On Christmas Eve, around 6:30, I hopped into the car to come here. There was a bit of snow everywhere, just enough to add some sparkle - and unfortunately just enough to make the roads greasy. On the news, reports of accidents all over the city, one particularly tragic accident in which four men died when the scaffolding under them collapsed.
Here at the church, our absolutely wonderful youth were rehearsing their play. People were setting things up, and there was a generous and warm atmosphere around. The service came together as a piece, we sang Silent Night, and in that candlelight I saw faces glowing too.
Driving home, the Hallelujah chorus was on the car radio - and I bellowed along at the top of my lungs. Above everything, there was indeed angel song - oh, not MY voice, but the voice of the angels was there. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to all people.”
I found myself wondering again why it is that we have made such a commercial venture out of Christmas, that people rush to the point where they lose track of care, and end up either being hurt, or hurting someone else. I wondered why there were people working so late on a Christmas Eve; I wondered about the company that allowed such a shabby scaffold to be built and put people up there. I wondered about all the hurt people do to each other in so many ways, how we become so obsessed with the giving and getting, and the commercial ventures, that the voice of angels is drowned out. I know, this isn’t a new sentiment - but the contrast was particularly striking.
Humanly speaking things weren't really that joyful for Mary and Joseph either. The entire Christmas story is one of human dilemma. We have a tendency to romanticize it, but I doubt Joseph or Mary found it romantic. The whole of their known world was in bad shape, and they really didn’t want to be where they were. More than 2000 years later, we celebrate God's display of peace, and things are still pretty bad in the world. We are surrounded by a world that seems doomed to unrest. In the midst of such uncertainty, we're supposed to celebrate Christmas and sing "Glory to God in the highest!” and “Joy to the World!” like we really mean it.
Circumstances couldn't have been much worse for Mary and Joseph. There was no medical care for Mary or her baby, they could not even find a decent place to have the baby. There was a question surrounding the birth of her baby, since she and Joseph weren’t married. All of this was happening amidst a political crisis forced upon the Jewish people by then super-power Rome.
How do we sing “Glory to God” and “Joy to the World” in this world of today? In the letter to the Colossians, Paul - who is under house arrest and likely facing his own death for being a follower of Jesus - writes about relating to each other in the community of faith. He squeezes everything in - be good, kind, humble, patient, forgive each other, be thankful, help each other understand the way of Jesus. The instructions can be summed up in one line - “above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony”. His version of how to sing Glory to God, and Joy!!!
Apparently, in Paul’s mind, Christians have a choice about how to live. In his mind living out our Christianity--loving one another--may be like putting on a new, freshly washed piece of clothing. Putting on love….
I got to thinking about clothing, and how different cultures treat clothes. In Japan, for instance, putting on traditional clothing is a very exact process. Every piece has to be put on in a particular way. The whole ensemble is held together with a wide band of woven stiff fabric called an “obi”, tied on with.......if it is not put on properly, even if it does not all fall off - it will certainly look funny.
Stacey Nicholas, in Canton Missouri, talks about being a firefighter. There is a whole outlay of uniform, and everything has to be put on, and it is all important. There isn’t one piece which can be left off.
Paul’s instructions for living together - cast in the framework of putting on the virtues like clothing - include the one thing which is important. The text in the more modern translation uses the word “love”, but the original Greek translates the word “agape” as ‘charity’. While I don’t normally read from the King James version - it’s a little stilted for today - this translation uses the word ‘charity’.
“And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
So we live together, in a community which celebrates a birth of a child, and together we celebrate being children of God. We are asked to put on the clothing of charity - kindness, humility, peace, patience, gratitude, and teaching and encouraging each other. We are asked to sing - psalms and hymns and spiritual songs - and Paul says “Singing with grace in your hearts.” Above all else, we are asked to hear the song of the angels, and sing it back in full voice, wearing the clothing of faith - “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to all people!”
Sources:
1. “Last Words to Live By” a sermon based on Colossians 3:12-17 by Rev. Frank Schaefer.
2. Stacey Nicholas, Canton, Missouri
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
“We Need a Little Christmas” Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:39-45 Fourth Sunday of Advent 2009
Haul out the holly; put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking, I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas, right this very minute,
candles in the window, carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry, but Santa, dear, we're in a hurry.
So climb down the chimney; put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.
Slice up the fruitcake; it's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder,
grown a little sadder, grown a little older,
and I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder,
need a little Christmas now.
For we need a little music, need a little laughter,
need a little singing, ringing through the rafter,
and we need a little snappy "Happy ever after,"
need a little Christmas now.
Such a joyous seasonal song - and most of the time we don’t really listen closely, do we? We just sing along, smiling and tapping our toes, right? But there’s a kernel of reality buried in the middle verse.
Around this time of year, people often become depressed. Particularly if there has been a loss, there are questions about life, and faith. Does God really exist, was Jesus real, if the stories in the Bible are allegory and myth, what can we believe?
