Missional Church

I am about 97.3% of the way through a paper I am working on for my Doctor of Ministry project.  It is an aspirational piece on how we move to a more missional model of ministry. 

It has been hard. 

The author of one of the books we read, Alan Roxburgh, suggests that we get ourselves into a zone where things are going well, and you want to stay there. 

Amen to that. 

I have been preaching about getting outside of our walls for several years now, but I think now we are at a place where with the right kind of "oomph" we can make that jump. 

I talked with elementary and middle school principals and guidance counselors the last two days.  At least at one site, I was welcome like I was the answer to a prayer.  We sometimes ask the question, how do you know you have been visited or guided by the Holy Spirit.  This morning between 8 and 9, I wonder if I wasn't being given operational guidance on how to measure the presence of the Holy Spirit.

My Holy Spirit Dashboard was all flashing in excitement and enthusiasm. 

If this were a car, I guess that would be "bad" but this wasn't a car.  I WANTED to see the lights go red and the temperature gauge go up and the battery charge numbers go positive. 

It was nice. 

Really nice.

Full

First Sunday of Lent and after a careful review of the lectionary texts, I decided to preach on temptation. 

The text for the day was Luke 4: 1-13 (NIV).  Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, is tempted three times by Satan and Jesus wins.  Luke tells us that Satan will return at a time more opportune. (Fans of "Dragnet" can hear the music:  dum-de-dum-dum).

I started with remembering how we used to have those things called "Service Stations" and how when your car pulled up in one of them, a bevy of attendants fell out of their office and washed our windows, checked our air and oil, as well as filled up the car with gas.  People under 30 were excused for not knowing what I was talking about ...

Would it be so simple to get a fill up of the Holy Spirit. 

Can you visualize it?  You pull into the local Holy Spirit Service Station and tell the attendant "fill 'er up, I'll be back in a second". 

Jesus was "full of the Spirit" and arguably, that helped him in his temptation in the desert.

Satan tempts Jesus three times and twice Jesus responds with scripture.  The tempter is one cunning dude, so on the third try, he uses scripture on Jesus.  Jesus, full of the Spirit, rebuffs the gestures and Satan, momentarily defeated rides off to tempt another day. 

We are told quite clearly that Arnold-Like in Terminator:  "I'll be back" (click to left to see). 

This is the first Sunday of Lent and the passage is the Gospel lesson every three years on that first Sunday, but it is about the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not the end.  What is going on here?

It is part of the Lenten story ... the Journey to Jerusalem with Jesus because at its core, it is about purpose.

Satan is trying in this story to divert Jesus from his purpose.  All three temptations are relevant, but the third one, being saved from death, strikes at overturning the very core of the Jesus Project.  Jesus is here in order to die to free us from our sins.  Jesus is to be the perfect Passover Lamb.  But to be that Lamb, he must consent to his own death.  This passage is about an abortive attempt to divert Jesus from that objective.

Satan:  "I can save you from your divine purpose." 

The reality is that each of us has a project, a purpose, an objective to accomplish on behalf of God, and what are the temptations that lead us astray? 

During the sermon I read from Jonathan Goldstein's midrash-like Ladies and Gentlemen:  The Bible where Eve is tempted by the Serpent.  The serpent is very cunning and Eve is spiritually seduced by making the sinfulness of disobedience seem like "no big deal".  Goldstein is quite clever in his approach.  That is the way we are indeed tempted:  sinfulness is no big deal, right?  In addition, we often aren't tempted by getting these clear on/off, one/zero, black/white choices.  It is rather, by subtle, slow manipulation of the story so that our sinfulness in assenting to the temptation seems like "no big deal."  But all of them divert us from our purpose, our divine purpose. 

In Luke:  Jesus wins. 

But at the end of the Lucan pasage, we are told that Terminator Arnold-Like, Satan could almost say "I'll be back". 

The core Lenten Question is:  when Satan comes back, will we be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Prayer, devotional time, conversation with Christian friends, bible study and mission moments are all ways to pull into that Holy Spirit Service Station and say "fill 'er up". 

Projecting God's Radiance

A few years ago I saw, yes, SAW, Dick Celeste give a speech. Celeste is a former Democrat governor of Ohio, ambassador to India, and currently president of Colorado College. And he spoke in such a way that he quite literally lit up the room. I say saw because of the effect he had on the room. He was a bright light shining in our midst.

