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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Monday, December 30, 2013

Turning Around

"It seems like this is how it's going to be this year, always turning around midstep, midstream."
- River Jordan 

   I love lists. I have to do lists. Lists of books to read. Lists of people to call. I have a calendar that very tightly fits in my schedule for the day. But as I've been reading River Jordan's Praying for Strangers: An Adventure of the Human Spirit, I am left wondering how often my lists gets in the way, how often my calendar keeps me from paying attention to what I'm really supposed to be doing. How often my calendar blocks out God's plan.

  Part of being attentive to God's movement is a willingness to change plans. A willingness to turn around and go a different direction. And that is difficult for me. In the back of my head, even when my schedule gets thrown off by a few minutes I am chastising myself, saying that I'm going to be late for an appointment or not get everything done that day. 

   I'm starting to see that what I feel the need to get done, and what God wants me to do, often don't match up. So part of the adventure of life is setting aside my calendar and to-do list, in order to live a life fully present to God. No matter what the cost. 

Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Sparkle Box - Matt 5:14, 25:40

Reading of The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie

The gifts have been unwrapped. Food has been shared. Family has been seen. But our Christmas celebration is not complete. In fact, its just beginning. 
For the Christian Church, Christmas celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. Over the past four weeks our sermon series has been focusing on how Christmas isn’t our Birthday, its Jesus’. 
When I was little, my brothers and I used to get small presents from some of our family on each others birthday. Perhaps these well-intentioned family members were worried there would be tears over others receiving gifts, but the end result was not really learning, I think, that it wasn’t our birthday. Not learning that all holidays weren’t about us. Its easy to forget around Christmas that we are celebrating Christ’s birthday, not ours; its not all about us. Yet, too many of us still ask, “is that present for me?” even on Christ’s special day. 
The story we read this morning begs the question - what type of gifts would Jesus want for his birthday? Would he want the new train that Sam so badly wanted for Christmas? Or does he desire something more? This morning scripture tells us that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Christ. Christ’s gifts include things that we do for others, others who truly are in need. Things that shine Christ’s light to the world.
Friends, we need to be taught to shine forth for Christ. n the book Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Bring Lasting Faith in Your Kids, the author tells the story of a mother who had always bought groceries for people she saw in need. Anyone who would ask her for change, she would automatically go and get a bag of groceries. One day her 17 year old daughter came home and shared that she had just bought a bag of groceries for a homeless man. The mom held her breath, waiting for her daughter to ask for money for the groceries, but she didn’t. The daughter had learned to share her love of Christ in similar ways that her parents do. The Sparkle Box is the same idea, teaching our families that sharing their faith is of utmost importance. 
Think about some of the things that you received this Christmas under the tree. How did they share the light of Christ? What did it teach you or others about the faith? Now think of some of the things you did for others - how did they share Christ with the world? One of the sayings of the modern church is that Christ has no hands and feet but ours. Christmas is our time to use our hands and feet to bless Christ’s holy name!
I’m a big fan of birthdays. There is something amazing about celebrating the life of another person. Thinking about how they impacted you. How God blessed the world through their presence. To honor that person in a special way. Yet, all too often we fly right over Christ’s birthday without really dwelling on how he has blessed or honoring him. 
So I want us to take the opportunity in worship this morning to do just that. To give Christ our gifts, our offerings, of love and service. You have been asked during the Advent season to write down ways you and your family have reached out to others. Now is our chance to open those gifts together and present them to the Lord. 

Reading of the Sparkle Box 


Brothers and sisters, our Sparkle Box gift to Jesus is not just to be contained to his birthday. It is to be shared throughout the year. As we prepare to enter 2014 I would encourage you to find a small box or jar in your home and every time you serve someone put a slip of paper in the container. Read through them from time to time and open them on Christmas Day, remembering that these are your gifts, your very best, that you are giving to the Lord to shine forth his glory! Amen!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

