Ramblings

"A Beloved Household of God" - 1/13/2019

Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran Church based on the Gospel, Luke 3.

When we adopted our two daughters, we spent a lot of time on their names. We wanted names to fit their Chinese/American identity and were not too long.
Our first decision had to do with their last name. For those who are not aware my wife and I followed the practice of my northern European heritage where women did not necessarily change their last name upon marriage. My wife has kept her last name of Borstad. So, when it came to our daughters, we decided that if we were going to live in the United States it would be easier to have their last name of Fredrickson.
Next, we wanted to continue to use their Chinese names in some way. We chose to use their Chinese first names, as their middle names.
However, it was it their first names that took the most time. After a lot of back and forth between my wife and I, a few resources we consulted as well as our mutual family trees, we ultimately decided on Mari for my oldest and Anna for my youngest. “Mari,” a form of Mary and “Anna” are both relatively common first names in Northern Europe and would fit the last name of Fredrickson. But their first names are also translatable and transferrable. Mari is how the Chinese translate Mary and Anna are found in the Mandarin version of the stories in Luke in the Bible.
Not everyone takes that amount of time on names, like the woman who named her baby Female (pronounced feh-MAH-lee) for no other reason than that it was on the newborn’s wristband. Another couple also after some time in the hospital, named their child Urine (pronounced yuREEN). One couple I heard decided to pick a random middle name, and so they settled on Random. And of course, here in Texas we have the famous Governor James Stephen Hogg and his wife Sarah who named their daughter Ima.
I have been thinking about names because of our Gospel. Not only are names and their meanings common in biblical times but names provided some identity. For example, if you read the footnotes of your Bible, they will often explain the meaning of various names. Aaron means “teacher” or “mountain of strength.” Isaac means “laughter.” John comes from “the grace or mercy of the Lord.”
Biblical names also carried an identity; A hoped-for destiny. In Matthew we are reminded that “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Although the name “Jesus” was as common in that day as Michael, John or David, the meaning Jesus had was entirely uncommon. Jesus literally means “salvation” or “the Lord saves.” In this case, his name and his life were one; they show his meaning, identity and destiny.
This has meaning for us, in the season of Epiphany, when we affirm the combination of not only Jesus his identity but affirm but his title as “Christ, the Messiah.” In Luke’s version of the story of Jesus’ baptism not only do we recognize the shining forth of God to humanity in human form, but we hear captured an element of his destiny as the Messiah.
It begins today, as we hear today, with John the forbearer, unfurling God’s ultimate plan for redemption. John was then --- as we would probably see today --- as somewhat of an oddity in society --- dressed in camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey. We also get the sense that --- now as then --- that wild look in his eyes bore the divine authority of prophecy. He was a man on a mission.
We are also informed that this John toured about the countryside, smashing societal conventions not only through his clothing but what he said. John said, that this redemption plan of God’s would not come through a redeemed religion or a redeemed ancestry. It would come through the very Epiphany of Redemption.
John went about “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The messiah, John said, wanted their public proclamation of their brokenness and need. This messiah would be a righter of wrongs who would level the playing field between spiritual haves and have-nots. All people could access this salvation from God, and so even tax collectors --- our modern-day terrorists and death-row murderers --- even those people could be baptized by John and have their identity realigned.
We are told that in response to John, “the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.” But John said that he was not to be named the “messiah.” Nor was John baptizing them in his name --- in his identity --- in his destiny. Instead, “Christ” the anointed, John knew would be the one. “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
So, as the people entered the waters with John, he baptized them into this kingdom coming. Into this Name which would one day arrive.
And then one day … the Name appeared.
We get so little of Jesus before today. A baby Jesus, a circumcision, a refugee, a 12-year-old in the temple, and then quickly we have gone through the sands of time and suddenly we have an adult man, a roughly 30-year-old Jesus leaving his home in Galilee and entering his life of public ministry. We are told that Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized by John as well --- a symbol of his inauguration of the kingdom --- his identity as its King.
God, however, would not have an ordinary coming-out naming party for his Son. God made it spectacular. As Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism, God attended through a supernatural manifestation of his Spirit and through words each of us would be giddy to hear: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” “Salvation” is called “Beloved.” While Jesus was being baptized, his Father named him Beloved and showered him with pleasure. But what is also interesting is that this naming of Jesus today as beloved, means something for all of us as well.
What might it mean? Well, in today’s naming of Jesus we get the inauguration of what will be our identity in baptism. It is a family name without a name; a family of “faith.” Certainly, Jesus had a nuclear family in Mary and Joseph and siblings. Also, Jesus grew up, lived and died a Jew. For example, shortly we will hear that when he returns to Nazareth his former neighbors exclaim, “isn’t this Joseph’s son and aren’t his mother and siblings here with us?” But that is not the only identity we hear today.
When we adopted our daughters, it was important to include a family name. Somewhere in my distinct past I had an ancestor who was Fredrick --- and in that culture the son took on the father’s first name and added “son” --- and became Friedeksson. It was the same for the women, “dottir” or daughter added to Fredrick would be Friedeksdottir and would remain unchanged.
