Festival of Homiletics: Tuesday Afternoon: Thomas Long's Sermon

Top 5 List from Thomas Long's Sermon on Tuesday Afternoon:

Sermon 5/18/10 "Leaning Forward and Letting Go"

(Luke 2:25-38--Simeon and Anna encountering the baby Jesus)

1. Both Simeon and Anna are the elders in their community who were promised the opportunity to see the Messiah after his birth.  

2. Luke deals with the oldest generations and the youngest generations, and all ages in between.  But the elders disappear after chapter 2 and a new generation is ushered in with Christ's birth.  "They turn the Gospel over to a bunch of 20 year olds."

3. Tom used to think the hardest thing was to stand up for the faith, but now believes the harder task is to lean into the Gospel and let go--Elders lean into their faith and let the younger generations lead.  We have to believe, and we do believe, that our God is a God who owns the future.

4. BUT we often don't live as though God owns the future.  Trusting that God is big enough to already be present in the future is tough, but necessary. 

5. Leaders who are the elder leaders now need to have the trust and faith to allow younger generations to have a chance to lead.  The elders had their days, and they share their wisdom, but empowering the younger generations to listen for God and lean into that is a mark of true, helpful, positive leadership. (Moravian Provincial Leaders, especially those involved in the Synod Restructuring Process and upcoming Synod--I loving ask you to PLEASE TAKE NOTE!)

Christmas 1C-"Celebrate Love" 12/27/09

"The Power Of The Word" "Celebrate Love"

Christmas 1C, 12/27/09

John 1:1-14

            Before I begin, I must make a note to the bulletin.  Due to having to run the bulletins early this week, I came up with a title for my yet-unwritten sermon.  After writing it, I realized it needed a different title.  This sermon is entitled, "Celebrate Love."  After all, the power of the Word is love, and it is that Love of God we celebrate today!

Yesterday I walked into a CVS, and watched as the lady was taking down the Christmas Cards from the display, and was replacing them with Valentine's Day cards.  The signage she put up said, "Celebrate Love."  It struck me as bothersome that Valentine's Day, according to the card company, is only when we are to celebrate love.  Everything in me wanted to yell out, "What about Christmas?"  I felt like Charlie in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" when he says, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"[1]  But where was Linus when I needed him?  The music on the radio has already changed back to the regular stations, and Christmas music, like the decorations in the store, has been packed away for another year.  I was struck standing there thinking, "If all of this has changed back to 'normal' so quickly, then what difference does Christmas make after all?  Why do we celebrate it and what does it mean?"  Maybe I'm somewhat cynical, or my tiredness from Christmas Eve was still clouding my mind.  But it did make me really stop and think--Isn't Christmas about Celebrating Love?--Celebrating the love of God found in a baby and that love found in the world all these years later--Celebrating a love that physically came down from the heavens and was there for everyone to see.

         Christmas Eve, in the Church's understanding, is the beginning of the celebration, not the culmination of the festivities.[2] Christmas lasts 12 days, and ends on January 6th when we mark the Epiphany.  We gather in celebration of the birth that starts the story --our story--over again.  Advent is preparation for the big event, and then it's here and the Christmas Eve Lovefeasts start the Birthday Party for our King--complete with food, drink, and candles!  I came across this quote that I thought was so fitting for this season.  The author said, "Remember also that for Christians, this is the birthday party of all birthday parties, one that should spin us into a different place, not simply into exhaustion: 'Christmas is a time for enormous celebration, but also a time for pondering, for reverence, for awe at our sheer good fortune that God sent his only child into our midst.'”^[3]

         If we look at Scripture, we get 4 different views of Christmas.  Luke, the one most commonly read for Christmas, presents Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem with nowhere to stay and thus they end up in a barn with the animal's manger for a crib for the new baby.  Shepherds and Angels appear and sing God's praise over the birth of this special child. We see how God's love came in the unlikely places and was presented to the poor, meek, and lowly. If we look at Matthew, we see no manger, no shepherds, no chorus of angels.  Instead we hear of an undocumented number of wise men and three gifts brought to a home where the holy family is now living.  God's love in Matthew is for everyone, even those from distant lands.  Mark, on the other hand, skips the event entirely, and instead rushing ahead to tell of the adult Jesus.  God's love is powerful and immediate.  And then we have today's reading from John that uses metaphors and philosophy to describe the incarnation of God.  God's love in the logos, the Word, has been present since the beginning.  Often we hear the story of Christmas with all of these stories lumped together into an indistinguishable tangle of shepherds and wise men arriving together at the manger.  In many ways there isn't real harm in combining the stories, as they do help us see a fuller picture of Jesus' birth from various viewpoints.  But I do find it interesting to look at them individually.  Today's Scripture reading let's us focus on John's version of Christmas, though it noticeably leaves out the birth all together.  John focuses more on the incarnation and how God has come into the world to bring love through life and light.  For John, it's ultimately about God's love for the world as we hear later in Chapter 3. "16For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17, NRSV) The Gospel of John calls us to look for the love of God in the world and to celebrate that love whenever and wherever we see it.