Friends of mine were present and said “gee, Dennis, what did you expect, he is after all a politician?”

Well, I didn’t expect the nearly overpowering light he projected into that room, that day.

Celeste was Moses-like in his radiance.

My sermon yesterday was from Exodus 34: 29-35. It is the passage where Moses comes down from his second gifting of the Commandments to discover he is putting out radiance from his exposure to God.

Some things seem to come speak to me in this passage.

• Moses wasn’t aware that his face was radiant. And when he became aware, he tried to shield it from those around him.

• The radiance made the Israelites afraid.

• After he finished delivering the new commandments, he put a veil over his face.

The ideas for how to unpack this with the congregation came to me pretty early in the week, and it came so quickly, so easily, I kept wondering was I being too shallow? Was this too obvious?

I chose to take the gift that had been given to me and used it as my three points. I really try to resist the idea of "Three Points" because in the history of preaching, a style called "Three Points and a Poem" was normative for years. Every time I get "Three Points" I wonder if I have found them because there ARE three points, or because of the old format.

My key ideas were:

• Like Moses, we often don't realize that we reflect God's glory.

• That reflection of God's glory can make those around us nervous and frightened.

• It isn't clear what Moses was trying to do by putting a veil over his face, but Paul in 2nd Corinthians felt that he wanted to be sure that the nascent church in Corinth understood unlike Moses, reflecting God's glory was a 24/7/365 responsibility.

I did come back to the idea that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount reminds us we are called to be “The Light of the World” and prepared to light up that world, and not allow ourselves to attempt to cover up that light. How is that for a challenge? Go out and light up the world. Fortunately, Jesus didn’t give us a timeline for mission accomplishment. Two Thousand Years and we are still working on it.

I do find it interesting that as I quasi Journal this, at neither service did I come back to a lingering thought I had when the message came to me: Gee Dennis, what do you expect, he (Celeste) is after all a politician. It seemed like a logical observation was if a politician was capable of being expected to light up a room, isn’t lighting up a room with God's radiance part of what we should expect for ourselves?

Gee Dennis, what do you expect, he/she (insert name) is after all a Christian? I don’t know: what do I expect?

Joy and Renewal at Stratmoor

In 2008, we had one Sunday where we had 100 or more worshippers.  That was Easter.

Last year, we had fifteen Sundays where we had 100 or more worshippers.  That included Easter.

We didn't get a count on the Sunday I was gone to DC, but of the five Sundays in 2010 where we have gotten a count, we have been at or over 100.  That is five out of five.  We haven't gotten to Easter. 

Last week, we had over 120, and yesterday, we had 109.  That was without a lot of the usual and customary crowd.  A number of people were gone to visit family around the country. 

We are at one and the same time in awe, and humbled by what seems to be happening.

I commented to the church leaders yesterday, that we were getting a lot of return visitors in part because of things we had done to make our little church be what we said we wanted to be.  Child care is an excellent example.  We provide quality child care from about 8:45 AM to 12:15 PM every Sunday.  We say we are child friendly and that is one "system" set up where our rhetoric and our execution are in synchronization.  The same is true with providing Children's Church and Sunday School for those twelve and under.  That is not to say that at times getting it all pulled together is easy, it isn't. 

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to make something look effortless.

The key to this is that God is doing something at our little church.  God's something is taking us to a new, and yes exciting, place.  (I might say:  Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it.)  Clearly we need to stay humble about what is happening.  A lot of people deserve a lot of credit, but at the end of the day, God is sending us people who have both gifts as well as crosses that they bear.  We need to be able to receive, and recognize, both.  

The Sermon was drawn from 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11.  Part of the Paul's theme was that after Jesus had been raised, he sought out a series of people to have a sacred encounter with them, the least of which by his own testimony, was Paul himself.  I wonder if that isn't a message for all of us:  We have experienced this Easter moment, and as a result we want to see others to share with them that God is still involved in our lives, faith in God does make a difference, and that God can rescue all of us from a place of darkness and death. 

We can all be raised from a metaphorical as well as a real place of darkness and death.    

