Growing in Wisdom

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake, Canyon Lake, TX.
The Lectionary readings for the second Sunday after Christmas are here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! How are you feeling about the year to come? Excited, anxious, hopeful, fearful, ambiguous? Are you setting expectations or are you just going to roll with it as it comes? Do you have a plan or have you given up on planning anything? Are you just going to charge ahead into the new year or are you stepping in intentionally with your eyes and heart open to seeing where God is at work and listening for God’s call for what is yours to do?

Time moves forward, regardless of anything we do. God created the order and rhythm of the sun and the moon, days and nights, winter, spring, summer, and autumn. The time we inhabit is a sacred gift of God. What we do with and in time is our choice. And regardless of how hard we may work to ensure things “stay the same” it is God’s intention that we move and grow through time, continuously being formed into who we are created and called to be.

Today’s gospel reading is the one and only story we have of Jesus’ childhood. This story paints such a concrete picture of the life of a jewish family and community in first century Palestine, I feel like we can just step into it and imagine ourselves as one of them, inhabiting God’s story along side them.

Mary and Joseph had taken their annual trip to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. But this wasn’t a roadtrip as we’d think of one: a nuclear family traveling independently in their own vehicle from one place to another.

Traveling was treacherous: there weren’t rest areas every 50 miles, there were no restaurants or hotels or gas stations along the way. Today, Google maps says it will take about 30 hours to walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem. The journey is about 90 miles, on foot, taking anywhere from 3-5 days. And it wasn’t just Mary and Joseph. It would have been most everyone from Nazareth making the journey together – 100s of people with some pack animals and carts to carry what they needed for the trip and the festival. There weren’t roadside hotels or rest stops.

And when the festival was over, Mary and Joseph and the entire community began the return trip home. But they didn’t realize Jesus had stayed behind. They assumed he was in the traveling group.

Imagine it: it’s the morning of the departure and Mary and Joseph are packing up. Jesus, being twelve, starts to wander away. Mary probably assumes he’s going to hang out with his friends and tells him to be ready to go at a certain time. “Yes, Mamma,” Jesus says in the absent minded twelve year old way, and Mary resumes her packing and loading.

And as the group starts to pull out of Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph know and trust that their entire community is looking out for each other and assume Jesus is with a group of kids. They check in with those around them and everyone seems to be ready and accounted for.
“Here let me help you with the last of that stuff, we have a little extra room in our cart.”
“Do you have enough water? We have enough to share if you run out, I picked up a couple of extra new jars and filled them.”
“We are getting a late start, how far do you think we’ll make it today?”
“Yes, I saw him, he’s with the other boys over there.”
“This year’s festival was so special but it’s always good to be heading home.”

And as evening approaches, Mary and the other mothers start rounding up their kiddos for supper. As the groups of kids start to disperse, Jesus is no where to be found.
“Boys, is he with you?”
“No, I saw him this morning but he said something about his father’s business so we thought he was staying with you.”

Mary and Joseph panic. Where is he? Those around them do their best to reassure them. “He’s got to be here somewhere? Boys, when did you see him last? Which way was he heading? Pass the word up and down the group: where’s Jesus? He’s not here, he must have stayed behind. But why? He knew we were leaving today.”

And so, Mary and Joseph separate from the group. “Y’all go ahead, we’ll return and look for him. He’s probably hurrying along the road to catch up with us. He knows the way.” Imagine their fear.

But they don’t find him along the road and for three days, they search and search in Jerusalem, until they find him, safe and sound in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening and asking questions, as if everything were as it is supposed to be.

Have you every thought your child was lost, lost sight of them momentarily in a store or at the park? What was your response when you found them? It’s a mix of relief, anger, and love, a flood of emotions so immense, we don’t know what to express first.

Mary responds as most any mother would, “Why have you done this to us? Don’t you know we were worried about you?”

Jesus tries to reassure them that everything is fine: “I must be in my father’s house, I am supposed to be about my father’s business.”

The family returns to Nazareth, to the relief of their community and all we are told of the rest of Jesus’ adolescence is that he “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.”

What’s going on in your heads and hearts as we picture Jesus as a kid with his parents and in his community? What are you thinking when you hear that Jesus grew in wisdom? Does it draw you closer into relationship with him? Does it make you question what you think you know and believe? Does it allow you to see the reality of the humanness of Jesus? Does it strengthen your faith in Jesus as one with God? Does it help you know more concretely, your place in God’s story?

This story is about growing in wisdom and is bookended with the word ‘wisdom’. The verse right before our reading today says, “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”

This very human story is given to us, wrapped in the wisdom of knowing Whose and who we are so that we can know the what it is to be wholly, and holy human, beloved children of God, as a model of the way God intends for us to inhabit this time we are in. In the midst of our daily rhythms and annual occurrences, we grow and mature in wisdom as we walk with God.

Wisdom is what enables us to take what we know and live it. Wisdom is what enables us to live into our humanness from the image of God within us.

Whatever your approach to this new year, step into it with the confidence that we are all in God’s Story, participants with God in bringing about God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom made up of all people, bound together in God’s name, with God’s love, illuminated by the image of God in all of us, growing in wisdom.

