Creating Christmas: Hope

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Romans 8:18-25: 

When Congressional Medal of Honor winner and Hanoi Hilton survivor Admiral James Stockdale was asked who it was that had the hardest time as a prisoner of war, he said, “That’s easy. It’s the optimists.” He said that the optimists would think, “We’ll be out by Christmas,” but when that didn’t happen, it was “we’ll be out by Easter,” and then “We’ll be out by the 4th of July,” then “we’ll be out by Thanksgiving,” and then they were back to Christmas again. The constant crushing of their optimism, would lead to delusion and other problems.  It shattered their endurance, and Stockdale said, “I think they all died of a broken heart.” But, the ones who were most likely to make it through were the ones who went through the full cycle of grief, and then held onto the faith that they would prevail in the end. That they would make it out. They didn’t know when, and they hoped it would be sooner rather than later, but no matter what was happening to them in the prison camp, they had faith in the final outcome. The suffering could not be eliminated, but how they decide to approach it and think about it can make all the difference.

And so in hearing that, we have to understand that Admiral Stockdale was not arguing against hope, but against false optimism, because although we often talk about optimism and hope as being the same thing, they are in fact difference. Shortly before his assassination, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when asked about the move towards racial justice, he said that he was not optimistic, but he was hopeful. That is, you can have hope even when you have lost your optimism, and not false hope, but the hope that we will prevail in the end, or even more importantly that we know that God will prevail in the end. And so today as we begin our advent journey, making our way to celebrating the birth of Christ, we will begin looking at the four themes of Advent, which are hope, peace, joy and love, and as we already talked about in lighting our advent candle, today is hope. And we have to know, as Paul sort of tells us, we don’t need hope when things are going well, we need it when we are in trouble, when we are suffering, when we wonder what’s going on, and the exact same thing is true of Christmas. We don’t have Christmas because everything is great. We have Christmas because we live in brokenness.

Jesus as King

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 25:31-46:

Today is Christ the King Sunday, the day we celebrate and recognize that Jesus is the Christ, the messiah and King, or that he is the King of king and Lord of Lords, a phrase most of us are familiar with from the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, but actually is found in the 1st letter to Timothy and also in the book of Revelation. And so this title of King is an early title given to Christ, and not just by the church, but even by others, even if ironically, remembering that the charge that appears over the cross, the reason why the Romans sought to crucify him, was that he was said to be King of the Jews. And of course in Matthew’s gospel this claim about Jesus being a king goes all the way back to the nativity story when the wise men come seeking the one who was born King of the Jews, which is the reason that Herod sought to have him killed. And so this was a title not only that was applied to Jesus, but which had significant ramifications in proclaiming it, and still should today. Because although there are lots of people who say that we should never talk politics in church, the simple truth is that is impossible, because to proclaim Jesus as King, Jesus as Lord, is a political statement. It was a political statement in the first century, and it is a political statement today.

Because to proclaim Christ as King means is to claim where our allegiance belongs, and also where our allegiance doesn’t belong, to the things of the world. As I said, the reason I decided to do this series talking about the offices of Christ after the election was to help us remember that neither political party holds a monopoly on truth, nor is any politician going to save us. We have a savior and he is not running for election. Christ is our hope, our salvation and our King, and that is a political statement, even if we don’t comprehend that as much today. But what we have to understand is that most of the titles that got applied to Jesus, also happened to be titles that were applied to Caesar Augustus, including that of Lord, Son of God, bringer of peace, savior and even the beginning of good news, to name just a few. Even more importantly, even though we talk about the Roman Empire, that’s not how they referred to themselves. Instead it was called the Kingdom of Rome, which also makes the emperor a King, whereas Jesus was talking about and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and of course a kingdom needs a king, whom was found in Christ. And so the question the early church posed to its followers, and still poses today, is who are you going to follow, Jesus or Caesar? Who is Lord, Jesus or Caesar? To whom do you pledge allegiance, Jesus of Caesar? That is not a rhetorical question, because it demands an answer.

Thanksgiving and Gifts

This morning, The Washington Post published an article about the best toys of the year according to Stephanie Oppenheim, a toy tester. Oppenheim said that while puzzles have been making a comeback in recent years, this year has solidified their place, along with games, because “Everyone is very hungry for something that is very low-tech and doesn’t involve a screen. I think, more than ever, it’s just a nice way to spend time together,” she said.

