Holy Name 2017

Feast of the Holy Name 2017

I had a roommate once who loved decorating for Christmas… but the day after Christmas, and I mean THE DAY after, she was tearing stuff down and stuffing it into boxes declaring that CHRISTMAS IS OVER!

You and I know that it isn’t quite over… while the rest of the world has moved on (there are valentine’s day displays up and even Cadbury Creme Easter eggs out already!) you and I are stopping to pause at the manger a little longer… Bethlehem calls to us to gaze upon the holy child just a little longer before we run off to do other things.

    On the 8th day after the birth of Jesus, his family does what families in that time and place did, and they named him… Seems a rather simple thing doesn’t it?  But the naming of a child is a holy thing.  I can remember when my former bishop baptized my son and asked us to “Name this child”... it was a holy moment of giving him an identity… and of formally placing him within our family and the greater community.

So it was even for Jesus.  His family performs the holy rituals of naming and circumcision, giving him the name that God has chosen for him and placing him officially within his family and community…

It seems simple, but it is part of the continuing story of God being made man, of God becoming incarnate, taking on human flesh for the sake of all of us for all time.  God, creator of heaven and earth, comes down from heaven and is born into the world as baby to a family of humble means… giving up the power of being God, and becoming human… all because of love.   It’s the kind of love that we get to experience all around us if we open our hearts and our eyes.  Because God chose to be born and named Jesus, not only is God part of humanity, but… you and I are now part of God.  Incarnation, the taking on of human flesh by God means that humanity is now all wrapped up in God… we are adopted as God’s own… we are made holy, taken up into God’s very life… even as God shares our life… and the thing is, is that life as you and I know, is messy… sometimes horribly so, sometimes endearingly so.  Maybe that’s why God chose such a humble human birth, to emphasize just how messy life is, and how much God loves it… yes beloved, God loves our life, and God loves it enough that God becomes part of all of it, the good, the awful and the stuff that’s in between and messy…

But that’s what it’s like being adopted by God… the magic, if you will, is in the ordinary, day to day stuff of life.   Jesus is named today, and the gift is that WE are the ones who are adopted and brought into the family, and like all families, there are amazing parts and the parts we don’t like to talk about; there are good days and bad days…. There are joys and triumphs and there are times of darkness… but we are all brought into the family of God… and we are all loved… and God has chosen us… all of us are part of the family now, not just the people we like either, but perhaps especially the people we don’t like… that’s what it means when God chooses to become human… it means ALL of humanity is adopted by God and all of humanity is made holy… hard to imagine when we go about our day isn’t it?  All means all… we don’t get to choose who is in and who out; because as we follow Jesus we know that those whom others have left out, are actually in… no borders, no walls, no proper manners or whatever else we might use to exclude someone… all are adopted into God’s life because God so loved the world that much…
For us it means loving those whom God also loves.  It means putting our prejudice aside and allowing God’s Holy Spirit to guide us in how we interact with God’s people… what if, when we interacted with someone who raised our internal hackles, we stopped and thought…. “They are God’s too… just as I am…”  We all know, if we looked deep inside us, that we aren’t really worthy of that much love… but it doesn’t matter because God loves foolishly and lavishly… maybe we can too… just because we are loved that much….

While society puts Christmas in a box and gets ready for the next big thing, trying to help us find happiness in a store display… you and I will linger in Bethlehem a little bit longer… the gift of Christmas is never really over for us... In a Sunday school curriculum that I used to teach to young children, it suggested that a Nativity set be in the room at all times for the children to handle and play with, because it was important for them to remember that God loved them so much that God became one of them… it helped the children realize that Jesus was close to them and loved them and experienced what they did… perhaps we might linger extra long today to remember that lesson as well….  Merry Christmas beloved.