In last week’s sermon, I made the statement that Jesus is more fully human than anyone because he never tried to live any other way than from the image of God. We are created to live this way. Our anxiety, our stress, our fear, our trepidation all comes from our attempt to live into our humanness without acknowledging the image of God in us, when we disconnect ourselves from the very source of who we are to be. We are most fully human when we live fully as God’s beloved.

God chose us BEFORE the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless before him IN LOVE.

And, so I invite all of us to take the prayer that Paul prays for the church at Ephesus and pray it on behalf of our St. Francis by the Lake community as we intentionally step into what God is doing in and among and through all of us in this year to come. In your bulletin, look at the New Testament lesson and let’s pray together: “I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” Amen.

Receiving Christmas

A sermon preached the first Sunday of Christmas at St. Francis by the Lake, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings are here.

Soooooo, if you were here yesterday, you may be wondering if:
A) That in all of the pre-Christmas commotion, did we forget to update the gospel lesson in the bulletin, OR
B) That you are so discombobulated by all of the Christmas festivities, that you think you imagined the same gospel lesson yesterday and today OR
C) That we slipped some extra eggnog into your coffee this morning OR
D) That Mother Nancy’s just gotten lazy and is replaying the gospel and sermon from yesterday.

Let me reassure you that none of the above are true. One of the choices for the gospel reading for Christmas Day is the same lesson at the First Sunday of Christmas. Except for one little detail – today’s is longer and includes more verses than the reading for Christmas Day. Now, I won’t pretend to fathom the brilliant minds that are the keepers of the Lectionary and offer some explanation as to why, I’ll just run with it and do my very best to give you something to ponder for this coming week.

But before I do my bit, let me ask, for those of you who were here yesterday, Christmas Day, is there anything you remember? That’s a seriously dangerous question for a preacher to ask!

So, for those of you who weren’t here yesterday, let me bring you up to speak. We talked about how John’s telling of the nativity, the story of God coming to us, doesn’t include what we expect in the Christmas Story – there’s no shepherds nor angels nor a baby in a manger. John chooses to take us farther up and farther into God’s eternal story so that we can hear God calling us to participate with him in the bringing about of the kingdom on earth as in heaven as we live the Christmas Story every day of the year.

And John leaves us with no doubt that Jesus was fully God and fully human, both God and made in the image of God, and that from this fullness – some say that Jesus is more fully human than we can even imagine being because he never tried to live any other way than in the image of God – from his abundance of grace and his absolute truth, we are given, we are able to receive all that God has to give. Grace upon grace.

But just what is grace? Grace is that which we don’t deserve. And this is so often taken as a negative with statements like: we don’t deserve God’s love but he gives it to us anyway. That sure doesn’t sound much like ‘good news’ to me, how about you?

The good news of God’s grace is that we don’t have to work ourselves to death to get it. Regardless of the choices we’ve made in life, God offers us the gift of his love and life and light. God doesn’t love us “in spite of” or “regardless of” or “because of” anything we’ve done; God loves us because of who God is.

In the beginning, God made us in his image and said we are good, and our place in God’s creation made all of creation very good.

And from the beginning, God gives us the choice to live into the good and holy image in which we are created, to bear this image to the world so that the world knows that every human being is given the power to bear the good and holy image of God, to love as God loves.

When God first gave the law to Moses, the Ten Commandments, it was to help the Israelites learn to love as God loves: an unconditional, all in, other focused love. People who love God and their neighbor and themselves as God loves don’t need other gods; we don’t need to boost up our own egos by working constantly and can let go of our need to control and rest; we don’t have to take or even desire what others have, life or property, because we seek together to ensure everyone has what they need. This is how God says loving people live.

And when God decided the time was right, he came to show us the truth of what living in love looks like in flesh and blood. This unconditional, self-giving love looks like a baby in a manger, born to parents who risked everything, even their own lives, to walk with God into God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven. This love looks like the poorest of shepherds and the wealthiest and most educated traversing difficult journeys to get in on what God is doing in this world because they are willing to accept the awe and mystery of something they can’t fully grasp.

This love looks like a man who spends time with those on the margins of society and who works to restore the dignity of life in others, who feeds the hungry, washes feet, and heals even those who seek to harm him.

This God’s-image-bearing love works to include everyone because everyone is a precious child of God. This love sheds light on the truth that real power is demonstrated by compassion.

And although it is the baby Jesus we celebrate during Christmas, it is the life and words and actions of the man Jesus that we follow every day of the year as we learn from him more and more who God is and whose we are as beloved children. That’s the good news: that we can know whose and who we are, if we seek the truth of that in the right place, with the right person – the one through whom we are all created, the One that John testifies to, our source of life and light and love.

But just what does that look like for us here and now?

Do you know the poem by Howard Thurman titled “The Work of Christmas”?
Howard Thurman was an American author, theologian, and civil rights worker in the first half of the twentieth century and was a mentor and spiritual advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.

Thurman’s most known book is titled Jesus and the Disinherited in which he discusses nonviolent responses to oppression.

His short poem, taken from a collection of writings on Christmas is one many of us see floating around this time of year:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.

Christmas isn’t over, the season of Christmas, the twelve days of Christmas is just beginning. But the work of Christmas, the coming of God among us to remind us of whose image we bear, is ours to do with God’s help all year long.

