We're talking a lot, but is anyone listening?

Last week I watched Morning Joe with Ralph Reed on as a guest.  He was asked about the range of subjects that currently occupy political conversations, one of them being gun control.  Mr. Reed offered his personal opinion on the matter which I’d summarize as serious skepticism about the efficacy of anything that might be attempted.  Just the day before his appearance, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, passed a resolution reiterating the concerns the General Convention has expressed about gun violence in our culture.  Suffice it to say, I was struck by, let me say jarred by, these two very different responses: one from Ralph Reed, conservative Christian activist; and one from the Executive Council, on the liberal side of social and cultural issues. These two responses taken together did not present a coherent Christian perspective on the matter.  Indeed, were anyone to place the two responses side by side, they would probably conclude Ralph Reed as a Christian speaks in favor of the Republican response to gun issues and the Executive Council as Christians speak in favor of the Democratic approach to the same questions.

So, a couple of questions come to mind.  In post-Christendom America, do individual religious leaders or religious groups really believe they can influence politicians on outcomes by issuing pronouncements or personal statements about such matters?  Aren’t such actions in and of themselves, automatic Christendom responses which are therefore wasted effort in a post-Christendom culture?  And what happens when Christian leaders offer contradictory and mutually exclusive statements on the cultural issues of the day?  Would this be confusing to any who are paying attention?  Does the inconsistency in responses dilute even further any possible Christian impact on the matter at hand?

So, what do you think?  Is James Davison Hunter (To Change the World) correct, that the culture is at best, highly skeptical about anything Christians say publicly and therefore the Christian movement is best served by holding our peace and concentrating on being, salt, light and leaven in the world until such time as say, a generation or two, we might regain the credibility that is necessary to speak publicly to the culture again.  Or, is Ross Douthat (Bad Religion) correct, that cultural Christianity is essential to our society and the mainline churches must recover some vitality and consistency and get back in the game to bring positive influence to bear on the culture?

In this post-Christendom context, don’t we Christians need to hone our message to the world so that Christianity speaks with, despite our many differences, a more coherent, consistent and therefore intelligible voice to the culture?

Do we need to resist the temptation to comment or speak about every single thing and choose our moments with more consideration, addressing candidly the deeper, underlying issues of our common life, while always offering the word of good news, hope and encouragement to those responsible for addressing the issues?  Perhaps it would be a less complicated matter to speak with a more consistent voice if we disciplined ourselves to expend our words on fewer and weightier concerns.

It appears to me that in this new context, it is necessary for all Christians to realize that the days of making distinctions between ourselves for the purpose of attracting new members (we’re not like those ___________s!) or trying to gain credibility with others at the expense of other Christians, are long past.  We are truly in it together now.  What each Christian does or says reflects either favorably or unfavorably on all of us.  I don’t believe that our non-Christian neighbors who share this culture with us make any distinctions between reasonable or unreasonable, liberal or conservative Christians. We just all get lumped together, period.

If that’s the case, our message needs to get sharper and clearer.  Things really don’t have to be this way.  There is a better way.  Come and follow Jesus and see for yourself.

photo souce: www.rejesus.co.uk

Honoring the Body

This Lent, our preaching series focuses on the Christian practices and habits that will make us a distinctive people in the New Apostolic Era.  Lisa's sermon is a fine and compact presentation on the Christian habit of Honoring the Body...

The Rev. Dr. Lisa Barrowclough
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd
Augusta, GA – Sunday, February 17, 2013 – Lent 1C

Jewish midrash tells a story of the beloved sage Hillel, who on his way to the bathhouse, explained to his disciples that he was going to carry out a mitzvah, a commandment. “Is it a religious obligation to bathe?” they asked. “Yes,” replied the wise teacher, “If the statues of kings erected in theatres, circuses, and town squares are regularly scoured and washed by the person appointed to look after them, how much more I, who has been created in God’s image and likeness.”

