Sword-pierced Souls

(Transcript)

 

Sunday, December 28^th, 2008

Christmas 1B

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Luke 2:22-40

Theme: Reflections

 

²²When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), ²⁴and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ²⁹“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; ³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” ³³And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.³⁸At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.³⁹When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

 

(Thanks guys – (to Craig & Leslie – for their rendition of “Mary Did You Know?”)

 

Did she really know? 

 

I have this image – having been through three newborns of our own… it’s eight days after Jesus has been born, and although it’s not that far to travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, I imagine Mary would have had bags under her eyes from nursing every 2-3 hours for the last 8 days, uninterruptedly.  And Joseph, being a good husband and a good father, was tending to her as well, and was getting about as much sleep – if not a little more. 

 

And they walk into the temple, and this old man takes their baby and starts to say these things about their baby – the same baby who’s been keeping them up for the last eight days –about him being the Messiah.  And I wonder … I know scripture says that Mary took these things and pondered them in her heart.  We have this image of a beatific Madonna, never ruffled, never stressed, but I wonder …

 

It strikes me how many times the Spirit is mentioned in this text leading up from the introduction to where Simeon starts to sing the song to God – thanking him for letting him see the Messiah.  Michael Card has a beautiful song about him – “Simeon’s Song” – it is way out of my range, but most of his songs are.  “Let your servant now depart in peace, for I’ve seen your salvation, he’s the light of the gentiles and the glory of his people, Israel…” … but the mention of the Spirit – time and time again speaks to a sensitivity to the leadership of the Spirit, a lifetime of molding, of tuning one’s life.  And then there’s Anna – if I’m not mistaken, Anna only appears in Luke … and I think Simeon also – this whole passage … but it’s neat that there is both a male and female presence that recognizes that even as a baby, Jesus was the Messiah.  And they are both described as having led lifetimes of preparation, of righteousness, leading up to this particular moment in history. 

 

How many of you have been over to the house over the last two and a half or three years?  Have you caught a glimpse of my study?  Cringe if you want, feel free.  It’s my black hole.  It kind of sucks everything in.  In preparation for family coming, guess what?  Not just the study, but the entire house – the kids did a phenomenal job on the basement.  Earlier this week, Leslie and I started on it at one or two o’clock in the morning, around midnight one night I got the urge to start cleaning, so we did a little bit, but … long story short, beginning about 9:30 Friday night, 3-4 hours’ worth that night, and then continuing through the day yesterday, you can now see the floor in the study.  You can walk anywhere in the room and not bump into a pile of something. 

 

I wonder what it was like for them to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah.  If we expended so much energy and effort relatively speaking, in preparing for family to visit, can you imagine the anticipation that was felt by Simeon and Anna as they prepared for the coming of the Messiah, the savior of the world – not just Israel but of the whole world??

 

I wonder if Simeon had to do some housecleaning of his own, every few months, or few years.  If he pegged an attitude or a thought, and had to ask himself, just like I did as I was going through the stacks of empty envelopes, and papers, and … you wouldn’t believe the amount of junk mail that comes in … or more… that I actually KEEP it, rather than throw it away right away!  (That’s my New Years’ Resolution, by the way, to not get past the trash can without getting rid of the mail we don’t need – there.  You heard it here first!)  But as I was going through the stuff, I was triaging it as I was going along … I would ask myself:  Can I keep this?  Then: Do I NEED to keep this?  Then: do I have ROOM to keep this?  Finally I had to ask myself if this was something I could still do something with, or do something about… depending on what it was.  And I imagined the same process going on in Simeon’s mind as he was preparing himself for the coming of Jesus. 

 

This thought, this idea, this attitude:  do I need to keep this?  Do I have room to keep this?  Will that cut into the room that I will have to give the Messiah in my heart when he comes? 

 

It’s a challenge.  Going through the stuff as I was going through it, I kept coming across cards and letters, notes of encouragement from you all that I’d received over the past couple of years … cards congratulating me on a birthday, or a sympathy card earlier this year in the passing of my Aunt Donna, or in the last couple of weeks, in the passing of Nana.  And it struck me how loving and how kind you all have been to us in our time here.  So if you can picture that at the same time that I was going through things asking myself “Can I keep this, do I need to keep this, do I have room for this, is this something I can still do something with or about?”  I was also thinking “what an incredibly blessing, what a wonderful way to feel Christ’s comforting presence, encouraging presence, in our lives!” 

