St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Our Epistle today is from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. These letters that Paul wrote to the various communities that he had helped found are not regular check-in letters. They are not “miss you, hope to see you soon” kind of letters. They have a meatier substance to them. We often don’t know the details of why he sent these letters, but we can generally say he sent them to encourage people, teach and inform them, and, most pressingly, to resolve some kind of controversy or conflict within the community. We only have one half of the conversation, so we don’t know what all the conflicts were, or the depth of them, but we can reconstruct it based on what Paul’s response is to the people.

In a letter like First Corinthians, there are a lot of issues he is dealing with. Paul has gotten word that there are lots of challenges he needs to talk with them about. One of the primary issues in which he spends about 20% of the Epistle talking about it, is the issue of spiritual gifts. “Now concerning spiritual gifts,” we heard him say in the Epistle reading. We don’t know exactly what is going on here, but it seems that there is a group of people who think that either they have gifts and others don’t, or their gifts are better than others, and they are not being very nice about it. Paul is addressing this issue. This whole section is going to culminate in that very famous passage that every single person here knows: Now faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these is love. You’ve all been to a wedding so you have heard it. But the context of this passage is the issue of spiritual gifts. The culmination of his argument is that love is the answer. You have to live in love. Faith and hope are also gifts, but the most important of all the gifts is love. If you would strive for love and act in love, then there would not be these fights over has better gifts than another person.

Paul is going to lay some foundations before he gets to this culminating statement about love. In today’s reading, he makes three critical foundational arguments. The first is that every gift is from God. So perhaps some people were saying their gift was from God, but someone else’s gift is from another spirit. But Paul says that every gift is from God. Every gift you have is from God, not from some other spirit, and not from yourself. It is, in fact, a gift that has been given to you by God. That is the first thing.

The second thing Paul says is that everyone has a gift. Every single person has a gift. They may be different from other people’s gifts, but every person has one. Part of Paul’s argument is that the gifts are much more varied than we probably think. Our best guess is that the people who have the gift of tongues think they are a little better than everyone else. Paul says that tongues are indeed a gift, but there are many gifts. He named some in the reading today: gifts like wisdom, gifts like discernment, gifts of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Faith, hope and love are gifts, although we don’t often think of them as gifts. But they are gifts from God as well. There are other gifts. I wonder what kind of gifts you might think of in your life. It might be obvious for some, like you are intelligent and have the gift of teaching, or maybe you’re an amazing musician. There are other gifts, like the gift of time, financial resources, the gift of creativity, the gift of boredom. Can that be a gift? I think it could be. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to pull out our phones to stop the boredom. There are lots of gifts.

The third thing that Paul argues, and I think this is the most important one because it will lead us to that message of love. Paul says that every single gift we have has been given to us for the common good. These gifts we have been given are not just for us to enjoy for ourselves. You may take pleasure in the gift, but they are given to us for the other, for the community, for something bigger than ourselves, for something outside of ourselves.

That, I think, is the most challenging message for the people in Corinth, and still the most challenging message for us today. Considering the common good instead of ourselves is really hard, and a lot of folks struggle with this. We are not naturally inclined to think of the bigger picture. We tend to look inward. Paul wants us to shift our mindset and start thinking of something greater than ourselves. Every gift we have been given is for the common good. We are meant to share the gifts that have been shared with us. We are not meant to be dragons sitting on hoards of gold. We are meant to share them for the common good.

My friends, I want to encourage you this week to spend some time thinking about Paul’s argument about gifts. You can even call this homework. I want you to take some time and think about gifts. Think about the gifts you have, name them, list the obvious ones, but try and think about how varied the gifts can be. Most things in your life can probably be seen as a gift. Spend some time intentionally, but also ask yourself at other times, could this be a gift? Could this boring moment I’m living in be a gift to me?

The second thing I want you to think about is how this gift that you have been given can be shared with others. How can you shift your mindset, as Paul wants us to, to start thinking about the other, start thinking about the common good. How can we start, just as Jesus taught us, to love our neighbor with the gifts that we have been given? That is your homework assignment. You don’t have to turn it in, but I want you to spend the time working on it. Think through how God is calling you to use your gifts in this world.

AMEN

Our first reading today comes from the book of Isaiah. In it Isaiah tells the people that they are precious in the sight of the Lord. They are loved by God. But He speaks these words to a people who feel anything but that. For generations, things have not been going their way. The dream of a united kingdom had fallen apart within months of Solomon’s death. There were constants wars back and forth. Oppression and corruption were rampant. The poor got poorer and the rich got richer. The orphan and the widow were neglected. It was a dark and bad time, but the rotten cherry on the top of this sundae was that the Babylonians had come and sent the people into exile. This was not a time when anyone could look around and say, boy, do I feel precious in the sight of the Lord. Instead, this was a time when people wrote psalms that said things like, we sit down by the waters of Babylon and weep; we take our harps and hang them up, because how can we sing in a moment like this? And at this moment when people are feeling this way, Isaiah says you are precious in the sight of the Lord, and you are beloved by God.

What in the heck is he talking about? How is that possible? The people can look around and know that this does not seem to be the case. Isaiah knows it is not a good time. He has spent chapters and chapters talking about all the things that have gone wrong; all the ways the people have not been loving God and loving their neighbor. And yet Isaiah says in spite of all of that, it is still true that you are precious in the sight of the Lord and beloved by God.

