Job; A story on suffering and a tenacious faith

Intro:
Some of the best music has come from pain… or at least expresses pain.

Well I taught the weepin willow how to cry, cry, cry,
And I showed the clouds how to cover the clear blue sky
But the tears I cried for that woman, are gonna flood you big river
And I’ma gonna sit right here until I die

Well since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell
Its down at the end of lonely street, at
Heartbreak hotel

Scripture: Job 1:1-5
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the peoples of the East.
His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, ‘Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ This was Job’s regular custom.

Job 1:13-22
One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brothers house, a messenger came to Job and said, ‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.’ While he was still speaking, another came and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.’ While he was still speaking, another came and said, ‘the Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.’ While he was still speaking, another came and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.
Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

What song do you suppose Job wanted to sing at that particular moment?
Popular culture even knows about the ‘Patience of Job’ and those of us raised in church know that Job suffered patiently the trauma’s of life and the injustice and unfairness that came his way.

But that isn’t the whole story.
Lets look, just a little bit ahead and see if Job’s song is still so patient….
Job 7:21
"Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man? 2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, 3 so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. 4 When I lie down I think, 'How long before I get up?' The night drags on, and I toss till dawn. 5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.
6 "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. 7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. 8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. 9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return. 10 He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.
11 "Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard? 13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, 14 even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. 16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
17 "What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, 18 that you examine him every morning and test him every moment? 19 Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? 20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? 21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more."



Now I want us to pay close attention to a few details here.
The story of Job opens by describing his devotion. Job has structured his life around the worship of God. Nothing comes before that… he is a devout man, a pious man. His devotion even extends to offering sacrifices and prayers after his children have a party, just in case they got hammered and said or did things that would displease God. Job never misses a Sunday morning or a Bible study. He joins committees and comes to the meetings and delivers communion and visits church members and helps with coffee hour… do you hear it? His devotion to God takes the highest priority and he is tireless in his faithfulness. He has a tenacious faith and because of that, he prospers, he is blessed.

But what have we just read.
That tireless and tenacious devotion that we read about to open the story… how does Job describe it now?
Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
This devotion is no longer a joyful relationship of prayer… but slavery… forced labor… a violent intrusion upon his very humanity.

Look carefully at how Job describes his life…
Like laborers who look for their wages…
How many of us have wondered if there will ever be some reward for faithfulness…
Not a corvette or a mansion, but even a break from the stress of making ends meet?
Of course we have… we may hesitate to admit it…

You see there is a promise that Job knows about…
Dt 6:24
The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive,

Job has lived in the hope of this promise… that if we obey the decrees, we will prosper…
This is the story… that Job was told, that we are told

But eventually our lives of faith will reach the wall, like long-distance runners, I have heard, eventually reach… when they no longer feel like they can continue… their strength is gone… the goal just not worth the pain…
And this my friends is where Job is…
the promises of prosperity are broken and strength is gone…
have you ever been disappointed and run down?
than you understand Job

In verse six Job says ‘my days are swifter than a weavers shuttle
And come to their end without hope…
Now the hebrew root of that word hope is tiqwa… can you say that?
Now here is the thing… tiqwa is also the root of the word thread.
Job is saying that he has come to the end of his rope.

And how many of us have felt this way?
Do not Job’s words ring true for the thousands of unemployed… looking for their wages
Do not Job’s words sound painfully personal, When I lie down, I say, when shall I rise…
Have you ever had a sleepless night sisters and brothers.

But Job doesn’t stop there… Job continues…
Have you ever, in the midst of troubling and traumatic times had someone, well-intentioned no doubt, say to you; God will never give you more than you can handle?

Here is what Job has to say to that…
Am I the Sea or the Dragon?
What does that mean?
The writer of Job is referring to the creation story of Genesis… the chaotic deep… the sea that was God’s enemy in Genesis one, that God battled and defeated, pushed back… with a word…
The writer is also referring to other ancient creation stories in which the world was created in a battle with the Dragon…
And what Job is saying is… Why, God, are you battling with me like I am the Sea or the Dragon…
You are being too hard on me… you are over-reacting… this is too much for me to bear!

This is too much for me to bear!



I remember having a conversation with a young man I used to work with before I went to seminary. He was an adult with developmental delays and mental illness who lived independently and it was my job to offer him supports so that he could maintain his independence. One of my jobs, upon occasion, was to give him a ride to church, which he attended faithfully.

My mom doesn’t go to church anymore, he once told me.
Really, why?
She is mad at God.
Do you know why?
My dad died… he was young… she never forgave God for that.

Does the story of Job ever answer the question of why there is suffering?
No, not really.
So I suppose it is a bit a disappointment… we’d like to know why wouldn’t we.

What the story Job does is open up a way to stay connected to God even when the connection seems broken because of suffering; because of trauma or disappointment.

For we are called to be an imaginative folk, those of us who believe in God and follow Christ.
We cannot prove peace is more effective than violence,
But we are called to imagine a peaceful world that one day will be, and live like its true today
We cannot prove that generosity and simplicity is an effective economic possibility
But we are called to imagine a world where everyone has enough and to live simply and give generously and live like its true today.
We cannot prove resurrection
But we are called to imagine it and in that find hope and courage

The harsh reality is that experience will not always support us in our imaginative endeavor that is discipleship…
Experience will suggest otherwise; that violence will win the day, that taking care of me and getting what’s mine is the safest way through life and that life is short and cruel with no hope of improvement.

You see, what is fascinating about the story of Job is that the story itself only takes a little over three chapters to tell. Job has a good life because he is faithful to God. Tragedy befalls him and he remains faithful.

In the end, because of Job’s patience, God rewards him and restores him to joy…
If you’ve never heard this story before, that is how it ends, God restores Job’s prosperity….

But that story is interrupted by, I don’t know 39 or so chapters of Lament…
This is the ongoing connection you see… Lament.
How might faith be different if instead of going from trauma right into God is good,
We, like the writer of Job allowed for the time and space to lament.
Would that young man’s mother still be in church if it allowed more space for lament. If we feel like, Job, that we are being taken advantage of, asked too much, suffering unjustly, but cannot say it,
Are left only to talk about how good God is… we sometimes will have nothing to say… and no one to understand us.

Do you hear what I’m saying…
Job doesn’t answer the question, why suffering. But at least it offers us the suggestion of the way through… it offers us a path to imagining joy again… and that path is through struggling honestly with God.
Job doesn’t give up, loose faith, stop believing…
he argues and complains and fights and wrestles for 39 chapters…
He is disappointed and discouraged and hurt by God…
But he will not give up or give in…
If the only way to be faithful is to struggle
To lament… then Job will be faithful in that way
Waiting, Demanding, that faith bring joy and prosperity!