By a Different Road - Matthew 2: 2-12

We have spent our last several weeks together talking about a different way to celebrate Christmas. Celebrating a Christmas that Jesus would like us celebrating - one that isn’t necessarily marked by eating the most or having the largest amount of gifts under the tree, but by living a faithful life.
Tonight we conclude this discussion by looking at the Magis. The three kings who traveled to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. Generally the Magi aren’t talked about on Christmas Eve. The sermon focuses on the Angel chorus singing and the Shepherds. And for a good reason as a few weeks later, on Epiphany, we celebrate the Magi. But tonight I want to discuss these wise men who gave up years of their lives to follow a star. 
The Magi, or Wise Men, as we called them, were not followers of the same God of the Israelites. The God of the unexpected who asked a young teenage girl to take a risk and carry the Christ child. Asked a man to do the unthinkable and marry a woman who was pregnant with a child who wasn’t his. The God who had the baby who was God with Us born in the most distressing of places under trying circumstances. No, these men were more then likely worshipers of the Stars from an Eastern Religion. They may not have even known about the God of Israel. And yet, the God of the unexpected worked a miracle through means they would understand, calling them to follow a star and worship what it lead them too.
These seekers took a huge risk. While we often have the Magi in our nativity sets and Christmas Pageants, they more then likely arrived 2 years after the birth of Christ. Can you imagine the physical and emotional cost of a two year journey? The price of this adventure they took without knowing where they would end up or what they would find? 
The magi have much to teach us, not only in their seeking, responding, and risk taking, but in their actions. When they arrived, two years later, what was the first thing scripture tells us they did? Bowed down and worship the child. We too are called to submit ourselves to God. Submit is a word that often gets a bad reputation, mostly by people who have twisted its meaning for their own gain. To submit is to say to God that we, in fact, don’t have the authority and control over our own lives that we pretend to. When we bow down and confess that Jesus is Lord, we have to back it up with our actions. The wise men could have just said, “Oh look a star unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Let’s let someone else follow it and see where it leads”. But they didn’t. They followed the star for themselves. And when they found the child at the end of the journey, they worshiped him. Adored him. Exalted him. Do we do the same? Do we adore, worship, and exalt the Lord of our life with every aspect of our lives? Our finances? Our values? Our lifestyle? Or do we simply find the Christ child and worship him momentarily before getting back to our lives, as scheduled?
Next we are told the men opened their treasures. They gave their very best to the child. They showered him with costly gifts of gold, frankincense, and mirh. These are gifts from God for the God child. We too have gifts from God. In fact, everything you own is a gift from God. We like to tell ourselves that we worked hard to earn what we have, but really those good things we have are because of God. They would not exist without Him. And we are called to offer our very best. To open up our treasure chests and to give up the things we value most. Listen to me when I say its not about the money, its about the value we place on our things. Its about holding things lightly and asking God to use them for the Glory of the Heavenly Kingdom. When we care more about our things then the Christ child, we have a problem. Everyday miracles can take place when we refocus our priorities and realize that what we have is from God and should be returned to God for the work of the Kingdom.
Lastly, at the conclusion of the narrative’s story about the wise men we are told that they went home by a different road. I don’t know about you, but I get lost very easily. Even with the GPS. It is not uncommon if you are traveling with me to hear “recalculating” rather often. But if I can get to a destination without any wrong turns, I know I can back track and find my way home. But the wise men, at the end of this two year journey, with two more years of travel ahead of them to get home, are told by God that isn’t an option. They need to give up their plans, abandon the way that was familiar to them that they traveled before, and return home by a different road.
How many of you have had the perfect plan in your mind that didn’t turn out perfectly? Or had to change directions mid-course? Change jobs? Change locations? Change attitudes? Change is hard, because it requires us to set aside our wants and desires for something better. In our Bible Studies at the church we often talk about unanswered prayers, and how they are perhaps the best answers, when God doesn’t give us what we want, but something better instead. But this requires trusting God’s ways are best, and traveling down the road He lays before us.
We are almost at the end of the calendar year. In a few days it will be 2014, a time when folks make resolutions about wanting to make themselves be different, be better. What if as we approach that time we let the actions of the wise men set our priorities and goals? What if we commit to worshiping God, giving him our very best, and following whatever path he may head us on? What if we let the lessons of Advent and Christmas shape the way we lives our lives the entire year - focusing our priorities not on ourselves, but on the love of Jesus Christ? 
How will the love of Christ dictate how you spend your time with your family? Serving God? And spending time with God after you leave this place? How will the message of Christ’s birth transform how you spend your money in the coming year and how tightly you cling to your resources? When people meet you do they know by the way you live your life what your values are, and is Christ chief among those values?

Friends, we are called to worship Christ, follow God, and give Christ our best year round, not just during the holiday season. As you leave this evening, let the love and light of Christ sink into you and transform you in a way that can be seen through the light we shine forth and the love we show others. Take a risk like the wise men. Seek out the Lord. And follow God. Amen. 

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Living in the Light - John 1: 1-5

There is something about slowing down, lighting a candle, and watching its flame flicker in the darkness that is seemingly beyond words. Over the years, some people have tried to capture what candle light means to them. One author declared, “the very act of lighting a candle is a prayer” - a prayer that expresses what our voice and thoughts cannot. Another said, “we light a candle to remember that God is here with us.”
And is that not what we have gathered together this evening to proclaim - Emmanuel - God with us. While the Gospel of John doesn’t give a traditional version of the accounts surrounding Jesus’ birth, it is of upmost importance to our spiritual lives. John doesn’t begin his Gospel account with the earthly things - barns, birth, and babies. He begins it with the Heavenly things - the Word and Light. John doesn’t care to trace Jesus’ genealogy or to speak about his Earthly parents. Instead he reminds us of God-incarnate, God who has been with us before time even began. God who choose to leave behind his power and prestige in order to bring up hope and life eternal.
John connects his audience to the beginning, to Genesis, where we read that “in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” But he goes even further, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Word of God and God the Word are the totality of the beginning and the end. The Alpha and the Omega. God always was and always will be.
Yet for one moment in human history, God came to humanity in the form of Jesus Christ, his son who was God and was with God from the very beginning. Its almost too much for our human minds to grasp, so John speaks to our hearts through poetry. God is described as the Word, the logos, that entered into human history and time and acted on our behalf. Who came to save us in the most unexpected of ways. He came to draw us near. To bring us life.
Christ alone is life-giving. He breaths life and brings about light. When there is only darkness, physically or spiritually, there is chaos. We cannot see. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know who we are. And even though the forces of darkness and chaos are among us today, we have a hope in the Light of Christ. 
A light that we remember this evening. A hope that Christ will never be overcome by the darkness. A light that we live in the midst of each and every day. We are drawn to the light of Christ as we see the light of candles. With every dance of the flame we once again renew our yearning to find life and hope and strength in Christ, the Word became flesh. We invite Christ into the chaos of our lives and ask him to ignite our hearts for him. 
As we look around at flickering candles we remember that we did not create the light, we simply shine it for others. We simply wait together this evening, in hopeful expectation for the one who spoke light and life into being. The same one who came to dwell among us as the Light of the World. The same one who is with us this evening and every day who lights our path, drawing us closer to God.
Sitting on my desk at home is a Willow Tree figure. She is holding out a single, lit candle and bears the name “Angel of Hope”. How appropriate. For surely we find hope in the light of the Lord and are called to bear that light to others. The hope of God with us. The hope that we find this evening in the Gospel of John. 

May we go forth brothers and sisters, shining the light of Christ. Singing of his love and life with our voices. Asking him to light our hearts anew. Go forth and live in the Light of Christ.  Amen. 