What is the argument for this? You cannot look around and see it at that moment. His argument, as we heard in the reading, is Creation. Isaiah looks back and says you are precious in the sight of the Lord and beloved by God because God made you. Full stop. You are precious and beloved because God created you. The same God who made the world, and at the end of each day looked out over it and said, it is good, it is good. And on some of the days he said it is very good. This God thinks that you are precious and beloved. Creation was made by the overflowing love of God into the world, so you are precious and beloved. The creation story tells us you, made by God, were made in God’s very image. You are precious and beloved. Not because of what is happening in this moment, but because of what has happened and, Isaiah adds, of what will happen. We look back to Creation, but also have to look forward in hope to the redemption. There is love abundant and clear in both of those. Even though you cannot see it in this moment, the love is still there. You are still precious and beloved, even in this moment that you might feel abandoned. It is still true. If you are having trouble seeing it, look past this moment and look back and look forward because God loves you, just as you are.

Our Gospel reading today is the story of Jesus’s baptism. This story is echoing Creation. What happened in the first Creation story in Genesis I? In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was a formless void, it said that the Holy Spirit was moving over the waters of creation. And what happened in the Gospel reading? Jesus goes into the waters, the heavens open up, and down comes the Holy Spirit like a dove. Just as Isaiah said that because of this Creation you can know that you are beloved, we have in the Gospel story a voice from the heavens saying, this is my beloved Child. This baptism is not just a cleansing, it is a new creation. It happens in our baptism, as well. Remember Baptism is a sacrament of unity in which we become one with Christ, part of the Body of Christ. And therefore the words spoken over Jesus, that he is beloved a Son, are the same words spoken over us by God: you are a beloved child. You are precious and beloved. No matter how dark and difficult it gets, remember to look back to Creation and to look forward in hope. Whatever difficulty is in your life and surrounds you, do not forget that you are precious and beloved.

A few weeks ago I came to the office, and on my desk was a poem. It took me a while to figure out where it came from, but it came from Ryan. It is by a theologian named Kate Bowler, and is titled “A Blessing for What is True about You.”

When God thought you up, it was a good day,

a lovely dream realized in God’s imagination,

a celebration from before you were born.

You were made out of God’s overflowing love,

in who you were, and are, and would become.

God saw it all, from way before the beginning, ‘til way past the end.

And saw that it was good.

This one, God said, this one I love.

I delight in the beauty, and the promise,

the wonder and the glory that is this one whom I have made.

And my gaze is ever upon them,

constant, and warm like the sun at golden hour,

gentle as starlight, transforming and continuing,

calling forth all the growing, all the becoming that is to be done.

Remember this truth:

You were made by love, for love, to love.

AMEN

In today’s Gospel story we heard the story of the Magi, or the Three Kings or Three Wisemen. We know very little about these three Magi, and I mean very little. The Church of England commissioned a report about twenty years ago, and it concluded we know so little about them that we don’t even know if there were three of them. We don’t know if they were kings. We don’t know if they were wise. We don’t even know that they were men. We know almost nothing about these folks.

What do we know about them? We know they are a group. There are at least two, but it could be more. There could be twelve or a hundred, but there are at least two. Of those two there is at least one man. It could be a mixed group, but it can’t be an all female group. They bring three types of gifts. They don’t bring three gifts necessarily, but three types of gifts. There could have been five people bringing gold bars, we don’t know. We do know they bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Then there are things that we sort of know, but they also raise many questions. For instance, we know they came from the East. What does that mean? Does it mean east of Bethlehem, or does it mean “the East” of which Bethlehem is part and areas westward are a part? There is much speculation about where they came from: Persia or Babylon or India or China or Vietnam. There is one tradition that says one came from Europe, one came from Africa, and one came from Asia. And it does not mean that they all came together. They could have come from different places. There is a tradition that says they came from all over, from different places and were therefore each a different people.

It says that they followed a star. What does that mean? Stars don’t move like that and descend over buildings. There are many theories about that. Maybe it was a comet. Maybe it was an astrological planet that ended up in a certain constellation in a certain way that signified something. Maybe it was a mystical event. There is a story about the Magi from between the 3rd and 8th century that says the star was the Christ Child. It showed up and disappeared and then showed up again. So the Christ Child was above the manger, and then the Magi went inside and saw the child in the manger. There are many wild, weird, and mystical theories about the Magi.

Then there is the word, Magi. What does it mean? The Greek word means magician, but in the 1st century that is like a slur or slander, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense in this story. No one has ever thought that they are magicians, and have tried to find another explanation. That is why they are also called wisemen or kings, the ones we know best, but also sages, religious leaders, priests. There is a tradition that says they are princes. Someone claimed that there was a tribe of people called the Magi, so these people were Magians. Like Eugenians from Eugene bringing their gifts. I can see them as a whole family, kids and everyone.

There is another tradition that says do not use the Greek word for Magi, but use the word in the native language that the Magi were from. What language is that? Where were they from? We don’t know. There is a theory that they are from a mythical land. There are so many questions, and we know so little about them. And what happens when we don’t know much about something? Our imaginations run wild, and there are some pretty wild imaginations like the explanations we have just heard.

