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.

John the Baptist .....who is this guy?

We welcome Bishop John Macholz today as he reflects on John the Baptist and his appearance in Luke's story.  Luke 3.1-6 John has always been an odd ball character to me. If one reads through the first chapter of Luke and the song of Zechariah which brings it to a close, one discovers that after Zech is done singing, John disappears into the wilderness and  "he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel." Was he alone? What was he doing? Did he have any physical contact with anyone? How many years did he spend there? All questions without answers.  But then he arrives on the scene, in the same wilderness, and begins to proclaim a baptism of repentance; a turning away from sin and turning toward God. We'll hear more from him next week and his language will become a bit, well, abrasive and more personally focused. And therein lies my concern, he seems to be speaking directly to me. In fact, he seems to know me a bit too well! Maybe he doesn't know my sins specifically, but it's pretty clear that he knows I'm a sinner and in that, I am convicted.  When I was growing up, Advent was purple in color and penitential in nature. Sometime, long ago, it seems, it shifted in color and somewhat in nature but not completely; there is still that call to repentance that reminds me who I am and what I have done as John calls me back to the recognition that I am, plain and simple, a sinner in need of changing. And then I realize I cannot do that alone, by myself, left to my own devices.  Which is when the hope and promise of the season arise and arrive as I realize that I can't do it on my own but, the Dawn from on High that breaks upon us can! John is preparing a way for the Coming One by preparing our hearts to recognize that we are desperately in need of this One promised long, long ago. And in that moment of recognition, forgiveness, mercy and hope flood into the darkness of life and bring with it the brightness of a new light and the hope we so desperately need.  John is still a bit odd in my mind but then again, it often takes 'odd' to get me to recognize what is right before my eyes-the need for this Savior and his love and life. Prepare the way!  Many thanks to our guest blogger Pr. John Macholz

Intrusive hope.............

That's what one preacher called it.  Intrusive hope.  Breaking into this world, punching through the barriers we erect, God fills us with hope.  That hope is Jesus.  That hope is life changing.  That hope points us to another kingdom.

In America we are in the midst of an election cycle, one that feels interminable since it's a year before we will vote for any presidential candidates.  Each candidate has a plan to fix our problems:  unemployment or the educational system; immigration or terrorism; foreign policy or military spending; food stamps and same gender marriage.  Each candidate describes the world they hope to build for us.

                            That's not the kind of hope we are talking about.

                            That's not the kingdom we are talking about.

                            That's not the life we are hoping for.

The kingdom of God is not a perfect version of the life we already know.  It is not our current life without the traffic jams or unexpected drops in the financial markets.  The kingdom of God is GOD'S kingdom, and it operates on entirely different set of values, different processes, different understandings of 'success' and 'peace.'

In Advent we watch and wait for the coming of God's kingdom where reconciliation, healing, forgiveness, mercy, open invitation and abundant life are the building blocks of life together and life eternal.  It has no resemblance to the world in which we currently live and there are no simple fixes that will correct this world and make it look like that one. It took a cross, a tomb, and a resurrection to open the way to God's new life.

God breaks in.  Crashes through the barriers of time and space and comes to us in Jesus and invites us to a different journey and a different life.  The perfection we encounter in God invites us into something bigger than we now know.

Jesus is our HOPE and our hope is for his kingdom to come.  Come Lord, Jesus.

Dear Lord, remind us of the radical gift of love that is you and nowhere else.

Gratitude leads to hope..........

The great gatherings of friends and families around tables filled with everything from elaborate oyster stuffings to simple mac and cheese is the perfect lead in to the church's great season of HOPE, the season of Advent. The American thanksgiving always falls the Thursday before the first of four weeks of Advent, our season of waiting in hope.

Gratitude naturally moves us towards HOPE. When you live in gratitude your contentment leans towards joyous anticipation.  We can't imagine what new thing we could possibly be grateful for tomorrow.

Giving thanks for gifts large and small shifts the center of our day and when practiced regularly, can shift the center of our lives.  For what do I give thanks today?  I wonder 'For what will I give thanks tomorrow?'  It is the perfect preparation for this time of waiting and watching, for nothing prepares you for the HOPE that is to come better than giving thanks for the gifts you have already received.

This is what Advent is all about.  Advent is a time when we watch and wait for the coming of the Christ, our Jesus, God's son.  We believe that Jesus came once and he will come again, and so we watch and wait....in HOPE and with thanksgiving.

HOPE is at the center of our lives as people of faith.  We put our hope in the Jesus who loves us, and claims us, and invites us into a different life.  We live in HOPE for the day when the kingdom of God reigns everywhere and peace is known by all.

The HOPE of Advent is cosmic - nothing short of a changed world will suffice....and nothing short of Jesus will bring it into being.

Dear Lord, when the world presses in and the demands overwhelm, help us focus on you.  Amen