Of course as we move into another holiday in which we aren’t spending time together, perhaps this can serve as another reminder of the things that truly matter in our lives, and it’s not the things. I know that I am going to miss, and have missed, the gathering of the congregation for worship, which is more than just about the worship. It’s also about community and relationship.

In talking with my mom last week, she said how much she misses us and seeing the girls, whom she hasn’t seen since last Christmas. That’s a lot of missed time, especially with Elizabeth, let alone Abigail and Samantha. Talking on the phone or even over zoom or facetime, just isn’t the same, and honestly I think most of us, as Oppenheim said, want to do things that don’t involve a screen.

And so as you think about the coming holiday season, and gifts, let alone what we are thankful for, I encourage you to think of things that connect us. And so perhaps a gift this year might not be something someone can enjoy right away, but instead is an experience you can have together once we are back to being able to socialize. Or it’s a game or a puzzle that can be shared together. Or maybe even something as simple as being in touch more often than we have been.

We have a turkey in the church that is waiting for you to create a feather with the things you are grateful for to be put on it, and you can also reach out to those who are important to give your thanks to them and also learn to have less screen time, and more together time.

What crises always do is to take us out of our ordinary lives, the ordinary routine, and make us remember what life is really about and what is truly important. We have that same opportunity right now, so let’s not let it pass us by. Let’s turn something positive out of what is happening.

And let me finish by saying that I am grateful for this congregation and all of you!

Jesus as Priest

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Genesis 14:17-20 and Hebrews 7:11-28:

Immediately after Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, the people, who have seen the thunder and lightning and the mountain smoking, basically said to Moses “Don’t let God talk to us anymore because that scares us. Instead you talk to God and then tell us what God says, and then you can tell God what we say.” Basically they wanted Moses to be an intermediary, an intercessor, between them and God. Now last week I said that Moses was considered the greatest of the Israelite prophets, even though we don’t normally think of him that way, because he served as God’s spokesperson delivering God’s message to the people, which was one of the primary roles of a prophet. But, what we also see in Moses, at least at this point is also the role of a priest, someone who serves as a mediator between God and the people, communicating information both ways. And that is the historic role of a priest in ancient Israel. To be an intercessor between God and the people.

And yet, as the society grew and became more complex, the role of the priest also increased and could no longer be done by someone in the family as Abraham and Jacob had also done. Instead there was a need for more centralization to provide stability and continuity as the 12 tribes of Israel grew. And so it isn’t much longer after the people ask Moses to be an intermediary, a priest for them, that we actually get the call of the Levites to become the priestly class, and of course this happens after the failure of Aaron in the story of the golden calf while Moses is away. It becomes clear that the people need more than what Moses can provide, and so new priests are called to lead the people and be responsible for the people in this way, and Aaron, Moses’ brother becomes the high priest.

Jesus as Prophet

Here is my message from Sunday. The scripture was Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12  and Luke 4:14-24:

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul says that he didn’t come to them using lofty words or wisdom, but instead to make known amongst them only Christ and him crucified. And yet, that term Christ had a lot of meaning that eventually would have to be unpacked. Because Christ is a specific term. Even though we talk all the time about Jesus Christ, Christ is not his last name, and H is not his middle initial. Christ is a title, coming from the Greek word Christos which is the Greek word used for the Hebrew word Messiah, which means the anointed one. And so in proclaiming Jesus as Christ, Jesus as messiah, Jesus as the anointed one, there was a lot of understanding that went along with that. Or we might say that there was a lot of explanation that the early church had to do to come to understand who Jesus was that encapsulated his life, his death and most especially his resurrection. Jesus did not match the role that people expected of the Messiah, and so a new interpretation had to be given about Jesus, and one of the first titles was that of Christ. But when people asked “who is Christ”, or when the disciples and apostles set out to explain who Christ was, they didn’t seek to talk about his nature, but instead about his function. What does Christ do? Why is he important? How do we find salvation in his acts? How do we understand him as the Messiah?

And so the church spent years and years trying to answer some of those questions. And one of the ways that explanation was done was through assigning certain offices, or positions to Jesus, namely that of prophet, priest and king. And we have these titles and ideas appearing early on in the church. In the mid-first century, Justin Martyr was writing about these three offices, and just as an aside, like Jesus, Martyr was not Justin’s last name, that was given to him after he was martyred, otherwise that would be a rather unfortunate circumstance and heavy burden to carry. Later, Eusebius, the father of church history, would do the same. In the middle ages, Thomas Aquinas took up the topic, as did John Calvin in the Protestant Reformation, and John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement encouraged the preaching of Christ in all three of his offices.

