story there are two miracles that are happening-one, is that God chooses to be one of us; and secondly, that ordinary everyday people are able to overcome their great fear, and work with God to make it happen. Have you ever thought how God needed Mary and Joseph to make Christmas happen? This isn’t about whether God could have done it without them. This is very simple: God chose these anonymous people, in a no account country, to tell the world the most important thing in the world. He didn’t choose miracle workers or kings, he chose these people-a carpenter and a teen age girl. It makes no sense. God could show his love for us in a million better ways than this. He could have chosen a million better people than these two. But I guess that’s the point. It becomes dangerous when we portray Mary and Joseph as saints, because God went out of his way to choose unbelievably normal people. God chose the ordinary to bring about the extraordinary. God chose these average commonplace people just so we would get it-he wanted to let us know how much he loved us. He didn’t love the good parts of us, the holy parts of us, the righteous parts of us-he loved all of us, every part of us, even the worst of us. And that’s why he chose these two people. He didn’t want only saints to feel as though they were loved-he wanted each of us to know it, also.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with God’s son being called, God with us. And the last verse of Matthew’s chapter ends with Jesus saying this, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”* What do you think God is trying to tell us? Not too subtle, is it?
We end the Sundays of Advent today, on the verge of the birth of Jesus. That gives us the opportunity to look once again at the circumstances that God arranged. People like us-like you and I-were chosen so that God could teach us about his love. That’s a terribly humbling reality. And if God could choose Joseph and Mary, then perhaps we are supposed to realize that God can be shown through everyone-even us. I don’t doubt that Joseph was scared, but he did what was needed. Maybe that’s the message for today, even when we are scared, even when we are having a bad night, even when our hearts are heavy, even when we are too worried to sleep, God will work even through us-if we let him.
Matthew 1:18-25

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. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 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. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,"
which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

What Do We Hear, What Do We See?

