Rev. Edwin asked me for song suggestions for today and Icame up with “They will know we are Christians by our love.”  It wasn’t until I was crafting my sermon thatI realized a good hymn for today would have been, “Love came down at Christmas,Love all lovely, love divine, Love was born at Christmas, star and angels gavethe sign.”  Love was born at Christmas,we are one in the bond of love, and they will know we are Christians by ourlove.  These are all very powerful hymnsof faith about our Christian love.  Theearly church was defined by its love, not just for members of the church butfor the communities where the church existed. Their new way of treating others earned them the nickname, people of theway.  These early Christian congregationscreated innovative ways of caring for people that evolved into hospitals,orphanages, and food cooperatives.  Theearly Christian church had a strong tradition of love, love for all of God’screation.

What about today? Would you expect most people when asked what word they would associatewith Christian would come up with the word love?  I don’t know that even most of us in theChristian Church would come up with love as our first word of association withthe word Christian.  What happened?  I do not believe it is a coincidence that thedecline of the Christian Church as a model of compassion for others seems to parallelthe church’s rise to power in political institutions.  The church no longer persecuted became moreconcerned with increasing its power and wealth since it was not focused onsurvival of not only its members but the message of God.    While Jesus lived on the earth, he shunnedevery suggestion he assert political authority and claim the throne ofDavid.  Even when the Pharisees tried toget him to speak out against the rule of Caesar, Jesus answered render untoCaesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.  Christian love is not about forcing otherpeople to accept our authority and live as we think God wants them to live.

I have been so distressed with those who have tried to turnthe discussion about the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary into a referendum onprayer in schools and whether we say “One nation under God” in ourclassrooms.  Forcing children to recite apledge about God’s sovereignty or praying to God is meaningless to children whohave no personal relationship with God. Schools are not where children should be taught about God or forced to repeatsomeone else’s prayer to God.  Childrenshould learn about God from those who know God and who know the child and willtake the time to answer the child’s questions. Loving relationships are never forced relationships.  God was present at Sandy Hook and those whoknew God knew God was there with them. Those who didn’t know God may have got a glimpse of God when God’speople responded in God honoring, self-sacrificing ways.  The letter to the church of Colossus tells usto put on God’s love like a garment.  Itdoes not say to put the garment on others, or tell others how they should livein God honoring love.  We put on thegarment of love and we find ourselves bound together with all of the rest ofcreation in that God honoring love.  Christianlove does not make us superior to anyone, Christian love binds us to everyoneelse is shared community of compassion and support.

I read the story of Jesus in the story from Luke that weheard today in a very different way than I understood it from my early Christianeducation.  I was told the story showedthe divinity of Jesus.  He was in thetemple demonstrating his superior knowledge and confounding the Rabbis andpriests.  But that isn’t really what thestory says.  The story says that Jesuswas with the Rabbis and priests and listening and asking questions.  Jesus was learning from them and they wereamazed at the depth of this questions and understanding.  Being Christ did not mean Jesus did not havethings to learn from those around him, nor did it mean he was not to be subjectto authority.  The story says Jesus wenthome with Mary and Joseph was obedient and matured in stature and wisdom.  The implication is that Jesus should not haveworried his parents, should not have stayed behind in the temple when it wastime to return home and he needed to do some growing up.  I believe this story speaks to us asfollowers of Jesus.  Sometimes we need tobe willing to be taught, sometimes we need to submit to authority, and sometimeswe just need to grow up.

The sweet sentimental concept of Christian love is not amature image of God’s love.  God’s lovesometimes means we must speak truth to power and not hold back our directlanguage.  Sometimes God love requires usto clearly define for ourselves what is Caesar’s and what is God’s.  We cannot surrender our morality to thegovernment because that is God’s.  Whengovernment rules and actions our immoral we are compelled to say, NO!”  We cannot surrender our compassion to thegovernment because that is God’s.  Whenthe government fails to care for the poor, the ill, the children, the aliens,or for the environment, our compassion compels us to act.  I do not believe God judges us on what ourgovernment does.  I believe God judges uson what we do.  We will not answer to Godas a US citizen, or a Michigander, or as a citizen of some localauthority.  We will all be asked how weshowed Christian love in our own actions. It is not enough to have said loving things, and spoke kindly toothers.  That isn’t Christian love.  Christian love is how we lived out Jesus’example of healing others, giving to those who had nothing to give in return,showing respect to those who were considered outside of polite society, andspeaking out against the use of religion to exploit or demean others.  That is what Christian love is to me.  When we love as Christ loves, then otherswill know we are Christians by our love. Amen.

Micah 5:2-6

The Message (MSG)

^2-4 But you, Bethlehem, David’s country, the runt of the litter—fromyou will come the leader
who will shepherd-rule Israel.  He’ll beno upstart, no pretender.  His familytree is ancient and distinguished.  Meanwhile,Israel will be in foster homes until the birth pangs are over and the child isborn, and the scattered siblings come back home to the family of Israel.  He will stand tall in his shepherd-rule by God’s strength, centered in the majestyof God-Revealed.
And the people will have a good and safe home, for the whole world will holdhim in respect—
Peacemaker of the world!  ^5-6 And,if some bullying Assyrians show up, invading and violating our land, don’tworry we’ll put them in their place, send them packing, and watch their everymove.  Shepherd-rule will extend as faras needed, to Assyria and all other Nimrod-bullies.
Our shepherd-ruler will save us from old or new enemies, from anyone whoinvades or violates our land.

Hebrews 10:5-10

The Message (MSG)

10 ^1-10 Theold plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old“law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followedit. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they neveradded up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gonemerrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead ofremoving awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over andover they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bulland goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy,put in the mouth of Christ:

You don’t wantsacrifices and offerings year after year;
you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
the way it’s described in your Book.”

When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he wasreferring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here todo it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’sway—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

Luke 1:39-45

The Message (MSG)

^39-45 Mary didn’t waste a minute.She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight toZachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang outexuberantly,

You’re so blessedamong women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, thebabe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.  Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!

Advent is allabout anticipation.  The Hebrew Testamentcontains a promise to the village of Bethlehem that it would play a veryimportant role in God’s plan to restore the nation of Israel.  They waited for the time when God’s redeemerwould come and lead the children of Israel home and establish the nation ofIsrael as a great power.  I imagine thepeople of Bethlehem repeated the words of Micah whenever they would gather,perhaps the words were part of the city’s logo. They must have had great anticipation of the coming Messiah that wouldcome from their city.  Then there is thestory of Elizabeth and Zachariah desperately praying for a child and then receivingthe promise of a child. I would expect the anticipation in their home was veryhigh.  And Mary, I am told Jewish girlsanticipated they might be the one chosen to bear the Messiah.  Mary must have anticipated what it would meanto give birth to and raise the Child of God. So much anticipation by so many people.

Anticipationhas another side to it.  Anticipation canmake us weary and it can distract us from pressing matters of the present.  This past week there were two eventspredicted for Friday.  The first andglobally felt was the anticipated end of the world due to the Mayan calendarending on that date.  The second was muchmore local but possibly more significant to those of us affected, it was theprediction of a major winter storm dumping up to six inches of snow on theKalamazoo area.  I didn’t believe theMayan’s had any particular insight into the future of the world, after all ourcalendar runs out every December 31.  AndI don’t put that much confidence in weather predictors.  Even though, I found these predictions to bedistracting.  I found myself wondering “whatif?”  I did make preparations for thewinter storm by getting out the snow shovels, starting up the snow blower, andmaking sure I had basic supplies to weather the storm.  The anticipation for each was different butthey were distractions.

I wouldassume these anticipations were similar to the anticipation of Bethlehembirthing the new leader of Israel and maidens giving birth to the Messiah ascompared to the anticipation of Elizabeth, Zachariah, and Mary of the comingbirths.  The first being something alwaysin the background, maybe possible but probably not now and not me.  While the second was impending and requiredactions of preparation.  I think that itis possible we live with anticipation for a long period of time and we fail tosee that the thing anticipated has actually happened.  The sleepy town of Bethlehem seems to havetotally missed the birth of the One long expected.  They couldn’t even find a room for him to beborn in.  Despite the proclamation of theangels and all the hubbub of stars and signs. And perhaps, in all the anticipation of the end of the world as we knowit, we have missed that the world as we know it has ended.  We sit waiting for the world to come to an endwhile all around us the world is changing, the world as we know it is ending,and we are ignoring the proclamations and the signs.  I world’s ecology is radically changing andmay soon not be able to support life as we know it and yet we go on as if thereis nothing wrong.  Our society is disintegratinginto isolation, selfishness, and fear and we go on as if there is nothingwrong.  Occasionally we are confronted bythe stark reality of our isolated culture by events like what happened andSandy Hook Elementary and we weep, and shout but what changes?  We watch the catastrophic effects of climatechange and we act amazed as if it were unexpected but nothing changes.  There is a story, I do not know the accuracyof it and I do not intend to test it, the story says if you drop a frog into apot of boiling water the frog will jump out but if you put a frog in a pot ofroom temperature water and put it on a burner the frog will sit in the potuntil boiled.  We may be the frogssitting in the pot as the water temperature rises and we do not react becausethe change is slow and we are waiting for something dramatic.

Another partof anticipation is we don’t clearly understand the totality of what we areanticipating.  We hope for change, we askfor change, and yet we do not like the cost of change.  Bethlehem did not know the fulfillment of theprophecy that the redeemer of Israel would come from there would also lead tothe fulfillment of the prophecy in Jeremiah of Rachel weeping for her childrenwhen Herod slaughtered the innocents to try to kill the new born king of theJews.  The maidens that hoped to be themother of the Messiah could not have known the suffering Mary would experiencebecause of her pregnancy, her flight to Egypt, and watching her childcrucified.  And Elizabeth and Zachariahcould not have known their much desired child would become a social outcast andultimately be beheaded.  As we anticipatethe Christ returning to this earth, we tend to think of Christ making the worldright, avenging the wrong, and setting up God’s dominion here on earth.  We may be missing the truth that Christ isreturning each time one of God’s people speaks up, acts up, and lives out God’sjustice in their lives and for others. We may also be missing the truth that Christ returning in us does notmean all will be wonderful and we will have a life without struggle andheartache.  Christ being born in us meanswe weep for the slaughter of the innocents and we struggle with the Godhonoring response.  Responding with a desireto have more weapons of destruction is not God honoring and is not what Jesustaught us.  Having Christ born is usmeans we must work for all of creation, Christ is the Word that spoke creationinto being and God said it was good.  Wecannot wait for God to do some miraculous thing to fix the world.  We are God’s fix for the world and it is upto us to live in a world sustaining way, to live out the life Jesus taught usrespecting each other and the world we have been given.  There is no promise this will be easy or willcome without cost.  The promise is thatGod will be with us in the struggle.

In thisAdvent season, anticipate the coming of Jesus in your life and anticipate thecost of this, and anticipate the reward of allowing Christ to be born in usagain and again.  Amen.

The Advent and Christmas stories are full of messengers ofGod.  There is John the Baptist and theangel Gabriel.  There are also the HebrewTestament prophets Isaiah and Zephaniah. Angels are commonly understood to be messengers of God.  Spiritual leaders often refer to themselvesas God’s messengers or being called to preach God’s word.  God warns those who preach and teach in God’sname that they will be held accountable for what they say and do.  We commonly hold those who are messengers ofGod to a higher standard and it is probably reasonable that we do so.  However, we are all messengers of God.  We all carry a spark of God within us and weare all called to share with others what they spark of God inspires in us.

