Let heaven and nature sing RUMC CHRISTMAS EVE

Let heaven and nature sing

RUMC CHRISTMAS EVE

⁷ Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it.
⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands,
    let the mountains sing together for joy;
⁹ let them sing before the Lord,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples with equity

That 98^th Psalm inspired Isaac Watts to write the words

“And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing.”

Watts was a pastor in the congregational church in England at the turn of the 18^th century with a love of rhyme and poetry, and a dislike for the traditional church hymns of his day. His father dared him to come up with something better so he started writing what he hoped would be the Contemporary Christian Music of his day.

The problem: no one in the church wanted Contemporary music.  Watts was condemned as a heretic and a tool of the devil because he rewrote the words of the psalms in modern verse. Refusing to give up he wrote no less than 600 hymns. 15 of which you would recognize as being in our hymnal.

50 years later a music prodigy named Lowell Mason, who loved the classical music of George Fredric Handel wrote the tune we love and paired it with Watts' lyrics.

Joy to the world, one of our most beloved Christmas carols was not originally a Christmas carol at all. There are no angels, no shepherds, nor is there a Baby Jesus anywhere in the text. The only reference to Christmas “The Lord Is come” was in Watts mind actually a reference to Jesus Second coming, not his first. That was until Trinity Choir recorded it in 1911 and it climbed to number 5 among the hits of 1912.

Intended to be Christmas or not, the words that caught my attention are “And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing.”

To us Christmas is a human celebration of an earthly baby born in an all too earthly stable.  We talk of stables, and mangers, and shepherds, and little drummer boys, but that is only the Lower story. The incarnation of God in Jesus at Christmas is so much more than that. The Psalm describes the sea, the rivers, and the mountains breaking forth in song.

Psalm 55 is similar

You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.

You see the coming of the messiah is not just an earthly event. It has an upper story  element.   Christ is a gift to the entire universe. The word of God becoming flesh and living among people The upper story includes angelic visitations, the stars breaking forth in light as never before. (Think star of Bethlehem) Angels breaking out in glorious song (Think heavenly choirs of angels) and all creation bursting forth in glorious celebration that as the message Bible says, “God put on skin and moved into the neighborhood.”

The upper story that started with creation and Eden, moved past the flood and Noah, Abraham and Isaac, Moses and the exodus, judges and kings and prophets, All in order to call people into relationship with God, has taken a completely different route. God, the creator, heavenly divine power, sustainer, king of all, melody of Zion has come to be one of us- as a baby born to two peasants in a stable in a little corner of the world called Bethlehem. The God who spoke through kings and prophets, the God who said I will never forsake you has come to love us, teach us, heal us help us and call us to repentance. The ever merciful and slow to anger judge of all the world has himself come to die on the cross for us.

For that, we and all of creation break forth in joyous song. We and all the earth offer worship and praise to the one and only God, who is born as a baby this very night. We and the entire universe sing praise and glory to the king who is come this night.

And heaven and nature sing,

and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven, heaven and nature sing.

The reality of incarnation Reinbeck UMC 12/29/13

The reality of incarnation

Reinbeck UMC

12/29/13

As I walked through stores this year, I saw Christmas decorations of all kinds. Of course, there were the standard stars, angels, bells, Santa’s and others. Then there were Star Trek, Scooby Do, and smurfs. And even bud bottles, hoola girls and shot guns. There was one decoration that was obviously missing. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find a bucket of dirt. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find an ornament of a bucket of dirt. Of course, a real bucket of dirt would be even more appropriate. Not the kind of sterilized dirt that we get from a garden shop, but real, earthy, organic, rich, maybe even smelly dirt.

Why in the world, you might ask, was I looking for a bucket of dirt ornament? Because the bucket of dirt is the most appropriate ornament I could think of for the real meaning of Christmas which is incarnation.

Incarnation is the idea that the divinity of God took on flesh and became human in Jesus Christ. 100% God, 100% human. Customarily we don’t think of God as getting his hands dirty. He spoke creation into existence. God works through people, especially, kings and prophets. But the almighty God becoming fully human is almost incomprehensible. The God of the universe lowering himself to become one of us and get his hands dirty is just unfathomable.

Unfathomable but true.