 

It’s been an odd season this advent and Christmas.  Any time we go through losses as we have experienced, it sets a different tone.  It doesn’t take away from it necessarily; I think it actually deepens the meaning of the celebration. 

 

My hope and prayer is that as we enter into this New Year that we will continue to deepen the celebration of Christ in our lives.    

 

Let’s pray.  

Sword-pierced Souls

(Manuscript)

 

Sunday, December 28^th, 2008

Christmas 1B

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Luke 2:22-40

Theme: Reflections

 

²²When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), ²⁴and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ²⁹“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; ³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” ³³And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.³⁸At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.³⁹When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

 

Beginning about 9:30 Friday evening, and continuing through yesterday afternoon and even into early evening, the Park household was in a state of subdued uproar. 

 

In anticipation of family coming to visit, we proposed to get the house in order as quickly and as completely as was possible within that short timeframe. 

 

If you’ve been in the house anytime over the last … oh … three years, maybe four, you might’ve had a chance to peek into the study.  You would have seen progressively taller and wider stacks of accumulated STUFF … an embarrassing amount of junk mail, old newspapers, loose papers, empty envelopes, boxes, things-to-do-later and generally anything that didn’t have a place to land anywhere else in the house.  I came to terms with the fact that I am much more of a pack-rat that I cared to admit to myself.  For one who tries to not focus on the material, there was an awful lot OF ‘material’ in that one 10 x 12 room.  The good news is, it is done, and it should stay in relatively good shape at LEAST until we can welcome you to our postponed open house – to be announced sometime after New Year’s.   

 

Going through it was a trip ‘down memory lane’, as they say.  I came across lists of names for backpacks, craft projects from the children’s classes, books that we’ve received in the mail, letters and especially cards from dear friends and family … especially in this last year.  Going through them, reading the notes and cards that you wrote to us in the loss of my aunt this past spring and Nana just in the last couple of weeks, I was reminded of how loving and caring you have been toward us – at birthdays, special events, anniversaries, but especially in those times of family tragedies and loss. 

 

It made for a reflexive time in the middle of trying to triage the piles as they went through my hands – “Do I keep this?  Do I NEED to keep this?  Do I have ROOM to keep this?  Is this something I can still DO something about or with?” – All the while also thinking “what a blessing, to have these Saints of God watching over us, encouraging us, and comforting us when we need it.  Even when I goof and give Frannie the theme of the message as the title, there’s still room for grace to cover it all. 

As the floor became more and more visible, and the stacks became less and less, I was also thinking about what it is going to be like starting this New Year with – at least in one sense – a TRULY clean slate.  It’s going to be an adjustment – working in a new environment.  I’m still facing in the same direction, and the things on the walls are basically the same – I only changed one or two things – but the acoustics for one have changed.  There’s an echo in the room now.  I can actually SEE out the window.  There’s room on the desktop to move things around, rather than stack them on top of each other.  It’s a forward-looking environment at the same time that it touches those stones that formed me – there’s a copper bowl from Chile, a miniature replica of an Orreo – a grain barn from northern Spain; there’s a map of the world, my ordination certificate is hanging where it always has, with the palm leaves from this past palm Sunday draped over the top of it, waiting to be burned for ashes in February, and my high school diploma from Chile.  They are all a part of what went into me at one point or another in my life to make me who I am becoming. 

 

There is a sense of anticipation in completing a project like that.  It opens up possibilities that seemed to be stifled among all the stacks and disorder that came before. 

 

The kids were tasked with the basement – the WHOLE basement.  We took Hanna Zhu, Leslie’s friend from seminary, back to her room on campus Friday night, and on the way back we worked out an arrangement with the kids for them to take charge of the cleaning and organizing of the downstairs.  They did a phenomenal job.  The study and the basement were comparable in terms of stacks and disorder, and between the three of them they worked themselves to the point of near exhaustion – to put it to you this way, the boys took naps all by themselves this afternoon after they were done with the cleanup.  Do you know how unusual that is for a 9 and a 10 year old to do??

 

I wondered as I read the passage for today, how eager Simeon and Anna were, anticipating the coming of the Messiah.  I wonder how often they made sure everything was in order within themselves to welcome him?  I wonder if they picked up a memory or an attitude, looked it over a couple of times and asked themselves ‘Does this need to stay with me?  Do I have ROOM for it?  Will it keep me from recognizing the coming Messiah?’ 