We have an imagination that there are three of them, each one of them has a gift, and they have names: Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar. That is one tradition. But there are other traditions. One of then from the far East, the Syriac church, has twelve Magi, and they all have names as well. It is an interesting thing, and all the imagination is fun, but hold it lightly because we don’t know. What we do know is that it is a group with at least one man, and they bring three types of gifts. Everything else is imagination.

The people that have these imaginations are trying to figure out what really was, but are also linking things up to other elements of the Biblical story. The idea that Magi are kings only comes from people’s imagination. There is no evidence that kings are a translation of Magi. But with the use of the word kings they are referencing some Old Testament language of the Prophets and Psalms. They are also trying to highlight Jesus’s kingship with the image of kings bowing down to a king. This imagination is looking to the past in Scripture and looking forward to the Gospels and the Epistles.

It is fun, and I’m trying to avoid spending the entire sermon time telling you wild and crazy ideas that people have had about the Magi. Instead, I want to share one more with you, and it is my favorite. It is a relatively recent imagining, coming from the 19th century, not the 3rd or 8th. It is a story written by Henry Van Dyke and it is called “The Other Wiseman.”

In Henry Van Dyke’s imagination, there are the three, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, but there is a fourth. His name is Artaban. They do not live in the same place, but in different areas. They are all friends and have come together in the past. They are astrologers or astronomers who watch the stars, and have been searching Scriptures and looking to the stars to see what they can know about their faith. There is to be a king born of the Jews when a certain star situation happens. They all agree that when this occurs they will meet within 10 days and then go together.

The event happens, and Artaban sells his house and all his possessions and buys three jewels to give as his gift: a ruby, a sapphire, and a pearl of great price. He takes the jewels and rides his horse across the desert. It is pushing it to get there in 10 days, so he is driving his horse rather hard. The horse is getting really tired so they stop at an oasis, and there Artaban finds a man who is dying. Artaban is a wise man and has some medical training, and wants to help this man but also knows if he does so he will miss his friends’ caravan. But he has a strong feeling that he has to help the guy. He nurses him back to health and then continues on his journey, but when he gets there, his friends have already gone. There is a note: sorry, time passed. We are on our way. Catch up.

Artaban’s horse is not going to make it, so he has to buy some supplies and a camel, and sells one of the jewels to do so. Now he has two left. He makes the journey to Bethlehem and learns that his friends have departed. But Herod’s soldiers are there to kill the children. Artaban tries to find the Holy Family, but they have escaped to Egypt. He meets a young mother with her baby and learns that Herod is killing all the babies. As he is preparing to go to Egypt, soldiers arrive at the door to search the house where the mother and baby are. That same feeling he had when he discovered the sick man at the oasis hits him, and he bribes the soldier with one of his remaining jewels not to search the house. The soldiers move on and that baby survives.

Artaban goes to Egypt and searches for the Holy Family. He searches for years and years, but cannot find them. He comes upon a Rabbi who says the Messiah will come from among the poor, and advises Artaban to go where the poor live. He goes to ghettos, poor houses, soup kitchens, not just in Egypt but all over the region. For thirty three years he searches for the newborn King.

Artaban ends up in Jerusalem where everyone is talking about a man they call King of the Jews who is being crucified. He thinks that perhaps this man is the one he has been looking for. He has one jewel remaining, and maybe he can us it to save this King of the Jews. Artaban goes through the Damascus Gate, but stops when he sees a young woman who is being sold into slavery. That same feeling hits him inside, and even though he wants to go meet Jesus and perhaps save his life, he uses the jewel to buy the young woman’s freedom.

Then everything goes dark. There is an earthquake, some stones fall from the Temple, and one hits him on the head, knocking him out. He is dying, and the young woman hears him whisper: when did I ever see you hungry? when did I ever see you thirsty? When did I ever see you a stranger? Those words are from Matthew 25. Then the young woman heard another voice, quieter than the whispers of Artaban, saying that whenever you do it to the least of these, you do it to me. With that, Artaban realized he had given his gifts to Jesus.

My friends, be another one of the Magi and seek the Christ Child. He told you where he would be. He said, this is my Body, this is my Blood. He said, I am in all those who hunger and thirst. I am in all those in prison, I am in all those who are naked, I am in all those who are strangers. He also said I am in every child. What point in our life have we not been a child or been a stranger or been injured? Christ is in every person. Christ is in your neighbor. Seek the Christ in them, and offer them your gifts, whatever they may be, and be one of the Magi.

AMEN.

Merry Christmas! Today is the 5th Day of Christmas, and I hope your true love gave you five gold rings this morning. It is still Christmas. Christmas is twelve glorious days that began on December 25 and will end on January 5th. On January 6 we will celebrate The Feast of the Epiphany, and then move forward. This is a time to celebrate. It is a time to feast, and I encourage you to do that during these days. Celebrate and feast as much as you are able. Be like Jesus, who liked to party a lot. We know this because the biggest criticism of Jesus was that he partied too much. The celebration of Christmas was once banned in England when the Puritans took over in the 17th century. Don’t be a Puritan. You’re an Anglican. Celebrate! Keep partying every day, but here’s the thing: in all of your celebrations, make sure you don’t lose sight of the thing you are celebrating.

