Anticipation in Advent - Looking Back. Looking Forward.

Carole King wrote and Carly Simon sang: "Anticipation - Anticipation Is making me late, Is keeping me waiting." Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 40: 1-11) and Gospel writer Mark (Mark 1: 1-8) know what these feelings of anticipation mean. Isaiah was anticipating God's mighty arm to release the Hebrew people out of the wilderness of exile when he speaks for God: "Comfort, O comfort my people." (40:1) Mark narrates John the Baptist's anticipation of the birth of Jesus. John the Baptist shouts for people to repent as he prepares the way for the ministry of his cousin shouting, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals." (1: 7)

Anticipation heightens our preparations throughout Advent as we await the birth of the Babe. My questions are: What are we waiting for? How do we wait?

It is a time of uncertainty; anxiety reigns; prices are skyrocketing; turmoil is everywhere; and tensions are high. If we're describing the time of the Hebrew people in exile, Jerusalem is under siege, leaders are being assassinated, the price of olive oil has gone through the roof, and different sects fight against one another. If we're describing the time of Jesus' birth, we hear about the assassination of babies, the cruelty of Herod's reign and fears of the Roman government, leading the Jewish people to meet in houses rather than publicly for fear of persecution. If we're describing today, we read about Syria's massacre of over 200 children; we see uprisings nationally (Occupy...) and abroad (Arab Spring); we hear presidential candidates offering good news if elected; and we see a debt crisis committee fail in their efforts.

What good news are we waiting for? Isaiah paints a picture of God coming in the power and might of love - God as a shepherd who will feed the flock and gather the lambs into her arms, gently leading them. Mark anticipates our Savior who will baptize us with the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we wait through these times? One answer is frenzied waiting: shop til we drop; scour the ads for deals; schedule ourselves tightly; eat on the run. Instead of nursing our longings (as Kate preached last week), we satisfy ourselves with short term, unsatisfactory actions designed to get us through the immediacy of the moment.

Waiting and preparing for the Lord is, instead, something to savor.

Divine Absence: Longing for God’s Saving Help

As we enter the season of Advent, we’re also entering the season of advertisements – featuring Black Friday, pushing all our emotional buttons to desperately want their products. What have you longed for lately? What have you wanted more than anything else What calls to you, deep to deep? Maybe it’s the latest version of the iPad. Maybe it’s a desire for a quiet, peaceful house. Maybe it’s a desperate prayer for a sick loved one to get well. Maybe it’s for reconciliation in a relationship. Maybe it’s for something that you can’t quite put your finger on, something that is missing, a hole in your life.

Our Scriptures for the first Sunday of Advent begin with Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13:24-37.

This may seem like an odd way to begin Advent. Isaiah is declaring how God has hidden God’s face from us and that we are a sinful people. The reading from Mark looks not toward the precious warm Christmas image of the sweet baby Jesus, but with the challenging, confusing proclamation that Christ will come again, with cosmic signs and fig trees.

Both Scriptures speak to the separation between God and Her people, which is where we start with Advent. We start from a place of longing, of realizing just where we are and who we are apart from God. We start from a place of desperate need, of being in a hole with no way out. We start at the same place of John the Baptizer and our faith ancestors – in great need of a Savior, of the Messiah to arrive. But we also start from a place where we can cry out to One who cares, because we were, are, and always will be God’s people.

For Advent is not just about preparing for Christmas, shopping the great sales, or listening to all our favorite Christmas hymns. Advent is not just hanging the greens or Christmas pageants. Advent is a call to keep awake – to be alert – to make Advent a part of who we are every single day. We are called to work and to prepare for the second coming of Christ. God has sent God’s Son with all the saving help we need, and we bask in the hope that is the promise of the return of Jesus.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate

When Judgment is a Good Word

When we have our temperature taken - when we receive a report card - when we step onto the bathroom scale -when we go to our annual review - when Mom says, "Sit down, we need to talk" - we realize that life is full of times of judgment. Sometimes we learn we need some meds or more exercise or less pie. Sometimes we receive an A and sometimes a D or F. Sometimes we receive praise and sometimes criticism with suggestions for improvement.

Read Ezekiel 34: 11-16 and Matthew 25: 31-46 for two stories about the role of leadership (shepherds and kings) who are major players in our times of judgment. Whether it's God as shepherd king or Jesus as shepherd king, we answer to both when we pause at times of judgment to learn how we're doing in our discipling - in our faithful living. The Bible gives us mixed messages about the nature of their kingship.