 

I wonder if they knew right off, or if it was a slow dawning on them as they were in the presence of the baby that they realized through the prompting of the Holy Spirit who he was? 

 

Are we subject to the same distractions?  Do we end up cluttering our lives up with so much STUFF that we forget the simplicity of the Gospel – that God loved us so much that God God’s self came to be with us, to live with us, to walk with us, to eat and breath with us, to know what being human was because he loved us so, so much. 

 

You know, the fact that we clutter up our lives doesn’t mean that God loves us any less, it simply means that it is harder for US to see him and his work in the middle of it all – from the middle of all the activities and the busyness, from the stacks of things to do, and the working out a path through all of them to get to where we’re going. 

 

Realistically, we can talk about TRYING to de-clutter our lives … we receive several home and family- oriented magazines, and it seems like in the last two weeks we’ve received 4 of them … and at least 3 of them had at least one article about how to organize your home simply and quickly … the problem is, when we read those articles, we’re not exposed to what the homes looked like BEFORE they were so perfectly organized … I DIDN’T, but I wish I had taken a ‘before’ picture of the study as well as the ‘after’ shot… knowing where someone has come from and seeing where they’ve gotten to is a lot more encouraging than seeing where they are and wondering ‘were they ever in the same condition/situation/circumstance *I* am in NOW?’ 

 

The Gospel message for us today is that yes, God has been where we are.  He knows what we are facing, what we are going through, what we have ahead of us … he’s been there and done that. 

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

 

Let’s pray.  

Full of Grace and Truth

 

Sunday, December 14^th, 2008

Advent 3B (third of the liturgical year)

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

John 1:1-14

Theme: Reflections on what living the Love of Christ means

 

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

 

I am a fan of several radio programs, but of one in particular: it is called “The Prairie Home Companion”.  It is a musical, variety, and comedy show that is intentionally patterned after the variety shows from the 40's and 50's,  and it comes on every Saturday evening at 6 PM, and is rebroadcast on Sunday afternoons.  It is carried by our local National Public Radio affiliate, WCVN.  I've been listening to the program for about twenty years, and Garrison Keillor, the host, has a segment towards the end of each show where he recounts the events of the last week in his fictional hometown, Lake Woebegone, Minnesota.  He is a masterful storyteller, and he always begins his monologue the same way:  “It's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone, my hometown ...”  it's a wonderful touchstone for me.  Listening to his voice, the way he weaves the events and his thoughts together is mesmerizing. 

 

I didn't get to listen to him yesterday.  Some weeks that happens.  Sometimes I'll happen to catch him on the second time around on Sunday afternoons, if I'm driving somewhere. 

 

I wish I could start out this morning and say “It's been a quiet week in Emmerton...”  but it wouldn't exactly be true.  In some ways, yes.  It HAS been a relatively quiet week within the former town LIMITS of Emmerton, but in the sense that “Emmerton” means for us “Jerusalem Baptist Church” – understanding the Jerusalem isn't ALL there is TO Emmerton – it has been an … eventful week, full of tragedy and sorrow. 

 

Though as people of faith we can confidently say we celebrate the home going of Elwood and Nana, the fact of the matter is that we can't claim that the celebration is unmitigated joy.  There is profound grief mixed in equal measure with the celebration.  It's there because … well, in part because THEY are THERE and WE are HERE.  It's about the separation.  Elwood and Nana were a joy to be around.  Their absence will be marked by the fact that what they added to our lives each time we got together with them will not be there going forward, but only in remembrances and lessons learned. 

 

The writer of the Gospel was recounting the experience of living through Jesus' presence here with us long after Jesus had risen from the grave and ascended to Heaven.  The view was one that encompassed the entire experience, from Jesus' entrance into the world, through the public ministry, crucifixion and resurrection; through Pentecost and the birth and growth of the Church. 

 

What the writer was blessed to be able to do in putting this version of the Gospel down was to give a sense of perspective to the events that so fundamentally changed the lives of all those people who came in contact with Jesus of Nazareth, and in a larger sense, also fundamentally changed the relationship of the world with God.  The opening lines are profound theological statements about who Jesus was and who God was and what God DID through the person of Jesus.

