+I believe. Do you?
I believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, born of a peasant girl and her betrothed, Joseph.
I believe that this was an extraordinary birth in otherwise ordinary circumstances.
I believe that God chose to come among us in this way because God didn’t want to make a big splash.
I believe God wanted to come to us in a whisper not a shout.
I believe God wanted to ease into living among us, as one of us.
And I believe we needed to be eased into having God among us, in the flesh.
I believe this was not something to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly. I believe this needed to be entered into cautiously and with restraint.
I believe that God came quietly to live among us, because I believe God really really wanted to know just what it was like to be human.
I also believe that God’s birth in the person of Jesus Christ was so extraordinary in its ordinariness that creation just couldn’t hold back in the restraint God intended.
I believe that the birth of Jesus in that barn was so glorious that the heaven’s opened up, angels descended and the stars shone extra brightly.
Just like it does for every birth.
Yes, I believe a heavenly host descends to earth singing the praises of a new life each and every time a baby is born. Why? Because each and every time a baby is born, it’s a miracle.
I believe that the gift of a new life, no matter what the circumstances, is an event deserving of awe and wonder.
Here’s what I know from my very limited study of biology but my extensive experience of walking the walk of pregnancy and birth with many friends, family members and parishioners. And what I know from my experience of walking the walk of wanting to be pregnant but not being able to conceive. And walking the walk of getting pregnant but not being able to stay pregnant:
Every single pregnancy that leads to a live birth is a miracle.
So much can go wrong, so much does go wrong. Delivering a healthy happy baby is a miracle. Each and every time.
So while we may not think that the world erupts into a chorus of Joy to the World each and every time a baby is born it may just be that we aren’t listening.
You see, Jesus being born to two ordinary people in a somewhat extraordinary circumstance is exactly how the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God in the flesh needed to come to us.
Because the sacred isn’t only the gold and shiny, the neat and tidy, and the all put together in colorful paper and ribbons.
The sacred isn’t only the glorious sunsets, it’s also the rain storms.
The sacred isn’t only the fabulous arias, it’s also the tinny tune of a tone deaf child
The sacred isn’t only on Christmas and Easter.
The sacred is every single day.
The sacred is Creation.
All of it.
The sacred is all that God has created, because all that God creates is beautiful, stunning and miraculous.
All that God creates is priceless…
All that God creates is holy…
And all that God creates is wonderful.
This is the wonder and the glory of this holy and blessed night: that God came to be among us in the skin and bones of humanity, in the dirt and dust of the wilderness, in the baying, baa-ing, mooing and clucking of the donkeys, sheep, cows and chickens of that barn. That God came to be in the hearts and minds and souls of each and every one of us gathered here on this silent night.
I believe that God as Jesus Christ was born to Mary and Joseph and that this birth was revealed with a great heavenly host to shepherds tending their flock in a nearby field because God is in the ordinary and the mundane, as well as the extraordinary and the magnificent.
I believe that Jesus is born to Mary and Joseph each and every year so that maybe, just maybe, a few more people will come to believe that God loves us—US—so much God just can’t stay distant from us.
I believe in the miracle of Christmas, because I believe in the never-ending, all-encompassing love of God, a God who needed, absolutely positively needed to be with us, skin and bones, dirt and dust, baying and mooing and baaing.
I believe in Christmas everyday of every year.
So Merry Christmas today, Merry Christmas Tomorrow, Merry Christmas every single day of your lives.
I believe. Do you?
Amen.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Mary is My Hero. Advent 4C St. Patrick's 12.23.18
Mary said “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” With this song of rebellion and revolution Mary solidifies herself as my hero. I love Mary.
Year in and year out, I am utterly blown away by the witness of Mary, the mother of Jesus, his first disciple, and the only person present at the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus…Mary’s little boy.
I love Mary. But not the Mary of adoration and mysticism. Not the “Holy Mother, ever blessed Virgin.” No, I love Mary, the young woman who was, by all accounts, a faithful servant, a good daughter and well…normal.
Mary was a simple young woman living an ordinary life when, suddenly, her life was turned on it’s ear after a visit from the angel Gabriel. [can you imagine her conversation with her mom and dad? With Joseph? “So….this guy Gabriel stopped by….]
Gabriel was an angel…and you need to know that I have a thing about angels. And not always good thing. I’m just not sure what to make of them.
First of all they have wings. I have no issue with birds flying around outside, far above my head, but when anything larger than a mosquito starts flying around my house, near me? I freak out.
So right there, angels kind of bug me.
And then there’s that whole thing about what an angel is…not human, not divine, but somewhere in between…. Just what is an angel?
All that being said, I do appreciate the role of angels in the history of our faith…but those flapping wings? I prefer my angels to look less like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz and more like Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life. I am more comfortable with angels who look more like you and me and less like, well…angels….
So that’s why I’m pretty sure I would like Gabriel. I just have a sense that Gabriel would be a more regular type guy, regular enough that his initial appearance to Mary didn’t freak her out.
I envision Gabriel as fitting into the landscape of Mary’s world.
So when he appears at Mary’s door, or when he encounters her at the market or down by the river while she washed clothes or out back as she gathered pomegranates from the bushes, wherever it was that this encounter happened, Mary is receptive to him.
Mary receives the message he gives her, outrageous and fantastic as it sounds she says yes. [although my guess it was more , ‘errrr….ok……” than “Absolutley!” Mary receives the message. Mary accepts the message. And then Mary waits. And wonders. And ponders.
Yes Mary is my hero because she was receptive to receiving the Word of God through the angel Gabriel.
Mary’s also my hero because not only did she accept the Word of God through Gabriel she literally BORE the Word of God. Mary, the God-Bearer, carried the incarnated God in her womb for nine months. The word of God grew within her until it could no longer be contained and it burst forth, changing the world. Forever.
And Mary’s my hero because after that birth she led the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah, her baby boy…through all the trials and tribulations of childhood.
She nursed him.
She weaned him.
She soothed him when he fell.
She encouraged him as he grew into his role, as he learned that he was, indeed
The Lord of Lords…. the Prince of Peace, the Messiah
And she was there when that role reached its necessary conclusion on that hilltop called Calvary, nailed to that tree.
Yes Mary bore the Word of God as her own flesh and blood and together with him she bore the slings and arrows, the jubilation and the joy of being God in the Flesh, Emmanuel.
But most of all, Mary is my hero because she said yes.
She is my hero because she was open to receiving God and when God asked, she said yes.
Would you? Would I?
How does God ask us to bear the Word of God? And when we are asked, do we say yes?
That’s our task during these days of incarnation, these days of a miracle birth in Bethlehem---to ask ourselves, how has God presented Godself to me? Has God come to us like Clarence?
Or like Gabriel?
Or has God come to us in the neighborhood child who could use a smile.
Or the elderly woman in the grocery store who cannot reach the top shelf?
Or the homeless and the hungry?
The destitute and the depressed?
The lost and the lonely?
Perhaps God has asked us to bear the Word of God while we stood in the voting booth, or while we decide where to spend our money, or when we know a friend or family member is in an abusive relationship.
Maybe God asks us to Bear God’s Word at all times. And in all places.
And maybe, maybe that’s the point of God coming to be among us in the first place…to show us, to teach us that bearing the Word of God is not a once in a lifetime thing, it’s a lifetime thing.
Mary is my hero because Mary’s life was spent, being the God-Bearer. In all that she was and in all that she did.
Let us all sing the song of Mary applying all of what it represents, all that she represents and apply it to who we are and to whom it is we wish to be.
Mary is my hero.
May she be yours, as well.
Amen.
Year in and year out, I am utterly blown away by the witness of Mary, the mother of Jesus, his first disciple, and the only person present at the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus…Mary’s little boy.
I love Mary. But not the Mary of adoration and mysticism. Not the “Holy Mother, ever blessed Virgin.” No, I love Mary, the young woman who was, by all accounts, a faithful servant, a good daughter and well…normal.
Mary was a simple young woman living an ordinary life when, suddenly, her life was turned on it’s ear after a visit from the angel Gabriel. [can you imagine her conversation with her mom and dad? With Joseph? “So….this guy Gabriel stopped by….]
