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.

Come holy Jesus

Infant holy, infant lowly

for his bed a cattle stall;

Oxen lowing, little knowing

Christ the child is Lord of all.

Swiftly winging, angels singing, 

bells are ringing, tidings bringing;

Christ the child is Lord of all!

Christ the child is Lord of all!   

ELW 276

That is the story we prepare to hear again.....that the infant born in a cattle stall is a holy infant.  God's unique incarnation.  The Anointed One.  Lord of all Creation.  Prince of Peace.  

The beginning of the end.

The end of sorrow and  hate.  The end of fear and longing.  The end of oppression and racism.  The end of all that deals death and crushes God's beloved creation.

Tonight we tell again the story of the moment when the world shifted and 'all that is' began the journey to 'all that it will be.'  It is a tortuous journey that saps our energy.  We struggle to keep Jesus in sight as we wrestle with fear and death and hatred and our own sinful behavior. Each day we try to remember that our hope needs to be in Jesus because nothing else in all creation can save us. 

Tonight we will hear how the hope of the world has been born.  

Don't keep that good news to yourself.  All creation needs the gift of life that Jesus brings.  Let the whole creation cry, "Come, holy Jesus."

A blessed Christmas to you all.  

Frozen in time.....

The Advent of our Lord is fast upon us......or so those among us who speak in liturgical language might claim.  It's December 21st and the final frenzy of preparation is in progress.  The gift list is being double checked to make sure everyone is 'covered' and the gift wrapping is in full swing in some hidden locale within the house, and some cookies are being baked for that holiday exchange at the office, and the grocery list is being assembled for the big shop that precedes the big cook....well, I guess I don't have to tell you, right?

Meanwhile, church secretaries are finalizing bulletins, altar guilds are arranging poinsettias, the cleaning crews are dusting and the pastor is making last minute visits, writing a sermon, confirming all the assistants and ordering pizza for Christmas Eve (since she never cooks on that night!).

For many the very busy - ness of it all is wonderful. Hanging the stockings, pulling out the fancy clothes for Christmas Eve services, sneaking one more cookie.  All this frenzy - and at the center of it all is a frozen ceramic Mary and Joseph, some straw, a few sheep and maybe a donkey, all gathered in a western version of a stable.  The same Mary and Joseph that have been stoically stuck in that stable for your lifetime....and the lifetime before them.

Stuck.  Frozen in time.  In fact, for many, Mary and Joseph have simply become the background wallpaper that provides the excuse for immersing ourselves in family tradition and the gathering of friends.

The outrageous claim that the love of God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus, born 2000 years ago, and yet alive today among and between us......is lost.  Gone.  Frozen into a dilute yet beautifully rendered tableau of mother and child, with Joseph thrown in for good measure.

"Jesus is the reason for the season"  Yes.  But I think Jesus is no longer at the center of the season or the celebration.  Jesus is frozen to a time long, long ago in a place far, far away. Can it be that the only Jesus you know is the ceramic one that is pulled out and dusted off for Christmas Eve services?

If so, then maybe next week, when the hoopla has died down, you might want to stop by for a chat, to talk about the world that is killing you and the Savior who waits to give you life.  There are no gifts needed, no special decorations or fancy cookies.

I will spring for the coffee at Panera though because, you don't want to miss knowing this living, life giving Jesus.  You don't want to miss out on the hope that he brings into our lives.  You don't want to navigate one more year on your own when the Prince of Peace is waiting to walk with you.

Let's defrost the baby Jesus and allow him to work in our lives.  It's not too late; it's the best present you'll receive.  Come, holy Jesus.

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.

And it's still Christmas

Who can measure the energy unleased by children tearing through wrapping paper on Christmas morn?  After that it gets harder, navigating a special meal and sometimes too difficult relatives. It either goes by quickly or not quickly enough.

And yet it is still Christmas.

In Syria, folks are very busy killing one another.  In war zones, children suffer the most because they have the least power to improve their situation or protect themselves.  They cannot persuade government officials to open borders for them so they can seek refuge.  Their young bodies cannot withstand the physical abuse that comes with war.  One 3 year old Syrian boy was reported to have said, just before he died,  'When I see God I'm going to tell him about this.'

And yet it is still Christmas.

Terrorism has come to Russia as a train station and a trolley car are targeted and lives are lost.  In our major cities young men are targeting each other for purposes unknown.  The long term unemployed are about to lose their benefits and food stamp recipients receive less food.

And yet it is still Christmas.

In the gospel of Matthew, just verses after the birth of the Christ child, King Herod is so terrified of the coming king (Jesus), so jealous and protective of his own power, so frightened of a world where he was not the Top Dog, that he ordered all the boys under the age of 2 in the town of Bethlehem killed.  The church calls this event The Slaughter (or Martyrdom) of the Innocents.   It probably didn't actually happen that way (although Herod was ruthless enough to have ordered it)....it probably isn't fact....but we all know that it is true.

And yet it is still Christmas.

Jesus did not come to toss some glitter on a broken and wounded world.  Jesus came to stand in the midst of the war and hunger and pain and dysfunctional families to shine a light on a better way of being with and for one another.  Jesus came to heal, to bind up, and to make whole.  He makes possible the impossible: that we would lives of grace and mercy. and he did that through forgiveness.  Jesus is the gift of Christmas, the one who rules with mercy and grace.

It is not easy to tackle the conundrum of a world torn apart with violence and crushed with poverty and the soft glow of our Christmas remembrances, but that is exactly what Jesus calls us to do.  The gift of the Christ child only has meaning when it has meaning in the harsh light of the world in which we live.