The thing that we are celebrating is the birth of Jesus, the birth of Christ. This past week on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we heard Luke tell us the story of how all that took place. It took place during the time of Quirinius, there was a census, the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, no room at the inn so they went to the stable with the animals, Jesus was born, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger, which was a trough from which the animals ate, the angels came to the shepherds in the field and sang our “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to the people on earth”, the angels told the shepherds all that had taken place, one of them said “let us go see this thing that has taken place”, they go to Bethlehem, they meet Jesus and Mary and Joseph, they tell them all the wonderful things the angels had said and done, and Mary treasured them in her heart. It is a beautiful story.

Today we get John’s take on the nativity, which is not quite the same beautiful story. Instead, John gives us a poem, and this poem is not about the details of how this all took place. John is focused on the meaning behind it, why it all matters. John uses a poetic introduction to his Gospel that talks about the Incarnation, the Word Incarnate, and the Word is God. Literally, the Greek says that God pitched a tent among humanity to live here with us, to be one of us. The all powerful God gave up all the privileges of that power to take on the limitations of humanity. The limitations and also the joys, remember Jesus partied too much, and also all the sufferings, even to death on the cross. This is what Christmas is all about: the Incarnation, God coming to live a human life.

Why? Why did God do this? John has two main answers that he often comes back to throughout the Gospels and the Epistles. The first reason is light. God wanted to shine a light in the midst of the darkness that we experience. And there is a lot of darkness in this world from the global level down to the personal level, and everything in between. God wanted to make sure that in the midst of all this darkness there would be a light. Perhaps the light can shine the path for you, perhaps the light will bring you hope. What does John say about the light? He says that the darkness will not and cannot overcome it. Whether you are facing darkness right now or will be facing it in the future, and it is inevitable that we all will, remember that light. Remember the light of Christ is more powerful than whatever darkness it is that you face. God is shining a light, and that is what the Incarnation is about for John. That is what he says in the Gospel reading: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light.” Remember that light in all things.

That is the first theme for John. The second theme is love. “Of the Father’s love begotten”, as we will sing a bit later. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so all that trust in Him will have eternal life.” It is all about love, even unto the cross. What does Jesus say the night before he died? John tells us: there is no greater love than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. The Crucifixion is all about love, the Incarnation is all about love, and it is the foundation of everything in between, as well. What did Jesus teach? Love the Lord your God with all you heart and mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the laws and the prophets. He taught about love, he acted in love with all kinds of folks, many of whom did not want to party with him. Jesus loved every time he healed somebody. It is all about love, in Jesus’s words and in his deeds. It all begins with the Incarnation. Love is what came down at Christmas, as we will sing in a hymn a little bit later, because God is love, as John goes on to say in the First Epistle of John. God is love, so if he is going to be Incarnate, it will be the Incarnation of love in this world.

So, my friends, celebrate, feast, party. But in the midst of all of it, do not forget about the Incarnation. Do not forget about this light and this love that God is offering you in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of that light and that love in this world.

AMEN.

Let us pray: God who comes to us as we are, as we approach the birth of Jesus, may we come closer to one another, and find ourselves closer to you. In the name of the Creator, the divine Human, and the connecting Spirit. Amen.

What a great story we have in today’s gospel on the last Sunday of Advent. We are close, SO close to Christmas, but we’re not quite there yet, just a bit more time, just a bit more waiting. Time for us to hear and wonder about two pregnant women, a young woman, Mary, and a much older woman, Elizabeth. Yes, today’s sermon is all about two pregnant, singing women.

After hearing the unbelievable news that would change her life forever, this young, peasant girl sets out on a journey of about 80 miles, you know, just three marathons and some change (!) to go see her cousin Elizabeth who she heard is six-months pregnant. And then, when she arrives, it all gets crazy! Mary’s call of “Cousin, I’m here!”, causes the in-utero John the Baptist to start doing cartwheels and goal kicks. And then the Holy Spirit fills her and she blurts out these famous words, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” The Holy Spirit speaks through Elizabeth confirming the truth spoken to Mary. Elizabeth sees it and knows it, and John in her belly gives a kick of witness too! The young Mary is blessed among all women and the baby growing in her womb is blessed as well.

Marveling at the awesomeness of it all, Elizabeth wonders out loud, “Why me? Here you are, the Mother of my Lord, at MY house, visiting ME! The Spirit proclaims the blessedness of Mary, the one who dared trust God’s plan and Elizabeth explains how in-the-womb John the Baptist had somersaulted at the sound of Mary’s voice. Can you even begin to imagine this scene? This joy, awe, and wonder taking place as these two pregnant women meet at the house in the hills of Judea? The smiles, the tears, the headshaking, the awkward baby-bump hugging and belly comparing?

