Isaiah 64: 1-9
Psalm 80
1 Corinthians 3: 1-9
Mark 13: 24-37

Danger, Christmas is Coming!

I was on the road on Tuesday afternoon, listening to the CBC and the hosts of the show were having a mild disagreement about a certain song: was it Christmas music early, or Remembrance Day music late? The song was, “Christmas in the Trenches”. It tells the story of the famous Christmas Truce of World War I. It took place on Christmas night in 1914 somewhere in France. On that memorable night British, French and German soldiers participated in a spontaneous, and unauthorized, cease-fire and celebrated Christmas together, in ‘No-Man’s land’. Now, the reason that this had come up at all on the CBC was that the last known survivor of that event, Alfred Anderson, had died at the age of 109. Several years ago, Anderson said in an interview that what he remembered most of that night was the silence. There was no sound of gunfire, no mortars exploded, no gas canisters were launched, there were no cries hurt and dying men. Perhaps this eerie silence was the sound of peace.

The unofficial Christmas truce apparently started when British and French soldiers, who were hunkered down in the freezing cold in the trenches which formed the front lines of battle, and who were, understandably homesick on being away from home and in mortal danger on Christmas night, heard the German soldiers singing and responded with a Christmas carol in their own languages. Not too long after, Silent Night was sung in at least two languages, simultaneously. Then a lone German came into no man’s land, unarmed, carrying a truce flag. Soon the troops were all there, as if bidden by an unseen force, talking and communicating as best they could, sharing pictures of loved ones, swapping Christmas treats, offering cigarettes and even playing soccer. Some historians say that the celebrations lasted for several days, which greatly disturbed the commanding officers. They were worried that such behaviour would take away their soldiers’ will to fight. Christmas could ruin everything! If Christmas caught on, they would be in trouble! If Christmas caught on there would be no war!

I read on CBC.ca yesterday that a French director has just completed a 14 year project to immortalize this event in a movie, which has won acclaim at the Cannes film festival and has been nominated for an Oscar. The DVD is being sent to British troop stationed in Iraq despite its anti-war sentiments and German troops have already seen it, however, France has refused to show it to it’s soldiers even thought it refers to an event over 90 years ago and to alliances which have completely changed. Maybe a true celebration of Christmas is still a dangerous thing when there’s a war on.

Of course, the issues surrounding the Great War, or nay war for that matter, are more complex than could be solved by a few hundred men on opposing sides deciding they had more in common than kept them apart, but it’s worth thinking about. What if Christmas caught on?

The cry of the Psalmist, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down” reminds me a little of the joke about God being like the parent yelling down the stairs to the squabbling children, “Don’t make me come down there!” Of course in any dispute between children there is usually one who wants the parent to come down, in the assumption that the parent will take his or her side, against the other. However, when the parent does intervene, the parent’s viewpoint is usually different, and both children may regret it! The questions linger in our minds, “Do we really want God to tear open the heavens and come down? Do we really want God to intervene and clean up the mess that has been made? Do we really think that we will be vindicated?

Christmas has happened so many times, in our lives, and in the life of the world, that we can forget that it has the potential to change everything, on a cosmic scale. We can forget that it is SUPPOSED to change everything. When the prophets and gospel writers spoke of the coming of the Christ, they weren’t talking about turkey and tinsel and a few days off work; they are talking about an event which changed the course of human history. They were talking about an event which radically changed lives. At Christmas, it was as if the heavens were torn open and God was revealed as never before in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. God’s will was revealed as never before in the life, death and resurrection of this ‘babe of Bethlehem’.

The WWI generals were right; This message of ‘Peace on Earth and Good Will to all” could wreck everything. It could wreck all of our plans; if, that is they are not also God’s plans.

If our plans are for reconciliation of past hurts and wrongs then this One of peace has come to help us. If our plans are to have the best toys and the most and best of everything there is to have, then the message of this One who has come from God is not going to do much for those goals and ambitions.

It was Phyllis Diller, I believe, who said that “cleaning your house while the children were small was like shovelling the walk while it was still snowing.” From Awaken, A preaching resource, by Logos Publications When we celebrate Christmas, when we welcome the “Christmas Truce” into our hearts and lives, when we encounter the “babe of Bethlehem”, it has the potential to change our lives, but it is an encounter that must be revisited, time and again. The work of the Prince of Peace is not something that we do once, and then when we have it done, we don’t have to do it again, ever. Christmas is like eating according to Canada’s Guide for Healthy Eating (or whatever they call it these days). You can’t really say that you ate vegetables last week, or last month, and hope to ‘be eating well’. Healthy eating is supposed to be a way of life; we cant just do it once to get it over with (I wish)! Healthy eating is work. The peace making of Christmas is work too and it has to be practised again and again.

