The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood

The Word was first, 

the Word present to God, God present to the Word. 

The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. 

Everything was created through him; nothing - not one thing - came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out. 

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. 

We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son. Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

There was once a man, his name was John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light. 

(John 1, The Message)

The Word became flesh, became one of us, the same as us, human, wrapped up in skin with bones and muscles and tendons, with a heart and other organs and a brain inside a head. Jesus was like us in appearance and was GOD!!! WOW!!! This season of coming, of Advent, of waiting, of hope, of expectation, of new things, of new birth, of God being WITH, the gift of with, and all because His creation needed restoration and redemption. How do we live well with the already and the not-yet? We long for peace and grace and life and light. As we draw nearer to December 21, the winter solstice, the shortest day, the one that has the least light, we long for light. Light that has come, that will come again.

"Every person entering Life he brings into the Light."

Do not fear

Exactly a year ago yesterday I was invited to preach to the residents of Covenant village which is a senior living complex. I was unsure of what to share as what can I say to them that they do not already know? How many Advents and Decembers have they experienced that the familiar story of God breaking into the human world in the form of another human is so known to them that nothing new could be told? The text for the day was from the gospel of Luke and I was specifically looking at vv26-38, the moment when God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee. Gabriel's job was to go to a young woman (also known as a virgin) that was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. Luke gives us a detail about Joseph - he is a descendant of David. David was a king some few hundred years back, his story being chronicled in the Old Testament books of the Kings and the Chronicles.

Gabriel came to the young woman, whose name was Mary and he said these words to her: "Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). Now to us who know the end of the story, and the gist of what is going to happen with the child that she will carry in the next few weeks, months and years, these words are great words. Who would not want to know that they are highly favored and not only that, but the Lord is with me? Sounds like the sort of thing I am really longing to hear now please. However Mary's response to what she saw and heard was the following;  

"Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be."

If an angel appeared to me telling me such marvelous things I might respond in a similar way in my "greatly troubled-ness." That is to say that I would be completely freaked out of my wits and most likely tell him to go and talk to someone else much more deserving than me and leave me alone.  The gospel writer Luke, being a doctor, has a "doctor-like" matter of fact way of telling the story. He is a detailed person and so wants to get the facts out and was probably a little less concerned with Mary's reaction of amazement and utter terrifiedness.  So Gabriel is sensitive to put Mary at her ease as is possible for an angel to do, given the circumstances so he talks gently to her:

"Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God . You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:30-33).

The words that stand out for me are these; "Do not be afraid." This is not the first time Gabriel has said these words to a human being. Mary's cousin, Elizabeth is married to Zechariah. Both are "well along in years," so too old in human terms to have a baby, but with God, nothing is impossible and Gabriel says as much to the man. Gabriel also told Zechariah, "Do not be afraid..." Zechariah's reaction to this visit from the angel was to be "gripped with fear;" much more afraid than Mary, who was merely troubled!

How many of us are or have been at some point afraid? From the number of times that the command not to be afraid is in some shape or form mentioned throughout both the Old and the New Testaments to people like you and me means that being afraid was a common thing to be. Of all the commands in the Bible,  the most frequent command is to not be afraid. That is what we are called to do when there is every reason to be afraid. When we are not sure what we are going to hear when we make routine or not visit to the doctor, or are with people waiting to hear results of scans. We are not to fear when we have no idea how we are to pay for the latest drip through the ceiling into the first floor because we are already living on the edge of our resources. We are not to be afraid when we can't see the road ahead of us, either because there seem to be few viable options or the options available to us are will cause other issues that will ensue more fear.

Yet here it is, as clear as day: "Do not be afraid..." Neither Mary nor Joseph, not Zechariah or his wife, Elizabeth knew what the next few years would bring. Both mothers would see their children suffer and die. One would give birth to the one who was God's way of redeeming the world to himself and the other's son would be the one that went before him even though he was before him (John 1:15). All they both knew at this point is that they would give birth to baby boys. The rest would be too much for them to take in at this point.

Are we able in this advent season to not be afraid, no matter how many unknowns there are in the coming days? It is not easy, but the command is clear; "Do not be afraid.......do not fear....."

"Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him..."

A childlike faith

I have known the Christmas story for many years. When I was a child, probably around 7 or 8, I was chosen to play the part of Mary in a nativity play. I had a blue dress and wore a dish towel over my head - I think it was a dish towel, and I got to hold the baby Jesus and speak to an angel in a white bath robe with tinsel around his head. There were shepherds in their bath robes; one cried because he was pushed by the head shepherd and that was not the way we had rehearsed the play. I held hands with a boy named Joseph who was going to be my husband, and said my lines in the right order at the right time much to the relief of my mother. I sat down with a sheep and a goat and a camel (the stuffed toy kind not the bleating, smelly and real kind). I meekly bowed my head on cue and looked lovingly at the baby doll lying upon my crib which was surrounded by straw and softer things upon which to sit. There came wise men from the east, the other side of the church, bringing their shiny gifts and announced to all assembled that they had made the long journey because they had followed a star that gave light to all around. It was such a bright star that it must mean something special and they were star-studying experts. And so they followed the light and came down the green steps to visit me, Mary, and my husband, Joseph, and offer those gifts to my new born baby lying peacefully and gently in my doll's crib.

