Sit!

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

February 19, 2019

6 Epiphany C

          I met my match last fall when I starting taking the Monday yoga class here at Christ Church.  A new practice would be good for me, I figured, and how hard could breathing and stretching be?  Was I ever in for a surprise!  Yoga takes concentration, balance, flexibility, and strength, none of which are my strong points, along with the ability to breath at the same time.  Yoga requires a lot of practice to achieve the mental clarity and focus that benefits daily life.  In fact, as our teacher says to me repeatedly, yoga is a practice.  A good yoga teacher changes everything up so often that yoga will always be practice and will always take a lot of practice, at least for me.  Sixth months in and the main difference for me is that now I have some idea what I am in for!

          The twelve apostles must be wondering what they are in for this morning.  Jesus is standing with them on a level place along with a great crowd of other disciples and throngs of people seeking healing.  But it is the twelve to whom Jesus is speaking this morning.  Jesus’ first words seem palatable enough.  “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”  These sound like words of comfort to those who are poor, hungry, or sad.  The problem is that there is no evidence that the 12 were any of those.  Some owned boats, and one was a tax collector.  A few chapters later in Luke’s gospel the 12 will be told to take nothing with them on their journeys, so they must have possessions. These are clues that Jesus may be up to something other than words of comfort here.  But then, however, Jesus takes his teaching to a new level.   “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.” How does Jesus think he is going to attract and keep disciples talking like that?  And then, Jesus gets down right rude.  “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”  The irony of hearing those words on the Sunday we have the Big Reveal Party for our capital campaign is not lost on me.  What on earth does Jesus have against the ability to support oneself, a full belly, or a good laugh?

           We don’t know what the 12 apostles made of Jesus’ words, although we know they did not turn tail and run.  The real question is what are we to make of these words as 21^st century Christians in Hudson, Ohio where relative to most of the world, we are rich, full, and happy?

          First, to be clear, Jesus is not saying poverty, hunger, and grief are good.  Nor is he saying that riches, food, and joy are bad.  He is simply saying that those who are poor, hungry or sad are blessed, a word that in the Greek means content or at peace.    Jesus is saying “woe” or “watch out” to those who are rich, full, and joyful.  Jesus is not saying that one group is saved and the other group is damned, even though there is an eternal ring to Jesus’ words.  Jesus is not saying that those who are poor are the only ones who are blessed or that those who have riches cannot be blessed.  Jesus’ followers included many people of some means in Luke’s gospel.  Mary and Martha hosted Jesus in their home.  Zacchaeus the tax collector climbed a tree to see Jesus then hosted Jesus in his home.  The book of Luke/Acts is written to the most excellent Theophilus, likely a patron of some means.  Poverty is apparently not a criteria for being a follower of Jesus.

          So what is Jesus saying?  When Don and I lived in Springfield, Ohio, a city a lot like Akron but smaller, we encountered people in poverty on a regular basis, whether in the public schools, through our food pantry or the yearly neighborhood fair.  In conversation, the folks in line at the food pantry would tell me about their faith and all the ways God had blessed them.  Just getting out of bed and facing the day was a practice of faith for many of them.  Their stories were raw and often involved shut-off notices, evictions, prison, raising grandchildren, addiction, the humility of standing in line for free food, and problems I cannot begin to imagine.   Many of them relied on God for their security because there was not much else reliable in their lives.  I, on the other hand, have a home, family, friends, a great job, a retirement plan, and all sorts of other thing I can hold on to for a sense of security.  According to Jesus, the people at the food pantry are blessed because they have only God to hold on to for security, and they are well aware of their dependence on God every day.  They put their trust in God into practice day in and day out, when there is no food, money, or much else to hang on to.

          The prophet Jeremiah says this morning “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.”  Their roots are shallow and cannot find water when they need it.  Jeremiah then says “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”  The roots of their faith are deep and find water, in the words of both Jeremiah and the psalmist.  Jesus says to those of us with plenty “Watch out!  You can too easily put your trust in earthly things.”  Jesus is telling us that if we want our faith to sustain us when the going is hard-when grief or hardship or illness strike and our possessions and accomplishments give us little to hold on to-we have to practice trusting God for our security and our joy now. 

          Perhaps what Jesus is saying is this: “Blessed are those who will sit with their need, their hunger, and their grief, for I will fill that hole.  Woe to those who can fill their need, their hunger, and their grief with work, food and drink, or another order from Amazon Prime because there will be no room for me.”  Jesus comes to level ground to offer deep and lasting security to all of us.  Some of us just need a lot more practice loosening our grip on what we have and trusting the security Jesus offers.