Lament isn’t complaining or whining,
Lament is an energized engagement
And that is what inspires me to celebrate Job…
His energized engagement despite disappointment and discouragement
Even though he feels tricked and mistreated, Job will not give up on his faith

Job was tenacious in faithfulness before and not even tragedy has dampened his tenacious faith.

And that is what we need today sisters and brothers
A tenacious faith… a faith with conviction…
Convictions, wrote James Wm. McClendon, are not just beliefs or opinions, … for our convictions show themselves not merely in our professions or belief or disbelief, but in all our attitudes and actions…
And if that were not challenging enough, McClendon goes on to say of the church…no mere collections of the curious will count.
These are serious times sisters and brothers…
And God has called us in these serious times…
To be tenaciously faithful, even when the storms of life are raging…
Casual curiosity just will not do…

Two people were just indicted in RI for their alleged participation in a conspiracy to bring women from the mid-west to engage in prostitution in our state… forced prostitution by the way… slavery is not just a historical fact or foreign concept…
And it will take tenacious disciples to meet this challenge.

• A recent USDA report on food insecurity shows that hunger in Rhode Island has grown from affecting 1 out of 10 households in 1998 to affecting 1 out of 8 households today.
• In Rhode Island, 43% of pantry recipients choose between paying for food and paying for utilities. Additionally, 32% choose between food and medicine or medical care.
• 1 out of every 3 people served is a child under the age of 18.
• 76% of all households served by the Food Bank’s network live below the Federal Poverty Level or less than $22,050 a year for a family of four.
• According to the most recent U.S. Census survey, 17.5% of Rhode Island's children, 1 out of every 6, are living in poverty.
• Just under 10,000 Rhode Island seniors, 9.3% of the state’s population, live in poverty

These are serious times and no mere collection of the curious will do…
What is needed is a tenacious faith like Job’s
Because those who are enslaved and those who hunger,
Like Job, feel abandoned by God
And they need not just a good word, or prayer…
They need a community of faith to care…

So I have come to church today to ask you Berean…
Is your faith tenacious?
Do we have the courage and the strength to
Face discouragement and disappointment
Do we have the strength of our convictions to
To see us through challenging times?

I know we can get tired.
I know we can get distracted by personal squabbles
And we can disappoint one another too

But I believe this morning the words of Isaiah
Isa 40:28-31
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

I feel strong this morning Berean!
Are you feeling strong this morning!

I came to Berean six years ago because you were a strong and tenacious church
And I say you are strong and tenacious today… don’t forget it!
I came to remind you of how strong you are!

We’ve made it through economic downturns and firecode challenges
We’ve held each other through loss,
Wept together in mourning
Prayed for children and aging parent’s
Celebrated births, carried each other through cancer
Walked each other through life’s trauma’s
And because of that tenacious faith, those in Job’s position
Of doubt and disappointment, knew God had not abandoned them
Because we did not abandon them…

We’ve overcome many challenges some personal and some corporate
And Like Job, we have found a tenacious faith
We’ve discovered a strength that the world needs to see and hear
A strength that can only come by walking through the fires together
A strength that can only come by passing through raging waters
A strength that only come by crossing barren deserts

A tenacious strength and hope and belief
That God is by our side because we are on his
And that we have each other
No matter what…

And if we cling to that tenacious faith sisters and brothers,
Even when we sing sad songs or even angry songs
Like Job, we will soon again sing songs of joy and victory…

Not for the Casual Bystander

This sermon was preached on January 31st at my friend Travis's church, St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church. You can find them on the web at scabc.org. I was more than a little intimidated not only by the very educated congregations which included a number of M.Div's and PhD's, not to mention the fact that the pulpit has held such eminent preachers as Barbara Brown Taylor and Gardner Taylor. Some of the quotes are actually cited, but all of them are attributed. Here goes

Lk 4:16-30

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

23 Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"

24 "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed — only Naaman the Syrian."

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
NIV

Today’s gospel offers us a fascinating scene for in seven verses, a few dozen words, just a matter of seconds of monologue, Jesus goes from:

All spoke well of him
To
Throw him off a cliff

We could take time to conjecture as to why Jesus went from favorite native son to pariah. But I’m not sure the exercise would take us much farther than just that… conjecture…

Frankly what piqued my curiosity about this sudden shift is the fact that Luke introduces two plot points to us so early in the gospel. Jesus has come to offer both a message and a program of liberation to the poor, and Luke is the most concerned with poverty of any of the gospels. Luke has the most to say about those held in bondage by poverty and its political, physical and spiritual effect on humanity.

But the other point that Luke includes is the anger, the discomfort, the tension that Jesus would not only inspire, but provoke.

Consider this. In Matthew we get the sermon on the Mount… blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness… etc, etc.

But Luke in his version, the sermon on the plain, gives us both blessings; Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are those who weep…
But then Jesus drops some Woes on us…
Woe to you who are rich
Woe to you who are well fed now
Woe to you who laugh now
Woe to you when all men speak well of you…

The message Jesus proclaims throughout Luke is both a blessing and a woe… or as Finley Peter Dunne once wrote about journalism…

Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Luke tells us early on, in the reaction of the crowd to Jesus sermon that the comfortable will be afflicted.

Sallie McFague, reflecting on this theme of liberation for the impoverished and oppressed has shocking words to say to North American Christians when she writes…

We must, if we are Christians, liberate others from our domination…expressing and embodying a way of life that will be liberating to others.

My preaching style is personal. I won’t stand here and challenge you without being challenged myself. And so, for a few moments this morning I’m going to rehearse a few brief examples of those times where the Gospel, the Word of God has challenged me… convicted me of my participation in the bondage of others and shocked me into seeking a more liberating way of life. I’m not the hero of these stories… but like you, I stand under the weight of Jesus words…

Or in the case of my first example, the Hewbrew Scriptures
In Genesis 2:15 we read
Ge 2:15

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

In Hebrew the words we read work and take care of are abad and shamar. So I did a little reading and discovered that those words could also be translated; serve and protect.
Do you hear it.
God created humanity , you and I, to serve and protect the rest of creation. Creation care is why we are here.

And this challenged me to consider my carbon footprint.

It challenged me to think about the amount of trash I create and the lazy non-effort to recycle… to recall the lilies of the field and the sparrow, both of which the word of God highlight as being watched and cared for by God… crowded out by my trash.

It challenged my wife and I to turn in our SUV and buy a Prius and learn to live with one vehicle.

I’m no environmental hero. We still have much to learn and much to change in order to accept the challenge to serve and protect creation. My point being, I am not living up to the image of God that God created me to be unless I accept the challenge and face the offensive idea that my lifestyle is oppressive to the earth.

Liberating the Poor
Jesus proclaimed good news for the poor.
In luke we are inundated with Jesus challenge to his disciples to be good news for the impoverished. Jesus tells the rich young man to sell all he owns and give to the poor.
Luke tells us the story of Zachaeus who is challenged by the mere presence of Jesus to liquidate half of his own wealth and give it to the poor.

