A.D.V.E.N.T.: A is for Anticipation

As we start A.D.V.E.N.T. this Sunday, what does the A stand for? A is for Advent, or anticipation, or await, or arise. A is for almost there, or arriving, or about to happen. A is for alertness, or awareness, or assurance, or attention. 

Read Isaiah 2:1-5 & Matthew 24:36-44.

How do those readings make you feel – anxious, apathetic, angry? Assured or afraid or annoyed? It may seem strange to begin the season of Advent, the church new year, with grown-up Jesus talking about his second coming instead of six pound eleven ounces sweet baby Jesus. It may seem strange to begin Advent looking past Bethlehem; to begin Advent by looking toward the future instead of the past. 

But as the Rev. Dr. John Burgess reminds us, we are living between the times – between Christ’s first and second coming. We are living between the times: “Advent reminds us of God’s promises to Israel of Immanuel…Advent also calls us to anticipate the day on which this Immanuel will return as King of kings and Lord of Lords.” As we consider the anticipation of Advent, consider what we pray every week in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come.” What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come? Does that align with Jesus’ second coming – with judgment day? 

Rev. Burgess goes on to describe the two usual ways of seeing judgment day: 1) as a moment of rapture (like the Left Behind series) where some are taken away and some are left behind; 2) as a moment at each individual’s death where we will have to stand before God and account for our lives. 

Maybe there is a third way of hearing Jesus’ words about the end times: that each day is a day of judgment, that we should always be examining ourselves each day – are we following Christ? As we continue our day-to-day work, have we been distracted from our hope, from our calling? Or are we being taught in the ways of the Lord, are we walking in his path?

As we look toward the manger, we must see it through lens of hope – hope that our work and discipleship today matters, but that we are not on our own. We must look with hope to the future, that our Judge is also the one who took our judgment on the cross. So let us anticipate the advent of Advent – for tomorrow might be the day that we all catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom. 

Grace and peace, 
Pastor Kate

Temptations in the Desert: Scarcity or Abundance

When describing your worldview and your sense of available resources, where would you put yourself on a continuum that stretches from:  Scarcity - to - Not enough - to - Just barely enough - to - Enough - to - Plenty - to - Abundance - to - Extravagance?
If Jesus came to reveal what God looks like, then the story of Mary of Bethany anointing him in preparation for his death and burial with the most extravagant perfume is a story of Jesus praising her for her extravagant devotion. John 12: 1-8. To emphasize this extravagant love that Mary pours out upon his feet, Jesus chastizes Judas Iscariot (who is about to betray Jesus) when Judas demands that the perfume should be sold to provide for the poor.  Jesus realizes that Judas doesn't care so much for the poor, as he cares about keeping the common purse for his own purposes of stealing from it. Jesus rebukes Judas:  "Leave her alone." (v 7). In light of Jesus' impending death, Mary "wastes" perfume on her beloved Master and Jesus receives it with gratitude.

How often do we "count" the value of various resources (especially money), giving into the temptation that there won't be enough - that our resources are finite and must be carefully controlled?  Whether we're hoarders or cheapscapes or just reasonable folk who give of ourselves according to the time/energy/means that make practical sense in a world overwhelmed with "not-enough-ness," we operate out of the worldview that tempts us to value our efforts and our things by their usefulness or practicality or cost effectiveness.

Is the cross a symbol of our temptation or do we trust in the God of resurrection?  Father Richard Rohr writes:  "The cross is a statement of what we do to one another and to ourselves.  The resurrection is a standing statement of what God does to us in return." (Richard Rohr, Easter 2012)

Both in the extravagance and love poured out by Mary and in the promises God makes in Isaiah 43: 16-21, we are drawn toward a God of extravagant abundance, whose love and providence have no end.  Isaiah, using powerful water imagery, reminds us that God will make a way through the waters (Red Sea) just as he did for the Israelites fleeing the Egyptians.  And when we wander in the desert of our temptations, we can trust that God will provide rivers in the desert & water in the wilderness - drink for God's chosen people.

Our challenge is to move through, around, past the barriers of temptations that there will not be enough.  Our challenge is to trust God's promises of abundant healing, enough water for all, and an abundant love that sustain us through droughts.  If we remember what God has done in the past, we are able to trust in the new things God is about to do in our future.  We can trust in the love that shapes whatever new thing lies ahead.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Lights, Camera, Action: God as Screenwriter

What exactly do you know about the wise men from the Bible? How many of them paid homage to the Christ child? Were the wise men or kings or astrologers or scholars? Where did they come from? What were their names?