God is blessing us with a dramatic change in the life of our little church.  It is a blessing that calls us to be sure and seek out new and exciting ways to involve others in this life of this community ... 

Jesus like, that is the Sharing of the Joy and Renewal of Easter with others around us ... a Sacred Call.  

Amen.   

Today at CoFA

I know.  If you are looking at the title to this post you are wondering "what the heck is 'CoFA' "?

The Council of Finance and Administration.

In other words, time in Denver talking about money.  Talking about United Methodist Money. 

The good news.  We had hoped (prayed?) for a revenue for 2009 of about $5.2M for the operation of the HQ for all the United Methodist Churches in Utah and Colorado, and most of them in Wyoming.  The better news.  We got in over $5.6M and close to being able to round up to $5.7M.  AND maybe even better news, we only spent $5.0M instead of $5.2M. 

So what can the bad news be?  I am actually not sure. 

We had dug ourselves a $1M (that is M for MILLION) hole over the last five to six years with spending more than we took in.  Nod if you think that sounds like the Federal Government since say, 1933 or so?  We had lost our line of credit (long story) and we had no where else to go but a more responsible fiscal policy:  cut spending and raise revenue. 

We did both in 2009. 

We targeted spending to be cut from $6.05M to $5.25M and we spent even less than that.  Wow.

We attempted to raise revenue from a previous year of $4.5M to $5.2 and we got even more than that.  Dare I say wow again? 

Wow, wow. 

And we did this in an economic downturn. 

Wow, wow, wow! 

I think part of what happened is that people listened to us in June when we talked, and they said "that makes sense, we can abide by what they are doing" e.g, lowering spending, raising revenue. 

I think another part of it is they, the 270 local United Methodist Churches in Utah, Colorado and most of Wyoming, have trust and faith in our Bishop ... Bishop Elaine.  If optimism is infectious, we catch it from her.  I know I do ...

Is there a third part? 

I don't know .....

What are you doing here Martin?

What are you doing here Martin?

My sermon yesterday was a conversation intertwining Elijah, Martin Luther King, Junior, and prayerfully and hopefully, those who heard the sermon.

The text was the passage where Elijah has left Jerusalem out of fear for his life from Ahab and his wife Jezebel (1 Kings 19: 9b-13). Elijah has just been part of the demonstration of God’s power over the Baal priests but he seems terrified by a note from Jezebel that basically said “I will see you dead tomorrow”.

Exodus like, Elijah leaves the Kingdom of Anxiety created by Jezebel and Ahab, and is sustained in the desert by God. Exodus like, Elijah goes to the mountain to receive God’s word. Exodus like, Elijah goes to “the” cave (as opposed to “a” cave, thus an Exodus Echo of where Moses sees God’s glory) and God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?” That could mean many things, but my read was that Elijah wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

Elijah responds with a “pity party” list of all the problems back in Jerusalem, most of which simply are not true.

And to think that this guy would be on the Israelite Mount Rushmore if ever there was one!

God provides a demonstration of God’s glory by passing by in the form of wind and storm, but he speaks to Elijah in the form of what the King James Version calls “A small still voice.” It is really closer to the idea of a spoken silence. Talk about a hint of the luminous but I digress.

Sadly, the repeated question God asks of Elijah again following the demonstration and God speaking in the silence is met with the same pity party response: "I am all alone, and it is just terrible back in Jerusalem."

Talk about a guy not getting it! Hold the work order on that Israelite Mount Rushmore carving. 

Martin Luther King, Junior when asked by God with a different emphasis on the words “What are you doing here, Martin” got it in 1954 Montgomery.

In his book Stride Toward Freedom, Dr. King lays out what was on his mind when he got to Montgomery, and being a major civil rights leader was not at the top his top 10 list of things to do for a while. He felt a pressing need to get his PhD, energize and lead his new congregation, and basically get his feet on the ground. But the qualities of leadership that would cause him to be recognized later by the nation was obvious to those around him, and he quickly was catapulted into leadership. He was able to answer God’s question of “what are you doing here Martin” with an answer that said “whatever you tell me Lord”. He listened to the small, still voice of God that Elijah just seems tone deaf to.

I posed at the end of the sermon three thoughts, and I am not normally a “three points and a poem” preacher, but it seemed to work this week.