         Though love is the focus of Christmas, it's sometimes hard to focus on that love.  I ran across a list the other day about the Top 10 Things WRONG with Christmas.  With all of the craziness associated with the holiday and my frustration at CVS about the holiday already having come and gone, I could resonate with many of these. I have also heard many of you naming these things.  Here's the list.  Do any of these things sound familiar?
TOP 10 THINGS WRONG WITH CHRISTMAS [4]

10. A loss of the sense of the miraculous

9. Not enough peace and joy

8. Feeling like you have to give something or you’re a bad person

7. Credit card bills through next Christmas

6. Insane travel schedules

5. Conflicts with the family

4. Feeling alone or alienated

3. Having to decorate to keep up with the neighbors

2. Hours spent searching for the present for kids or grandkids (etc.)

1. Feeling disappointed—again—by the season

         During the Congregational Lovefeast last Sunday evening, I told a story about a man who, though tired from Christmas Eve's craziness, went to feed his neighbor's sheep.  He paused for a moment, during his actions, when he realized that he was in the manger where it all started. He was standing by the manger on Christmas Eve.  I invited everyone to pause sometime during the holiday to reflect on the meaning of Christmas.  So on Christmas day, I took a few minutes to pause and reflecte.  With nods to David Letterman and Rogers and Hammerstein, I've written my own "Top 10 Favorite Things About Christmas" to help me name where I celebrate love during Christmas.  Before I read my own, I invite you to pause for a minute, take out a pencil or pen, and jot down a few of your own Favorite Things where you Celebrate love this Christmas.  [I invite you to include your list in the comments section of this blog.  See "Comments" below!]
         There are no right or wrong answers here.  Each of our lists will look different.  Having said that, here's my own list.

My Top 10 Favorite Things About Christmas

10. Receiving Christmas Cards and photos from family and friends

9. Phone Calls to hear "Merry Christmas" from a distance, especially when you can't be together on Christmas Day

8. Hearing "Morning Star" and remembering back 20 years to when I was the soloist up front.

7. Spending time with loved ones laughing around the dinner table.

6. Watching the Dieners and Choirs' faces as the lovefeast is served

5. The sight of spam, squirty cheese, beef jerky, and other treats inside my Lovefeast bun.

4. Eating together as a church family during the Workers Potluck.

3. The smiles on the faces of the children when it was FINALLY time to put Baby Jesus in the Manger.

2. The smells of beeswax and coffee and the sight of the candles raised in the air at the end of Lovefeast.

1. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. (John 1:14) [This is how The Message translates the verse, and it's my favorite translation.] 

         At Christmas we celebrate the Love of God that has now taken on human form in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Because God loves us, we can love one another.  And I believe that the more we look for examples of God's love, we find them, even in the unexpected places.  By now many of you know about the ongoing gift that the dieners bestow on the pastors in their Christmas Eve Lovefeast Buns.  If you haven't seen the pictures, I've posted them on my blog and they are worth checking out.[5]  This year at the 7:30pm Lovefeast, our Bun came complete with icing that said, "Love You" in the form of a heart and the letter "U".  Thought it was meant as a good-hearted joke, I laughed and then took it much more symbolically.  God loves me, and sent his son for me.  God sent Jesus for each and every person that was celebrating lovefeast that evening together.  God sent Jesus for each of us.  This bun spoke volumes to me about how God's love spread out from that first Christmas to share that love with each other.  God moved into our neighborhood here on Ridge Road, and we saw it tangibly in the celebration of love that took place.  As the candles spread the light and none were diminished by the sharing, so is God's love spread by the sharing and is not diminished.  It began tangibly in Christ's birth through the incarnation, and continues to spread.  May we continue to Celebrate Love throughout these 12 days of Christmas, and proclaim through buns and candles, through cards and hugs, through all the ways God can speak through us, that God's love has moved into the neighborhood.  Amen.

---

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZw06AbW6Vw

[2] Michael Bennett, "Pastoral Perspective of John 1:1-14" in Feasting on the Word, Volume 2, Number 1 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009) 140.