Today we hear that the public identification with family is important and pleasing to God. But the family name we are talking about of course is not one designed by biology, ethnicity, sexuality or gender, Jew or gentile, rather it is the family of God, i.e., a family of faith.
Second, in Jesus’ baptism we see the signs that this naming includes a kingdom. At our wedding my wife and I formed a new family. We certainly came from families but in marriage we established a new household. Later, after we realized that biological children were a challenge, we chose adoption. Our daughters then became part of our household, “our kingdom” with rights and responsibilities. Similarly, today, God confirms that Jesus is part of a family and kingdom. This household of God, this kingdom has business in the world. It has work to do with rights and responsibilities. As the author of the gospel of John would quote Jesus reminding us: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (13:35).
Now we could spend time what it means to be part of this household, this kingdom but for us 21st century Americans, let me mention one important aspect. God’s household includes some distinctly unfavorable people and as you notice Jesus didn’t say distance yourself from Judas so they will know you aren’t whacky, too. Likewise, this kingdom includes people I personally have difficulty with, people I consider outright racists and homophobes. A symptom of that is Sunday’s mornings are most divided hours in the US.
The tax collectors were baptized by John, and then Jesus was. Our family name is “Beloved” and just like our human families, it may have a few characters as well --- relatives we wish would just go away. Yet, we all have rights and responsibilities, along with vocations, in this household of God, this Kingdom of God bound by God’s forgiveness and love.
And finally, one other aspect that we remember and see in Jesus baptism is that it reminds us what baptism means for us. It isn’t a hoop to jump through and a box to check. It isn’t a spiritual security blanket for our children. It isn’t a religious routine that just goes with the territory or because we don’t want to hurt grandma’s feelings.
Jesus goes into the waters of baptism to publicly affirm that he identifies who he is and whom God has made him to be. So, by the same token an important aspect of Baptism in not only do we recognize the baptized persons place in the family, we agree with them that they are God’s and God is theirs. And we agree with them that we engage in a lifelong commitment to grow in our faith asking for and trusting in forgiveness. It is a means of grace as we grow in rights and responsibilities.
That is why when children have an opportunity to affirm their faith, they join us in affirming a faith every day. And affirmation even through death, that in faith we have an identity, eternal to which we belong. Throughout this journey our baptismal destiny as part of God’s eternal family is celebrated.
We can be such insecure, approval-seeking people. Our clothes have labels, our honor-roll children have bumper stickers, our titles put letters behind our names, we idolize the most handsome or most beautiful. There is a corner of cyberspace that many of us call social media whether Facebook or snapchat or Instagram where we can carve out as our own --- our pictures, our music, our quotes, our blogs and journals --- and to cap it off, a counter numbering all those who have added us as their friends and a place where they can leave us messages.
But before cyberspace was even invented God provided a way for us to know we are liked, even more so, beloved. Much of social media is a way for to impress, add our voice, distinguish ourselves and gain approval, but in Baptism God identifies us and call us into a family and kingdom with right and responsibilities.
Meaning, if we are good enough for God, we are good enough.
In following God, through the baptismal waters, we are given God’s name --- God’s meaning, God’s identity, God’s destiny.
After the naming event, Jesus left the water and went ashore and started living out his identity and name. May we sisters and brothers rise and bear the family name as we live out the grace of God! Amen.

Janus Faith - 1/6/2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran Church on January 6, 2019 based on Matthew 2: 1-12. 

Here we are in transition. Last year you and I experienced some changes with the retirements of both Pastor Bill and Music Director Vicky during the summer. I experienced a departure from Good Shepherd to serve as your transitional part time pastor beginning in late July. Together we are exploring the development of a parish among this and the other three congregations on the northwest side of San Antonio.
So, it was some trepidation that I begin my sermon this morning by reminding you that in some ways, January is an exciting month because we are in tension, but not for what you may think on this, the first worship of 2019.
In fact, the name of this month not only has associations with tension, but it goes along with the concepts of beginnings, doorways, openings, and gateways while simultaneously with a foot firmly rooted in the past.
First some background. There’s little doubt that the name of our month of January derives from the Roman god Janus. Janus is usually depicted as having two faces, one looking to the past and one to the future. But before we jump to the conclusion, “That is why January is the beginning of the year!” we would be wrong.
What we often forget is that the Roman calendar (from the Latin calends) began with March, not January. And that makes sense because for the Romans, the months before January were numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 --- and thus you all who have some Spanish ability recognize --- September comes from septem, October from octo, November from novem and December from decem, Latin for “ten.”
Why the names and numbers on the months no longer match is that in 1582, Pope Gregory adjusted the calendar so that January became the first month of the year. And in 1752, the British and the colonies adopted the same calendar which we call the Gregorian calendar.
That of course means very little for us today except for as I said we have an opportunity to understand this “tension” between the past and future through the eyes of faith.
Janus as I mentioned is usually depicted with two faces, one looking toward the past and the other toward the future. And in some ways, this is where we are today. We are “Janus” like, alive in this tension between the past and future. We are looking ahead and wondering what’s next. “What will this year bring forth? What can I reasonably expect?” And perhaps we’re also wondering, “Where is God leading us? What can we do better to utilize our gifts in the kingdom of God?” Likewise, we have our eyes on the past with longing and sadness as well fondness for what was.