The incarnation means that Jesus had to grow up just like everyone of us. As he grew, he experienced all the sorts of things that we experience. No doubt, there were other kids who played tricks on him. He probably skinned his knees playing the sorts of games that boys play. He no doubt banged his thumb with a hammer when he was helping his dad in the workshop. And as he got older we have recorded for us his experience of all the intensity of Satan’s temptations; far more intense than anything we experience, yet without failing the way we do. One of the things you discover as you read through the gospels is that Jesus was indeed 100% human.

Do you remember the incident when he stilled the storm? Do you remember what he was doing when the storm blew up? He was asleep in the back of the boat, wasn’t he? He’d been teaching the crowds all day and he was so tired he fell asleep on a hard bench at the back of the boat. Well, after Christmas I know just how he felt. 

And do you remember the way he occasionally expressed his frustration at the thickheaded responses of his disciples? Like when they’d just come down from the mountain of transfiguration and there’s a boy who his disciples can’t heal and what does he say? "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me." You can hear the frustration in his voice can’t you? He knew what it was like to be frustrated with the people he’d chosen to follow him. 

Christ’s humanity is clear as we read the gospels. That humanity is a reminder that Christmas is a dirty business. Incarnation is a filthy process.

In the dark of the night, a young girl screams in pain and fear. There is the smell of animals, wet hay, bodily fluids, and then the smell of a newborn baby. A new baby that does all the messy thing new babies do.

Christmas is a dirty business. Incarnation is a filthy process.

The baby would see sin and brokenness, temptation and resistance, sickness and pain.

Christmas is a dirty business. Incarnation is a filthy process.

The baby that came at Christmas would see disease and death, broken promises and persecution, broken hearts and crucifixion.

Christmas is a dirty business. Incarnation is a filthy process.

I can’t think of a better decoration to celebrate the incarnation than a plain old musty, real, grubby, crumbly, and perhaps a bit smelly, earthy bucket of dirt.

Our passage from Hebrews, however, gives us a little insight into the work of incarnation. Let’s see if its four images can help us to understand what God was trying to do in the incarnation. Those four images are: Pioneer, brother, liberator, and high priest.

First, the author of Hebrews uses the image of the incarnation as God providing a pioneer for us.

A pioneer is a groundbreaker.

Imagine an explorer cutting his or her way deep into the jungle. Nobody has ever been this way before; there are no paths, no trails, and no signs that say it’s possible to go this way. Yet they go on, forging a way through impossible terrain, until they reach the new land, the ocean, the other side of the continent, or whatever the goal was

Once the explorer has done that, others can follow. Explorers do that kind of thing for lots of reasons: fame, fortune, and sheer curiosity…whatever.

Jesus did it out of love!!! The jungle is the whole world of suffering, pain, sin, and death. Nobody had ever gone through there before and come out the other side. But wait a minute!!! Jesus did! In his incarnation, God faced suffering, pain, sin, and death. And he faced it with the same limitations we have as human beings because Jesus was really 100% human. And because of this, Jesus has opened the way for us to come out the other side as well!!!

Notice the title he’s given here, in v10. He’s the pioneer of our salvation. Later on, in ch12, Hebrews refer to him as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the one who goes before us to show the way. He’s the one who blazes the trail, who clears away the obstacles so we can follow in his footsteps. And he does it as one of us. He can bring us to perfection because he is one of us. And so he brings us to the goal, God, as his brothers and sisters, children of the same flesh and the same heavenly father. 

The second image to help us understand the incarnation in Hebrews 2 is to think of Jesus as our brother. Verse 11 says, “¹¹For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,.”

Isn’t that cool? We could also say, that the one who saves, and those who are saved are of the same family. We sing, "I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God,

Families are funny things. We are all probably keenly aware of that as we move through the family celebrations of these holidays. Families are wonderful things, but let’s just say every human family tree has some sap in it?

But this family of God of which we are a part is different. Hebrews says Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. As much as I love my brother there have been times through the years that each of us has had his turn at not really wanting to claim the other. Jesus, however, has no trouble claiming us. No matter what he looks out for us.

This incarnation means that Jesus is part of our human family. And because of that, we can be part of God’s family.

The third image in this passage from Hebrews comes from verses 14-16

^“14Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. ¹⁶ For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. “

The key there is to “Free” those who were held in “slavery.” Slavery to what? Sin.