Disclaimer: If 15 years ago anyone had told an ambitious seminarian that she would one day stand in a pulpit and begin a sermon with a story about bathing, that young seminarian … well, I would have laughed, “I think not!” Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I actually felt that same way just a few weeks ago, when the preaching series schedule was published and I was assigned to the Christian Practice of ‘Honoring the Body.’ God is known to have a great sense of humor, however … and also to desire the stretching and growth of His disciples … and so my Lent has begun with special attention paid to the disciplines of tending to that which is indeed made in God’s image and likeness – the body that we, as Christians, are called to care for and honor.

Whether I want to pay attention or not, our world has a lot to say about our bodies. A quick internet search for “body care products” produces 163 million results – a three-year-old Department of Labor study claims that between 40 and 50 percent of the annual expenditures of the average American family fit in categories associated with care of the body, from gym memberships to health care, from the clothes on our backs to the food in our refrigerators – and, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Heath, half of the top ten stressors in the complicated development of adolescents are directly related to their bodies … what they’ve been told they should look like, what they think they must wear, what they are tempted to try, what is happening to them naturally and, sadly (for far too many), what is happening unnaturally to their bodies at the abusive hands of others.

The world of Jesus and the early Christian church was very concerned with the body as well. A sizeable majority of the Laws of the Torah are somehow related to the body, what a person can and cannot wear, eat, touch, and do. Jesus’ own radical ministry was marked by regular associations with those whose failing bodies made them unclean in the eyes of the faithful; and most of his miracles fed or healed bodies in need. St. Paul teaches passionately about the human body as the ‘Temple of the Holy Spirit’ when seeking to correct the destructive choices folks were making and the abusive habits they had fallen into – he more than once uses the image of the human body to describe the Church, the Body of Christ, as having many members who complement and need one another, and the whole system rejoicing or hurting when any one part does – and he describes compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience as godly virtues with which we must clothe ourselves.

The whole of our faith, of course, is grounded in the Incarnation – the truth that God himself “put on” a human body … and, in Jesus, the creator lived among the creatures. That the divine would walk and talk, and live and die, as an earthly human being is the unique claim of Christianity among the world’s religions, and because of this awesome wonder the holiness of all human bodies is an absolutely central understanding of our faith. Have you noticed that the whole of your body is involved in our worship? The often-mocked “Episcopal Aerobics” of “stand, sit, kneel, repeat” are intentional movements to engage our whole selves in prayer and praise. We touch and taste and smell in church – we see and hear and speak and sing together – and thus we honor our God with our bodies, made in His image. We walk the labyrinth – we get our hands dirty in service to others – we wrap our arms around grieving brothers and sisters – we lift up those who have fallen – we jump with joy for those who have reason to celebrate. We make use of our bodies to the glory of God and the building up of His church and His kingdom.

And because our bodies are intended to honor the One who made and strengthens them, we must take good care of them. In the same way that we are called to be good stewards of the earth, our time, our talents, and our treasures, so too must we be good stewards of the bodies God has given us. This means that what we eat and what we drink – how we wash and what we wear – the ways we are active and the times we are restful – the choices we make about intimacy … being a responsible steward of our bodies means that what we do to honor that which has been made in God’s image must honor God – in ourselves and in others. Like the incarnation, our practices of honoring the body are unique commitments of our Christian faith and they are outward and visible signs of our gratitude to the God who has given them to us. When we monitor and tend to our physical health – when we eat wisely and work off extra calories with exercise – when we practice good hygiene and dress modestly – when we reserve the gift of sex for marriage … when we do these things and more (and importantly, when we teach these things to our children) then we are honoring these vessels, these Temples of the Holy Spirit, as we should.

I say these practices are uniquely Christian commitments because, like so much of what we do and say, the tradition and truth of honoring our bodies is not necessarily the same as the habits and ways of the world in which we live. It has always been so. Our faith was born in a culture that viewed the human body as a commodity that ensured the growth of the empire. Procreation was highly valued, though irresponsibly, even recklessly practiced by the Romans, because babies meant more citizens, more soldiers, more cities. New Christians who reserved sex for marriage made the unpopular claim that their bodies belonged to God, and not to the state. Women, who before Christianity had dutifully born many children and too often died young as a result, suddenly enjoyed the freedom to become educated and to teach others. Those who had, for so long, gone without the basic necessities for healthy living finally had access to goods and services in Christian communities that shared all things in common. And the garments and jewels that had always set the “haves” apart from the “have-nots” were seen less and less among believers called to recognize Christ in one another, and to celebrate the image of God in all whom they met.