After Elizabeth’s Holy Spirit inspired song, it’s Mary turn.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed: for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Mary rejoices and gives thanks to God as she begins to realize the amazing plan that God has chosen her to be a part of. Just as Elizabeth wonders why the mother of her Lord has come to her, Mary wonders why God has chosen HER, lifted HER up. She knows that from this day forward when people hear her story, they’ll marvel at how God has blessed her. Mary’s next verse is all about the nature of God. Not the typical God of power that many (including us?) are looking for or used to. This God whose praises Mary sings is characterized by mercy. The proud have been scattered and those sitting in thrones of power and judgment have been ejector seated. The lowly have been lifted and the hungry have been filled, while the rich and the usual feasting parties have been sent away without the smallest to-go container! The God that Mary sings of is the God who remembers the promise made to all those who came before, a promise of mercy, to them and us and to all those who’ll come after us. A promise to be with them, to accompany them and champion them, to love them and lift them up.

Mary’s song is a radical vision of the new order present in the wombs of these two women, to be announced by John and then enacted by Jesus. God is coming to be here with us, Immanuel. Not some distant, far-off, all-powerful enforcer to crush us into submission. No. The Prince of Peace comes with mercy seeking to be with us and know us, and to be in relationship with us in ALL of our humanity.

Today’s story about this incredible meeting between these two women is a beautiful reminder of how God comes to US. This whole season of preparation for the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem and all of the great celebration that occurs during Christmastide, are all about God the Universe Creator, choosing, CHOOSING, to come and meet us EXACTLY as we are. In EVERY aspect of our humanity. And thereby deigning it, deigning us, GOOD, and WORTHY, and proclaiming God’s desire to know us as closely as we’ll allow. This Ultimate Power of Creative Love is seeking to be with us as we navigate our lives as humans. As these two women come together through the bonds of their miraculous, unplanned pregnancies and all that they’ll mean for their bodies and their places in society, God is present in it all. By choice!

Together, with Christ, in our common human state, we too can sing, and cry. Together, with Christ, we too can find support, and stand in awe and give thanks to God. We, like Elizabeth and Mary become Holy- Spirit-filled prophets proclaiming God’s goodness and standing amazed and honored to receive the presence of God within and around us, in ourselves and others, and in God’s glorious creation.

Amen.

This week and last week we have been hearing about John the Baptist. Last week we heard that John was a Prophet. We heard it first in the Canticle, the Song of Zechariah, that was in place of the Psalm. That was the song that John ‘s father sang right after John had been named at the Temple. People asked what was going on with him, as there seemed to be something special about him, and Zechariah sang, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. He goes on in the Canticle to say,

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

We learned in the Gospel last week that is exactly what John did. He embodied those words that his father spoke concerning him. Who knows how many times John heard that song growing up. Perhaps it was the lullaby that Zechariah sang as John was put to bed every night. John embodied those words and became the Prophet. Luke told us last week this prophetic ministry is grounded in the ancient Prophets of old, specifically Isaiah. John was the one to prepare the way of the Lord, to bring the mountain down and the valley up.

If John is a Prophet, it raises the question, what is a prophet, and what is prophecy? It is an important question because I think a lot of people get this wrong. Some think a prophet is something close to a fortune teller, and prophecy is predicting the future. The prophets’ words are puzzles that we are to put together to figure out what it is that is going to happen. This, decidedly, is not what a prophet is.

A Prophet is someone whose life is so aligned with God’s dream and God’s vision, that they cannot do anything except live their life and speak words that align with this vision. A Prophet is somebody with a very large imagination to help put into words the dream that God has for this world. A dream that is grounded in our faith. A dream that is grounded in creation. A dream that says that every single person is made in the image of God, so every single person deserves dignity and respect. That is what the prophetic ministry is all about, grounded in the rule of love, to love God and love your neighbor. A Prophet will sometimes talk about the future, but it is not about predictions. It is the imagination of God put in new and interesting ways. For instance, Isaiah talks about the lion and the lamb lying down together, a vision of vegetarian lions. A pretty big imagination is needed to envision vegetarian lions. But that is God’s dream, a time when there is no longer predator and prey, but they can be friends and fall asleep in each other’s company. This is the kind of stuff that the Prophets do, sharing images of what God desires in this world.

Prophets also have to so some truth telling, because this world is not aligned with God’s dream, especially those folks with power. God’s dream challenges them in ways they don’t want to be challenged. So the Prophets have to do some truth telling because they are so aligned with God’s dream they can’t but speak and live a life aligned with that dream.

We hear more about that dream in the first reading from Zephaniah today. The dream God has is a world without fear, a world in which we are renewed in love, a world in which the lame are saved and the outcasts are gathered, a world in which shame gets transformed into praise. This is the beautiful vision that the Prophets proclaim, the beautiful dream that God has for a world that is aligned with God. It is a beautiful dream, and the people come out to hear John share it.

But there is a problem with this dream. It is rather audacious. It seems unrealistic, it is impossible, and even if it is possible, what can I do as one little person in the midst of it. I can’t bring a mountain down or bring a valley up. So in today’s Gospel, John is addressing the more concrete questions. What specifically am I to do? John says here is one thing you can do: if you have two coats, you probably don’t need them both, and you certainly don’t need two coats if someone else has none. So why not share that coat with someone else? If you have extra food, more than you need, perhaps you should share that with someone who doesn’t have enough. John is not saying that you are going to solve the problem of unhousedness or of people being cold in this world, you are not going to solve the problem of hunger all by yourself. What you are doing is taking one pebble off the mountain and throwing it into the valley. That is what you can do where you are.