Many churches across denominations will re-enact this story in these December days. Every year we do this to remind ourselves and our fellow human beings that long time ago in Bethlehem, so the Holy Bible says, this really did happen. That indeed a shoot came up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch did appear. That the Spirit of the Lord rested on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord, and he delighted in the fear of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord anointed Him to proclaim good news to the poor, sent to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. His name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace (Isaiah 11).

Whenever God's story is presented, no matter how we choose to do that, with children, or grown ups or a combination of both, God's truth is revealed. Perhaps we don't see a lot of peace or wisdom or understanding in our own lives and of those around us and we are mistakenly led to think therefore that the child in the manger was really just a doll, just a nice story, and the children re-enacting the picture were just cute little kids doing what the grown ups told them to do. Perhaps it really is just a nice story, suitable for bedtime reading but not having any more significance for our lives than that.

Or perhaps God really has entered into the human story by being with us, by coming disguised as one of us. Perhaps the truth is that we have missed the signs and we are much like the innkeeper or guesthouse owner who didn't recognize that the young couple knocking at the door looking for safe sanctuary was actually the human parents chosen to care for the most precious gift they could have.
Perhaps we need to return to our childhood selves and in our grown up understanding see through the dishtowels and bathrobes and soft, squishy straw so that we will be once again filled with awe and hope and expectation. Hope that is beyond our comprehension even in our grown-up-ness; that God in so wanting to reveal Himself to us, to redeem us, and walk us through how to live in His kingdom would come as one of us,  the Son of God in wrapped in human skin and vulnerability.

This is what the Lord Almighty says: "In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 

'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you'" (Zechariah 8:23).

Monday - 2nd in Advent

My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will and make music with all my soul. Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens ; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. 

Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered 

(Psalm 108: 1-6).

The psalmist is so wanting to praise God that they are prepared to arise before it is light, before the dawn has taken over from the dark of the night. By the time it gets to this time of year, that is not so hard as it is still dark when most of us get up. But the point is that the worship of the Lord is so crucial, so needed, so essential for the day that the getting up part is not even worth thinking about. Everyone awake! Look! I will praise you, Lord, among the nations for it was to the nations that you came. The Lord Jesus, came into the world as a tiny baby, just as we do. God so loved the world that God put on skin and walked among us.

Jesus Christ came into the world to set his people free, to be set free from the bondage of sin, of despair, of destruction, and of decay.

The gospel writer John, records Jesus' words to Nicodemus:

 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him...light has come into the world."
(John 3:16-17)

This is for us - for all of us, for every human being who has ever walked this earth, who has been born into this created world that was a gift from the Creator. Great is your love, Lord. So great that you came so quietly, so unexpectedly, You had prepared the way for Your coming but so many missed it. So many missed the event that was to change the world. We were not ready but You had already done all the preparation by declaring the news through Your prophets, speaking of the event over and over, promising that there would be a day when the true light would come to the world that You have created but the coming would be do different from our expectations we were not prepared. Yet still You allow us to come as we are.

Save us and help us....help us see You for who You are. No longer a tiny helpless baby, but a great and glorious King who is coming again to reign. 

Come, Lord Jesus....

Advent 2nd Sunday

This week of Advent reflects on peace. Nearing the end of his letter to the Philippians the apostle Paul tells his readers that the Lord is near and therefore to not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Phil 4:6). And then he continues:

"...And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (v7).

A pastor friend calls this the peace that makes no sense. This is the peace that we have because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. There is no other way we can have this kind of inconceivable peace and as far is the world is concerned we should have no peace, but we do because of Jesus Christ. This is the peace that comes from above comes because we are fully relying on God and on his promises. This is the peace that Jesus promised when he was with his disciples and the door were locked for their fear of the Jews. He came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Just to make certain that the disciples caught those words, Jesus showed them his hands and his side and said again, "Peace be with you" (John 20:19-23).

How can we have peace when we don't know from where the next pay check is coming or the fear of foreclosure on a home is frighteningly close? Where is the peace when our children are making choices that are not so helpful and walking with the Lord for them something for which they no longer have the time? What about our job security? How can we have peace when there is no job for us to work? What about the future? The future is unclear, uncertain, and God seems distant and silent on our fears and hopes and dreams. Where is the peace when we can't see what tomorrow will hold or when the diagnosis is not what we want to hear?

The arrival of Jesus Christ into the world, the saviour of the world, was promised from the beginning. He is the Prince of Peace, the glory of the Lord revealed. Peace that the world brings is not peace at all. Peace that the world brings is dependent on me, dependent on my circumstances, dependent on my feelings, dependent on the things that I can provide and dependent on what is visible, and on what I already know. The peace that comes from the knowledge of the Lord does not depend on me. That peace, the kind that makes no sense, the like of which is beyond our understanding is only available to me because the light of the world came into the world and He is coming again.
Listen to the words of Isaiah:

"Do you not know?  

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint"

(Isaiah 40:28-31).

I do not know how this works. I have no idea how there is so much uncertainty all around me and while my expectations may be crashing down and yet somehow, incredibly, inexplicable, I have peace because I believe in the One who made me and has promised me and given me this peace. It is not easy, I don't pretend that it is but there is the peace that makes no sense, no sense at all. Only by God's grace do I have this peace and only by God's grace will I continue to have it.

Prepare the way of the Lord...