[3] [Bill McKibben, Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998) 68-69] quoted in Greg Garrett, Reclaiming Christmas: Seeking an Alternative from (www.thethoughtfulchristian.org, 2007) 2.

[4] Greg Garrett, Reclaiming Christmas: Seeking an Alternative from (www.thethoughtfulchristian.org, 2007) 2.

[5] livingonemmausave.blogspot.com (Post for "RMC Christmas 2009: Part 2" dated 12/26/09.)

"A Christmas Frame Of Mind" (1/4/09, Christmas 2B)

"A Christmas Frame of Mind"
Christmas 2B
Sermon from 1/4/2009
John 1:1-18; Ephesians 1:3-14

Christmas Day has come and gone again this year. The candy, cards, and gifts are 50 or 75% off. The 24-7 Christmas Music on the radio is over--the Christmas CD's and movies are packed away until next year. The returns have been returned, the decorations are likely down or will be coming down this afternoon. We're already though New Years Day as well, and Valentine's candy is already on the shelves in the local grocery store. The shepherds have visited the stable and returned home. The Magi arrive this Tuesday for Epiphany, and they will then return home as well. Christmas has come and gone for another year. Or has it?

As I opened my stocking on Christmas Day with my in-laws and family in Pennsylvania, I took out a magnet that said, "Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind." A frame of mind... I like that. It's a great phrase. A Christmas frame of mind. Christmas in the church is a season in fact--12 days long that begins on Christmas Day and carries us through to Epiphany on January 6th. These are the true 12 Days of Christmas, but somehow it seems we have forgotten to tell the rest of the world about them. Christmas is over according to our culture. Is it over this year for us too? Christmas as a frame of mind--what if it was actually true? What would it look like in our daily lives?

As I have spent the past week or so preparing for today's message, I must confess I have been confronted with more questions than answers. As a pastor knowing I get to stand up and dialog with you on Sunday morning, more questions than answers has led to little comfort and much frustration in my preparation process. I have thought back often to what my college thesis adviser told me when I got to the end of my paper and had multiple pages of questions for further study--I was frustrated that it wasn't going to end with neatly answered questions, but in fact my topic of research led to more questions. She said that more questions were a good thing because it meant I was thinking and engaging the topic.

I also have had to wrestle with the fact that as a trained pastor, I feel like I should somehow KNOW the answers... but I confess that just as I think I have an answer, more wrestling with the questions and answers is required. These questions are not easily or neatly wrapped up in a box and placed under our Christmas trees. So I would like to invite you all to journey with me through some of the big questions of Christmas that I have found myself mulling over this week. Maybe some of these are also your questions? Maybe some of my questions raise new questions within you? I am excited about the possibility of wrestling with these together, because I believe these are questions that can likely best be answered in community.

For starters, what does Christmas mean? There is the easy answer--the word is from "Christ's Mass" celebrating the birth of the Christ child, the promised savior or Messiah--Jesus of Nazareth. The story is told in Luke 2 and Matthew 2, which many of us can quote at least in part. It's a cozy story that takes place in a stable in Bethlehem with shepherds, angels, magi, and a young couple who have an unexpected baby. But is it also so much more than this?

As I have wrestled, I have keep thinking about how we are often so busy and hurried in December and everything is focused on Christmas' arrival and being ready for the BIG DAY. In fact, shoppers take note--there are only 355 shopping days till next year's Big Day! Our preparation time is a blur of shopping, activities, parties, food, and craziness. Then it's here and over in a flash. Lovefeast buns have been consumed, our coffee's cold, and the smell of smoke fills this room as the candles are all blown out. It's all over and yet, how is life different? Yes, there is the stack of new DVDs to watch and clothes to wear, but how is life truly different? Or is it different at all? Why is Christmas even important to begin with? I kept coming back to the question of "So what does Christmas mean?" How does Christmas really affect our lives the other 364 days of the year? And if it doesn't, how might it be different this year to extend Christmas to make it a frame of mind or a way we view our world?

When we hear the story of Christmas, it is often from Luke or Matthew's story about the baby Jesus. But today, we are looking at John's telling of the Christmas Story. There are no shepherds; no angels; no Mary and Joseph; no overcrowded inn; no magi mentioned anywhere. Jesus isn't even named until 17 verses into the story. The writer in John takes us back to the beginning--literally-- by opening the Gospel's Prologue with the phrase "In the beginning." This phrase likely took your mind back to the beginning. We heard these passages paralleled in the reflective reading that opened worship this morning.