This third image reminds us that God didn’t become incarnate just for the fun of it. He didn’t do it because Christmas would be a neat holiday. He didn’t do it for any reason but to set us free from sin. God loves us so much that he came to emancipate us from slavery to sin. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son”… that is not just giving him in death but giving him in life. Giving him in incarnation to suffer the struggle with sin and death.

The human condition is that we are subject to sin. We are subject to temptation. We are born in sin and we die in sin. There is no way around that. EXCEPT. Except that God sent Jesus to free us from sin a death. By his death on the cross and resurrection (Which would mean nothing if it weren’t for the incarnation -- if it weren’t for the fact that he himself became subject to sin and death by becoming one of us) By his incarnation, perfectly sinless life, death and resurrection we are set free… healed of this disease we call sin…and offered eternal life with him. We are no longer bound by the chains of death, but are gifted with life beyond anything we can imagine here and now. A life that has an eternal quality- not just having no end, but having a quality that we can’t even imagine in our finite universe of sin and death.

Jesus is our liberator, our savior.

Finally, Hebrews uses one more image. Jesus as the high priest. Verses 17 and 18 say,

“¹⁷Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

He had to become like us… in every respect. He had to face sin. He had to face temptation. He had to face fear. He had to face trials. He had to face sickness. He had to face death in order to be one of us in every respect. Why?

Well, we have to understand the role of the High priest. The high priest was appointed to stand in the place of the people. He represented the people before the almighty God…especially on the Day of Atonement.

Atonement, spelled at-one-ment, is the day when the sins of the people were brought before God to be forgiven so that they could be “at one” with God again. All those things that separated the people from God... All those sins that drove a wedge between the people and God would be offered up for forgiveness. Actually, the process included a goat, called a scapegoat, on whom all the sins would be placed and then he would be driven into the wilderness and off a cliff.

The High Priest, therefore, had to have a sympathetic understanding of the nature of the struggles and sins of the people in order to place all of the sins on the back of the scapegoat. So that as Hebrews says he could be “merciful and faithful.”

Of course to drive the imagery to its logical conclusion, Jesus is not only the perfect high priest, he is himself the perfect Lamb of God, or scapegoat sacrificed for the sins of the whole world.

By the incarnation, he knows exactly what we are experiencing. He knows exactly how hard temptation is. He knows exactly what a struggle sin is. He knows exactly what it is like to be human because he is 100% human as well as 100% God. Making him the perfect high priest.

To celebrate the incarnation is messy business. It helps us to understand Jesus as the pioneer forging a way for us in the jungle where we have never been before.

It helps to understand Jesus as a brother willing to claim us as his own, love us, and accept us as family.

It helps us to understand incarnation if we think of it as Jesus as our freedom fighter coming to free us from sin and death.

It helps to think of Jesus as our perfect high priest. Taking away the sins of the world on his own back to the cross and the grave.

But incarnation is still dirty work. It has to do with sin and death. It has to do with disease and destruction. It has to do with the almighty God taking on skin and moving into the sin slum we have created here on earth so that he can move us out into a new hope and a new home in God.

Incarnation is dirty, but because of that first dirty Christmas, there is a reason to smile, to brush aside the tears and sing a Christmas carol!

Because of that first dirty Christmas, there is reason to live, to push back the things that rob us of life and live in Jesus Christ.

Because of that first dirty Christmas, there is reason to celebrate- to celebrate that God has come to be our pioneer, our brother, our savior, and our high priest.

But let us never forget that Jesus was born in a smelly, dirty barn in Bethlehem, next to the animals into a world of sin and guilt and pain and death. Let us never forget that God wasn’t afraid to get dirty for us and for our salvation. So when we go home and see out beautiful Christmas tree in all its glory, let’s remember the dirt!

Who knows?

You might even want to put a pail of dirt under your tree to remind yourself why that Christmas tree is so gloriously decorated at all!!!

Waiting in advent love RUMC 12/22/13 (not preached due to weather cancellation)

Waiting in advent love

RUMC 12/22/13

 Here we are already... The last Sunday of Advent… 3 days before Christmas. Where has the season gone? We have been following the themes of the advent wreath. We started by talking about hope and joy, last week Robyn shared about shalom or peace. Today we come to the one that I think is foundational to all the other three. We come to the advent theme that undergirds all the others because it is the very essence of God: it is the fundamental purpose of the incarnation. It is the greatest transformative gift the world has ever known: LOVE.