God is with us in our travels in our personal wildernesses. Sometimes we are sent there by God, as with Moses and Martin, but sometimes we get to that wilderness by our own doing and a lack of faith in God’s power, like Elijah here.

God chooses the means and medium of demonstration. We call out for dramatic demonstrations, but at times, God speaks quietly and softly, and maybe even in the silence of the moment.

Finally, the question of “what are you doing here” is a good one for us to ask ourselves on a more regular basis. Sometimes, the question may be pointed at a response that like Elijah we should see is suggesting maybe we are not where we are supposed to be. I wonder if that is a strong emphasis on the word “here” in that question. But other times, the emphasis shifts to the “what” and perhaps more importantly the “you”. "What are YOU doing here, Martin" might have been the 1954 question from God. Martin responded with wonder and Grace and power that is to this day inspiring. 

What are YOU doing here kind and gentle reader? What are YOU, doing here?

Sermon of December 27 -- Bah Humbug

"Bah Humbug"

A Sermon from Colossians 3: 12-17 by C. Dennis Shaw

Pastor of Stratmoor Hills UMC

Colorado Springs, CO

December 27, 2009

The First Sunday after Christmas

________________________________________

"Humbug" might have faded from the English language a hundred years ago were it not for the character in Charles Dickens Novella, The Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge and his view that Christmas is "humbug."

Humbug could mean "sham," it has also been used to mean "hoax" or "trick," P.T. Barnum once said that "The people like to be humbugged."

What Scrooge meant, of course, was that Christmas and its celebrations and traditions, with a particular emphasis on charity toward the poor, are a sham, an insincere and wasteful ritual.

I have been at times in my life, more like the early Scrooge, than the transformed, benevolent man of the climax … a man who practices the charity of Christmas every day …

I disliked Christmas not for spiritual reasons, but because of the demands people placed on you during that time.

“I want” -- “get me” -- “you didn’t remember me”

For many years, it seemed to me that Christmas was all about getting and wanting, as well as piling up all of the guilt that comes along when you aren’t enthused about the event in the first place and thus procrastinate about remembering the important, lovely people in my life.

Scooge-like, I have been converted …

After a warning visit by the spirit of his dead partner, Marley, Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve night by three spirits. An angel, who is the ghost of Christmas Past, a jolly rotund man who is the ghost of Christmas Present, and a wraith like figure who is the ghost of Christmas yet to come.

All of them have a role. The ghost of Christmas Past reminds him of the joy he felt during certain times in his past, over Christmas. The ghost of Christmas present shows him how others see him, as well as those around themselves, and how their lives are more joyous with others in it. Finally, Tolkien like wraith that is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come provides Scrooge a vision of his own future should he not make a change in the direction of his life.

When Scrooge awakes on Christmas Day, he is changed, transformed, a person who sees the world in a different light …

Our reading today is from the suggested text for the first Sunday after Christmas. We spend four weeks of Advent reflecting on what the entrance of the Christ Child will mean to the world, we have the brief moment of his birth, and then, right back to the meaning of his life in our own. No dallying and adoring the Christ Child …

I don’t mean to make that sound harsh, but the early church did not focus on the birth of Christ, rather, they focused what his life meant to them … and primarily this meaning is found in community. Paul, or a protégé of Paul’s, letter to the church at Colossae is an example of what the early church wanted to say about being a follower of Christ.

Colossians of course doesn’t use the idea of humbug, but if it did, it would suggest that focusing on baby Jesus as a cute baby without regard to his eventual role would be worthy of a “bah, humbug”.

Look at verses 12 – 14 … "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

The author is making the point that whatever they were … and most of the church at Colossae were Gentiles, non-Jews …. they were now part of God’s chosen … and he reminds them through the use of the word “holy” that means you are set apart, you are different than you were … and that God’s love for you suggests that the wardrobe you once wore no longer fits you …

You need to put on a different set of clothes …

Regarding Henry tells the story of Henry Turner, a successful lawyer in New York City who has the world by the tail and little time for his family. Whatever it takes to win major court cases, Henry (played by Harrison Ford) will sell his soul for it. Ethical behavior matters less to him than climbing the corporate ladder and supporting his elaborate lifestyle.