Luke tells us the story of the wealthy man who ends up in Sheol, punished because of his ignorance in life of the beggar lazarus who lived outside his gate.

And I am challenged, when I hear these words… challenged as I think that I too could be this rich man, I am when compared to so many around the world, and I fear that I am ignorant of the poor…
in my unthinking devotion to the idol of the shopping mall and my worship of that god through consumer therapy…
Shocked by the question, how many of the worlds impoverished could be fed on what North American’s spend on Ice Cream… which is $20 billion dollars annually. Shocked at the thought of the working conditions, the long hours and the low pay, of those who make the cheap plastic crap or the teddy bears that I can buy for my children at WalMart… shocked at what I am teaching my children by participating in this whole system…
Am I too, headed to Hell because of my ignorance and my consumerism?

Henri Nouwen once wrote; Faith in God does not consist in asserting God’s existence, but rather in acting on [God’s] behalf.

Am I acting on God’s behalf, proclaiming Christ’s message to the poor? To suggest that we, the church in North America, are failing miserably in this endeavor might be offensive… but could it also be true?

Liberating the Enslaved?

The most recent challenge for me has come in the simple phrase… ‘release for the captives…’

Currently I am working on a Statement of Concern for the American Baptist Churches of RI about Human Trafficking. Perhaps you have heard this polite phrase. Like the phrase ‘collateral damage’ it belies a much more sinister practice… collateral damage is nice wrapping for murder… human trafficking sounds much better than slavery or rape
According to Siddharth Kara, approx 1.8 million women and children are trafficked annually around the world. Some for sweat shop labor, agricultural labor, begging, organ harvesting (there is another interesting phrase) and perhaps most shocking for prostitution… 600,000 women and children for the sex industry…

Surely, I thought, this will not apply to me. I admit my complicity in the abuse of creation and repent of my ignorance of the poor. I know theoretically, theoretically mind you, that massage parlors exist in Providence RI, but I have no direct personal knowledge.
Then I discovered the Cocoa Protocol. Have you heard of this? This is going to sting more than the Ice Cream, I’m afraid. Apparently a great deal of the chocolate that we eat, that I love, the brownies and chocolate chip cookies and cake… is harvest by slave labor. So even the comfort of a brownie is actually an offense to what Christ proclaimed, ‘release for the captives..’ I can’t even get a brownie without also getting a challenging message from Christ.

Convictions, wrote James Wm. McClendon, are not just beliefs or opinions, … for our convictions show themselves not merely in our professions or belief or disbelief, but in all our attitudes and actions…
And if that were not challenging enough, McClendon goes on to say of the church…no mere collections of the curious will count.
James William McClendon, Jr.
Doctrine p 29

John Howard Yoder wrote similarly contrasting two choices for the church… ‘run-of-the-mill’ devotion or a ‘heroic’ level of devotion.

J.H. Yoder; The Priestly Kingdom
The Kingdom as Social Ethic, p. 83


These are serious times my sister’s and brothers. This is not the time for casual or curious Christianity. There are wars and violence in our nation, around the world… and we must first hear and then proclaim the shocking and perhaps offensive word’s of Jesus… Turn the other cheek… this is the way Disciples meet violence, with forgiveness…

In my little home town of Burrillville in RI mothers diaper their babies in paper towels and heat their homes with a gas oven… and the challenge that Jesus uttered 2000 yrs ago still echoes… do not refuse one who asks… and the challenge of the early church that we read in Acts, they held all things in common and the wealthy willfully sacrificed their material goods to offer support to the impoverished, rings In our ears… We must hear and then proclaim a unique way of thinking about economics… which is generosity, radical generosity… and simplicity, radical simplicity.

These are serious time and mere curiosity not only offends Christ, but the poor, in whom, he said in Matt 24, we would find him… These are serious times and run of the mill spirituality just will not do. The time has come to be reminded that it does no good to come to church… for we are called to be the church… to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. The time has come for the taking up of a cross and that will require from us a heroic effort.


Which reminds me of a song from my youth
Are ye able, said the Master, to be crucified with me, the hymn-writer, long ago asked
That question still lingers today… Are we able to accept the challenging words of Christ,
The blessings and the woes,
willing to be shocked by the gospel?

Are you able to relinquish
Purple dreams of power and fame,
To go down into the Garden,
Or to die a death of shame?

But I am glad this morning to be at St Charles Ave Baptist Church…

Because down through your history you have answer the question, Are ye Able to be crucified with me…with a strong and courageous… Lord we are able. Our spirits are thine.

When so many churches in this nation willfully espoused segregation, this church proclaimed welcome and hospitality to all God’s children, regardless of the color of their skin… You responded, Lord we are able…

When so many churches in the past and still today, denied that the spirit could call a woman to ministry, You have historically supported and affirmed women in pastoral leadership… you responded to the challenge and sang… Lord we are able…

You have not hidden from controversy or quailed to popular opinion making this sanctuary safe and welcoming for Gays and Lesbians and you have sung for all to hear…

Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine.
Remold them, make us, like Thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, to love and loyalty.

So my final word for you this morning is the final word of our gospel reading

He went on his way…

Stay on your way St. Charles ave.

Walk on through casual curiosity and run of the mill faith
Stay on your way pursuing a heroic level of discipleship…
Stay on the way even when Christ’s words shock, offend or convict you…
Stay on the way even when other’s attempt to hinder your path…

Continue to walk through injustice in jesus name with your heroic efforts
Continue to sing Lord we are able
Continue on your way… a beacon of love and loyalty in New Orleans
And May God Richly Bless You!!!

Christmas Eve Sermon: Persuaded to Dance

Christmas Eve Homily
Persuaded to Dance

Luke 2:8-15
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace good will to all."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

Intro:
It must have been busy being an angel the night that God came to earth. Babies do tend to get a lot of attention from finger counting fathers and cheek kissing mothers and frantic doting grandparents. But the world tends to spin at its own frenetic pace without hesitating unless there is a presidential motor-cade or flashing blue lights and police sirens wailing or expensive, well-designed advertising campaigns. Jesus didn’t really have that. He did have an angel choir which you would think would create more stir than sirens or motorcades or TV commercials, but they didn’t. I imagine, that hard as they tried and loudly and they sang, the angel choir just couldn’t make itself heard by most.

