Have A Mary Christmas

      She was barely a teenager living a quiet life in a small town when her world was turned upside down.  Suddenly, in a blaze of light, an angel appeared with what probably seemed like anything but Good News.  She was to have a child --- and not just any child but the very Son of God.  In that moment, Mary had a choice.  She could fight God all the way to Bethlehem or she could choose to bear God’s Love in the form of a babe.  

Mary chose love --- and that choice changed her --- and the world --- forever.  

Her choice was filled with all the joy love brings but like all love it also came with heartbreak.  It came with unanswered questions and an uncertain future.  It seems that from that moment forth, Mary was constantly pondering things in her heart - not knowing the answers, having doubts about God’s plan -- but trusting in His wisdom none the less.  

There was the moment when Joseph rejected her and her unborn child.  The moment when she had to face childbirth, not at home, with her mother to guide her, but frightened and alone in a stable surrounded by animals laying on a bed of hay.  Then there was the moment when Jesus said good-bye as He left the safety and security of home to begin His ministry and His way to the cross.  And there was the cross as she watched her tortured Son die.  

Through it all, Mary was able to face whatever lay ahead -- whether it was incomparable joy or desolate heartbreak -- because she knew the Spirit of God was with her, giving her strength and courage when she had none of her own.  I think one of the reasons she knew this, even in the midst of doubt, was because she could always hear the echo of the angels singing as they did that night so long ago:  “Fear not.  For unto you is born a Savior and you shall call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us.” 

And so, I wish for you this year a Mary Christmas not just for these few days but for all your days.  May you always choose love  not just in moments of joy and laughter but in moments of doubt and pain as well.  May you know the strength of God when you know nothing else.  May you give birth to the light of the world so others can see.  May you always hear the angels sing.  

Christmas Love

He was sulky, whiney, and disobedient.  He was all of 13 and when you asked him to sit, he’d stand.  Ask him to talk and he’d walk away.  He never made his bed or picked up his clothes.  He ignored all the house rules.  He didn’t even have the saving grace of being a cute child.  He was, instead, too thin with severe acne and the scars from picking at his pimples.

He had been badly abused for years and prospects did not look good for him.  The staff at the children’s home were doing the best that they could, but he kept running away and they were at the end of their rope of patience. 

There was nothing loveable about this child and everybody knew it.  What was worse --- while they wanted to love him --- while they knew they ought to love him --- they just couldn’t.  He was not the poster child for abused children every where, the ones that would make donors pull out their check book.  He was, and still is, a hard case.

But for such as him, God came. 

You see God didn’t just come for the loveable ones.  He came for the unlovable as well.  He came for the prostitute as much as the priest --- for the thief as well as the policeman walking is beat.  He came for the two year old kicking and screaming as well as for the sleeping baby. 

When we paint the pictures for our sermons, particularly at Christmas time, our natural tendency is to choose stories of love all soft and gooey, with happy ever after endings, but that’s not where the real story of God’s love is.  

The real story --- what God really wants us to know is – that God will still love us when loving us seems impossible.

 God will still love us when we are being a jerk. He will love us even when we just walk away, doing what we want, when we want, and hang the consequences.   He loves us even when we take His love and nail it to a cross.  Can anything separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?  

No.  Scripture is clear and certain.  Nothing --- absolutely nothing --- can separate us from the love of God.  God’s love will endure forever.  

It’s not just a Sunday kind of love that covers us when we are here in our places with bright, shining faces.  It is not just there when we are on our best behavior.  

It is there during the hard times too, when loving us is anything but easy.  It is there for the innkeeper who could not make room as well as for the shepherd watching over his flock by night. 

You see, God’s love will not turn and walk away from us when we turn and walk away from Him.  His love will stay there and wait for our return, just as the father waited in love for the return of the prodigal son.  Even more, His love will come seeking us out. 

That’s the story of Christmas, the miracle of Christmas.  God came seeking us out.  For the perfect Christmas story is not found in the beginning of Matthew or Luke.  It is found toward the beginning of John:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son…”  That’s the Christmas story in a nutshell.  

How Can We Find Christmas Joy In The Face Of Tragedy?

        It’s amazing the things you think of.  I woke up Saturday morning thinking about Barbie dolls hidden away in closets and bicycles waiting to be put together, and I cried.  I cried for those moms and dads who were planning funerals when they should have been wrapping presents.  I cried for Christmas dresses that would now be the dress their child would wear for their burial. 

I cried for children who would never know what it feels like to be safe again, who’re too young to grasp that their friends aren’t coming back again.  And I cried for teachers who had shielded young bodies with their own while keeping children safe and quiet and choking down their own fear.   

And I knew that God was crying too.  That God was choking down His own fury at the darkness of evil in a world He had created as good.  

So what do we do now?  How do we answer grief and pain and sorrow that is almost impossible for us to comprehend? And is it some cruel cosmic joke that this, the third Sunday of Advent, is supposed to remind us of joy?  “Joy to the World.”  Ironic isn’t it? 

Or is it?  Perhaps it is exactly what we need to remember on this particular morning.  You see, it is the gift of joy -- not the gift of happiness that the Christ child brings.  

Happiness shows up in all the usual places you’d expect to find it: a good marriage, a child’s sudden hug, an unexpected check in the mail.  Joy is not so predictable.  

Instead it is a paradox.  It’s laughter in the midst of tears; it’s healing in spite of the pain; it’s support and strength at the darkest points of our lives.  It runs like a river underground even in the midst of life’s deepest sorrow, and it is possible only because we know the security of God’s presence with us: a shepherd who guides us through the darkest valleys to finally rest in green pastures.

For somehow, even in the midst of a tragedy so bleak that it wipes out all of the laughter that should come with Christmas morn, we know that the darkness of evil cannot and will not overcome the light of the love which is Christ.  

That’s the message of the gospel of John, who does not talk of starry nights and a manger bed, but instead begins the story of Christ with the words “The light has come into the darkness and the darkness can not overcome it.”  

That is the news the angels sang to shepherds so long ago.  “Do not be afraid, for I bring you news of great joy.”  In that silent night, on that lonely hill, came the healing light of God’s love and in that light we shall always find our deepest joy. 

Our job now is to carry that light into our world -- to be the light of hope and strength, to be the companion who holds that light for others when they cannot, to echo the words of Wordsworth’s song: “ The wrong shall fail, the right prevail with peace on earth, goodwill to men.”  

A Season of Peace

He was only 22, a young farm boy from Nebraska, and he had seen more death in his time than anyone ever should.    He was on the western front in a hell hole called France and the date was Dec. 24, 1914.  It did not seem like a time for miracles, a time for the coming of a Prince of Peace, a celebration of Christmas. It seemed as though the fighting, the war, would never end.  But on that Christmas Eve a miracle was coming.

Suddenly the Americans heard singing.  That’s right --- singing.  The Germans were singing “Silent Night”.  Slowly the Americans lowered their weapons. Slowly they began to add their own voices to that of their German counterparts until they formed a choir --- -truly an angel’s choir. 

“Silent Night, Holy night!  All is calm, all is bright.  Round yon virgin mother and child!  Holy infant so tender and mild.  Sleep in heavenly peace.  Sleep in heavenly peace!”

Amazingly --- and without authorization from their commanders --- infantrymen from both sides wandered out into that no man’s land to join together in a celebration of a peace. For at least a few hours, in the bleak winter’s night, there was no enemy.  There was only one heart reaching out to another heart.  All around the front, truces were being declared.

Now if this were a fairy tale instead of the truth, the story would end there. The war would have ended there.  But generals marshaled their troops together and declared the battle was not done.  In some places it was several days before the soldiers were willing to take up arms again, but eventually they did.

 The pull of darkness is  great.  Yet the dream, the longing, for a day of peace is still within our hearts and someday, somehow, we will find the way to walk in the pathways of the Lord. 

            This Christmas season, let us pray for peace where we can find no peace. Let us pray for peace in the Middle East: in Afghanistan, Syria, and Israel, Let us pray for peace for each soldier, each family, who is caught up in forces beyond their control, for all those who pay the terrible price ” of war.  Let us pray for peace in what is, after all, the season of peace, the coming of the very Prince of Peace, for “Blessed are the peacemakers. They will be called the children of God.

Christmas Joy

Joy bubbles up with laughter at this time of year and runs through our days as a golden thread, tying together the pieces of Christmas into a beautiful quilt of love. Our laughter rings out from the songs the carolers sing to gifts brightly wrapped and placed lovingly under a Christmas tree. 

            Shepherds, angels, and wise men join to tell the story of long ago --- a story of great joy, for it was love we received that night, love all wrapped up as a newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

  And it is joy that the angels still offer us today, along with a promise that Christ will be the healing balm of Gilead that makes the wounded whole.  And one day, perhaps even today, Christ will come again to heal the wounds of the broken hearted, for Christ is in our tears just as much as in our oohs and ahhs and laughter of a Christmas morn.

            So today we will sing with choirs of angels as we celebrate Christmas joy --- from lighting advent candles against the darkness to shopping for a family in need.  From cherubs dressed up as sheep, to elders joining in song.  In large and small ways we bring our gifts to the Christ child  Jesus who came to set us free. 

            So this Christmas join in the fa-la-la-la and drink a cup of cheer.  For unto us a child is given, unto us a Son is born.  