There’s a sadness, and even a little despair, hidden in this Christmas song....
“For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder,
grown a little sadder, grown a little older,
and I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder,
need a little Christmas now.”
Behind all the activity of Christmas, these are really the questions. Even people for whom religion doesn’t play much of a role ask the questions about Christmas. Was it real? Did Jesus exist? How do we know?
Well, unfortunately I am not one of the preachers who will tell you it’s all true. I am not even sure that’s the right question to ask. But let’s take a little side-trip into some of the parts of the story. Some of the things we have taken as literal are a long stretch from any reality. First, the date of December 25 isn’t the date of Jesus birth. Eastern churches celebrate it in January on the feast of Epiphany; in the second century, Clement of Alexandria pegged it as either April or May. The date we have was chosen by Constantine in the fourth century - an emperor who, at the time, was not a believer and wasn’t baptised.
Nothing in the Gospels suggests Joseph was an old man. He might have been older than Mary, who was likely about 14, but that would not make him OLD. Nothing says Jesus shared a stable with animals, and nowhere does it say the Magi who arrived two years after the birth were kings. Note as well that Matthew is almost preoccupied with the genealogy of Jesus, to try to prove who he was - but the genealogy doesn’t hold up; Luke is clear he is writing down what he has been *told* happened. Mark’s Gospel - the oldest - doesn’t mention it at all, and neither does John. The conception of Jesus is announced to Mary in Luke, but only to Joseph in Matthew.
Then there’s the notion of a “virgin” birth, or I should say, virgin conception. Aside from the fact that the word really meant a young woman of marriageable age, there is nothing in the original text which suggests that. Rudolph Bultmann, one of the great interpreters of the Hebrew Scriptures in the 20th C, states flatly that there is nothing in Matthew’s original infancy narrative which would point to such a thing, and that it was a later addition as the texts were translated into Greek. It would have been unheard of for the early Jews. David Jenkins, the former Anglican bishop of Durham, is reputed to have said “I wouldn’t put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if He wanted, but I very much doubt if He would.”
Is this what is really the important thing, though? Isn’t it possible to recognise these myths as part of the story which has grown up over the years around Christmas, without taking them absolutely literally? What was really important? To each of the authors of the four Gospels, the important thing was that they all believed Jesus was really the anticipated Messiah, who the prophets foretold. Each of the Gospels was written to point to Jesus as the one. They are not historic or literally true, they are literary devices to make a point.
And central to all of them was one major theme - hope. Hope in the face of great loss, hope in a future, hope in a life different from this earthly one, hope for a new kind of justice and compassion, hope for the coming of God’s realm in the here and now.
The Prophet Micah would recognize us and our time. He wrote to a nation in distress. Jerusalem was under siege, the economy was in tatters, the king had been humiliated, the people saw little hope. Micah sees that there is more to our existence than what we can see. There is also what God sees, and what God is promising to do. In spite of distress and despair everywhere, the messenger testifies to God’s future, which we may not see now, but which is promised.
We have something in common with the people of Micah's day. Many live in fear. We look, not to ourselves, but towards the seats of power for rescue, trusting that our leaders will meet our needs and the needs of the most vulnerable among us. We look to established professionals to protect us from perceived threats that make us feel vulnerable. We look for pat simplistic theologies which will simply hand us answers, and save us from having to grapple with the tough questions.
My friend, Rev. Judith Evenden, says “Micah is jumping up and down, desperately waving his arms and pointing us to a small, out of the way place in a town called Bethlehem”, where Hope would be born.
Funny how Micah knows us. Micah knows the ache in which we live today. Micah tells us that God is at work; in the nooks and crannies of the world, the townships and the barrios, the refugee camps and in the slums. God is at work among the homeless and the hopeless and the poor. God's activity is found off the map in the stables of the world. But Micah also tells us God’s activity can be found in us, if we let it.
The Hope which was born, the Love which was born, continues to be born into the world. Mary was not literally impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and while that has some importance, it really isn’t *the* most important thing in the story. Mary’s joy at having a child, and feeling that this child would do great things which would change the world - that is the Hope. The birth of that child was the Hope, and that is why we have the stories decorated with the elaborate myths.
This is the message of Christmas: that human beings have been impregnated with God's peace and love. Each child born into this world has great potential just as Jesus did, for each human is a beloved child of God. It doesn't matter where we are born, or to whom we are born.
The question to be asked is this: are we going to receive God anew at Christmas, to have God - Emmanuel - born in us? If we say yes, then are we ready and willing to be God's gift of hope and love to the world? Are we willing to let something be born in us this Christmas? And then are we willing to share ourselves as a God-given gift to the world?
We need a little music, need a little laughter,
need a little singing, ringing through the rafter,
We need a little Christmas now.
Sources:
1. Rev. Judith Evenden, Land ‘O’ Lakes Emmanuel Pastoral Charge, Flinton, ON. from the Advent IV sermon "What is There Yet to Be Born?".