Some tax collectors come to John and ask what they should do. I don’t know what you think about the IRS or your current tax bill, but that is not what we are talking about. First century tax collectors were fellow Jews who were collaborating with the enemy, the occupying Roman force, helping abuse their fellow Jews. They were traitors. When the tax collectors ask what they can do, John doesn’t say stop collaborating, but he says, don’t make it worse. A tax bill might shows that eight shekels are owed, but the tax collector would say that it was ten, and pocket the extra two as a Christmas bonus. The system is already abusing the people, and then on top of it the tax collectors are abusing it more. John says, don’t do the extra abuse. Don’t go find a pebble down in the valley and throw it back up on the mountain.

What about soldiers? John knows they have to keep their jobs and feed the kids, even as they are helping the occupying force, but he tells them to stop using the power they have been given to hurt people. Don’t exhort money from people. Don’t threaten people with your power. Do your job, but don’t make it any worse. Stop taking pebbles and throwing them back on the mountain.

We are not going to individually make God’s dream come about, but what we are doing when we do this is, like John, aligning our lives with God’s dream. That is the task for each and every one of us, to try and align our lives evermore with God’s dream. You don’t need to become a vegetarian lion, but start doing things to make the world a little bit safer in whatever spheres you live in. Try to make the world a little kinder in whatever spheres you live in. Try to make the world a little more loving in whatever spheres you live in. Take the pebbles on the mountains and toss them off, and when you are down in the valley, keep the pebbles there. Don’t try and throw them back up.

It will look different for each one of us. But what John is challenging each one of us to do is look closely at our lives, and see how it is we can be more a part of God’s dream for this world. It is a decision we have to make each and every day, probably multiple times every day. It is a decision to do the right thing. It is a decision to take those pebbles and put them in the valley to help level things out.

AMEN.

What brings you joy? Is there a hobby you like to do, maybe baking or cooking or eating? Perhaps watching movies or TV shows, listening to music or making music? What brings you joy? Time with family and friends? Getting presents? Giving presents? Decorating the house for the holidays? What brings you joy?

For many of us, joy is important. We like it, of course, but joy is seen as a bonus. It is dessert after dinner. It is secondary to the weightier matters of life that are pressing down upon us. Joy is a welcome distraction from the challenges we face in life, and sometimes we feel guilty for indulging in joy when there are more important things for us to deal with.

But Scripture, as we hear today, has a different understanding of joy. We hear Paul talk of joy in the Epistle we just heard. He talks about offering gratitude to God in his prayers every day with joy. This comes at a time when Paul has been imprisoned, he has a lot of weighty matters pressing down on him, and yet he makes time every day to engage in a practice of joy.

In the reading we heard from Baruch, it talks about God leading with joy. What does it look like to lead with joy? What would it look like if the political leaders of this world lead with joy? I think we might have a slightly different world if they did that.

God has a different understanding of joy than as a secondary bonus or a distraction. For God, joy is central. Joy is what God made us to do. God takes great pleasure when we are enjoying this great creation that God made. God made us out of joy for joy. God leads with joy. Joy is not a distraction from the weightier matters of our lives, joy is the weighty matter of life. How do we find joy, and how do we help others find joy in this life? Joy is central to who we are and what God wants for us.

In the Gospel reading today we hear of John the Baptist. Luke says John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. In the Gospel there is a quote from Isaiah that says John will be the one to prepare the way. We also heard of John in the Canticle, The Song of Zechariah. Zechariah is John the Baptist’s dad, and after John was born, Zechariah sang this song. He said, you, my child, meaning John, will be called the Prophet of the Most High for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way.

I think John is a person who concerned himself with the weightier matters, and perhaps he doesn’t always come across as the most joyful of prophets or saints. But I do think that Scripture is leading us to prepare for joy, and to prepare in joy. I don’t think of joy when I think of John, and yet it does say that the whole point of John’s preparation is to shine light and to bring peace. Doesn’t joy shine light and bring peace?

During this Season of Advent, we are called upon to prepare for the way of the Lord like John the Baptist. Prepare our hearts and minds to welcome Christ at Christmas, and prepare our hearts and minds to welcome Christ in our lives each and every day. These readings are reminding us that we can do that with joy. It is not just a secondary auxiliary matter, but the central one.

So, my friends, during this Advent season I encourage you to prepare in and with and for joy. Take some time this week to think about what it is that brings you joy, and how it is that you bring joy to others. In this world that is so desperately in need of light and love, what would it look like if we started leading with joy with all those with whom we meet, and we brought joy to them? Take this time to focus on joy, not as something as a bonus that you get after all the chores are done, but as central to the question itself.

AMEN.

Happy Advent! Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday in the new church year. The word advent means coming. During the season of Advent we prepare for the coming of The One. Who is The One? Is it Santa Claus? No. That’s a different kind of advent. Santa Claus is coming to town, but that is not the advent we are talking about. The One we are preparing for is Jesus, the Christ.

There are actually three advents that we prepare for during this season of Advent. The first Advent is the one where we put most of our energy, the Advent of Christ coming over two thousand years ago, born as a baby and placed in a manger in Bethlehem. This is, of course, the celebration of Christmas. It is important to do that preparation. It is meet and right to do that work. But it is going to get a lot of our energy, so we are not going to talk about this advent right now.