Scene 1: Herod

Herod sat late into the night at his desk. One small lamp was on so as not to aggravate his headache. The Angel’s appeared in a flash of light, thousands somehow perched upon a book-case, but Herod neither sees nor hears them. The phone rings and King Herod arranges paper-clips into straight lines in the top drawer as he speaks,
‘I told you to update me precisely at 10:30. You are three minutes late. Have you arrested protesters at the Temple? No, No, you haven’t? The crowd is larger? I knew this census idea was bad. Speeches. What speeches? OF course they don’t like to pay taxes, who does? Call the reserve officers in and use tear gas if you need to. Honestly, why do I pay you for this, I’m doing all the security planning for myself.
Herod turns to his bookcase, upon which the Angel’s are still singing Gloria, and begins to align perfectly the spine of every book with the edge of the shelf upon which it sits. He pinches the bridge of his nose between fore-finger and thumb, completely missing a rousing chorus. What? Someone has a bull-horn and is rallying the people to resist the draft? It will not be me who answers to Caesar should draft-dodging begin. It will be you Mr. Security Director. They are chanting, and singing? Send in the police already. Some have stones and sticks? Then call the Guard. They seem organized? Honestly. They are marching here. Open fire you fool. That why we draft themin the first place… to keep to do the dirty work
.
Herod cannot hear the angels no matter how loudly they sing. Frankly Herod misses many noises. He arranges people like the paperclips in his desk but then ignores the everyday cries of people sleeping on park benches and loosing their health care to budget cuts. So maybe we aren’t so sad that he refuses to hear the angels.

Who shrug and, flash, they are gone.

Scene 2: The People

The Angels re-appear on a busy sidewalk in down-town Bethlehem, but you or I wouldn’t see the flash because of the flashing lights, neon signs and head-lights. They begin to sing but car horns are blaring and they can’t seem to stay on the same beat because of all the car stereos that make the air thump. Even when the angels do get things rolling with a Peace on Earth goodwill to men’ it seems that someone’s cell phone rings, or some else stoops to look into their shopping bag and the sound of angel voices is lost like star-light in the city glare. They hover above the crowds and you’d think that someone would notice, but mostly people are looking at sale signs, or browsing in shop windows for dancing Elmo’s, television satellites, herme scarves or sneeking a peek at the latest Abercrombie and Fitch Catalog.
To be fair, not everyone misses the angel music because of their consumer-induced coma. Some are working a double-shift to pay the oil bill. Some fighting the insurance company to cover an emergency room visit for their infant. Some are on their way home to get grandma her medication on time. One man is just trying to get home after a 10-hour day of being trampled on by his supervisor. One woman on her way to pick up the kids from twelve hours at the sitter. She’ll go home and for the first Christmas it will just be her and the kids. The waitress is trying to pay for college, the bar-tender is worried about his son getting beat up at school, the mechanic is just tired and wants to get some sleep, the cop is tired of one domestic dispute call after another. You can’t blame the angels for getting discouraged. But you can’t blame the people for being distracted either. The point is though, the angels sing to the rich and power and are ignored. They sing to the happy and satisfied and just can’t be heard. They sing to everyday people, but they are drowned out in the noise of every day.

The angels shrug and, flash, they are gone.
And it would be for good too.



Scene 3: Shepherds.

But God won’t give up easily. Someone will listen to this good news of great joy and until you find them, he tells the choir, you will keep singing about my boy Emmanuel.

So they keep singing and you know the rest of the story. The shepherds see the flash of the angel choir and fall down like they had too much Mad Dog 20-20. They hear the song and at first are so frightened of the magnificence of the noise that they try to dig trenches behind rocks and climb the nearest trees and hug the fuzzy belly of the nearest ewe hoping to hide.

But then they hear the words.
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace good will, toward men”

Maybe we aren’t surprised, perhaps a bit, well, delighted that those who have had it easy for so long aren’t serenaded by God’s angelic choir. Maybe we all find a little guilty pleasure in the fact that God won’t sing to people who ignore or manipulate others. But the fact that it’s not just them who don’t hear the song, the fact that it’s normal everyday people like you and me who miss the concert… that is surprising… to me anyway.

And what is more surprising than that is the fact that shepherds aren’t really any different from Herod or the people. Some Shepherds are just miniature Herod’s self-centered, nasty, some hit their wives, some steal from their children’s bank acct, some drink too much, some work too little and still get paid. Some are regular people, head down, working hard, trying to make ends meat, salt of the earth kind of people.

Oddly enough that is the good news. No amount of study of the Christmas story will uncover for you and I some moral quality that the shepherds had that you and I don’t. Some were good people, some were the neighbors we call the cops on all the time. In the end the we are no less deaf to God’s love song that the Herod’s of the world, and the only difference between us and the shepherds is that they listened. And then, they joined dance. The point is that God kept the choir singing until someone heard the song which is…

Jesus is born
God’s living peace and active, concrete, real, honest to goodness good will
Has moved in right next door.

All we have to do is listen to the tune
And join the dance.

The shepherds stood up and danced and sang. They weaved around like the town drunk and capered like 14 year old gymnasts. They sang at the top of their lungs, and they sat down and listened and thought about God’s good will finally arriving for real and they cried some of them.

Then they got up, went home and stopped hitting their wives and started spending more time with the kids. They dumped the grey goose down the sink and they called the sister they had refused to talk to for years and invited her over for dinner that night. They still caused a ruckus in town every once in a while, but this time it was a ruckus for a homeless shelter or for an after-school program for the kids or because they wanted their tax money to buy something besides bombs and guns. Life didn’t get all rosey 100% of the time. They still had to struggle to pay the bills and they still had to take care of sick relatives and school yard bullies and their kids runny noses and their own exhaustion.

But now, we know that Peace, true inner peace, is possible.
We don’t have to work for it, it can’t be earned, We can’t drink it.
We can’t buy it either.
God just sent it down for free…
We know that good will because we stopped everything else
And started to really listen to God’s song
We stopped to see God’s son.
And God’s goodness is no longer something that seems far away…
It lives in the everyday and invades the mundane and pervades our working and talking and shopping and disagreeing and worrying and celebrating and weeping…
And we, the everyday shepherds are changed, deep, down inside,
Because we stopped, listened and were persuaded to dance
We too, can feel that love.

Jesus is Born.
Peace on Earth, Good will toward all…good will for you and me…
The shepherds, alone, heard the song, and joined the dance.

I hope that you too tonight, hear the song, see God’s glory, feel the love
And are persuaded to dance

Amen.

Christmas Eve Sermon: A Holy Family Christmas Dinner

Christmas Eve Homily 2005
Matt 1:1-17
A Holy Family Christmas Dinner

Although researching the geneology of the family is intensely interesting to some, I suspect that reading through Jesus geneology does not really peak your interest tonight. I would imagine that you have come to imagine the familiar stories; to see the frustrated knit in Joseph’s brow as he is turned away from the inn, the beautiful swell of Mary’s belly, reminding many of you of the joy of expecting your first, and the pain, in your back, in your legs, the constant need to pee… you know what it is like to be Mary. I suspect you have come to Envision an angel choir, to traipse through the underbrush with the sheep-smelling shepherds, to hope that as you leave tonight, you might catch a glimpse of a beautiful bright star to guide your way…

But there is a story in Matt chapter 1 although it is not a familiar one. A story that I imagined would best be told if we together imagined the first Holy Family Christmas dinner…

There is the clatter in the kitchen as Mary whips the potatoes and the creak of the oven door as she checks her turkey.
Joseph, she calls, did you finish setting the table.
I don’t know why we have to invite so many people.
Couldn’t we use Jesus as an excuse not to invite some of these freaks,
I honestly lose my appetite having to sit near them…

Joseph, shame on you, they are your family…
They are an embarrassment… he runs to the window in the dining room,
Glowing golden with the light of the Christmas tree…
I hope the neighbors don’t see everyone come in the front door…
Maybe I should put a sign out telling them to come in the back,
So they don’t ‘wake the baby.’