They say that history repeats itself, and it is not at all a challenge to find similar disconnects between the views, values, and practices of the faithful and faithless these days. Thankfully our bodies have never again been thought to belong to the empire, but our world is a long way from viewing them as belonging to God. In a highly sensationalized culture, our movie screens, websites, and magazines display minimal clothing on impossible (without photo-shop) bodies while, at the same time (isn’t it ironic?) promoting super-sized junk food filled with sugar and fat. Our culture assumes promiscuity by teaching our children solely about protection and no longer about abstinence, and we’ve made even basic health and wellness the privilege of those who can afford it. The evening news is tragically never without reports of human bodies being exploited and abused and, despite an almost immeasurable wealth of medical advances and services, avoidable sicknesses are spread at increasing rates. But we must not lose heart, for in this unhealthy, immodest, and broken culture, the voice of our faith is a prophetic voice – one with a message of hope and reason – to proclaim … “It just doesn’t have to be this way!”

In this morning’s gospel, the one we hear annually on the first Sunday in Lent, we are reminded of the prevailing weakness of temptation and sin, and (thanks be to God!) the strength and power of God in Christ to save us. The tests of the devil – appealing as they do to the natural tendency of fallen humankind to pursue (often at any cost) self-centered desire, worldly ambition, and the easy-way-out … these are the temptations that haunt us – the longings that seek satisfaction in the dishonorable practices of the culture in which we live and move and have our being. In the gospel Jesus provides for us the ultimate and perfect example of obedience to the One who made us in His image … an obedience we are meant to practice as we live in these bodies we are called to honor. It’s not easy – in fact, it often feels like a forty-day fasting battle in the desert, when we live into the fullness of God’s plan for these bodies of ours. It is hard work to honor our bodies – and to honor the image of God in the bodies of others – but it is for this that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made.

Admittedly, I am not the best practitioner nor teacher of this practice. I pray often for greater strength and motivation in these honorable ways. I began this morning by confessing that I’ve struggled to picture myself giving this sermon, so I might as well also admit that I’ve been remiss in settling on a Lenten discipline. God does indeed work in mysterious ways, doesn’t He?! This practice is an especially challenging one for me – and I’m guessing it may be for a few of you also. Let me wrap things up here with a powerful image of God’s continued work on the bodies He has given us – an image that reminds and reassures me that this hard work is not ours alone. I’m not going to offer any comments of my own (I’m actually not sure I’m ready to) but rather I will just leave the picture with you – a picture of a body that tells the story of so much more. I pray we’ll each hear and see what God intends.

In the fifth book of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” we meet an unpopular young boy: “There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb,” we are told, “and he almost deserved it! His parents called him Eustace Clarence and his masters called him Scrubb,” explains the narrator. “I cannot tell you how his friends spoke to him for he had none.” Self-centered, ambitious, and always looking for an easy way out – Eustace battled with the temptations we read about in the gospel. And so it was that, while he slept atop a dragon’s hoard of riches, with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, Eustace became a dragon himself. At first he tried to look on the bright side, imagining that his fierce new image would provoke fear in others and give him power. He liked this idea! But gradually, through a Lent-like practice of “self-examination and repentance,” Eustace realized that he had been quite a monster even before this unfortunate transformation into a dragon. Eustace began to regret his past mistakes and he wept big (and sincere) dragon tears. … So, enter the lion. The dragon suddenly found himself in the presence of Aslan, who simply beckoned, “Follow me.” Leading Eustace to a clear pool of fresh water, the lion commanded him to undress. “I couldn’t undress,” the boy explains, “because I hadn’t any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast off their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that’s what the Lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I were a banana. So I started to go down into the well for my bath. As soon as I looked at myself again in the water I knew it had been no good. Then the Lion said … ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty desperate now. So I just lay flat on my back and let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the awful dragon skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. Then … he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on – and he threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but for only a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that … I’d turned into a boy again. After a bit the Lion took me out and dressed me.”