We begin Advent, not with the story of the baby, but with the story of the hopes and dreams of what the full vision of God for humanity is. What is going to come of this baby? What hopes do we have for the world before he comes in all of his sweetness? Today’s reading talks not about sweet smiles and the smell of baby powder; we will have lots of time for that, but today’s readings talk about the changes wrought by the power of God in the Christ who is to come into the world, the Christ who HAS come into the world. It’s not a one time event; it’s an event with the potential to change lives forever, if we let it; it’s an event with the power to change the world.

What do we expect from Christmas? Perhaps not enough. Somehow Christmas has become more about receiving than giving; more about grasping than letting go of. Retailers have come to depend on this season for their survival and spending seems to have become the thing to do, leaving families in debt until the next December. But, in the end this kind of Christmas will do nothing more than cost us money and sleep.

The passages for today speak not of the first Advent, the one we celebrate on December 25 but the ‘second one’, the one that changes the world. This is the true hope of Christmas, when God does open the heavens and everyone can see glory and peace and justice fully revealed.

Do we dare to let this Christ into our lives this Advent? Do we dare to lay down the things that keep us from enjoying God’s peace and open ourselves to the message that God will be with us? Are we willing to do the work? Do we dare?

Christmas may well change everything, if we let it. Do we dare?

Isaiah 40: 1-11
Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3: 8-15a
Mark 1: 1-8

A family had company over for dinner one evening. Before they began the meal the mother asked her young daughter to say grace.

"Oh, Mom, I don't know what to say," the youngster replied.

"That's O.K.," her mother said. “Just say what you've heard me say."

They all bowed their heads and the young girl said, "O Lord. Why did I invite these people tonight?" From Lawrence Winebrenner as quoted on my “Q” page. (pause)

The Gospel of Mark begins, as you might suspect, at the beginning; indeed it tells us that it is the beginning of the Good News of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. Prepare a road, literally, “Build a highway” so that God can come to us. The image was not new to Mark, coming from the prophetic literature. As I read these passages the strains of George Friedrich Handel’s Messiah sound in my head. “Every valley shall be exalted and every hill made low.” It is road-building on a cosmic scale. It is a call to make not only our own lives ready for the Messiah, but also our communities and the world.

Originally, these words were spoken by the prophet to the Jewish people in Exile. This road shall stretch from Babylon, across the vast and inhospitable desert to Jerusalem, the city which was the symbol of their identity and purpose.

John the baptizer quotes them, I think, because the people of his day were in a similar kind of exile. Oh, they still lived at home, but they were spiritually and physically captive. They were captive to the mighty armies of Rome and were little more than slaves in their own land. The tenuous peace was preserved by the agreements between their religious leaders and the various Roman governors. Many had lost the hope that had kept their faith alive for generations; the hope that God’s messiah would come to them.

In those days, when a famous person came to town someone would run ahead of them and clear the way for them; this person was called a ‘forerunner’. In the same way this odd character, John, was seen to be preparing the way for the Messiah.

By all accounts John was weird; really weird. He wore rough clothing and ate wild honey and locusts. I read somewhere in Awaken actually (published by Logos Publications in the USA that insects are a low in cholesterol and fat and are a far better source of protein than our traditional pork, lamb, beef or chicken, but perhaps that is another story!

John’s message and method were unusual. It was not unusual to hear prophets calling their listeners to repent. It was not unusual for people converting to Judaism to be baptized. However, as far as I know, a baptism for the repentance of sins was unique. Perhaps John was showing that this Messiah was to forge his own way and walk his own path. We must keep in mind that repentance did not mean “feeling sorry” for sins committed but rather, “a resolve to go in a new direction.”

It seems that Jesus and John share some similarities; but it’s not that they are related. Rather, I think that they share their experience of wilderness. After his baptism, the Spirit sends him into the wilderness (some translations use the word “DRIVE”) and it is there that he is tempted. Jesus has to figure out for himself what form and shape his ministry will take. He needs to know that this will be a costly ministry and that many will ask him to “name his price.” If he was to be successful, according to God’s ways, then he had to figure out how to respond to this kind of temptation.

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus does not begin his ministry until after John is arrested. Clearly we are meant to get a sense of foreboding, that is, if we didn’t already know the story.

But what I’d like to talk about a little now is the phrase that begins the gospel, “The beginning of the gospel” and I wonder just what is meant by this phrase. Is it chapter 1 of the book? Is it a couple of chapters? Biblical scholars have their own ideas, but I’d like to take a page from the life of the little girl whose prayer began my sermon today. What if the WHOLE gospel was the beginning? What if the written gospel was only the beginning? Now everyone knows that a story has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Various kinds of literature have various parts between the beginning and the end but without an ending the story is not complete.

I would suggest that Mark is not complete. (And it’s not because Mark’s gospel lacks a resurrection story, in most early copies, or stories of resurrection appearances). I think that it is not complete, because none of the gospels are.

