Anticipation or Relief

Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent and with it a question came to mind: are you feeling a growing sense of anticipation of celebrating the birth of Jesus or anticipating relief that in a few days life will return to normal? Maybe you hadn't thought about that before, how as we get closer to Christmas there is at the same time, for people of faith both a growing sense of the culmination of so much preparation for us to join in celebrating while at the same time for so many Christmas afternoon or evening will bring a sigh of relief that all of the holiday expectations can be put away with the decorations until next year.

Maybe I'm just being a little too cynical this morning, and that's o.k. I guess. It's just that my heart goes out to so many who are working like mad to make their celebrations grand when really the best we can do is give thanks for God's love and for those God has given us. Perhaps our Pilgrim and Puritan forebears were right in de-emphasizing this holy day in favor of others; because if we can't keep straight what it is we are to be about in these next few days as well as throughout the rest of the year then maybe we really have lost our way.

I don't know. Maybe I sometimes wish that I too could have some of the wonder of childhood back. Watching Eric's eyes grow wide the closer we get and seeing him really live faith, albeit faith in Santa, is amazing to behold. Granted, there's nothing all that bad about his faith in Santa, after all his faith in Jesus is stronger and it seems to me that what he believes of Santa is generosity, love, and many other gifts that God bestows upon us. So maybe that's how I'll answer my own question, that is, I'll join with Eric in his childhood faith in Santa and allow my anticipation to build throughout the next week but I will also breathe a sigh of relief as December turns to January that my little boy's faith is still in tact.

City Lights

Today's Gospel is John 3:16-21 and in that passage so well known to so many is a word about what the judgment is to be:

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

That the judgment is light made me think about all the lights that go up all over town at this time of year.

And that made me think about all the heart rending rhetoric in December about how people don't remember "the reason for the season." I myself have been guilty of this too and maybe the real problem is that we don't look around and see just how many people understand the power of the light. I mean there are hundreds of homes just in our small city that are all decked out with lights of many colors and designs. Now I'm sure that some might say that has nothing to do with Christ or Christianity. But what about God's ability to use anything for the good?

Maybe God is using all those decked out homes to remind people of the power of light over dark. Perhaps when we see those holiday lights our hearts might just light up and we can see things in a new way. Couldn't it be that all those festive lights turn us toward forgiveness, love, joy, hope and all things blessed by God?

Or it could be that I'm just plain old silly in reading too much into all the lights around town. But then again, why not?

The Challenge of Keeping Awake

Personally that's a rather ironic titled blog for me this December since I've been having rather a lot of trouble lately getting to sleep and staying asleep. Between the regular demands of the church and family there is the added nagging thought out on the horizon of my calendar of the impending Judicial Action of Kendall Presbytery slated for early January where I will be chairman of the Prosecuting Committee representing the presbytery against one of our minister members. Needless to say it is something that keeps me up at night or jumps into my thoughts when I awake at the small hours of the night.

But as I read the daily lectionary passages for today: from the Psalms through the prophet Zechariah to Revelation and onto the gospel of Matthew they were all about keeping awake for something big coming, for the coming of the Lord. Now for most of us the December crush has probably gotten our Scrooge going pretty good or at least we're having to constantly remind ourselves, even if we're the most devout Christian, what the reason for the season is.

And that's where this "challenge of keeping awake" stuff comes in. I mean, even for the devout, isn't it difficult to keep focused on Jesus? When there are so many expectations placed on us at this time of year how do we keep our focus where it belongs? What, with sales, and wish lists, and bell ringers, and travel plans, and various tasks to complete before midnight on the 24th even if we're engaged in "religious" activities it can be challenging to say the least to keep our focus on Jesus.

Knowing that and feeling it all too often lately is one reason why I've been starting each day with the daily lectionary. Yes, I'm doing so in part to work on an Advent Blog. But I'm also finding that along the way of starting the day with the daily lectionary that my focus, if just for a few minutes is on something other than the pressing demands that may or may not have anything to do with God's will or my relationship with Jesus. The ancient-present words of the Old and New Testaments push me to think about how God is indeed working in my life and at the same time how far I can get from having God in my life.

So, if you have access to a computer I wholeheartedly encourage you all to spend five to ten minutes a day reading the daily lectionary and listening for how God is speaking to you today.

A Revelation

One of the big perennial questions or concerns of new leaders in the church is prayer. Not feeling comfortable praying out loud or more likely, not really knowing what to say is a fear very common in church leaders who are asked to pray. I'm not really sure where this fear comes from. It could be that pastors who are expected to develop a prayer-life over many years of preparation for ministry and throughout our various calls simply look way more comfortable than we really are. Or it could be that those who are less than comfortable praying aloud have seen one too many professional pray-ers and believe that they, themselves, come up short.

But when we turn to the Bible and see snippets of prayer or worship in the Scriptures themselves what is often astonishing to me is how simple and God centered prayer is. Gone are the long-winded prayers that last an eternity, the poetically articulate prayers of note are somewhat missing and in their place what is it that we see?

Well, for instance, take verse eight of chapter four in John of Patmos' Revelation. After John describes the heavenly thrown room of God and the various creatures that inhabit the eternal presence of God almighty we are given a hearing of what the eternal song of praise is when John writes:

"Day and night without ceasing they sing, 'Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'"

It really is beautiful in it's simplicity isn't it? It may not be what many people have in mind when they think about prayer, especially if prayer is about asking. But if prayer is about forming our relationship with, to, and for God, then what better prayer than one praising God?

As you continue to move along the path of Advent that culminates in our celebrations of the birth of the One "who was and is and is to come" may your prayer life be just as filled with prayers of praise to God for being God as much as you prayer by asking. For when you do so, I believe you will begin to see how many of your prayers God is already answering.

Be Silent

Those two simple words "be silent" taken from the thirteenth verse of chapter two from the prophet Zechariah are words that we all would be better off heeding at this time of year or any other for that matter. After all, how often do we sit in silence waiting on the voice of the Lord? How willing are we to let the Spirit speak to us and not just ramble on about our needs, wants, and desires? For how many people is prayer nothing more than a shopping list or wish list?

The fuller context of these two words in the particular passage from Zechariah follow a passage about the return from the Babylonian Exile. It is a passage filled with hope and joy and expectation. It is a passage filled with action words like Up!, Escape, Sing, and Rejoice; of many nations, of many people gathering before the Lord in Jerusalem once again. And then we read the words:

Be silent, all people, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

Do you have the time to listen? How will you be silent before the Lord? Are you prepared for the coming of Him who has roused himself? Please, I implore you, take some quiet time today to be silent and listen for the coming of the Lord!

Ancient Prophecies Today

As the daily lectionary continues to move through the minor prophets of the Old Testament it is interesting to hear how compelling those ancient prophets can be even today. Take for instance the prophet Haggai who opens his message by talking about how the people need to tend to the House of the Lord and not only their own affairs.

Haggai prophesied after the return from the Babylonian Exile when the surviving remnant found their much cherished promised land left in ruins, the Temple included. But like most people they saw to their own affairs and it took someone to speak truth to power before work on God's House, the Second Temple, could begin.

Haggai's words are especially telling as we all struggle with what it means to live within the new realities of our world after the financial meltdown of one year ago. Many of us are making the effort to live within our means and we are hopeful that we are not the only ones, but that those who run Wall Street and sit in the Halls of Power are also doing their best to live responsibly and keep policies in place that avoid another crisis.

Then again, many of us suspect that the old temptations of greed and power have not really gone away; that they are just waiting to reassert themselves and that's where hearing Haggai's 2500 year old word from God is interesting to hear this morning. In his effort to get the powers of his day to rethink a right way to live Haggai said:

"Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes."

I don't know about you, but to me that sounds an awful lot like consumerism: a lifestyle of never being satisfied. When we are consumed by such a way of living then making time to think about God, to focus on God, becomes difficult. And especially at this time of year when consumerism and shopping are so much a part of what Christmas has become, maybe listening in to the prophets of Israel might do us some good.

Struggling with the Daily Lectionary in Advent

Even though reading the daily lectionary has been a good discipline for me to engage in this Advent, it sure has been challenging with the last chapters of Amos and Matthew in particular has been very straining with their words of condemnation and warning. But maybe that's just the sort of thing we need to hear. I mean, even though many of us have felt the effects of the financial downturn over the last year we all still have quite a lot of stuff and if we are not planning an extravagant Christmas it will most likely not be one of nothing and just another day for most of us. In other words, we're mostly all still pretty well off.

So then, reading today's passage from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus speaks out against the scribes and Pharisees may be a word to us, even if we are tempted to think Jesus' words apply only to those people he was berating 2000 years ago. In chapter 23 of Matthew we read the following:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.

When I read those words a little while ago it got me thinking about how much actual time do we spend thinking and praying about the weightier matters of the law; of justice, mercy and faith. You know what I mean don't you? How often are our conversations, church study groups and sermons for that matter focused on treating others in our society with the justice and mercy of God? How often do we spend talking about what it would mean to live in relation with others in our world based solely on faith and not be influence by politics, status, economics or credential? How often are our concerns and arguments tied up in things as seemingly insignificant as mint, dill, and cummin?

Maybe especially in these weeks leading up to the Advent of the Christ we need to think about how the birth of Jesus changes everything; how Jesus in our lives effects every relationship we have whether the most intimate bonds of family or the most hard to imagine bonds we have with those who are profoundly other, but none the less Children of God endowed with the capacity to love and be loved. What if we really took our preparations and celebrations of Jesus into account in such a way?