 

There is no record in scripture of there having been a funeral or anything like that for Jesus after he died.  In part, most likely because there was no time to do that between his death, the observance of the Sabbath, and his resurrection.  But insofar as a funeral will frequently include a eulogy, an oration to honor the deceased person, the Gospel accounts are in a sense those eulogies delivered decades after the event of Christ's death – with the signal difference being, of course, that he didn't STAY dead, so the Gospels are as much about the life of Christ AFTER the … LIFE of Christ … through the church – as they are about the life of Christ BEFORE his death by crucifixion.  And the writer sums his life up in five words at the end of our passage this morning.  After all the theological statements, after the intricately woven phrases about Christ being preexistent, and being God, and being in and through everything that was made, his time on earth is boiled down to this:   

 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.              

 

If you'll bear with me, I'd like to do some editing of the verse.  Not for the purpose of correcting, but to underline – to underscore – what is being said – the short version: 

 

The Word became flesh, and we have seen his glory, full of grace and truth. 

 

That bare-bones version cuts the verse down to the essential components.  It could even stand to lose the middle phrase – “and we have seen his glory” – (read without) but there's an aspect of the Gospel that requires there to be an interaction between the divine and the human.  We are privileged to catch a glimpse of his glory, full of grace and truth. 

 

How did that fullness of grace and truth make itself known?  What was the signal event in the life of Christ that highlighted that feature of the Glory of God?  Was it his miraculous birth?  Was it his teaching the scribes at the temple at the age of twelve?  Was it his feeding of the five thousand or an estimated twenty thousand by the shores of the Sea of Galilee?  Was it in his healing of the lepers, or the demoniac, or the woman with the issue of blood?  Was it in his confrontation with the entrenched hypocrisy of the temple priests and religious leaders who had lost touch with the roots of the covenant God had established with the people of Israel?  Was it in his radical teachings about the Kingdom of God and how that was SUPPOSED to look as it broke into the world? Or was it in his final, cataclysmic surrender to the forces that would claim they were superior and had the final word of life and death, only to be found completely powerless in the face of the redeeming, revivifying, resurrecting LIVING word of God as the stone was rolled away and he rose triumphant from the grave? 

 

The answer, in case you are wondering, is YES.  To all of them.  Yes, because they were ALL a part of who Christ was, or more importantly, who God was in Christ.  Being FULL of Grace and Truth means that in everything he did, that grace and that truth came through.  There was no event, no action, no word spoken that was devoid of that grace or that truth. 

 

We struggle with the concept because we have no point of reference.  We know ourselves to be quirky that way – inconsistent, as hard as we try NOT to be we can't help it.  Some days we're do better than others, some days we wish we could do over.  But we honestly cannot imagine what it would be like to be 'ON' 24/7, to be on target, on point, on task, on message because we are intrinsically incapable of BEING that.  

 

That having been said, we come to the point of the Gospel that is so utterly uplifting:  Grace. 

 

A fellow MK and current Missionary in Chile, Jerry Coy, wrote a letter to the members of the church that he works with in La Serena, a city about 8 hours north of Santiago, on the coast, in the area of Chile known as the  'Little North' – there's the 'Big North' at the northern end of the country, then the Little North to the south of that, then the central region, then the rest of the country on down … (I won't give you a geography lesson).  You may have heard me mention his parents, Frank and Betty Coy, at some point in the past.  I lived with them for most of my last semester in high school, when my parents and the rest of the family were back here on medical leave  during the last half of 1980. 

 

Jerry and his family are back in the States on furlough.  What is now called

“Stateside assignment”.  But like I said, he wrote a Christmas letter to the congregation of their Church, and he said some things that I'd like to share with you.  He wrote:  “The love of our Heavenly Father is real, true, grounded, tangible. God proves it by coming to our reality in flesh and blood, in Bethlehem of Judea.  Thirty-three years later God freely allows the shedding of that blood of this, God's only beloved son, an act of sacrifice and divine love that was incredibly intimate towards each one of us.  Even more so, for me, the great mystery is that that same love of the Father dwells in each of us when we receive Christ into our lives. 

 

The love between believers should not be based on fleeting emotions, nor in human feelings, nor in circumstances or events that happen around us.  It is a love that we receive from God the father, a love expressed through the presence of his eternal Spirit in our lives, and it is perceived as something real and observable through our daily activities.    Yes, it is a love that IS of flesh and blood, that sometimes spills it's own blood.  That is the true love born of faith, the love of Jesus.  My hope is that the love and the peace of Christ would flood your lives this Christmas and in the coming year.”               