2. Rev. David Shearman, Central Westside United Church, Owen Sound, ON.
3. Geza Vermes, The Nativity: History and Legend. Penguin Books, 2006.
4. “We Need a Little Christmas”, from the Broadway musical “Mame” by Jerry Herman.
Fill up the stocking, I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas, right this very minute,
candles in the window, carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry, but Santa, dear, we're in a hurry.
So climb down the chimney; put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.
Slice up the fruitcake; it's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder,
grown a little sadder, grown a little older,
and I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder,
need a little Christmas now.
For we need a little music, need a little laughter,
need a little singing, ringing through the rafter,
and we need a little snappy "Happy ever after,"
need a little Christmas now.
Such a joyous seasonal song - and most of the time we don’t really listen closely, do we? We just sing along, smiling and tapping our toes, right? But there’s a kernel of reality buried in the middle verse.
Around this time of year, people often become depressed. Particularly if there has been a loss, there are questions about life, and faith. Does God really exist, was Jesus real, if the stories in the Bible are allegory and myth, what can we believe?
There’s a sadness, and even a little despair, hidden in this Christmas song....
“For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder,
grown a little sadder, grown a little older,
and I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder,
need a little Christmas now.”
Behind all the activity of Christmas, these are really the questions. Even people for whom religion doesn’t play much of a role ask the questions about Christmas. Was it real? Did Jesus exist? How do we know?
Well, unfortunately I am not one of the preachers who will tell you it’s all true. I am not even sure that’s the right question to ask. But let’s take a little side-trip into some of the parts of the story. Some of the things we have taken as literal are a long stretch from any reality. First, the date of December 25 isn’t the date of Jesus birth. Eastern churches celebrate it in January on the feast of Epiphany; in the second century, Clement of Alexandria pegged it as either April or May. The date we have was chosen by Constantine in the fourth century - an emperor who, at the time, was not a believer and wasn’t baptised.
Nothing in the Gospels suggests Joseph was an old man. He might have been older than Mary, who was likely about 14, but that would not make him OLD. Nothing says Jesus shared a stable with animals, and nowhere does it say the Magi who arrived two years after the birth were kings. Note as well that Matthew is almost preoccupied with the genealogy of Jesus, to try to prove who he was - but the genealogy doesn’t hold up; Luke is clear he is writing down what he has been *told* happened. Mark’s Gospel - the oldest - doesn’t mention it at all, and neither does John. The conception of Jesus is announced to Mary in Luke, but only to Joseph in Matthew.
Then there’s the notion of a “virgin” birth, or I should say, virgin conception. Aside from the fact that the word really meant a young woman of marriageable age, there is nothing in the original text which suggests that. Rudolph Bultmann, one of the great interpreters of the Hebrew Scriptures in the 20th C, states flatly that there is nothing in Matthew’s original infancy narrative which would point to such a thing, and that it was a later addition as the texts were translated into Greek. It would have been unheard of for the early Jews. David Jenkins, the former Anglican bishop of Durham, is reputed to have said “I wouldn’t put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if He wanted, but I very much doubt if He would.”
Is this what is really the important thing, though? Isn’t it possible to recognise these myths as part of the story which has grown up over the years around Christmas, without taking them absolutely literally? What was really important? To each of the authors of the four Gospels, the important thing was that they all believed Jesus was really the anticipated Messiah, who the prophets foretold. Each of the Gospels was written to point to Jesus as the one. They are not historic or literally true, they are literary devices to make a point.
And central to all of them was one major theme - hope. Hope in the face of great loss, hope in a future, hope in a life different from this earthly one, hope for a new kind of justice and compassion, hope for the coming of God’s realm in the here and now.
The Prophet Micah would recognize us and our time. He wrote to a nation in distress. Jerusalem was under siege, the economy was in tatters, the king had been humiliated, the people saw little hope. Micah sees that there is more to our existence than what we can see. There is also what God sees, and what God is promising to do. In spite of distress and despair everywhere, the messenger testifies to God’s future, which we may not see now, but which is promised.
We have something in common with the people of Micah's day. Many live in fear. We look, not to ourselves, but towards the seats of power for rescue, trusting that our leaders will meet our needs and the needs of the most vulnerable among us. We look to established professionals to protect us from perceived threats that make us feel vulnerable. We look for pat simplistic theologies which will simply hand us answers, and save us from having to grapple with the tough questions.
My friend, Rev. Judith Evenden, says “Micah is jumping up and down, desperately waving his arms and pointing us to a small, out of the way place in a town called Bethlehem”, where Hope would be born.
Funny how Micah knows us. Micah knows the ache in which we live today. Micah tells us that God is at work; in the nooks and crannies of the world, the townships and the barrios, the refugee camps and in the slums. God is at work among the homeless and the hopeless and the poor. God's activity is found off the map in the stables of the world. But Micah also tells us God’s activity can be found in us, if we let it.