In Ezekiel, we see God as shepherd king who provides us with protection and nuture and salvation. But God also declares that God will judge between the fat and the lean sheep - between those who butt the weak and those who don't. In Matthew, Jesus declares that he will judge whether we choose to act to grow more and more into his likeness by how we treat the lost, lame, and least of these.

Why are these two scriptures good news? First, God is among us in Jesus - in the ugly, messy parts of life, wherever the needy (you and me and the least among us) cry out. Second, Jesus' judgment comes so that we can change our priorities and our choices. Jesus' judgment gives us chance after chance - choice after choice - to become more faithful in our following by looking for the face of Jesus in those we call other.

As we conclude our "Kingdom of Heaven: Here and Now" sermon series, the judgment rendered by the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, reveals God's reign among us. As we look and listen and respond with loving, caring acts, we draw closer to recognizing the reign of Christ here and now. Recognizing and participating in the kingdom of heaven is the abundant life that is God's shalom - God's will and wish - for all of us.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Enter into the Joy of Jesus

Matthew 25: 14-30 is traditionally interpreted as a stewardship story inviting us to invest our financial gifts generously in offering ministries to the world in Jesus' name. But as our sermon series on the "Here and Now Kingdom of Heaven" draws to a close next week, the setting of this parable is informative. The three servants are given huge/gigantic/mind-blowing talents/possessions/gifts/abilities/skills/resources (any of these translations can be valid) as their Master prepares to go on a long trip. In other words the Master will be gone from them for a long time. But the story quickly jumps to the Master's return - evoking the good news/bad news of the end of time and the accounting and judgment that will accompany our Master's return.

Here's where the story gets interesting. If we depart from the traditional stewardship interpretation, let's imagine this great mind-boggling gift from our Master as the gift of Jesus Christ who comes into our lives bearing the good news of salvation, the challenges of serving the world in his name, and the joy of living in relationship to him. The question for the three servants - and for us - is: "What do we do with this gift of Jesus Christ?"

The third servant's response of fear and distrust of his Master leads him to bury this gift in the ground where it is safe and secure - hidden from the world. For those of us who play it safe by retreating from the challenges of sharing our faith with others so that they never get to know the joy of Jesus - we are rightly castigated by Jesus and cast into the outer darkness apart from his presence.

How might we instead risk ourselves, our hearts, our involvement, our vulnerabilities by shouting (or whispering at least) our joy in knowing Jesus?

Do not fear!

When I was a youth, I remember one Saturday afternoon out on a lake in TN working as a crew to my parents in a regatta. My mother, the skipper, was an intense competitor. She, Dad, and I were so focused on the race and the positions of the other boats that we didn't anticipate the sudden storm envelope us. Seemingly out of the blue, we were being pounded by heavy rain and high winds threatening to sink our 17 foot Thistle sailboat. We became disoriented as we lost all sight of shore. My dad and I alternated bailing out the boat and hiking out on the rail to keep from sinking or capsizing. My fears were swallowing me as I worked alongside them. But I was with my strong parents and trusted them.

Simon Peter is out on his fishing boat with Jesus and when he casts his nets deep and wide, a crisis strikes. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases in The Message, "It was no sooner said than done - a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch." (Luke 5: 6-7).

To catch the context and the whole story, read Luke 5: 1-11.

Have you experienced similar crises? Has your boat been so swamped with demands, you felt as if you're sinking? Have you been pressured to lie (even a little white lie) or cheat or skimp or evade the truth so that you were filled with guilt or shame? Have you lost your way so that you felt as if you were out in the middle of the ocean with no sign of the shore or another person to come on board and help? Have you ever been so tired or discouraged or filled with despair that everything looks as black as the deepest waters?

Jesus' response is: Fear not. I am with you.

Sometimes Jesus' presence is other people who will walk with us through our crises. Sometimes Jesus' presence is the calm or peace we need to breathe through our struggles. Sometimes Jesus' presence is the strength and energy we need to tackle our battles. Sometimes Jesus' presence comes in trusting that the fish we need to quench our hungers will become available if we but open our eyes and heart to see.

What Jesus does NOT say is, "Settle in and close your eyes and deny your struggles." Partnering with Jesus to bring in the kingdom here on earth is costly discipleship demanding long nights and hard labor. For as Jesus draws us closer to him, he also draws us into deeper waters where fruitfulness, blessings, and an abundance of grace await us. This is where we are freed from the nets that bind us to meaninglessness are broken. This is where life abundant resides.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley