Christmas Eve 2011

The Nativity of Our Lord

Welcome to everyone, I’m so glad that you came to share such an exciting and magical night with us here. I try, when I prepare a message for Christmas Eve, to capture some of the wonder of the Holiday, the wonder we feel now, whoever and wherever we are, the wonder our parents felt when we were very small at home with them, the wonder we felt ourselves as tiny children dazzled by the lights and gifts, the hustle and the bustle and the wonder of it all. All this because I think if we can capture a little bit of that as we focus on the bible story for tonight, the story of Christ’s birth, then I think we understand it just a little better. Maybe if we capture our own sense of wonder we’ll understand theirs and maybe if we understand theirs we’ll understand what God was doing...

So tonight I want to tell you about a little girl’s first Christmas, last year. Well it wasn’t really her first Christmas. But it was the first one she really understood, and participated in. She was three at the time.

She has two older brothers and lives with her mom and dad in a normal Castleton sized house, so the living room is...close quarters with a Christmas tree in it, especially on Christmas morning once Santa has come and there are presents all around from aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa on both sides, mom and dad, all the kids and of course the jolly man himself.

So in this context the group of adults watched as the kids came down the stairs (after being told they absolutely HAD to stay in bed until 7). They were all excited but for the littlest one, the girl Santa had left something very showy. On the coffee table, the whole coffee table, set up, unwrapped, a big, perfect, shiny, pink, plastic, complete with a garage and a car, a mom, dad and baby doll, a kitchen table and a washer and dryer!...DOLL HOUSE!!!!

It was like a magnet. Immediately she saw it and she knew, it was just for her, her very own, not for her brothers but she could use it too. Not clothes that let’s be honest are more a gift for the parents anyway, not something she even knew to ask for. Not something she ever could have gotten or put together for herself but completely hers.

She sat on the other side of the coffee table, away from the tree, at her doll house. She stared at it, she touched it, gently. She told people about it and dragged them over so they could see it too. She took parts of it to show to people who wouldn’t come to her. It was magic and she couldn’t even understand by what good fortune this great gift had come to her.

As the morning went on we tried to get her to open her other gifts, Santa had brought a few other things too. We tried to get her to watch while other people opened theirs. She really couldn’t though. The one gift was too perfect too complete for her to need anything else. So she stayed with it and admired it and gave it all of herself.

That is the magic of a little child on Christmas morning, that wonder and complete awe and joy in something that is at least a little bit, of a mystery.

Maybe that is how the people felt on the first Christmas day. Nothing mattered to them anymore but what was going on right then and right there, they were completely caught up in it and they knew it was just for them. Not something they were invited to look at but not touch, not something that was mostly for the important people, the rulers and the kings, but just for them and it was a little bit of mystery.

Maybe children enter into that wonder so well because for a brief time everything is about them, from the people who love them the most, those who protect and care for them, they are getting absolute, undivided attention and affection. Maybe that is what was going on on the first Christmas, for the shepherds and the wisemen, the innkeepers and the travelers, Mary and Joseph and all the people of God.

They were getting the undivided love and affection and attention of their god. Despite what they had done in the past, what they would do in the future, who they were, where they came from, even how they understood what was happening, a great gift was given to them. Just for them.

But our gospel lesson tells us more than that. Our gospel lesson tells of a god who loved the people in the story so much, a god who watched and wondered at creation for so long that he couldn’t help but enter into it so he did, completely. He looked at all the world with such love and wonder that he had to tell people, he sent angels to share the good news. He brought the shepherds to see it when they didn’t know what to think.

He even had the wisemen take it with them for a time into Egypt so others could know the wonder and it could be safe.

Maybe the true miracle, the true wonder the true meaning of Christmas that pulls us back here every year, that drives us to give wonder and joy to others is that God did that for us.

Even with all the other stuff going on, all the other possible presents around the Christmas tree so to speak, and all the bad stuff too, debts and worries, hurts and regrets God looks at us with that little child wonder and joy, like we are the gift instead of the ones receiving the gift.

God, God who knows all and does all, who creates and sustains, who made a covenant with his people to care for them always, came, himself, to live among us small and vulnerable. So that all the world might know that they were his very own even as he is our very own, God and King, Child and Brother, Prince and savior. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Pentecost 22; Render Unto Ceasar

In our epistle today there is this great line, on of my all time favorites because it makes me giggle a little. The whole beginning of the letter is Paul explaining what a good job the people are doing but then in verse 7 he tells them that it doesn’t really bear mentioning...after he just mentioned it.