The work of Christmas is seen in the lives of the greats like Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King and Bishop Desmond Tutu who’s death we grieve today, but we know that the light they shown so brightly is the light of God and the darkness will not overcome it. These men and so many others have devoted their lives to the work of Christmas.

And when we choose to follow Jesus beyond the manger and into the hurting world where ever we are, the work of Christmas also looks like what we do in our community and families to help those who feel lost feel love, to feed the hungry both physically and spiritually, to tell people of the freedom of the good news of God, that we don’t have to earn God’s love, God loves us because of who God is and who we are. The work of Christmas happens as we receive the gift of God’s love, letting it flow through us into the world, sharing the message of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

A Different View

A sermon preached on Christmas Day at St. Francis by the Lake in Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings are here.

As you listened to the gospel reading just now, did you find it odd that it wasn’t about the manger scenes we typically associate with Christmas Day? Where are Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and angels? Where is the baby Jesus? Isn’t Christmas about the baby Jesus?

Well, yes, it is, but there’s so much more and I want us to talk about the ‘more’. God didn’t come as a baby to stay a baby or just to give us something to celebrate one day a year but to remind us of, to help us remember, the full and abundant life we are create for. This is the part of the story that John provides for us.

What we typically tell as “the Christmas Story” comes from a mashup of details from the gospel writers Luke and Matthew. The details they each provide place the story of the birth of Jesus into time and history as we can humanly understand it.

Luke tells us that by the time he chose to write his version of the birth of Jesus, that many folks had already “applied themselves to the task of compiling an account of the events that have been fulfilled among us.” And that, “after having investigated everything carefully from the beginning … [he] decided to write a carefully ordered account… to provide confidence in the soundness of the instruction [we] have received.”

Luke starts with the announcement to Elizabeth and Zechariah of the birth of John, who would be Jesus’ cousin. And he tells of the angel’s visit to Mary and the reason for the trip to Bethlehem, and how they ended up in the stable, as well as the visit by the shepherds.

Matthew doesn’t give us a reason for writing what he writes, but starts with the genealogy, from Abraham to Joseph, the husband of Mary and then simply tells us that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem” before telling the story of the Magi traveling by the star to find the newborn king, whom they find in a house, not a stable. But we’ll save talking about them for Epiphany, because despite what our manger scenes may look like, they didn’t arrive until later.

And just so I don’t give the impression of ignoring the other gospel writer, Mark, I’ll just say that in his immediacy, Mark starts his version with Jesus and his cousin John already grown and offers nothing of their conception, birth, or childhood.

When John penned his version of God’s story, he decided to go way back before the birth of baby Jesus to the Beginning, to take us into the eternal nature of the story. Because, you see, the birth of Jesus wasn’t an add-on or a plan B, Jesus was and is and will always be part of God’s eternal story. And John tells us how we are a part of God’s eternal story, too.

In the Beginning was … the Word, Jesus, somehow, in holy mystery, both God and with God. One and yet distinct. In the beginning was also the mystery of the Trinity but that’s for another sermon on another Sunday. This is Christmas. The celebration of the birth of Jesus, yes, but not the beginning. Or the middle. Or the end. It is a continuation of God’s Story of Love.

This celebration, this Mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus, is so much more than a day.
It is so much more than a box of decorations we get out once a year and then put away when we are done with them. It is so much more than a once a year meal with our extended family and friends. It is so much more than the wonderfully wrapped “Just what I wanted” under the tree.

It is more than our words can fully describe. What we celebrate today is the Holy Mystery of God who spoke us into being in Love, for Love, to Love.
We celebrate the God who called an ancient people to learn to love as he loves so that the world would know love.
The God who again and again forgives when we choose our own way, for taking what we want instead of being grateful for the abundance God gives.
The God who always offers us the choice to be who we are created to be or try to find life for ourselves.
The God who loves us regardless of our choices and waits for us to return to who we are meant to be.
The God who feels the pain of our choices and offers us comfort and courage and strength.
The God who says, “you are my beloved.”
This is the God we celebrate.

God came as a vulnerable and fragile infant, born to the poorest of parents, in a time dominated by fear and violence to shine the light of love into the darkness.
God came to live and die as one of us so that we could live every moment of every day as we are created to live, in the image of the God who spoke us all into being in the beginning.

“Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.”

This is what we celebrate with our manger scenes and trees and ornaments and gifts: the love and light and life that comes from the God who created all things and all of us as beloved children.

So that, as with our collective prayer we prayed to be “daily renewed by God’s Holy Spirit”. This Word, this Light, this life is for all of us, to guide our steps in The Way of Love.

God comes to us every moment of every day, waiting for us to respond to his invitation of love and life. The Christmas story is God’s Eternal Story and we are a part of the story. We are, each and every one of us, born in God’s image. We are born to shine the light of love into the darkness of this world. Each and every baby born, whether in a stable or in the grandest of palaces and every possible place in between says that God isn’t finished writing his story yet.

The baby in the manger scenes is our reminder of who we are born to be: beloved children of God.

Mary and Joseph remind us that even when God calls us to do the really hard things that he is with us, giving us courage and strength.

The angels proclaiming the birth are our reminder to share the message of hope and love we’ve been given.

