When Is It Real?

Sermon-4 Advent B-Dec. 18, 2011
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.
As most of you know, my mother passed away 12 days ago. I was in Texas this week. Constantly people kept coming up to me saying that I seemed to be taking her death very well (meaning that I wasn’t crying or breaking down). And I kept saying, “it’s because it isn’t real to me. ” I hadn’t seen her in 3 weeks, and it just didn’t feel as though she had left. So I went to every place that I had seen her the last year-to the bed in the nursing home, to the place in the dining hall where she ate, to the chair she sat in a lot when she read and worked her crossword puzzles. I kept trying to feel her passing by looking at the places where she had been. But every place I looked she still seemed to be there. She did not feel gone. A second thing that happened was that whenever I told someone that my mother had died, they immediately told me about a loss they had suffered. It was as if they wanted to say, “yes, I understand, this is real for me, too.”
I was thinking a lot about that this week, and thinking about today’s sermon. I began thinking about how hard it is for me, and I assume for others, to feel that something is “real”. It is not easy.
The first person ever to have a nativity scene was St. Francis of Assisi. You know why he did it? The first crèche? He did it to make the birth of Jesus feel more real for people. He wanted people to understand God coming into the world-he wanted them to believe it- “St. Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene[3][4] in 1223 at Greccio, Italy…..[6][7] Staged in a cave near Greccio, St. Francis' nativity scene was a living one[3] with humans and animals cast in the Biblical roles.[8] Pope Honorius III gave his blessing to the exhibit.[9] Such[exhibits] …. became hugely popular and spread throughout Christendom.[8] Within a hundred years every church in Italy was expected to have a nativity scene at Christmas.”
In a sense every sermon, every story has that as a goal-to make God real, to make God alive. It is not easy. We have made God so distant, so far away, so untouchable, that it is hard to ever believe that God is real, God is near, God is active, that God is still alive in our lives. At Christmas we try to convince everyone the unbelievable belief that God came as one of us. It can be hard for us to believe that God is real.
Novelist Ron Hansen writes: “Each day at noon the bell of Holy Angels Catholic Church slowly gonged, and if we schoolchildren weren’t at lunch or recess we were instructed to stand and recite “The Angelus.”
“The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,” our teacher would say. Our memorized response was, “And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.” Which was followed by the prayer called the “Hail Mary.”
At the next gong, the teacher recited, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” And we said, “Be it done unto me according to thy word.”
Another “Hail Mary,” another gong, and then the final petition, “The Word was made flesh,” to which we added, “And dwelt amongst us.”
Some fifty years later I still recite “The Angelus” when I hear a church’s noontime bell, and that recitation is a regular reminder of the crucial importance of the announcement and acceptance in our gospel passage from Luke.”
Church bells as a way of seeing that God is real. When I read that story I thought of me looking at mom’s chair where she always sat. I told a woman on the plane that my mother had died and she immediately said, “I know what you’re feeling-my father died 12 years ago.” We use images, reminders, sounds, smells, and especially memories to help us understand and to know.
We use these ways to help us remember and to feel. We use these ways for us to believe that something is real.
Kate Huey writes in her weekly column: “And that brings us to how God is doing such wonderful and seemingly impossible things here in this story about Mary and an angel's astonishing announcement. We note that it isn't called "The Request," or "The Invitation," but "The Annunciation." And we suppose that God could have chosen to save the world, to fulfill God's promises of old all on God's own; after all, nothing is impossible with God. However, this humble but earth-shaking conversation tells us that God wants humanity to be part of the effort, even if it makes things much more complicated and even difficult (which it does): "God intends to draw Mary and all of us into what God is doing," Brian K. Peterson writes, "and God apparently is not willing to do this behind our backs or without our own participation" (New Proclamation 2008). And this is what, in some mysterious way, makes Mary's story our own, or at least it makes her story something we can understand much better.”
God uses a human, a young girl, a birth, a child, to show us, to teach us that he is real. God uses us to break into our world.
I’ve told you several times about a parishioner who was here when I first came (and has long since passed on). I would take him communion, and he would say to me, “ok, father, I’ll take communion, but I want you to know that I don’t believe in the Virgin Birth.” I’d ask him, “how about the Resurrect ion?” Not a problem, he’d say. “The feeding of the 5000?” “Oh yeah, I believe that”, he responded. “Then why,” I’d ask, “is the virgin birth such a problem?” “It goes against science!” he replied. I would say, “None of the story is scientific!” And he always responded, “yeah, but the virgin birth is just too much of a stretch!”
Maybe it is too much of a stretch, but it shows what lengths God will go to, to make us believe that his love, his presence is real.
Today we hear the story of God using Mary. It is a wonderful story, full of drama and charm-but is it real for you? When you hear it do you think, “what a cute little story!” Or does it have power ?
I think for something to be real for us it has to be part of us, in us, something w can see and touch and feel. It has to be part of our lives, too.
Barbara Brown Taylor quoting from the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once wrote:
"We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? Then, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in us." (Meister Eckhart, quoted by Barbara Brown Taylor in her sermon, "Mothers of God" in Gospel Medicine).
Today we hear the story of a young girl who said yes, “use me”, bless me with this terrible blessing. We have made it beautiful, and sweet and miraculous. But that is not what we need to do. For this story to be powerful and life changing for us, it must also be real. We have to see that God is still being born, still calling unlikely people, still asking if we are ready to be his servants. Is this story too much of a stretch for you? Or is it possible for God to be born in you, also? In other words, does this story feel real for you? Amen.