Henry's life changes drastically, though, when he stops at a convenience store late at night and becomes the victim of a robbery. The burglar shoots him in the chest and head. Doctors save his life, but Henry requires months of hospitalization and therapy. He has no memory of his wife, daughter, or colleagues. He enters into an intensive program to reclaim his identity, including wearing clothes he now finds too formal. His family are strangers to him.

After resuming his life, Henry discovers there are aspects of the life he led before, he no longer values: disloyal and dishonest behavior are part of that, and he finally can bear it no more, quits his old job and comes home …

Henry’s wife meets him at the door and breaks into tears. Henry then says "… I have something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" she asks.

"I don't like my clothes," he says, sounding childlike but sincere. "Maybe they used to be my favorite, but I don't feel comfortable in them anymore."

"We'll get you new clothes," his wife says smiling. She reaches to embrace him.

"I want us to be a family for as long as we can, Sarah," Henry quietly whispers. "For as long as we can."

The author of Colossians is saying we have to stop wearing the clothes we were wearing, and Scrooge-like undergo this transformation of our soul, and see the world differently …throw the window open and say “boy, boy, can you tell me what today is” and the boy stunned says “why it’s Christmas day” …

And the clothing that is given to us in the Christmas gift that is the Christ child who grows to the leader of the Jesus Project … this new clothing we are urged to put on are called: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And while the words could be understood to be in an individualistic context, the author is driving at the plural … “you all” … a people … he tells the community they are a “people” … “clothe yourselves” …

Sometimes in putting on new clothes we have to stand naked and we get to see the scars of life …

When I am at Fort Carson and am finished working out and shower in the gym, I see men scarred physically by war …

The author of Colossians tells us that part of how we heal those scars of life’s war is to be a people that lifts each other up and perhaps more importantly forgives each other … why, because God forgave you …

Some of you may remember the ugly night during an American League Championship Series when Roberto Alomar spit on an umpire named John Hirschbeck ….

Four years after the incident, Hirschbeck and Alomar are on the same team … the same quest … That ugly moment has been put behind them, and now Roberto and John work together to raise money for ALD (a rare degenerative genetic brain disease) that took the life of John Hirschbeck's eight-year-old son in 1993.

Alomar said: "Maybe God put us in this world to help somebody beat this disease."

I wonder if maybe God didn’t put these two in the world to show us what the love that Colossians is describing to us can be made visible.

Picking up again from Colossians … "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Notice the encouragement … the exhortation …

Let peace rule … members of one body … Let the word cause you to TEACH … ADMONISH and SING …

And the purpose of the forgiveness is to bind people together into a cohesive whole … a cohesive unit … bound together by Love and accomplishing it in a spirit of Gratitude … Doxology …

Teaching others to do what is right …

Being willing to call to the attention of others what they are doing wrong …

Praising the impact of God in their lives …

In our movie Remembering Henry, Henry confesses he wants to be a family again … his wife offers … "I love you," she offers. "I love you too," Henry says as they embrace. You have the impressing that they will now set about re-teaching each other what is right about caring for others … lovingly suggesting that maybe they are going in the wrong direction, and offering doxology … gratitude for the blessings they have …

You are left with the impression that this is a mature love built on a new respect and a new and different feeling for each other …

Character matters …

The New England Patriots of the 2003/4 NFL Season were a surprising success. It was a young team, in a league and sport that demanded experience …

Eight rookies replaced injured veterans but the Patriots went on to win the 2004 Super Bowl and over the course of that season and the next, set a regular season record for consecutive wins that was broken a few weeks ago by the Colts … The motto of the executive leadership was: "WE ARE BUILDING A TEAM—NOT COLLECTING TALENT."

Their success was due to an unselfish mindset adopted by coaches and players alike.

Dare I say that the Colossians theme is that the Body of Christ is about building a team … not collecting talent …

I want to leave you with two observations …

You each have opportunities to be one of the Ghosts of the Dickens Christmas. You can remind others of different days when they were not so self absorbed, you can give people a little glimpse into their true character or you can point to a future that is imminent without transformation. Do you do it, or do you say “Bah Humbug”, the direction that person is on is their own choice and it isn’t any of my business.