                                                                             Amen.

Fish

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

February 10, 2019

5 Epiphany C

          For many years, I served as the chaplain to 4^th and 5^th graders at Procter Camp, the Episcopal Church camp in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.  The mornings were filled with worship that was energetic bordering on aerobic, and creative Bible study.  After lunch and a quick rest, the kids were off to their afternoon activities.  Those activities ranged from swimming to crafts to a variety of games and water sports to fishing.  Fishing at Procter Camp is fishing I can handle.  A counselor gets the bait and puts it on the hook for the camper.  The camper stands along the side of a pond with the hook in the water and waits for the fish to bite.  When the fish grabs the hook, the camper calls for the counselor who comes and takes the fish off the hook and throws it back in the pond.  The camper has the joy of catching a fish and the fish lives to see another day.  That’s a win-win in my book!

          The fishing we see in this morning’s gospel lesson has much higher stakes than fishing in the pond at Procter Camp.  Simon, who will soon be known as Peter, has been fishing all night and has caught nothing.  At Procter Camp, if you fish all afternoon and catch nothing, dinner is going to be the same hot dogs and macaroni and cheese regardless.  For Simon, however, no fish means no dinner and no income.  Simon is tired and discouraged.  There is no one to put bait on his hook, much less clean his nets.  Had he caught any fish, the responsibility for dealing with those fish would be all his. 

          Meanwhile, the crowds have gathered near the water to hear Jesus.  In the verses just before our gospel reading, Jesus has healed a man with an unclean spirit and healed Simon’s very own mother-in-law.  But Simon is not among those crowding around to hear Jesus. Simon is busy cleaning his nets, hoping to get home for a good day’s sleep before going out in search of fish again that night.  While Simon is distracted by the work of cleaning his nets, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat, and asks Simon to put out a ways so Jesus can teach from the boat.  Jesus did just heal Simon’s mother-in-law, so Simon does owe him a favor.

          The rest of the story is well known.  When he finishes teaching, Jesus tells Simon to put out into deep water and let the nets down. Simon is reluctant.  He had just spent all night putting the nets out and has nothing  to show for his labor other than dirty nets, and he has just spent no telling how long getting them clean for the next night.  But, of course, this time the nets overflow with fish and another boat has to be called to help.  Jesus then tells Simon that from now on, he will be catching people.

          What are we to do with this story that seems to tell us that the way to introduce people to Jesus is to catch them in a net and treat them like fish?  I do not think Jesus is thinking about a catch and release program like at Procter Camp!  But on the other hand, I don’t think Jesus is thinking about a fish fry either.

          First, I think this story calls us to think about what we can do when we let Jesus into the boat with us.  Alone, Simon could do nothing.  But with Jesus in the boat, Simon had an unimaginably large haul of fish.  The same is true for us.  When we seem to be working hard and accomplishing nothing, whether in our individual lives or here at Christ Church, perhaps we need to check and see whether we’ve invited Jesus into the boat, and what Jesus would have us do.

          Secondly, Jesus tells Simon to put out into deep water and let down the nets.  Putting out into deep water is hard work.  The nets have to be let down further.  Controlling them is more difficult and hauling the catch up from the deep is harder.  Picking low hanging fruit is easy.  Going deeper is harder.  Jesus calls us not to shy away from what looks difficult or even impossible.  Put out into deep water and see what you find. 

          Thirdly, this story is 99% about Jesus and only 1% about Simon.  Jesus asks Simon to take his boat out a little ways from shore so Jesus can teach from the water.  Jesus has the idea to put the nets out into deep water.  Jesus is the origin of the great haul of fish.  Most of the time, Simon is probably feeling rather inconvenienced by Jesus.  Simon is tired.  He’s had a long night, and despite all of his efforts, he has nothing to show for his work.  So Simon is not contributing a whole lot to the story, and the story he has to tell when he gets back to the shore is all about Jesus. 

