Christmas 2B sermon for those who missed it due to snow

Christmas 2B-2015

“Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my fruits. For the memory of me is sweeter than honey, and the possession of me sweeter than the honeycomb.  Those who eat of me will hunger for more, and those who drink of me will thirst for more.” (Sirach 23: 19-21)

Do these words sound familiar? A little bit of Jesus with a sprinkling from the Psalms.

“Come to me, you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.   … the law of the Lord is perfect – sweeter than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb… whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  

The words with which I began follow from our reading in the Book of Sirach.

Those of you from a Roman Catholic background will have been introduced to this book as “Eccesiasticus.” It is found in Roman Catholic Bibles and in Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha. As an aside, the Protestant reformers, kept the books in the Old Testament that were canonical in Judaism – and although Sirach was highly regarded in rabbinic literature and cited in the Talmud it was not included in Hebrew scripture.  

Written about 200 years before Jesus, Son of Joseph –and Mary, the author, “Jesus, Son of Sirach” eloquently expresses wisdom and tradition in a form of Hebrew poetry emerging at this time. Unlike Proverbs, which is a string of sayings, Sirach develops thoughts, crafts theology, and captures the minds of his students and later readers. The teachings are complex, philosophical, multicultural; drawing on a vast milieu of image, scripture, hymns, prophetic snippets, and present practices. The top three themes of discussion are: the Law, the temple (worship), and works of love.

What is striking is that the book was translated from Hebrew into Greek by Sirach’s grandson 50 years or so later.  The grandson includes a prologue explaining the merit in his grandfather’s work – a lovely tribute that expresses the knowledge of his elder, the instructional value and wisdom to be found in the poetic writing, and a blessing that “those who love learning might make even greater progress in living according to the law.” And also that “lovers of learning be able through the spoken and written word to help the outsiders.”

My imagination, my heart – okay my whole being- is captured by the expression of cosmic concepts; presented in a way that I experience the words, I get it, I feel it…yet after a pause… logically, scientifically…please don’t ask me to articulate it. The Word, as presented – in Sirach, in the words of John chapter 1, in Genesis; wraps together a cosmic presence, an essence:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

“I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist… Alone I compassed the vault of heaven and traversed the depths of the abyss.”

“All things came into being…

The Word is timeless.

This year we celebrate Resurrection’s 100^th birthday.

Perhaps we can see ourselves in the shoes of Sirach’s grandson – we are the grandsons and granddaughters of those who have sat in these very pews for a century – the Word in that time has spoken bringing the true light, which enlightens everyone – a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it; Wisdom has found a resting place and taken root in an honoured people – having moved over the sea, over all the earth, and over every people.  We have heard it as heirs to the glorious message that has been whispered in the cosmos, in creation, in being, from before the beginning of time. 

Wisdom moves amongst us, timeless, coming from the mouth of the Most High with the message as told in Sirach. We are invited to embrace the Law –the commandments- as with the love of a young man for a partner; to come to the temple for worship and praise, to offer thanks; and to go and live lives that shine in the darkness – working acts of love.  It is like a three legged milking stool, all legs are needed for the stool to be sturdy and useable.

A little later on in the book Sirach explains working acts of love – the reinterpretation of the Law, reads like New Year’s listens and a good place to start with resolutions… Wisdom says…

I take pleasure in three things and they are beautiful in the sight of God and of mortals;

Agreement among brothers and sisters, friendship among neighbours, and a wife and a husband who live in harmony.”

“I hate three kinds of people, and I loathe their manner of life: a pauper who boasts, a rich person who lies, and an old fool who commits adultery.”

Like Sirach’s grandson, it is time…in fact to set aside a whole a year… for us to translate the works of Resurrection’s ancestors. It is time for us to add a prologue and more importantly an epilogue to a hundred years of history, expressing the story of Word and Wisdom as it is experienced and breathing through our lives, billowing the ashes of life to be flaming lights – torches leading the way  in this time and place.

Today as we begin to respond to the heritage we’ve been given: following the commandments, worshipping, let us retell the story through working acts of love.  I have brought to church with me 100 loonies.  Each of you will be given one, some of you two –just because there are not quite 100 people present.  What you are invited to do is take the coin and use it to the glory of God to bring light to the darkness. Perhaps that is buying someone a coffee, donating the money, investing the money, planting seeds in the spring and feeding people with the produce… be creative, allow Wisdom Word speak to your heart. 

The act of love itself is not enough, part of Sirach’s message and that of his grandson is that Wisdom moves from one generation to the next; it is translated, it is –as we heard with quotes from Jesus- reinvented, reused, reinterpreted.  So as you take your loonie or loonies and act a work of love, please return with your story of what you did with it.  Tell others how you were part of God’s mission in the world.  Send your stories to me via email, or write what you did with your loonie in the faith blog open at the back.