Mary begins to re-arrange the silver ware that Joseph has placed all wrong…
He paces in the living room, picking at his finger-nails,
then pours himself a drink…
Joseph, Mary calls, did you remove a place setting…

Joseph tips back his glass and drains the wine…
Couldn’t we just tell Grama Tamar that we don’t have enough food, or room
Or that she scares the baby
with her green eye makeup and long red finger-nails?
Joseph, you know what it is like to be told there is no room for you… she is your grandmother…

Yes, but she dressed like a…
Like a…
Well, you know, like a… floozy!
And honestly, the years have not been kind.
No woman should wear her skirts that high
And her neck-line that low…
But at her age… everything is
Pulled down by gravity now…
Your nephews quite enjoy grama Tamar’s look…
Well, there 12 so no wonder… and all they do is laugh at her anyway…

Joseph, she’s family…
Yes, but she and Grandpa Judah only see each other once a year…
And he is so embarrassed about how she tricked him into getting her pregnant that he drinks half the wine by the time dinner is served and tells lewd jokes the rest of the night…mostly about her…

I know honey, says Mary, but they are our family, Jesus family…
Without Judah and Tamar, we wouldn’t be here, Jesus wouldn’t be here…

Oh, and then Uncle David shows up…
Honestly, Goliath gets taller every year…
He was 50 feet tall…
This year Goliath will sprout wings and breath fire…
And he insists on bringing Bathsheba
And she always wants to have a toast to Uriah, her first husband that David had killed
Because he got her pregnant while she was still married…
Honestly its so embarrassing to think that this is my family…

Well, Uzziah’s boys will be here… they were kings of Israel…
Yeah, the kings that led us into the Babylonian Exile… they ruined the kingdom completely
great kings they were…
still always talking politics… just make peace with Rome…
They say, when in Rome… that is why God sent us into exile…
They have no back-bone, no pride in their country
We shouldn’t even invite them to sit at our table…

But they are Jesus family…
I know, but I don’t want him to turn out like them…
Traitors, cheats, murderers, ladies of the night…
Honestly Mary… are you blind?
We don’t want Jesus to grow up like them…
And he pours another larger glass of wine…

Dinner is served and Joseph can hardly eat.
David tells more goliath stories and Mary has to stop Joseph from throwing the carving knife.

Rahab’s 15 children all decide to eat under the dining room table…
All with different father’s mind you…
she was one of those women too…
Anyway, they only decide to sit at the table properly
When Tamar starts to show off the tattoos she has on various parts of her body…
Bathsheba spends the night weeping into her wine glass
Judah sings raunchy bar songs so loudly that he wakes
A sleeping baby Jesus…

Joseph runs to get him
He picks the infant up… Jesus smiles immediately
And grabs at daddy’s nose…
They walk into the living room again…
The crying, singing, hair-pulling all stops
Jesus offers a toothless smile to everyone and even seems to wave


Suddenly Joseph sees a very different family around his table.
Both Tamar and Rahab, now seem like strong survivors, courageous women
Who could not change the life they were given, but could adapt
And keep on living and hoping that God would come rescue them…
They hold baby Jesus, tickle his round red cheeks and as he smiles at them
Joseph seems to see the real Tamar and Rahab,
the way God sees them.
Bathsheba stops crying…
Jesus pulls at her hair and giggles as she makes faces…
And as Jesus giggles, Joseph can see a very sad woman
With guilt and regrets… who finds a moments joy…
from his boy…

David has to throw Jesus up in the air,
Which mary hates but will never say…
But jesus yanks on his beard and they both laugh
And Joseph sees a man with weakness
But also with courage and strength…

And Joseph suddenly realizes…
Jesus wouldn’t be without these people
Jesus was born for their flaws
And for their beauty…
Because he is,
All the wrong people have a place at the table with God
When Jesus smiles on them…
The image of God which Joseph couldn’t see because of his
Judgment, shines through…
And he can see them as they are before God…

David pulls out his harp
His fingers are bent with arthritis,
But he can still play a tune…
He begins to sing
God rest ye merry gentleman
Judah lets out a cheer and sloshes wine all over the table
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power we were gone astray
Bathsheba weeps, so do Tamar and Rahab
but with joy, they have held Jesus, and they is no longer astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy…
As Mary hold’s Jesus, and the whole table smiles back at him
Joseph can see the family resemblance
He can see a little of them in the face of his son
But because of his son
He can see a little bit of God
In their faces…

And Mary’s question still rings true tonight…
Without you, all of you, the bold and the broken, the flawed and the fair
could Jesus be reborn among us tonight?
I suspect not…

God rest you in these Tidings of comfort and joy…

Amen

Born of a Virgin

Sunday January 7, 2007
Luke 1:34
How will this be since I am a virgin? An unexpected and unexplained gift of life

I quit going to church in my sophomore year of college. It wasn't college that caused it

One of the big questions that troubled me was, the virgin birth? How are we supposed to make sense of the virgin birth?
Is it really that big a deal?
Only two of the four gospel writers bother to mention it; It is important to Matthew and Luke, but not to Mark and John. Paul, who writes the largest portion of our new testament never mentions it. The idea that Jesus was born of a virgin doesn't appear to be a great importance to the early church.
Should it be that important to us? Would it make that much difference to us if it could be proven that Mary wasn't a virgin? Would that change what we believe, how we read the bible, how we live?

The thing is; even as enlightened as we are in the 21st century, we know about fallopian tubes and ovaries whereas Mary most certainly did not, as enlightened as we are there are still unanswerable questions. Just watch the news. As much as we know about the brain, how it works, its chemicals and firing synapses. As much as we know about the human psyche. As informed as we are about the diversity of cultures and religions in our world... what to do in Iraq is still a mystery. Being there as a military presence does not seem to work. Will sending more troops do any good? Won't troop withdrawal leave Iraq in a state of utter chaos and and anarchy? As much as we know... there are still mysteries and unanswered questions.

We know so much about medicine; we know about viruses and bacterias, we understand the immune system, the importance of nutrition, we can treat so many illnesses with medication; yet we still cannot answer why our loved ones get cancer or alzheimers or why children develop autism. Even more importantly how do we deal with these illnesses, pick up the pieces and move on? It is a mystery... difficult to explain. We cannot seem to find an answer to the problem of getting medication to the people of the African continent to the treat their AIDS epidemic even though the medications are available here.

We know so much about culture and society. We know so much about economics. But homelessness is still rampant as is poverty. There are still mysteries and unanswered questions.


My point is this;
If we read the story of the virgin birth to be a statement about human sexuality
that it is something that God would avoid like the plague, we have missed the point of the story.

If we read this story as proof that Jesus was special, unique, perfect, above reproach,
I think we have missed the point.

If we read this story as a test case for the literal truth of the Bible, we have missed the point...
Luke and Matthew were not concerned with the issue of literal or
metaphorical truth in the bible.

I once asked a seminarian who was delivering his ordination paper so that he could become a pastor recognized by ABC to explain a statement he made. In writing about the Bible, he called it inerrant... without error, which always causes me to bristle... so I asked him to explain.
It was a black church... and so he started to preach.
When I read in Exodus that God appeared in a burning bush... I do not know that a tree actually burst into flame... but I know God was there... well, amen, preach it...
When I read in Exodus that God parted the Red Sea, I do not know if the river stopped flowing or if it defied gravity to stand up in the air... but I do know God was there... Amen... Go on...hallelujah...
This is what I mean by inerrant... God was there...

Luke and Matthew stand in a long line of Biblical writers who maintained tenaciously the illogical belief that God could do something new, something amazing, that God could create a future where no human mind could conceive of a tomorrow... that despite appearances, God was there... God is here.
And what is more, God is active...

Many cultures had stories of virgin's giving birth. It was a popular way to assign divinity to Rome's Caesar's to say that they were born of virgins.
It wasn't common in Jewish literature to speak of the Messiah being born of a virgin... it seems to be a new idea that Luke and Matthew record...
but even though it is unheard of it stands in a long line of foolish, tireless, dogged witness, that God erupts in our world to do the impossible...
Bringing manna from heaven
Making the Red Sea Part
bring water from a rock in the desert
making a shepherd boy David into a warrior and king
Over and over again the people of Israel maintained that their God could and would do the unexpected and the unexplainable... and that is the real point of the virgin birth... That God can do the impossible... that God will invade the impossible, encorigible and descouraging patterns of our lives to bring life, new, hopeful, impossible life

I asked before;
would it make much of a difference if we lost the idea of the virgin birth?
And as I sat down to consider this topic, I thought, no, it really wouldn't make a difference.
But as I considered all the times that Israel hoped and prayed and lived expecting their God to do the impossible... the idea of the virgin birth become quite vital...


Just as vital as Martin Luther King hoping for freedom for his people when it just seemed illogical, impossible...
Just as vital as telling our daughters that one day they could be president, or our sons that they will grow up to do great things... despite the obstacles... irregardless of the fact that we cannot prove these promises
Just as vital as telling an addict that they can be clean and sober
Just as vital as telling a new mother that her developmentally delayed baby can and will grow, can will learn, can and will achieve... maybe not like everyone, but this baby has a future.

To sideline the virgin birth to simply metaphor or a myth that is impossible to prove or believe leaves us without an imagination of the divine, a dream of what God just might do in this world, in our lives...stuck in the patterns of greed manipulation, despondency and violence that seem to run our world. It leaves us to live without the hope, the comfort or the conviction that God is here, that God is active... that we can be active in living and building the kingdom.

What happens when we get stuck in an imagination-less rut?
Consider a railroad. The standard US railroad gauge, the distance between rails, is 4 ft. 8.5 in., which is a strange and seemingly arbitrary measurement for standardization. Where did that number come from. English engineers who were involved in the construction of the American railroad brought that number. They learned that number from those who constructed the tramways used before railroads. They got it from the standard tools for building wagons which used the same wheel spacing. That number was arrived at from the wheel ruts on old long-distanced roads because the axles would break if they did not fit easily into the ruts. And the roads were built originally by the Romans to fit their war chariots. The distance between rails used by trains still in the United States came from Roman war chariots. For more than 2000 years no one has stopped to wonder if their might just be a better way, an easier way, process more economic of time and energy to create railroad tracks. They could not imagine a new way.
Of course we aren't really concerned with railroad tracks. Obviously that lack of imagination hasn't made much of negative impact on our lives. But it does illustrate the point, that we get stuck in ruts. Walter Brueggeman has said that the whole point of the Christmas story is lost when we get wrapped around the axle of How? How did a virgin have a baby? The point of the Christmas story, he suggests, is not to explain to us how it is that God acts in this world. Instead the Christmas story is meant to awaken our imagination. That the Christmas story is meant to induce us to dream. What would it look like if God were to do something miraculous.
And while the rest of the world waits for scientific proof, facts and figures to suggest viability, we as disciples simply need imagine.
One church I know of imagined what miraculous thing God might do for the homeless and hungry... and at first they started a soup kitchen, which is a good place to start imagining. But they realized that they hadn't imagined enough. Jesus didn't simply feed the hungry, he ate with the hungry. And so now they have a combination soup kitchen and potluck dinner, regularly, where members of the church not only feed, but sit and eat with, talk with, get to know, the homeless people they feed.
I've the story of a family that struggled to raise a severely disabled son. He was nonverbal and unable to walk on his own. He was incredibly medically involved and as much as they loved him, the stress was wearing on them and on their marriage. Until a deacon from church came to visit and sat with their son and talked to him and read to him not like a poor disabled boy, but like a person. For a moment they could imagine him that way. And it changed the way they though of him and the way they treated him.
Or the story of a woman with cancer. Head wrapped in a scarf, cheeks sunken, skin gray, body weak from so many treatments. Until her church pals showed up for a spa day and they did her fingernails and toe nails and they exfoliated her skin and brought her a beautiful new wig. And she imagined being healthy again. And she got healthy again.
Do not be afraid, the angel said to Joseph. If you read carefully, Joseph was going to leave Mary, when he heard of her pregnancy. He couldn't imagine anything good coming of a baby that wasn't his. Do not be afraid, the angel said do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
I cannot explain to you how it is that God does strange and unexpected and amazing things.
But for today, we don't need to know how, Like Joseph, we just need to imagine... today is a day to wonder, what next.