Gabriel was an angel…and you need to know that I have a thing about angels. And not always good thing. I’m just not sure what to make of them.
First of all they have wings. I have no issue with birds flying around outside, far above my head, but when anything larger than a mosquito starts flying around my house, near me? I freak out.
So right there, angels kind of bug me.
And then there’s that whole thing about what an angel is…not human, not divine, but somewhere in between…. Just what is an angel?
All that being said, I do appreciate the role of angels in the history of our faith…but those flapping wings? I prefer my angels to look less like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz and more like Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life. I am more comfortable with angels who look more like you and me and less like, well…angels….
So that’s why I’m pretty sure I would like Gabriel. I just have a sense that Gabriel would be a more regular type guy, regular enough that his initial appearance to Mary didn’t freak her out.
I envision Gabriel as fitting into the landscape of Mary’s world.
So when he appears at Mary’s door, or when he encounters her at the market or down by the river while she washed clothes or out back as she gathered pomegranates from the bushes, wherever it was that this encounter happened, Mary is receptive to him.
Mary receives the message he gives her, outrageous and fantastic as it sounds she says yes. [although my guess it was more , ‘errrr….ok……” than “Absolutley!” Mary receives the message. Mary accepts the message. And then Mary waits. And wonders. And ponders.
Yes Mary is my hero because she was receptive to receiving the Word of God through the angel Gabriel.
Mary’s also my hero because not only did she accept the Word of God through Gabriel she literally BORE the Word of God. Mary, the God-Bearer, carried the incarnated God in her womb for nine months. The word of God grew within her until it could no longer be contained and it burst forth, changing the world. Forever.
And Mary’s my hero because after that birth she led the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah, her baby boy…through all the trials and tribulations of childhood.
She nursed him.
She weaned him.
She soothed him when he fell.
She encouraged him as he grew into his role, as he learned that he was, indeed
The Lord of Lords…. the Prince of Peace, the Messiah
And she was there when that role reached its necessary conclusion on that hilltop called Calvary, nailed to that tree.
Yes Mary bore the Word of God as her own flesh and blood and together with him she bore the slings and arrows, the jubilation and the joy of being God in the Flesh, Emmanuel.
But most of all, Mary is my hero because she said yes.
She is my hero because she was open to receiving God and when God asked, she said yes.
Would you? Would I?
How does God ask us to bear the Word of God? And when we are asked, do we say yes?
That’s our task during these days of incarnation, these days of a miracle birth in Bethlehem---to ask ourselves, how has God presented Godself to me? Has God come to us like Clarence?
Or like Gabriel?
Or has God come to us in the neighborhood child who could use a smile.
Or the elderly woman in the grocery store who cannot reach the top shelf?
Or the homeless and the hungry?
The destitute and the depressed?
The lost and the lonely?
Perhaps God has asked us to bear the Word of God while we stood in the voting booth, or while we decide where to spend our money, or when we know a friend or family member is in an abusive relationship.
Maybe God asks us to Bear God’s Word at all times. And in all places.
And maybe, maybe that’s the point of God coming to be among us in the first place…to show us, to teach us that bearing the Word of God is not a once in a lifetime thing, it’s a lifetime thing.
Mary is my hero because Mary’s life was spent, being the God-Bearer. In all that she was and in all that she did.
Let us all sing the song of Mary applying all of what it represents, all that she represents and apply it to who we are and to whom it is we wish to be.
Mary is my hero.
May she be yours, as well.
Amen.
Monday, December 17, 2018
Rejoicing for it all. Even the fleas. Adv 3C St Paul’s Springville December 16, 2018
+St Paul tells the Philippians: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice!
There are times, when I read this passage that I want to yell at Paul—"hey pal, easier said than done!”
Life isn’t easy.
All of us here have had our share of losses: deaths, unemployment, divorce, fear, disappointment. Just last week bomb threats affected schools and businesses here in WNY and across the country. We seem to be living on the edge, nervous, wondering what’s next. These are uncertain times.