          The reading from 1 Corinthians reminds us that our story as Christians is all about Jesus.  The passage we heard is one of the earliest and tightest proclamations of the Good News that we have from the early church.  Paul writes “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”  Paul then lists the others to whom Christ appeared.  The heart of our story, the story we have to share, the story that I believe serves as the grounding for our lives and the way we introduce others to Jesus, is all about Jesus.  What we have to offer the world is the message that Christ died for our sins, which means that our identity is not defined by the sum total of our own successes minus our own failures, which would leave a lot of us in the negative category many days.  Our identity comes from Christ’s infinite love for us from the cross.  The second part of that proclamation is that life is stronger than death.  Christ died and was buried then was raised back to life.  No matter what happens to us, life has the final say.

          The story of the great haul of fish calls us to be disciples of Jesus who live with the courage that comes from believing that Jesus can do amazing, even impossible things through us.  What Jesus wants to do through us, through all of our lives and ministries, whatever they are, is tell the world that our identity comes from being loved by God, that love is stronger than hate, and that life is stronger than death.  The world is starving for that story.

                                                                   Amen.

Power

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

February 3, 2019

4 Epiphany C

          For Christmas, Bishop Hollingsworth gave each of the parish clergy in the diocese a copy of the book “The Power of Love.”  The book is a collection of several sermons by our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, including the sermon he preached at the Royal Wedding last May.  I have read the first sermon, the royal wedding sermon, but I have not yet gotten to the other three.  But, since, like most preachers, the Presiding Bishop really only has one sermon, I can imagine that the other three sermons deliver much the same message.  That message is summed up on the back cover of the book which gives four quotes from Bishop Curry’s sermons.  One: “There is power in love to help and to heal when nothing else will.”  Two: “There is power in love to lift and liberate when nothing else will.” Three: “There is power in love to show us the way to live.”  And four: “I’m talking about power, real power, to change the world.” 

          This morning, we hear Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and then say to the people in the synagogue “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  That scripture is actually a combination of several unattached verses from Isaiah, and we heard those words in last week’s gospel reading.  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  These are the words about which Jesus says “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

          I have several problems with this passage.  First, Jesus seems to set himself up for failure when he says things like “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!'” or "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown.”  Everything was going fine up until that point.  The people were amazed at the gracious words that came from Jesus’ mouth.  Jesus was bringing them Good News.  Why would Jesus seem to sabotage himself by putting words of criticism in the people’s mouths?  Secondly, Jesus tells two stories in which the people who experienced God’s liberation were not Hebrew people, and, in fact, the Hebrew people themselves did not experience God’s liberation.  So, were Jesus’ gracious words meant only for Gentiles, and not for the Jews? The people are so enraged at Jesus words that Jesus is nearly thrown off the cliff.  Why does Jesus need to provoke the people to such anger?

          The third problem, and the most pressing one in my opinion, is the utter lack of evidence most days that Jesus’ claim “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” is true.  A quick look at the news on any day demonstrates that the oppressed are still oppressed, the blind and sick are still blind and sick, and people are still captive to the many, many different things that bind us.  Whether we look globally, nationally, locally, or around our own congregation, many days the evidence for Jesus’ claim seems slim.  So, what on earth could Jesus possibly mean?

          Jesus’ words in the synagogue are the first words in Jesus’ public ministry.  These words are his inaugural address of sorts.  At Jesus’ baptism, not all that long ago, we heard the voice of God say “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  Jesus, the beloved Son of God, with whom God is well pleased, shows up today in the synagogue in Nazareth, reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, then says “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  I believe Jesus is telling the people that today, the love of God has shown up in their midst, and the love of God is the good news that is proclaimed to the poor, the release that is proclaimed to the captives, the recovery of sight that is proclaimed to the blind, and the year of jubilee or forgiveness that is proclaimed to all.

          Proclamation alone does not typically make something happen, however.  Action makes something happen.  And Jesus spent his earthly ministry turning his proclamation into action and being the Love of God in the world.  The soaring words in 1 Corinthians describe that love for us.  The Love of God, and the love we are called to imitate, is patient, and kind.  That love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  And that love is for everyone, which is perhaps the truth that made the people in the synagogue so angry.  If love is a zero sum game, then when outsiders get some of the love, there is less for the insiders.  But Paul is not describing a zero sum game.  Paul is describing love that is infinite, love that is doubled and tripled as needed, not halved and quartered to be distributed evenly like a pie being divided among children. 