A few years ago, I had members of a youth group write a group story. They were given a topic and the first person was to write one line. That person folded the paper over and the second person added a line, without reading what the first person had written. The paper was then passed to the next person and so on with each person writing, in the dark as it were, until every person had a chance to contribute. As you can imagine the kinds of stories that come from that kind of exercise can be downright hilarious.

The gospels are a little like those kinds of stories. While we can see what those who have gone before us have written, it’s up to us to add our own chapter, our own stories of faithfulness, or lack thereof. When we do though, we will discover that it is a story in which God is present.

When I was in elementary school we had a teacher that wouldn’t let us put the words, “The End” as the last two words of anything we had written. She would assume that the story was concluded by internal clues within the story or, at the very least, by the fact that there were no more pages. Mark’s gospel leaves us hanging, as well it should. Mark’s gospel compels us to write yet another chapter. Yet we are never to assume that we have wrapped things up. We are never to assume that the story is over, not to come to the conclusion that the time has come and gone for God’s messiah to come to the people.

For the story is not over, we write a new page each day. The question is: will it be a page of faithfulness or one of indifference and apathy or even downright hostility to the message of turning around to accept the gospel message of God’s great love for humankind. Will we be ready for the advent of our God, or will we be just a little out of sorts, like the Mom in the illustration which began my sermon?

Our call is to walk that path, to turn our lives to God’s ways and to wait with patience and open eyes for God will come – just not always in ways we would expect.

Amen.

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
St John’s Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24
John 1: 6-8, 19-28

What would travel be like without road signs? A couple of years ago I went to Elsipogtog to watch a hockey game in which my youngest nephew was playing. The problem was: he wasn’t there when I arrived and he didn’t show up until a minute or so before game time. The driver, another of the hockey dads had missed a sign. He had never been to Rexton before, let alone Elsipogtog and to make matters worse, it had stormed the night before and all of the road signs were covered with sticky wet snow.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving in Nova Scotia and saw a sign, “Only exit to Halifax, 2 kms. I continued on along the same road since I wasn’t going to Halifax and I noticed a sign for another exit that I knew would take you to Truro through the back of Bible Hill. It could have become, in effect, another exit to Halifax. If you were in a hurry, or driving a tractor trailer, it would be wisest to have taken the designated one.

On Main St in Moncton, somewhere around the intersection of Lutx and Main there is a sign indicating that trucks must turn, or lose part of their trailer. Sure enough, once a year or so a trucker who ignores that sign ends up getting his rig stuck under the subway.

So it is usually wisest to heed those signs that say “Only exit”, or “trucks must turn”.

However, what we often overlook, because it usually goes without saying, is the fact that the sign is not really what is important, it is the reality to which the sign points.

When John the Baptizer began to preach and teach there were many people who felt that he could be the messiah. When asked though, he indicated that he was not the prophet, meaning that he was not Elijah or one of the other ancient prophets returned to continue his ministry. You may remember that Elijah was said to have been carried off in a ‘chariot of fire’ so for him to return was not all that unbelievable. It was certainly not the same as a return from the dead. The return of Elijah was supposed to herald the coming of the Messiah. So John was not the prophet. They questioned him further and he insisted that he was not the messiah, he was only a voice in the wilderness; he was only a sign. Essentially his sign, his life and ministry proclaimed, “Messiah Ahead:, “Repent and be Baptized”. His signs warned people that the Messiah was coming and that certain actions were to be taken before the Messiah arrived.

In those days, when a famous person came to town someone would run ahead of them and clear the way for them. The gospels assert that, in the same way this odd character, John, was seen to be preparing the way for the Messiah. I suppose that could be another definition of a sign.

By all accounts John was weird; really weird. He wore rough clothing and ate wild honey and locusts. I read somewhere in Awaken actually (published by Logos Publications in the USA that insects are a low in cholesterol and fat and are a far better source of protein than our traditional pork, lamb, beef or chicken, but I’m not about to try them out.

John’s message and method were unusual. It was not unusual to hear prophets calling their listeners to repent. It was not unusual for people converting to Judaism to be baptized. However, as far as I know, a baptism for the repentance of sins was unique. Perhaps John was showing that this Messiah was to forge his own way and walk.

As we read the gospels we realize that John finished his ministry as Jesus began his. When Jesus began to teach and preach, John’s work was over; his mission was complete.

He had cried in the wilderness.

He had sought to make the paths straight.

He had warned the people that the true light was coming. His ministry warned the people to expect the unexpected; to turn and go in new directions.

As we read the prophesies that have long been connected to the Advent of the Messiah we see a proclamation of cosmic reversal on a grand scale. In the end it will be as if an earthquake has hit. Valleys will be lifted up and mountains brought low. The poor will be raised up and the rich and powerful will be unseated. The old hopes and dreams of the people will be fulfilled in new ways.