It’s as if outside these doors we live in a season of worry and fretting rather than in a season of gratitude and rejoicing.
But then, every Sunday we approach this altar, we lay our burdens down and we rejoice and give thanks for the wonder that is the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
You see, this is the thing about being a follower of Jesus ---even in the worst of times, we gather around this altar and offer all that we are and all that we have in a great Thanksgiving of love and community. Amidst the encroaching darkness of this world we find light, we express hope, we experience joy.
But then we walk out these doors and run smack dab into a world that has seemingly gone mad.
It was the 6th anniversary of the school massacre at Sandy Hook this past Friday. And on that day, the newly rebuilt Sandy Hook school was placed on lockdown due to the threat of a gunman on the loose within the school.
On that same day a 7 year old girl traveling with her father is detained by the border patrol and somehow no one notices that she is in dire straits and she dies of dehydration and shock. 7 years old.
Our world is full of darkness, it can be hard to find the light.
Yet Paul says, rejoice. Rejoice!
And you know what, he is absolutely right.
For without hope, without joy, without gladness, how will we ever survive what’s happening in this world? We won’t. And that’s Paul’s point.
The Christians of Philippi were frazzled, frightened and fragmented; outsiders were trying to draw believers away from God, many Christians faced persecution. Paul wanted them to know that, no matter how rotten things might seem, they would not be defeated.
Paul gives the Philippians and us the secret to finding joy and peace: Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is the dynamic, the spirit and the emotion that opens us up to joy and peace and hope. Gratitude is the one emotion where we are truly focused not on ourselves, but on the gift and the giver. When in a spirit of thanksgiving, we turn ourselves toward God and toward Life and Light and Love.
Gratitude is a matter of perspective, it’s about what we focus on, what we pay attention to in our lives. The folks I know who project gratitude regularly are the folks who make it a habit to pay attention to whatever is positive in their lives.
The grace of gratitude comes when we’re able to discipline ourselves to develop a healthy perspective, when we learn to be patient and to show our gentleness to everyone. The grace of gratitude comes when we lose the assumption that life would be better without the obstacles, troubles and deprivations that come our way. Because even in the midst of all that pain, we find gratitude. It may be simple, it may feel fleeting, but it’s there.
Corrie Ten Boom, who with her family lived through the holocaust, often told the story of how she and her sister Betsy survived in a flea-ridden Nazi prison camp. One day Betsy said “I have found something in the Bible that will help us. It says, ‘In all things give thanks’. Corrie said, “I can’t give thanks for the fleas.” Betsy replied, “Give thanks that we’re together. Most families have been split up. Give thanks that somehow the guards didn’t check our belongings and we have our Bible with us.” Corrie gave thanks for that, but she would not even think of giving thanks for the fleas. But later, they found out that the only reason they were not abused by the guards was because their captors were so repulsed by the fleas that they wouldn’t even enter the sisters’ cell. Corrie allowed as how this taught her to give thanks for all things, because within the greatest darkness lies a spark, maybe even just a sliver, of light…
Gratitude and thanksgiving are not simply about the easy and pretty places in our lives, rather they’re about accepting that all of life, even pain, sadness, grief and loss, is a precious, glorious gift, for so often what emerges from great sadness is new wisdom, greater strength, and overwhelming hope that even the fleas have something good to offer us!
My friends, the world is a chaotic, confusing and hurting place, but there is a way out of this mess. And it is about ready to arrive. A babe in a manger. The Prince of Peace who will, as John tells us in today’s Gospel ,teach us to share…to be kind… and to speak the truth. A babe in whom lies all our hope and all our joy.
How is it that we can rejoice in all things, even in the dark and painful and frustrating things? Because God so loved the world that God sent God’s only begotten Son to walk among us and to teach us that hope always defeats doubt, Light always overcomes darkness and Joy always emerges from despair.
It is Advent my friends, the hope of the world is about to be born Rejoice. Rejoice I say, Rejoice! Amen
There are times, when I read this passage that I want to yell at Paul—"hey pal, easier said than done!”
Life isn’t easy.