          So, was the passage from Isaiah being fulfilled in the people’s hearing?  In Jesus, the love of God showed up and proclaimed release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, freedom from oppression and from crippling, relentless debt.  If Bishop Curry is right, and there is power in love to help and to heal when nothing else can, and to lift and liberate when nothing else will, and power to change the world, then yes, Isaiah’s words are fulfilled whenever the Love of God shows up.  The power of love, the radical love the Paul describes, is the power to bring healing when hope feels lost, to extend forgiveness when division seems to have the final word, and to lift and liberate when oppression clearly seems to have won.  The power of love is our power to proclaim with Jesus “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” to use that power to change the world, and to be the evidence that Jesus’ claim is true.

                                                                                              Amen.

                                                                                      

Pay Attention

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

January 20, 2019

2 Epiphany/Annual Meeting

          When I am asked about my favorite television shows, I have to confess that other than Downtown Abbey and Call the Midwife, I haven’t had a favorite TV show in probably 30 years.  We just don’t watch much TV at our house.  But what I do love watching will probably come as no surprise to you: royal weddings and presidential funerals.  The choreography of music, liturgy, acolytes and servers, bride and groom or in the case of a funeral, casket, family and friends, all fascinate me.  When done well, all of the parts and people come together effortlessly (although I do know better) to honor the love being celebrated-whether wedding or funeral, and worship our God who makes that love possible.

          Funerals and weddings at Christ Church invoke that same sense of awe in me as many, many people come together to celebrate a life and worship God.  From ushers to acolytes, readers, chalice bearers, and perhaps additional clergy, to Mario and perhaps the choir and other musicians, to all those who make cookies and sandwiches, set up, serve, and clean for the reception, to those who hold the family in prayer, many people with many different gifts and skills go into celebrating love and worshiping God.  That, by the way, is not unlike a Bishop’s visit!

          When I hear Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians this morning, I am reminded of all the ministries here which require the whole body of Christ to offer their gifts so that the body of Christ can function.  Paul reminds us that there are a variety of gifts, services, and activities, but the same Spirit activates them all in all of us.  That means that whether you make sandwiches or preach for a funeral, or whether you help shop for supplies or teach at Vacation Bible School, the Holy Spirit is working through you and when each one of us allows the Holy Spirit to work through us, incredible ministry beyond our imagination can happen.

          This morning, we also see Jesus take a vast amount of water and turn that water into the best wine of the party.  Jesus is not the original party animal here, making sure that that the wine vats never go empty.  What Jesus has done is reveal his glory by taking something ordinary, water, and turning it into something holy, wine.  Jesus has taken scarcity and turned that scarcity into abundance.  Jesus has taken the expectation that the good wine would be served first and turned that expectation upside down.  Early in John’s gospel, Jesus is already revealing the Kingdom of God which makes the ordinary holy, where scarcity is turned into abundance, and where the expectations of this world are turned upside down and inside out. 

          Jesus calls us to do the same.  The only problem is that we are not Jesus.  But we are the Body of Christ, which means none of us is expected to do this Kingdom work alone, but we are all expect to do this work together.  Together, using all of our gifts, we reveal God’s glory to the world whether by working to transform a neighborhood at First Serve with our interfaith brothers and sisters, or touch the lives of our children and other children in the community through Vacation Bible School, or lift up the power of God’s love through a wedding or funeral.  Our challenge as a church this coming year and all years is to let the Holy Spirit work through us, together, to make the ordinary holy, to create abundance where the world sees scarcity, and to turn the expectations of the world upside down.  That work can be messy and we won’t always agree on how to go about the work.  But the Holy Spirit will work even through messiness and disagreement if we let her.  The church in Corinth to which Paul wrote was hardly a model of like minded people always getting along and cheerfully going about the work of Jesus’.  Quite the opposite is true.  They were arguing about who had the more superior gifts, who had the better baptism, who got to go through the line first at church suppers.  The reason Paul wrote the words that we heard this morning was to remind the Corinthians that there is one Spirit that activates all the gifts and no gift is superior to another.  All gifts are needed for the Body of Christ to do her work in the world.

          This weekend, we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was one person who gave his life to the effort to end racism in this country.  But even Dr. King did not work alone and knew that the gifts and courage of many, many people were required to make this country a place of equal opportunity for all people, regardless of race.  One person boycotting a bus or sitting at the counter at Woolworth was not going to be enough.  The letter from the Birmingham jail called on all clergy to join King’s work and held them accountable for failing in their responsibility to do so.  Making the future Kingdom of God that both the prophets and Jesus describe a present reality requires a movement, not just a person. 