The shepherds remind us of the awe and wonder of God coming to us, as we are, not requiring us to earn our way into his presence but drawing us into the kingdom, into God’s eternal story, as activists participants, shining the light into the darkness.

Yes, the Christmas story is about the baby Jesus, but it is so much more. It is the story of who we are meant to be, written by God, in which we are given the power to be children of God, born of God in Jesus’ name.

It is the story of God with us in our homes and in our places of work and play and where we volunteer and shop and participate in our communities.

Christmas is about God with us every day of the year, shaping and transforming us as we participate with God in the answer to the prayer the grown up Jesus teaches us: God’s will be done on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Amen.

Knowing Joy

It’s almost Christmas, y’all! And before I go any further, let me say I enjoy Christmas festivities, I really do, but over the past several years, I’ve embraced a simpler way of Christmas. I’m certain that the main reason is that as a priest, Christmas isn’t time off but a season of additional work. But a lot of it has to do with a deeply forming desire to experience the (and I’m sorry this has become so cliche, I really am being sincere and authentic) true meaning of the Holy Day (holiday) of God becoming flesh for all our sake, the real reason for the season, why we celebrate the Mass of Christ (get it? Christ’s Mass, Christmas) in the first place.

And there’s a few more pieces to the puzzle as well (If you can’t tell, I’ve been thinking this through a lot because I want to make sure I’m not just becoming a grinch in my old age). I am also on a journey of doing my best with God’s help to not overload my days and weeks in any season and to step out of the western culture’s ideal of hustle and hurry. It’s tough to follow Jesus when I’m running around being busy for the sake of being busy.

And, I’ll just go ahead and say it: gifts cause me stress. I’m not a clever gift giver. I can’t, at a moments notice (or even a long notice), think of the perfect gift for anyone. If I’m out and about and see something that makes me think of someone I treasure (the ‘someone’ not the ‘something’) and if I can afford it, I might think through getting it for them but it’s the thinking that often stops me: do they already have something like this, do they need something like this, do they even want to add one more ‘thing’ to their existing stuff, will they like it or will they be annoyed at me for getting it for them (yes, seriously, I think that last question the most, you other Enneagram 9s will understand)? These questions began running through my head long before I started downsizing, decluttering, and limiting the ‘stuff’ in my own life.

So, with all of this, and the fact that Christmas doesn’t even begin until December 25, I’ve let myself off the hook from all of the stress, hustle, and bustle of the time before December 25 (which, as you know, is the season of Advent which is about slowing down and reflecting anyway). During the 12 days of Christmas, I’ll make cookies and goodies and mail cards to my people treasures and I will enjoy it.

I’ve given myself permission to let go of the expectations of the “best ever” Christmas because I’ve come to know that The Best is already with us, leading us on the Way of Love every day of the year. With God’s help and my continuously awakening awareness of God’s Presence, I know the joy of the birth of Jesus.

I experienced this ever abiding joy and Presence just this past Sunday. We awoke to discover that our aging dog had died during the night. It was early and I had to be at church to lead worship. And so I prayed: I gave thanks for the companionship and love this wonderful dog has brought us. And I cried because I will miss her sitting with me while I pray in the morning. And I prayed some more and I asked God for the strength for the morning.

As I read the Eucharistic Prayer, The Presence of God was so very real to me. It is every time, but this time was different, more solider (to borrow a word from C. S. Lewis). I felt and knew the joy of stepping into God’s Story more than I ever had before. And it was nothing I did but a gift from God to enable me to do what is mine with God’s help to do.

I do not believe this experience is limited to those of us called to be ordained. Each and every human being is a beloved child of God and God wants all of us to experience the reality and joy of The Presence with us and in us and in each other. This joy is so real, so much more and solider than anything. Even when we grieve. Even when we hurt. Even when we just can’t grasp what is going on in this world. Even when we are laughing in a room full of folks we treasure. Even when we get that one thing we’ve wanted more than all the other things. Even when we realize that things can’t sustain happiness.

May you experience the joy of God’s Presence this day and all days, my friends. Emmanuel.

Prepared

A Sunday reflection.
The lectionary readings – and the prayer (collect) for the Fourth Sunday in Advent are here.

I first began posting the Sunday prayer from the Book of Common Prayer each week way back in seminary. For each Sunday of the church year there is a prayer designated to fit the theme of the scripture readings and season. And although the language may sometime sound a bit archaic (y’all know how strongly I feel about the ‘language of the people’ thing), the prayers have always spoken deeply to my soul. And, I’m going to get brave and say, I think they speak to many of you as well. Through the years, I’ve skipped posted a week here and there for various reasons and some of you have asked where the prayer is. As I started this blog, I transitioned the weekly post from my personal page to the graphic for my weekly sermon or Sunday reflection post. Today’s prayer is all about this season of Advent and weaves beautifully with the picture of Mary and Elizabeth we are given.

The gospel reading for today, the fourth Sunday of Advent, is about Mary and Elizabeth rejoicing together because of how God has invited them into The Story. In spite of the dangers and obstacles, even with the fear and trepidation they are feeling, these two courageous and holy women know they are part of something extraordinary and joyfully step into God’s kingdom on earth as it heaven. They have prepared themselves for God’s presence.