 First, Love is the essence of God. From 1 john we read what… in the 4th chapter, the 8th verse. Look it up. I John 4:8… if you are having trouble… p 241. Chapter 4 verse 8. In the middle of that verse, we read three simple words, 9 simple letters that mean more than a million words written by the greatest theologians in a thousand sermons. Those three words. . . “God is Love.”

•             Not, God loves.

•             Not love is God.

•             But God IS love.

o             Love is the very essence of God. 

o             In other words love is part of the fundamental characteristic of godliness

People have sought since the beginning of time to define God. Some say the God’s essence is creativity, others eternity, still others power. I would argue, however, that while there is truth in each of those definitions, they all pale in comparison to the power and completeness of the simple “God is Love”

To say God is love does not mean that God has any relationship to our imperfect human love. It does not mean that God is limited to any inadequate or incomplete human understanding of love. It does not mean that our love defines God. It means just the opposite. God defines love.

The word for love here is Agape. The Greek word agape seems to have been virtually a Christian invention -- a new word for a new thing. The Greeks knew philios brotherly love. They knew Eros, erotic love, but Agape was something new.

Before Jesus time the word Agape was virtually unknown. God provided the example and definition for Agape in the unique revelation of God in Christ. It cannot be defined in any other way. Agape cannot be understood in terms of natural human inclinations. Agape cannot be understood in terms of human instinct or feelings. Agape has its source in the divine determination to love. Agape, as defined by God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, is fundamentally the basic element of God-likeness and therefore Christ-likeness.

That is what John is saying when he writes, “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God.” He is saying that Agape is not some objective, impersonal, intellectual kind of love. This Agape is a spiritual gift that comes from the source of all Agape love: God himself. It comes by first experiencing God’s love, and then by loving others.

 Second love is the fundamental rationale for the incarnation.

I John goes on to say “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.” Does that remind you of another passage? “For God so LOVED the world that he sent his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

•             Jesus did not come to teach so much as he came to love.

•             Jesus did not come to heal as much as he came to love.

•             Jesus did not come to do miracles as much as he came to reveal the astounding Agape love of God.

I hope that you remember, from our study of THE STORY, that

•             God created out of love.

•             God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden out of love.

•             God saved Noah because of Love.

•             God chose Abraham and provided Isaac out of love.

•             And on and on

You probably also remember that no matter how many times God loved, people sinned. No matter how many times God loved, sin won.

UNTIL. Until the word became flesh and lived among us. Or as the Message Bible reads, “God put on skin and moved into the neighborhood.” 

In the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus God’s love won victory over sin, once and for all.

Bottom line… God came in Jesus because he loved us. That love is the one and only reason for the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and therefore the one and only reason for Christmas.

So, first, Love is the very essence of God. Second, love is the fundamental purpose for Christmas.

 Finally, Agape love is the greatest transformative gift ever known.

Let me tell you three stories of transformation.

Ted Stallard undoubtedly qualifies as the one of "the least." Turned off by school. Very sloppy in appearance. Expressionless. Unattractive. His mother died when he was in third grade and his father didn’t show much interest in the boy.

Everything seemed to be against him. Even his teacher, Miss Thompson, enjoyed bearing down her red pen -- as she placed Xs beside his many wrong answers.

Christmas arrived. The children piled elaborately wrapped gifts on their teacher's desk. Ted brought one too. It was wrapped in brown paper and held together with Scotch Tape. Miss Thompson opened each gift, as the children crowded around to watch. Out of Ted's package fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet, with half of the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume. The children began to snicker. But she silenced them by splashing some of the perfume on her wrist, and letting them smell it. She put the bracelet on too.

At day's end, after the other children had left, Ted came by the teacher's desk and said, "Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother. And the bracelet looks real pretty on you. I'm glad you like my presents." He left. Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her and to change her attitude.

The next day, the children were greeted by a reformed teacher -- one committed to loving each of them. Especially the slow ones. Especially Ted. Surprisingly -- or maybe, not surprisingly, Ted began to show great improvement. He actually caught up with most of the students and even passed a few.

Time came and went. Miss Thompson heard nothing from Ted for a long time. Then, one day, she received this note:

Dear Miss Thompson:

I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class.

Love, Ted

Four years later, another note arrived:

Dear Miss Thompson:

They just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it.

Love, Ted

And four years later:

Dear Miss Thompson:

As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now; Dad died last year.