          On Annual Meeting Sunday, we are called to see where, as a parish, God is calling us to make the ordinary holy, to turn scarcity into abundance, and to turn the expectations of the world upside down.  Where in our community and the world around us is God already doing that work and asking us to bring our many gifts and join in that work?  From the first Interfaith Thanksgiving service in a long while, to opening our doors as a warming station for the Frosty 5 race on Christmas Eve, to having a presence at Community Day at the Farmers’ Market and a booth at the Ice Cream Social on the Green, we were looking to see where we could make the ordinary holy, transform scarcity into abundance, and turn people’s expectations about church upside down.  In planning those events, we were looking to see what God might be up to in the neighborhood and join with God in that work with all the gifts and skills we have as our part of the Body of Christ. 

          The last line of our gospel reading is this: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”  Mary Oliver, the poet who died last week, has a poem that sums up for me the disciples’ response to Jesus’ work at the wedding at Cana and God’s call to us as we go about doing similar work.  The poem is “Instructions for Living a Life”.

Instructions for living a life

Pay Attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it. 

Let us pay attention to the work God is calling us to do.  Be astonished at what we can accomplish when all of us use our gifts together.  Then tell about it so that the glory of God is revealed beyond these walls.

Amen.

Gifts

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

January 6, 2019

Epiphany

On Christmas Eve, after the evening service had ended, I walked into the clergy vesting room to find an enormous pile of baby diapers.  Early in December, we had been in contact with the Battered Women’s Shelter in Akron to see what they might need.  Their response was diapers in size 5 and 6.  Last year, we collected baby food for the same organization and literally filled a shopping cart with bags of baby food.  However, diapers seemed a bit more challenging, so I had no idea what kind of response we would get.  I should never have doubted the generosity of Christ Church!  I loved watching the congregation come forward during the offertory at each service, singing “Now bring him incense, gold, and myrrh; come peasant, king, to own him” carrying cases of baby diapers as gifts for the baby Jesus.  The moment was both joyous and tender with both smiles and tears as we offered our gifts at the manger.

On this Epiphany morning, we hear the soaring words of Isaiah "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen round you."  The people who walked in great darkness, both in exile in Babylon and upon their return to a burned out, shattered Promised Land, are promised that better days are ahead, when people will be gathered back together from all over the earth, drawn by the glory of God that will arise over them.  And we see the camels bringing those people together, bearing gifts of gold and frankincense.  The day will come, says Isaiah, when you shall see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice.  The psalm this morning also longs for the time when the King will come who will rescue the poor and the needy, and kings from all the nations will come bearing gifts.

According to Matthew's gospel, that day has come with the birth of Jesus.  This morning, the Magi arrive with those very gifts of gold and frankincense for Jesus. The story does not tell us how many Magi arrived, or whether they arrived by camel or on foot.  The traditional assumption has been that there were three Magi since they brought three gifts-gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  The story also says nothing about a manger. Instead, the story tells us that the Magi entered the house where the saw the child with Mary.  They knelt and paid Jesus the homage due a king, then opened their treasure chests and offered him their gifts.

 The story does not tell us a lot about the Magi, other than that they have come a great distance and are from the East.  Since they followed a star, they may well have been astrologers, or followers of a religion that studied the stars in their courses.  Clearly, they were people who believed in the power of dreams, since they altered their course home after being warned in a dream not to return to Herod.  And they were people with deep respect for royalty, since they went to a good bit of trouble to pay homage to the child born King of the Jews.  But while we are told that the Magi brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, I think the Magi had three other gifts which are gifts we, too, might offer this child.

First, the Magi had curiosity.  They saw the star in the heavens and wondered what the star could mean.  They might have chosen the wrong person to ask, since Herod was somewhat sensitive about who else might be the king of the Jews, and Herod's motives for giving the Magi the information they needed were ill intended.  But their curiosity led them to follow the star, to be filled with joy, and to pay homage to Jesus.

Secondly, the Magi were adventuresome.  They saw the star, and rather than think about how far they might have to travel, whether there would be clean restrooms along the way, or what they would eat on their journey, they apparently picked up and left.  They did not have benefit of a map much less a GPS.  They followed a star.  When, in a dream, they were warned not to return to Herod, they changed their plans on a dime and went home by a different road.  The change of route meant finding a different path through the desert, going a different direction, and encountering different obstacles.  But the Magi did as the dream directed.