Jesus' Wish List - 1 John 3:14, 16-18; Isaiah 61:1

As I write this sermon I am deep in the process of gift buying and wrapping this holiday season. I like to think of myself as a good gift giver, but year after year it seems to get harder to “top” the gift that I gave last year. It seemed so much easier when I was a kid and could buy the same gift in bulk at Santa’s Secret Workshop at school and give it to everyone. 
There is something beautiful about picking out the perfect gift for someone. Thinking about what it will mean to them. But in our culture we seem to think more expensive gifts are better. And if not more expensive then at least bigger in quantity. As a society we hold to the idyllic image of Christmas presents spilling out from under a large tree, no matter what the cost. And each year the pressure to pick out the perfect gift mounts earlier and earlier, as commercials blast on the TV and radio and holiday catalogs start to arrive in August. We get captivated by advertisements that bombard us instead of focusing on what matters most in the present moment.
If you remember back to just a few years ago, the cost sky rocketed, as a Walmart employee was killed during a Black Friday stamped, and four other shoppers were injured. Our spending habits and Christmas frenzy have gotten out of control and we have to be asking ourselves is this really honoring Christ as we celebrate his birth? Is this our birthday present to Jesus?
Just as much as time we put into picking out the perfect gift for someone else, we need to put that amount of time into thinking what we are going to give Jesus for his birthday. Maybe you’re wondering what exactly Jesus would want for his birthday. What would be on his wish list. We only need to look to this mornings scripture lesson where Jesus states that whatever we do for the least of these we do for him. But what does that look like in action?
For Mike Slaughter’s church it means not only donating the entirety of the Christmas Eve offering to a charity that is important to them, but asking each family to put as much money in the offering plate as they spent on gifts for each other. For other families it means serving together in a soup kitchen. Or handing out gifts to strangers. You need to pray about what it looks like for your family. How you are going to live into this scripture together this holiday season. Remember to be writing down the ways that you have been showing love in action this holiday season and bring them with you to church next week. 
In a world that tells us that it is all about us, Christmas reminds us as Christians we are called to model the life of Christ during the holiday season, and year round. To lay down our lives for others. To bring good news to the poor in spirit. To love our brothers and sisters more than material possessions. To give to those in need. To love in our actions, that show that we believe what we say we believe. 
Those are pretty big things that we are called to model. A way of living that is so contrary to the self-indulgence of the world. In fact, God is using our actions that model the life of Christ to combat evil and despair in this world. You are working on the front lines for the Kingdom of God when you show the love of Christ! Have you ever paused and thought about that. We are not living a way that is radically different because its the nice thing to do or because we are supposed to. But because we are God’s agents of grace in this world communicating the gospel truth. And participation is not optional for those of us who claim to be Christians. You are being sent, empowered by the Holy Spirt, to be the hands and feet of Christ is the world. What are you going to do this season to live into that call in a profound way?
One way that we can all participate in changing the world around us is by giving to the Christmas Eve offering. This year 100 percent of the Christmas Eve offering will be going to the Good Samaritan Fund. This fund was set up by the former Wellsboro District of the United Methodist Church, and is continued in our current Williamsport District, to help families in communities within the district bounds who are going through difficult times. It helps those with immediate unexpected needs, assists agencies that are working with the poor in their area, and can be used as seed money for new ministries that will impact communities in need, especially when those communities involve children. Think about it, every single penny and dollar you put in the offering plate on Christmas Eve will be going to do amazing things for the Kingdom of God. While this is true of every Sunday’s offering, it is especially true of Christmas Eve’s. 
There are many other ways that we can reach out and bless Christ on his birthday. What are you being called to do? What small tokens can you give to God? What ways can you reflect the gratitude you have for God’s mercy and grace shown to us in Jesus Christ? It may be something involving money, or time, or talents - whatever you treasure. What can you give unto God for the glorious work of the Kingdom in the coming weeks? 
Brothers and sisters, God wants you. God has called you. God looks to us to work for the Kingdom of God. Its a difficult calling. And it is contrary to the world around us. Yet we cannot make excuses not to follow God’s calling. God wants us to serve others. To reach out and be the hands and feet in ordinary and unique ways each and every day. How can you do that wherever you may find yourself? What gift will you pick out for Jesus this holiday season? It may not be the most expensive or flashiest gift, but I promise that it will have the power of Christ behind it to impact the world if it comes from your heart. 
Let me conclude with a story I read recently about a young toddler who got what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ. Got what it means to give her very best to Christ as an offering. Chris Heuertz, director of Word May Flesh, a Christian non-profit who works with the poor in various countries, stopped by the office one day and found a package on the desk. When he opened it, it was an odd gift. An unexpected gift. Used pacifiers. He was in a rush, and the gift was a little gross, so he put the package aside and hurried out the door. But someone else found the package and the note that was inside. It explained that the small two year old had a prayer book with pictures that she and her parents prayed over ever night before bed. Some of the pictures in the prayer book are of other children living in poverty, with disease and heartaches around the world and the young girl decided that she needed to reach out to them by sending her “bobbies”. Her pacifiers. Her most prized possession. She was attached to them because they made everything all better for her, but now she wanted to send them to other children so they could be all better too. If a two year old can give up what is most precious to her as a gift to God, as an act of prayer and sacrifice, brothers and sisters, what can we give? It wasn’t the most traditional gift. Or the most expensive, but it was dear to her. And came from the heart. What do we need to let go of and give with blessing to the work of the Kingdom? What gift can we offer Christ for the restoration of our broken world? Amen. 


Friday, December 20, 2013

Stretched Beyond Recognition

  Currently there are piles of books around my room. At first there were piles because I ran out of bookshelf space, but with that problem temporarily resolved, I now have piles on different topics. A pile on church membership. Another on visioning. Another on world religions. One on ministering to those with cancer. Yet another on group spiritual direction. You get the image, piles.

  The first book from the visioning pile I picked up was Andy Stanley's Visionerring: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision. I'm glad it was the first because it was wonderful, full of both scriptural insight, but also practical exercise, as one of the churches I serve prepare to engage in an intentional period of visioning together.

  Stanley uses the biblical text of Nehemiah to talk about leaders with a God-sized, God-ordained vision. At one point the author comments that "Nehemiah's faith was stretched beyond recognition." (65). What a concept! That we grow so much in our faith that others don't recognize us. That we might not even recognize ourselves. But its a scary thought. To be stretched.

  When my brothers were little they had a stretch armstrong doll. If I understand correctly when you stretch the figure out, it should return to its original shape, but I don't remember it ever really doing that. It would sort of return to its shape, but each time you stretched it more, it returned a little less. I think that's what we are afraid of. First, stretching and growing, because its painful and secondly, being stretched beyond recognition. Even if we don't fully like who we are, we know ourselves. We feel comfortable in our own familiarity. But being stretched beyond recognition is almost as scary as starting over again. Its not familiar. Daunting.

