THE SEASON OF RETURNS

After the big deal down in Bethlehem, after being serenaded by angels and having their sandals knocked off by glory, “the shepherds returned” Luke 2:19 tells us.  What did they return to?  Did they go back to their fields, their work, their families, changed forever in any substantial way?  Or was the birth of Jesus, their encounter with the angels, a moment with God that wore off quickly enough?

Business headlines this week are telling us that merchants are depending on the “season of returns” to make the profit they want this holiday season.  The key, they say, is what happens after the holy day.

I believe the same is true of Christmas.  The key isn’t simply the celebration, but how the reality of the Jesus Event gets lived out in our homes, classrooms, churches, friendships, playing fields, spending habits, and in our political life.

When we have conversations about school safety, the wisdom of automatic weapons on our streets, healthcare, and how we balance the Federal budget, is there a connection between what God is doing in Jesus and the words we speak…the positions we advocate?

What do the Beatitudes in Luke, for example, say to us as we talk about the “social safety net” and healthcare and housing?

What does Jesus’ statement about putting down the sword have to say to us as we enter a national conversation about the flood of weapons on our streets and in our homes?

Jesus said to get rid of the thing that causes us to sin.  What does that say to us as we consider the films we watch, the TV shows we support, and the video games we buy for our children?

Who are we -in Bloomington, in Washington- as we join the shepherds in returning to our fields?

Frederick Buechner talks about Christmas and says this:  “The Gospel writers are not really interested primarily in the facts of the birth, but in the significance, the meaning for them of that birth just as the people who love us are not really interested primarily in the facts of our birth, but in what it meant to them when we were born and how for them the world was never the same again., how their whole lives were charged with new significance.”

Whether there were ten million angels over Bethlehem or it was just the woman and her husband present at the birth, Buechner writes, what matters is that this birth changed history.  The birth of the child into the darkness of the world made possible not just a new way of understanding life, but a new way of living life.

As we return, will we live life in a new way.

DARK CRIES OUT FOR LIGHT

There are parts of the nativity story, truthfully, I want to skip over.  Verses 13 through 20, in Matthew 2, describe Herod’s murderous fear of a child born in the Bethlehem area.  People are whispering that there is a boy who is going to sit on the throne of his ancestor, King David, and so Herod goes on a rampage.  He sends his troops out to kill every male child under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.

I would always rather jump over that part of the story because it is heart-breaking.  A deep, ugly, violent intrusion into this story of the birth of Mary and Joseph’s child, angels, rejoicing shepherds, and visitors from the east.  Scholars refer to this moment in history as “the Slaughter of the Innocents.”

That portion of the story is difficult to ignore in light of the recent shootings in Connecticut.  The Biblical story seems so relevant, so timely, that it takes my breath away!

It is all a reminder that the world needs saving.  Without God, without the way of grace and truth we discover in Jesus, we are lost.  So deep darkness calls out for light.  Our brokenness speaks to the need for healing… a Healer.  Paul, in Romans 8:22, says “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”  Even creation aches for saving…for healing…for a new birth.

So we find our way towards Bethlehem hungry for a better world…a better way.  Dark cries out for light!

Last Sunday, at the beginning of three of our worship services, I shared the following statement about the shootings in Connecticut.  It was my attempt to put into words how our hearts were broken and what might be our response as God’s people.  I know it is inadequate, but I share it with you here…

Dear Friends,
 
We gather on this Lord’s Day as we do each week to worship the One born in Bethlehem, crucified on a Roman cross, and raised in glory as proof God’s love has the last word. Before we begin our worship we must stop and name the horror that took place this past week in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
 
The Jews were in exile when the psalmist wrote Psalm 137. He says that their captors mocked them and demanded that they sing some of the songs of Zion, of their homeland, and all the Jews felt like doing was hanging their lyres, their musical instruments, on the willows and weeping.
 
That is where I have been most of this week.
 
You’ll not hear any quick or easy explanation for all of this. Evil is a mystery, we live in a broken world, and I wouldn’t presume to offer an explanation for all of this.
 
I know God loves the world. Jesus is the proof of that. And I know God is shattered by every act of human violence, the taking of every life. So God meets us here and God brings to this moment God’s own broken heart.
 
The scriptures tell us God is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. So I know God is working to surround those who grieve with God’s love and God’s support. Your prayers and mine for those in Newtown are important. Our prayers and love make a difference.
 
What can we do in response to this?
 
First, we can pray.
 
Second, we can not only prepare to welcome the One who we call Prince of Peace, but begin to take seriously God’s call to be peacemakers in our homes, communities, schools, and nation.
 
Third, we can remind the world that God has another way. People will ask you where God was in all of this, and you can say God went to a cross and died to wake us up and turn us away from the way of the sword, but we insist on doing life on our terms.
 
Fourth, we can state over and over again our belief that, as Paul says in Romans 8, there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love in Christ. God, even when evil has done its worst, has the last word.
 
Fifth, we can worship. What we are about to do is a radical act. It is a corporate act testifying to our belief that God is still God; that God calls the world to a different kind of future, and that evil must not be allowed to shatter us into silence. God will not be defeated. We will not be defeated. Love will not be defeated. We will not let violence or evil silence us! We worship as God’s people and say we trust the One born in Bethlehem to lead us towards a better way… towards life.
 
Yesterday I kept thinking of the lyrics to It Came upon the Midnight Clear. The writer tells us how the angels bring a message to a weary world, and how God prays the world will embrace God’s peace as our way of living together:
 
And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.
 
O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!
For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old,
when with the ever circling years shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the son which now the angels sing.
 
Will you pray with me?
 
Loving God we come today not sure what to say. We are shocked. Angry. In deep grief. We can’t run fast enough to leave our tears behind. We come this morning broken hearted for every family whose child or parent or friend was taken away this week by the mad actions of a gunman. Our prayers pour up into the sky and race east to bless and surround and lift those in deep need and unbearable sadness. We want answers but what you have for us today is your love, and your promise that there is a better way. What you have for us is the truth that you continue to reach out to love and save the world -whether in the violent days of Herod or these violent days.
 
Be with us, God.
 
Help us to be your witnesses to the world that love is your way and that your love has the last word.
 
Give us enough faith today that we can find the strength to sing and worship as an act of radical protest against evil and violence. Use our songs and prayers to push back the darkness and point the world towards a better way…towards the One who is Prince of Peace. Amen.
 
Mark

Dark cries out for light!  Come, Lord Jesus!

God has the last word,

Mark

THE LETTER

It is the middle of the night.  I have no business being up at this hour.  In just a few hours the alarm will go off, and I’ll move into a day where God needs for me to deliver a word at three consecutive worship services.  But this is a task I have thought about getting done.  Wanted to get done.  (Or at least started…)

So there was a workout at the Y.  Some “tweaking” of the sermon while having coffee at a nearby place downtown.  Time in the church office on a quiet Saturday.  Small chores around the house getting ready for the staff Christmas party.  And always, in the back of my mind, this letter.

So, after running the draft by Sharon, I’ve printed it off.  And now I sit at our dining room table in the middle of the night signing our names, folding each letter, placing them in the envelopes and addressing each one.

As I look down the names I am in the middle of this dancing, swirling, chattering world of people I know and love.  People nearby and people far away.  There is Gladys, who would come into the church on Sunday morning, and say, “This is the day the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

There is the name of Beverly Mumby who was our next door neighbor when the boys were little.  She and Kenny would welcome the boys in their garden, let them play in their backyard, and invite them over for bonfires.  Kenny is now gone.  His name has been crossed off the list.

My buddy Craig is on the list, along with his wife, Connie.  He is in the hospital.  Fighting for his life.  There is the name of my buddy, Tom, who says the sound of my voice always makes him smile.  There is Elva, now in an Illinois convalescent center, who long ago sang “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” on a Christmas Eve night.  Her voice and friendship have blessed me in ways I can’t describe.  There is my cousin, Pat, who lives out in Oregon.  He and I are like brothers.  We’re too many miles apart.

There are friends I have not seen for too long.

And I realize what I want to do is to see them.  Sit in the same room with them.  Watch their eyes.  Hear their voice.  Even have the luxury of letting silence sit between us.  Walk a trail with them or paddle a river or share a pizza.

The letter is good, but being together in the flesh is far better, you know?

In the middle of the night I realize, again, the miracle and the necessity of the Incarnation.  God has sent us God’s letter.  We call it the Bible.  But at Christmas decided the letter  -as good as it is-  wasn’t enough.  So God shows up in our neighborhood!  I am so glad!

John 1 (The Message) says, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.  We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”

Maybe we, you and I, are God’s letter to the people around us…

Grace always in Christ,

Mark

WHY SO YOUNG?

Often, as I cross Indiana and 3^rd Street I remember a record store (if you are under 35 and you do not know what those would be then ask someone who looks like they might know an LP from a 45!) that used to sit on the corner across from the law school.