Into this discussion, the Bible can help us, particularly, the story of the Magi. Because it is through the eyes and experiences of these foreigners, traveling from their native lands, east to west, that we can learn as we live in this tension.
The “magi,” not so much kings as our sending hymn our 18th century folk song suggests. More than likely they originated from a priestly class. Therefore, they were sorcerers, fortune-tellers, astrologers. They represent the “wisdom of the east.” Which in of itself is interesting because as you may know, Judaism and Christianity traditionally did not and do not care that much for fortune-tellers and astrology. If you are wondering why, Leviticus 19 is but one example. And to clarify we don’t know how many Magi there actually where, we go along with Longfellow’s famous poem, there were three because of the number of gifts. But perhaps the Orthodox churches have it right and there were twelve.
Whatever the number, the author of Matthew presents them as a bit innocent. They seem naive about Herod, and the political and social culture they enter, though they followed generally the proper trajectory --- east to west --- they wind up nine miles off, to Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem.
Yet it is there in Jerusalem that we are told, the magi tell King Herod about the birth of a “king of the Jews.” What a shock for these foreigners to tell Herod this because that of course is the title which technically belonged to Herod. But we digress for however innocent there were, they came following what they had believed a star had told them.
Now King Herod and the people of that day would not have been surprised at the mention of a natal star. The births of Pliny and Alexander the Great had supposedly been attended by astral events. Virgil notes that a star led Aeneas to the place where the city of Rome was to be founded.
More importantly however, at the news Herod we are told is agitated, troubled, filled with inner turmoil --- “and all Jerusalem with him.” Jerusalem as you may remember was a “company town,” dominated by the Temple bureaucracy, the king and their overseers, the Romans. So, when the king gets nervous, the whole city gets nervous. A “king of the Jews" other than Herod could be upsetting.
In response, Herod does what all of us can resonate with, he mines the past, trusts in what he knows. He calls the experts together --- “the chief priests and scribes.” Not so much unlike ourselves when confronted by something that throws us off balance; don’t we look to mine the past for answers. The “chief priests and scribes” provide an appropriate citation. The central text appears to be Micah 5: 2: “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to rule in Israel.”
Now after the past has given direction, we move but not without an interesting query; Herod quizzes the magi on the time the star appeared. Why is this important and how is it that everyone but these Magi missed this visible star we are left in the dark, nonetheless their response establishes a range of age that will set the stage for what happens in the section that follows: Herod's slaughter of the innocents. All born within two years of this “exact time” will be killed.
And perhaps using their naivety, Herod sends the magi to Bethlehem with his permission with the condition that they supply him information about the child. He wants to “worship” him, he says, but, of course, he really wants to eliminate this rival. Lying and violence go together. They are “business as usual” all under the guise of honoring the past. The magi seem to go along with this. They go interrupted by the star, which returns to guide them to the child.
We are then told that the magi see the child --- Mary is mentioned via preposition, and Joseph not at all --- and they worship. We are also told that gifts were presented. The magi bring gold and frankincense, which recalls Isaiah 60:6 --- “they shall bring gold and frankincense.” But those well-known gifts fit for a king also include myrrh, a very expensive perfume used by the Romans to mask the smell of decaying corpses. Why is this third gift included? It is as many have wondered does it portend the future --- that Jesus will die on the cross.
Before the magi take their leave, they receive a dream which tells them to avoid Herod, and they go home “by a different way.” The magi are led and instructed by God onto a new path.
Again, how does this story help us? Astrologists from the East recognizing what in hidden right before everyone? Magi giving gifts fit for a king and the dead?
In this final story regarding his birth we have a reminder of what the 20th-century Quaker theologian Elton Trueblood called the “holy conjunction” this tension between the coming together of “and:” Christ’s humanity and divinity, king and messiah, roots and fruits, the life of devotion and the life of service.
The late M. Scott Peck, a psychiatrist and best-selling author who wrote a lot about religious themes, took this idea of the holy conjunction further. He argued that the ability to integrate faith and reason into our lives is part of what constitutes integrity. Like the magi, “instead of an either/or style, we are pushing for both/and thinking. We are not trying to get rid of reason but promote ‘reason plus.’ Reason and mystery. Reason and emotion. Reason and intuition. Reason and revelation. Reason and wisdom. Reason and love.”
In other words, in the magi we have the conjunction of reason and mystery and in Herod we have the unwillingness to live in this tension and the threat it brings with the temptation to respond with lies and violence.
Another name for what Peck is talking about is the tension of opposites. It is this Janus-like looking backward/forward of this month: an exercise in seeing our opposites in tension; our beliefs and our actions often seem at odds or our strengths appear at times to be cancelled out by our weaknesses; our habits by change.
Parker J. Palmer, who writes on spirituality, says that more than once he “despaired at the corrosive effect” upon his life of his contradictions. He explains, “I had thought that living spiritually required a resolution of all contraries and tensions before one could hope, as it were, to earn one’s wings.” But he says that as he labored to remove these contradictions before presenting himself to God, he eventually realized he had to become less focused on the contradictions in his life and more focused on what God wanted him to be. “Perhaps,” he concluded, “contradictions are not impediments to the spiritual life, but an integral part of it. Through them we may learn that the power for life comes from God, not from us.”