   But its in these moments when we are stretched and grow in our faith that we know and recognize that God is doing amazing things. Because its not our natural disposition to stretch ourselves. We are spiritually comfortable. Lazy. We like the thought of growing in the abstract but not so much when you have to put in the dedicated time and painful work. But God blesses the work. Not by leaving us the same way we were, but stretching us beyond recognition, if only we are willing to take a risk of faith.

God's Time

    Within the last month and a half I've been reading a lot, devouring books actually. Books, ideas, poetic language are a great source of comfort and inspiration for me, tracing back to fond memories of having my parents read to me until I was old enough to read to them.

    Once in a while I browse through Amazon.com's suggestions based off of what I've previously added to my wish list or have bought. Sometimes these suggestions aren't that great, sometimes I find exactly what I'm looking for, and other times I am surprised by a gem. One such gem was Dr. Marcia McFee and Rev. Karen Foster's Spiritual Adventures in the Snow. The title captured my attention, however, I missed the subtitle until I began to read it, Skiing and Snowboarding as Renewal for Your Soul.

   For those of you who know me best are you laughing yet? I am not a huge fan of snow and I most certainly don't ski or snowboard. And yet, this book was full of such powerful spiritual wisdom. One such insight focused around those times when you've "lost yourself" or time felt like it slipped away from you in a profound way as you communed with God. We had just talked about such experiences in my spiritual direction class, commenting that these times when we "lose ourselves" and have hours pass in God's presence without realizing it, are actually a form of prayer.

   The authors comment that "these out of time experiences are helped when we let go enough to become so engrossed in what we are doing that we stop thinking too much." (81). Now certainly I am the last person to discredit thinking. I love getting lost in the web of thoughts and often my mind feels like it is in overdrive. God created us as beings with intelligence and we should use it. But. But sometimes we get so caught up in our mind, our thoughts, that God has a hard time breaking through. We get so caught up in our busy schedules that we forget God has given us time to enjoy. God's sense of timing is most appreciated when we lose our sense of timing. When we stop thinking so much and fully live in the present moment.

   Living fully in the moment and the spiritual discipline of play are often nodded at, but rarely engaged. We don't think we have enough of our time to be engaged in God's time. No wonder we are burnt out! We've lost God's priorities. God's sense of timing. Recognizing that we've lost something doesn't mean that I have any idea how we re-engage it, just simply that I notice that something is wrong, both in myself and the world around me. I want to be engaged in God's timing, and noticing that I'm out of sync is the first step to get there on this spiritual journey.