A Purple Nation

Take a deep breath. Pause. Then release. Keep doing that until you feel your anxiety going away, because the election is going to be a very narrow one. And the fact that we don’t know the winner shouldn’t be surprising to us, because that’s more the norm then knowing on the night of the election. That’s the reason states have dates well after the election to finalize their numbers and that the Electoral College members don’t meet until December. It’s to give time for everything to be sorted through.

But, one of the problems with elections is that there are “winners” and there are “losers.” Some in the country, and in our congregation, will feel happy and others will mourn, with little of the in-between. Or at least that’s how it often gets cast. And if you look at the maps of red states and blue states, it looks like there is a deep divide in the country, an “us” and “them.” That seems to be true even if you break it down by county. And yet that’s not really true.

A number of years ago, political scientists tried to come up with a better way to represent voting in the country. Dr. Robert J. Vanderbei, a professor at Princeton, said his county was showing as red, but it had a split 51-49 in the presidential election. Which meant that saying his county was red wasn’t true at all. So he began looking for a different way to show elections and came up with using the color purple: (This is from 2016)

It turns out that we are a lot more purple than we are red or blue, and I think that’s a good thing to remember.

One of the our core values we have at our church is that of being inclusive. While there are lots of things that that means, one of them is that we welcome a wide spectrum of belief, and I certainly see that represented in the congregation. It also means that we are just going to love people, even if we might disagree with them. But we also believe that we can disagree without being disagreeable. And of course that also goes along with that whole loving neighbor thing.

What this also means is that there are a lot more things that unite us then things that divide us. And, as I wrote last week, those who seek to divide us are not offering good news and they should be called out, because it doesn’t have to be this way.

I just finished a biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and I knew about her close friendship with Antonin Scalia who was her polar opposite in many ways. But, what I didn’t know about was her relationship with Sandra Day O’Connor, who, as it turns out, was farther away from her on court decisions than any other justice while they served together.

When Ginsburg was set to deliver her first majority opinion, O’Connor, who wrote the dissenting opinion, handed her a note that said something like “Relax, you’ll do fine. It’s a good opinion and I look forward to hearing many more in the future.” That is called collegiality.

We don’t have to agree on everything to get along, and we don’t have to reject someone simply because we disagree. Our table should be larger than that because we are enlarged by being around people who are different from us. And, more often than not, as we get to know people it turns out they aren’t all that different after all.

Envy Versus Persecution

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 10:16-31:  

John Chrysostom, who was the 4th century arch-bishop of Constantinople, in writing about rules for clergy, especially in relation to abuse of power, said that he thought that rather than lust being the chief clerical sin, as most people supposed, that it was instead greed. Now, I don’t know much about 4th century clergy, and perhaps he was right for his day, but I would argue that today, at least amongst United Methodist clergy, our chief clerical sin, when looking at the seven deadly sins, is that of envy.  And it’s been said that out of the sin of envy come many of the other sins, including lust and greed, but we clergy like to look around at what other clergy are doing and make judgments. We look at other clergy salary, sometimes whispering under out breaths, can you believe how much they make? We look at what other churches people get appointed to, and make judgments about whether they deserve it or not. We look at what committees people get appointed to, or where the conference might be sending some clergy for some training or to represent the conference, and we make judgments. But, it’s a specific type of judgment. It’s been said that with suffering we ask “why me?” but with envy we ask “why not me?” or sometimes leading to “why them?” which comes with the follow-up; I’m so much better, or more deserving, or more honorable, or whatever it might be, than they are.

Earlier in this worship series we heard the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying at the temple, and the Pharisees prayer of thanksgiving to God for not making him like the sinners there, especially like the tax collector. And so his prayer became one of self-righteousness, rather than true thanksgiving, because he felt superior to others, but only because he was spending his time looking at everyone else and comparing himself to others, rather than being focused on his prayer. Envy does the same thing to us. Envy is a sin of looking around and seeing others and making destructive comparisons either because we judge ourselves less than, or others less than. And so remembering that the seven deadly sins were compiled in monasteries, where, for the most part everyone was exactly the same, and wore the same clothing, and ate the same things, any little change that could cause envy could destroy the community that had been established. And as Joseph Epstein said, of all the deadly sins, only the sin of envy is no fun, and it is the only one that is always directed at someone else, which is not true of the others, because even lust can be directed at an inanimate object.