We have placed January as our cultural beginning, but we would be amiss if we were not to be honest and see our tensions this new year; neither complacent about the places where we fall short, but fearful of what change in the power of God might mean. The foreign magi were comfortable living in that tension of reason and mystery but not Israel at the time of Jesus.
Let us therefore once again this Janus day, neither deny nor exalt in our contradictions --- are we foreign Magi who recognize Jesus/or are we so into our American culture we do not recognize Jesus --- but more importantly let us recognize and live into these tensions between our dreams and deeds and count on the grace of God each day. Paul would later explain it this way to the Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
The ancient Roman god Janus along with our gospel story reminds us that six days into 2019, on the first day of new season, while we know we have not yet reached the goal of full identification with Christ, let us press on for we are in Christ. Let us live into the tension between our dreams and deeds and live on Jesus. Christmas is over and now is the time to leave from the manager a different way than the way we came.
Today, this is more necessary than ever. At Hope do we live out as a church with habits of the past or live into the unknown because Christ Jesus has made us his own? This question can be one for us as citizens, can we be politically conservative and advocate for social justice? Can we be politically liberal and promote personal responsibility?
In our story of the magi can we be foreigners and recognize the reason and mystery of the Christ child? Can we both give and leave our gifts and go a different way? As Martin Luther put it, can we be simultaneously saint and sinner?
Let us live into this two-faced Janus for in faithful living will we find grace for the new year as we are Christ’s own. Amen.

"Our Song" - 12/23/2018

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran Church on December 23, 2018, 4th Sunday of Advent based on the Gospel Luke 1: 46-55. Recently, I had an interesting experience that I have not had in a long time. We were invited to someone’s home for fellowship but that was not what was different. What was interesting was that we had group singing! Over refreshments and before a light dinner, we sang Christmas carols at someone’s home!
Group singing is rapidly becoming a lost art in our wired culture. I am thankful for our shared ministry “beer and hymns” events we had this past year, but I realize that are some of you who remember the singalongs around a piano in someone’s living room or a church hall. That’s a pleasure largely lost on most of us who are younger.
In thinking about that experience, I also realized that as 21st century Americans, there are just four occasions --- outside of hymn-singing in church and perhaps at a concert with our favorite performer --- when we typically consent to turn off the TV, or remove the earbuds, stow the smartphone and join our neighbors --- in song.
The first one I thought of is the solemn observance we share: singing the National Anthem together at a sporting event or community gathering. The second time we seem to sing together is during the seventh-inning stretch at a baseball game. Against all odds, at the first stanza of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” --- a pop song of a bygone era --- people join in. The third is at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Although the Scottish dialect of “Auld Lang Syne” is largely incomprehensible to many, it is the one foreign language song that some will cheerfully mumble their way through it --- maybe it is the champagne that helps. I wonder if we should try some prosecco or champagne at church to help our church singing?
But it is the fourth national if not international song that I think is truly the one where even the most diehard, “I can’t sing” person will join. The fourth is “Happy Birthday to You” just before the guest of honor blows out the candles on the cake.
It is this fourth one, that I have been thinking about as we approach Christmas for some obvious and less obvious reasons. There’s something very personal, even intimate, about singing “Happy Birthday to You.” Unlike the other numbers in our oh-so-limited national American songbook, this is the only song directed to an individual. It is not directed to support patriotism, each other or a seventh inning stretch. Rather it is a song which the whole gang may cheerfully join, in a personal way by name!
We do remember and observe the birthdays of some people we don’t know personally, mainly because there are Monday holidays associated with them ---George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. --- but if it weren’t for the day off from work, even those would probably escape our attention.
The other big public birthday celebration, of course, is Christmas. The irony here, though, is that nobody knows when Jesus’ real birthday is. December 25th was chosen by the early church, several generations later, to blunt and co-opt the impact of the Roman winter solstice celebrations. As the pagans in the northern hemisphere celebrated the coming of the sun, it was easy for Christians to celebrate the birth of the Son of Righteousness.
That is why today’s gospel reading is so interesting because for Christians. “Happy Birthday” is not the preferred song as we prepare for God to blow life into this world. Rather we have a new song, the Magnificat, Mary’s song.
Fortunately for Mary, she has a home to go to sing, a place where she receives a warm welcome. Although we don’t include the back story, her older cousin Elizabeth is also expecting. Whatever her neighbors in Nazareth may be whispering about her, she knows she and Elizabeth will have much to talk about.
Elizabeth receives her with the warmest possible greeting: “Blessed are you...” It’s not the sort of thing people typically said to an unmarried teenage mother. No, the people around such a young woman are more likely to say, “Cursed are you. Cursed are you, to have brought such a fate down upon yourself and upon this family.” Elizabeth, however, has no such reservations. She welcomes her relative with open arms. She blesses her.
Mary’s not the only one who can sense the blessing in this upcoming birthday. Elizabeth does too. Between them, they have more than enough faith to see this thing through, giving life to both Jesus and John: two men who, between them, will change the world. It couldn’t have happened, though, without the faithful vision of Mary and Elizabeth, enabling them to bear the burden of this birthday. It is to this welcome from Elizabeth that Mary sings.
Now we know that there are of course several others what are called songs in the Bible, poetic words without the music. In the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, there are the songs of Moses (Ex 15: 1-18), Miriam (Ex 15: 19-21), Deborah (Ju 5:1-31), and Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10). And there are a couple more in the New Testament all found in Luke who will besides Mary’s Song provide three more, the song of Zechariah (1:67-79), Simeon (2:28-32), and that of “a multitude of the heavenly host” (2:15).
But it is this song, commonly called “the Magnificat” that we are all encouraged to group sing along with today. It is a song where Mary in the first part (1:47-50) speaks of what God has done for her. What does God do for Mary? God “…has looked upon the humiliation of his servant, for behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed...” In first century Israel, one could hardly be more humiliated than to be a dirt-poor, unmarried, teenage woman.
Yet, “behold!”, Mary exclaims. “Behold” is an important word. It signals: “Pay special attention.” “From now on” --- from hitting bottom onward --- everyone “will call me blessed.” Mary’s relative Elizabeth had already done so, and repeatedly, but now everyone will.
“...for the Powerful One has done great for me and holy his name, and his mercy (is) into generations and generations, to the ones fearing him...” Mary concludes her own personal exaltation of God for doing “great for me.” She then celebrates God's mercy far into the future.
In the second half (1:51-55), Mary speaks of what God has done for Israel and the world, a theme that we will hear repeated throughout Luke; the proud, the powerful, and the rich are the opponents of Jesus. But now in Mary's child, God has intervened on behalf of the “lowly” and the “hungry.” God lifts them up, but “scatters the proud ones,” “destroys the powerful ones,” and “sends away empty” the rich.
Mary is singing that God has a “preferential option for the poor.” God is always on the side of those on the bottom, those who are excluded, those left out. It is of course, not that the poor will suddenly become materially rich, rather that God is about justice. Yet, God does not triumph over the rich and powerful in a vindictive way, but rather as a loving parent. God wants the rich and powerful to change, like Zacchaeus and join the mission of the kingdom.
What this group song reminds us is that this is how God triumphs. God triumphs not through violence. Violence is the way of the powers of this world, and of evil and is their customary pattern. God, however, triumphs through compassion and love.
So, as Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, she sings her own birthday song. Unlike however when we sing “Happy Birthday to you…” Mary’s anthem of God’s triumph is not without its dark themes --- the scattering of the proud, the fall of kings. What a burden she must bear! Yet, what a blessing she discerns during it all.
On this 4th Sunday of Advent, can this be our song as well? Absolutely for all of us have been lifted, no matter the depth of where we are or where people or society have put us, we are lifted by God’s love, forgiveness and grace. Or perhaps we are the rich, reminded to walk in the steps of Jesus. Today Mary teaches us a new song, that not only does God not care about our wealth, what we have or have not achieved, God prefers the poor.
When Mary’s sings todays, there is a so much behind it. For example, Jesus’ upcoming birthday is a burden for Mary and Joseph, no doubt about it. The news of Mary’s pregnancy during her betrothal period sets off a minor scandal. It nearly leads to a breakup of her relationship with Joseph. As so often happens with awkward pregnancies everywhere, Mary travels away from home for a while. Whether her parents arrange to have her sent away, or through Joseph’s insistence or whether she undertakes the journey on her own, no one knows and is left unsaid. This journey could very well be that everyone needs to get a little distance from each other to sort out this ambiguous news --- a mixture of joy and anxiety.
This is where it returns to us. It is a mixture of joy and anxiety for us who live 21 centuries post-Birthday to remember it’s not always an easy thing to glimpse God’s promise in these days. It is hard to join in group singing.
It’s so much easier to avoid the truth and focus on the veneer, the things the world is fond of seeing this time of year. The promise of the secular Christmas is merrymaking --- without true joy. It’s a profusion of material goods --- bereft of spiritual values. It’s frantic, scurrying people grasping --- all the while failing to celebrate gifts of the Spirit they’ve already been offered in abundance.
Faced with the onslaught of Christmas materialism, it’s easy to avoid singing during the holiday. It is easier to complain. We complain about Christmas trees going up in department stores before Halloween. We complain of how “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” so often seem to drown out “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night.” We complain about people rightly pointing out that the words to “Baby, it’s cold outside” has a much darker meaning 50 plus years later. We complain that the holiday seems to have hijacked the holy day.
Well, these things are all true, but if we let our distaste for all that birthday materialism eclipse the deeper meaning of Christmas found in Mary’s song, then this birthday will lose it depth and simply become another “Happy Birthday.”
In just a day, we will be singing Christmas carols. Within days we will sing for a new year. Bowl games will begin with our national anthem.
It is today, in this Christmas group song from Mary that we truly are blessed. Blessed are we, as we walk through these final days of Advent with eyes wide open to the signs of God’s presence for the lowly --- and God’s promise to the rich and powerful --- ready to sing along with Mary. Amen.

"Fear" - 12/16/2018

Sermon based on Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Luke 3:7-18 shared at Hope Lutheran Church.

“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
That line is from the carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It is a wonderful image of eternal light beaming from a stable setting where the Christ child dozes. But did you do what most of us do, not really hear that line? Hope springs eternal from this birth to a world where hope so often seems in short supply …. but fears? “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” What does fears have to do with Christmas?
The history of the carol provides a hint. It was written in 1868 by the famed Episcopal pastor of Trinity Church in Boston, Rev. Phillips Brooks. As you may have noticed it was 150 years ago and the American Civil War had ended only three years earlier. Yes, Lee and Grant had signed their peace accord. Yes, battle-weary veterans from both sides had laid down their arms and trudged home. But just imagine, families had been decimated by the carnage of the most brutal war America had ever known. Families counted themselves lucky if those returning had come home lacking an arm or a leg or an eye or shivering with PTSD. They knew their loved ones could just as easily have not come home at all. Major portions of this nation still lay in ruins, the KKK was growing in power and influence and President Andrew Johnson --- regarded by many historians as our nation’s worst --- was doing his best to dismantle everything his predecessor President Lincoln had accomplished for former slaves at such a terrible human cost.
Therefore, when Rev. Brooks wrote the lyrics to what became “O little town of Bethlehem,” it gave war torn Americans some comfort to picture the humble Bethlehem stable as the place where hope and fear meet each other in the Christ child. Almost seems quaint --- but is it? Although most of us ignore the lyrics of what we sing, I wonder if it is important to review why fear is included at all?
Do we have fears? Our answers, no doubt, are probably as varied as our numbers this Sunday morning. Now I don’t want to engage in a debate into what is real or imagined because public perceptions do not match reality. Although you and I are largely safer and on average will live longer than fifty years ago I sense most of us would say these are anxious times. Whether rich or poor, employed or unemployed, member of the majority or minority, the cacophonous “Isn’t it awful?” refrain of our American society pounds its way into our hearts and minds.
Now if you are still wondering what that has to do with preparing for Christmas look again at our gospel and John the Baptist. How can that voice crying in the wilderness be something other than a bump in the road. It seems quite the opposite from anything Christmas: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Well, if you haven’t figured it out yet, let me let you in on a little secret, Christmas is as much about fear as it is about hope; we cannot have one without being honest of the other.
We do not vanquish fear by denying or avoiding it for fear is as much a part of the Christmas story as peace and joy. By acknowledging our fears, it will help us prepare for what comes. It is only by moving through our fears can we fully grasp the joy that awaits us on the other side, the triumphant good news of the Christ child coming into the world.
We see that played out in today’s scripture not only in Luke but in our Old Testament lesson as well. If you ever wonder, why Lutherans bother to read from the Old Testament, this week is a good reminder. The author of the gospel according to Luke seems to be trafficking in fear while the Zephaniah passage sounds a note of triumphant hope: “The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.”
Not that Zephaniah’s larger prophecy is all sweetness and light. Like his contemporary the prophet Jeremiah, Zephaniah earlier voices the message of an angry God seemingly with words that John the Baptist could have repeated: “On that day, says the Lord ... I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently …., those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’”
Those words from over three thousand years ago could be an indictment of our culture. How many of our neighbors respond to God with a shrug, “The Lord will not do good, nor will God do harm”? How many of us feel the same? But that is the point of Zephaniah and John the Baptist, if we do not grapple with our fears honestly, we will certainly not be able to understand a God of love.
Now if you are wondering how is it that John’s and Zephaniah’s words that seem more about judgement help us to understand our fears? I know I am getting ahead of myself, but we hear it in the angel’s repeated greeting: “Do not be afraid.” To Joseph, to Mary, to Zechariah, to Elizabeth, to the Shepherds, just go down the list of Christmas characters. What is said to all of them, “Do not be afraid!”
There is the obvious, an angelic presence might have seemed startling, but fear is about the future. We humans have a negativity bias. Our brains pay more attention to the negative situations, experiences and information in life than the positive. It’s easy to imagine a future of gloom and doom rather than to imagine a positive and happy one. So for example, God sends a message about the future and we imagine ---- gloom and doom.
Second, fear is about loss. We fear change. We fear the end of things. We fear that someone we love will leave us or die. We fear losing a job, income or the pleasures we’ve come to enjoy. We fear losing our health, comfort and control. We fear we’ll be rejected. We fear dying alone. That is why when we hear about God’s judgement, like in John’s message, we immediately assume the loss of control, and we do not like change!
Once we walk out these doors, we don’t get any of this discussion in the secular version of the coming holiday. I triple dare you, when you are at HEB next time and O little town of Bethlehem comes on and the line is repeated “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” see what happens if you were to shout out, “Let’s talk about our fears!” and see what happens.
Christmas has been made into all light and no shadow, all merriment and no wickedness. And for those who turn for a moment from the relentless yuletide cheer to acknowledge some all-too-human problem, difficulty or fear, they might be accused of lacking enough “Christmas spirit.”
Our secular American culture may be quick to domesticate God into a benevolent philanthropist, a kindly figure very much like Santa Claus, but that’s not the full biblical witness. To prepare for the coming of the Messiah we are preparing as John the Baptist is reminding us that “God is to be loved, yes; but God is also to be feared” and we can’t have one without the other. We are afraid of loss; we are afraid of loss of control and can’t imagine God any other way! No wonder it is a shock when it comes in a baby! Fear in a baby?
I realize that is a problematic thing to say, because none of us wants to hear about fear when churches around this nation are less and less important in people’s lives. Who wants to be reminded of fear especially to neighbors who already have an image of God as harshly judgmental --- perhaps even terrifying. Pastor, what we need right now is to be reminded that God is one of love and peace, of empowerment and affirmation.
Well, God is all those things as well, to be sure --- but in order to do so, we need to bring our fears as Joseph, Mary, Elizabeth and all the rest brought theirs. Clearly, John the Baptist sees the connection, as do the gospel-writers, as they bookend the Christmas story with angels who preface good news with “Fear not,” on one side, and with the soldiers of a jealous national leader who run babies through with their swords, on the other.
We don’t get to Christmas by detouring around fear. Rather in this season of preparation, if we listen to our fears, Zephaniah and John are telling us good news. They’re telling us that all these fears of ours are ultimately powerless when laid up against the great plans God has for this world and all who dwell therein.
Theologian Leonard Sweet describes this Sunday this way by in a story about a certain Native American tribe who had a unique way of preparing its young for adulthood. On the night of a boy’s or girls 13th birthday, they were led out into the wilderness to spend 3 days alone. Most young people, at that point in their lives, had never been away from the security of their elders. Yet, these young teenagers were blindfolded and taken miles away. When each one took off their blindfold, they found themselves in the middle of the wilderness. Alone. Dependent on nothing but their wits, what they remembered from their survival training and the good will of the Great Spirit.
We can well imagine the three days for these young people. Imagination magnified every sound, until it seemed like a fearsome monster. But then, finally, came the fourth day. When dawn broke, they would rub the sleep from their eyes and look around. What they would see would not just be the wilderness in the light of the day but — a person from the tribe, standing armed with bow and arrow. It would be a parent or other elder. They would have been there all along, weapons at the ready, watching over these youngsters for the whole time.
What did that teach those young adults? Fear is human. We are all afraid. There are indeed times when thick darkness surrounds us, and we may justifiably wonder if we’ll ever see daylight again. Our nights can be long and dark. But those young people were taught that even in our deepest moments and times of loneliness and despair, we are not alone. There is one who waits beside us.
In a matter of days, we will gather to celebrate the good news of the Messiah’s birth. Will these days of fear meet hope in the manger? The fear of God, as Proverbs says, is “the beginning of wisdom” because we when we are honest about our fears, we are open to the fact that we are not in control, and we will face loss, and those fears will be met by the presence of God as a babe. Amen.

Christians under Construction - 12-9-2018

Sermon shared at Hope Lutheran on Sunday, December 9th based on Philippians 1: 3-11. 

How are the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City and the Ajuda National Palace in Lisbon, Portugal related? All are unfinished, incomplete, still in the process of being built. Link to list of unfinished buildings
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, is 601 feet long and 124 feet high and features the longest Gothic nave and rose window in the U.S. Yet, although construction of this colossal building began in 1892 and has been fully open since 1941, there are still portions still waiting to be completed. Over the years, the congregation has been plagued by financial woes, changes in architectural plans, wartime delays, engineering problems and, in 2001, a fire. Thus, today, 126 years to the month after the cornerstone was laid, this massive church is dubbed “Saint John the Unfinished.”
But if you think that project has taken a long time, consider the Ajuda National Palace in Lisbon. It originally started in 1796 as the home for the Portuguese royal family. Over the centuries a series of wars hampered construction as well as financial problems. Yet through it all construction continued until the 1910 Portuguese revolution which abolished the monarchy and evicted the occupants. Currently the half-finished palace functions as a museum.
Yet, I wonder if those ventures along with the countless others from the New Zealand Parliament building to the Westminster Cathedral hate it when that word --- unfinished --- gets attached to their names? I know I do because we have a few at our home. We have yet to repaint my youngest daughter’s bedroom, even though she is now away to college. Along with that, we have several other projects that we would prefer to call “a work in progress.”
However, we label such incomplete projects, whether large or small they seem to stand in judgment of us, reminding us that while we may have plenty of ideas and ambition, we’re not so good with follow-through. No matter how much we would prefer to say we are done, we have plans, projects, that remain.
Of course, it’s one thing to have unfinished plans around the house; it’s quite another thing to realize how unfinished we are as individuals --- how far short we fall of the goal of being the persons God calls us to be. Given that the New Testament uses the word “saints” to refer to living followers of Jesus, that means we could refer to ourselves as “Saint Charles the Unfinished,” or “Saint Carolyn the Unfinished.” We acknowledge that we are works in progress --- “Lutherans under construction.”
Dr. Martin Luther, the 15th century Roman Catholic priest, university professor, and reformer, our namesake, called it being “simul justus et peccator” which we loosely translate into English as “simultaneous saint and sinner;” that is at the same time both righteous and broken. Human beings are justified by grace alone, but at the same time we will always remain sinners, even after baptism.
How can this be? Luther pointed out that being a saint isn’t simply about what we do or don’t do but about who we are in relationship with God. Likewise, that is also true of being far from God, for it isn’t all about what we do or don’t do, but who we are living yet in a broken relationship with God.