All of us here have had our share of losses: deaths, unemployment, divorce, fear, disappointment. Just last week bomb threats affected schools and businesses here in WNY and across the country. We seem to be living on the edge, nervous, wondering what’s next. These are uncertain times.
It’s as if outside these doors we live in a season of worry and fretting rather than in a season of gratitude and rejoicing.
But then, every Sunday we approach this altar, we lay our burdens down and we rejoice and give thanks for the wonder that is the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
You see, this is the thing about being a follower of Jesus ---even in the worst of times, we gather around this altar and offer all that we are and all that we have in a great Thanksgiving of love and community. Amidst the encroaching darkness of this world we find light, we express hope, we experience joy.
But then we walk out these doors and run smack dab into a world that has seemingly gone mad.
It was the 6th anniversary of the school massacre at Sandy Hook this past Friday. And on that day, the newly rebuilt Sandy Hook school was placed on lockdown due to the threat of a gunman on the loose within the school.
On that same day a 7 year old girl traveling with her father is detained by the border patrol and somehow no one notices that she is in dire straits and she dies of dehydration and shock. 7 years old.
Our world is full of darkness, it can be hard to find the light.
Yet Paul says, rejoice. Rejoice!
And you know what, he is absolutely right.
For without hope, without joy, without gladness, how will we ever survive what’s happening in this world? We won’t. And that’s Paul’s point.
The Christians of Philippi were frazzled, frightened and fragmented; outsiders were trying to draw believers away from God, many Christians faced persecution. Paul wanted them to know that, no matter how rotten things might seem, they would not be defeated.
Paul gives the Philippians and us the secret to finding joy and peace: Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is the dynamic, the spirit and the emotion that opens us up to joy and peace and hope. Gratitude is the one emotion where we are truly focused not on ourselves, but on the gift and the giver. When in a spirit of thanksgiving, we turn ourselves toward God and toward Life and Light and Love.
Gratitude is a matter of perspective, it’s about what we focus on, what we pay attention to in our lives. The folks I know who project gratitude regularly are the folks who make it a habit to pay attention to whatever is positive in their lives.
The grace of gratitude comes when we’re able to discipline ourselves to develop a healthy perspective, when we learn to be patient and to show our gentleness to everyone. The grace of gratitude comes when we lose the assumption that life would be better without the obstacles, troubles and deprivations that come our way. Because even in the midst of all that pain, we find gratitude. It may be simple, it may feel fleeting, but it’s there.
Corrie Ten Boom, who with her family lived through the holocaust, often told the story of how she and her sister Betsy survived in a flea-ridden Nazi prison camp. One day Betsy said “I have found something in the Bible that will help us. It says, ‘In all things give thanks’. Corrie said, “I can’t give thanks for the fleas.” Betsy replied, “Give thanks that we’re together. Most families have been split up. Give thanks that somehow the guards didn’t check our belongings and we have our Bible with us.” Corrie gave thanks for that, but she would not even think of giving thanks for the fleas. But later, they found out that the only reason they were not abused by the guards was because their captors were so repulsed by the fleas that they wouldn’t even enter the sisters’ cell. Corrie allowed as how this taught her to give thanks for all things, because within the greatest darkness lies a spark, maybe even just a sliver, of light…
Gratitude and thanksgiving are not simply about the easy and pretty places in our lives, rather they’re about accepting that all of life, even pain, sadness, grief and loss, is a precious, glorious gift, for so often what emerges from great sadness is new wisdom, greater strength, and overwhelming hope that even the fleas have something good to offer us!
My friends, the world is a chaotic, confusing and hurting place, but there is a way out of this mess. And it is about ready to arrive. A babe in a manger. The Prince of Peace who will, as John tells us in today’s Gospel ,teach us to share…to be kind… and to speak the truth. A babe in whom lies all our hope and all our joy.
How is it that we can rejoice in all things, even in the dark and painful and frustrating things? Because God so loved the world that God sent God’s only begotten Son to walk among us and to teach us that hope always defeats doubt, Light always overcomes darkness and Joy always emerges from despair.
It is Advent my friends, the hope of the world is about to be born Rejoice. Rejoice I say, Rejoice! Amen
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