Light, shining in the darkness (December 24, 2012)

The readings for Christmas Eve services are the same every year. Year after year we gather in this darkened church on one of the darkest nights of the year to hear again, these same ancient texts.  Luke gives his account of the birth of Jesus with the shepherds abiding in the fields, the angels singing, the glory, the shekinah of God appearing, and Mary pondering all these things in her heart.
Thanks to Charles Schoultz, Charlie Brown and Linus, and to the incomparable King James translation of the bible, most of us know Luke’s account by heart, don’t we? Let’s try it:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone 'round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” 

In the epistle read this night, Paul urges Titus to encourage the faithful in sound teaching and holy living while they, and we, live in between the time of Jesus’ first appearing and his coming again in glorious majesty to fulfill God’s purposes and to redeem human history. But in all the years of hearing these familiar scriptures on Christmas Eve, never before, when we have gathered here, have Isaiah’s words

The people who walked in darkness, those who lived in a land of deep darkness, or as the King James translation puts it:  They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death

Never before have those words seemed to describe the situation of all of us here, and not just some of us here, on this holy and special night.  What do I mean by that, you may ask.

I know it is safe to say that all of us are sick of our politics, disappointed in our elected officials, and tempted to cynicism and despair in our national life.

Or, if that were not enough to persuade you that we live in metaphorical darkness, then perhaps observing that these same elected officials have, for some time, demonstrated that they are unable to work together for the common good and benefit of all of us, most recently with regard to the basic fiscal matters before us, maybe that will bring you around.

Or, if that were not convincing enough, reminding you that our national economy is weak and the global economy is even weaker, should increase your anxiety about our collective financial security and future progress.

Or if you still remain unpersuaded, then surely, the wholesale slaughter of twenty young children in their classrooms, along with six of their adult leaders, by a gunman who is clearly mentally ill and just as clearly, mentally calculating and evil in his actions, surely that persuades you that we do indeed, all of us, dwell in darkness and in a land of the shadow of death.

For a long time now, social scientists and those who comment on our culture, the prophets of our day, if you will, have told is, if we needed telling, that our culture is increasingly unmoored from any commonly held anchor, which has the corrosive effect over time of tainting and de-sensitizing all of us to its deceptions and dangers.

The tragedy in Connecticut has served to force the attention of all of us at the same time to the number of ways our cultural and individual darkness creates woe and suffering somewhere, everyday, in someone’s life.

Despite millennia of human progress and advancement, Isaiah’s words seem to just as aptly and poetically speak to our day as to his own. The basic human condition remains unchanged, unaltered since the first Hebrew authors began to engage the questions about God, ourselves, life and death, meaning and purpose, nearly 2700 years ago.

This human condition is always creating a human culture with more than its share of falsehoods, deceits, and deceptions and the fruits of death and depression that the biblical writers, and anyone else with any spiritual insight for that matter, would call “darkness”, whether it is 725 BC or 2012 AD.

Recent events are of such a horrific nature that they, and the inescapable media coverage, force us to consider and reflect on what has happened and why it has happened.  This inevitably raises important questions not only about law and public policy and the character of our culture, but it also raises questions about God himself.

Where was God last week?

What kind of God allows such evil to occur?

Why did God not answer the prayers for safety and deliverance that surely went up from those children and their teachers when they realized they were in imminent danger?

It is always interesting, isn’t it, how a humanity that creates darkness, that is to say a sinful humanity, is always putting God on trial. I guess questioning God is not that recent actually.

Job was certainly pressing God on these same questions about suffering 600 years before Jesus.

Unbelievers seize upon these events to discredit believers and belief. Some Christian leaders rush to jump in and offer answers that, in some cases, are even more troubling than the original questions themselves. In some of these responses, they say God is himself the cause, the agent, the initiator of evil to punish us for our disobedience.

Others say God, if he exists, is not involved in creation or does not care about it.
 

Perhaps God is some vague, impersonal force out there somewhere, who is basically irrelevant to us because of his distance or his disinterest in us.  Or maybe God is well meaning enough, but inadequate to the challenge of managing evil.  All these challenges and questions, or our own inability to give an answer to them, may undermine our own confidence in God, or in our faith or beliefs.