I actually went in there one afternoon and asked if they had a record by a country and western singer named Skitter Davis.  The record was It’s Hard to be a Woman.  When I made my request the clerk looked at me and simply said, “It certainly is.”  The song was an early feminist statement from Nashville.

I also remember buying a very popular record by a very popular group.  I played the music over and over and soon became bored with it.  Familiarity did  -indeed- breed contempt.  There was nothing new to discover in the music or the lyrics.

It’s not that way with the Bible or with the story of Jesus.  How many times have we heard the story of Mary, the angels, Joseph, the shepherds, Herod, and the wisemen and yet the drama continues to surprise and puzzle and inspire us.  We notice things we missed before.  The characters, the activity of God, raise questions we have never asked before.  There always seems to be something new God has for us in the Jesus story.

This week our ministry team at FUMCB/The Open Door was meeting for devotions in the sanctuary, and we began talking about how young Mary was when the angel visited her.
“Why would God choose someone so young?” I kept asking myself.

I think I have the answer!  When we are young we still believe in the impossible.  When we are young we are full of dreams.  As we grow older we often become more wise, but I also think we tend to more easily dismiss the idea of angels, of miracles, of new discoveries.  Not always…Moses still turned aside when he was up in years.  Abram and Sarai moved west late in life because of God’s nudge.

But the young seem especially open to dreams, to possibilities, to new worlds, to God, and to angels.  A friend told me his 5-year old grandson turned to him and said, “You know God talks to me in the night?”

God, save me from being settled, cynical, and so wise that I close my head to all mysteries deep and true.  Place in the bones of this veteran an openness to the holy and good.  Give me a young heart that is open to what-may-be with you.

Grace always in Christ,

Mark
 

GOD AT THE INTERSECTION

Some of you know my coffee places.  I can often be found at Panera, Pourhouse and Bloomington Sandwich Company.  Less frequently you’ll find me at Feast (a great place!).  Once a week I stop at a K convenience store south of downtown to get a cup of coffee.

Today a weathered looking woman of 60…maybe she was 45…or 50…was standing next to me in a long, black leather coat.  She spilled some coffee and sweetener.  Then, as she wiped things up she said she was in town for a funeral.  She said her father had died.  She said that nothing was going right and everything seemed hard.

In a moment she was gone.

I’m thinking of her as I introduce you to the series of Advent messages that begin this weekend.  GOD AT THE INTERSECTION is the title, and we’ll be exploring how God shows up at the intersections of everyday life.  Right in the middle of those times when our dreams don’t come true, our hearts are troubled, loneliness threatens to swallow us up, or we find ourselves hungry for mercy when life is sliding out of control.

The message titles are less than poetic, and we know they sound a little hokey.  (So forgive us!)

Here is what is ahead:

Dec 2 – First Sunday in Advent.
“Broken Dreams Boulevard.”  The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1:5-18.   Communion celebrated as we enter the season of preparation and expectation.

Dec 9 – Second Sunday in Advent.
“Troubled Trail.”  God shows up and the whole experience is troubling.  Life is upside-down.  Luke 1:26-38 is the text.

Dec 16 – Third Sunday in Advent. 
“Lonely Street.”  Young Mary visits the hill country with the older, pregnant Elizabeth.  How can God use us to break the weight of loneliness in the lives of others?  The text is Luke 1:39-45, 56.

Dec 23 – Fourth Sunday in Advent.  
“No Mercy Place” is the title of the message.  John brings a message that invites us to turn around and find mercy.  Some of us keep running.  The Bible lesson is Luke 1:57-66, 76-80.

Dec 24 – Christmas Eve. 
“No Sign Circle” brings us to Bethlehem.  We all have yearned for, demanded, a sign of God’s presence.  The world is given the birth of a child as a sign?  Is it possible there are signs all around us?  The text is Luke 2:1-4.

Dec 30 – First Sunday After Christmas Day.  
“Angels Gone Lane” brings us face to face with the departure of the angels.  Sort of sad, isn’t it?  The glory and the light and the music leaves the sky.  Shepherds left looking at hills and sheep.  What a letdown!  Or… maybe not…  The text is Luke 2:15-20.

I’m thinking of the woman standing next to me.  Wishing I had that moment back.  I rejoice that we have a God who hangs out on the street, in coffee shops, and where real life happens!  God made the heavens.  And God meets us out on the street.  At the intersection where we can go one way or another.

Invite a friend, family member, or co-worker/roommate to GOD AT THE INTERSECTION.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark