Sunday Sermon- Basically in Full :)

* Using the words of writer-preacher, Frederick Buechner, let us pray: “If preachers are to say anything that really matters to anyone including themselves, they must say it not just to the public part of us that considers interesting thoughts about the Gospel and how to preach it, but to the private, inner part too, to the part of us all where dreams come from … the inner part where thoughts mean less than images, elucidation less than evocation … [and where we’re] less concerned with matters of form and good taste than simply with telling the truth” … And so, God, as we embark about this time of dream-sharing together, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you. Amen.


What is so amazing about the Child!?!?

After all the office gatherings & parties with friends, after eating way too much food and/or baking a ton, after the kids return to college or school, depending (of course) on their age, after special worship services at church & singing “Silent Night” by candlelight, and (perhaps even) after the chaos of consumerism has finally slowed-- the vicious cycle where (perhaps) even the most thrifty among us were placated to consider—“Maybe I do need another television…” or rather when the realities of the current economic recession hit us hard—our pocketbooks not stretching as far this Christmas as before-- After all of this we return, in liturgical lingo, to today, to so-called ordinary time. …. Welcome.
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The evening of Dec 26th, I decided to go on a run, and I was excited to see that—laid out on the houses-- after (most) all the gifts and presents had been unwrapped and what for many of us passes as Christmas had come to a close, there the Christmas lights remained. The Susquehanna river-water was dark and squinting; you could barely make out where the ground or water began, and yet, from the Victorian houses along Front Street, I saw deep blues, reds, and silvers—a festival of light… Then I passed alongside the residential streets closer to the center of town, and I could still make out the distinct shape of Christmas inflatables & other white & colored lights: All suggesting that, post-Christmas, something of hope, strung in the lights still shining, remains: (Perhaps) reminding us that even in the monotony of a simple & ordinary winter day, God’s presence can intervene in exceptional ways. Hence, if we look and listen carefully, we realize that, like the shepherds, we too can walk "haphazard by starlight,”—thanks be to God’s grace---“into the kingdom of heaven." (Unkno)
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Yet--- When people think about the Church in North America, (I wager) that they don’t always think about such Kingdom-walking—In fact, it is more likely the Church’s deficiency and not its divinity—its possibility or amazingness- that first comes to mind. And I don’t say this as a criticism—it’s more an observation. And perhaps it’s a foundational one because it prompts questions like this: Amazing Grace—is this something related to us— something we are meant to actually experience?! And perhaps this too: Is there space for sacred adoration left in the Church? Walking by worshippers at a Hindu temple or a Muslim mosque— one quickly notices shoes poetically stacked alongside the front sidewalk & doorway— or listening to a charismatic speaker in the street and there, moved by the genuine glimmer in this soulful individual’s eye, one thinks: This person: They are truly alive; their very essence resounds with the stuff of life—that which beckons transformation! And then after such observations, people turn to the Church & wonder: Have we allowed, enabled, and envisioned such a space—where, as the Doctrine of Incarnation suggests, divinity comes down & actually affects the humanly realm.
Seminarians are just as susceptible to this disposition as anyone else: With our advent to ministry positions, we sometimes resign ourselves- as if its part of the contract—to (presumably) a life of too many, unnecessary meetings, of offering Sunday words to parishioners who may or may not really care, and we bolster the sacks of our dreams onto the lump-pile sum of the Institution of the Church- describing how we both love and hate it—and then, in the midst of all of this, risk forgetting the (perhaps truest) sacraments of Church: a) Transformation or--- Love so real that You are freed to be yourself… that as like Mary Oliver writes in her poem, “Luke”— that we are how “we long to be- that happy in the heaven of Earth—that wild, that loving” and b) the characteristic my words today center on: the deep, profound, and moving ability to care.

My intention today, with the anchoring help of our Scripture passages, is to reveal that, contrary to all our first observations and (perhaps) even contrary to ourselves, the Church has something incredibly important, revitalizing, revolutionary, and life-changing to claim— It’s simple really… So simple that I struggle to put it into words—struggle because just spitting out the words seems too coarse, too besides the point, too simple, and yet equally so strikingly necessary. Our amazing grace is Jesus Christ--- the Christmas child—who gives us reason to hope not in abstract or distant ways but in real, beautiful, the most empowering, right-here-and-now ways!!! – --All this bringing truth to bear on the words that “If we look and listen carefully, we realize that, like the shepherds, we too can walk ‘haphazard by starlight” and notice that, after the Christmas presents have been unwrapped, the Christmas lights remain- and thanks be to God’s grace—we can walk into the kingdom of heaven.’”
This gives us reason to hope. This gives us reason to really Care!