I think that is important though because it reminds us that though humility is good but it is also good to tell one another where we see Christ at work in them.

And I’m just getting to know you all because I’m still kind of new here but I have seen a few really great things here, things that you all do and the way that you are. Things that make me sure that while there might not be a full time pastor here right now God is still here and Christ is at work but I know that you have too. So I want to ask you for a couple of brief stories of where you’ve seen God here or in the ministiries of this place?--take offerings from the congregation:

The options are endless,
World Hunger
Clown Ministry
Serendipity
St. Paul’s Center
Parish Nurse Program

Let me tell you another: Remember in the first days after Irene it was hard to know who needed help and how everyone was. There was a lot of worry about elderly people and people with unstable living situations and many churches were checking up on those folks in one way or another. But at a council meeting right after Duane and Sam and I sat there, as your leaders and listened as it became clear that St.Timothy’s enacted a phone tree and St. Timothy’s called everyone on their roles. Some people it seems were a little confused about why they were being called but I am completely convinced that if those people didn’t know before where to go in times of trouble they have a better idea now. How can you not see God in a church that reaches out before it is called upon and not even knowing if it is needed.

The church reaches out too in the things it supports, the places it sends it’s pastor and leaders.

The other day I carried out one of the ministries of this church I did a nursing home service at Rosewood gardens. I don’t sing well but I led songs for these elderly women, all 14 of them. Some could barely talk and weren’t keeping their eyes open at all but when we started to sing How Great Thou Art there were 14 voices other than my own, all off key and off tempo but so sincere, so completely moved, singing from their hearts and their memories. Singing remembering funerals and baptisms, festival worship services and small gatherings. Their eyes filled with tears and it was the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in a long time. I know God was there. I couldn’t see him but I could see his image in each of those faces. In a ministry of this church.

The gospel lesson for today has this great line from Jesus, whose image is graven here about the coin and then Christ says give to the emperor what is his and to God what is God’s. The bible tells us that we aren’t to make images of God but it also tells us where to find one anytime we want to see God. The bible says we are made in God’s image. In the images of God we are made male and female. In the image of God we are made young and old. In the image of God we are made able and in need. In the image of God we are made to serve and be served. In the image of God we are made to see God here in this place and we do. We can’t help but see God when we look around. And this is great good news. Thanks be to God. Amen

Anniversary of September 11th

I had a student a few years back, some of you might even remember her, she came here to help with Vacation Bible School that summer, Courtney Weller. Anyway she was my student for the summer at the parish, placed there to experience pastoral ministry as she discerned whether she might be called to serve in the same way. Before she started we met to talk about what she hoped to learn from our time together and what she was apprehensive about. She told me that the thing that she was most nervous about was the work that a pastor does around funerals. After talking a little about that we decided then that is a funeral happened to come our way during her time we’d make sure she was involved so she could know how she did and what not.

Well that summer we ended up having a funeral nearly every week that she was in the parish. It was fascinating. Two were for people who had passed away many months before and the family lived in other states so they stopped up for a burial during summer vacation. A couple were from the outside community, several from the parish. Courtney learned a lot and it was uncanny how those eight services grouped themselves into the 10 weeks she was with me. There were none before or after for a great period of time.

It told her when it was all said and done that sometimes the Holy Spirit forces your hand and helps you to do what needs to be done or learn what needs to be learned whether it seems to make sense or not.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit forces your hand.

That is all to say that though this is the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks I really intended not to spend much time at all talking about them in my sermon today. I thought we’d mention them in the prayers and that would be enough. Then I read the lessons for today and they are all about forgiveness and hardship. But still I thought I’d avoid much mention.

But then the more I read over the lessons and thought and prayed the more connections these lessons made with that tragedy and well sometimes the Holy Spirit forces your hand.

So here we are on Spetember 11th, ten years after a shocking and tragic attack and in our gospel lesson Jesus is telling his disciples that they are to forgive a wrong that is done against them seventy-seven times. And in our Old Testament lesson we hear about a man, Joseph, against whom terrible wrongs have been committed doling out great mercy to those who wronged him.

Joseph even explains that though evil was meant for him by his brothers, God was able to use him and that negative experience for good.

I think that there a many examples of the positives that have come since the September 11th attacks. Stories of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope. I bet you could find several in any newspaper in America today. I bet you eve have come yourselves about that event or another one in your life where good as come from something that at the outset looked only bad.