     

We have the capacity to understand, to incorporate the knowledge of what that fullness of grace and truth means for us here at Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton. 

 

We've seen it lived out in the lives of beloved members of this faith family.  I'm not saying that we were always in the presence of Christ when Elwood was around any more than I'm saying that anyone ELSE is in the presence of Christ when WE'RE around.  Elwood would be the first to stop us from going there.  He knew his faults, and knew that he didn't always agree with everyone, or get along with everyone.  And if we are honest with ourselves and with each other, we recognize that in ourselves as well.  That friction is part of being fallible individuals working – or trying to work – as one body. 

 

But what we DO have is the example of Christ, and ultimately, the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to move us in that direction.  My prayer this morning is that we would always give in to that movement of the Spirit in our lives.   

 

Would you pray with me?  

The Beginning

 

Sunday, December 7^th, 2008

Advent 2B (second of the liturgical year)

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Mark 1:1-8

Theme: Prepare the Way of the Lord – of Peace

 

 “¹The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

² As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

 

          “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
           who will prepare your way;
          ³ the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
          ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

 

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸ I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

When I mentioned that today’s theme – the theme for the second Sunday of Advent – was Peace, she paused and then asked “is peace the absence of conflict?  I thought for a minute, thought about everything that is going on in the world today – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, and any number of random acts of violence that peppered our country over the last several days and I answered in the negative.  Peace cannot, it seems, be the absence of conflict. “Then what is it?” she asked.  I back pedaled a couple of paces and joked, “Um … oh, yes, it IS, it IS the absence of conflict.  Although we were speaking through a partially closed door, her next comment came through loud and clear:  “I’m serious.”  So what IS peace?  What does it mean to prepare the way for the Lord, for the Prince of Peace, or to work for Peace?  That is, after all, one of Christ’s titles.  Does it seem like that is also a seasonal thing, just like the Christmas tree and the lights and the decorations on our houses and front doors or lawns, and even in our sanctuary?  We don’t generally pull out John the Baptist’s ‘voice of one crying in the wilderness’ at Christmastime, do we?  Do we focus on Christ’s being the Prince of Peace on the fourth of July or Memorial Day or Veteran’s day?

 

Are we guilty of compartmentalizing the role of Christ in our lives depending on the season of the year we are in?  It’s easy enough to do.  It even struck me as a little odd, in getting used to thinking in terms of the liturgical year, we have where we are now at the beginning of the year – Advent – the waiting time before Christ’s birth, then the celebration of his coming, the Christmastide, where we talk about the baby Jesus and how and where he was born, and the shepherds and the animals in their stalls, and the angels in the heavens, then before you know it we turn around and there it is Lent again and the walk towards Easter, and we focus on Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion, and on his resurrection and rising from the tomb, and then a few weeks go by and we’re suddenly at Pentecost with Jesus appearing to his disciples, then some other folks and finally somewhere around 500 others, then comes the ascension … all within a five month period … and then we have the other seven or eight months of the year to deal with, and they are called “Ordinary time”. 

 

It seems like those seasons can be reflected in our lives as well.  We spend time thinking about the baby Jesus this time of year, and come lent we think about the dying of a grown Jesus, then at Pentecost we remember that … and then we settle into the routine of our lives, the ordinary time of our lives.  We may or may not think of Jesus in other terms during more than half of the year, in the different ways that he could be changing us and challenging us and molding us … the danger of disengagement is that we will lose sight of the fact that God in Christ’s call on our lives, just like it was on Jesus’ own life, was to total self-giving, to claiming him as Lord, as I spoke of a couple of weeks ago, of EVERY ASPECT of our existence, including how we live out the peace of Christ‘s presence in our lives.  How would God’s living in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit translate? 

 

We name him Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, but what do those terms MEAN if we don’t LIVE as though God is indeed Lord of Lords, IS indeed the Prince of … do we say here OUR peace, do we qualify it that way, or do we dare to contemplate the possibility that serving the Prince of Peace means to actually WORK for not just an internal, spiritual peace, but an external, tangible peace among the mass of humanity?