Sunday, December 15, 2013

Scandalous Love - Hosea 3:1

Christmas celebrations mean different things to different people. For some of us it a joyous time to gather with family and celebrate together - seeing those who we may not get to be with often. But for others it is a reminder of past hurts - I recently had a friend tell me that Christmas is always a tainted holiday in her house because her husband’s great grandmother left his grandfather that day. And that sadness has penetrated down through generations that never even met each other. Christmas isn’t always joyous. For some it is marked by family wounds, loneliness, and the absence of a loved one. 
Christmas is a time that seems to magnify our emotions. Whenever I think of this season one of the stories that comes to my mind is a Christmas Carol. While the book describes those around the season as being generally of good will, I tended to see the story as one that shows who we are at our deepest level. For those who are kind and generous, the Christmas season brings out that generosity even more. But for those who are wounded and bitter, this season reopens those wounds and causes even more bitterness. 
These general attitudes carry over to how we address God. For those who are wounded, questions often arise about how God could ever love them. Why God would ever desire to be with them, let alone redeem them. During September and October, our parish Bible Study was on God’s grace. One thing that kept coming up time and time again was how people make the comment that they just aren’t good enough to come to Church, or they’ve already screwed up so much that God could never love them. Friends this is our wounded nature speaking. 
And today’s scripture verse speaks directly against such thoughts, and acts as a salve on our wounds. It is our balm in Gillead. The prophet Hosea was instructed by God to take a prostitute who continually cheated on him as his wife. His marriage was to be a living metaphor for the people of Israel for their relationship with God. Even though they wondered away. Even though they turn to other Gods. Even though they placed their hope and desire in things that could not satisfy them, God keeps redeeming them. And God keeps redeeming us. 
Christmas is our time to celebrate the God who is with us - Emmanuel. The God who wants to be with us. In fact, the God who wants to be with us so much that he shed his honor and glory in order to come in the form of a humble, helpless baby to show us the way to God. To redeem us. God’s love for us cannot be defined rationally. God’s desire for us cannot be diminished. And God seeks us out as the beloved of Christ, even when we turn away and our love fails. God relentlessly pursues us, no matter what the cost. 
As much as Christmas is a time that shows who we truly are, it also shows our true priorities. In our world that runs off of shopping for the perfect gift, and filling every moment of every day, Pastor Mike Slaughter equates our Christmas celebration with Hosea’s wife saying, “Happy Birthday, Hosea! To celebrate I’m going to go party with my other friends.” While Christmas is a time that we should be drawing close to God, falling more deeply for the scandalous love of God, we often give in to the pull of the holiday culture around us. Yet God loves us even when we make this holiday that is supposed to be about the love of God, into one focused on greed, selfishness, and debt. 
We fail to understand just how scandeouls God’s love is for us. Or maybe we would rather ignore it. So we get caught up in all of the wrappings and trimmings of the holiday season. Spending more and think about God less. We don’t want to dwell on our need for God, or that things were so bad on Earth that God sent himself, humbly to be born in human form. We don’t want to think about the God who pursues us relentlessly. Instead of focusing on God we look to anything and everything else that is here to distract us during the holiday season. 
But when we set everything else aside and focus on God and God’s saving act and grace, an interesting question, an intense question, ends up coming to the surface - do I trust God to redeem me? Do I trust that God wants to love me, that God won’t give up pursuing me? Or like so many others do I think I’m beyond hope, even if I consider myself to be saved?
Because when that relentless love and hope gets a hold of us, it transforms us. It transforms us into a people who seek to share the scandalous love of God with others. We want to tell people the story of the God who can be the balm for their wounded-ness, who can free them from their past. The God who never gives up on them, no matter how many times they run away and sin like Hosea’s wife. Brothers and sisters, if you have that message ringing through your heart and Spirit this holiday season, you have to share it! God’s scandalous love cannot be contained, it is meant to be proclaimed. 
What would it look like for you to love another scandalously this season? Scandalous love is scary because it isn’t safe. It isn’t just giving someone a tangible gift, its taking a risk to share your faith story. Its not just simply doing something nice, its being able to share the faith behind what you do and say. Christians often do wonderful things in the world as manifestations of their faith, but they are cautious in telling other’s why they do what they do. Its an opportunity missed to share of God’s love.
The Christmas story points out to us that God’s ways are not our ways. Just as the story of Hosea points out the way God addresses issues and teaches lessons, probably aren’t the way we would. But God is in the business of creating miracles and scandalous love. God is in the business of working in unexpected ways in hopes to catch our attention. But the Christmas story and that of the prophet Hosea also ask us if we are willing to be loved by God and show this love to others? If we are willing to notice miracles, even if they aren’t where or when or how we expect them? 

God’s love is scandalous because it isn’t what we expect. It isn’t how we expected God to interject into human history. Yet it is that scandalous love of God that we see in our daily lives, and are called to make more visible to those around us. Friends, go forth from this place filled with that unmistakable love of God, loving even those who you deem to be unlovable, with the love and faith and hope of Christ Jesus that this season is built upon! Bravely and boldly proclaim! Amen! 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Giving Up on Perfect - Luke 1:30-34