Lastly, the Magi were generous. They were generous with their time, spending no telling how long on the road getting to Jesus, and generous with their treasure, opening their treasure chests to offer the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Apparently the Magi did not travel lightly and did not carry just the three gifts with them.  Once they found the child, they wanted to be able to offer the best and most appropriate gifts.

 Curiosity, a spirit of adventure, and generosity. I wonder if these gifts might be the gifts Jesus would like from us as well.   What could happen if we were as curious about what God is doing in the world as the Magi were about the stars?  What could happen if we were as adventuresome as the Magi, willing to set out into the unknown to find the child Jesus without really knowing where we were going?  And what could happen if we offered our time and opened our treasure with the generosity of the Magi?  The Magi were overcome with joy when they arrived at the house where they found Jesus and his mother and offered gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  We arrived at the manger on Christmas Eve, and with great joy offered our gifts of diapers.  What might happen if, in addition to those gifts and other typical Christmas gifts, we offered Jesus the gifts of deeper curiosity, a more adventuresome spirit, and greater generosity?  Isaiah’s words “Arise, shine, for your light has come” might come more alive for us and for a world desperate to see a light shining in the darkness, and hearts will thrill and rejoice.                                   

                                                                                         Amen.

Love

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

December 24, 2018

Christmas Eve

          When I was a child, the Christmas story began like this: “T’was the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”  Jesus was not a prominent feature of our Christmas celebration and I do not ever remember going to church on Christmas Eve as a young child.  However, our house would be filled with the aromas of holiday cooking.  Relatives and friends would arrive from all over the country, and packages would pile up under the Christmas tree.  What I knew as a child was that Christmas is about love.  Relatives would arrive early and spend time with us playing games and reading stories.  Gifts were carefully chosen for each recipient and wrapped with care.  Meals were planned and hospitality arranged so that everyone would feel expected and welcomed.  What we didn’t know about Jesus was made up for in what I learned about love.

          Tonight, we hear the real Christmas story.  We hear about the birth of Jesus to unwed parents at an inconvenient time in a less than ideal place in circumstances that were trying to say the least.  We hear about the shepherd in the field, doing their work, minding their own business, when the heavens burst open and scare the shepherds half to death. We see the angel announce the birth of the Messiah, the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  We hear the song of the heavenly host praising God.  We watch as the shepherds swallow their fear, leave their flock, and journey off to find this child.  And, with Mary, we ponder this story in our heart and wonder what the birth of a child so long ago could possibly mean for our lives today.

          What happened on that first Christmas so long ago is that Love became flesh and dwelled among us, to paraphrase John’s gospel.  We wrap and exchange gifts at Christmas, not so much because the magi brought gifts to Jesus, but because we want others to experience the Love of Christmas.  The love we experience when we give and receive gifts, including the gift of the Christ Child, is the Love of Christmas.   We share a great meal around a table, whether this table or a dining table, not just because that is the way we celebrate, but because table fellowship is a way we experience love as we eat, share stories, laugh and cry together.  We do for others at Christmas-time both so that others experience Christmas love and to remind ourselves that Christmas love is self-sacrificing love.  We come to church and  hear the Christmas story, the same story we hear each and every year on Christmas, not just because this is the night and that is the story, but so that we are reminded that the Love of God took flesh and was born on Christmas so that we might know and live that same love in 2018.

          Christmas happens here in this place tonight as we welcome the Christ Child.  But Christmas also happens wherever the love of God is born.  The Christmas story tells us that the love of God is born in the midst of the trying times of our lives, in inconvenient places at less than ideal times. In other words, Christmas Love is born in the midst of the mess of our lives, just as that Love was born to Mary and Joseph.  The Christmas story tells us that the love of God is born when we are going about our ordinary lives, minding our own business, doing the work God has called us to do, just like the Love of God was born to the shepherds.  Christmas Love is born when we are frightened, just as the shepherds were frightened, and Christmas Love is born as we rejoice in all that God has done for us, just as Christmas Love was born in the song of the heavenly host.  The Christmas story tells us that nothing need stand in the way of the birth of Christmas Love in our lives.  The call of Christmas on our lives is to show that Love to the world.

                                                                             Amen.

