Spiritual Hiccups - Is That New?

Today's meditation from Richard Rohr begins, "We do not think ourselves into new ways of living.  We live ourselves into new ways of thinking."  Newness is a recurring theme for Christians.  We speak of the portion of Scripture beginning with the gospels as a "New" Testament.  And in today's epistle reading Paul writes, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

At Christmas, we celebrate the new thing God does in the Incarnation, God's love taking on flesh in Jesus.  But while we marvel at what God does, while we love to remember and retell the stories connected to Christmas, sometimes we seem content simply to believe in and worship God's newness without actually joining it.

I think this can be especially problematic for folks like myself who grew up in the Church.  Always surrounded by the elements of the faith, it is sometimes difficult for me to think of that same faith making me over into something new.  Faith can seem to be mostly about tradition and status quo, not about the radical newness that Paul says comes to us in Christ.

And my personal difficulty with being made new in Christ has ramifications for the Church's ability to share the faith with others.  The newness Paul has found in Jesus is the most exciting thing he has to share with others.  But if I do not experience any newness in Christ, what do I have that I can share?

It might be a useful exercise for all Christians to occasionally ask themselves, "What is different about my life because of Jesus?"  And I do not think anything having to do with one's status after death is an appropriate answer to this question.  Not that this status is of no concern or importance, but it does not speak to the new quality of life that both Paul and Jesus speak of constantly. 

As the recent celebrations of Christmas are slipping out of view, what new thing emerges for you out of its message of hope and newness?  As we celebrate the fresh slate of a New Year, how does the remarkably new thing God does in Christ continue to work its newness in our lives so that we can share its joy and hope with the world?

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Spiritual Hiccups - The Bible Tells Me So

I saw an opinion piece in the newspaper the other day discussing the "truth" of the biblical Christmas story.  The author, who argued for the historical truth of the Luke nativity story, seemed unaware of the conflict between Matthew and Luke regarding Jesus' origins.  (Both writers say Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Luke has the family come to Bethlehem because of a Roman registration while Matthew assumes they are residents of Bethlehem who end up in Nazareth only because of the threat from Herod.)  But of more concern to me, the opinion piece seemed not to appreciate some basic problems inherent in "believing" the Bible.

Such problems are on display in today's reading from John.  Jesus' opponents use Scripture to buttress their argument that he cannot be the Messiah.  "Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee."  Like many modern day arguments that end with, "See, it's right there in the Bible," the religious authorities of Jesus' day find proof positive right there in the Bible.

I've always loved the ordination vows my denomination uses for pastors, elders, and deacons.  The first speaks of Jesus as Lord of all and Head of the Church, and the one through whom we know the triune God.  The second speaks of the Old and New Testament as "the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ..."  These vows call me to follow Jesus as I see him revealed in Scripture.  And that is a bit different than simply believing the Bible or using it as a proof text.

My Reformed/Calvinist tradition has also seen idolatry as one of the more fundamental human problems.  We are forever substituting things other than God for God.  And sometimes Christians do this with the Bible.  We can use Scripture to confine God within the limits that we find comfortable.  We can use Scripture to create God in our image.

This is a temptation for all of us, regardless of denomination or religious leanings.  And there is no easy solution.  But fighting this tendency requires a much greater knowledge of the Bible than most of us have.  It requires us to listen to the larger witness of Scripture so that we get the best possible picture of Jesus as he is witnessed to there.  And it requires a real humility about our own certainties, so that are open to the surprising and amazing ways in which God comes to us.  Otherwise, we could find ourselves rejecting the living Christ just like the religious leaders in our gospel today.  "Oh, that can't be God.  See, it says so right here in the Bible."

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Spiritual Hiccups - New Beginnings

The world is slowly returning to “normal” following Christmas.  There may yet be a few after-Christmas shopping excursions, but it feels less and less like Christmas to many.  Never mind that for the Church, the season of Christmas runs to January 6.  Christmas is over.

At least it is for those who look for Christmas to inject a bit of momentary magic into their lives and then fade away.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a little Christmas magic as much as the next person, but this seasonal lift is only vaguely connected to Christian faith.  The sparse treatment of Christmas in the Bible reminds us that it is but the beginning of a story, the start of a new chapter in the story of God’s love for humanity.

But of course God’s love in nothing new.  It is on display in today’s reading from Isaiah.  The people of Israel look at their desperate situation and conclude that God has forsaken them.  But God responds, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.  See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

From its opening, the Bible continually tells us that God will not give up on humanity, that despite human foolishness and waywardness, God reaches out to us, God moves towards us.  The newness that Christmas reveals is the demonstration of just how far God will go in this work of reconciliation and healing.  Not only will God become fully immersed in the pain and suffering of humanity in Jesus, but God invites us into the work of healing and reconciling. 

Christmas begins a story that calls us to trust the promise of Isaiah, that God cannot forget us.  And when we can fully trust ourselves to that love, we can become more and more like Jesus, able to live out God’s love for the world, even when it is costly for us.  And this new beginning of Christmas is never “over.”  It is still making all things new.  It is still calling us to become new creations in Christ.  And it is still working to move the world toward the coming rule of God.