Many of us probably have an idilic Christmas picture in our heads. Children unwrapping brightly colored wrappings around carefully selected boxes. Or the perfect dinner laid out on a beautiful table. Has anyone actually had such a perfect Christmas? I know for me, the baggage of the Christmas celebration is immense and is so far from reality. Its more like children tearing into paper and throwing it everywhere. Smaller children and toddlers forgoing those carefully selected gifts just to play with the box. And does anyone smell something burning where there are too many cooks in the kitchen? And yet we keep playing this idea of the perfect Christmas through our mind.
I was recently reading a book about a single mother discussing all of the mess that Christmas caused in her home. She and her daughter would go out to pick out the “perfect tree”, but usually they spent too much money, couldn’t get the tree through the door, and then the daughter would leave with friends instead of helping to decorate the tree. It caused bitterness to sink into the mother’s heart. She wept because Christmas wasn’t as she thought it should be. In fact, it wasn’t until she stepped away from this unrealistic picture of Christmas in her head that she started to get a clearer sense of the joy the season could bring.
Christians tend to convey this unrealistic picture of Christmas in our nativity scenes. Everything looks so angelic and serene. But in reality Mary just gave birth. Mothers, how many of you looked that good after giving birth? Fathers, how many of you looked that calm? Further, Jesus was born in a barn. A messy barn with flies swarming around. Farmers, how often do all of your animals just sit down together and not make a sound? We of course portray Christmas this way because we know the ending, but its not realistic. 
One of my all time favorite Christmas stories is entitled The Best Worst Christmas Pageant Ever. The story is about a church Christmas pageant that gets a twist one year, as a family of six children who had never been to church became the main characters in the narrative. But as much as the church folk worried that the children would ruin their production, they came and gave everyone a new perspective. Frazzled. Untidy. Bewildered. With the angel of the Lord shouting at the top of her lungs so that everyone knew that what was being announced was the best news ever told. With the Mother Mary weeping at the beauty of her child. Those who were worried that the children would botch the production learned to see through new eyes that day. To relive the mystery and wonder and awe of the Christmas story.
Brothers and sisters, we need to set aside our unrealistic expectations. We need to remember that the Christmas narrative starts with the angel telling Mary not to be afraid and her asking “How can this be?” In some of the better Christmas movies Mary at least looks startled by the angels news, but we need to remember that the Angel had to tell her not to be afraid because she was probably afraid. Afraid of the angel. Afraid of the news. Afraid of the consequences. When we forget or downplay how the Christmas story begins we side step what a miracle and a mess it was. For in the words of Pastor Mike Slaughter, “miracles always happen in the context of mystery and mess.”
When we forget how messy the Christmas story was, we can’t see our part in it. We can’t fathom how God would ever use us as an agent for a miracle. And we set up unrealistic expectations of our faith. For life is messy. And unpredictable, but it is the midst of all of that God shows up in a powerful way. We aren’t promised that life will be smooth, or that our celebrations will be perfect, but we are promised that God will show up and that we don’t need to go through life alone.
Think back to Mary. She was given the gift of going through this messy miracle with her cousin Elizabeth, who was going through her own season of unpredictability. We too are given people to walk with us through life. To speak words of truth over us and hold our hand when we get confused by all the twists and turns our faith journey takes. When we find ourselves asking like Mary, “how can this be?” Because at the end of the day, the Christmas miracle wasn’t that clean - it was fraught with misunderstandings, almost abandoned engagements, long journeys while pregnant, and finally birth in one of the most unexpected, unclean, and unpleasant places. Brothers and sisters, our lives aren’t as clean as we make them either. They are filled with crying kids, doctors visits, mounting bills, days when the car won’t start, and unexpected surprises. Life is messy. But it is in the messiest of circumstances, be it a barn in Bethlehem or our daily lives that God can work a miracle. Because in the mess we know that we are not in control, and relinquish ourselves back to God.
God is in the messiness. God is in the midst of our daily lives. But in order to see that we need to let go of our own version of perfection and pray for God’s vision. Think back to that scene of the perfect Christmas - does it make the day any less Christmas if your vision isn’t met? Does the day not come, if there there are imperfect circumstances leading up to the holiday? No! We are still called to fully celebrate Christmas - whether its the way we envisioned it or not. We are still called to celebrate what God is doing in our world and in our lives because of the birth of the Christ Child. Even if that means that we need to give up on our own version of perfect.
Similarly, each day is God’s day - each breath we take is God’s breath within us. Even when we have a terrible day, we need to know that God is by our side. Even when we are in the midst of struggles, we need to know that God is for us, not against us. And we need to trust God to redeem the messiness for the glory of God’s kingdom!
Lastly friends, our world is a messy place. Families are hurting. Communities are in need. Our world seems so broken. What would it look like  if we took the money we set aside to have the perfect Christmas celebration and gave it as a Christmas offering to those in need? How could God redeem the messiness with a message of hope in these hurting places?
Because at the end of the day, Christmas is about Christ, not about how fancy our celebration is. Christmas is about the Lord our God who entered into the chaos and messiness of our world and our lives to transform them. But according to Pastor Mike Slaughter, all too often “We miss life when we use God to get what we desires instead of allowing ourselves to be used by God for God’s desires.” 

Brothers and sisters, don’t miss out on life this Christmas season. Set aside your desires, your vision of perfection and instead look for God. Look for God to show up and use you in a mighty way, even in the midst of the unexpected messiness. Because that is what Christmas is truly about. Amen. 