And then we come and hear this story tonight of a God who is truly worthy of our worship, of our trust and obedience.  It is the story of a God whose will towards us, whose intentions towards us, as the angels sing, are good and loving and just. This is the story of a God who cares so deeply about us that he himself enters into the same broken, unfair, and unjust world that we inhabit to finally redeem and restore it.

Whatever there is to be said of the suffering, sadness,and foolishness that are part of our existence, it cannot be said that we worship and serve a God who has not experienced it himself firsthand as Jesus, born in Bethlehem. The theologian John Stackhouse has written that,

No one who is taken seriously in academic circles denies that Jesus existed or was a real person, who was crucified when Pontius Pilate was Procurator in Judea.  No one disagrees that Jesus was a good man and obviously had impact on others and on the world around him with his teachings and example. Two thousand years later, we still talk about Jesus’ teachings.  No one who is taken seriously believes Jesus was mentally ill or deluded or denies that what he taught is in any substantial way different from what the New Testament says he taught.  Most do not hold that he escaped the cross or the grave. And of course we Christians believe that God vindicated this same Jesus, by raising him from the dead as the final and complete sign that Jesus was himself God, entering into the darkness of his time, of any time, to bring light and life to all.

So, given the Christian premise that, while everything cannot be known about God, nothing more can be known than has been revealed in the real person of Jesus. We can put forth a simple syllogism*, supported by the best inference of the evidence and some faith:

Jesus is good
Jesus is God
Therefore, God is good.

And we might add, great, and gracious, and merciful, and patient, and forgiving, and steadfast, and yes, God is Love.

Now, this does not provide the answers to every question, but it can bring life and meaning, hope and promise, to all who believe it.  We can say therefore, with hope and confidence that our beliefs about God and our experience combine as a reasonable intellectual and existential case for trust and faith in God, despite any seeming appearances to the contrary.

Tonight we celebrate the final and conclusive chapter in the long story of God and his creation, from its amazing beginnings in time and in space, to the creation of adam, humankind, made in God’s own image and free, whose abuse of this God-given freedom, whose mistrust and disobedience, whose self-absorbed, self-centered willfulness brought and still brings, through Adam and Eve’s children, brings calamity into the world.

The long story of good news and glad tidings proclaimed this night began with Abraham and Sarah, rose to amazing signs and wonders as God called and made ancient Israel a light to the nations of the steadfast love, incomparable glory, and dazzling righteousness of the One God.

And if that were not enough, this same God came among us, literally pitched his tent with us, to redeem and restore a lost and confused human race, so that all who put their trust in his mighty grace and love might become the children of God and live with him for ever.

As Isaiah promised, light has come and still comes to those who dwell in deep darkness.  That light that has come into the world and is continually coming is Jesus Christ. That light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.

In God’s good time, even the last vestiges of darkness will yield to Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God.
* John Stackhouse

Will our children have faith?

John Westerhoff wrote a book by this title in 1976. He was concerned that an academic, school-based model of Christian education was failing to adequately prepare people for living a Christian life in our world. Presciently, he saw that the ancient catechetically-based model grounded in scripture, liturgy, and history was needed in order to "form" Christ's people for our time.

This question remains supremely important for Christian parents in post-Christendom. The answer, as bluntly and directly as I can make it, is: NO! Absolutely not! Your children will NOT have faith unless you make it a priority of your own family life.

I do not know a single parent who is not concerned about the culture their children are growing up and maturing in. Almost to a person, they are frustrated that many cultural realities are actually undermining and countering the values and beliefs they wish to give their children.

An hour of Sunday School, even 52 times a year, cannot possibly compete with the total immersion in culture our children experience. The faith and confidence in God's goodness and providential support and direction that they will need to navigate their own times and claim lives of purpose, meaning, and joy can hardly be shared with them on Sundays only.

You have watched a slow dripping faucet. Put a sponge under that tap and the first drops will do nothing to that sponge. But, by morning, it will be completely saturated with water. Your Christian outlook, beliefs, and practices are like that dripping faucet and your home and your example are the sponge where your child may be completely immersed in the life-giving, lifesaving example of Jesus Christ that alone can give a peace that the "world", with all its powerful allures, cannot even come close to matching.