 

There are obvious problems with that – with wanting to work towards an external --- universal peace.  First, the sheer scope of the task – beginning with interpersonal relationships – that’s one step removed from the internal peace just mentioned – it is about how I get along with YOU, or YOU get along with HER, and how SHE gets along with THEM … and it goes on and on … the circle expanding from individual, to family, to neighborhood, to community, to county, to state, and then eventually to nation states, and somewhere in there millions of variables get injected into the mix.  How can I be at peace with THEM after what THEY did to MY family?  How are we supposed to live in peace with THEM after they stole my sheep/my land/my brother’s life along with nearly three thousand others when they attacked the World Trade Center?

 

How indeed?  And is that what Christ REALLY calls us to?  There is an element of the Gospel … not really an element, but an aspect of it – one that permeates it so completely that to speak of “the Gospel” apart from it is to have gutted the message altogether. 

 

It is the “application” part.  

 

It’s that part where we take what we’ve learned and have been taught and believe and actually DO something with it, actually MAKE a change in something about us BECAUSE we believe it.  In other words, that we live a life that speaks to a faith that is more than just words and thoughts to us, that has more to do WITH doing, and being, than just thinking something because it is a nice thought and makes us feel good about ourselves. 

 

So the central proclamation in the passage we read a few minutes ago is the quote within our quote of the prophet Isaiah – “Prepare the way of the Lord” … if that is OUR call, OUR command, OUR mandate, then what are we supposed to prepare?  Our hearts?  Our lives?  Our homes?  Where does it stop? 

 

I would submit that the answer is ‘yes, all of the above, and then some’.

 

We DO start in our hearts, but we don’t wait for that reworking to be completed … we are all of us works in progress, and we won’t be completed until, just like our brother Elwood, we are face to face.  We DO prepare our LIVES, inasmuch as we are able, to bring them into and under the Lordship of Christ, because we are called to submit to him and to surrender to him.  We DO continue in our homes, providing the model and example of Christ to our children and spouses.  It all comes together.  Each of those places to prepare is part of the greater whole… part of the whole of our lives as people integrated into an existence that is both physical and spiritual, that is both here and not yet as a part of the Kingdom of God.  

 

Yesterday at Elwood’s bedside I read one of my favorite passages of scripture:  2 Corinthians 4:7-18. (read)  Paul writes – and you've heard me read this before:

 

⁷But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹²So death is at work in us, but life in you. ¹³But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke” —we also believe, and so we speak, ¹⁴because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. ¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

 

Because  of where we are, because of WHO we are, we are called to work in this world, to live through the travails of this life, always keeping in mind what Paul says – that what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal.

     

Would you pray with me?  

But My Words

 

Sunday, November 30^th, 2008

Advent 1B (First of the liturgical year)

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Mark 13:24-37

Theme: keeping “awake” – working while looking for the Kingdom

 

 “²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering,

 

the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

 

²⁶Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. ²⁷Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.³⁵Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, ³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

 

What does it mean to live in Hope? 

Let’s pray.  

The Eyes of Your Heart

 

Sunday, November 23^rd, 2008

Christ the King Sunday (last of the liturgical year)

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Ephesians 1:15-23

Theme: Seeing Christ as God has made him – Lord over all

 

 “¹⁵I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. ²⁰God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²²And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

 

What is it going to take for us to truly live as though Jesus is indeed Lord of all? 

 

We speak of it on at least a weekly basis, some more, some less.  We think about it about as often.  Usually less. 

 

But do we truly live out the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives?  Do we really act as though Jesus Christ is, in fact, LORD of our everyday existence? 

 

Speaking for myself, I confess, ‘not in a consistent manner’. 

 

It’s not that we don’t intend that to be the case, it’s that we don’t live in the full meaning of what calling Christ “Lord” actually means to and for us.

 

In the first century of the Common Era, to call someone Lord actually meant something.  There was an immediacy to the title that became apparent the moment trouble arose. 

 

It is something that we as citizens of the United States living in the 21^st century are largely unfamiliar with.  We might have occasion to see it displayed in the actions of security details assigned to any given major political leader.  We have images burned into our memory of secret service agent Timothy McCarthy getting hit by a bullet that was intended for President Ronald Reagan at the end of March, 1981.  He placed his body between the assailant and his charge, the President of the United States. 