Love Ted

Miss Thompson attended that wedding, and sat where Ted's mother would have sat. The love she had shown that young man entitled her to that privilege.  She took a chance and became transformative love incarnate.

There is a story told of an old monastery that had fallen upon hard times. It was once a great order, had become decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left in the decaying monastery, all of them over seventy years old. Clearly, it was a dying order.

As the abbot agonized over the imminent death of his order, he happened to meet a rabbi and ask him if by some possible chance he could offer any advice that might save the monastery.

They talked for a short while and then the time came when the abbot had to leave. They embraced each other, and the rabbi offered one word of advice. “The only thing I can tell you is that the Savior is one of you.”

In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered this and wondered whether there was any possible significance to the rabbi’s words. The Savior is one of us? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks here at the monastery? If that’s the case, which one?

As they each contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat one another with extraordinary love and respect on the off chance that one among them might be Savior.

Without even being conscious of it, the neighbors began to sense this new incarnation of love that now began to surround the five monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it.

Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery to picnic, to play, to pray. Its beauty drew them in. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends.

Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks. After a while, one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. So within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order. Why, because of the rabbi’s advice? No. because the Monks took a chance that one of them was the savior. Love became real and tangible there. Love was incarnate and it transformed everything. 

 A few weeks ago, I told you about a millionaire who met a class of 61 6th graders and offered to pay for their college if they graduated from High School. Rene Cheesman asked me about the end of that story. Here it is.

6 years later in 1987, Of the 61 students 54 remained in contact with the millionaire’s I HAVE A DREAM organization, more than 90% of those have earned their high school diplomas or GED certificates; and 60% have pursued higher education. The Dreamers have received degrees from Bard College, Barnard College, Swarthmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, City University of NY @Hunter, and other schools. Almost all of the P.S. 121 Dreamers hold fulfilling jobs, and those who are now parents themselves vow that their children will go to college.   

Why? Because a man named Eugene Lang took a chance and became love incarnate and transformed the lives and futures of those students.

 At Christmas God is transformative agape love in the flesh of a little baby for you. God’s agape love is taking a chance on you. Making himself vulnerable as a little baby for you. Putting his love into the flesh of Jesus for you. He is doing that in hopes of completely and totally transforming who you are and who you will become. Transforming you to be more God-like, more Christ like.

That is God’s perfect Christmas gift for you. AMEN

Robyn's pastoral prayer for the day.

We pray for those who, like our Lord, have no home this Christmas;

                Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for those who have no family with which to celebrate The Savior’s birth and especially for those  millions of orphaned children throughout the world;

                Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for those whose Christmas dinner will be a cup of rice and thin broth—or less—or nothing at all;

                Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

For those who live in war zones and those who have never known anything but fear, intimidation and the violence of abuse;

                Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

For our brothers and sisters in Christ celebrating his birth in Northern Nigeria, China, North Korea, Iraq and in prison and other areas of the world where Christians are persecuted for their faith;

                Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for ourselves in our need, for we may be most needy of all.  We will have lots of gifts under our tree and more food on our table than most, but for all our wealth we are perhaps most needy.   We are the poor in Spirit.  Revive our faith, we pray.  Stir our souls and let Christ truly be born in our hearts this Christmas.

                Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer.

Finally, we pay for those everywhere around the globe or in our own church who are without hope this day.  May the miracle of Christmas so touch them that the promise of Emmanuel becomes real in their lives – God with us- Our strength and our hope for every need.   We ask this in one heart, one faith and one voice as we pray as Our Lord prayed…

(Lord’s Prayer)

Waiting in Joy RUMC 12/8/13

 Waiting in Joy

RUMC 12/8/13

You see the word everywhere these days. This week I saw it in store windows, in advertisements and commercials, on pins, in Christmas carols, on Christmas ornaments, and on Christmas cards. It seems like, when you start looking for it, the word “JOY” is everywhere during advent. However, looking at the blank faces of the clerks who work behind those joy-filled windows, seeing the empty eyes of the woman wearing the JOY pin, the sad people putting up the ornaments, I am hard pressed to identify much JOY.