And what’s great about those stories is that they teach us about God. They teach us who God is.

In Joseph's story it worked like this, he was his father’s favorite, the youngest son and his brothers were jealous, so Jealous that they tried to get rid of him.

First they tried to Kill him.

Then they threw him in a pit

then they sold him

Then they tried to fool him

Then they made up a guilt trip for him about his father.

And Jospeh forgave and forgave and he used the rational that God had done good with what the brothers intended for evil.

All throughout our lives we find ourselves in pits and palaces like Joseph, sometimes it seems like all good, good has gotten us there, good will come from it, sometimes it seems like the opposite and the real lesson from today about sept 11th. About your own tragedies, about your present life situation, whether it seems like a pit or a palace or both is that God knows, better than we ever could, how to draw good out of the bad, how to overcome evil with good, how to sow new life where there is death and destruction.

But what we learn about God in this story is more about where God is in the midst of the whole journey from pit to palace and back again. For Joseph it went like this:

First they tried to Kill him.-And God was there

Then they threw him in a pit-And God was there

then they sold him-And God was there

Then they tried to fool him-And God was there

Then they made up a guilt trip for him about his father.-And God was there

As Christians we forgive and we move through hard experiences because we are called and commanded to do so but the strength that gets us there is looking back and knowing that God was there so that every time we look forward today, tomorrow and on the last day we know that God will be there. This is good news. Thanks be to God. Amen!

Pentecost 9 A

The lessons for today all make a point of including everyone. Isaiah talks about even the outcasts of Israel, even those that the people themselves had rejected. Paul, who rarely says things in a positive way, says that all are imprisoned to disobedience so that all may be saved. Even our psalm includes everyone.

And then we get this perplexing lesson from Matthew that involves Jesus ignoring someone in need. What’s going on? This isn’t like Jesus. Maybe there was something else going on. Even He has just been teaching that God is for everyone.

He does so by explaining that following cleansing rituals doesn't necessarily make a person in the right with God, nor does not following the rituals keep people from God. The commandments and promises are for all. He is telling the church authorities this because they are keeping certain people out of the temple.

It is as if Jesus were here saying that no one is excluded from the promise and therefore no one is excluded from God’s love. So if there is anyone that you think God might love but they aren’t good enough to be here in this place, Jesus says no, God’s loves them. They are not excluded. And if there is anyone that you think that God might love but they need to change something about who they are in order to really be Christian. No God loves them, they are not excluded. And if there is anyone who you think God might have loved but then they did this unlovable, unforgivable thing. So maybe they removed themselves from God’s love, No! God loves them! No One! is excluded. That is what Jesus is saying in temple speak to the pharisees.

But not only are the pharisees confused, the disciples don't get it either. Their only thought is to be worried because Jesus has made the religious authorities mad. So they ask him about that and he asks right back, don't you understand? The answer is obviously no. they don't get yet that the kingdom is for everyone.

Then Jesus encounters an outsider, one of those ones that he was just saying are not excluded from the promised because they have ritually unclean hands. And...he excludes her. Imagine being one of his disciples.

He always heals those in need and now he isn't. Wouldn't you be surprised. Confused? Indignant even? Plus he was just saying something about everyone getting the promises of God...

So because of this he kinda freaks them out. They urged him, the text says, and while it doesn't say what they urged him to do but it appears that they might have urged him to heal her daughter so that she might leave. Because he responds saying that he wasn't sent to the likes of her. That she isn’t allowed into the temple so she isn’t worthy of his healing.

Oh! Do you see what Jesus is doing here? He has told them not to exclude anyone and they are good at listing the reasons that someone should be excluded. Now all of a sudden they are seeing what exclusion does. Their argument that not being allowed into the temple isn’t the same as being kept away from God’s love has fallen away. They see what is does to keep someone out. It denies that person the healing, attention and love that comes as a natural part of being on the inside.

But thank goodness for her, she is persistent. But more than that, she is right, the gospel. the good news, the word of God is on her lips and she gets to speak the punchline of this story. Usually Jesus does that but in this case, this unworthy newcomer does it.

She says that even the dogs, even the unworthy, the useless get feed with the scraps of good things. Jesus hears this and agrees. He tells her that her faith has made her daughter well.

It isn't her work, her persistence, her cleanliness, her worthiness, her obedience to ritual that made her well. Only that she had faith that god could do it and it was done.

This is actually the promise of baptism. Today we get to baptize ____________ and _____________ and we all know that we are just the agents of the baptism. Baptism comes from God and it is for everyone, anyone who asks. Ever. Period. No Matter what. AND baptism is a sign of God’s unconditional love right now and forever.

That is why we so often baptize infants and little kids, because they can’t do anything to earn it, they usually can’t even ask for it. It is entirely free to them but it starts in childhood when all is clean and good but it lasts forever, no matter what. So no matter what mis-steps these kids take, no matter what trouble they get in, no matter what brokenness they encounter in the world around them, they are never going to excluded from the promise of God.

Never will they be farther away from God’s love than they are today, right now with this whole assembly and their family and the minister standing by speaking load and clear promises to them.

Christ will always be that close to them, closer even. Just as God’s promise and love are always that close to us no matter what forever, now and in the last days. In Good days and bad days. When we are shiny and clean or muddy and broken. Christ is for us and God reaches out to us in love and will keep doing so forever! Thanks be to God.

Amen

All Saints Day 2011

*Names are changed to respect privacy

Today is All saints day. The day in the church year when we traditionally remember all who have died that were close to us especially in the past year. Often I tell stories about the deceased. And though we lost fewer church members this year than sometimes, there were still some very hard losses in and connected to our midst. Husbands and wives, children and grand-children, siblings and good friends still feel very keenly the loss of their loved ones. And in our lesson for today Jesus talks about those people, about the loved ones, when he says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. and so we’re going to talk a little bit about those people today. Sometimes we tell stories on this day of those who have died but in this case the stories will be of those who mourn.

We’ve had three funerals connected to our communities lately and I want to tell you a story of those who mourned at each.

Most recently here we had a great celebration of the life of *(Emma)*, you can still see the flowers from it all around. The service was lovely, she wrote it herself and then there was a very large luncheon afterwards, people gathered together and shared stories, visited, really celebrated who she was to each of them. Funerals are a blessing in that way because they seems to mend old wounds sometimes. when we gather together around something so big as God’s promise of forever, things like our mortality seem awfully small. That is one was that blessed are those who mourn is lived out, both as a promise and as a command that we bless one another.

So After the meal the people closest to Emma traveled to the cemetery, including her 94 yr old sister whom she lived with, both caring for one another in the ailing later years. *(Jean)* couldn’t walk to the grave so the family made a half circle with an opening in it just where the car that Jean was in was parked about 25 feet away. I talked very loudly and in that way the saints young and old sent off their dear sister. It was a warm feeling bringing her into the circle like that and people acted like including her in God’s final promise of love was about the greatest gift that they could give her. Maybe because they knew it was a gift that was given to them as well.

Next a couple weeks ago, someone from the Castleton community died and I was called to do her funeral at Ray’s. Her family was very sweet and loving and she had a whole bunch of Grandsons. They came in hodgepodge suits like teenage boys do, with dirty tennis shoes on their feet and that look on their faces. But when we gathered around the grave after the service they made a little honor guard around they few chairs that they funeral home had set out. Verily lifting their father and mother, elderly aunts and the like into them and playing a game of musical chairs to make sure that despite the mud and he cold and the snow their little family unit now without their matriarch was held together and safe. Like a band of shepherds for the mourning sheep. I think that scene was one of the greatest gifts that they could have given me that day. Maybe because it was such a sure sign that that is a gift that the good shepherd gives each of us starting at our baptisms and culminating on the last day.

Farthest back, about a month or two ago there was a funeral for a man connected to the East Schodack community. He loved classic rock music, his wife and his bike. So did the mourners. They gathered around the casket helmets under their arms, Harley gear on, big longs beards (not that there is anything wrong with that Ed*...) and tears in their eyes. He was youngish and had served in the military. They left trinkets in the coffin and shook my hand after the service like hearing that God loved their friends was the greatest gift they’d gotten in a long, long time.--Maybe because they knew it meant God loved them too.

The reason I tell these stories is because when we gather together to remember those who have died, we know them, we know their great qualities and their flaws. we remember the times they didn’t get it right. we remember the times we fought with them. we remember their struggles and pains. The times they fell short and the times they overcame. we remember them as real people, fully saints, fully sinners. And we hear most clearly in the promise of our gospel lesson that each one of them is blessed for who they were, for the work that they did for God’s world in their lifetimes. And most comfortingly and assured by God’s love promised to them when they were still saints and sinners with a long way to go. And if this is true for them. we know that it is true for us as well and that is the great, good news that All the Saints bring to us today. Amen.