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent from the Book of Common Prayer

That’s what the season of Advent is all about: preparing ourselves for the abiding presence of God with us. And yet, there is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy of God, we can only be willing to be transformed by God’s presence. We don’t make it happen, we answer the invitation, just as Mary and Elizabeth did.

I’ve had some wonderful conversations with some of the folks at my parish lately about God waiting for us. We are reading a book in which the author tells the story of realizing that whether or not she showed up to spend intentional time with Jesus every day, that Jesus was always waiting for her. With each day, with each moment, we have the choice to respond to God. God is always with us, whether we are aware of The Presence or not. And if/when we say to God, “I’ll fit you in when I have time” God waits.

God’s greatest desire is to be with us, beloved children. We discover the joy of Mary and Elizabeth when we, too, step into God’s Kingdom, following Jesus on earth as in heaven, opening ourselves up to be prepared, by abiding in God’s presence now, for the face-to-face presence in the time to come. Emmanuel.

Who Warned You?

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The RCL readings for the Third Sunday in Advent are here.

I missed y’all last week. I hear that father David really got your attention for the the first bit of John’s message last week, using the traditional way of asking us to hear God’s voice calling us to return, to change our hearts and minds and follow in the Way of Love as we participate with God in the building up of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. And today we continue with John’s Good News of God as John gets our attention by calling the folks he’s baptizing a “brood of vipers.”

What would you have done, or how would your parents have reacted if the priest at your baptism started out by calling you a brood of vipers? Yeah, I don’t think many of us would have taken it well.

But I promise, it IS a proclamation of good news and love, Y’all! So, let’s break it down; it might be helpful to look at the passage in your bulletins and follow along.

The greek word “gennema” can be translated into English as offspring, generation, or FRUIT of the earth.

It’s interesting that the only other time the English word ‘brood’ is used in the gospel stories is later in Luke when Jesus is lamenting over Jerusalem and says he longs to “gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” And it’s translated from a different Greek word that specifically means a nesting of birds. But I digress.

So, yes, John is calling the folks he’s preaching to the children, or fruit, of poisonous snakes but the point of what he’s saying is the very important and often overlooked question that follows: “who warned you to flee from the wrath?” Who have you been listening to?

Throughout the OT prophets, the proclamation from God has always been if you change your heart, your mind, your ways, IF you REPENT, which means to change your heart, your mind, your ways, God will, as Zephaniah puts it, “rejoice over you with gladness, renew you in his love.”

So, if these folks are being warned to flee the wrath of God, they haven’t been taught anything about God’s nature of Love. They’ve been mislead, mistreated, and flat out lied to. They’ve been told there is no way to avoid God’s wrath, that God is more interested in destruction and condemnation than he is about transforming his children into children of peace, children of joy, children of hope and love.

John is asking them “who have you been listening to? Who are you looking to for your source of life and truth and wisdom? Because the way you are living seems to show that your source is NOT the Word of God as it has been revealed to the prophets.”

He then tells them to bear fruit worthy of repentance – the fruit of God’s kingdom: hope, peace, love, and joy.

“Yes, Mother Nancy,” you may be saying, “that sounds all good and lovely but what about the times the OT prophets do warn the people of God’s wrath and what about the times they talk about the fear-of-the-Lord. Aren’t we supposed to be afraid of God?”

God’s message to change our ways, God’s invitation to be in relationship with him is always a message of hope. God offers a choice: to exchange our way for God’s way of living or to face the consequences of forgetting and ignoring God, the consequences of wanting to have our own way.

God’s greatest desire for all of his children is that we live in his presence on earth as in heaven. God does’t want us to be afraid or to fear life but to live it as we are created to live, in loving relationship with God and each other.

So, yes, Fear-of-the-Lord is is used often by the OT prophets and sages but how often to we hear Jesus say, “do not be afraid?”

In our modern western culture we struggle with the understanding of the term ‘fear-of-the-Lord.’ The meaning of the phrase isn’t a sum of its parts: Fear+God. It is a bound phrase – words that are used together to function like a single word. We don’t define it by adding together the dictionary definition of ‘fear’ and ‘god’. In the original Hebrew it is a two word phrase, again, that when used together make a new idea. Eugene Peterson defines it this way: fear-of-the-Lord is “the way of life that is lived responsively and appropriately before who God is, who he is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.… A way of life in which human feelings and behavior are fused with God’s being and revelation.”

Fear-of-the-Lord isn’t scary or fearful. It is a way of stating the understanding that we’ve come to know that God is God and we are not. It is the way of life that bears fruit worthy of our repentance.

So, does it change your thinking about John to hear, “you brood of vipers, who has warned you” through a “fear-of-the-lord” lens and not a fear lens?

As we continue through the story, it appears that the crowd is beginning to understand. “How do we do that?” they ask. And John explains to them in simple terms what it is to live knowing that we are not the center of all, that God is.
If you have more than you need, share.
In your job, work with integrity and honesty and compassion for others.
Be grateful for what you have.
In other words, live into the image of God in which we are all created.

John’s message is one of inclusion and love, not exclusion and condemnation. It truly is Good News!

The jobs John chooses as his examples are jobs that were considered sketchy and unsavory to say the least: “even tax collectors” came to be baptized. And the soldiers were part of the occupying force that kept ‘peace’ through fear and intimidation. Even these are welcomed into the Kingdom if they change their mind and heart and choose to bear the good fruit of the Kingdom. Today, we might substitute politicians and cable news commentators. Even these are welcomed into the Kingdom if they change their mind and heart and choose to bear good fruit.