Increasingly and over time, Christian formation at Good Shepherd is about giving you the skills and knowledge you will require to be Christian people in the new apostolic era. We must challenge and inspire you to take to heart the nurture and formation of your child's relationship with God in Christ. But you cannot give your child what you do not yourself possess and all of us adults at Good Shepherd must consider anew our interest in a deeper life with Christ.

This Fall, a couple of opportunities will be available for equipping parents for this sacred task. They are:

+ Revolutionary Parenting: How to Raise Spiritual Champions with George Barna and Karen Lee-Thorp. Led by parents, for parents, this will be a Sunday morning offering.

+ We will be researching and recommending several resources that you can use at home with your family for prayer, study, and conversation.

+ Tricia Dodge will be leading a formation course over five weekends throughout the year that will give you insights and understanding into your child's God-given religious nature. Open to, and for all adults of the parish who wish to effectively engage their children or grandchildren in religious conversation.
Jesus said, "Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty" JOHN 4:14 It is time to open the faucets at Good Shepherd.

Christmas Eve Sermon

Christmas Eve, 2011
There is something undeniably palpable about Christmas Eve night.
You can just tell, you can just sense that ... it is different from other nights.

You first notice it at about 4:00 in the afternoon, as the Sun begins to set. Winter light has a special and discernible quality to it at the end of the day. Long shadows spread out across the landscape,and the last rays of the sun’s departing light are seen now only as they make the tops of the trees to glow.

Even in Augusta,the temperature begins to drop noticeably,as winter air, deprived of the warming sun, quickly cools and the sky darkens. The first stars begin to appear, poking holes in the darkness as one poet has written; and soon the sky is filled with a seemingly uncountable number of stars.

The nearest star to us, is Alpha Centauri, which is actually three stars that appear as one to the unaided eye. It is 4.37 light years away from the sun. A light year, I’m sure you will remember, is roughly about 6 trillion miles. So, it would take the space shuttle, which orbits the earth at 18,000 mph, 37,200 years to travel one light year.

I love looking at the night sky and like the carol from the Appalachian mountains . . . I wonder as I wander out under the sky -- wondering what it was like for those shepherds out in the fields, keeping their watch a sweeping horizon spread before them, a huge dark blue canopy overhead filled with stars, maybe a bright moon, light from their small campfires dotting the hillsides ... smoke curling, wafting skyward, with a stillness and quiet one can hear.

On any December night, you can imagine that night, 2000 years ago by our counting, perhaps two days ago by God’s, and if you pause for a moment, you can almost hear the angels sing . . . Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest!

It is easy enough to see how the psalmist, or anyone for that matter, might look up at the heavens and write: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what is man that you are mindful of him, mortals that you care for them?”

The universe is so astronomically huge and time so, well, long . . . infinity so incomprehensible . . . as to be simply unbelievable. It bedazzles the mind. Just trying to comprehend it makes your head hurt.

Now, there is nothing that is as readily accessible to every person as the night sky, and nothing, other than perhaps the vastness of the open sea, that so puts one in mind of the smallness, the nothingness, of human beings.

How could we possibly matter in a universe that is so astoundingly large ... or so old? Yes, the scope and complexity of the universe challenge the meaningfulness of our lives, as they mock our imagined sense of importance.

Look at the night sky and you will inevitably, at some time, wonder who you are ... wonder what is the point of all this? and wonder is there a god out there?

And just as soon as the sheer size of the cosmos overwhelms us and convicts us of our smallness, almost simultaneously, it also reveals an intelligence, a creativity, a purposefulness and an attention to detail and integrity that is equally startling.

Science has revealed to us a number of unique, unlikely, exceptions to the norm, odds astronomically against them happening, sorts of things ... without which you or I, or anyone else would not be here tonight, or ever. They are the unique circumstances that make life possible on our planet . . . like the rotational speed of the earth, or the 23̊ tilt of the earth on its axis, or the amount of water in the oceans,

Now take something close at hand, like the moon, for example. We would not be here if it were not for our moon. Roughly 25% the size of our planet, we are the only planet in our solar system with a moon big enough in relation to the earth to positively affect our planet. Why is that? How did that happen?