Rocks

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

December 16, 2018

3 Advent C

          Some years ago, when my husband was at Kanuga, the Episcopal Conference Center in Western North Carolina, he brought me back some stones from a place called High Rocks, a lovely spot on a cliff that over looks the valley below.  High Rocks is just up the mountain from the house where my grandparents lived and where our family gathered every Thanksgiving for about 30 years. Each year after Thanksgiving dinner, we would hike up to High Rocks to walk off that second piece of pie and enjoy the view. Countless other visits to our grandparents involved hikes to that magical spot where you can be eye level with the clouds and hear the sounds from the valley.  The stones Don brought me were just rocks.  They were not particularly beautiful, or polished, or even unique.  They were just rocks.  But the rocks came from a place that is near and dear to my heart, a place alive with stories of times I spent on that mountain with people I love, experiences of the presence of God that I cherish, and more memories than I can count.  The stones were alive for me, in their own special way, because of the stories they held.

One of my favorite Bible passages comes near the end of Luke's gospel.  Jesus has entered into Jerusalem, riding on a colt, and the whole multitude of Jesus' disciples begin to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen.  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd say to Jesus "Teacher, order your disciples to stop!"  And Jesus replies "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would shout out."   If the people are not moved to sing God's praise by the stories of God's deeds of power, then the stones will.

This morning, in one of the most memorable lines in Scripture, John the Baptist says to the crowds who have come out to be baptized by him in the wilderness "You brood of vipers.  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"  Then he tells them to bear fruit worthy of repentance.  "Do not begin to say to yourselves ‘We have Abraham for our ancestor' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham."  Bearing good fruit is what is important, according to John the Baptist, not pedigree.  Those who do not bear good fruit will be thrown into the fire.

When the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers hear John's words of condemnation, they are moved to ask "What, then, shall we do?"  John's instructions are simple.  Share. Be fair. Do not be greedy.  This sounds more like "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" than how to avoid the unquenchable fire!  But the truth is that John is reminding the people of their very own story, for the Hebrew scriptures hold many admonitions to do those exact things.  The Hebrew story is about responding to the graciousness of God by being gracious to others, both friend and stranger.  That story is about remembering their life as strangers in a foreign land, whether Egypt or Babylon, and treating people in a similar situation with kindness and hospitality.  What God asks of us in not complicated.  But if the people forget their story, and fail to act as children of God, then God will raise up stones to take their place.

At the end of John the Baptist's tirade, we are told that with these and many other exhortations, John the Baptist proclaimed good news to the people.  Which part of John the Baptist's rant qualifies as good news? The part where we are called a brood of vipers?  Or the part where the people are told that their status as children of Abraham is worthless if they do not bear good fruit?  Or perhaps the part about the unquenchable fire?

The words from Zephaniah, Isaiah, and the letter to the Philippians help soften the blow from John's words this morning.  Zephaniah says  "Sing aloud, O daughter Zion, shout, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!  The Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies."  The reading brings hope to an exiled, despondent people.  Likewise, Isaiah claims God as "our "stronghold and sure defense" and calls the people to "Ring out your joy."  And the letter to the Philippians calls the people to rejoice in the Lord always, and let their gentleness be known to everyone.  These are the kinds of readings I want to hear in Advent, full of hope and promise as we await the birth of the Christ Child.  No where in my imagination do I find a baby Jesus with a winnowing fork in his hand!

 However, the soaring words of Zephaniah and Isaiah come after the people have been severely chastised by the prophets for the way they treat widows and orphans, for their worship of other gods, and for the many ways they have broken God's commandments.  The people have forgotten their story and they have paid the penalty. Paul calls the Philippians to rejoice, but only after he gives them a tongue lashing for following false teachers and failing to get along with each other.   An often-overlooked fact about Scripture is that the good news often goes hand in hand with judgement. Judgement is tempered with hope, and mercy is free but not cheap.   John the Baptist proclaims judgement against the people who have come out into the wilderness to be baptized, but he also offers them hope in his own gruff way.  He calls the people to repent, so repentance must be possible.  He tells them the truth-that they way they treat each other matters to God and they can do better.  He tells the people that the chaff will be burned, but the wheat will be gathered.  And there is one coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  No wonder the people were filled with expectation.  There is hope!

 "So with many other exhortations, John the Baptist proclaimed good news to the people."  The message of John the Baptist is this: The good news demands something of us.  The birth of Christ requires a response from us.  That response is to remember our story, the story of our God who became human in the Christ Child, born to unwed parents who were away from their home with no place to stay, for whom the sky lit up and the angels sang, and who will give his life for the life of the world.  John tells us that simply waiting for the Christ child to arrive is not enough.  God can raise up stones to wait.  John calls us to remember our story and make our lives the response.

                                                                             Amen.