The Hope which was born, the Love which was born, continues to be born into the world. Mary was not literally impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and while that has some importance, it really isn’t *the* most important thing in the story. Mary’s joy at having a child, and feeling that this child would do great things which would change the world - that is the Hope. The birth of that child was the Hope, and that is why we have the stories decorated with the elaborate myths.
This is the message of Christmas: that human beings have been impregnated with God's peace and love. Each child born into this world has great potential just as Jesus did, for each human is a beloved child of God. It doesn't matter where we are born, or to whom we are born.
The question to be asked is this: are we going to receive God anew at Christmas, to have God - Emmanuel - born in us? If we say yes, then are we ready and willing to be God's gift of hope and love to the world? Are we willing to let something be born in us this Christmas? And then are we willing to share ourselves as a God-given gift to the world?
We need a little music, need a little laughter,
need a little singing, ringing through the rafter,
We need a little Christmas now.
Sources:
1. Rev. Judith Evenden, Land ‘O’ Lakes Emmanuel Pastoral Charge, Flinton, ON. from the Advent IV sermon "What is There Yet to Be Born?".
2. Rev. David Shearman, Central Westside United Church, Owen Sound, ON.
3. Geza Vermes, The Nativity: History and Legend. Penguin Books, 2006.
4. “We Need a Little Christmas”, from the Broadway musical “Mame” by Jerry Herman.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Joy Shall Come Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Third Sunday of Advent 2009, Glen Ayr United Church
Friday evening, as I sat thinking about a sermon, I happened on the Christmas movie, “Home Alone”, followed by the movie “Prancer”.
In the first movie, there is an old man who is the neighbourhood grouse,and of course stories have grown up among the neighbourhood kids about him. The young boy who is the central character in this story encounters the old man in the church, listening to his granddaughter sing. The man says he never talks to his grand-daughter because he and his son had a falling out and don’t speak to each other. The boy suggests he might call his son, especially since it’s Christmas. Towards the end of the movie, the boy looks out the window, to see the old man hugging his granddaughter close, and the most profound joy on his face.
In the movie Prancer, a little girl finds a reindeer with a broken leg and nurses it back to health. She is convinced it is Prancer, one of Santa’s reindeer. The reindeer is set free in time for Christmas Eve, and wonder of wonders, it is indeed Prancer who is reunited with the other reindeer in time for Christmas. Jessica sees the light of the reindeer, and joy shines on her face, Prancer is alive and well. The Spirit of Christmas lives in the heart of a child.
Jesus said, in fact, that to enter the realm of God one had to become as a child. Buddhist wisdom tells us that as we get older we must become more child-like, in order to become enlightened.
For some reason, we have this nonsense idea that to be good Christians we have to be dour, proper, look bored, and above all look uncomfortable if we’re asked to anything which appears remotely joy-filled.
The great writer C.S. Lewis - author of the Screwtape Letters, and the Chronicles of Narnia, was anything but a dour, proper churchman. In 1947 Time magazine portrayed Lewis on its cover alongside a pitchforked, horned, and tailed devil. The magazine accused Lewis of heresy. His heresy, interestingly, was Christianity in a world gone awry. Lewis was a man of laughter and surprises, of jokes and joy. He had a ruddy face because he had a sunny heart. A publisher, in collecting selections from Lewis’s works for a book, called it The Joyful Christian.
Lewis identified joy as the highest and most sublime cause of laughter. For C.S. Lewis, the purest laughter on earth dwells in the kingdom of joy. When joy reigns in the land, the sound of laughter is never far away. Silvery volleys of laughter fall on every dale and in every valley of the countryside where the king of joy rules. In Lewis’s underworld kingdom of pride and selfishness, the devil Screwtape reserved some of his sharpest criticism for this seemingly hallowed laughter of joy. He found it utterly repulsive and repugnant to the ego-infested environs of hell. He attacked its exhilaration and merriment as inappropriate for creatures whose cardinal value is self-importance.
The Atlanta Journal, a while back, carried an article that which talks about depression, particularly around the holidays. Christmas is often a season of unmet expectations, because in some ways it touches the most idealized memories of our childhood; we get nostalgic over the loss of that time in our lives…over losing the ability to enter innocently into the joy of the season. The parties we thought would be great aren't; we see all sorts of ads on TV about toys and realize we can't get our kids everything they want. At Christmas dinner mom or dad gets drunk again, a family argument erupts, the car breaks down, a family member gets the flu and joy is sucked away.
In that same article an expert was asked if a person's faith plays a role in the holiday blues and the expert said no. What he was being asked was if a person's faith adds to the blues many have at this time of year. What he wasn't asked is if a person's faith helps with the blues. The answer to that question is yes.
The theme of joy surrounds the whole Christmas story. The angel said "I bring you good news of great joy" (Luke 2:10). Peter writes of the Jesus movement, "Though we do not see him now, we believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy" (1 Pet. 1:8). In the New Testament the word for "joy" occurs 60 times. The verb form, which means, "to rejoice" is used 72 times. If we do not see the New Testament as a book of joy, we fail to understand the message.