If we did not have a moon the size of our own, the earth would loose that little 23̊ tilt it steadily maintains as it orbits the sun at 67,062 mph.

Mars, without a lucky moon like ours, wobbles anywhere from 0̊ - 90̊ on its axis. Because of this, the Martian polar ice cap moves all over the place. Without the stability that the moon provides, the earth would wobble and even tumble, playing havoc with our climate. The earth could begin to careen around the inner solar system like a drunken sailor.

Just a 1̊ alteration in the tilt of the earth a long, long time ago changed what we know today as the Sahara Desert from lushness to desert, and set off a mass migration of people.

Without the moon, our planet would turn much faster on its axis, so that our days would only be 6 hours long, making our planet much too cold for us.

The moon is a big player in the set of unique circumstances that allow life to exist on, as far as we know, our planet alone, in all the universe.

So, where did our moon come from? At the height of the Apollo moon missions, it was realized that the prevailing theories about the origins of the moon did not work, that the math and evidence would not support these theories. As a result, one astronomer asked: Why are we going to the moon? It should not be there. But it is. Why? A mere accident or something else?

The accepted theory today is that, early in the earth’s development, it was struck by something the size of Mars, which came hurtling through the solar system, colliding in a glancing blow with the earth, gouging out a chunk of earth debris that became our Goldilocks moon . . . not too big, not too small, but just right!

And, by the way, the moon is leaving us . . . moving out of its earth orbit at the rate of about 1.5 inches per year. In some couple of hundred thousand years
it will leave earth’s orbit. I don’t think I’ll be here to see that.

Well, in response to the questions we’ve been raising here tonight – like the questions of meaning, purpose and identity that come from looking at the night sky –or the questions that science raises as it reveals the unique, exceptional, unlikely facts, without which there would not be life on our planet, well, in response to all these questions and more, the astounding claim Christians offer is that there is a God who does indeed care about us. Deeply. He has made each of us on purpose and for a purpose. We matter to him and the clearest, most definitive expression of this claim that God cares is that God himself, the Creator of the unbelievable universe,
would unbelievably come among us,literally pitch his tent with us, by becoming one of us in Jesus Christ.

The child born in Bethlehem is conceived as a result of God’s own initiative, God’s own agency. Nothing else, save the help of a young Jewish woman who responded to God,“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word”; nothing else, made him to be flesh and blood, only the love and will of God made it so.

Now, if you believe God created this universe in its great expanse with its mind-boggling exceptions . . . with all of the unlikely factors necessary for you and me to be here tonight, and even though they scientifically established facts, they are nonetheless unbelievable!!;

If you believe God started it all, then is it really all that great a stretch to believe that the same God entered into time, space, history in a unique, unbelievable event known as the Incarnation or simply as the birth of Jesus?

It is a birth that expresses God’s steadfast love and intent to redeem, restore, and set right, all that is amiss. To do for a lost and confused humanity what it is incapable of doing for itself, mainly and namely saving us from the disastrous, cumulative consequences of our collective human failures.

Madeline L’Engle writes of this night that the transcendent, beyond our comprehension, Creator of the Universe is “cribbed, cabined, and confined within the contours of an infant.” As this child, God takes upon himself our humanity and all our human situations in order to redeem them, to bring meaning, purpose, and hope to us and to our lives through his own transforming and self-giving, sacrificial love.

Martin Luther referred to it as the Great Exchange. He wrote “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; you set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.” and this is, what we know, what we call, the Gospel -- the Good News of God in Jesus Christ for all people.

Is there any better time than tonight to greet the One born for you ... to welcome and invite him into your life, not only as your constant companion and good friend,
but as Lord of your life?

That is to say, as the One on whom you constantly think, as the One whose own example you attempt to initiate, as the One whose mind you strive to know, and as the One to whom you give your own life in response to the giving of his own life for you?