Read Matthew 2:1-12 and Isaiah 60:1-6 for your answers.

Did you find how many wise men were there? No? Did you know that early Christians believed there were twelve wise men, traveling in a giant caravan, with servants and supplies and all the trappings? Can you imagine adding that to a Christmas nativity?

God as screenwriter seemingly leaves us wanting for the details of this story – how did Herod call all the religious leaders together so quickly? Wasn’t there animosity between them and King Herod? Where exactly is the “East?” Whatever happened to the wise men as they traveled home? Sometimes we feel that way about our own lives – why didn’t God stop this from happening? Why won’t God let us in on the future plan? What details has God seemingly left out of your story?

But when we stop worrying about what has been left out and start looking at what is there, a whole new story opens up. A way to Jesus appeared for a group of people who weren’t Jews, who weren’t part of the ‘in crowd.’ God sent signs for those not even expecting a Messiah, while the king of the Jews Herod hadn’t the slightest clue. By sending the exotic foreigners to worship the Christ child, it is a signal that all are welcome into God's kingdom, that salvation through the Messiah is not limited to the Jewish people.

God acts again and again in our lives. God puts a star in the sky, a light in our lives to show us the way, so that we can offer ourselves to Christ. God offers us epiphanies – revelations – of God’s presence in our lives over and over again. Are you paying attention like the wise men, looking for direction? Are you responding to the God-actions in your life, the God-nudges? For when God acts, God expects us to respond. And what a joyful response we can offer, because our God loves us enough to continue writing our story and calling “Lights, Camera, Action!”

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

Prepare Your Home for Your Homecoming

How is your decorating coming?  Do you have enough room for your Christmas tree, your wreaths and garlands and Christmas knickknacks?  Or do you have to make room by moving chairs, tables, and your everyday "stuff" out of the way?  Are the presents wrapped and ready to go in the mail or under the tree?  How many parties involve bringing goodies?  Are the stockings hung over the chimney with care?
Am I touching a nerve in your busy, perhaps frantic schedule?
These are not the most important questions of course.  The bigger, more significant questions are:  "Have you made room for Jesus in your days - in your space - in your schedule?  Where do you squeeze him in?  Will you fling wide your front door if you open it and there he stands?"

Old Testament prophets speak to us when they promise:  The Lord is already in our midst (Zephaniah 3: 14-20) and the Lord will bring us back home for a great family gathering (Isaiah 12: 1-6).  How do we respond to these promises?  If the corners of our rooms and hearts and minds are too full, will we have to look for Jesus out back in our sheds or between the cobwebbed baskets/tools/recycle in the garage? Do we even recognize our Lord in our midst?

Our home is more than our space and the things that fill up our space, no matter the size of our spaces.  Our home is where God is - wherever and whenever we continue to nurture our relationship with Jesus.  So, both prophets Zephaniah and Isaiah encourage us to make room, recognize, and welcome our Lord.  Because they lived before the birth of Jesus, they're projecting their hopes, which we find realized and incarnated in Jesus the Christ.

Let us join them when we sing, shout, rejoice, exult, celebrate, raise the rafters with our joy, and proclaim the Lord's name with all that we do and share and serve through this season of thanksgiving for the birth of the Babe, who enters into the very real humanity of our lives - God with us - Emmanuel.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelleyhttp://bible.oremus.org/?ql=222333236

The Healing Power of Touch

Disciple Simon told Jesus his mother in law was burning up with fever - a potentially dangerous condition in that time.  Jesus went to her, took her hand, and raised her up.  Next thing we know she is serving up the hospitality for which she is known.  Read Mark 1: 29-39 for this story of healing to wellbeing.

When was the last time someone "touched" you in some way and you experienced healing?  When was the last time you reached out to someone and she experienced a lessening of her pain, a dispelling of his fear, a decrease in her anxiety, or a sense of hope emerging out of darkness?  There are so many ways we are called to "touch" another and God uses our hands/feet/hearts/skills/caring to effect healing.  A touch on the shoulder to show we care.  A hug of comfort.  A massage of those tense shoulder muscles.  Our hands stirring nutritious chicken soup.  Our feet to serve at the soup kitchen.  Our minds to fight for justice for oppressed.  Our strength to build a home with Habitat.  Our lips to be a conversation partner at VIDA.  Our faith to plead with God in intercessory prayer.