For example, the focus of the story of Adam and Eve’s is not just that they ate a piece of fruit; broke one of God’s rules. Their real issue in the story was their desire to be “like God,” relying on their self-centered judgment rather than trusting God above everything else including their own consciences. For us, too, our specific behaviors are only symptoms of this self-centered condition that theologians call “original” to all humanity. Meaning that you and I may not be murders, a symptom of this broken relationship with God, yet we are in the same boat.
Well, whether you are Lutheran or not, this image of being unfinished is not a Lutheran invention; it comes right from Scripture. For instance, the author of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God ...” (6:1).
The writer of Hebrews wasn’t suggesting that we abandon the basic teachings about Christ in the sense of rejecting them for something different. Rather the author was saying that if we’re spending all our time repeating the basics of the faith --- it is just echoing --- then we aren’t moving.
For example, I lived in Iceland for a year in the early 1980’s in what people call nowadays a gap year during college. The family who gave me board were building a new home and I provided some cheap labor. As you can imagine in that context, to do any construction you have to spend a lot of time and money on the foundation going deeply below the permafrost. We spent days on the rebar and forms until finally we had reached the point of pouring the cement. I remember the fears of the family, “Had we done enough?” Likewise, there comes a time when we need to build upon our foundation. That connects to Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, where after commanding his followers to love their enemies, he added, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
I realize that is a lengthy introduction, but I think that is helpful as we hear Paul’s assertion in our Philippians reading: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
“The day of Jesus Christ” in that verse refers to the time of Jesus’ second coming and is no doubt the reason that the lectionary committee selected this passage as the 2nd reading for this Second Sunday of Advent, a season of the church year that both celebrates Jesus’ first coming, in the Incarnation and anticipates his second coming at the consummation of the age.
But the apostle’s Paul’s point is, the completion point of a life in God is not until the end, and even then, it only comes with God’s help. In the meantime, we are not to let our shortcomings in our lives derail us from going on toward perfection in love, from growing in Christ, from gaining faithful maturity. In other words, we have no clue as to when God will complete what God has been doing since the dawn of time, through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, so don’t let what God is doing, stop us from doing what we are to be --- towards perfection.
In the Philippians passage, Paul goes on to say that his prayer for the believers in Philippi is that their “love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help [them] to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ [they] may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”
The late British author C.S. Lewis, the author for example of the “Lion, Witch and Wardrobe” wrote about this. He said that when we seek Christ’s help in being the person God wants us to be, Christ doesn’t settle for giving us just a little.
As an illustration, Lewis explained that as a child, he had toothaches and knew that if he told his parents, they’d give him an aspirin to deaden the pain for the night. But he wouldn’t tell them until the pain got bad because he also knew they would also take him to the dentist the next day and he didn’t want that. “I wanted immediate relief from pain,” Lewis wrote, “but I could not get it without having all my teeth examined. And I knew those dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie; if you gave them an inch, they took it all.”
Lewis went on to say that Christ is like the dentist, Christ provides love and forgiveness but will not stop there, for he wants to make us perfect. Lewis pictures Christ saying “Make no mistake, I will make you perfect. ... I will never rest, until you are literally perfect… until my Father can say without reservation that he is well pleased with you, as he is well pleased with me.” If you give Christ an inch, he’ll take it all.
So, why is this fact of faith important to recognize. I think that diagnosing the unfinished nature not only reminds us none of us is to be stagnant in faith. It also reminds us about the nature of growth. It is not however about morals, certainly morals come into play. Rather it begins with being humble, recognizing that we aren’t all that God intends for us to be. This humility is so that we are gracious and willing to listen far more than we are to about to tell others what to do.
Likewise, this is a reminder to beware of certainty. The unfinished nature of our knowledge means that our “Christ lite” opinions aren’t the last word on all the topics of faith. Some of our notions on faith may even turn out to be “half-baked” --- which is a synonym for unfinished. I remember seeing this in some of the missionaries I experienced in Japan, so full of certainty that not only did the ignore the nearly 600 years of Christians in that nation, but of a spirituality that goes back for a millennium.
This realization is also a reminder that we work on being perfect in love. We do that by saying yes as God reveals new things to us that need to be converted to go forward in our relationship with Christ and with others. Consistency in the Christian life does not begin at Baptism rather and ends at confirmation or when we have reached 80, faithful life comes slowly and sometimes even painfully through subsequent submissions to God’s call and refining Holy Spirit. For instance, Lutherans are celebrating over 40 years of the ordination of women, yet to this day not only are there other Christians against this very notion, there are capable women who are not accepted in positions of leadership. The same goes for pastors who are LGBTQ. Every day is a new beginning what have we yet to learn?
Remember that although the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is far from finished, ministry has been taking place there since its beginning. It is true in our lives: although we may be half-baked, we are God’s people not only in acts of love, generosity and faithfulness but exploring new ways that are being revealed. Where in our lives of faith do, we need to explore as we live out God’s kingdom?
As always let us be hopeful although unfinished. Reminded that as each of us remains in Christ, “the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” So, we are Christians under construction moving toward perfection. A fellow pastor shared it this way. During her final year of college, she sought some advice from one of her professors. He said, “Remember that even if you make the right choice, you’re forgiven.” True enough! Amen.