Bearing this good fruit takes growth and transformation as we follow Jesus. And to keep with the agricultural metaphor of fruit, John speaks of this transformation through the process of winnowing. Winnowing is the process of blowing a current of air through grain in order to remove the chaff, the husk that covers the actual fruit. With the chaff removed, the grain can be used either for nourishing food or as seed to grow more grain. Separating the chaff from the grain isn’t about dividing one group from another but preparing everyone for better growth and formation in the Kingdom, so that we can produce the fruit worthy of our repentance. What’s burned away in the unquenchable fire is that which gets in the way of our relationship with God. It isn’t separating good people from bad people, it’s about purifying the good that is already in all of us as we are created in God’s image.

All that John has to proclaim is GOOD NEWS for us all!

The point and purpose of John’s proclamation isn’t to belittle or shame but to get folks asking the critical questions of self-examination: What does it mean to say I am a child of God? How does it change my worldview to know that God loves me. How does it change my worldview to know that God loves everyone?

Is my source of truth and wisdom warning me to flee or to exclude others or is it teaching me how to include everyone, to share love not fear, to bear good fruit so that everyone around me is nourished with God’s love?

Am I seeking, are WE seeking together in community to prepare the way of the Lord? Are we seeking with God’s help to make the path straight and level so that everyone wants to join us in The Way?

We can choose to be children of vipers, or we can recognize that we are created children of God and, listening to John’s proclamation of Good News and following Jesus live as we are created to be, who we are created to be, Whose we are created to be.

And knowing Whose and who we are, we can ‘rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Letting our gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:4-7). Amen.

Glaciers and Pearls

As I’m adjusting to being again in full-time ministry in a parish and all that brings this time of year, along with moving house, and tending to a senior dog who appears to be declining in health, getting my Tuesday (Wednesday?) posts out is taking more forethought and intentionality. I don’t say any of this to invoke sympathy or to complain but simply to lay out the reasons that this post is a day late. I am so very grateful for my parish, for our new home, for the many years of joy and companionship our dog has brought us, and for each and every one of you who give of your precious time to read my words. Life is an amazing journey following Jesus in God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven and I’m so glad you are with me.

Have you ever been to Yosemite National Park? It is one of my most favorite places on earth. Did you know the beauty of The Valley was cut by the long, slow, continuous movement of a glacier? Another one of my favorite things is a pearl. Now, I’m sure you are asking what on earth do glaciers and pearls have to do with each other (either that or you are wondering if I’ve had enough coffee yet today)? And I’m so glad you asked.

Glaciers and pearls are two metaphors (albeit limited, as all metaphors are) I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been reading through the book of Proverbs from the collection of books we refer to as the Old Testament. The movement of glaciers over time sculpt a beauty deep beneath surface. Pearls begin as something undesirable and are transformed into a precious gem.

The beauty of Wisdom isn’t something that can be instantly attained, it takes a lifetime of sculpting and transformation. What we do with our time and where we focus our attention matters.


More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it. Have nothing to do with a corrupt mouth; keep devious lips far from you. Focus your eyes straight ahead; keep your gaze on what is in front of you. Watch your feet on the way, and all your paths will be secure. Don’t deviate a bit to the right or the left; turn your feet away from evil.

Proverbs 4:23-27, Common English Bible

The information we consume every moment of every day shapes us whether we realize it or not. I’m so very grateful to have discovered the wisdom that life is not a series of isolated events but a continuous journey of growth. I don’t just move from one event to the next (even when my calendar is full to overflowing) but I do my best with God’s help to inhabit with intentionality every moment, looking for the image of God in all people and being aware of God’s presence everywhere. And when I stumble or get bogged down in “what’s next” or lose sight of Jesus, I am so very grateful to know God is with me in these times, too.

I said last week that I wasn’t sure what this book of Wisdom we call Proverbs and Advent had to do with each other and here’s what I’m beginning to discover. In this season of Advent we are to wait and watch for Christ, The One, the Prince of Peace, our Savior, God with us, Emmanuel. The world says all that we need to make us happy can be purchased and that we have to work and move faster and faster to prove ourselves worthy of the next thing we will need to buy to be happy. Advent and the book of Proverbs remind us we are glacier valleys, carved and transformed by time and intent, keeping our lives centered on God. The world says we should instantly remove and discard anything and everything that isn’t “happiness.” Advent and the book of Proverbs both remind us we are like a pearl, that as we follow Jesus we learn how God transforms that which we find less than tolerable into precious beauty that can’t come about any other way.

Returning

A Reflection for the Second Sunday in Advent*.
The RCL readings are here.

Today is the second Sunday in Advent (it isn’t Christmas yet, y’all). And although this Season is about anticipating the coming of Jesus we spend today (and next Sunday) reading about the story of Jesus’ cousin, John. John is considered the last of the Old Testament prophets even though his story is told in the collection of writings we call the New Testament. John is referred to as John the Baptizer because, we are told, he proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And with those two words (repentance and forgiveness) I’m sure several folks have logged out.