 

While that is an example of serving an earthly “Lord”, we can get our heads around the idea of what it means to simply HAVE a Lord.  In an egalitarian society, one that for the majority of it’s citizens holds to the truth that we are all, whomever we are, equal, the concept of having someone over us for whom we would submit to anything FOR is truthfully, a foreign concept.  It rubs against the grain of our national constitutional conscience that affirms that ‘all men are created equal’ to think in terms of there being someone – ANYONE – for whom we would give up such ‘rights’ as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.       

 

And yet, that is precisely the call of Christ on our lives.  In writing to the Ephesians, Paul was propounding the Lordship of Christ in its fullest sense.  Not simply inward in the manner in which it affected each individual who chooses to CALL Jesus Lord, but OUTWARDLY as well – in the long-term view of history. 

 

There is a given-ness in the passage with regards to Christ’s position in the universe.  Where the passage seems familiar is in Paul’s statement about praying for the Ephesians.  Where it becomes less familiar is where he DOESN’T stop there … he keeps going, and evolves in a few lines a view of Christ that underscores his glory and his power and his position as Lord.  Paul leaves no doubt as to how we are to view Christ, how we are to relate to Christ, and by implication, how we are to submit to Christ if we are to follow him.

 

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Today is the last Sunday of the Liturgical year – the church year – next Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent, and the first Sunday of the new Church year. 

 

We are familiar with the traditional New Year’s Resolutions that are associated with January 1^st of each year.  I would invite us all to contemplate and then to MAKE a TRUE commitment in the incoming year to be as consistent as possible, to be as intentional as possible, to be as humble and courageous as possible, to be unafraid to claim Jesus as Lord of our lives, to choose when we must and when we might hesitate to make those decisions and make them FOR Christ. 

 

To give you an example would be to limit the scope of what it means to make Christ our Lord.  I can name things, but please don’t take this list as comprehensive; the words that come out of our mouths, the thoughts that we allow our minds to entertain, the images we permit into our minds, the attitudes of uncaring, of hatred, of bitterness and outright cruelty, the desires to acquire more and more at the expense of our fellow human beings, to disregard the wellbeing of a brother or a sister in favor of our own, the quest for prestige and acclaim in the eyes of the world at the expense of our standing as a child of God. 

 

Can you see how all these are examples of denying the Lordship of Christ on our lives?  When we choose our desires, our will, our benefit over another’s, we are in fact denying Christ an opportunity to work on us as he is working through us, and we negate the claim that we sing or pray about having him as Lord. 

 

My prayer for us all is that in the coming year – both the ecclesiastical and the secular ones – we will live a consistent ethic of being under the Lordship of the one who taught us that to truly live meant to die to ourselves, and that in order to gain the world we must lose it first.     

      

Let’s pray.  

With These Words

 

Sunday, November 9^th, 2008

Proper 27 A/ Ordinary 32 A/ Pentecost +26 (All Saints Sunday)

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Theme: Encouraging one another through the hope we have in Christ

 

 “¹³But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. ¹⁵For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. ¹⁶For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

 

It is a profoundly compelling vision, isn’t it?  To imagine what that day might look like, when Jesus comes back in all his glory, and according to Paul, with a cry of command ushers in the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth – life as it was intended to be. 

 

It is also, at its heart, a profoundly unlikely scenario – unlikely in the sense that it is UNLIKE anything we have ever – or WILL ever – experience here on earth otherwise. 

 

But that seems to be the whole point, isn’t it?  Paul is coming from the perspective of one who over the last few years had experienced the most UNLIKELY of lives.  This vision that Paul presents to his readers in Thessalonica is one that goes beyond what they could imagine… it speaks to their longing for a day they could look forward to when there would be no more struggle, no more sorrow, no more war.  It speaks to a reality so radically different from that which they had experienced all their lives that even to contemplate it required a leap of faith. 

 

We’ve skipped some of the text of the letter.  In some ways, Paul spends what seems an inordinate amount of time in greeting and expressing his love and prayers for the Thessalonians, and it is in the fourth chapter that he begins the conclusion of the letter – and to speak to some of the issues that he has heard have arisen among the believers.  We’ve jumped to one of the issues that the folks at Thessalonica were worried about – some in their number have died since Paul had left – perhaps even been killed in the persecution they suffered that was the cause of Paul’s hasty departure from their city. 

 

Something we need to remember about the very beginnings of the church is that their sense that Jesus was going to return – literally, physically, trumpets blaring, clouds rolling, thunder clapping, the whole kit and caboodle – was understood to be expected MOMENTARILY – RIGHT NOW or maybe this afternoon, or evening, or tomorrow at the latest, and that sense of expectation translated into an excitement that was contagious, to say the least. 

