The Hope of Christmas

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.                                                                               Malachi 3:1

There are many sources of hope. We can find hope in our work, or in the words of a favorite philosopher or prophet, or in beautiful music. But there is something different about the hope we find in Jesus Christ.  As we anticipate the feast of the Incarnation on December 25^th, our hopes become deeper. We allow ourselves to wonder what God has in store for us and for the world. It is as though God is calling us to something deeper, something more than the “everyday” hopes we have for our lives.

As we begin to recall those familiar scenes of shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night or to envision choirs of angels bursting into song over dark starry skies, I feel God nudging the world to something deeper, something more profound. The hope we experience every year as we wait expectantly in Advent for the signs of the star, we experience more deeply God’s hope for each one of us. It is a hope and the flicker of the knowledge that God is in the midst of us, not just today, but has been forever and will be forever.

Look for hope today; ask what God might be asking of you.
                                                                                         

·        Is it to go deeper?

·        Is it to seek God more fully?

·        To serve God more faithfully?

The “Christmas spirit” is not about tinsel and lights and presents; we only wish it were that easy, but these things are not what we really yearn for. We yearn for connection; a connection with the living God who accompanies us always, who seeks to bring us everlasting peace.  

Breathe the spirit of Christmas in – and resolve to send it out into a world in desperate need of hope. Resolve to discover what God is asking of you: to find hope in the midst of pain, to bring hope to those who have no hope, to be the bearer of the Good News to those who haven’t seen it lately.

May the spirit of the living God be in you and among you and alive through you in this time of waiting and expectation.

Visible Traces

The Scripture:                                                                                       Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The Whisperings:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."

This prayer is called the Shema, and it is prayed at the beginning and end of every day by observant Jews. (It is traditionally prayed while covering or closing one’s eyes.) The Shema reveals God’s commandment to us in two distinct parts. First, it begs us to hear the proclamation that the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. It exhorts us to remember that we must worship only one God, not many.  It reminds us that God must be the first priority in our lives. The second part is just as important: God demands that we love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and might.  This indicates a need for an ongoing relationship with God, not just a “once in a while” drive thru visit.

So, in this short prayer, there are actually two powerful imperatives: a command to hear and a command to love. How do we do that?  In verses 6-9, Moses outlines three specific ways to accomplish the tasks of hearing and loving God: 

1. First, we must commit these words to our hearts.  How different would our lives be if we recommitted ourselves to God each and every morning upon awakening and every evening before going to bed? 
2. Second, scripture tells us to recite these words to our children and talk about them both at home and in the world. How are we doing with that? Are we passing down the vital message of God’s love to our children and to our neighbors?
3. And third, we are told to make God known to the world with visual reminders.  “Wearing it” on our shirtsleeves may not be feasible for us, but the intent here is to place the very fact of God, to place the Shema itself, in the midst of our lives as a reminder for all people. It’s not about how many crosses you tie around your neck, or how many fish decals you stick on your car. Instead, this part of the passage asks us to place the idea of the Shema “out there” –  in our actions and way of life. How do we leave visible traces of God in the marketplace?
4. 
   
   How goes it for you?

Prayer for Times of Conflict: O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.                                                    Book of Common Prayer, pg. 824

It has been a divisive election year. The television ads have been particularly unsettling, not because they were simply derogatory, but because they took statements and actions utterly out of context, and named them "truth." Pilate was right when he asked, "What is truth?" (John 18:38).

Whether your candidate won or lost, whether today you are feeling jubilant or depressed, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are bound together in a common life. We are called by our Lord God to bind up the broken hearted, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being. We are called to be Christ's hands and hearts in the world: to seek out and serve all people, but particularly those who are poor, weak, sick, or lonely.

· Who, this week, needs an encouraging word?
· Who, this week, needs food or shelter?
· Who, this week, needs your time or your attention.

Let's get on with the business of our common life. God has a world in need of your heart and hands. 

For Bob...

This week, one of my dearest friends was killed; accidentially, tragically. He was watching his wife and her team row crew in Portland, Oregon.  He was standing on a bridge. He waved to her as her boat went under the bridge. Then, he turned to cross the bridge to watch her boat emerge from the other side, but he never made it. Crossing the bridge, he was struck by a car and killed instantly.  

Grief is a funny thing. I somehow cannot bear to put up a picture of Bob on this page, but I can put up an example of how love helps us through the darkest of days. It is proof positive that God is there with us in our triumphs and in our tragedies. The picture above is of Cynthia's crew team. You, see, they didn't wallow in the tragedy that occurred, they acted. Someone decided that their very next race would have every team member wearing shirts remembering Bob.  It was a way to show solidarity with one of their teammates. It was a way to keep moving forward, even when the world seems to have stopped.  

They raced. They won. They held up Bob's wife in her grief by doing what only they could do. By proclaiming that Bob was there, that Bob lived, that Bob would not be forgotten. Not only would he not be forgotten, he would be celebrated. 

I love you Bob. Still. 

How Healthy is blame?

"Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died"

Is Martha's tone one of accusation? Or is it one of faith? 

Jesus' friend Lazarus lay dying, and his sisters, Martha and Mary, sent word to Jesus; but Jesus did not come immediately to his friend's bedside. . The text for All Saints' Day tells us that Jesus remained where he was for two more days. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Neither Martha nor Mary could have anticipated what Jesus was about to to (to bring Lazarus out from the grave), but were they being accusatory -- or were they expressing deep faith in Jesus' ability as a healer? 
The question for us becomes:  How do we call out for God in times of deep distress? Do we accuse God of being absent or too late? When we cry out, "Oh God," is i from a place of deep faith that acknowledges our utter reliance on God or is it from a place of skepticism? 

Our scriptures tell us time and again that God is there with us; able to do all thins if only we had enough faith, and yet, is that not the stumbling place for most of us? Have we enough faith to utterly rely on God when torment swirls around us or when we are bone weary from grief, or when the Tempter lures us into the excesses that the world offers?  

However we respond to God, let it be our prayer that our faith must never be allowed to stagnate, but that it become a stronger and stronger part of who we are each time trials assault us. 

God is with us -- always. Do we notice? 

Scripture suggestion: John 11: 17-22

Pray!

In whatever language or style you choose. God understands.

What DO you want?

“What do you want me to do for you?”               Mark 10: 51

Jesus asks this question of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar in Jericho. This sentence is striking because it notes a radical shift in the perception people had of God. The early Greeks, Egyptians, and other cultures of the time all paid strict obeisance to the gods they worshiped; they made sacrifices, they put up totems, built altars, and strived to please their gods lest they incur the wrath of the gods.

What a radical departure from the norm Jesus offers! Our God, the Incarnate One, who, instead of being a threatening abstraction, is right in front of our faces asking us, “What do you want me to do for you?” This is the God we worship. The Divine Presence who yearns for relationship with us, who loves us, who sacrificed His only begotten Son so that we might have eternal life.

 God wants into your life! 

As you consider how passionate God is for you and for me and for all of creation, try to identify some times where God has begged you for your attention. Some instances where God was trying to tell you something, yearning for you to notice. Did you notice? How did you respond?

 Now, close your eyes, and imagine that God is right in front of you, and God whispers into your ear,
“What do you want me to do for you?”

 How will you answer?

The Scripture:                                                                                                        Mark 10:46-52

Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

On God as Genie

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 
                                                                                                                   Mark 10:35

Are they serious? Do James and John think that Jesus is some a magic genie who will grant their wishes? "We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." How incredibly presumptuous of them!  We are quick to chuckle about how slow the disciples are to "get it" whenever Jesus tried to teach them about the Kingdom of God. An yet, as disciples ourselves, I wonder how often we don;t :get it" either,  James and John knew they were "in good" with Jesus -- why not ask him for plum spots? How often have we sidled up to our bosses in order to position ourselves for that big promotion?

And in our prayers.... Have we ever treated God like a magic genie?

• Please, God, let me pass this exam.
• Please, God, let this Lotto ticket be the big winner.
• Please, God, let me get this promotion. 
• Please, God, don't let Nana die.  

In this passage, Jesus turns our human expectations of what God "is" upside down. To be associated with and aligned with Christ, our Lord reminds us: "Whoever wishes to be first among you must be the salve and servant of all." In other words, to align ourselves as Christians means to serve the world, not to get an inside track on God so we can get more "stuff." 

How will you, this week, bring God's love into the world? 

How will you, this week, be an example of God's grace in a world in desperate need of it? 

For meditation, please read Matthew 10: 35-45.

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, 
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of 
red wing blackbirds. 

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. 
Breathe in confusion
and breathe out maple trees. 
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships in tact.

Wage peace with your listening;
hear sirens, pray loud. 
Remember your tools: 
flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers. 

Make soup. 
Play music, 
learn the word thank you in three languages. 
Learn to knit, and make a hat. 

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, 
imagine grief as the out breath of beauty
or the gesture of fish. 
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace. 

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious. 
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived. 
Don't wait another minute. 

                                             - Mary Oliver