Christmas eve 2016

Christmas Eve 2016

    “The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Tonight we hear beautiful words from the Prophet Isaiah that reach through time and space to greet us this night, and be fulfilled here and now… Our Advent wait is over dear church; the one for whom we have waited has come into the world… and God, in God’s infinite, and sometimes mind boggling wisdom has seen fit to come into the world as one of us; as a child…. We have been given the gift of a son, a holy child who shall change absolutely everything…  babies do that…. They change things… they change the way we sleep, the way we make priorities.  They change US… they change everything about who we are… and so this baby comes tonight to change things, to change absolutely everything… this baby comes as God in the flesh to cause a revolution… on a dark night, surrounded by animals… a king is born into the world; born into the messiness of our lives just as surely as he was born into the messiness of first century Palestine…  After all, there really isn’t a good time for a baby to come, is there?  There is always more that can be done to prepare; we always think if we had more time… maybe we could do it better at some other time and place… but it is not us who choose his coming…. God chooses it… and this is the perfect time, the best time, because it is God’s time, even though it appears as though God really doesn’t seem to have the timing thing down any better than any of the rest of us…. God’s timing was so bad, that there wasn’t anywhere for this humble little family to go… but yet, just like any other baby, this one comes, whether we are ready or not, making his way into a world that often will misunderstand him and his reasons for coming… and as always, when it is God’s time, it is perfect...

But tonight, despite what will one day come to him, tonight at least, there is peace… Hope and love and peace have been born in the flesh as this child.  The God of Love has given Godself in the form of a son… a child who needs to be fed and cared for… a child who will crave attention and love… kind of a crazy way to get a point across don’t you think?  God risked everything to be born this night… and whether we are ready or not, no matter what we think of the timing, he is here… and we need him; we need him as much as he needs us.  We desperately need to experience and live into the changes this child shall create in us… but they won’t be easy.  This baby, like all babies will demand these changes with every movement and sound he makes… tonight we turn our hearts into the hearts of people who want to give this baby everything… we will be wrapped around his little finger, and with any luck, we will do his bidding… it’s hard to imagine that this birth brings with it such change and such a peace revolution , but it does; this birth asks us to love when it seems impossible to do so… this baby asks us to put down our weapons, and work for peace with our neighbors and with our world; this baby asks us to put aside our fears so that we can do what is truly right, rather than what is safe… and that is how we care for this infant… by caring for others around us; by doing what is right rather than what is safe or expected… having a baby to care for means that everything is different… it means that we are different….

It is hard to prepare, even though we have been waiting… and now the preparations are over, the holy child is here… may we open our hearts to the child who has brought love and hope and peace into the world.  May we each be able to change and become the caregivers that God has asked us to be… tonight, may there be joy, hope, love and peace on God’s earth…

I leave you with the words of Ann Weems and her poem, “Holding”

The Day is here, and we made it to Bethlehem!  The time has come for kneeling and we’ve seen the Child!  There is singing in the stable and we want desperately to hold on to it… hold on to the Star and the Angels!  And the Spirit of Love!  How do we hold on to the Christmas spirit?  Why can’t every Day be Christmas?  The world mutters, “be realistic,” and sometimes we church people mutter too.  On our way back from Bethlehem sometimes we forget what we’ve been warned about in a dream:  to return another way.  Once we’ve seen the Child, we’re left holding hearts wherein angels dance and stars sing!  Once we’ve been to Bethlehem, every day is Christmas!  -- Ann Weems, “Holding” from  Kneeling in Bethlehem, poetry for Advent and Christmas.

Baptism of our Lord

Baptism of our Lord
Year A
January 8, 2017

    One of the vows that I have taken both in my vows of ordination and in my vows as a Third Order Franciscan has to do with obedience.  In my vows for ordination, it concerns being obedient to our bishop and his direction… In the Third Order, it is obedience to the Order, which means following my Rule of life; that being that I will pray the Daily Office (among other things), contribute financially to the Order, report to my area Chaplain once a year, study scripture, meet with other Franciscans… you get the idea.  Often when people hear that you have a vow of obedience to take, they tend to look at you like you’re nuts.  Why on earth, would someone do that?  I know when I was in formation for the Third Order, I had a hard time with it too.  Part of it was my background in the military brought some not so pretty reminders of what obedience can look like; and like most folks I saw it as a lack of freedom.