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Sunday Sermon video - Not What We Got Ready For

Sunday Sermon audio - Not What We Got Ready For

Not What We Got Ready For - Dec. 26.mp3

After all our preparations for Christmas, the gospel reading from Matthew 2:13-23 drags us away from Christmas joy to Jesus in danger and babies killed by Herod.  Not what we might want to hear so close to Christmas day, but perhaps a voice calling us to embrace the season of Christmas and join in the new Exodus story that begins here.

On a day when we had a single, less formal worship service, this sermon was "off the cuff," and so there is no accompanying text to post.

Christmas Eve Children's Pageant - Jesse, the Little Shepherd

Check my YouTube site to see a little higher video quality.

Spiritual Hiccups - Hope Is Born

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing... Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the  tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in  the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall  become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.

On Christmas Eve, the Daily Lectionary doesn't say much about Christmas.  The gospel does report the birth of John the Baptist, but nothing about a baby Jesus.  But the words of Isaiah speak the hope of this night.  The barren desert shall break forth in vegetation.  The blind shall see and the lame leap and run.  Death will turn to life, brokenness will be healed, and none will miss out on the fullness of life.

Tonight, as we remember a Savior's birth, we say that promise has arrived, and we celebrate.  Oh, we know that there is still much brokenness.  We know there are many who are denied anything close to full life.  But if, as Jesus himself insists, the Kingdom of God has drawn near with the Messiah's birth, then history is already being bent toward the end of brokenness and woundedness and death. 

As Christians, we do not for a moment deny the darkness of the world, the darkness into which comes the light.  We know that this light shines in the darkness, in the pain and brokenness of our world.  But we also know that the darkness cannot overcome the light.  We know that death cannot overcome the hope born tonight.  In Jesus, we see God at work in our world, moving history toward God's end. 

And so, even though we see the darkness, we see even more clearly the hope.  And so, no darkness can diminish the joy and celebration we experience, as we sing praises for the light, for Hope born this night.

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Spiritual Hiccups - Salvation Comes

In one more day, church pews will swell as people gather to celebrate the birth of a Savior.  It is easy to understand why the promise and hope of Jesus' birth draws lots of folks.  The notion of God with us, God for us, is incredibly compelling.  And the nativity story from Luke's gospel is so well known - even if you never have been to a church, you've at least heard in from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" - that many people don't feel like it's Christmas without hearing those words once more.

But as wonderful as those Christmas Eve services are, they are not without some difficulties for people of deep faith.  As an interesting piece in the New York Times, "A Tough Season for Believers," pointed out, Christmas Eve can be a troublesome reminder of how the Christmas story has become just another piece of seasonal entertainment for many Americans, along with going to the Nutcracker and watching "Miracle on 34th Street."

But some of the trivialization of Christmas may be our own doing.  We celebrate the birth of a Savior, but we often have defined salvation so narrowly that it's no wonder it doesn't carry much freight with the culture.  For many of us, salvation means little more than getting our tickets validated for heaven.  But this spiritualizing of salvation doesn't fit well with the biblical witness or with Jesus' own words.  Jesus speaks of a kingdom where God's will is done on earth, a rule that he insists has "drawn near."  Matthew's story of Jesus' birth takes pains to connect Jesus' story to that of Moses, to portray Jesus as a new Moses who rescues us. 

And today's psalm gives a good picture of what God's rescue and salvation looks like.
   I love you, O LORD, my strength.
   The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
         my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
         my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
   I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
         so I shall be saved from my enemies.
   The cords of death encompassed me;
         the torrents of perdition assailed me;  
   the cords of Sheol entangled me;
         the snares of death confronted me.
   In my distress I called upon the LORD;
         to my God I cried for help.
   From his temple he heard my voice,
         and my cry to him reached his ears.
   Then the earth reeled and rocked;
         the foundations also of the mountains trembled
         and quaked, because he was angry.

The Christmas story is about a God who takes decisive action to save, to bring the world back to its senses, to restore and set right.  It is not simply a moment of warmth to cheer us at this time of year.  It is the promise that God is active in human history, that God will bend human history to God's desire.

We modern people have become used to relegating God to a narrow, spiritual sphere that does not hold sway over large portions of our lives.  But Christmas insists that God comes surprisingly into the day to day.  It insists that God's salvation will stop at nothing short of a redeemed and restored world for all.

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Spiritual Hiccups - "Singing Ahead of Time"

In yesterday's gospel, Mary appears as a model disciple who willingly answers God's call.  But today Mary is a prophet, singing ahead of time (to borrow the title of a Barbara Brown Taylor sermon).  Mary is barely even pregnant, but she sings that God "has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts... has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly... has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."  Not that God will do these things but God has done these things.