I am frustrated particularly at this time of year by thesweet images of angels that abound on Christmas cards, ornaments, and treetoppers.  Angels in the early church wereconsidered to be God’s army.  Theyactively defended God’s people and they spoke harshly, they wrestled withpeople, they were warriors.  In theMessage Bible, Eugene Peterson uses the term God of the Angel Armies.  The human messengers of God were also notparticularly sweet people.  Isaiah andZephaniah along with the other prophets were as likely to be chastising theirlisteners as to be comforting them.  Johnthe Baptist was downright confrontational. He spoke directly and harshly to those who came out to the wildernessseeking baptism.  This week I used aharsh word in a Facebook post and some people took offense because it is a vulgarword for what should be a tender and intimate act.  I grant the word is harsh, I would have somedisagreement with vulgar but that is not the point here.  When John called the people vipers, he wasbeing harsh and offensive.  He was alsospeaking out of his strong conviction that the people had lost their compassionand were seeking a cosmetic cleansing without making any actual change in theirbehavior.  John was speaking out of thelong tradition of God’s messengers to deal directly and honestly with those whosought to hear God’s word for them.  Am Ijustifying my use of an offensive word in a post by claiming some John theBaptist link?  No.  My choice of words was my own and I acceptthe impact of the words even though my intent was to express outrage notoffense.  I am saying, being a messengerof God is not to always be polite and comforting.  Sometimes God’s message is intended todiscomfort us, to challenge us out of our complacency.  Some messages of God are hard to hear andhard to share.  Just read some of theprophetic words of the Hebrew scriptures or spend a little time in the book ofRevelation.  Even the words of Jesus weresometimes discomforting.  His challengeto the rich young man to sell all he had and give it to the poor, or his demandthat we leave behind mother and father to follow him.  And, if taken seriously, his challenge to usto pick up our cross and follow him to Golgotha is not a comfortingthought.  Sometimes, as God’s messenger,we must speak directly and confrontationally to others and to power.

Another challenge to messengers of God is not to lose trackof the truth that it is not our message but God’s that we are called toshare.  The sacred texts and the historyof spiritual leaders is littered with messengers who lost sight of the sourceof the message and began speaking for their own gain.  Moses did well while he followed God but gotimpatient and lost his right to enter the promised land, David was a personafter God’s heart and then got carried away with his own importance and was humbledbecause of his arrogance.  We are allpainfully aware of good people who started ministries in God’s name and didgood things and then they succumbed to the lure of power and wealth and theirmessage lost all Godliness.  Some sayoutrages things they claim came from God just to keep their names and facesprominent.  Pat Robertson may have at onetime had a prophetic voice but he now he speaks such nonsense that whateverconnection he had with God is lost.  Inlight of the tragedy in Newtown, CT. Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fisher both saidGod allowed the killing of children and school staff to happen because we havelegislated God out of our schools. Really, God would abandon those children and adults out of some tempertantrum over not having mandated prayer and Bible reading in our public schools?  I cannot accept that God would prefer thatteachers and other school personnel teach our children how to pray and what theBible means.  I have to believe Godintended for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, Godparents, Sunday schoolteachers, and clergy to guide children in their understanding of God and whatsacred texts mean.  As I understand God,God is present everywhere and God does not judge our worthiness based on theactions of our government or even our immediate families.  God is with us through all things.  God did not condone or plan the tragedy at SandyHook Elementary School but God was certainly present there and was standingwith those who were killed, injured, and all those who have been so deeply scarredbut what happened there.  God was evenwith the tormented man who lashed out so violently for whatever reason.  God does not dole out grace and love based onour worthiness and anyone who says otherwise is not a messenger of God.

It would be tempting at this point to say Jesus was theperfect messenger of God but he wasn’t. Jesus wasn’t a messenger, Jesus was the Word of God made flesh.  Jesus didn’t have to get a message from Godand the speak it out to us, with all the risk of getting it wrong or not rememberingall of it, or adding his own spin to it. Jesus was the message.  Jesuslived out in his words, actions, and life the message of God’s grace and lovefor us.  It was in his love for theunloveable, his advocacy for the marginalized, and his forgiveness for thosewho did violence against him that we are to understand God’s desire for each ofus.  This brings me back to my outburstof anger for those who justify violence as means to end violence and I knowthat my words only added to the ugliness of the situation for some and this isnot the answer to the problem.  I was not,at that moment a messenger of God.  I amhowever, a recipient of God’s grace, love and forgiveness.  Amen.   

