Expanding Love

Christmas 1C, 12/27/15
John 1:1-14; Hebrews 1:1-4; Isaiah 52:7-10

Comfort us, Lord.    Redeem us as you redeemed Jerusalem.    Help us to see and hear, sing and proclaim the message of your salvation to all people.

In Jesus name, Amen.

As most of you know, a special baby was recently born into the world.

This baby is the most brilliant, sweetest, most adorable, smartest, most wonderful baby girl the world has ever seen.

Her name is Martha, and she’s my niece.

I have lots of pictures of her on my phone, if you’d like to see them after worship. Did I mention that she’s adorable?

Also, in case you didn’t know, Martha has a big brother, named Matthew.

Matthew is the most brilliant, sweetest, most adorable, smartest, most wonderful little toddler the world has ever seen.

I have pictures of him too, if you’re interested.

I even have pictures of the two of them together. The cuteness factor is off the charts on those ones.

As a parent of one – or, perhaps, as a grandparent or uncle or aunt, in my case – when there is one child in your life, you love that child with all your heart.

The next time that the pregnancy test comes back positive, or you get that call from the adoption agency, or you hear the good news from your relative about their growing family, you start to wonder – how could I ever love a second child as much as I love the first? My heart is so full of love already, how can it stand loving any more?

And this is where the miracle occurs.

When child #2 arrives, you don’t love the first child any less than you did before. And you don’t love the second child any less than you love the first.

Your love isn’t diminished, it expands.

Our love can always expand to include more people.

So it is with the love of God.

As the spirituality of humanity has grown, God’s love has grown along with us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through the Word.

God has been around for a long time. A very long time.

People have been around for… slightly less long.

But for the entire time that humans have existed, we have had a relationship with God, through the Word described in John 1.

God created the world, and humankind was created in God’s own image.

Over the course of time, God came to the people as an angel and a burning bush, in king David and the prophet Nathan, through a flood and a plague of frogs, and as the sound of sheer silence.

In many and various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets.

Most of us who are here today have attended Sunday School or Bible studies, or we’ve read the Bible on our own.

We’ve learned the stories about God and the Hebrew people. We know something about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and about Moses, and about the kings of Israel and the prophets.

God chose the family line of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to be the recipients of a promise for people, place, and purpose.

The chosen people were promised descendants as numerous as the stars; they were promised a land in which to live and worship God; and they were promised that they would be a blessing to the entire rest of the world, as special emissaries of God.

God had a relationship with humanity well before Jesus was born.

But, of course, the birth of Jesus drastically changed the way that God related to people from that point forward.

In many and various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken to us by a Son.  

When Jesus was born, God’s relationship with humanity took on a new angle – it expanded to allow for new adventures

But that does not mean that God abandoned the first chosen people.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.

The Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations;

and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

God has always loved the Hebrew people, and continues to love the Hebrew people, according to the promises made in the Old Testament of our Bible.

That same God, who has been around and relating with people for a very long time, came to humanity in a new way on Christmas.

God loved people both before and after the Word became flesh… that love was just shown in different ways to different people.

Kind of like how love is shown in different ways to a first-born and second-born child. There is more love than there ever was before, and that love shows itself in new and unexpected ways.

I can love Matthew when I see how good of a big brother he is to Martha – and I can love Martha when I see how patient she is with Matthew. The fact that there are two children to love just gives me more reasons to love them both!

The love continues to grow, as they both continue to grow.

The United Church of Christ, one of our denominational partners, has a great way of describing this reality.

Don’t put a period where God has put a comma.

God is still speaking.

God will continue to come to humanity in new ways.

It’s not our job to close the book on God’s action in the world – it’s our job to remain open to the new ways that God speaks to people, starting with the incarnation of the Word, the birth of Jesus, on Christmas.

When God took on human flesh, it was a totally different manifestation of God’s love for humanity than anything that had come before.

We, as Christians, recognize the incarnation as the defining moment of God’s love for us.

This doesn’t mean that God didn’t love humanity before, just that, maybe, we are child #2 and we didn’t know anything about God’s love until the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus.

The expanding nature of God’s love can be a challenge for us to understand.

Western thought tends to be dualistic.

Black or white, male or female, citizen or foreigner, Republican or Democrat.

God doesn’t work that way.

God isn’t an us-or-them being.

God is an all-inclusive being.

Divine Word and human flesh, light and life, good shepherd and mother hen, righteous judge and giver of unconditional grace, ruler and slave, God the Father and Jesus the Son…

God is big enough to include it all!

In many and various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken to us by a Son.  

God spoke to the people in Hebrew and English and Hindi and Portuguese. 

God spoke through men and women and through the beauty of nature.

God spoke in music and sculpture and photographs and watercolors.

In many and various ways, God has spoken to people throughout time. And in many and various ways, God will continue to speak to humanity and teach us more about Godself.

My sister has said that unless they can figure out a way for her husband to carry a child through the 9 months of pregnancy, they are done having kids.

         But what would happen if child 3 did come along?

Again, the love that they have – that the whole family has – for Matthew and Martha would not decrease. Our love would expand to welcome child #3!

And the same would happen if there was a child #4 or 5 or 6!

Seriously, though, we’re talking in the abstract now – if my sister were here, she’d be laughing at the suggestion of a 6-child family.

Thank goodness that God’s love is even more expansive than our human love!

God wouldn’t balk at child #3, or 33, or 303.

God will continue speaking to people, in many and various ways.

And God’s love will continue to expand to include whatever people hear and respond and are reached by God’s Word.

God has had special relationships with people throughout history – like Sarah and Rachel, Joseph and Moses, Ruth and Isaiah.

God kept creating new relationships with people, which is where Jesus comes into the picture, as the divine Word made flesh and sent to dwell among us.

And God will continue to come to us in new and exciting and meaningful and earth-shattering ways.

         Our job isn’t to put limits on the ways that God can speak to people.

Our job is to keep our eyes and ears and hearts and minds open to notice when God is speaking to us in new ways.

Our job is to invite more people into relationship with God.

Our job is to see God in one another, and to treat other people as we would treat God.

         Our job is to be like that messenger described in the reading from Isaiah, who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who breaks forth into singing:

For the Lord has comforted his people,

  he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has bared his holy arm

  before the eyes of all the nations;

 and all the ends of the earth shall see

  the salvation of our God.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Jesus is Here

Christmas Eve 12/24/15
Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, you are our rock, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.

Merry Christmas!

I don't know about you, but in my world, the past few weeks have been filled with buying presents, addressing cards, working overtime, making plans with family, hanging ornaments, opening little doors on an Advent calendar, missing loved ones, listening to music, watching movies…

Because, of course, I had to make time in the midst of all that preparation to see the new Star Wars movie! (Twice.)

Here’s a question for you – no spoilers, I promise.

What do Star Wars and Christmas have in common?

Awkward questions about paternity.

The past few weeks, this season of Advent, has been spent in preparation for the celebration to come.

Most of the preparation that we do leading up to Christmas is for the details of the celebration. What food will be served? Who has a new address since cards were sent last year? How much can we afford to spend on gifts this year? Which worship service should we attend?

The real celebration of Christmas actually needs very little preparation at all.

The celebration today is for the birth of a baby!

And really, when a baby is born, the big picture matters way more than the details. Did the child arrive, alive and well, and is mom safe and supported by loved ones?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, then the details don’t matter. Boy or girl? Breech or sunny-side-up? Doctor or doula, home or hospital? Those details matter very little unless the baby arrives and is healthy, and so is mom.

The birth of a child can inspire mountains of preparation, but the most meaningful celebration for a healthy birth needs very little preparation!

Mary and Joseph could hardly have been less prepared for the birth of their son. They were far from home, had no bed, and certainly no thematic nursery prepared to greet their baby.

But, God be praised, their son arrived! And there was much rejoicing, in heaven and on earth.

Today we transition from preparation for the coming of the Messiah to celebration of the Messiah’s arrival!

Jesus showed up on Christmas, and Mary and Joseph were never the same.