The problem with Advent and the Christmas season, as I see it, is that it has become too familiar. We have forgotten to be open to the new, to the starting ways in which God continues to come to us. This isn’t last Christmas; this isn’t any of the Christmases past; it is a new year and our God comes to each and every people and to each and every generation in new ways.

Last week in St Andrew’s and St Stephen’s I spoke of the Gospel story being incomplete. It is still incomplete and, as long as there are Christian communities, it will always be. What we are called to do is to take up the prophetic mantle, to take on the prophetic task and proclaim that our God is coming to us.

Our task is not to point to ourselves, but to the Christ who is coming after us, to the one whose coming we have waited for, for so long. Our task is to continue to write that great story of God’s people seeking to be faithful in the world in which we find ourselves, the word Christ came to seek and to save.

As we look around us we have our own, maybe old, maybe new issues of need and injustice that need to be addressed. God’s messiah still has work to do in 2005. What is it in our world and in our own lives that needs to be turned on its head? What wrongs need to be righted? If we are called to take on the role of the pophet Isaiah from the reading from the Hebrew scriptures and we are called to prepare the way for the Messiah, what does it mean to say that Gof Spirit is ‘upon us’? How can we effect the kind of change of which the prophet speaks?

I try to meet with some clergy from the Presbytery on a weekly basis to discuss the readings and to share thoughts about our task as preachers. Last Tuesday we talked of Christmas in terms of joy and someone put it this way, “Christmas is not about the joy of giving, but rather the giving of joy”.

God comes at Christmas to give us joy. It is up to us to respond by giving that joy to others. Amen.

2 Samuel 7: 1-11, 16
Luke 1: 47-55
Psalm 89: 1-4, 19-26
Romans 16: 25-27
Luke 1: 26-38

The Danger of Christmas

In an old movie, the title of which has long passed from memory Actually I saw this ‘reference’ in an internet sermon, on PRCL-L I think! the character playing King Henry VIII says, “When I pray, God listens”. After all, in 16th century England when the King spoke everyone listened, so why not God? However, I have also heard it said that if we want to hear God laugh all we need to do is tell him our plans for our life. Throughout the biblical story we find that God has changed the best laid plans of his people again and again. God chooses the most unusual people to carry out his ministry in the world.

Take David, for example. He was an unlikely King. A shepherd boy, the youngest son of Jesse, chosen by God to be King. Now, proven as a military leader he was living in a fine palace and it did not seem right to him that the God of heaven and earth lived in a tent. This Old Testament passage lays our a different vision. First: God will decide when the temple will be built, and second: David’s descendants have been chosen for the more important task of being the ancestor of a royal house, from which we believe eventually came the Saviour, Christ. This living house, this house of flesh and bone is to be David’s legacy. The temple will be Solomon’s and will not, in the grand scheme of things, last very long.

In the story of Jesus birth there is a great deal of ‘changing of plans’ involved. Mary and Joseph, like many about-to-be- married’s had their lives all planned and having a baby before the proper time was not in the plan. It was not possible. Yet, God’s intervention in their lives made it come to pass. Mary, in the passage we read as a Psalm, responds to this news with the words we now call the ‘Magnificat’, which as far as I know, is simply the first word of the passage in Latin. In this reflection on her life and how God has intervened, like Hannah long long before, she praises the God who changes plans, the God who acts for life and hope and liberty and justice and the God who never abandons the faithful. This is a God of reversal, or turning things upside-down, the God who sets the prisoners free.

The whole story of Christmas has been told to us and by us for our entire lives that we have forgotten how subversive it really was. This was not the way kings were to be born. They were to be born in palaves, and if not in palaces at least to a rival dynasty or branch of the royal family; not to the fiancé of the 45th cousin (twice removed) of the king. Surely a king-to-be could have found some followers to supply an appropriate place for his birth. Surely it should ahve been handled differently.

But that’s the whole point. It’s what we can miss because the story has become so familiar. It’s not about what God did for the last generation, for us, last year. It’s about God’s presence, to be sure, but it’s about being open to the new ways in which God chooses to be present with us, and to act in and through us.

We know that Christmas will come on December 25 whether we are ready or not. But that’s only the calendar Christmas. What is the point, what is the more important is the Christmas of the heart and soul.

It’s about being open to the usual and the unusual ways in which God comes to us. In the need of a stranger; in the wisdom of a child; in the newscast that wasn’t about Christmas at all but caught your curiosity and made you think about something in a different way.

So let us be open not only to the “holy in the ordinary” but also to the holy in the extraordinary and the shocking. God has not finished coming up with new ways to come and show love and grace and salvation to his people.

Emmanuel shall come to you; Emmanuel shall come to us.Amen