Greetings Favored One

When the angel first spoke to Mary, “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,' she jumped and fell out her chair, landing with a thud. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, she stared with disbelief at the figure hovering over her. It wasn't that she had never heard of angels or the stories of their sudden bright shining sun appearing. These were the stories with which her mother had put her to bed. The three angels walking out of the hot desert shimmer to find Abraham who thought he they were a mirage, a symptom of the heat. But they were real and they came to announce that he and Sarah, both close to 100 years of age, would have a son named Isaac. An angel appeared to Hagar, Abaraham's servant girl and mother to his first son Ishmael. She too wandered in the desert because Abraham and Sarah no longer wanted her or her son in their home. Overcome by exhaustion, seeking shelter from the noon-day sun, lips chapped from thirst and dehydration, she fell to the sand like a camel with a fractured leg, too weak to even care about the scalding heat of the ground. Then an angel appeared and guided her to water. She new that an angel appeared to Moses in a burning bush commanding him to leave his desert hiding place and return to Egypt, where he was wanted for murder, to face Pharoah and free his people. And when Elijah had had enough of life and wanted to die, God sent an angel to feed him, give him water, and to take Elijah to a meeting with God, face to face, but not through dying. God was coming to meet him and to send him on his way to a new life mission. When God sent angels, lives changed, Mary new. Abraham became a father, Moses became a freedom fighter, Hagar found a home, Elijah his life's purpose...

And Mary wondered what message the angel would bring.

Because her people had not heard from angels in years, centuries even.
At first they waited expectantly. Some would-be prophets wandered the near-by deserts waiting for an angel to fall from the clouds or materialize out of the sand. Priests would wait expectantly in the Temple for something; a voice, a clap of thunder, a sudden great light, a burst of flame. Women would pray earnestly form some sign that God was still here, there, anywhere close by, listening, paying attention, coming down to change their lives...

Lives marked by oppression and poverty. All of Israel waited for angels, but all they seemed to find were demons. Not necessarily supernatural phenomena demon's. Everyday demons like; Roman tax collectors who could and would take everything. Just the other day they had taken the last goat from Mary's neighbor. It was a source of milk and cheese, some food, some nutrition, but now that was gone. Everyday demons like malnutrition. The street that lead to the market would lined by beggars. Some were scarred and disfigured, bearing the marks of crossing the Roman centurions. Others were diseased, covered in dusty rags, covered in sores. Some were children, frail, skeleton thin children whose family couldn't afford to feed them. Israel was infested with these demons, and waited for the day when an angel would appear to drive out the demons and change Israel's life forever.

But the angels hadn't appeared for a long, long time.
And slowly people gone on with their angel-less life.
Some started working for the Romans. The money was good. They could feed their families. Their neighbors wouldn't speak to them, in-laws wouldn't come to holiday dinners. But they were surviving as best they could.
Some joined the rebellion. If God wouldn't send angels with flaming swords, they would have to pick up their own. So instead of waiting for angels, their time was spent in secret meeting, smuggling weapons, hoarding food, spying on their roman oppressors.

Some, like the pharisees, stopped waiting for angels, and devoted themselves to purity. They shunned Romans, beggars, the sick, the sinful, hoping that religious piety would entice God to come to rescue them. They poured their attention into the word of God. But they stopped looking for angels
And some, like Mary, just got on with life as best they could.
She found a kind and gentle man to marry, Joseph. And her thoughts were consumed by their wedding. She and her mother sat by lamp-light piecing together her wedding gown. Hours were spent, while cooking and cleaning, dreaming of their life together; the children they would have, the home they would buy. Joseph was lucky enough to have a job. So she planned how she would make the perfect home for her beloved.
No one looked for angels anymore, not even mary.

Isn't that the way with us. Life is full of hope and promise when we are young. We believe the stories of Santa Claus and the Easter bunny; that there is good out there, hope. Like Mary we have plans for life and we believe in our own plans and the courage to carry them out.
Then life comes along; terrible and wonderful. But life as we plan it doesn't always work out. Life bring a few surprises some good; a baby, a promotion, a raise. Some not so good; we get laid off, divorced, we get ill or a loved one gets sick. Life comes at us, sometimes great, sometimes sad, and when sad, like all of Mary we discover that there isn't always an Easter Bunny around the corner, with welcome and unexpected gifts. And sometimes life Mary (at least, as I imagine Mary) we stop believing in angels and are left to our own devices, our own plans and skills, our own strength and hope. For some that is enough. Others find it comes up short and we have little left to lean on. The story of Mary, the story of Israel, isn't so far from our own, believing in a savior, knocked around by life, feeling left on our own.

Which is why at first Mary didn't understand his words; you have found favor with God. God's favor was like angels, something from stories, a fantasy, ancient history.

But the angel continues. Probably calmly and slowly, but this couldn't be real, Mary thought and so she felt caught in a whirlwind of promises that just couldn't be true;
Luke 1:31
You will be with child and give birth to a son
Luke 1:31-32
give him the name Jesus.
Luke 1:32
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David
Luke 1:33
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

A baby?
named Jesus?
He will be king? Not Herod, Not Caesar?
He will be like David? We will be free and safe and secure?
People will work for themselves, and eat,
no more sickness, no more tax-collectors, no more begging, no more death?
Forever?

All that she had dreamed of and given up dreaming of... could it somehow happen?
Dare we believe that God could make something good out life's struggles
Dare we believe that God could bring light to our darkness?

How can this be? She asks

Because as good as it sounds, much will change.
All that she has pinned her hopes on will change?
Will Joseph keep her if she pregnant?
What will her parents think
what will the neighbors say or do?

Will she give up her simple hopes for something better from God?
Will she believe that God could do the impossible, the unexpected, that which she has given-up-on?
Will she replace the life she had planned for the life God is offering;
with its promise and its pressure
with its joys and its sorrows?

Angels appear before us almost every day.
A hungry child
A cold family
A crying widow
a frightened daughter
An ailing parent
A little girl without a coat
an elderly man who can't get out on his own

Angels appear before us almost every day
a new job opportunity or a layoff
an engagement or a divorce
a clean bill of health or a frightening diagnosis.

Angels all, everyday angels...
that offer us the choice to keep our head down and go on with life as we have known it
or to look up and say with Mary, I am the Lord's servant
In good times and in bad, God is there with hope and strength
with a purpose for our living and a mission for our existance.
Each moment expected or unexpected
a celebration or a catastrophe is a chance to give birth to Christ
a chance to heed the angels
to be an angel
to believe that nothing is impossible with God

Its a hard thing to live with, this hope in angels, this belief that God is near
Its difficult to hold onto the belief that God is all things
that Jesus could be born in us, at any time, in any place.

The question is, will we say yes as did Mary?

Will we choose to be considered a bit foolish by some of our friends, no better than poker players or lottery ticket scratchers hoping in something rarely seen. A daredevil, a testpilot (Barbara Brown Taylor) calls us. We believe in something that can't be proven in a laboratory. Angels can't be recreated, recorded, studied or saved on Tevo. Will we take that chance?

Meister Eckhart once asked
What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to a Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and in my culture.

If you dare to say yes then the angels words are not only for Mary, but also for you
Greetings favored ones, the Lord is with You, The son of the Most High is in You
Do not be afraid, for nothing is impossible with God.