I’ll admit it is hard to see joy and hard to quantify it. Dean Snyder writes, “The problem is that joy is not a commodity that can be produced, bought, sold, or stolen. We can’t get joy on discount at J.C. Penny’s. We can’t buy joy in a (cup at Starbucks.) We can’t download joy. We can’t lobby for it. We can’t legislate it. We can’t win it in a lawsuit. We can’t seduce it. We can’t turn it on with a remote control. We can’t earn it. And we can’t inherit it.”[1]

We can’t quantify Joy, but we all know it. At least I hope we do. When have you been filled with joy? Maybe it was the new job or promotion for which you had worked so hard. Perhaps you felt joy when you finally received the degree you studied so hard to get. Perhaps it was at the birth of your first child. (That is one of mine.) Perhaps you won a contest or a sporting event. Maybe your joy came was when “he” finally popped the question, or when “she” finally said, “Yes.” Hopefully, you can identify at least a few times in your life when you have felt the kind of joy that wells up inside of you and bubbles over in tears, or laughter, or smiles, or pride. Hopefully you have experienced the kind of joy that sears itself on your memory and, to some degree, you can recall it whenever you like. I hope you know that kind of fleeting joy, because it gives us a clue to what advent joy should be like.

I have to be clear now, that I am not talking about happiness. We can get a sense of happiness in our life, from things that we do. A satisfying job can give us a sense of happiness. A loving relationship or money in the bank might give us a sense of happiness. A pleasant vacation or good health might give us a sense of happiness. However, Frederick Buechner says, “Joy is different. Joy is something that is as unpredictable as the one who bestows it. We can try to achieve happiness, but we can only receive joy”

That is a second clue to what advent joy is about.       

Let’s look at the story in the Bible from which our gospel lesson is taken. It starts with Mary, a single (albeit engaged) girl from Nazareth. The angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that both she and her kinswoman, Elizabeth, would be having children. Although a child is always a blessing, this news must have been frightening and disturbing to Mary. After all, she was unmarried and a virgin. What would people think? Never mind people, what would her parents think? Never mind her parents, what would Joseph think?

This was dangerous. Mary didn’t tell anyone because the law was clear that if she was convicted of adultery she could be stoned. Even if her loved ones believed her, there was Herod. If he caught wind of the things that the angel said, he would have her and the child killed. We know that from later in the story when Herod tried to get rid of the competition by having the children in Bethlehem killed.

As frightening and disturbing as it must have been, it was also a great miracle. Not only was Mary a virgin, but Elizabeth was thought to be unable to have children. What a tremendous miracle this was!

Mary was as excited as she was afraid. So, as soon as she could, she went down to Ein Karem to tell Elizabeth what the angel had said.

When Mary arrived in Ein Karem, and Elizabeth saw her, the baby in Elizabeth leapt for joy. Now I have felt babies push and kick before they were born. I can’t say that I quite understand what it means when it says that the baby leapt. Even though I don’t quite understand it, I have to believe that somehow, in some mysterious spiritual way even the unborn John the Baptist could feel joy in the power of the nearby savior.

The baby leapt and Elizabeth burst forth in prophecy, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear…. Blessed is she who has believed that what the lord has said to her will be accomplished.” (Luke 1:42)

That is all in prelude to the gospel reading today, which comes from the song of Mary we know as the Magnificat. Magnificat means magnify or glorify and is the first word in the song when printed in Latin.

When Mary heard the blessing of Elizabeth, she was finally convinced. She was at last able to trust that this was indeed God’s work. She believed that in spite of the grave danger in carrying the messiah; despite the reality that her hopes and dreams had been turned upside down; and despite the fact that she didn’t fully understand, GOD WAS WORKING! That's when Mary let loose with a song of joy. “My soul magnifies (or glorifies) the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

 You see she was able to rejoice. Not because of the circumstances of her life which were frightening and dangerous, but because she suddenly saw them through a different set of eyes. Joy comes from seeing life through God’s eyes instead of our own.

Mary continues, “For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”

Mary now sees herself not as a mere child, nor a victim, nor even a lowly servant. Through God’s eyes, Mary sees how blessed she really is, and how fortunate she is to have God working in her life in this very special way.

Even though joy is a simple, three letter word, J.O.Y. most of us have a hard time stringing together those three letters in our everyday life. Life is hard. We come this morning battered and bruised from the beating we took this week. Some come bleeding because they have been deeply wounded by those whom they love. Some come reeking of the stench of sin that weighs them down. Some come just broken by the demands and troubles of the week. The important thing, however, is that we come. We come because we know that we need to see life through a different set of eyes; divine eyes. From where we live slithering through our days, life is scary, demanding, and just plain hard. From where God sits, life looks very different. When we see life from God’s perspective, the grays and blacks of the pain and trouble give way to the brilliant oranges and reds of the joy of being in relationship to and being used by the God of all creation.