The Story of the Hundred Loonies” will be written and then shared with everyone, telling of Wisdom moving over the waters and dancing through us dispelling darkness, in our human world, in the created world, into the cosmos and beyond.

Wisdom praises herself, and tells of her glory the midst of her people.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Blue Christmas

Christmas “blue” – funeral home service   Dec. 2014

This time of year is a season of too much: there is too much darkness, a landscape that is too bare, too much traffic, too much consumerism, too much chaos, too much food – drink –and merry making, too many things to do, too much pressure, and too much fake happiness and joy.

Despite all this, within my Lutheran tradition, the next four weeks are my favourite season within the church year. In the church this is the season of Advent – a time where Christmas is held at bay, a time of reflection, a time that looks for hope, seeks peace, craves love, and covets joy.  The colour of the season is blue. You see the season is not about merry-making, it is about remembering who we are, where we have come from, and where our future might lead.  It is a time where we refrain from “too much.”  It is a time where we do not need to put on airs and feel the need to be fake happy – we can be sad, depressed, alone, grieving – seeking comfort.

During this season we read words from the prophet Isaiah, words that you may know from Handel’s Messiah:

Comfort, O Comfort my peoples says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her ...

A voice cries out: in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, the uneven ground level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Words of hope spoken to a people in exile, thousands of years ago. Words of comfort repeated by Handel for his Messiah.  Words of comfort and hope read again and again, within Judeo-Christian circles.   The words of the prophet speak to a people who are grieving their homeland, a way of life, their traditions and religious practices – the words offer hope in the image of an easy passage through the desert. Who wouldn’t appreciate a little more ease in times of crisis, an ease to everyday life, an ease to the hurts and pains human beings experience?

This year I need the season of Advent, a season of blue, even more than usual.  At the end of August my dad died. Since I have been a pastor I have not spent Christmas with my parents who live three provinces away, yet I know that this Christmas will feel different. I am different. I understand a depth of sadness I have not experienced before. It’s a sadness that has settled in and become a permanent part of who I am. The words of the prophets, especially those of Isaiah, are overflowing with an abundance of hope ... I feel the words differently because there is a great sadness to comfort.  Because of my father’s passing I more fully grasp hope; and as I have grasped hope there is a greater sense of peace and contentment. Dare I say I am joyful because hope has blossomed and is blossoming in a new way.

  In his later years, my dad crafted intricate Christmas decorations on his scroll saw. Every family member, down through the grandchildren, have a collection of his works of art.  He was very specific about the decorations – particularly in their theme.  Each one is religious in nature, with the intent of spreading his understanding of Good News.  The decorations were to be a sign of hope pointing to the glory of God.

The idea was to continually remind those whom he loved that there is hope through the darkness, peace amidst the chaos, love despite feelings of being alone, and joy that is not a fake-happy but rather a contentment with what is. 

This year, through the other side of death, my dad continues to share the Good News.  This angel is one that my dad made. It is edged in blue stain – reminding us to embrace sadness and grief – the angel cradles a bird in its hands to reassure each of us that we do not walk alone; we are held in God’s hands, we are held by this community – a shared grief, a shared seeking of hope; we are not alone.  The angel also offers a promise: that to everything there is a season; a season for laments and one for joyous singing; and as we live in Nova Scotia the season might change instantly without warning. 

Over the next few weeks, embrace the angel songs –whether laments or joyous acclamations.

Be present for each other, open with family and friends about the season you are in, share tears, and laughter, stories, remembrances, and create new traditions.

Carry with you the words of the prophet, as words of hope and words for action: Comfort, O comfort my people says your God.

As you comfort others, you also will be comforted; here you will find God – love, hope, peace will be exchanged and grow into joy for the present and for time eternal.

Peace be with you.

Dispelling Disney

Reign of Christ A-2014

Music is floating through the air – something catchy, that brims with happiness, and swells in volume and rhythm – it is enhanced by an animated dust; sparkles and stars wisping across the screen drawing our attention to the destination. The destination is a greyish castle on a hill. It looks kind of sad.  As we are taken inside the fortress, the story is unraveled – it’s not always the same story – but it is one that involves a kingdom where the royal family has come on hard times.  It could be that the king or queen has died, that there has been a spell cast or an evil stepmother has been brought into the house.  The story usually consists of a prince needing to find a girl, or trying to win a girl, or a princess in desperate need of being rescued by some prince. As the story works itself through there is darkness to be conquered, nasty people or places to be bested, judgements to be made of right and wrong, good and evil. As the story comes to an end everything works out.

The catchy happy music swells through the air, accompanied by trumpets and bells, and the scene is now one where a multi-coloured castle on a very tall hill replaces that which was grey.  The castle is shown in its glory. With its bridge and ornamental gate decorated with festoons of flowers, turrets wear bright flags.  One can hear laughter, music, and dancing.  In the courts the peasants hardly look like peasants, all decked out in their best. Even the animals are dancing. Everyone is happy because there is a prince and princess in the castle who come out and wave to the people, and benevolently share, after all it is their wedding day – all is as it should be. So the stories end...and everyone lived happily-ever-after.