As Barbara Brown Taylor notes in her sermon, prophets are forever getting their verb tenses wrong.  Biblical prophets generally do not predict the future in the mode of psychics or crystal ball gazers.  Rather they have a clearer sense of what God is up to, a better feel for the ways the world operates at odds with God's plans, and so a better sense of where that all leads.  And since Mary has already experienced God acting through the baby growing in her womb, she speaks of where this will end up as though it has already happened.

As much as many of us love Christmas, I'm not so sure we like where Mary sees things headed.  We're fine with the lowly and the hungry being helped out, but not so sure about the powerful and the rich being brought down.  We're not as sure about this reign of God that Mary experiences as already present in some way.

I know that I do not like to think that the abundance I enjoy is in any way a factor in others being kept down, in others being poor, powerless, and hungry.  I don't like to contemplate the possibility that I need to be brought down a few notches for the things to be set right.  And so I'd prefer to celebrate the joy of Christmas without seeing where it leads.  I'd rather not sing ahead of time with Mary.  I'd rather sing "Glory to God in the highest" along with the angels, visit the manger with the shepherds, say I'm glad that God is at work in the world, and leave it at that.  Jesus is simply a lot less trouble if all he ever does is get born and the rise from the dead at Easter.

I've said this before but think it bears repeating.  I think the Church lost its bearings when way back in the days of Constantine, it made an alliance with the powerful and the rich that required relocating the reign of God Mary sees to some heavenly bliss after we die.  But Mary doesn't say, "In heaven things will be different."  She does not speak of us going to a better place.  She speaks of God transforming this place by radically reordering things.  She says it is happening even now, but apparently God's Spirit must already be at work in us if we are to see it.

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Spiritual Hiccups - Mary's Costly "Yes"

If the Catholic Church has venerated Mary, we Protestants have largely ignored her, which is most unfortunate.  Not that I want to add "Ave Maria" to our choir's repertoire, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge her shining example of discipleship as depicted in Luke's gospel reading today. 

Most Christians know the story.  The angel Gabriel comes to the young Mary, telling her that she will conceive and give birth to a son named Jesus.  The problem with this plan is obvious to Mary, who explains to Gabriel that she is a virgin. But of course this is no problem with God involved.  As witnessed by the old and barren Elizabeth who is now pregnant, "nothing will be impossible with God."

Now I assume that Mary enters into this a bit like all parents.  No prospective parent fully realizes what will be required of her once the baby comes, once the terrible twos arrive, once the child becomes a teenager, and so on.  But I have to think that Mary knows this will not be easy.  Saying "Yes" to God will leave her pregnant before she's married, and, as she will learn shortly after Jesus is born, "a sword will pierce (her) own soul too."  But still Mary says, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."

Since nothing is impossible for God, things proceed as Gabriel has said.  But what if Mary had said, "No" instead?  The story doesn't really consider that option, but still it seems that God's impossibility requires Mary's "Yes," just as it will continue to require a "Yes" from those Jesus calls to follow him.  I've never fully understood why God works this way, but God's plans, God's future, God's hope for a new day, all seem to require a "Yes" from people.  And that "Yes" almost always gets those people mixed up in all sorts of difficulties.

Over the centuries, Christians have sentimentalized the Christmas story, turned it into something all sweet and lovely.  But Mary's "Yes" turns her life upside down, and it will include watching her own son die horribly on a cross.  She can't possibly know all that when she speaks with Gabriel, but she seems to know her Scripture, and so she knows that whenever you say, "God, I'm your servant; do with me as you see fit," life is about to get messy.

And in the end, maybe this is why it is more palatable for Catholics to venerate Mary and for Protestants to regard her as little more than a teenage baby incubator.  Neither requires us to take seriously what it means to say "Yes" to God.

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Sunday Sermon video - Saying "Yes" to Divine Dreams

The sound system stopped working on this Sunday, and so there was no working microphone.  The sound quality suffers somewhat.

Spiritual Hiccups - What Seemed To Be Dead

It happens over and over and over in the Bible.  God's newness springs from the most surprising places, from places that had been given up for dead.  The story goes all the way back to Abraham and Sarah, when God forms a covenant people from an old, childless couple.  The story echoes in the birth of Samuel to Hannah, in the return of exiles from Babylon, and in the beginning of Luke's story of Jesus.


Luke, the source for our Christmas nativities, begins his story with Elizabeth and Zechariah who "had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years."  It is another unlikely place to begin a story of hope and newness, with an elderly couple who have no children.  But once again, this is precisely where God starts.

In ancient times, barrenness was thought to be a curse from God.  Some texts speak of "God closing her womb."  And so in stories such as this one, God's newness not only comes from what appears dead, but from what is presumed to be cursed.

As we draw near to Christmas, congregations such as mine are planning their biggest extravaganzas of the year.  We will go all out to celebrate the birth of a Savior.  In one sense the is quite appropriate, but in another sense it mirrors our culture's notion that anything important and worth notice is big and vibrant and filled with activity.

Amidst all the Christmas frenzy, both inside and outside the Church, I wonder where, in a place that seems lifeless and hopeless, God is at work creating something new.  I wonder where we should turn our gaze so that we might see where God's newness is being born from what seemed to be dead.

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