Mary's Imagination

Son #1 was with me in the car just the other day on the way to get Son #2 from Daycare. It was quite dark, which #1 noted as he munched on his gold-fish. Then he asked if we could turn the light on in the car. I explained that it was a bit more difficult for daddy to drive safely with the light on in the car when its so dark out, and then asked why we made the request. 'Well, I get scared of the dark, sometimes.' 'What is it about the dark that frightens you?' I asked. My room looks different and I think that I see monsters. It got me to thinking about the power of our imaginations.

A young boy arrived for his first experience of summer camp down at Canonicus. He was small for his age and slight. You could tell from his slightly awkward gait that coordination was not his strong-point. He had a bit of a speech impediment which made it difficult especially for other kids to understand him and so they tended to ignore him. I got to know him a little that first summer. His story unfortunately is not all that unique. Diagnosed as ADHD his soon become labeled, and his identity becomes that of someone who is dis-abled...unable to play the games other kids play, unable to talk to the other kids, unable to get his hands and eyes to coordinate, his mind to focus on the game at hand... he could not imagine being able.

Paulo Freire once said; 'oppression works most efficiently when the oppressed have internalized the world as seen through the eyes of the oppressor.'

Just the other day flipping through the TV channels I heard a priest explaining what was so miraculous, so unique about Mary. Do you know what it was, according to the priest?
Her sacred virginity
So much is going on around Mary and all we can see is virginity?
What about her humility, 'I am the Lord's servant' she said,
Maybe he faithfulness to God, 'May it be to me as you have said.' she replied to the angel.
No, there is more to the story of Mary than virginity
More even than humility
Perhaps even more than faithfulness...

I think it was Mary's imagination

Because life for Mary and all of the Jews in Palestine is like living in a darkened room and they cannot imagine a light

Mary and her family, all the families under Roman occupation, have been labeled 'dis-abled, unable,' by Rome, by Herod, by the Ruling Elites... and they cannot imagine being able
Furthermore they cannot imagine that God is able.


Why could Mary, her family, her people, not imagine that they could be en-nabled
Imagine with me a day in Mary's life...

They wake up early attempting to scratch a meager meal out of the soil
only to get a mouthful of dust. Sifting through the sand to find enough seed
to plant for next year only to have it blown away in a whirlwind of Roman horses
and sword carrying soldiers collecting taxes

Mary awakens to wailing and crying from the home next to hers
peeking slowly out the door she sees a man in a fine, clean purple robe walking past
At her neighbors house, a mother clutches her eight-year-old daughter to her breast
the girl is weeping, her sisters and brothers are weeping
The man in purple pulls out his a few coins,
gives them to his associate who hand the coins to the man.
The man weeps as the associate takes the girl by the hand
She is now a slave to the man in purple
This was the only way for the man to feed the rest of his children.

The man in purple stops at another house.
His associate calls to the man of the house
publically demanding that he pay off a debt long overdue
crowds gather at the a long list of loans is read aloud
as is the length of time he was given to repay
and a record of visits made to him for payment
He stands, ashamed in the the center of town
Inside the house the family scrambles to find loose coins
Mother and grandmother turn over their beds to
find the last remaining treasures of the house
gifts from grandparents on their wedding day
to pay the man in purple
the man weeps as his wife brings what little of worth she can find
to lay at the man in purples feet
He takes it
And then announces that the home is his,
the livestock, the land
he is foreclosing on his debt
and they will have to seek shelter elsewhere
as his workers will soon live in the house.

On her way to the market Mary sees many faces that she recognizes
children who she once played with in the fields
now begging in the streets
grandmothers, grandfathers who had watched her play
given her water,
kept her from harm
laying in the street
skin and bones wrapped in rags...


And Mary wonders
Is this all I have to look forward too?
Is this the life that I have to imagine?
Choosing one child to sell so as to feed the others
visits from the Roman tax collectors
king herods tax collectors
temple tax collectors
leaving little to eat, plant, sell?

Is this all I have to look forward too?
Disease, malnutrition
a lonely death?
Is this all I have to imagine
Is this all we, the people of God have to look forward too?

Our lives do not look like this exactly
but we can identify with this feeling of hopelessness
With the inability to imagine anything other than monsters in the dark

Perhaps it is the order to clear one's desk at the end of the day
the incessant calls of the bill collectors
dreams of a past of abuse at the hands of a husband or father
an addiction that tugs at our soul
the words of a teacher or coach who told us we would amount to nothing
the passing of a dear loved one
the doctor utters the word cancer
The list could on and on...
But I think all of us at one time or another
feel like lance, scared of the dark
Like the boy at camp, dis-abled
like Mary, wondering if all there is to imagine is
defeat and discouragement
Her story is our story...

But defeat, discouragement, fear is not the end of the story

For an angel appears
Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God

And as the angel speaks to Mary,
her imagination is reborn
She imagines her village,
where the children, all the children play
healthy, well, fed, and happy,
while their grandparents sit smiling and watching them dance and sing
She imagines her village
where the men still work the land
but their barns are full
their ovens over-flow with bread
their wine is sold at market
The soldiers ride away empty-handed
The man in purple is dressed in rags
and the men of the village toss coins to him
out of charity...
She imagines mothers watching their daughters married
she images a son, her son...
when before she could only imagine a short life and
and a painful death

Abraham stands under the dark night sky
wondering why he could never have a son
wondering if his family could ever be whole and happy
And God shows him the stars
and asks him to imagine

Joseph lies in a well
abandoned to die of thirst and hunger in the desert by his brothers
When God gives him a dream
of his brothers bowing to him
and ask him to imagine

Israel is enslaved
day after day they labor under the cruel whip of the Egyptians
crying out to God, as Pharoah slaughters their sons
Until God sends them a man named Moses
and asks them to imagine

Later the walls of Jerusalem are breached
Babylonian hordes rush in to pillage and destroy
tearing down the Temple, the house of God on earth
Those Israelites who are not killed
are carried off
husband taken from wives
children from parents
to live in bondage
and God sends them a prophet Isaiah with a dream...

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor , Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

God asks them to imagine what the zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish.




Many come to church or avoid it because of one simple misunderstanding

they think that the Bible is just a book of ancient and impossible rules
that we are gathering of people entranced by ancient codes of conduct

But the Bible is more than rules
it is a record of the very dreams of God
meant to inspire our imagination

And yet if it is only our imagination that is resuscitated by the breath of God
all will be for nothing

Like Mary, we must bring what God imagines for us..
to life
we are called to imagine and give birth to a light
unquenchable by darkness
a strength of soul impervious to the disease of despair
the love of God that is stronger than death

We are called to give birth to the words of
Joel
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams ,
your young men will see visions.
on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
And everyone who calls
on the name of the LORD will be saved;

Perhaps it is but my imaginations
maybe just a dream
but won't you make that dream real?