Lighten Up

Sermon-3 Advent B-Dec. 11, 2011
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.
I think it’s because basically because I grew up unchurched that I am fascinated by church traditions. People who grow up immersed in church take all these things for granted-but every time I learn of an ancient ritual I always feel like, “wow-this was there all the time and I am just now finding out about it!!??
For instance, today is Gaudete Sunday. Usually by now someone has asked me “did you run out of purple candles and have to substitute a pink one?” A thousand years ago the season of Advent was almost as strict as Lent-with fasting and prayer. Because the season could be very exhausting, it was decided to give everyone a break. So on the 3rd Sunday of Advent every year, people , in a sense, were given a day off. Instead of the penitential color of purple, rose (or pink) was used. People were allowed, even encouraged, to feast and celebrate. The opening verse of the chanted Introit was “Gaudete in Domino semper” rejoice in the Lord, always…And so this is known as Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday (and in the Anglican church “Stir up” Sunday). We try to have our chicken soup dinner and fellowship on this day, and we light a rose colored candle as our way of taking a break in a dark season.
Everything in Advent is pointing away from the messengers-pointing ahead to the one who is coming. Listen, again, to this interaction from today’s Gospel:
1:19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"1:20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah."(Anyone remember the tv show from the early ‘90s, Dinosaurs “not the mama”)1:21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No."1:22 Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
Who are you? What do you say about yourself? The people want to know who John is, why did he come-and John’s response is to deflect , turn aside, to redirect the answer. He’s like all those pictures of Sacajawea, the Native American woman who helped lead Lewis and Clark across the northwest-try to find a picture of her where Sacajawea isn’t pointing away from herself..
Nope, not me, John says -I’m not the one.(“Not the messiah”) “He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.”
This whole passage from John the gospel writer revolves around identity-who Jesus is, who we say he is-and who are we.
There’s a movie out: “Cowboys and Aliens”. In the movie a famous outlaw, a man who robbed, stole, and murdered is abducted by aliens and afterwards can’t remember who he was or what he ever did. Everyone keeps coming up telling him how evil and mean he was, however he can’t remember. Eventually he has to make a decision to either go back to what he was, or to become the person people need him to be.
The town preacher has faith in him. As the preacher is dying he saysto Lonergan, “the people need you to lead them, and Lonergan replies, “I’m not a leader, I don’t help people.The preacher’s last words to him, are these: "God doesn't care about who you were. He cares about who you are."
Advent is the season when we can turn around. We can stop worrying about who were we, and begin thinking about who we are going to be. Advent is the 4 week season when we can look ahead and point towards the light that we’re heading for. Advent is a short time just before the coming of the light, that we can reimagine who we are and who we want to be-regardless of our baggage. John the Baptist keeps saying in today’s reading-“I’m not the one-but I can show you who he is.”I’m not the messiah-but I can lead you to him.
There is a new documentary out called “Serving Life” (Oprah’s network showed it last summer). This is from a review of that documentary by Reverend Dr. James P. Wind “Serving Life takes viewers inside Louisiana's notorious Angola Prison. This maximum security prison has the reputation of confining within its walls "the worst of the worst"-rapists, kidnappers, and murderers. The average sentence for its inmates is more than 90 years. 85 percent of the people who enter the prison will never go anywhere else.