Jesus showed up on Christmas, and all of humanity was never the same.

Jesus showed up in a small town in an out-of-the-way Roman colony. By all societal measures, he was born to poor, unremarkable parents.

Jesus was visited by people at both the lowest and highest rungs of society – shepherds from the fields, and wise men from a land far away.

Throughout his life, Jesus had an impact in the lives of fishermen and tax collectors, paralytics and Roman soldiers, priests and governors.

Jesus showed up in a feeding trough for animals on that first Christmas, and Jesus continued to show up in all kinds of places throughout his ministry.

And now, Jesus shows up in our world today.

Like the angel promised to Mary, there is no end to Jesus’ kingdom – there are no boundaries of geography or gender or education or economics.  

Jesus is in our poor neighborhoods and our royal cities.

He is in refugee camps and all-inclusive resorts.

Jesus shows up at the homeless shelter and the retirement home, at day care centers and senior centers.

Jesus shows up in coffee shops and soup kitchens, fast food joints and five-star restaurants.

Jesus shows up in our homes and in our hearts.

Jesus is even at our dinner table.

In my family, we had a tradition growing up.

When it was your birthday, you got to pick what you wanted to eat for dinner, and then you got to eat your meal on the red plate. Around the outside it says, “you are special today.”

My parents gave a new You Are Special plate to both my sister and me when we got married… and presumably will do the same for my brother if he ever gets married… so that we could carry on the tradition in our own families.

We used the You Are Special plate on holidays, too. On Christmas, whoever set the table would get out the red plate, and set an extra place for Jesus.

It was his birthday that we were celebrating, after all.

The red plate was a reminder to us that our shared meal on Christmas was to celebrate Jesus showing up in the world – in Bethlehem, in church, and even at our family dinner table.

Today, in this church, Jesus is really here. Just as surely as he was born in Bethlehem and placed in a manger, he is also among us now.

The preparations are over and the celebration has begun!

Jesus is in the music, in the Scripture, in the children, and in the candles that we’ll be lighting at the end of the worship service.

Jesus is here, at our table, in the bread and wine that we are going to share together in a few minutes.

In fact, from the moment Jesus was born into the world, his existence was related to the food on our table here tonight.

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem. That name comes from two Hebrew words, Bēṯ Leḥem, meaning “house of bread.”

“Oh little town of house of bread…”

The unexpected birth of Jesus in Bethlehem connects incarnation directly to one of our most basic needs – bread.

I’m not taking about the carb-loaded, gluten-full bread that many of us hardly ever eat any more – I’m talking about bread as shorthand for basic dietary sustenance, as in, “give us this day our daily bread.”

The fact that Jesus was born in a place named “house of bread” reminds us that Jesus provides for our daily needs like food and water and the air we breathe. It is also a reminder that we need Jesus just as much as we need food and water and the air we breathe.

Jesus was born into the house of bread, to a couple who was unprepared to receive him, to a world that mostly didn’t recognize him until after his death.

But Jesus showed up. The baby was born regardless of whether humanity had finished all our preparations.

And Jesus continues to enter into our lives – on holidays (holy days), and on birthdays, and in the routine of our daily lives.

This is the good news of Christmas – Jesus is here! Jesus is in our homes and in our hearts, in the ghetto and in the gated community.

God has sent the Messiah to the world to save us from ourselves.

Jesus comes to us no matter what our celebrations look like during this holiday season. Jesus comes to share a meal with us, to bring us our daily bread, and to sustain us for the life of faith that lies ahead of us.

Thanks be to God for our savior, born this day. Let the celebration begin.

Amen.

Prepare in Love

Advent 1C 11/29/15

Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

God of peace, we ask for your guidance as we prepare for the coming of the Messiah, Emmanuel, Jesus, God with us. Help us to hear your word, to absorb it and reflect on it, and to let your word guide every action of our lives. Amen.

This is the time of the year when we are all encouraged to be good Boy Scouts. Be prepared!

During the season of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of Christ, the Bible readings warn us to look for the signs and to remember the prophesies that will indicate the coming of the Messiah.

Watch out for the signs of what is to come!