Is there any better time than tonight to take that leap . . . this leap of faith, to believe and trust in God? It is a big step but not so great, or so unreasonable, or as intellectually untenable as many would have us think. A missionary martyred in Ecuador before his death put it just a bit differently as he wrote in his journal: “It is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

The universe is filled, filled with so many unbelievable, incomprehensible things. The several factors which allow us to exist on this planet are themselves unique, exceptions to the norm and beg for explanation and in that way they hint at the unique and exceptional way that God will answer all the questions that really matter by making himself known to us in Jesus Christ:

God from God
Light from Light
True God from true God
Begotten, not made
Of one Being with the Father

And we have seen his glory, glory as of the One and Only who came from the Father full of grace and truth.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Money is the most indispensable thing in life…right?

In the climactic scene from the movie A Few Good Men, Navy lawyer, LTJG Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), questioning Marine Corps COL Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson), shouts, “I want the truth!” to which Colonel Jessep explodes, “You can’t handle the truth!” The truth we cannot handle is that, despite what we say, we believe and therefore act, like money is the most indispensable thing in life.

Truth is, everything we need … food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and medical care … is obtained with money. Things we want, like healthier food, finer homes and furnishings, luxury automobiles, more fashionable clothes, trips, and other luxuries, are obtained with money.

Many important relationships simply do not even begin or cannot be sustained without money. We live in a cash economy. Money is the medium of exchange and the measure of value in that economy. A cash-based economy allows more people to engage in commerce with others than bartering allows. We give our time, energy, and abilities … in sum our life … to some enterprise for which in return we receive cash. We then take that cash to provide for the basic needs we have and, if there is enough, to meet the desires that are unique to each of us.

Given the necessity of money for every person then, is it any wonder that its place in our lives, in our thinking, and in our behavior is so skewed? Is it any wonder that it is easier to act as if we have put our trust in money, rather than in God, to provide for us?

Those who follow Jesus Christ hold a very different understanding of, and relationship to, money. First, they believe that their money is not their own. It is all God’s. It is given to them by God to provide for the needs that God knows every person has. It is entrusted to their individual management so that they may make their way in the world, provide for the common good, and provide for God’s purposes in the world.

Next, followers of Jesus Christ are grateful for all they have received, be it income, liberty, health, family, the list could be quite long. They understand that, while some of these blessings are attributed to their own industry, discipline, or good habits, nonetheless, more of it is attributable to factors not of their choosing, such as their genes, parental support, education, and so on. As the great hymn Old 100th proclaims, “Know that the Lord is God indeed, without our aid he did us make.” But, most of all, they are thankful for incalculable value of God’s grace gift of Jesus Christ in redeeming and renewing their lives.

Therefore, followers of Jesus Christ tangibly express their gratitude as they honor God with their lives (measurably and concretely represented by their money) by undertaking an intentional practice of giving. This disciplined approach puts money back into its appropriate place. The followers of Jesus Christ are masters over their money, not mastered by it, and when money is put into its right place in our lives, then God may have his. And the truth is, He will not settle for anything less.

Waiting for the Messiah

This Sunday marks the beginning of a new Christian year and our entry into the season of Advent. Advent challenges us to prepare ourselves for the three-fold coming of Jesus Christ into the world.

Its first emphasis is on Jesus’ coming again at the end of human history, or at the end of your life, whichever comes first. Scripture warns us that either one of these events can come quickly and without warning, so don’t be unprepared! Get your house, your business, in order! Don’t put it off!

While attending to the business of the previous paragraph, with urgency by the way, Advent also invites us to hear again the story of God’s loving purposes as he became incarnate in this world, entered into this reality in Jesus Christ to save and redeem all the world. Whatever else the culture wishes to maintain about different religions and other spiritual ways, the scandal of the Christian proclamation is that the only God that there is, is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

Born in Bethlehem, lived in Palestine, up and down the dusty roads teaching,
preaching, and healing, crucified in Jerusalem, buried there, raised from the dead, now at the Father’s right hand, Jesus is either who he claims he is as the Son of God, or he is a calculating, manipulative liar.

This Incarnate Christ is always coming into this world making himself accessible to us in the scriptures, through preaching and holy communion, through friend and stranger. A kind word, a simple gesture, care, and concern for others, any act that makes life easier for others … all of these and many more become the avenues by which Jesus continues to come to us.

Open your hearts, your wills, your imaginations, and welcome him in. For the Messiah that has come, is coming, and will come again. Come, Lord Jesus!