[We] are first to the prison and then to a group of inmates who have just volunteered to serve in the prison's hospice. … we get a view of prison life-and of human transformation-that is very rare.
The film follows the four new [prisoner hospice] volunteers into the difficult but strangely beautiful work of caring for the dying. …. what the [documentary] offered viewers was a close-up view of a powerful process of human and community formation, where people became more than they were before …Viewers confront the fact that under some circumstances, contract killers and drug dealers can surprise us with an unexpected grace and humanity. The prisoners in Angola have something to teach us about redemption and compassion. How many of us accompany the dying so well?
There are deeper treasures in the film, if one looks closely. The inmates play cards with and tell jokes to the hospice patients. They sing, read Scripture, and pray. They make quilts to keep the dying warm. They make funeral palls with open hands and butterflies embroidered upon them. They take four-hour shifts keeping vigil as patients near death. ….There they were with their worlds of difference working together in one community of compassion.
….." Somehow in the midst of the deepest human despair, hatred, and suffering imaginable, a group of dying patients and life-sentenced prisoners become a community of reciprocity, a congregation if you will, that teaches people to reach beyond their own needs and care for others.
….. Under certain circumstances, even the people we give up on can change and do amazing things. The most elemental human practices-caring for the dying, reading texts, keeping vigil, singing, feeding, bathing-can do so much more than we imagine. I was stunned to watch hardened criminals soften as the film unfolded. As they became a community of compassion, they began to talk about the terrible things they had done that led them to Angola, to take responsibility for their lives, and to seek to repair the worlds that they had made and dwelled in. ….. Sometimes we need to step away from all the familiar distractions that complicate our lives and our communities of faith and go to a strange place like Angola to get our bearings.
The hospice workers of Angola are not the light-but they bear witness to it. John the Baptist was not the messiah-but he led people to him. We are not the light, but our lives can point towards it.
This is Gaudete Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, Stir up Sunday. It is not Christmas, but it is a good day to “ begin to talk about the things we have done that lead us to where we are, to take responsibility for our lives, and to seek to repair the worlds that we have made and dwell in.” We aren’t the light-but we can be a reflection of it.
One preacher I was reading said, “this is the day we should tell everyone to “lighten up”.

Creating Space this Advent

Sermon-2 Advent B-Dec. 4, 2011
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.
Mark 1:1-8The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,who will prepare your way;the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:'Prepare the way of the Lord,make his paths straight,'"John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

2 Peter 3:8-15a But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

“In the Old Testament when a prophet sent a message to King Ahaziah of Israel, the king asked the messengers, "What sort of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?" The messengers reported to the king, "A hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist." When king Ahaziah heard that description, he concluded immediately, "It’s[the prophet]- Elijah the Tishbite" (2 Kings 1:7-8).” That’s how a prophet was know in Israel-how they dressed, and what they said. Prophets spoke hard truths and lived severe lives. Needless to say, very few prophets lived til old age. They spoke unpopular words and made a living offending people-especially those in power. But a prophet was a truth teller, someone who told others what they needed to hear.