    Certainly, blind obedience is almost never a good idea.  Anytime we are in relationship with others in authority over us, we must be able in most situations to raise questions about what we are being asked to do, and in cases of justice or life or death… we must examine the greater good and whether obedience is really a good thing…

    But religious obedience is not quite like the obedience that one might experience in other kinds of situations; and believe me it took me years to figure this out, and I imagine I am not alone… My favorite Jesuit contemporary writer, James Martin says that a vow of religious obedience is really about being free.  Sounds a bit like an oxymoron, right? How can being told what to do be freedom?

    In religious obedience, it can be about having certain decisions made for us so that we don’t have to spend the time and resources on other things… For Jesuits, being obedient means that they don’t have to make decisions about what sort of work they will do; they are free from making decisions based on money or family; in an odd way, this frees them up to use their mental and spiritual resources on their relationship with God and with those they are in ministry with.  In the Third Order, obedience means that there are some decisions I don’t have to make; so I am free to use that energy for other things.  One of the things that James Martin says is that the vows is the way that he loves God and the way God loves him… there were times that he wasn’t sure why he was sent a particular place, or times when he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay; but because of obedience, he didn’t have to really concern himself with those issues, and his ministry was incredibly fruitful … in my own rule of life, sometimes my prayer life seems dry; the thought of doing the prayers of the church just isn’t what I want to do … yet obedience keeps me faithful to those prayers and when I least expect it, there are good things that can happen as a result of being faithful to the task… Obedience can be freeing because there are decisions that are placed in the hands of elders, or those more experienced that can help those of us who are less experienced get through difficult times, or help us to get to the other side; we get to benefit from other’s experience rather than recreating it; and because a decision is made already, there is nothing to fuss over; we just do what’s in front of us to do…

    Why on earth would Jesus go ahead and allow himself to be baptized by John?  What on earth could Jesus have to repent of? 
    I am certain that there are many discussions of this throughout the centuries… My guess is that first, it  comes down to a case of obedience to the will of God the Father…. “Let it be so for now” Jesus says in answer to John’s question about the baptism.  For Jesus, it seems to be a simple matter of doing what the Father has asked of him… the deeper reason there for me, is that it is one more instance of Jesus going to a place where you and I have gone or will go… one more place where we will never have to be that he hasn’t been… Jesus turns his will and his life toward God the Father… it is a public acknowledgement of his obedience and his identity; there is no question now who Jesus is, and what his path, at least in general terms is… he is obedient to the will of God… and those who witness the baptism know it, and they will tell others… and even in the darkest moments, while Jesus might question what is happening, he continues on the path in front of him, trusting that the Father will guide him through....

    How do we allow our love for God and perhaps even God’s love for us to be defined?  What are the principles that help guide us in how we love God?
Scripture is of course an obvious answer to that… we are given a written witness to God’s actions in human history, and God still speaks to us through the words of scripture…

    You and I are of course, baptized as Jesus was… our baptism helps us to be obedient to God and to the community we are a part of; the sacred vows that we take at our baptisms are vows that help to form us, help us to live into our lives as followers of Jesus… these vows are written in a sense as the combined experience of many so that there are things we don’t have to give much thought to… we live into these vows (albeit somewhat imperfectly) as a way to be obedient disciples.  The vows give us a framework for loving God… and the tough part too, is that whenever we have doubts about what we are supposed to do, or we think we can choose another way, the baptismal covenant helps us to get back on track… it helps guide us… it helps to make difficult decisions for us so that we can give our energy and our resources to the ministry that we have been called to, rather than to the decision itself…

    Today is a baptismal feast, and in place of saying the Nicene creed today, we will once again as is good for us, renew our own baptismal vows.  Every time the church does this, I am reminded that I live into these vows imperfectly at best… but we don’t renew these vows in order to see how bad we are, but rather to remind us of what we are called to;  God is always a God of mercy, drawing us into relationship in the life of the Trinity, and helping to guide us back when we wander off… So today we renew our vows with the joy of knowing that we are obedient in ways that fill us and bring us closer to the God of love.  I wonder if there are parts of the covenant that are harder for us than others?  I wonder if there are ways that we can put aside our own misgivings and just be obedient to the vows we have made?