I offer YOU are saying “Bah Humbug” yourself to the message here in Colossians.

You also at times have the chance to listen to others as they comment about where you are … reminding you of a different past, seeing a different present and future for you … Again, you could say “Bah Humbug” to that message, but you are in reality saying “Bah Humbug” to the Colossians scripture, and perhaps more importantly, you are saying “Bah Humbug” to the real message of Christmas …

Jesus came into the world for the express purpose of changing the very direction of our lives. You can keep on the wardrobe you had on before you experience, or you can be like Henry in our movie and see that the clothes you once wore, no longer feel right …

The invitation is there for you …

You can say Bah Humbug, or you can remember this passage from Colossians …

The choice is yours …

________________________________________
Some illustrations w/in this sermon were drawn from Preaching Today: Remembering Henry, the Hirschbeck story, and the NE Patriots quote specifically.

Christmas Eve Sermon

Christina Gabriella Rossetti was a poet who wrote during the 1800s. She came from a well known literary and artistic family that lived in England. Her father was a professor of Italian and her brothers were among the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included James McNeill Whistler. Her family friends included Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland.

We know her today by two Christmas carols … one “In the Bleak Midwinter” and the other “Love Came Down at Christmas” …. “Love Came Down at Christmas” is found at number 242 in the red United Methodist Hymnals at your seats.

1. Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

2. Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

3. Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.


Notice she has all three verses end with the word sign …

Star and Angels giving us a sign, but then at the end of verse 2, she seems to ask in how our 21st Century English would phrase the question … with what … with what will we worship our Jesus as OUR sacred sign …

And she comes back and answers in verse 3 her own question … we will show our sacred sign for our love of Jesus by possessing it, and then, loving god and all those around us … using loving as means of entreaty … plea… as a gift to others … and as a sign of our faithfulness …

Rosetti does the same play on words with question and then answer in the poetry of “In the bleak midwinter” (UMH 221) … in the last verse she asks “what can I give him (the Christ child) poor as I am …” and her answer is “give my heart”. May I invite you to give your heart in response to God’s gift of the Christ child for you …

Lets confess … we come here tonight for many reasons, probably no two exactly similar or precisely alike ...

Some may be here out of deep spirituality … seeking an encounter with the sacred …

Others may be present tonight because their family insisted upon it … I can relate, I’ve been there … I am sure I went to many a Christmas Eve service because of son, husband, or father obligations.

Others may be here out of some kind of family tradition … you can’t open a Christmas Eve present until you go to church, so you are working off the Christmas “to do” list … “Go to church” – check that box …

Others may be here because you like Christmas carols …and the idea of singing Silent Night with others warms your heart …

I wonder if Rosetti’s use of the image of sign isn’t part of the issue …

Possibly Christmas is a sign for our spirituality.

Possibly Christmas is a sign of who we are as family.

Possibly Christmas is a sign of a more personal, intimate expression of our own quest for shalom … for wholeness … for that inner peace that is hard to define, but we know it when we see it …

When I was a teenager, we would watch American Bandstand, and a new song would be introduced and they would ask a judge, what she felt and the answer would be “I’ll give it a 95, I liked the beat”.

Many of us give Christmas a 95, we like the beat … family, presents, good food, football .. the beat here might be a sign of something that speaks to us across time, across relationships, across our own growth as people …

But I would invite you to listen to Rosetti’s question and entertain the idea of its haunting quality … if the angels and Magi … the wisemen … point to Jesus as a sign, what is our response to that sign …

Our response has to more than appreciating family, presents, good food, football. It has to be more. More what? Rosetti tells what our response should be ….

She suggests that perhaps the issue of love coming down for Christmas is imbedded in three ideas …

Plea … Gift …. Sign …

God becomes incarnate … God becomes “in the flesh” … “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God… the word became flesh and lived among us …”

Is it possible that what God is offering us is a plea to understand that God really loves us … “For God so loved the world …” we are given the Gift of Jesus ….

And that plea is accompanied by the gift manifested in vulnerability … how much more vulnerable can someone be than a human baby. Giraffe baby’s can stand within minutes of birth and can outrun predators within hours … that miracle is repeated throughout the animal kingdom … but human babies are vulnerable to the vagaries of life for a long period … and God “became flesh and lived among us …”

That vulnerability is a sign to us …

Sure … we can erect walls in our lives and say that ‘worthless no good no account hurt me and I am never going to let THAT happen again’ … but that response .. that kind of a sign to the rest of our world hardens us … it hardens our hearts … and it kills the Christmas every day attitude we are called to display …

The American psychologist Karl Menninger once said: ‘One does not fall in love; one grows into love, and love grows in her or him.’

Christmas is in part about allowing that love-seed that God gives each of us, the opportunity to germinate and grow … and by growing in our love for God; we grow in our love for each other …

Roberta Bondi – in her book To love as God Loves … reminds us that when we are standing in a circle with others trying to draw closer to God, we are also invariably drawing closer to each other … in short, trying to get closer to God, brings us closer to each other … it could actually be said the other way … that if we are in a circle with God at the center, that as we move towards each other, we grow closer to God as well …

O. Henry tells us in his short story -- "Gift of the Magi" – about God’s love manifested towards others …

Jim and Della live in a lonely flat …one assumes New York City …of the early nineteen hundreds. They are poor and the economic conditions of the day have attempted to drain hope and joy from their lives …

Jim is the possessor of a family heirloom … a beautiful watch, of which he is very proud … and Della has floor length hair of which she is proud …

The story centers on Della on how she can show Jim her love for him this Christmas and she decides to sell her hair and buy a gold chain for his watch … Jim arrives at home, and is stunned by her short, curly hair … and gives her first her present … O. Henry tells us they are:

“Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jeweled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair”….

“Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. [Della] held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell …. let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. [pause] I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. ….."

O. Henry as the narrator continues: “The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”

We pray tonight that we gave you the gift of the magi somewhere in our service … and that maybe you saw love come down, this Christmas … and it gave you your sign of how and what to give back to God …

Let me leave you with two questions … questions that I pray are “gifts” for each of you … as well as perhaps a “plea” on behalf of God …

Did you get your sign tonight?

If you did, what was it?

Please stand as you are able and let’s sing Silent Night together …

**


The start point for using Rosetti’s poetry came from a Facebook posting by The Reverend Adam Hamilton of the UM Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas. The Reverend Kent Ingram, FUMC Colorado Springs suggested ending with the questions … My own Della (Marilyn White) tightened up the manuscript. Thanks to all. The O. Henry tumbled into my brain and wouldn’t leave. Thanks be to God!

Music

I am in a 35 voice choir. My undergrad degree was music ed, but I was a instrumentalist.

My earliest memories of being in "band" was how much the music seemed to touch my inner parts. I wonder if that wasn't the beginning of a life long love of being part of the creation of sound. I say that to some people and they remark "you mean compose?" No ... I mean, taking someone else's musical thoughts in abstract on a piece of paper and move it to sound.

Choir adds a dimension that instrumentalists don't have ... words. The words matter ... making the "c" a little harder to give it intensity is part of it,but the real key is the poetry itself.

Somewhere I once read an article I can no longer find, that said the ancient Greeks would not allow politics and music to be combined. It was too powerful a source of emotion they thought. Maybe I dreamed that. Maybe I was in a parallel universe. I don't remember where I saw it, but it seems true.

I find that being part of the making of music fills my soul.

Peace ...

Darkness to Light

Yesterday, we celebrated the lives of people who have passed away in the last three years at Stratmoor. Some sixteen Saints, associated with Stratmoor Hills have passed away in the past three years. There is a "hole in our soul" from their losses.

In addition to those sixteen names, we also encouraged people to submit a card on anyone who had passed away, whenever it was, and we called their name as well, and we lit a candle for them.

We are a low-church church, and this looked to me when we first talked about it, like a high-church ritual.

I was wrong.

By the time we had all the candles lit, we had read and called into the light, over fifty names at each service. It was an example of where ritual, making a dark room lit by memory, was a powerful sermon in and of itself. My sermon at both services was only a few minutes. I personally was left with the feeling that the sermon was the candles.

I wonder if that isn't part of the intent in the history of this All-Soul's Day remembrance for the church: to light our lives with the power of their memory?

We are going to do something very similar next week for Veteran's Day .. living as well as those who have passed away ....

Selah.