Sermon-3 Advent- -December 12, 2010
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.”
In about the year 28 John the baptizer attained public notice, not as a priest but as a prophet. He was active in the region of the lower Jordan Valley, from “Aenon near Salim” (near modern Nablus) to a point east of Jericho. His dress of an austere camel's hair garment was the traditional garb of the prophets, and his diet of locusts and wild honey represented either strict adherence to Jewish purity laws or the ascetic conduct of a Nazirite (a Jew especially vowed to God's service). His mission was addressed to all ranks and stations of Jewish society. His message was that God's wrathful judgment on the world was imminent and that, to prepare for this judgment, the people should repent their sins, be baptized, and produce appropriate fruits of repentance.
Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and central Transjordan in the 1st century divorced his wife and married Herodias, the divorced wife of his half brother. This was illegal by Jewish law, and John the Baptist, denounced the king for his crime. Herod arrested him and had him killed. (from Biography.com)
You all know this story. In John’s world there were those were repentant-and those who were not. And he saw himself as one who prepared the people for the coming of and angry, vengeful God. So when he was in prison and he heard about the ministry of Jesus, his cousin, he had to wonder-was this the one he was preparing people for-or not.
It had to be very hard on John, believing that the end time would arrive soon-and Jesus was growing in popularity. John had a cult like following, so he had several of his followers go and ask Jesus directly-are you the one I am preparing the world for-or not?
And Jesus gives this answer, it is straight from the great prophet Isaiah: 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. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
How do you think John felt about that message? John’s life WAS offending people-on purpose. And Jesus said “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” How do you think John felt when he heard that?
John’s message was harsh, demanding and fearful. Jesus’ ministry was full of healing, hope, and reconciliation. John’s message was “prepare for the coming of the savior”. Jesus message was “the time is now”. John refrained from most foods, obeying the dietary laws of Judaism, and was a strict judge. Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors, and preached a message of forgiveness. How do you think John felt as he heard what Jesus said and did?
John is the alarm clock that was to wake people up to their need for God. His task was to get people to stand up and watch. A pastor named Lindy tells this story : “My Dad used to try and get his cat to watch T.V. with him. Dad would point to the dog on the T.V. and would say, ."See kitty kitty, see the nice doggy?" but the cat would simply nuzzle up to Dad's finger instead of seeing what was being pointed to. Religion tends to be that way...nuzzling up to the pointers of life instead of what is being pointed to. John the Baptist was a pointer and he knew it. “
John the Baptist saw the future clearly-and it was nothing like Jesus. That had to be so disappointing for him. John’s vision was not a world of reconciliation and hope-it was a world of heaven and hell.
Advent is our season to listen to John the Baptist getting us ready. But he is the pointer-not what is being pointed to. And that’s what we hear today. The world that is coming is a world of hope, a world where the hurting are healed, the scarred are made whole, the desperate are calmed, and the hungry are fed.
But it’s not here yet. James Boyce, a professor of New Testament writes: If this Jesus is really the good news of God, then why is there still so much suffering and pain, evil and destruction, or hurt and brokenness among God's creation? Why doesn’t God fix the world? What is he waiting for? It’s easy to see why people believed in John. We get disappointed, too. We’re waiting and expecting. We want the healing to begin, the hurting to end, the judging to stop, and the hope to begin-don’t we?
Let me tell you a story written by Kate Huey-a Congregationalist pastor that I quote a lot: “I was driving around in my car this week, listening to NPR and thinking about this sermon, when I heard a most extraordinary interview of three women who had written a book together. One of the women is Jewish, one is Muslim, and one is Christian. After September 11, the Muslim woman, Ranya, was struggling with questions about her faith and her identity as a Palestinian American. She reached out to these two other women and began a difficult but ultimately rewarding interfaith conversation and friendship. Together they wrote a book called The Faith Club. Like Mary and Elizabeth, in challenging circumstances, they reached out to each other and found a way, together. The more I listened, the more interesting the conversation grew. Then, I was struck by one thing the Muslim woman said about the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which had been one of the most painful issues for the women. Ranya (the Muslim woman)said, so simply and eloquently, "I just want an acknowledgement of the suffering of the Palestinian people; I want our suffering and loss acknowledged and honored; I believe that is the beginning of healing, reconciliation, and peace." It wasn't a song, really, but it was another woman's voice, speaking up for the suffering of her people and insisting, like Mary, that their voice be heard. The path of justice leads through compassion, through listening and honoring the experience and suffering of another.
At another point in the interview, the Jewish woman, Priscilla, spoke of her change of heart and mind about the whole Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She said that she moved from thinking of the Palestinians as an impersonal concept to thinking of her friend, Ranya, and that made everything different. What might happen, we wonder, if more and more people did take things personally – that is, if we thought of a person we know and love and if we honored their suffering, and the suffering of their people before we form an opinion or make a decision that affects them?
My heart aches, as I know yours do, too, for the suffering of people right now in places far away and close at hand, in places like Palestine and Israel and Lebanon and Iraq and the Sudan, and here in this city and in all our cities and neighborhoods and in many, many of our own homes. There are children and elderly people and so many other vulnerable people whose experience needs to be honored, whose stories need to be heard. I know we feel overwhelmed at times by the suffering and sorrow of the world. And yet, we have been shown a way and offered a promise: if those of us who are well fed and comfortable, those of us who have power, those of us who have a voice, get out of our comfort zones regularly and listen to the stories and experiences of others who are not so well fed, who live on the edge, who feel pressed down…well, honoring that experience and that pain, as Ranya said, is the beginning of reconciliation, healing, and peace. And aren't those the things that we really long for, deep down, in this Christmas season?”
John the Baptist was the pointer, but Jesus was the tv. We are called to listen and honor the experiences of others, and to be a voice of hope in a world that is crying in pain. We are surrounding our life here at Trinity with kindness this Advent-because the world-and especially we, need to hear that there is compassion, there is benevolence, there is courage alive and well-all around us. We need to see and to read “that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the sick are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” We know all too well that there is judgement and harshness in the world. We need to make sure as we listen to others speak of their pain, that we are speaking, and doing acts of kindness in response. We are called to be messengers of good news. Let us go and tell the world what we hear and see. Amen.

A Time To Come To Our Senses

Sermon-2 Advent Year A-Dec. 5, 2010
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.
Every year on the second Sunday of Advent we hear about John the Baptist. He was an immensely popular figure in ancient Israel. All four gospels have him at the beginning of their stories. Non Biblical sources refer to him often. A religion grew up around him and was still active in the middle east until 200 years ago. One source (Wikipedia) has this: “He followed the example of previous Hebrew prophets, living austerely, challenging sinful rulers, calling for repentance, and promising God's justice. John is regarded as a prophet in Christianity, Islam,[7] the Bahá'í Faith,[8] and Mandaeism. “
He rose up at a critical time in Israel’s history, under Roman occupation. And within decades after his death Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple, the symbol for Judaism, was torn down. Many Jews at the time believed that the destruction of Jerusalem was due to the martyrdom of John the Baptizer.
I haven’t ever found him that popular among Christians. He is seen as a harsh, judgemental figure, austere, demanding. He had one message that the people of Israel responded to-but Christians today don’t find particularly appealing-“repent.” I can’t rehab his image for the 21st century, but I can explain a little bit about why he was so attractive.
The people of 1st century Israel were living in a time of great anxiety. There had been 3 major regime changes in their country over the previous 300 years-The Greeks, the Maccabeans, and now the Romans ruled them. There was extreme corruption and injustice. Taxation was high, public officials were competing to see who could steal the most from the people, and religious authorities had power-but little respect.
Several messiahs or “saviors” had come on the scene over the previous few decades, and each time their star had risen for awhile, only for them to be defeated and killed. The people wanted change, their wanted “something”, “someone “ they could trust, they could believe in who they could respect. They wanted desperately to see someone with integrity and honor.
Into this milieu came John. He lived in the wilderness several miles from Jerusalem, and had a dramatic lifestyle. His diet, clothing, and message were powerful and engaging. He appeared not only to be a person of honesty, but he resembled the people’s image of the great prophets of Israel’s history. He seemed to the hurting uneasy people of Israel to be holy-and a symbol of hope in the midst of great anxiety and powerlessness.
He essentially he had 2 messages-not one. He did call the people to repent, but repentance wasn’t guilt. He asked them to turn their lives around-to begin walking in a new direction. The Greek word that is used in scripture is “metanoia” and it is different than the word we usually associate with repent. Theologian Marcus Borg wrote this: “The biblical meaning of "repentance" is quite different from an apology. In the Jewish Bible, the Christian Old Testament, "repentance" means "to return" - that is, to return from exile, to return to life in the presence of God, to a life centered in God. -So apology and repentance, forgiveness and repentance, are quite different. Apology and forgiveness do not in themselves imply change. Repentance does.” John didn’t want people to feel bad, to count their sins, to be guilty-those are the things we associate with repentance. John wanted them to turn their lives around and begin living God centered lives. They weren’t supposed to be ashamed, he was calling them forward-not making them feel worse about themselves. As Frederick Buechner in his book titled "Wishful Thinking" defines repentance this way. "To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'"
So this Advent, let’s come to our senses. Let’s hear John, this harsh austere figure standing by the river in the wilderness who is calling people to return. We spend an awful lot of our Christian life feeling bad about ourselves, beating ourselves up, dwelling in guilt. Does that seem to help your relationship with God? Has that helped you become more holy?
Rev Tony Lang of St John’s Presbyterian Church once told this tale: Do you remember the story about the goldsmith who was asked by a child how many times he put the gold back into the fire? When did he know that all of the impurities were gone? Remember the goldsmith’s response? "When I can see my own face in the gold." Christ will not come to refine us until he can see his face in our own faces.
Don’t spend time this Advent feeling bad about who you are or what you’ve done. And especially in this holy season, don’t approach Christmas concentrating on your sins and shortcomings. Come to your sentences. Change your direction. As theologian Richard Jensen once wrote: “Often we think of repentance as an "I can", (I can change, I can improve, etc.). Better to think of repentance as an "I can't"...(I can't do it alone, only God can give me new life) . This is the “I can’t” season, the season of “coming to our senses”, the season of turning around. Every year on the second Sunday of Advent we hear this strange man yelling the same word, Repent. This year, let’s really listen to it. Amen.