Just as Jesus determines to heal, move on, and reach out to other villages, so we are called to move out of our places of comfort and confront the needs for healing all around us.  God uses our feeble efforts to do the impossible.  When we are weary or rationalize that we have no power for healing, prophet Isaiah reminds us (Isaiah 40: 21-31):  "Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  God does not faint or grow weary; God's understanding is unsearchable.  God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

It is our Lord's power and Christ's love that enables us to enflesh the healing - the wholeness and wellbeing - the shalom - that God intends for all humankind.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Why Do We Worship?

If you were to answer the question, "Why do you worship?" what would you say?  If you read Isaiah 61: 10 - 62: 3, you hear prophet Isaiah, answer the question with his description of his joy in God, his appreciation for God's creation, and his gratitude for God's saving grace and God's delight in him.  Isaiah says, "I sing for joy in God...[and] I can't keep my mouth shut."  (61:10; 62: 1)

Psalm 148 is one long ALLELUIA! for God.  For the psalmist, worship is praising God.

Luke 2: 22-40 is the story of senior citizens Simeon and Anna who have worshiped their whole lives while waiting for the birth of the babe.  As each takes Jesus into his/her arms, they praise God for allowing them to live long enough to realize he is their salvation and the light of the world, who will bring God's glory to God's people.

It's all about worship.  A life of faith begins and ends with worship.  Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr writes, "Every day we must make a deep choice for gratitude, abundance ("there is enough"), and appreciation, which always de-centers the self and its cravings.  It is the core meaning of worship.  Your life is pure gift, and it must be based in an attitude of gratitude" (R. Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation daily meditation, 2011).

In our January sermon series on Worship, we begin with the question about why we worship and then explore what it means to gather together as a family to worship and why one of the earliest elements of worship is to confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and celebrate with alleluias God's grace and mercy.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

We Are Not the Light

Have you tried to tell someone who you are by saying who you are not? In John 1: 6-8, 19-28, John the Witness confesses to the religious authorities who grill him: No, I'm not the Messiah. No, I'm not Elijah. No, I'm not the prophet. Instead, with great understatement, John identifies himself as the one called to point us toward the coming of Jesus Christ - to witness to him. John says of himself that he cries out in the wilderness and that he's unworthy to untie the thong of the sandal of the one who is coming. Like us, John waits in the dark for the coming of the Messiah, who will bring light into the world's darkness. John's "I am not" self declarations contrast to Jesus' later "I am" statements.

John's self understanding arises out of his relationship to Jesus as the coming Messiah. Who John is and what he's called to do (witness to the coming light) depends totally on belonging to Christ. One way to think about our own relationship to Jesus is that Jesus is both sun and Son. We are the moons which circle around the sun/Son, reflecting the light of the sun/Son.

This distinction helps us understand that we're neither the Christ, nor are we God. God is Creator and we are God's creatures. Like John, our call - our work - our service - is to prepare the way so that Christ's light might shine out into the world where darkness seems to prevail.

Hebrew Bible Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 draws a powerfully poignant picture of the kingdom here on earth that will come to pass where people respond to God by:

• preaching good news to the poor
• healing the heartbroken
• proclaiming freedom to captives
• releasing prisoners
• comforting those who mourn.

Isaiah pictures the year of Jubilee in which land is returned to original owners, debts are cancelled and slaves are freed. Anticipating slates wiped clean is accomplished through the light of the world shining in the dark, never to be extinguished by the darkness. Jesus Christ is the bringer of eternal Jubilee.

While we wait, we can witness to the slivers of light and the bounteous light that we see whenever and wherever we serve in Christ's name. What good and great news this is!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

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

The Sower

This week's readings are Isaiah 55: 1, 10-13 and Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23.

Much as we'd like to examine the four soils in Jesus' parable in Matthew 13 for our receptivity and readiness to the gospel, it really isn't about us. Much as we'd like to bring our rational marketing research and preparation to how and where we share our faith with the soil of other souls, it really isn't us who do the sowing. This parable is about God. In this story Jesus speaks of a sower (God) who throws seeds out with reckless abandon - carelessly on a hardened path, wastefully on rocky ground, and haphazardly on thorny ground. This extravagantly generous God of ours also sows seeds on good soil, where the harvest is beyond imagining - and beyond any rational reckoning of a reasonably good harvest! What's with this God of ours?

God is equally extravagant and mysterious in Isaiah 55: 1: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." In today's economy we know this doesn't make much sense.

But our sovereign God, whose harvest is hundredfold, reminds us in Isaiah 55: 10-11: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

If we are able to trust that God is busy bringing in the kingdom, how do we engage in sharing our faith and our resources alongside Jesus?

We pay attention to opportunities without the need to scrutinize or anticipate every detail. We remember that God's kingdom is everywhere about us. We are as extravagant in sharing as God is in sowing.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley