the long darkness.....

That point where the light one has always known 

and the skills one has spent a lifetime perfecting 

and the faith whose previous challenges had been but whispers of the unseen future is where hope is found. 

In that place, no logic prevails; no meaning echoes from the depths. You stand deep in a tunnel of darkness without plans or schemes or even wild magical thinking; only your breath remains. 

 Quietly in, quietly out.

Hope is tucked in the secret chambers of our hearts, overlaid with fear or sorrow, buffeted by longing and loss. It is the flicker of ‘maybe’ the faint glow of ‘perhaps’. Under all the knowing we have gathered through the years, a child’s voice forms the words, ‘Please don’t forget me’. Faint promises of love are all that is left. 

 except for the waiting.

In the long darkness, hope stands solitary guard. Fragile. Precious. In the dark, hope carries us just as much as we cling to hope in order to move forward. 

So we remember the others.  Jesus’ mother ponders in her heart. Martha’s sister kneels, pouring out her love in fragrant anointing. Four men carry their paralyzed friend through a roof to get to the feet of Jesus. A dying thief seeks whatever Jesus can bring.

Hope. Trust. Faith.

We wait and we watch......in hope.

A blessed Advent to all.

Lots of questions in pumpkin season*

In America, October is pumpkin season; November is Thanksgiving season and everything after that is the annual holiday ramp up.  From the moment the turkey comes out of the oven, the pace of life quickens, schedules get over booked, and The Holidays are upon us.  We are bombarded with controversies about Starbucks paper cups, public nativity scenes, and endless commercials.  It is sensory overload season.

It is not so in the Church.  We spend October getting Jesus ready for Holy Week, which we will put off until April in 2019.  November is about end times.  December is all about waiting and watching. The order of the Church's calendar does not sync up with greater American society.  Sigh.

In truth, the Church spends December preparing for Christmas, a holiday ( holy day) that America begins celebrating as soon as the turkey roaster is back on the shelf. As the final strains of Silent Night fade away, the Church begins 12 days celebrating the new promise which is the birth of the Christ Child, while the rest of the culture is wrapping up a month of insanity and begins putting it all back in storage the moment the last bit of wrapping paper is recycled.  January 6th when the Wise Men arrive at the stable, most nativity sets have been packed away. Then the Church begins to celebrate the bright light of Christ while the rest of the northern world settles in for a long winter nap and the football playoffs. We are out of sync.

Just to be clear, I don't have any other suggestions.  It simply leaves me as a preacher with parts of scripture which should be accompanied by dramatic music and a sense of danger ahead, as folks are settling in for pumpkins, turkey, family and football.  Even as I write this, I know that whatever message comes to us through the Spirit is in competition with the ever-present messages that come from the World.  Yet for me, it is October and November which seem so terribly out of step with everything else.

Just possibly the problem isn't the dissonance of October and November, but the seeming lack of tension throughout the rest of the year. Of course the message of Christ is out of sync with the world.  Dramatically out of sync.  This makes these last stories so very important, for they describe the struggle that is the act of following Jesus.  They speak about wealth and sacrifice.  They speak about glory in servanthood and ruling from the feet up.  They speak about total trust in a higher power.  

In these last weeks Jesus asks some hard questions and would-be disciples are making some difficult discoveries about this path called discipleship.  Perhaps they are exactly the stories we need to hear as the world powers up to claim all our attention, our loyalty and, if possible, our money.  Perhaps I have been looking at this all wrong.  Hmmmm.  

          What does it take for us to confront our own bondage to the world's mindset?  

           What portion of scripture can better highlight the dissonance between God's thinking 
           and our cultural practices?  

           Is this the year we radically re-orient and focus on the Divine Message, with supporting 
           roles played by culture and tradition? 

Lots of questions this morning to consider with your pumpkin spice latte. What are your answers?

 *** 64 is the countdown from Oct. 22nd when I wrote this.  Sigh.

Just a little bit of help.........

Just a little bit of help, please.

That's what most of us are looking for in our lives, and boy do I get it.  Some days I ask the universe, "Can't you make it just a little bit easier?"  "Does everything have to be so hard?"  even though we both know that when the trials of my life are compared to millions of others, mine is a ridiculous request.

But life can be wearing, exhausting, and some days it feels like every single force of both nature and the unnatural are conspiring against us.  On really bad days, I am certain that this is true.  Some days I simply don't want to be an adult.  I want someone else to be responsible, someone else to care for me; someone else to fix it.

For many, this role is given to God.  God is the great fixer, the one who will care for us, the great adult in the sky who makes our lives here on earth easier.  God as the cosmic handyman.  This is certainly a starting point for a relationship with God, but in fact, it is a small picture of the God of all creation, the source of all life.  In the end, it isn't a relationship at all since once our troubles have eased, once the crisis is over, once we gotten enough sleep, we move on from conversation with God and leave God behind.

It's a good thing that God doesn't treat us the same way.  God never leaves us behind.  God never says, "One and done" and moves on to love and care for and heal someone else.  God's eye is always on us, and God looks on us in love.  Life is God's ultimate goal: abundant life for all, even the ones who only check in when the going gets rough.

So God sends Jesus.  Once in a manger in Bethlehem.  Once at a time we cannot foretell.  God breaks into our world with a message about another kingdom, where life is gift and joy.  Jesus comes - no, that's not right - Jesus crashes into all the barriers we create, all the protections we put in place, all the power sources we accumulate in order to open a way to a new life, a new kingdom.

Boom!  Racial differences don't matter.  Boom!  Genders are equal.  Boom!  Old and young are valued the same.  Boom! Those who look different from us are treated exactly the same as us.  Boom! The poor are loved just like the wealthy.  Boom!  Here is forgiveness.  Now go and live.

Boom! Jesus crashes in.  Once in a manger.  Once at a time we cannot foretell.......but for which we can hope.  This is the HOPE of Advent, that longing and watching and waiting for the fullness of all time when the final curtain is raised and Jesus reigns.

We live out our lives in HOPE.  Come Lord Jesus.

Dear Lord, I want to live in your kingdom.  Help me walk with you daily.  Amen

Saint Nicholas....the original

Gold  coins, candy and oranges are all a part  of this story, the story  of a faithful believer who was filled with love.

Long ago, in the 4th century, lived a man who treasured the love he had come to know in Jesus. Love filled his heart; it's  the only  explanation  I have for  the great  compassion and  generosity  that filled  his days.

As the story  goes, Nicholas worried about the children  who had nothing.  There were 3 daughters of a poor man who couldn’t  marry because  they  lacked  dowries.  One night Nicholas slipped some gold coins into their shoes as they  slept.  That  is how  it all started.

Once a year children would  then  be sure to leave their shoes by the  hearth so Nicholas  might come and leave a coin or two. After Nicholas  died the practice  continued  although some substituted  gold wrapped candy and eventually an orange.

Nicholas was made a Bishop of the early church and was a participant in the council that gave us the Nicene Creed.  He was  called a saint long before Rome had  an application process and December  6th is his feast  day.  Especially in Germany, children observe his day by shining their shoes and leaving them out overnignt  to receive his small gift.

Once you  see pictures of him in his bishop's outfit it is easy to see how a little imagination and a lot of retailing  resulted  in the Santa Claus (Saint Claus) we know today.

For me, the heart  of the story  is the heart of the  man which was filled with the  love  of Jesus for  others.   As we who are believers today work to shape the faith  of our children and grow in faith ourselves, St. Nicholas offers us an opportunity  to  re-focus our Decembers.  With Jesus at the center, and focusing on his love for us, we can use this time to generously   reach out to strangers.

The gift of the season is the Christ child; may we follow  him as we gift others.