So, why don’t we have more joy today? Joy is not a prevalent attitude among modern Christians. How often do you hear people associate "joy" or "enjoyment" with their religion? A better term on many counts today would be "solemn." How often do we still succumb to the notion that our Sunday services should be “solemn” rather than celebrations of joy?? How often do we think we need to have quiet throughout the services? A congregation which understands the meaning of joy in our worship is a congregation which welcomes every age from the youngest to the oldest, with joy and laughter.
Well, what are the joy-busters in life?
I can think of one - anxiety. The scriptures tell us “Do not be anxious…” In the rush of the season, shopping, exams, service planning, extra activities, we become agitated and fearful. Clergy get into a panic because services have to be prepared, the church decorated in a meaningful which helps enhance the worship experience, we want to offer messages which provide food for the soul and the mind; you get anxious because of the extra things to be done, family gatherings, getting exactly the right gift for each person, and wondering if it’s good enough. But particularly at this time of year, we can know the joy of God if we remember God knows us, loves us, and is with us. We are known, and we know God.
Then there’s guilt. Guilt is a huge joy-robber, isn’t it? There is a reality - which we confess almost every week in our service, as a corporate body. We recognise that we all do things which are less than desirable - we all fall short of our own ideals, and the ideals of our faith. That is what sin is - falling short of what our faith calls us to be, and in doing so hurting ourselves and others. Our sins cannot be excused. But, in our confessions we are repentant and ask for forgiveness and the strength to learn to turn away from those actions in the future. Guilt is a tremendous joy-robber. So today, hear your pastor: I believe with all my heart that God loves and knows each of us, and we are all a forgiven people.
In our hymnbook, we have the wonderful closing chorus:
"You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace;
the mountains and the hills will break forth before you,
there’ll be shouts of joy, and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands."
And on Christmas Eve, and the Sundays following, we sing one of the greatest hymns of Isaac Watts. Watts was in poor health most of his life, and for the last thirty years was an invalid, unable to leave home. He could have been bitter, instead he wrote: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King."
Joy is our theme in this season. Joy which comes from the knowledge of the love of God, the love which holds us in spite of ourselves. Joy shall come, even to the wilderness.
Sources:
1. Mars Hill Review 8 (Summer 1997) “Joy and Sehnsucht: The Laughter and Longings of C.S. Lewis” by Terry Lindvall
2. Sermon “All I Want for Christmas”, by Rev. Steve Jackson, New Song Church, 230 Elm Street, Cumming, Georgia. Dec. 2000.
3. Voices United 884 “You shall go out with joy”
In the first movie, there is an old man who is the neighbourhood grouse,and of course stories have grown up among the neighbourhood kids about him. The young boy who is the central character in this story encounters the old man in the church, listening to his granddaughter sing. The man says he never talks to his grand-daughter because he and his son had a falling out and don’t speak to each other. The boy suggests he might call his son, especially since it’s Christmas. Towards the end of the movie, the boy looks out the window, to see the old man hugging his granddaughter close, and the most profound joy on his face.
In the movie Prancer, a little girl finds a reindeer with a broken leg and nurses it back to health. She is convinced it is Prancer, one of Santa’s reindeer. The reindeer is set free in time for Christmas Eve, and wonder of wonders, it is indeed Prancer who is reunited with the other reindeer in time for Christmas. Jessica sees the light of the reindeer, and joy shines on her face, Prancer is alive and well. The Spirit of Christmas lives in the heart of a child.
Jesus said, in fact, that to enter the realm of God one had to become as a child. Buddhist wisdom tells us that as we get older we must become more child-like, in order to become enlightened.
For some reason, we have this nonsense idea that to be good Christians we have to be dour, proper, look bored, and above all look uncomfortable if we’re asked to anything which appears remotely joy-filled.
The great writer C.S. Lewis - author of the Screwtape Letters, and the Chronicles of Narnia, was anything but a dour, proper churchman. In 1947 Time magazine portrayed Lewis on its cover alongside a pitchforked, horned, and tailed devil. The magazine accused Lewis of heresy. His heresy, interestingly, was Christianity in a world gone awry. Lewis was a man of laughter and surprises, of jokes and joy. He had a ruddy face because he had a sunny heart. A publisher, in collecting selections from Lewis’s works for a book, called it The Joyful Christian.
Lewis identified joy as the highest and most sublime cause of laughter. For C.S. Lewis, the purest laughter on earth dwells in the kingdom of joy. When joy reigns in the land, the sound of laughter is never far away. Silvery volleys of laughter fall on every dale and in every valley of the countryside where the king of joy rules. In Lewis’s underworld kingdom of pride and selfishness, the devil Screwtape reserved some of his sharpest criticism for this seemingly hallowed laughter of joy. He found it utterly repulsive and repugnant to the ego-infested environs of hell. He attacked its exhilaration and merriment as inappropriate for creatures whose cardinal value is self-importance.
The Atlanta Journal, a while back, carried an article that which talks about depression, particularly around the holidays. Christmas is often a season of unmet expectations, because in some ways it touches the most idealized memories of our childhood; we get nostalgic over the loss of that time in our lives…over losing the ability to enter innocently into the joy of the season. The parties we thought would be great aren't; we see all sorts of ads on TV about toys and realize we can't get our kids everything they want. At Christmas dinner mom or dad gets drunk again, a family argument erupts, the car breaks down, a family member gets the flu and joy is sucked away.
In that same article an expert was asked if a person's faith plays a role in the holiday blues and the expert said no. What he was being asked was if a person's faith adds to the blues many have at this time of year. What he wasn't asked is if a person's faith helps with the blues. The answer to that question is yes.
The theme of joy surrounds the whole Christmas story. The angel said "I bring you good news of great joy" (Luke 2:10). Peter writes of the Jesus movement, "Though we do not see him now, we believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy" (1 Pet. 1:8). In the New Testament the word for "joy" occurs 60 times. The verb form, which means, "to rejoice" is used 72 times. If we do not see the New Testament as a book of joy, we fail to understand the message.
So, why don’t we have more joy today? Joy is not a prevalent attitude among modern Christians. How often do you hear people associate "joy" or "enjoyment" with their religion? A better term on many counts today would be "solemn." How often do we still succumb to the notion that our Sunday services should be “solemn” rather than celebrations of joy?? How often do we think we need to have quiet throughout the services? A congregation which understands the meaning of joy in our worship is a congregation which welcomes every age from the youngest to the oldest, with joy and laughter.
Well, what are the joy-busters in life?
I can think of one - anxiety. The scriptures tell us “Do not be anxious…” In the rush of the season, shopping, exams, service planning, extra activities, we become agitated and fearful. Clergy get into a panic because services have to be prepared, the church decorated in a meaningful which helps enhance the worship experience, we want to offer messages which provide food for the soul and the mind; you get anxious because of the extra things to be done, family gatherings, getting exactly the right gift for each person, and wondering if it’s good enough. But particularly at this time of year, we can know the joy of God if we remember God knows us, loves us, and is with us. We are known, and we know God.
Then there’s guilt. Guilt is a huge joy-robber, isn’t it? There is a reality - which we confess almost every week in our service, as a corporate body. We recognise that we all do things which are less than desirable - we all fall short of our own ideals, and the ideals of our faith. That is what sin is - falling short of what our faith calls us to be, and in doing so hurting ourselves and others. Our sins cannot be excused. But, in our confessions we are repentant and ask for forgiveness and the strength to learn to turn away from those actions in the future. Guilt is a tremendous joy-robber. So today, hear your pastor: I believe with all my heart that God loves and knows each of us, and we are all a forgiven people.
In our hymnbook, we have the wonderful closing chorus:
"You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace;
the mountains and the hills will break forth before you,
there’ll be shouts of joy, and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands."
And on Christmas Eve, and the Sundays following, we sing one of the greatest hymns of Isaac Watts. Watts was in poor health most of his life, and for the last thirty years was an invalid, unable to leave home. He could have been bitter, instead he wrote: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King."
Joy is our theme in this season. Joy which comes from the knowledge of the love of God, the love which holds us in spite of ourselves. Joy shall come, even to the wilderness.
Sources:
1. Mars Hill Review 8 (Summer 1997) “Joy and Sehnsucht: The Laughter and Longings of C.S. Lewis” by Terry Lindvall
2. Sermon “All I Want for Christmas”, by Rev. Steve Jackson, New Song Church, 230 Elm Street, Cumming, Georgia. Dec. 2000.
3. Voices United 884 “You shall go out with joy”
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Who is In??? Philippians 1:3-10, Acts 15:4-11 Glen Ayr United Church Second Sunday of Advent December 6, 2009
The progress of the Gospel has often been held back by closed-minded religious people who block the doors and keep others out. The outcry when women were to be ordained in the church was fearsome to behold. If women were going to be ordained, the whole Christian movement would go to hell in a handbasket. Yet, today most mainline Protestant denominations have ordained women.
Two of the kinder arguments used are that Jesus didn’t ordain any women, that women cannot be a likeness of Jesus. Well, technically Jesus didn’t ordain any men either! This notion came much later in the history of the church. Jesus called women as well as men to be his disciples. Luke tells us of the women and men who travelled together. The Book of Acts tells us of the women who led churches. The first witnesses at Easter were Mary Magdalene and her friends. Genesis, in the creation story, says both male and female were created in the image of God, and it’s interesting that the Catholic Catechism also says that both men and women are made equally in God’s image.