Malachi 3:1-4

3 “Look!I’m sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of theblue, the Leader you’ve been looking for will enter the Temple—yes, theMessenger of the Covenant, the one you’ve been waiting for. Look! The One is coming!”A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^2-4 But who will be able tostand up to that coming? Who can survive the appearance?

This One will be like white-hot fire from the smelter’sfurnace, like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. The One will act as arefiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes and scrub the Levite priestsclean, refine them like gold and silver, until they’re fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then,will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as theyused to be in the years long ago.

Philippians 1:3-11

^3-6 Every time you crossmy mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is atrigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am sopleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaimingGod’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There hasnever been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this greatwork in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the veryday Christ Jesus appears.

^7-8 It’s not at allfanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deeproots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the timeI was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All alongyou have experienced with me the most generous help from God. God knows howmuch I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly aboutyou as Christ does!

^9-11 So this is my prayer:that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well.Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelingsso that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live alover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of:bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all,getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

Luke 3:1-6

3 ^1-6In the fifteenth year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius—it was while PontiusPilate was governor of Judea; Herod, ruler of Galilee; his brother Philip,ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias, ruler of Abilene; during theChief-Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas—John, Zachariah’s son, out in the desertat the time, received a message from God. He went all through the countryaround the Jordan River preaching a baptism of life-change leading toforgiveness of sins, as described in the words of Isaiah the prophet:

Thunder in the desert!
“Prepare God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!
Every ditch will be filled in,
Every bump smoothed out,
The detours straightened out,
All the ruts paved over.
Everyone will be there to see
The parade of God’s salvation.”

There is a supposed war on Christmas going on.  I really don’t understand it but apparentlysome people feel Christmas is under attack when another person wishes themhappy holidays rather than the required merry Christmas.  I had someone send me a choral group singingabout how to respond if you enter a store with “Happy Holidays” posted or ifthe salesperson greets you with “Happy Holidays”.  The singers sweetly sing about turning onyour heel and exiting the store while telling all that will listen that you won’tbe shopping where Christ is left out of Christmas.  It would be easy enough to dismiss this asjust so much silliness if it weren’t for the reality that this level ofintolerance for those who believe different, act different, appear differenthas become increasingly militant.  Thedeclarations in the past election about taking back our country were thinlydisguised assertions about not having a president who is a person of color, notwanting an administration that was sympathetic to the aliens in our nation, notwanting the country to be concerned about the health of its citizens or protectingthe pensions of its elderly and disabled. Just like the so called war on Christmas, there are those among us whofeel there has been a war declared upon their privilege.

What makes this particularly troubling is this backlash onthe war on Christmas completely disregards why Jesus came to the earth a couplethousand years ago.  Jesus did not cometo assert the importance that people strictly observe Hanukah or show properdeference to the religious elite.  Johnthe Baptist did not greet those who came to him in the wilderness with “MerryChristmas!”  He greeted people to preparefor the coming of the one predicted in Malachi, the one who would be like thewhite hot smelter’s fire scrubbing us clean. We get all caught up in this image of a helpless baby in a manager andwe miss the Word of God came in flesh to disrupt the status quo, and to bringus back to God’s requirement that we not use our privilege to exploit others,that God doesn’t have favorites, and we have missed the point when we mistreatthe widows, orphans, aliens, and others we deem less than ourselves.  I am quite certain Jesus would not beoutraged if someone greeted him with “Happy Holidays” if their intention wasgenuine good will.  I am also certainJesus would be outraged if someone said “Merry Christmas” when they could careless whether your life was merry or miserable.

As we live into this time of advent, of anticipation, Ibelieve we are called to examine what we believe the coming of Jesus meant twothousand years ago and then anticipate what the coming of Jesus to us todaymeans.  Are we prepared to encounter theOne God has sent to us as a messenger of God’s justice, God’s compassion, andGod’s love.  Can we stand in front ofsuch a messenger, have we acted out God’s justice, compassion, love forothers?  Can we stand in front of God’smessenger and say we have lived a Christ like life?  Amen.