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Advent 1 - Isaiah 7:14

The advents season is one of preparation in my family’s home. The day after Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas trees - one decorated with homemade ornaments the other with my extensive Hallmark collection. We set up the mangers, hang the stockings. The table cloths are changed to festive ones. Thought goes into gifts for each person, which are carefully wrapped and displayed under the Hallmark tree and Christmas dinner is planned. And Christmas Eve and Day are ones of tradition. Unwrapping family gifts following the Christmas Candlelight Service. Wearing the same pajamas. Getting up to open stockings and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, albeit later than when we were younger.
But is the season of Advent and Christmas about more than preparation for the celebration to take place on Christmas? Is it about more than tradition? Is there a way to remember what the season is about? That it’s Jesus’s Birthday, not ours! How can we, as the church, reclaim the meaning of Advent as one of preparation for the coming of the Christ child and the mission that we are being sent on in his name?
In this mornings scripture the prophet tells the people of Israel that the Lord is going to give them a sign - a Virgin, one for whom it should be impossible to be pregnant, will be with child. And she will name him Emmanuel - God with us. But a sign of what? Amidst the wrapping paper, frantic preparations, and mounting lists, what are we supposed to be reminded of? What hope are we supposed to remember anew? Do we recognize God among the chaos?
The coming of our King! The coming of the one who would redeem us! A God who is entering into the broken places in our world and within our own spirits and bringing restoration! But that may not be the first thing we think of, or even the twentieth, when we walk into Walmart and see the countdown to Christmas flashing before us.
Too often we forget the wonderful things the birth of Christ brought to this world. We forget the sign and the promise that the prophet speaks about. Instead we make Christ into our own Santa Clause. Telling Christ what we want instead of listening to what Christ wants us to do. Telling Christ we want things to be better for us, while forgetting how humbly our Savior entered this world. The end result is making Jesus into a magical Santa Claus like deity who just gives us what we want, instead of treating him like our Lord and King. 
Last year, while traveling to visit my brother in Iowa, my family came across perhaps one of the most appalling renditions of the Christmas story I’ve ever seen. In order to bridge the gap between Santa and Jesus, the story was told that Jesus came to Santa in a dream and gave him a mission, to give presents to all the boys and girls. Oh friends, we’ve bought into this co-opting of Christmas for far too long. Its not about the gifts we receive, its about the gift we received in Christ. Its not about the mission of presents, but the mission of life. 
God may not have sent the Messiah that the people were expecting. Jesus wasn’t rich or a ruler by the World’s standards. He came in the most humble and weak form, a baby born to a virgin with a promise. Yet Jesus, in this form, was the embodiment of God’s values, God’s mission, God’s priorities. 
The mission and message of Christmas gets lost far too easily during the Advent season. Amongst the exhaustion of preparations, rising debt to give people what they asked for, endless baking and buying. In 2010 The National Retail Foundation stated that adult retail consumers spend on average 830$ per person of Christmas preparation and presents. If you live in a household with two adults, that’s 1,660$. Where is Christ amongst that? How is reminding us of Emmanuel, God with us?
Christmas is our time, Church, to remember God’s miracle and that God is the original miracle worker. Further, God has gifted us to be miracle workers as well. To change the world through our actions. Have you ever considered yourself to be a miracle worker? An agent of change? But in order for this to happen, you must be willing to be used for God’s glory. Must be willing to go where God sends you, do what God commands, instead of simply just looking at Jesus to be Santa and give you everything you want, no questions asked. 
Pastor Mike Slaughter states that “Christmas as we know it is really a mixture of traditions - start with a little Biblical truth, blend with some 18th Century Victorian practices, and add a double shot of Santa Theology” and that is where we are today. Friends, now is our time to reclaim the miracle of Christmas. The time to speak about Christ’s sacrificial gift, that calls us to sacrifice as well. Calls us to something more, to be miracle workers working to change the world for Jesus Christ!
For it is Jesus who brings light to the darkness of the world. It is the miracle in Jesus Christ that offers life this holiday season and love, not the amount of gifts wrapped under the tree. What traditions could you start with your family to focus more on the miracle of Jesus Christ than on presents? How can you present yourselves as an offering to be used by Christ to transform the world?
It’s a scary thought isn’t is? But God uses people to be the vessels of miracles everyday. God uses our hands and feet, if only we would submit ourselves to Christ. I’ve told the story before about a personal miracle I witnessed, when working at a women’s shelter I felt led to throw a baby shower for an unwed mother who had nothing. I could have ignored the prompting. I could have said it was crazy or I didn’t have enough money. But instead I took the idea to the church I was serving at the time, my home church, and they collected enough items in just a few weeks to not only give this woman everything she needed for the first year of life, but enough to bless several other mothers as well. That friends is an every day miracle.
All too often we dismiss miracles that we see because they aren’t as grand as we expected. Or simply because we forget to look for God’s hand in the midst of our world. Are you ready for God to use you as a miracle birth-er this holiday season? Do you believe that God can work a miracle through you? That you can be used by God in a powerful way? Because brothers and sisters that is the heritage of our faith - ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God. What God-sized dreams are you being called to be a part of this Advent season?

It is time to set aside our faith that simply asks Christ to give us things, and instead ask Christ what miracle he wants to work through us. It is time to remember that God does extraordinary things through every day people like Mary and Joseph, you and me. What are we willing to sacrifice for God? What miracles does God want to accomplish through you this Christmas? And are you prepared to be used by God in a mighty way?