In 1921, Archbishop Jan Maria Michal Kowalski began the Catholic Mariavite Church of Poland. In 1929 Izabela Wilucka Kowalska was consecrated a bishop. As Polish nationalsim grew, the group was persecuted by the mainline Polish Catholic Church, with the support of the Polish government. Innovations such as the endorsement of marriages between priests and nuns, and later the ordination of women as priests and bishops, took this group out of fellowship with the Catholic Church altogether. The group is led by a female bishop, and while considering itself the true church, the theology is very liberal.
During the 12-13C CE, the Cathars, also called Albigensians by Rome, lived in the area of Languedoc, in southeastern France, bordering on Spain. The Cathars rejected any idea of priesthood or the use of church buildings. They divided into ordinary believers who led ordinary lives, and an inner group of Parfaits (men) and Parfaites (women) who led ascetic lives, but worked for their living - generally in itinerant manual trades like weaving. Men and women were regarded as equals; there was no doctrinal objection to contraception, euthanasia or suicide. By the early thirteenth century Catharism was probably the majority religion in the area, supported by the nobility as well as the common people. Not only did many Catholics, priests included, defect to the Cathars, but the group refused to pay tithes to Rome. Accusing the Cathars of heresy, Pope Innocent III instituted a Crusade against the Cathars, and by the end over 500,000 people, Cathar and non-Cathar alike, had been killed.
Jumping back to the current times - many of us remember the debates over the admission of gays and lesbians to ordained ministry in the church. I would find letters on my desk at the national office, accusing gays of having sex with animals, that anyone who supported gays was outside the church, that the Bible specifically prohibited homosexual behaviour. At a meeting of General Council in Camrose, Alberta in 1997 - bags of dog poop were left on the chairs of people who were either suspected of being gay, or supported gay ordination. These things were always done either overnight, or early enough in the morning that no-one saw who it was. Walter Wink, who is Professor of Theology at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, as early as 1978 put together a paper which managed to debunk every argument against homosexuality, and point out that the constant ethic in the Bible is love, and inclusivity.
Well, less than 20 years after Pentecost, Paul and Barnabas faced pretty much the same challenges. As long as there are institutions, and churches, and societies - there will always be arguments about who is in and who isn’t. Acts 15 records the most controversial and pivotal event in the life of the early church, because it called into question whether or not the church was a Jewish reform movement, a sect, or was becoming a wider movement where all racial and cultural barriers had been removed. Following his conversion, Paul had visited Jerusalem, met Peter and James, caused a stir there among the Jews, been shipped off to Caesarea and then home to Tarsus. He spent the next eleven years in Cilicia and Syria. Around 40-41 CE rumours of Greek converts in Antioch went around, and the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to check it out.
Barnabas got on board, and together with Paul became pastor of a new church which was young, dynamic, and mostly Gentile converts. But the church in Jerusalem was strongly Jewish, and steeped in the Jewish traditions. The church leaders in Jerusalem thought that any Gentiles who wanted to follow Jesus had to become Jews first, by being circumcized. They could buy the idea that proselytes to Judaism like Cornelius could receive the Holy Spirit, for he was already a "God fearer", but accepting out and out pagans was another matter. Its wasn't long before matters came to a head.
On the first journey Paul and Barnabas witnessed to Jews and Gentiles alike. They founded churches in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe in the Southern region of the province of Galatia. Again, and increasingly, it was the Gentiles who believed. The Jews got jealous and incited the rabble, and the authorities, to throw the apostles out of each town, one after another. When the dust had settled, and their visas were running out they turned round and worked their way back to the coast visiting each of these newly formed churches, and appointed leadership teams. Eventually they returned to home base, Antioch in Syria, tired but fully convinced of the rightness of their strategy. The hostility of the Jews, the responsiveness of the Gentiles, and the evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit convinced them that it was the grace of the Spirit, not law or text, which decided.
In today’s first text, Paul prays that love will increase in knowledge and depth of insight. In the second text, the words of some believers who were Pharisees insisted that new believers must be circumcised and require to obey the Law of Moses. Peter points out that God made the choice that the Gentiles would hear the message; that God had given them the Spirit, and that God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile. And Peter asks “Why do you put God to the test?”
If we are followers of Jesus, then we are in fact followers of the most radical and inclusive way. Everyone receives wisdom and Spirit, regardless of race, language, age, gender, or sexuality. If God makes no distinction, we cannot either. If all are acceptable to God, then all are acceptable to us as well. There is no “in” and “out”. Our churches are open to all, recognising the gifts of the Spirit given to all. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Sermon by Rev. Stephen Sizer, www.cc-vw.org/sermons/ibsacts15.htm
2. www.catholic-womens-ordination.org.uk/old-site/against.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Mariavite_Church
Two of the kinder arguments used are that Jesus didn’t ordain any women, that women cannot be a likeness of Jesus. Well, technically Jesus didn’t ordain any men either! This notion came much later in the history of the church. Jesus called women as well as men to be his disciples. Luke tells us of the women and men who travelled together. The Book of Acts tells us of the women who led churches. The first witnesses at Easter were Mary Magdalene and her friends. Genesis, in the creation story, says both male and female were created in the image of God, and it’s interesting that the Catholic Catechism also says that both men and women are made equally in God’s image.