The second Advent is the Second Coming, the advent of Christ coming at the end of time, the eschatological Advent. It is the time when Christ will come again, and it is the main theme of today. We see it in our Collect, where it says “in the last day”, and we see it in our readings in Jeremiah that says “The days are surely coming”, and the Thessalonian reading that says “the coming of our Lord Jesus”, and Jesus saying “the Son of Man coming in a cloud.” This is all code language for the Second Coming, the Second Advent, the Apocalyptic Advent. It is not a major theme in Scripture, although some Christians like to sound like it is. But it is there. We are preparing for that end in this season of Advent, although it is a hard thing to wrap our minds around. It is important to spend some time during Advent preparing for that end, a “Lo, he comes with clouds descending” kind of moment. Jesus does talk about it. We heard it in today’s Gospel, and we heard it two weeks ago when he was talking about it as well.

The third Advent we prepare for is Christ coming into our lives today. The first Advent looks to the past, the second looks to the future, and the third Advent looks to this moment, this present moment that we find ourselves in. Christ is not just born in a manger two thousand years ago, Christ is born into our heart each and every day. That is an important Advent for us to spend some time focusing on during this season.

Today’s readings are pointing us to the second Advent, but I think this Gospel reading is a bit of a tricky one. I actually think Jesus is pointing us to the third Advent in this Gospel reading. There is a line that strikes me every time I hear this Gospel reading in which Jesus says all of this will take place before this generation has passed. Which means if we are going to take Scripture seriously, if we are going to take Jesus seriously, all of this stuff he is talking about—Christ coming back to the people—took place before they died. So if that is the case perhaps it is not just the end time Advent that Jesus is talking about. Maybe he is talking about the advent of Jesus coming to us now, to that generation, and to every generation.

Notice in the reading that Jesus also talks about all kinds of darkness, typical in apocalyptic literature: the earth in distress among the nations, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and all kinds of terrible things that happen. I think what Jesus is telling us in this Gospel is that in the darkness of our lives, all the problems that we face, which are legion, Christ comes to us in the midst of it. Christ is that light that shines in the darkness. I know we have a lot of darkness in our lives right now. Personally, many of us are facing all kinds of difficulties: cancers, heart problems, dementia and other medical ailments. People with fraying relationships, people having difficulty at work or struggling in their jobs. We have all kinds of personal challenges. There are also all kinds of challenges as a nation, division and crisis. We have challenges around the world. Wars are raging in so many places. There are wars and rumors of wars, as Jesus puts it. There is so much darkness, and yet that is the very moment that Christ is coming into our lives to shine the light. I know it is a bit cliché, but there is an old expression that says the stars are always brightest when it is the darkest. Christ is always brightest when it is darkest. Christ comes to us in the darkness. Or maybe to put it another way, Christ is always there, but we notice him when it is darkest.

I encourage you during this Advent season to take some time to prepare for all of these Advents. The Advent of Christ who came, Christ who will come, and the Christ who is coming among us now.

When you walked in today you might have noticed a few different things around here. There is a little village set up in the back of the Chapel. Did you notice that Jesus is there? He is there in the village among the people living their lives. That is an image of Christ coming. In the narthex there is a new case full of nativity scenes from around the world. One thing you will notice in all of them is that none of them look like what Jesus actually looked like. Perhaps it is a little too Italian, or a little too Medieval. There are nativity scenes from South America, from Africa, from Asia and Europe, and Jesus did not look like any of that. I have to say that this used to bother me. I wanted to find the perfect 1st century nativity scene, but I think I was missing the point when I was bothered by that. The nativity scenes from around the world, with all kinds of cultural expressions of what Jesus looked like, is the third Advent. We don’t see the first one, we see the third one. Yes, Jesus came at a particular time and place to particular people, but Jesus also came and is coming and is here with us now at this time, in this place, with this people.

So, my friends, focus on the presence of Christ in your life. Prepare for Christmas, wrap your presents, get your houses ready. I know it is hard, but also spend a little time thinking about the future. Prepare your heart as much as you prepare your hearth to welcome Jesus into your life today.

AMEN.

Pontius Pilate was the Roman Procurator of Palestine during the reign of Tiberius. Though he commanded a Roman legion of 4500 soldiers, his was not a plush assignment. Saddled with governing one of the frontier provinces of the Roman Empire he spent most of his time in Caesarea Maritime where the weather was reasonably decent and where he was able to have minimal contact with the stubbornly unruly inhabitants of the region under his control. Only on high holy days did Pilate trouble himself to go into Jerusalem so as to be present should any sort of problem arise. Still, he was the face of the Roman Empire in that part of the world, and as such, he literally had the power of life or death over the people under his control. Yet, for all the trappings that went with his position, it is quite possible that Pontius Pilate would have lived and died utterly forgotten by history had it not been for one fateful day when he crossed paths with a Galilean Jew named Jesus of Nazareth.

 Of the two men who came face to face that day, Pilate gave the appearance of being the more powerful, and indeed, given his position, he did wield great power. However, there’s a difference between wielding power and being powerful. Pilate was a man used to being treated as if he were powerful, so therefore in his own mind, he was. He was used to the people who came before him groveling, begging for mercy. Condemning people to death or setting them free didn’t require any inner or physical strength on his part. If anyone caused trouble, attempted to escape or to fight back, he had soldiers at hand to enforce whatever he decreed. But then this Galilean Jew showed up who didn’t behave at all like the others had. He didn’t beg for mercy, he didn’t try to flee. Indeed, quite the opposite, he seemed unnaturally calm. It had to have been confusing if not downright unnerving for Pilate to have this seemingly powerless peasant stand before him appearing to be not at all afraid of what Pilate might do to him. He didn’t even answer directly when Pilate asked if he was a king, but instead informed Pilate that he came into the world to testify to the truth, and then added for good measure, everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Pilate reacted to that rather perplexing response by asking Jesus, What is truth?

 Now we don’t know what Pilate’s tone was at that point. Possibly quite frustrated by this upstart peasant passively challenging his power, Pilate may well have been responding rather sarcastically when he asked, What is truth? Or, for just an instant, maybe the part of Pilate that deep down suspected that Jesus was innocent, and therefore knew he really should let this nondescript peasant go, came close enough to the surface to wonder, almost fearfully, what is the truth and how many people know it? Do others suspect as I do, that this man is innocent? Will I be judged forever by how I handle this? Pilate could have let Jesus go, and then used his soldiers as needed to quell any sort of protest that action might have produced. Instead, he took the easy way out. In the name of doing his job of keeping the peace, he went along with what the Jewish authorities wanted and condemned Jesus to death. It’s possible that Pilate knew what was real, what the truth was in that situation, but he chose to pretend that he didn’t.

 What is truth? I’m not sure there’s a more relevant question in the world today. The dictionary, yes, I do still own one, says that truth is the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality. There was a time when scientists determined what was real, what was true in a given situation with regard to the natural world based on what they could prove with experiments that they evaluated with their senses. With time and the development of ever more sophisticated equipment scientists have learned to interpret all manner of indirect evidence for explaining our world and what happens in it. Beyond this physical reality which I focused on throughout my teaching career, you’ve heard me speak of experiential reality; what we know is real not because we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell it, but because we’ve experienced it, we’ve lived it. Sadly, though, none of this seems to be good enough anymore.

 First of all, more than in the past it seems to me, perceptions can be mistaken. The increasing prevalence of artificial Intelligence for example, can leave us wondering if what we thought we experienced actually happened. For that reason a line I read in a book decades ago seems particularly relevant today: Just because you experienced it, doesn't mean it happened that way. The author’s point was that one of the values of community is that those around us offer us the opportunity to check our perceptions, our memories, of a given event or interaction. Of course, for our community to be valuable to us in this way, we have to be willing to share our feelings, our perceptions about whatever it was that we experienced. Sadly though, even if we do withhold judgment in a given situation until we’ve talked with someone we trust to see if what we’re thinking or feeling is accurate, that only pertains to our personal experiences. How in the world do we know these days what is true, what is real in the world beyond the boundaries of our day to day activities?

 The internet is rife with misinformation and disinformation. Social media sites have been programmed to lead the viewer to more and more sites that say exactly what the viewer wants to hear, leading people deeper and deeper into a world completely removed from reality. Sadly though, I’ve read in what I hope was a reliable source, that 55% of the US population relies solely on social media for their information. Even those of us who turn to more traditional news sources are left wondering how trusting we can be these days of the information we’re receiving. Gone are the days when Walter Cronkite broadcast the news and we all knew, we absolutely knew, that he was telling us the truth, because in those days both broadcast and print journalists dedicated their lives to conveying to their readers and listeners exactly what had occurred in a given situation. Nowadays it seems as though even the most traditional news sources are at least as concerned, if not more so, about maintaining their viewership as they are about what they report and how they report it. As a result I’m not sure there's a news anchor today, on any network, any news broadcast, who has earned the sort of respect some of us remember according Cronkite. So where does that leave us? It leaves us right here, in church, listening to the Gospel. Jesus answered Pilate’s question, So you are a king? by responding, You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. But when Pilate asked Jesus, What is truth? Jesus simply stood there.

 We can only wonder if any part of Pilate knew as he spoke with Jesus that day that he was staring into the face of God. Odds are as a Roman procurator who had been taught that the emperor himself was a god, he probably did not. While there’s no way we can know one way or another about that, what we do know is that just as so many of us would have done, in the heat of the moment Pilate did what was expedient. We can only speculate if later, alone with his thoughts, or perhaps with his wife who had advised him earlier to have nothing to do with that innocent man for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him, Pilate came face to face with the answer to his question.

 We live lives today besieged by a cacophony of sound bites. Whether they are literal thirty second snippets taken perhaps out of context to sway our opinion one way or another, or the visual headlines that show up on our watches and phones, unbidden but there nonetheless, they just never stop. We can however, choose to put our phones, watches, and all the other electronic devices that at once serve us and haunt us aside from time to time, in order to spend time as Pilate once had the chance to do, alone with Jesus. Rather than looking outside ourselves we can choose to pursue our search for truth by taking time to turn inward, imagining ourselves looking into the human face of God while listening in the silence for the answers to our questions. In the words of Paul Simon:

Hello darkness, my old friend

I’ve come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never shared

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming

Then the sign said, “The words of the prophets are

written on the subway walls

In tenement halls”

And whispered in the sound of silence.