John the Baptist was considered one of the greatest of the prophets. In Advent and in Epiphany every year we hear his story. Mark the gospel writer starts off Jesus’ life, not with his birth, like Luke and Matthew, and not with a poem about creation (in the beginning) like John. Mark the 1st gospel writer begins Jesus’ story with John the Baptist, a prophet, telling the people of Israel what they needed to hear.
So, Jesus had a warm up man, someone to get the people ready-his cousin, John. John’s job was to wake people up, get them on high alert. His job was to open people up for the main act that was to come. John the Baptizer was supposed to tell people the truth, so that when the messiah came they would be ready to follow. Hold that thought.
Who is the dominant character leading up to Christmas for us? Who is in every commercial, on every child’s lips, the addressee for every letter at this time of the year? That’s right, Santa. Tuesday is the feast day for St. Nicholas. Santa is everywhere. One commentator I was reading wondered, “what if John the Baptist was Santa?” Instead of cookies and milk you would leave out locusts and honey. Children wouldn’t go up to show John their list of what they wanted for Christmas-they would kneel and confess their sins. In fact, John could care less what we wanted for Christmas, he’d tell us how to live different lives, and that it’s time to shape up. Advent is John’s season, but he doesn’t do a good job as a mall Santa. As one preacher Alyce MacKenzie) wrote: “John would make a poor Santa on a fire engine. Instead of throwing candy canes, he'd stand up and shout, "This year better be different! Going through the motions of …Christmas will not guarantee you joy, peace, or the perfect gift on Christmas Eve!"”

Pastor Sharron R. Blezard says that if she really wants her house cleaned, she throws a party. She knows the deadline of a party will make her work nonstop getting the house ready. Deadlines do that for us, as much as we hate them. They force us to get our house clean. Christmas is the deadline. This year, what are we going to do to get our hearts ready in time?
Over the years I have passed on lots of advice about what to do, how to act in Advent to get ready. Today I’m going to give you a little John the Baptist as you prepare for Christmas. As often happens I turn to Alyce MacKenzie who made what I thought was a great point about getting ready in Advent. This is what she wrote:
“When I first started out in ministry, I thought being a minister meant being so strong that I didn't need support from others. I was walling myself off from others, putting on a good face to my colleagues. A good friend of mine, also a pastor, saw through my game face and said to me, "Isn't it funny how sometimes what we think is our greatest strength is really our greatest weakness?" It was as if she had slapped my face. What do you mean by that? I asked her. "You already know," she said.
Proverbs 27:6 says, "Profuse are the kisses of an enemy, but well meant are the wounds a friend inflicts." [Alyce continues]
I once preached a sermon on that text and afterwards two men from the congregation came up to me. Gus and Roy were retired and had been friends and members of the church for years and years. Roy said, "Your sermon reminded us of a time a couple years ago when we were both in a Bible study on Jesus' teachings about not judging. Gus said to me privately after one session, 'Roy, you really need this verse, because you tend to see people's faults before you give them a chance to show their virtues.' That made me angry, but later I realized he was right. And I thanked him for it."
If you think I’m going to encourage you to be honest and truthful with a friend as you prepare your heart this Advent, you have misjudged John the Baptist. That would be hard to do, telling someone you care for a hard truth. But that doesn’t get our hearts ready. Rather, this is a good season to ask someone you really trust for a hard truth about yourself. Can you do that? Do you trust someone enough to let them tell you something difficult about yourself, something you need to change? I hear the voice in my own head saying, “Why would I do that? Why would I ask someone else to tell me something I don’t want to hear?” What you’re doing is asking someone to be John the Baptist for you. What you’re really doing is trying to get your heart ready for Christmas. Go up to someone you really trust, a good friend, someone you believe that not only is honest, but also will tell you the truth with kindness. Someone who will help you get your heart ready.
There’s a reason we start our Advent worship each week with the 10 commandments. I’m not trying to get you to feel worse about yourself-or more self-righteous. I’m trying to get you to begin examining your life and faith, to really get your spirit ready for Christmas.
How can we expect joy, if our lives are too busy, too full? Where would there be room in us if we are so consumed with all the stuff that goes on around Christmas? This Advent, we have a deadline. Clean your house. Go to someone you trust and ask them to tell you something you really need to know about yourself-a truth. Start clearing out some space inside of you. We have a word for this in Christianity and it really started with a character named John the Baptist. It was how he prepared people for Jesus. The word is “repentance” and it means turning one’s life around so that we can be more open to God. Amen.