 

Now, remember also, Paul was of the same generation as Jesus – he was a contemporary of Jesus’.  Even though we have no scriptural evidence of his having seen Jesus before his crucifixion, we know that he DID know OF Jesus – enough to begin persecuting his followers pretty quickly, and we also know of his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, when Saul the Pharisee became Paul the Apostle.  So he had an image in his mind of what Jesus looked like and sounded like.  It is easy when you KNOW what someone looks like to imagine them around you – walking into your house, or into your room, running into you at the grocery store or in the pharmacy … there’s an understanding that it would not be a big deal if you DID happen to run into that person that you are accustomed to seeing IN your daily life.  It’s kind of that with Jesus for Paul.  Christ’s presence – even though it was that one time on the road that day, was a profoundly life-changing experience for Paul, and for MOST of his ministry he spoke of Christ’s return in terms that left no doubt that he DID in fact, expect Jesus to return within his lifetime.  It’s not until he wrote to the Corinthians that we begin to see his allowing for the possibility that he MIGHT not be around when Christ comes back. 

 

So he has left the Thessalonians with the understanding of the probability of Christ’s IMMEDIATE return.  They all look at each other and go “great, it’s going to happen in the next few days or weeks at most, let’s get ready and really show what we believe by how we live.”  And they did.  But then a couple of them died.  And they know what to do with that. 

 

Remember there were some Jewish believers in Thessalonica, and there were also some Gentile God-fearers – those who believed in God but had not taken the steps to become full-blown Hebrews.  While there were SOME segments of the Hebrew Religious community that believed in the possibility of a bodily resurrection – or for that matter, life after death – it was NOT a belief that was shared by ALL Jews, and it was even LESS available as a possibility among the pagan religions of the Greco-Roman world.  My suspicion is that there may have been a larger portion of believers of gentile origin than believers of Jewish origin, just by virtue of the response Paul received in the synagogue, but I don’t know that for certain.  So if these former pagans, who were expecting Jesus to come back anytime now begin to see their friends and co-congregants begin to die off, or to be killed or executed in the continuing absence of Christ, they were not sure what that meant for them.  This is what Paul is addressing. 

 

Up until then, the concept of life that prevailed was that it ENDED at death, period. End of story.  It was foreign to them to consider the possibility that life extended beyond the grave.  And that is natural.  All our senses tell us that.  When we see something dead in the middle or on the side of the road, we have a pretty good foundation on which to assume that whatever animal it was will not be moving of it’s own accord anytime soon – in fact, EVER again.  That’s just the way it works in the world. 

 

To say that something works in such a way that your friend, your loved one – who just died – will one day, hopefully soon, rise from the ground where he or she is buried, and that YOU will join him or her in the air as you BOTH approach the returning Christ in all his glory… that is to describe something that can only be accepted through the eyes of faith because it has never happened before.  There was no point of reference in the reality in which the Thessalonians lived for them to be able to expect something like that to happen.  There WAS in Paul’s experience, because he had a direct encounter with the risen Lord. 

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton? 

 

A phrase I heard repeatedly over the last part of this past week was “I didn’t believe I would see it in my lifetime.” 

 

In president-elect Obama’s acceptance speech in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, he referenced a woman from Georgia who had voted on Tuesday.  She is a hundred and six years old.  Her father was a freed slave at the age of twelve.  Imagine the improbable things she has witnessed in HER life. 

 

We really don’t even have to go THAT far to think of improbabilities, do we?  Think back on the span of YOUR life.  What seemed so far-fetched to you as a child but is now commonplace? 

 

The possibility of Christ’s return happening in the next minute seems remote, this far removed from those who actually walked and talked with him.  And it is open to discussion – and conjecture – when the actual time will be.  Jesus himself didn’t know when it would be.  My thought is, if it was something that Jesus didn’t concern himself with, that’s good enough for me.  I will worry more about what it means to live out his life through me than walk around looking to the sky for any signs of trumpets and clouds rolling around … the POINT is, though I don’t know WHEN it might happen, or exactly HOW, I know it WILL.  And that gives me the encouragement I need when I see some of the less than hopeful places in the world today.

 

Knowing the end of the story IS enough.          

 

Let’s pray.