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My sermon is a bit like a patchwork quilt: Annunciation of Mary using a poem form Denise Levertov—From there we will consider what our Galatians and then Isaiah passage provide in the context of Luke 2—and then look specifically at the, to use poetic license with the term, annunciation or divine revelation we see, almost incarnational, between Christ & Anna and Simeon--- focusing on the significance of God coming into the world as a child and Anna & Simeon’s response to care—even when the odds seem against them.

‘Hail, space for the uncontained God’
We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.
But we are told of meek obedience.
No one mentions
courage. …

Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
…
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.
______________________________
She had been a child who played, ate, slept
like any other child – but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.
Called to a destiny more momentous
…
she did not quail,
only asked
a simple, 'How can this be?'
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel’s reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:
to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power –
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.
Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love –
but who was God.

Hail Space for the Uncontained God. …. The words I just spoke were written in the 21st century by poet Denise Levertov—and one could say it was her own response to Parrish’s question to us last week: What is it about the Annunciation- Mary’s encounter with the angel & then ultimately with the Spirit of God- that so enchants—that we so remember Mary’s Magnificant prayer of praise that followed?—that something inside us is struck—and we care.
In today’s sermon, we find ourselves in the same Gospel, that of Luke, the devoted chronicler & supposed physician, a Gospel often said to be for a Gentile audience and noted for its unequivocable presentation of Christianity as an international religion (or, more simply, not just a religion of and for the Jews); the Gospel of Luke also, perhaps more than any other Gospel, holds a special perception for outsiders; in the case of today’s story, we recognize the striking role of women and the elderly.
The Scripture begins, and we see something unique: the Holy Family is seen as distinctly Law-abiding Jews. Also, the setting is the Temple- a significantly Jewish locale, and Joseph, Mary, and the baby Christ are there for the time of purification, according to the Law of Moses- as our New Revised Translation tells us. This “Law of Moses” is detailed in Exodus 13:2 &12 & describes the consecration of the firstborn to the Lord. This reality of the Holy Family as Law-abiding is also mentioned in our Pauline lectionary reading today: Paul tells us, in distinctly authentic Paul-speak, that God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law…. However, here is where the magic happens: the result of Christ’s identification with the Law is that the Christ-child then re-translates it. Instead of God’s favor resting with one nation or ethnic identity, as Paul describes and the Letter of Galatians is particularly well-known for describing: God’s grace is with and for all people!
Inclusiveness!!!!
Also, Christ is called Son of God--- a poetic image of closeness--- so close—revealing the poetry of the Incarnation & Levertov’s words: to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power –
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.
Abba, Father--- Daddy----
In summary-In today’s text from Galatians, we see, with Paul’s use of children—we move from slaves to heirs! The word slave is hard to stomach—Its cruel history in our context and the reality of its presence even now in other contexts doesn’t lighten the load. And yet, when we see that, in this case, it is the term child lifted up as its contrast—one might begin to wonder: (Title & subject of importance) What is so amazing about the child!?! (Repeat)
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As I was preparing my sermon, I came across some other insights about our passage in Luke that harken to our other lectionary passage today- the reading from Isaiah—and related discussion of Jewish salvation history.

1. Scholars observes that the neuter ‘soterion’ (salvation) which is used four times in the New Testament (3 of them in Luke-Acts) is found throughout Isaiah 40-66. Our Isaiah passage today comes from this section of text, specifically chapters 56-66, also known (sometimes) as 3rd Isaiah- believed to have written after the return to the Promised Land. Like Second Isaiah, this part speaks of the hope that God will soon restore Jerusalem to its former glory and make a new home for all peoples. Today’s passage is unique: Celebrative- There is wedding imagery! Agricultural!

My whole being? SOUL

One is drawn to imagine the prophecy as evoking one to action- to remembrance— the potential of the promise! See what our God has done! God can do this for all of us. God answers God’s promises! --- Hence, we can hope. We can care!

This theme of promise-fulfillment is also manifest in Luke 2.
This is the second Temple scene in the Infancy Narrative of Luke. The temple figures prominently in Luke-Acts. It opens and closes the Gospel. By the time Luke composes his gospel though, the temple in Jerusalem stands in ruins after the crushing defeat of the revolution under Titus. **** Hence, Luke’s audience would (likely) have been aware that the temple was no longer the institution it was just decades before. (This makes the theme of promise and fulfillment all the more palpable—!)
It is in this context that two old folks happen upon a couple carrying a child. Luke describes Simeon and Anna in terms that he will use of the early Christian movement: Simeon is “righteous and devout and the Holy Spirit is upon him.” Anna is a prophetess and a long time widow. Both await the fulfillment of the promise to redeem Israel.
In Simeon and Anna, two separate encounters with the Christ child, we begin to glimpse that there is something different—something “amazing” about.! And there is something different about this child! From the text, we gain a few things:
• From Simeon’s renown words that form the famous “Nunc Dimittis”- we hear that this child, echoing Paul’s theology, is salvation- “prepared in the presence for all peoples”—to enlighten the Gentile as well as for the glory of Israel.
• This child will cause the inner thoughts of many to be revealed.
* And uniquely, from Anna’s encounter with the child, the child becomes the speaking topic to those “looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Potent Stuff.
And in thinking that it would be a small child to symbolize all of these things, our projections and biases about power are challenged and reorganized (A Lord of Hosts (armies) who is a Prince of Peace). Somehow, God has a different idea—and instead, it is a child and not the mighty warrior that functions as a messenger of greater truth…

In thinking more about this personally, I also thought about children and what is unique about them. A few things came to mind:
1) Like Paul’s theology, they don’t see differences between people as aptly as adults often do. ** Ghanaian children (village)
2) They also tend to believe & care deeply. (Bowling alley- Marin)- thank you! In this vein, they are apt to believe that just because something is a certain way-- doesn't mean it should be
3) They also believe in what we adults often call “fairy tales.”—
In thinking about fairy tales & the Gospel:
The whole truth, says Buechner, has to be told “as a kind of fairy tale where everybody is disguised as something he [sic!] is not and only at the end are all disguises stripped away so that all are revealed for what they truly are ."

We see the Gospel as fairy tale in Luke 2---

Old Anna & Simeon- prophets who SEE announce the truth..


Think about it—in our context where it is often the elderly who are too quickly seen as disposable, where commercial advertisers focus upon the 20-40 year old audience—it is not some young beautiful man …




What is their unique response to their own annunciations or divine interventions? (Simeon uniquely from the Holy spirit and Anna through her prayers)

They hope. They are ready. They are there—seemingly even despite the pain of all the waiting (pain—this child will know—Mary too).



Back to our context! Why should we care??!?!

TV: News (1 think I don’t like)

I want us to stop for just one moment, and I want you to remember a moment of grace in your life: (When like Simeon & Anna you saw the sacred!)

Consider these words:
The absence of exciting and unusual stories about Jesus younger years does suggest one thing about this period. It was probably quite normal. It would be quite typical of the life of any young person growing up in that time. After the dramatic events surrounding his birth, Luke tells us that Jesus and his family “returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth”. They withdrew into the humdrum obscurity of daily life in their rural village, into the customary routines of daily life, the rhythms that marked the lives of friends and neighbors and relations. They shared the struggles and celebrations of their own particular time and place as much as the other families of Nazareth and the rest of Galilee. We can be sure if any unusual events had been associated with the family of Joseph the carpenter, the people of Nazareth would not have been so perplexed by the sudden emergence of Jesus as a powerful preacher and wonder some years later. Jesus and his family would be immersed in the experiences common to the people he met every day. The sheer ordinariness of Jesus youth, such as it could be summed up in a single sentence, was undoubtedly the best preparation for his extraordinary ministry, and precisely because he had come forth from the community to which he was sent.

*** The incarnation affirms that the most ordinary dimension of life can be the place of God's extraordinary saving activity. Recognizing this, suggests Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is the secret to living the entire liturgical year with a sense of God's presence. In our most mundane circumstances, "here we are daily, not necessarily attractive and saintly people, along with other not very attractive and saintly people, managing the plain prose of our everyday service, deciding daily to recognize the prose of ourselves and each other as material for something unimaginably greater — the Kingdom of God, the glory of the saints, reconciliation and wonder" (Where God Happens, 2005).

We have heard similar advice from Simeon & Anna this morning. If I could re-phrase it for myself, I would say something like this:

There’s something truly amazing about God revealing God-self in a child-- IT speaks of a God whose love is different, deeper, and truer…


Even when life feels so ordinary, there is reason to hope.

* Like Simeon spotting the child--- Prodigal Son parable in Luke where God like the Father—reveals to us that we are all God’s beloved Children. God’s love for us is deep. This is what the Church has the incredible privilege to claim & to celebrate. Let us proceed with courage. Let us be Kingdom-Walkers.

The Christmas lights are still shining for a reason.


Let us conclude in prayer & this time of mutual dream-sharing with the words of a man who needed hope, Nelson Mandela: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”