I grew up with this Disney fairytale told and re-told through my childhood.  Disney has described, for a number of generations –starting in 1923, what kingdom means, what kingdom looks like, what a king is.

This is Christ the King or “reign of Christ” Sunday. If you imagine Christ as King, does the image include crowns, thrones, specters, castles, everyone happy, a wedding, basking in the kings presense the peasants don’t look like peasants? With Christ as King do the evil characters in the story face punishment and everyone else in the kingdom live happily-ever-after?

I learned this week that Christ the King Sunday is not an ancient observance in the church.  It was

instituted two years after Disney started to spin their version of kingdom.  In 1925 it began at the behest of Pope Pius XI; Lutherans and Anglicans began celebrating the Feast in the 1970’s.

Pius XI instituted the feast in response to growing Italian nationalism and secularism. At the time the Italian government and the papacy were fighting – it started when Rome was declared the capital of Italy, and the church was relegated to the Vatican – the church hierarchy said they felt like prisoners.

The creation of the feast was to say to the Italian government and secular rule, Christ is King – ie. better than you; and only in Christ can one live happily-ever-after.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden would have none of the happily-ever-after focus, so this day is referred to as the Sunday of Doom.  Prior to 1983 the focus was the final judgement, now the topic of the day is the Return of Christ. So what happens with Christ’s return?

There is no denying that the texts read today have a component of separating one from another, of judgment, a winnowing and that the king exercises this task – goats from sheep. I prefer Ezekiel’s version where he allows room for the Lord God to seek the lost, to bring back the strayed, to bind up the injured, and to strengthen the weak.  And those who are fat or strong – in other words those who have been unjust  - God will feed them with justice. Everyone has had a chance, beyond that, God has pursued all people.  The focus is not about the other, it is about sheep and sheep.

Matthew goes there in a different way: look at the amount of sound-bites Jesus uses in the passage that are not focused on the separation of sheep and goats. The focus is on Jesus’ interpretation on the law being lived out in his day... taking care of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. Is Jesus revolutionizing the idea of Kingdom?  Is Jesus dispelling the Disney of his day?

Pius XI, in instituting Christ the King Sunday was trying, if you will, to dispel the Disney of his day. He was trying to redeem Kingdom away from the power he saw in the politics around him. He was reminding people of the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world – a kingdom outside of human control.  Pius also had a heart for the laity, the sheep - through the celebration of the Feast, the liturgy, the texts, the sermon, he wanted people to:   in his own words-

"The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths [truths about Christ as King], will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men [and women], purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men [and women], it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God."

Are we also to be about dispelling the Disney of our day? To live as Pope Pius commends, with Christ being the centre of our being, reigning in us and thus through us as instruments of justice in a hurting world?

While wrestling with the thought of sheep and goats being separated, sheep from sheep, some form of accounting for things done and left undone; considering what hell or eternal punishment might be; a hope of kingdom, heaven, eternal life; not to dismiss these or sanitize the text...I need to ask what would Jesus’ have us focus on. Could it be describing kingdom and kingship in a counter-cultural way?

The counter to Happily-ever-after in the Disney fairy tale, is a gospel of less, a gospel that is not about accumulating castle, riches, princesses; its  not about purchasing or chasing after happiness. Happily-ever-after is more of a contentment and a joy that grows out of service, as in giving ourselves away as bread for the hungry.  In this we concentrate on the service, the offering of the gospel, Good News and the kingdom comes near; Christ reigns in and through our hearts.  Could this be the growth of righteousness – living from the abundance of Christ’s reign – into eternal life?

In my former parish there was a gentleman who truly was by all appearances and actions a Godly and faithful believer. He shared with me that if the time came that I was to do his funeral he didn’t want me to talk about him, other than to say that his only desire was to have a small spot in the corner of the mouse hole that was in the kingdom of God. To him the mouse hole would be room enough, a space from which he could eat the scraps from God’s table, that there would be enough warmth and light that it could be felt from the darkest corner. –no crowns, no jewels, no castle-

-just a place where there is enough room for the tiniest of creature, to be sheltered, warm, and fed.

What an image of the kingdom, the corner of a mouse hole. And in that corner there would be more than enough grace and love.

Albert Einstein said:

Your question is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. ...The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.

So too we cannot grasp the mysterious nature of Christ the King and the marvellously arranged kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. We can, however, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned. And perhaps in the giving away of ourselves as bread for the hungry we will experience a small piece of the kingdom – warmth and light, grace and love – not in a castle but in everyday living, in the dusty corners of the mouse hole in God’s house.

Amen.