The days are surely coming, says the Lord…

Be prepared!

Maybe you remember those popular t-shirts and bumper stickers from a while back… Jesus is coming. Look busy.

Well, the Bible readings tell us that we are supposed to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah, but looking busy as we prepare for the birth of Christ is really not the problem that most of us have.

The bigger challenge for most of us is being able to honor the third commandment – remember to observe the Sabbath,    to take the occasional day of rest    from our busy work and holiday prep schedules – that is the more difficult challenge for most of us as we prepare for the holiday season.

Somehow, we have taken “be prepared” to the extreme, and created ways to keep ourselves    extraordinarily busy    during this season of Advent.

Sending cards, shopping for presents, cooking or baking special dishes, figuring out which family members or friends we can visit and when…

Dealing with year-end workloads in our day jobs or even looking for an additional source of income so that we can afford to celebrate festively…

Finishing handmade gifts, or wondering whether there will be enough money to pay for the special food or gifts this year… 

Realizing that we have no way to be in touch with some of our family or friends and working hard to cover up our frustration or grief when others talk about their upcoming celebrations with loved ones…

There’s no doubt, this is a stressful month for just about everyone.

Advent is the season in the church year that is dedicated to the preparation for the coming of Jesus on Christmas. Contrary to the secular holiday season, Advent is meant to be a season of reflection, of preparation for the coming of the Christ child, of pondering the holy mysteries in our hearts. 

Advent is sort of the antithesis to Black Friday – instead of running around trying to find the best deal on things that we want or on presents for others – instead of avoiding even the grocery store because we don’t want to fight with traffic, or simply out of protest against consumerism – instead of being self-indulgent or judgmental, Advent is about being self-aware and reflective, and focused on our relationship with the divine.

The season of Advent is designed to focus on hope, joy, peace, and other values that herald the coming of God’s Messiah, in the person of Jesus.

So we’ve got society’s holiday season and the church’s Advent season.

Here’s something interesting, though.

Whether we are frantically trying to meet everyone’s expectations for gift-giving, card-sending and holiday celebrations, or whether we’re simply reflecting on holy things during Advent, we still need to take a pretty big leap before we can be prepared for the coming of Jesus as it is described in the Bible readings today.

The coming of Jesus promises to be pretty traumatic, if you believe the Scriptures.

There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars… there will be distress among nations… people will faint from fear and foreboding… it will be a time when justice and righteousness are executed.

         That’s how the Scriptures describe the coming of Jesus.

It’s a far cry from Silent Night, Holy Night.

On this first Sunday in the season of Advent, we don’t get to hear peaceful stories about shepherds or sleeping babies. Instead, the Bible readings foreshadow a pretty distressing series of events to come.

OK, I can guess what some of you are thinking. And you’re right. Today’s Bible readings are talking about the next coming of Christ. During the season of Advent, we prepare for his first coming, for his birth as a baby in Bethlehem.

But remember, the first time that Jesus came, things didn’t end so well.

Jesus lived a rather nondescript life until he was a couple years younger than I am now, at which point he started his public ministry.

His teachings and miracle working got the attention of the authorities, and they started to plot ways to get rid of him.

Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends, was arrested and put on trial, and even though the authorities didn’t have a good reason to execute him, they decided to do so anyway in order to please the crowds.

Jesus was put to death in a terribly painful manner, after nearly all of his followers had abandoned him.

The first time that Jesus came, when he was born as a baby and placed in a manger, it didn’t end so well for him.

Except, for us, that first time, it did end well.

God, the creator of the universe, took on human form in the person of Jesus, an otherwise normal first century guy living in the Middle East.

This simple Middle Eastern man secured the salvation of all of humankind.

God took on the burden of everyone’s sins, and our guilt died with Jesus on the cross. We no longer need to fear death, because the death of Jesus guaranteed that you and I have access to eternal life with our creator.

The first time Jesus came, on Christmas, the birth that ended in death for the sake of humanity, isn’t honored very well by the excessive busy-ness or consumerism of our society at this time of the year.