One phrase truly sums up the story of Christmas, I believe, but might need some unpacking to make more sense is in John 1:14. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." The WORD, from the phrase “And the Word became flesh,” is a translation of logos in Greek, and is a term the Greek Philosophers used for logic or wisdom, and is even where our word logic comes from. The ideas of logos along with light and life were common terms used at that time by philosophers. But here the writer of John is taking these words and using them to show the world is forever changed. For the writer of John and for us, these words are not just philosophical ideas anymore; they live and breathe in the person of Jesus Christ. The God of the universe has become flesh and blood in human form--both fully God and fully human. Not only did this God-person exist, but lived in and among them. Because of Christmas, God now lives or tents or tabernacles or dwells among us. The tent and tabernacle images in John recall the Israelite image of the mobile tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant from the time of the desert wanderings in Exodus. As the Message translation explains, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." This is the point... this is what Christmas is all about--the Incarnation where God becomes human and moves into our neighborhood.

So why did God become human (incarnate) and move into our neighborhood? John writes that it is to show us God's glory in grace and truth. The ideas of grace and truth also hearken back to the Exodus and Moses when God created a covenant with the Israelites. This phrase “grace and truth” can also be translated as mercy and truth, or love. Jesus came to earth, moved into our neighborhood and showed us what LOVE looked like, smelled like, tasted like, felt like, and acted like. Jesus modeled love with his every breath so we could do the same--maybe that is a Christmas frame of mind? As one of my favorite authors, Shane Claiborne, puts it, "In the baby refugee Jesus, God becomes Emmanuel ("God with us"), crashing in the manger. And it is in the life of Jesus that God puts skin on to show us what love looks like." [Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006) 324]

This understanding of Christmas leads me to reflect on the other magnet I found in my stocking on Christmas Day--"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." A conspiracy of love--maybe that is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is God's cosmic conspiracy of love, and we've been invited to join in on the love-fest. Poet Ann Weems wrote a very short poem that I think brings these two magnet's saying together. She writes:

"When the Holy Child is born into our hearts
there is a rain of stars
a rush of angels
a blaze of candles
this God burst into our lives.
Love is running through the streets."
[Ann Weems, "Godburst" from Kneeling in Bethlehem (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987) 27]

God has moved into the neighborhood, and, now, Love is running through the streets. Have you seen God's RV or Motor home parked in your front yard or at the next desk over from your cubicle? Was God standing next to you in the check-out lane at REI or Target as you made returns? Has God served you coffee and bagels or wine and bread recently? One writer I encountered this week asks, "Where then do we confront the divine, where do we touch the eternal living God, where do we experience the inner light?" Ahh--More great questions with no easy answers.

The Prologue tells us that John the Baptizer came to testify that Emmanuel, "God with us," was coming into the world, giving power to people to become children of God. So then, how do we TESTIFY to the presence of love running through the streets of our neighborhoods? Mother Teresa was quoted as saying, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love. It's not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it." Maybe that is a Christmas frame of mind. What small things can we do this year that will show God's great love to those around us--our families, our friends, our co-workers, and schoolmates? How can we love the stranger on the street corner or beside us in the check out line? Maybe its spending time with an elderly neighbor who needs to be reassured that someone really does care about them or holding a patient's hand as he or she awaits test results or treatment. Maybe we can demonstrate God's love running down the soccer field in Costa Rica as we help build a youth center and school. Maybe we participate in the conspiracy of love as we volunteer or take more time to show love to our family members who might be difficult at times to love. Hopefully we keep wrestling together with how we can see God's moving van in our neighborhood and join in with the conspiracy of love that Jesus modeled. Hopefully we can share the love of God with one another--those we love and those we have trouble loving.

I invite you to spend a few moments now quietly thinking about how you might enact a Christmas frame of mind throughout this year. Jot down ideas you have or questions that have been raised--maybe on the back of your watchword card or bulletin, and let's keep wrestling with our questions together. Email me, join me for coffee, pull aside a friend to chat as we all keep looking for God in our neighborhood and testify to the conspiracy of love... after all, Jesus came into the community to show us how to love, and here is probably the best place to practice our questioning, wrestling, and loving one another, so we can live the Christmas frame of mind in our world throughout 2009. Take a few moments now to reflect, and I will close us in prayer at the end.


God who's bigger than our questions,
thank you for moving into our neighborhood to give us Jesus as the model example of how to love and live. Give us the strength and insight needed as we wrestle with tough questions of faith and understand what it means that you took on flesh and blood. Empower us to testify to where we see you in our daily lives and show us where we can participate in your conspiracy of love. In Jesus' holy name, we pray. Amen.