In 1921, Archbishop Jan Maria Michal Kowalski began the Catholic Mariavite Church of Poland. In 1929 Izabela Wilucka Kowalska was consecrated a bishop. As Polish nationalsim grew, the group was persecuted by the mainline Polish Catholic Church, with the support of the Polish government. Innovations such as the endorsement of marriages between priests and nuns, and later the ordination of women as priests and bishops, took this group out of fellowship with the Catholic Church altogether. The group is led by a female bishop, and while considering itself the true church, the theology is very liberal.
During the 12-13C CE, the Cathars, also called Albigensians by Rome, lived in the area of Languedoc, in southeastern France, bordering on Spain. The Cathars rejected any idea of priesthood or the use of church buildings. They divided into ordinary believers who led ordinary lives, and an inner group of Parfaits (men) and Parfaites (women) who led ascetic lives, but worked for their living - generally in itinerant manual trades like weaving. Men and women were regarded as equals; there was no doctrinal objection to contraception, euthanasia or suicide. By the early thirteenth century Catharism was probably the majority religion in the area, supported by the nobility as well as the common people. Not only did many Catholics, priests included, defect to the Cathars, but the group refused to pay tithes to Rome. Accusing the Cathars of heresy, Pope Innocent III instituted a Crusade against the Cathars, and by the end over 500,000 people, Cathar and non-Cathar alike, had been killed.
Jumping back to the current times - many of us remember the debates over the admission of gays and lesbians to ordained ministry in the church. I would find letters on my desk at the national office, accusing gays of having sex with animals, that anyone who supported gays was outside the church, that the Bible specifically prohibited homosexual behaviour. At a meeting of General Council in Camrose, Alberta in 1997 - bags of dog poop were left on the chairs of people who were either suspected of being gay, or supported gay ordination. These things were always done either overnight, or early enough in the morning that no-one saw who it was. Walter Wink, who is Professor of Theology at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, as early as 1978 put together a paper which managed to debunk every argument against homosexuality, and point out that the constant ethic in the Bible is love, and inclusivity.
Well, less than 20 years after Pentecost, Paul and Barnabas faced pretty much the same challenges. As long as there are institutions, and churches, and societies - there will always be arguments about who is in and who isn’t. Acts 15 records the most controversial and pivotal event in the life of the early church, because it called into question whether or not the church was a Jewish reform movement, a sect, or was becoming a wider movement where all racial and cultural barriers had been removed. Following his conversion, Paul had visited Jerusalem, met Peter and James, caused a stir there among the Jews, been shipped off to Caesarea and then home to Tarsus. He spent the next eleven years in Cilicia and Syria. Around 40-41 CE rumours of Greek converts in Antioch went around, and the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to check it out.
Barnabas got on board, and together with Paul became pastor of a new church which was young, dynamic, and mostly Gentile converts. But the church in Jerusalem was strongly Jewish, and steeped in the Jewish traditions. The church leaders in Jerusalem thought that any Gentiles who wanted to follow Jesus had to become Jews first, by being circumcized. They could buy the idea that proselytes to Judaism like Cornelius could receive the Holy Spirit, for he was already a "God fearer", but accepting out and out pagans was another matter. Its wasn't long before matters came to a head.
On the first journey Paul and Barnabas witnessed to Jews and Gentiles alike. They founded churches in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe in the Southern region of the province of Galatia. Again, and increasingly, it was the Gentiles who believed. The Jews got jealous and incited the rabble, and the authorities, to throw the apostles out of each town, one after another. When the dust had settled, and their visas were running out they turned round and worked their way back to the coast visiting each of these newly formed churches, and appointed leadership teams. Eventually they returned to home base, Antioch in Syria, tired but fully convinced of the rightness of their strategy. The hostility of the Jews, the responsiveness of the Gentiles, and the evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit convinced them that it was the grace of the Spirit, not law or text, which decided.
In today’s first text, Paul prays that love will increase in knowledge and depth of insight. In the second text, the words of some believers who were Pharisees insisted that new believers must be circumcised and require to obey the Law of Moses. Peter points out that God made the choice that the Gentiles would hear the message; that God had given them the Spirit, and that God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile. And Peter asks “Why do you put God to the test?”
If we are followers of Jesus, then we are in fact followers of the most radical and inclusive way. Everyone receives wisdom and Spirit, regardless of race, language, age, gender, or sexuality. If God makes no distinction, we cannot either. If all are acceptable to God, then all are acceptable to us as well. There is no “in” and “out”. Our churches are open to all, recognising the gifts of the Spirit given to all. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Sermon by Rev. Stephen Sizer, www.cc-vw.org/sermons/ibsacts15.htm
2. www.catholic-womens-ordination.org.uk/old-site/against.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Mariavite_Church
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