For those of you still with me, what if I told you that the word we translate into the English word ‘repent’ means to have a change of heart or mind or to think about one’s life differently? What if what John was proclaiming is that you don’t have to struggle to do it on your own any more. You don’t have to prove yourself perfect. You don’t have to wonder if you are good enough. What if repentance means that we realize that we gave up the abundance of God’s provision for us to take a limited diet for ourselves, and make the new choice to (re)turn to God as our source of life and love?

Our faith ancestors tell the story of people in God’s garden being tasked with tending what God had made, to participate with God in the care of the world. Yet that wasn’t enough for them; the abundance and variety of nourishment of the garden wasn’t enough. They had to take for themselves the one thing God said don’t take.

Later, the people God had asked to participate with him in the expansion and growth of the world’s population decided they would rather limit themselves by being like everyone one else with an earthly leader. God as their leader wasn’t enough for them. They thought they could do better.

So along comes this camel skin wearing, locust eating fellow named John to remind them that God wants nothing more than to be in relationship with them, to live with them as a beloved family, to help them learn again to rely on the abundance of God’s provision by letting God lead them in the Way of Love. And in their remembering they make the decision to once again see the world through God’s lens and to apologize to God for having ignored his compassion and love and return home to the life God intends for everyone.

How different would the world’s view of ‘church’ and ‘religion’ be if we had held on to this loving message of repentance and forgiveness. Instead of shame and guilt and punishment we hear John’s proclamation as a remembering and a re-membering of our true selves, the beloved children God created us to be.

Hear God’s voice calling all of us to return, to change our hearts and minds and follow Jesus in the Way of Love as we participate with God in the building up of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

And with that message singing in your soul, I invite you to join me next week as I preach about the Good News of God using the continuation of this week’s reading when John calls the folks he’s baptizing a “brood of vipers.” I promise it will be a proclamation of love, Y’all!

*Now that I am back in parish ministry, I will be preaching every other Sunday. For the alternate Sundays I will still do a short(ish) reflection on the lectionary readings.

A Proverbial Journey

Have you ever spent much time pondering the Old Testament book we call Proverbs? I’ll just say upfront, I haven’t. Yes, we read and discussed it in OT class in seminary and I’ve read through it several times as I’ve lead the Bible in 90 Days program in the parishes I’ve served but I’ve never spent time really pondering this wisdom literature. As I was considering what to do for my personal reflection time during this season of Advent, I was drawn to the Book of Proverbs.

The book is a collection of sayings presented as though from a father to a son. I remember sitting down and writing to my son when he was heading off to college a synopsis of all that I wanted him to know, the things I thought would make his life easier or better. I was trying to impart the (little) wisdom I had gained by living my life in a feeble effort to prevent him from making some of the same mistakes I had. As I’m now on the down hill side of middle age (it’s a slow and steady slope following Jesus on an amazing journey that is so much better than charging the hill in my earlier years) I am coming to know that words of wisdom help build the framework of the loom that will weave the beautiful fabric of life with lived experience.

We can gather words of wisdom but until we grasp the purpose and meaning of wisdom I don’t think the words can’t shape our life effectively. Wisdom, to be wise, is taking what we learn and experience and letting it guide who we are and what we do so that we (and yes the plural is intentional) flourish and thrive in whatever family/group/culture/society we are living in. Part of living wisely is knowing that because we are created by the Trinitarian God (the ultimate community) to be in communion with God and each other, we are most fully human in community. We do not thrive when we seek an individualistic life in which we look out only for our individual self and not also those with whom we live.

So, perhaps, the reason I’ve not delved into the book of Proverbs before now is that I wasn’t ready. I was still seeking only knowledge and not wisdom (even if I thought I was). Wisdom literature can’t so much make us wise as it helps us discern the wisdom we’ve gained through life experience as we follow Jesus as God’s beloved children.

The writer of Proverbs begins like this:
“Their (these sayings) purpose is to teach wisdom and discipline, to help one understand wise sayings. They provide insightful instruction, which is righteous, just, and full of integrity. They make the naive mature, the young knowledgeable and discreet. The wise hear them and grow in wisdom; those with understanding gain guidance.”
Proverbs 1:2-5 CEB

The writer also personifies wisdom as a woman. I like the idea of wisdom as a companion, not something we possess or gain but someone with whom we journey, ever growing, ever maturing, our best self. To be fully transparent, I’m not quite sure what this journey into the Book of Proverbs has to do with the season of Advent but I’m listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as I spend time reading and praying and pondering them each day. I’d love it if you’d be able to spend some time with Proverbs, too, and share with me what you are gleaning from the richness of these words.

May your Tuesday and your coming week be filled with the awareness of the presence of God, my friends.

God’s peace,
Mtr. Nancy+

P.S. If you’d like a good introduction of the book, I highly recommend this video done by BibleProject (the topic of this past Friday’s Friday Feature).

Living Hope

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the First Sunday of Advent are here.

If you were here two weeks ago, the gospel reading for today may have sounded familiar. We read Mark’s version of Jesus telling of the destruction of the Temple then and today, we continue Jesus’ sermon from Luke’s point of view. I feel like I could give the exact same sermon. But I won’t. So let me just help you remember where we are in The Story:

Jesus and the disciples have been spending time in the Temple complex in Jerusalem and one of the disciples points out the grandeur of the Temple building. Jesus tells them that the time will come when not one stone will be left on another and he paints a rather terrifying picture of what is to come: famine and war and division but offers the hope that by trusting God we will endure.

Today, we read Luke’s continuation of this teaching: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.” And just as we hear these warnings as a description of our current situation, so did the disciples. The world was and is a frightening place with wars and natural disasters and division and suffering.

The news tells us to be afraid and to be worried. I saw a meme this past week that reminded us of when the news was the news back in the days of Walter Cronkite. News programs were half an hour long and had just enough time to present the facts of what was going on. Mr. Cronkite didn’t give his opinion, he just reported the events of the day. Now we have entire so called ‘news’ channels that have to fill air time 24/7 so they fill the time with what makes us watch: anxiety inducing broadcasting that isn’t news at all but a way to spread the ‘rumors of wars’ Jesus warns us about. Their goal isn’t to keep us informed and knowledgeable but to get the highest ratings and the most advertising dollars.

Jesus tells us to lift our heads, look up, away from the fear driven distractions so that we can see him, so that we can know the true meaning of power and glory of God’s kingdom.

Jesus gives us the example of a fig tree. For us in the Hill Country of Texas we could substitute a peach tree. When we see the leaves come in the spring, we know that summer is already near. God’s plan for God’s creation includes the continuous rhythm of new life. But new life requires the old to pass away. The tree needs the barrenness of winter to bring about the new fruit. Or perhaps, in place of a peach tree we can think about bluebonnets and wildflowers. For these to blanket our fields, we need lots of rain in the fall and a cold winter, two things we aren’t always grateful for in Texas. But think about how excited we get when we see the first bluebonnet of the season! We tell everyone we see and we take long drives to find them in all of God’s glory. We don’t say “oh, the world is too harsh, I can’t enjoy the beauty.” We go looking for it!

And so, when we see the suffering in this world, we are to say, “the Kingdom of God is near.” Not that the end is near but that God is near, with us, Emmanuel.

Jesus isn’t talking about some Pollyanna version of toxic positivity where we ignore the suffering in this world, but the acknowledgement of God’s glory because we know Whose we are: God’s beloved children and we trust and know that God is with us always, so that when we are troubled by the pain and suffering in this world we are, like Jesus, moved with compassion to ease it, not just for ourselves but for everyone.

And at the same time, we admit that God is God and we are not and so fixing the world isn’t our job nor our purpose. God has promised to restore all things and we have to let him do it his way. Jesus tells us to be on guard, to watch, to take care not to let our hearts be weighed down and dulled with the cares of this life, with the anxieties of day-to-day life. We aren’t to let fear guide us but Hope.

When Jesus tells us to pray for the strength to make it through, he isn’t saying to ask for self-sufficiency but the courage and strength to follow Jesus even when the world says we are fools for doing so and to pray for the endurance to keep our eyes on God and not be distracted by the world saying “be afraid, take what you want, look out for yourself.”

What comes to mind as I read Jesus’ words is what has become known as the Serenity Prayer. Did you know that the original version was written by the American theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr was a prominent public voice in the first half of the twentieth century and spoke and wrote of the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy.

He penned the beginnings of his famous prayer in 1932, “Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.”

His final version was published in 1951 and reads:
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.

Life in God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven isn’t a competition of self-sufficiency and individual strength but a companionable journey in which together with God’s help we follow Jesus toward that time when we all stand face to face with God.

Our worldview as Jesus’ Followers is a kingdom view. The kingdom to which we belong is not of this world. It is not made of bricks and wood and not an authority that finds power in oppression but in the loving, life-giving, and liberating ways of God. But God’s Kingdom is definitely in this world because we are the embodied Kingdom of God.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent and the first day of the new year in the church calendar. So, happy New Year, how was your Thanksgiving? Wait, what? Where’s Christmas? It’s coming but not yet.

We begin Advent with the tension of the theme of hope and scripture readings about disaster. Advent is the season of expectant waiting, not dreadful waiting but expectant, hope-filled waiting because we trust and believe God’s promises. We are to stand up and raise our faces toward him, without fear. God will set all of creation into proper order as he intended from the beginning before we came along and decided that the one fruit that we could take for ourselves was better than the abundance God had provided for us.

In the very first Advent season, when Mary and Joseph waited on the birth of Jesus, having been entrusted with bearing and raising God’s Son, I’m sure they had moments of fear and dread. And they hoped, believing God’s enduring Word.

We aren’t called to fix this world but to shine the light of God’s love into the darkness so that others can see Jesus coming in great glory, not someday, but now. How we love is how we reveal God’s glory to the world, keeping our eyes on Jesus so that others see him, too.

And we pray, continuously. As an Advent activity, if you haven’t already made an Advent plan for home, I invite you to take the collect for today and read it each day as you light a candle in your Advent wreath.

Let’s practice it together. Turn to the top of page 3 in your bulletin and pray with me:
“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

Do it in the morning or before a meal. If you don’t have an Advent wreath at home, just circle up 4 candles with whatever you have. Read this prayer each day, lighting one candle. And then do the same next week with next week’s prayer and two candles and the next with three, and the next with four. Keep your expectation sharp. Hope. Pray. And keep your head up and your eyes on Jesus. Amen.