So out of gratitude for Jesus’ first coming,   in the church    we take this time every year to honor and prepare for his birth on Christmas.

But the reflectiveness of Advent doesn’t tell the whole story either.

The other task for this time of the year, while we remember and honor Jesus’ first time coming to earth as a human, the other task is to spend time preparing for Jesus’ coming again, at an as-yet-undetermined time in the future.

You see, the question isn’t when or whether Jesus will return – no one knows exactly when or how it will happen. All that we know is that it’s coming.

So the question is, how do we prepare for the coming of Christ?

One of my seminary professors writes, the story in “Luke has shifted the question from “when will these things happen?,” you see, to “how shall we live in the meantime?” … [S]hifting the question from “when” to “how” invites us to perceive … the most stunning part of this passage, when Jesus says, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Davie Lose, …In the Meantime, http://www.davidlose.net/2015/11/advent-1-c-stand-up-and-raise-your-heads/

Raise up your heads! Pay attention! Be prepared!

Jesus is coming,    and we don’t know when,    but it is time, now, to get ready.

Getting ready, that question of how to live in the meantime, is a pretty important duty to figure out.

Jesus seems to speak in riddles in the Gospel reading from today – pay attention to the sun and moon and stars, to international politics and to fig trees, he says – then you’ll know when God’s next big thing is about to happen.

Um… what?

Maybe one of you has a fig tree in your yard, but I sure don’t.

And based on international politics or weather patterns or meteor showers or eclipses, well, the second coming of Christ could be tomorrow. Or it could be in 80 years. Or it could have been 800 years ago. Those signs are pretty generic. How can we get ready for stuff that seems to be ongoing?

Thankfully, again, we’re not trying to figure out when – we’re trying to figure out how to pass the time until then. What should we do in between opening up squares on the Advent calendar, and between Advent this year and Advent 20 years from now?

The Thessalonians reading gives us a clue of how to pass the time. Live a life based on love.

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all … And may [God] so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

(1 Thess 3:12-13 NRSV)

The best way to prepare for the coming of Jesus – 2000 years ago on the first Christmas and at an unknown time in the future – the best way to prepare is to show love for everyone else in the world.

I like this instruction, because it still allows us to send cards and buy presents and bake cookies, as long as our motivation for doing so is love for someone else.

The instruction to prepare for the coming of Christ by loving others also allows us to spend time in worship or quiet prayer, to go to Bible study, to avoid all signs of commercialism, as long as those things are done in love.

And this instruction allows us – encourages us, in fact – to show love in all kinds of new ways.

Write a card for an inmate at the jail on your way out of church this morning, or write a letter to your legislator telling them that you believe it’s important for everyone to have access to food.

Donate your old winter coat for someone else to use, or donate that unopened can of cranberries to the food pantry for someone else to enjoy.

Find a way to spend time with other people – connect with our care team to visit our homebound members, or volunteer at a hospice facility to help support people in their final hours of life.

Serve a meal at Luke House or spend a night in a church with homeless folks who are grateful for the shelter, or with our own confirmation students for a lock-in.

When Jesus comes into the world, it will shake the universe to its foundations.

That’s what those signs are all about, those signs that Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel reading.

Jesus changed reality when he came at the first Christmas – and Jesus will change reality when he returns.

The only way that we can prepare for the coming of the Messiah – both on Christmas, and in the unknown future – is to live a life guided by love.

How would our Christmas preparations change if we thought of this year’s Christmas as the second coming of Christ?

I’m not talking about a Jesus is coming, look busy theology – but if we knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow – or if we knew that we only had 25 days to count down the return of the Messiah – how would that change our holiday celebrations this year?

My encouragement to you, as we enter this season of Advent, is to be sure that each and every holiday preparation that absorbs your energy is guided by love for God and others.

Bake bread for the glory of God. Go shopping for the love of others. Knit a sweater in prayer and decorate the house with care and peace. Wrap presents lovingly and clean the house for guests with a song in your heart.

The only way to prepare for the coming of Christ is with a heart full of love.

And so, sisters and brothers, as Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians,

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may [God] so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Amen.