Oh Say Do You See?

 On April 3, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached this sermon:

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation….

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the coming the glory of the coming of the Lord. (American Sermons (1999), Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. New York, N.Y.)Video: https://youtu.be/Oehry1JC9Rk “Mountaintop” begins at 1:19)

On April 4, 1968, at age 39, the Rev. Dr. King died from an assassin’s bullet.

The vision which the Rev. Dr. King received from God is one which God still places before the eyes of all people of true faith. In light of that vision, can we, God’s people, summon up the courage to denounce hate and violence in all forms and to instead announce love to all people, regardless of their race or religion or politics?

Over the next five days, a fringe of haters, motivated by lies, loss and anger, threaten to rip apart the fabric of a nation which it has taken nearly 250 year to sew. We, God’s people, motivated by the vision of the ‘promised land’ defend against their hate with God’s love, for it remains true for all peace-loving people that, “We (still) have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”

Oh say do you see that vision, placed right before our very eyes?

The Two Sides of Being Jesus' Mother

 

In the days following the Holy Night of Jesus’ birth, I think about how Mary must have delighted in seeing that her child looked and acted just like the other children.  “I can do this”, she thought. 

Then came the traditional trip to the Temple, presenting baby Jesus to the Father. Here Mary was so soon made aware of what must have haunted her the rest of her baby’s life. (Luke 2:22-40)

Being a mother means that you live with the happiness your child produces in life. But it also means living with the sorrow that your child produces in life. Mothers best relate to Mary’s shock upon hearing that her precious Infant Holy would also be the sword which would one day pierce her soul.

“Jesus was still in diapers when his parents brought him to the Temple in Jerusalem as the custom was, and that’s when old Simeon spotted him.  Years before, he’d been told he wouldn’t die till he’d seen the Messiah with his own two eyes, and time was running out.  When the moment finally came, one look through his cataract lenses was all it took.  He asked if it would be all right to hold the baby in his arms, and they told him to go ahead but be careful not to drop it.  ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation’ he said, the baby playing with the fringes of his beard.  The parents were pleased as punch, so he blessed them too for good measure.  Then something about the mother stopped him, and his expression changed.  What he saw in her face was a long way off, but it was there so plainly he couldn’t pretend.  ‘A sword will pierce through your soul,’ he said.  He would rather have bitten off his own tongue than said it, but in that holy place he felt he had no choice.  Then he handed her back the baby and departed in something less than the perfect peace he’d dreamed of all the long years of his waiting.” (Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who’s Who. Harper & Row, 1979, pp. 156-157. S. Hoezee, cep.calvinseminary.edu)

There are always two sides to saying ‘yes’ to God.

Like Believing in Santa Claus

 Do you believe in Jesus like you believe in Santa Claus?

 Or maybe you are like that little girl in the Meijer commercial, setting out her plate of cookies and milk in front of a perfect fireplace and Christmas tree while the voice says, ‘Believe. You have everything else.’  Are you missing your belief this Christmas season?

 You probably watched and sang along with the closing scene in the modern movie classic, Elf. You know, the one where Mary Steenberg is singing loudly off key as she and the assembled New Yorkers sing “You’d better watch out, you’d better not shout.’ Their singing, and the belief their singing represents, gets Santa’s sleigh off the ground just in time as they cause the ‘believe-o-meter’ to reach it’s critical point. 

 What is the ‘belief’ to which their singing points?  That they believe in the ideas that “Santa” represents, the ideas of kindness and sharing and love of people more than profit.  But I wonder, is that also a picture of how so many of us believe in Jesus and the Christmas story?

 We probably believe in the idea of a stable and an innkeeper and shepherds, and we relish the emotions tied to dark, starry nights. But is that it? Is that believing in Jesus? Or is that believing in Jesus just like believing in Santa Claus? Believing in Jesus is about believing in a person. A person who is God in human flesh. That is more than an idea. It is more than an emotion.

What gives flight to the angels wings and the shepherds feet on Christmas Eve is not a belief in sentimental thoughts but a belief that a long-promised, physical birth of Emmanuel, God with us, finally happened in Bethlehem.  To believe in that Christmas Story is to believe in a real birth, witnessed by only two people and a collection of barn animals, none of whom are talking.

 This Christmas Eve I invite you to consider with me whether you believe in Jesus, not like you maybe believe in Santa Claus, but like you believe in gravity, sunburn, electricity.  You cannot see those things happen, but you sure can see evidence they are real, right? Let us help you rediscover what you really believe. 

This Christmas Eve, worship the One in whom you believe.

Disappointment, Doubt and Jesus

 the mother who is hanging onto her last thread of hope for a "problem" child;

…the spouse who stares at the wall wondering what happened to the marriage;

…the sick person who wonders when, if ever, healing is coming;

…the child who struggles to find some way to understand that Mom won’t be here this Christmas;

...the survivors of the storms of life, who wonder why the tragedy happened, why their lost loved ones were there.

December, the church’s season of Advent, highlights the disappointments of life in a stark way.  The month in which we are supposed to celebrate Hope, Peace, Joy and Love seems to instead be filled with news or memories of just the opposite. And when disappointments persist to those locked in prisons of despair, the mind moves to doubt. Is Jesus really the Messiah we seek?

We can relate, a bit, to John the Baptist who was so fired up to announce the coming of the Messiah, but who finished his days in prison, waiting for the end of his life, which ended with a decapitation. How exactly was Jesus being the Messiah for his prophet, John?  Are you the One we have been waiting for, or is there someone else?  John’s inquiry of Jesus becomes our question.