Catherine Marshall writes about a friend named Marge: Marge got on an airplane bound for Cleveland. She noticed a strange phenomenon. Through the windows on one side of the plane, the sky was afire with the glorious colors of the sunset. Out of the window next to her Marge could see only dark threatening skies.

Under the roar of the engine, Marge could hear a voice. It said, “You have noticed the windows. Your life will contain some happy times, but also some dark shadows. Here is the lesson I want you to remember. Life is a mix of both heartache and happiness. You must decide which window you will use.

“You see it doesn’t really matter which window you choose. This plane is still going to Cleveland.”

So it is with Joy. We can choose to look through the dark night of our hearts or the bright light of God’s joy.

That is what we are about in this advent season. Seeing life differently. Seeing life from God’s perspective. Seeing ourselves from God’s perspective as beautiful and worthy servants of the most high God. Seeing ourselves from God’s perspective as redeemed sinners. Seeing ourselves from God’s perspective as his adopted children being prepared to receive the full inheritance of joy that is being prepared for us in heaven.

Joy comes in seeing life through God’s window. However, we have to go back to the first two clues before we fully understand joy.

 Remember I said that we can try to achieve happiness, but we can only receive joy. Advent joy is as unpredictable as the one who bestows it. That is a reminder that we do not control joy. We can choose it, but we cannot control it. As I said earlier, joy is not a commodity we can’t buy joy, download joy, lobby for joy, or legislate joy. We can’t win it, seduce it, turn it on and off, earn it or inherit joy. We must simply receive it. Joy is a gift from God. Unpredictable and uncontrollable grace poured upon us by the fountain of all joy, God himself.

Joy comes in the like a summer shower not water from the faucet. Joy comes like the mountain brook bubbling over the rocks, not as a reservoir we can tap at will. Joy comes like a rainbow reflected through the droplets of grace and refracted in our lives filling our lives with the full spectrum of godliness. Joy is a wonderful gift from God who is the wellspring of all salvation. Because if you push joy back far enough in what does our joy lie? WE can only look through God’s eyes for one reason. Because God came to look through human eyes. We cannot see the world as God sees it through unredeemed eyes. It is only in our redemption by the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we find the gift of joy. It is only in our salvation that the gift of joy comes to us and gives us new eyes.

That is really Paul’s message in Philippians his joy rests not on the success of his mission. In fact he had been accused, arrested, imprisoned, threatened, beaten, ship wrecked and more. His mission was far from perfect yet he says, “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice.” Paul does not boast of his own ability but that of Christ. Paul does not lift himself up as an example, but lifts up Christ instead. Paul doesn’t rely on his own plans but ever since he was blinded on the road to Damascus, tries to see the world through God’s eyes.

Therefore, like Paul, our salvation comes only from God; and our Joy comes only from God.

 Finally, joy is life transforming. You can never take away the joy of the birth of my children. You cannot surgically remove the joy of my ordination. You can never steal the joy of seeing my grandchild or sitting beside the river in Cache La Pudre canyon in Colorado. Joy is forever because joy changes us. Joy leaves its indelible mark on our hearts. It transforms the way we look at life and ourselves. Joy fundamentally changes who we are from creatures existing on the face of an insignificant rock floating through space, to children of the one true God who more than anything loves us and wants to transform our existence with joy.

Once you look at life through God’s eyes of joy, you’ll never look back again, you’ll never see the same again, you’ll never feel the same again.

Once we finally receive joy, then, we are marked and changed it makes it easier to receive it again and again. You might say practice makes perfect. Although we may never in this life know perfect joy, isn’t it worth practicing?

To put it all together: Joy is the life-transforming gift of looking at life through God’s eyes.

May this season of Joy find you filled with the gift.

May this season find changed by the gift.

May this season be the gift for which you are looking,

---

[1] "Making way for joy" Sermon Preached At Foundry United Methodist Church  By Dean Snyder  December 8, 2002

Advent 1 Waiting in hope- December 1, 2013

Advent 1

Waiting in hope

Leonid Brezhnev was the chairman of the soviet central committee for almost 20 years. He was one of the great powers in the secular atheistic culture of the Soviet Union. At his funeral, his widow offered a silent protest. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: There in the sanctuary of secular, atheistic power she reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. 

The wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. And she placed that hope in Jesus Christ. HOPE

Eugene Land transformed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Land, a self-made millionaire, had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students? Statistics said most would drop out of school. Many would end up in prison. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment, the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school. One student said, "For the first time ever, I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." They had… (What) HOPE.

The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their schoolwork during stays in the city's hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child's name and room number and talked briefly with the child's regular class teacher. "We're studying nouns and adverbs in his class now," the regular teacher said, "and I'd be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn't fall too far behind." 

The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, "I've been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs." When she left, she felt she hadn't accomplished much. 

However, the next day, a nurse asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. "No, no," said the nurse. "You don't understand. We've been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment. It's as though he's decided to live." 

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?" Suddenly he had (what?)... HOPE.

We light the first candle of the advent wreath today. The candle of hope. Courageous, transforming, life-giving hope. But what does that have to do with advent? Advent is about time. It is about Chronos which is the time we understand which is linear regular and predictable. Advent Chronos marks the four Sundays before Christmas.

 Advent, however, it is also about Kairos. Kairos is the time between the present and the fulfillment of time at some indeterminate time in the future. It is the time between the present reality and the fulfilled promise. It is holy time, expectant time, hopeful time, anticipatory time. Chronos is about measuring what has been. Kairos is about living into what is to come. In Kairos Advent is not about the four Sundays before Christmas. In Kairos, advent marks the in between time. The time between this mundane, ordinary time and the day, when all time will be filled full of God’s meaning.

What is this Advent hope?

First, Hope is bold. Think about Mrs. Brezhnev’s hopeful action.

At that time in soviet history, it was only a dangerous wish.

At that time in world history is was an empty dream.

In God’s time, it spoke of her faith and her hope in the one God of all people and all nations.

Hope is not timid. Hope does not hide quietly in a corner minding its own business. It is boldly out there for everyone to see.

In God’s time, it is time let true justice roll down for both the prisoner and the victim. In God’s time, it is time to boldly raise the banner of hope that tomorrow will be different. Because it will. Not by our own power, but In God’s power. Advent Hope is a BOLD hope.

Hope is REALISTIC.

Think about the millionaire’s offer to pay tuition.

In ghetto time that was crazy. Who would do such a thing?

In our time it is generous, but a little over the top.

In God’s time it made a dream those kids never hoped to have become real. It was not an empty challenge, but a real possibility. It turned the dream into hope by making it realistic.

When I say hope is realistic, I don’t mean that it should be easy. I don’t mean that we should be conservative in our hoping. I do mean that hope creates a new reality. Christian hope is based not in the reality of our world, but in the reality of God’s power and the reality of God’s grace.

Our advent hope then is no mere pipe dream. It is no fantasy. Our advent hope is not one that fits our current reality, but it shapes it and makes a whole new divine reality right here in our lives. Advent hope is REALISTIC.

Finally, advent hope is TRANSFORMATIVE.

Think about the boy in the hospital.

In his chronos time, his life was over, he would die.

In the nurse’s time, there was little hope for the boy.

In steps the teacher with the most mundane of goals and chronos time is transformed into kairos time. The boy grows hope. The expectation of death was transformed into hope for healing. The nurse’s bleak prognosis was transformed into a hopeful future. All because of nouns and Adjectives? NO, because of hope.

. Advent hope is TRANSFORMATIVE.     

Advent Hope is bold

Advent Hope is realistic

Advent Hope is transformative.

Won’t you hope with me this advent?

Stand up this season and boldly hope not for a great sale at the story, but boldly hope in God’s promises.

Stand up this season in to say “NO!” this is not the way things have to be. Bravely usher in the new reality of God’s power really present in our world.

Stand up this season to witness to the amazing transformative power of God’s love and God’s presence in our world.

Let’s hope together. Boldly, realistically, transormatively.

A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water for just a moment and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope!

Those animals somehow hoped that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them.

Certainly, we are not rats in a tub. If we are without hope, however, we are not far from it. Watch for God this Advent for reach down and lift you into hope. A glimpse here and glimpse there may be all we get. But that’s OK because that’s all we need.

Hope boldly, realistically, transformatively.

AMEN