A schizophrenic Christmas

Tis the season to be schizophrenic.  The world calls this the holiday season, better known as its shopping season – or even worse the Christmas season --- where images of the babe in the manger are replaced by pictures of Santa Claus hauling in not just a bag full of toys for good boys and girls but also luxury cars tied up with a bow to demonstrate  our “love”.   

Even the Alleluia chorus has been co-opted.  You can hear it on tv selling Target red cards and telling you you can actually save if you’ll only spend more and more and more in their stores.

            What has happened to our season of Advent --- a time of preparation for the Christ child – a time to study and pray --- a time to realize the true meaning of Christmas in hope, peace, joy and love?

            We, too, far too often echo the words of so long ago.  “There is no room in the inn.”  It’s full of shopping, parties, and family gatherings, pushing and shoving to get that last great deal or the last parking space at the mall.

            I sound like a curmudgeon, the epitome of Scrooge, but that is not my intent.  The reality is that I love these weeks leading up to Christmas.  I throw my fair share of parties and laugh with my friends at theirs.  I even spend time shopping for just the right gifts. 

            But then at the end of the day, I light my advent candle and I remind myself of the Light of Love that came into our world of darkness.  I remind myself that no matter how hopeless life may seem that same love will strengthen us and give us the power to find our way through. 

In the end, true joy is not found in our grownup toys, but in believing this, knowing this, celebrating this, and that brings peace to my heart. It brings the assurance and faith that allows each of us to work for the peace, love, hope and joy Christ brings in our hearts and the hearts of others.

            So have yourself a merry, merry Christ-mas and spend some time spreading the real the meaning of that greeting to all.

            

It's All Grace

 “I wish I could be like you.  You seem so certain in your faith and you seem to know you are going to heaven when you die, but I just don’t think I’m good enough.   Why would God want someone like me?” 

Unfortunately, that’s not an unusual conversation for me to have with someone.  Too many people worry about whether God can love them --- even them --- enough to get them in to heaven.

Well, I have the answer for all your worries today.  The answer to life (and death) does not lie within ourselves.   Our insecurity about God’s love and grace will not go away if we only work harder, if we only go forward every time there is an altar call, if we only spread ourselves too thin with activity after activity,

Instead we find the answer to our salvation in God, in His grace and His gift of a love freely given, not earned. 

We can not save ourselves by our own good works.  We will never be “good enough.” Trying to earn your way into salvation is not only impossible, it is exhausting as well, and it only increases the thirsting of your soul for something more. 

Instead we need to rely on God and salvation which is freely given.  In Ephesians 2: 8-9 we read, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  

We have each been saved by Christ’s work upon the cross, and all that is required now is for us to relax into His gentle arms of love as we find new life in Him. 

Why go to church?

A husband and wife were sitting at the breakfast table finishing up their morning coffee.  “Well,” the wife said, it’s time we start getting ready for church.”  “I’m not going to church today,” her husband replied.  “In fact, I don’t think I’ll go to church ever again.” 

            “Why on earth not?” she said.  “Well, the people there just don’t like me very much and quite frankly, I’m not crazy about them.” 

            “Look, I’ll give you two good reasons you’ve got to go.  First, you’re 42 years old, not twelve, and second you’re the preacher.”

We all know someone who at some time has stopped going to church because they discovered the church, or the pastor, was not all they thought it should be, or we know someone who has said “I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.”

We want the church to be the one perfect place in the world where we can go and rest assured that everyone will always act with Christian love and perform their Christian duty.   We want the church to be our oasis in a sin weary world. 

We want our sanctuary to be a refuge from pettiness and bitterness, from jealousies and disputes over seemingly unimportant issues and we become disappointed when we discover that is not always the case.  We become disappointed the first time we discover that the church is made up of ordinary people who are sometimes – often times – sinful folk doing the best they can. 

            But why should we be surprised that church is not perfect?  After all, it’s made up of people who have already confessed by the simple act of being there that they are a sinful people who cannot make it on their own. 

Those of us who attend regularly throw ourselves on the mercy of God and what we find is God’s love.  We also find ourselves strengthened for our day to day lives with all their ups and downs.

            And just as we as individuals are saved only by grace so is the church saved only by grace.  We are saved by grace alone --- not by our good works.  That’s the good news.  The good news is that God loves the church in spite of all its imperfections and in spite of the many ways in which it fails to hear His calling. 

            So if you’d like to be a part of a group of people who do the best they can and regularly screw it up, if you’d like to be a part of a group who support each other in the struggle to be more loving, if you’d like to be a part of a group of people who have found God’s grace and mercy, then as Bob Barker would say, “Come on down!”  Join any church wherever you live and remember it's going to be as imperfect as you!