The mission of Jesus, then and now, and the concurrent mission of the Church, is to encounter life’s disappointments and doubts with pictures and stories that people with eyes of faith can see. The child who was to die but now is scheduled to graduate from college.  The people with “incurable” cancer who instead become cancer “survivors.”  The poor being fed and clothed. The unjustly punished receiving justice.

Advent’s message is that if you look with eyes of faith, you will see just enough; just enough to see disappointment filtered through the lens of Joy; just enough to replace doubt with Hope. The almost hidden beauty of Advent is the promise that Christ is real, here still, and coming again.  Until then, the faithful, today's prophets, can be excused expressions of doubt generated by cruel disappointments, for staring at the empty manger and wondering, Jesus, where are you?  Until then the prophets need to still go and tell it on the mountain, Christ(mas) is coming. Just you wait...

Leticia's Oven

 Free oven! Free oven! The ad on social media offered our free wall oven to the first family who responded. 

Leticia was first in the virtual line.  As we loaded the oven into Leticia’s car, we chatted about life and family. Leticia was from the south of Texas, living in Wisconsin because of a temporary job her husband found. They would soon be going home, oven in tow.  As we talked about Leticia’s family and life, I thought about how a simple thing like giving away an oven became the one way in all of the universe for Jill and I to meet this lovely Texan, a woman I would be thankful to call my friend and neighbor.

As she was preparing to leave, Leticia looking at the new oven in the back of her car, said, ‘beautiful.’ To us it had been an oven we didn’t need. To Leticia it was a treasure found. I imagined Thanksgiving morning, Leticia waking up early, turning on the oven and counting the hours until her turkey, prepared in her beautiful oven, would be ready to parade in front of her thankful family.

On Thanksgiving morning I gave thanks to God for the blessing of Leticia, for making this big country seem just a little bit smaller. 

It doesn’t take a lot to tear down the fences that divide us, to remove bricks from the walls that separate people who might look or sound different from you, whose politics or religion might be different than yours. Meeting a stranger in your driveway and talking kids has always been a way to make friends, right?  Maybe the long journey to unity in this country begins in your driveway.

If you want to be an agent for change in this crazy, mixed-up world, you could do worse than finding something you don’t need which someone else will find beautiful, and then take the time to meet, to talk, to become friends.  Jesus said, “Whatever you did for my brothers and sisters, you did to me.”

Thanksgiving blessings are found when we learn anew how to give and receive with grace toward each other.

I don’t know if Jesus had free ovens in mind, but it seems like a good place to start.

 

A 'Civil Body Politic'

Before the Pilgrims got off of the Mayflower they had to agree upon how they would live together in the land they were about to enter.

‘How can we live together?’ is basic question which underlies every community’s government. The answer which the people agree upon becomes the fabric which holds a society together, that which allows it to endure over time.

Before the group of over one hundred people we now know as the Pilgrims departed the Mayflower, on November 21, 1620, all of the men signed an agreement which we now know as the Mayflower Compact. This varied group of people had a variety of motives for crossing the ocean to establish a new England colony. When they arrived and were required to choose some way of governing themselves, they notably chose a government of the people, by the people.

The Pilgrims agreed to form a “civil body politic” which would “enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices…as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”  It would be a community governed by laws, not by the preferences of one or a few men. That which was enacted into law by the community would govern everyone in the community. No one was to be above nor beyond the law.

Our social compact rests on this idea: that in order for us to live together we all must submit and obey to the agreed upon laws of the land, even, or especially when we do not like how those laws affect us. Those who disagree with the law do not disobey it. Rather, they seek to change it as the laws permit. Thus the fabric bends but does not break.

Thanksgiving 2020 celebrates that we are still able to live together because we remain a ‘civil body politic’, in which the idea of a government of laws is stronger than the idea of  ‘getting my own way.’ Maintaining a ‘civil body politic’ requires good Pilgrims to rise up against those who would tear the social fabric which binds us.  Be a good Pilgrim, Pilgrim.

 

Christian Losers (and Winners)

How will you react if your candidate for President loses the election?

On the morning after the results are known, which could be days or weeks (Lord, I pray not months!), what will remain your greatest Christian obligation? To love God and your neighbor as yourself.

Here is a ‘Wednesday Prayer’: “Lord, help me to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat, displaying your love to everyone I meet. Amen.”  Practice that prayer today, before you know who won.                                                    

Tuesday will mark the 17^th United States presidential election of my lifetime.  I have a fairly good recollection of perhaps 15 of them, starting with 1964.  While every presidential election seems to be of world-shifting importance right before it happens, it seems like the election of 2020 is being taken more personally than any I can remember. Families and friendships and church communities are at risk of being broken for good because of the deep divide among us.

That should not happen among Christians. Elections are temporal. Friendships are eternal, or at least they can be if we obey the Great Commandment. Christian friendships should survive elections.

How should a Christian react to the outcome? First, be humble in victory. Don’t gloat. Celebrate, yes. Gloat, no.  Second, be gracious in defeat. Don’t pout. Mourn, yes. Pout, no.

You cannot love your neighbor as yourself if you transfer your feelings about your candidate’s loss to your feelings about your neighbor. The fact that they supported the ‘other candidate’ doesn’t make them a bad person. Really. They may be wrong (in your mind) but not bad. Humility suggests that when we confront those with whom we disagree we think,  ‘They might be right.’ 

Everyone who cares about our nation and its future believes that they have chosen to vote for the best person to lead it for the next four years.  You should be passionate about your political beliefs, but be more passionate about loving your God and your neighbor, especially those who celebrate victory at your expense. You don’t need a command to love people with whom you agree.

Be a Christian loser, or if God so ordains it, a Christian winner.  “Lord, help me to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat, displaying your love to everyone I meet. Amen.”