Living in Security and Peace

 Micah 5: 2-5a

Matthew 1:18 - 2:15

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This week in Advent we take a week out from the quiet and contemplative weeks of waiting, and we open our hearts to the joy of the baby Jesus coming to live among us. The wise men, following the star, were overwhelmed with joy when it stopped over the stable. So let’s talk about how we, too, can be overwhelmed with joy, even in these times.

Frederick Buechner once wrote, “The Gospel is bad news before it is good news.” And in our Gospel story today, we are reminded that the birth of Jesus was not simply a joyful, lovely, peaceful, secure story. There was fear, and risk, and the need for this new holy family to even become refugees, fleeing for their lives in the middle of the night to a land where their people had once been slaves.

According to Micah’s prophecy, the one who is coming will stand, and feed his flock, in the strength of the Lord. And they will live secure, for he will be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be the one of peace.

They will live secure. He shall be the one of peace.

But when?

When will we live secure?

When shall he be the one of Peace, bringing true peace to all people?

How long, O Lord? We are waiting. Not so patiently, to be honest, but waiting, because what choice do we have but to wait?

But are we really waiting for security and peace?

Are we waiting for God to bring them about?

What if God did bring them, already, in the person of Jesus Christ, and is now waiting for us, waiting for us to live into them as God has offered them?

What if God’s security is security in the midst of fear, is safety in exile, is home even when we are forced to escape our home?

What if God’s peace is peace in the midst of conflict and trouble?

What if God’s joy is not about what’s on our Christmas wish list or based on who we get to spend it with, what we serve for dinner, but instead is about how we bring joy to others?

Brothers and sisters, the Kingdom of God is here already AND it is not yet here.

There will be a time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But what about now?

Not everyone claims Christ as Lord yet.

But we do.

So given that we do – how then shall we live, here in this thin space between earth and heaven, in this meantime?

How do we feel and share joy in the face of risk, and threats to security, and violence instead of peace?

How shall we open our hearts to the joy that God has sent down for us, even in a world that seems so joyless so often?

What is God calling us to do?

In our Gospel reading today, Joseph, Mary, and the wise men from the east all relied on Words of God through angels in dreams. That was how God spoke to them – not through the things they heard from their family members, and certainly not through Herod. They relied on these messages from God for their security and the security of others.

The message Joseph received from an angel of God in a dream caused him to go ahead and make a family with Mary and this child who had come from God-knows-where.

The message the wise men received from an angel of God in a dream caused them to travel home by another direction, to avoid Herod even though he had said he wanted to pay homage to the child who was born in Bethlehem.

And the message Joseph and Mary received from an angel of God in a dream caused them to get up in the middle of the night and flee to Egypt, to a land where their ancestors had been slaves, to become refugees in order to find safety and security from Herod’s plans.

God spoke to them in dreams, and in obeying, they took risks, they changed their plans, they went in a new direction, while trusting in God for their security.

How do we hear God speak to us? And how do we recognize messages from God?

Messages from God will be consistent with Christ’s commandments. This means they will be different from the messages we receive from the world. And we need to be quiet in order to hear God.

Often the things we are hearing create insecurity in us, and suck the joy out of us. Often the things we hear on the news, or the things we talk with one another about, are things that fuel our feelings of anger and fear. It’s hard to hear a word of peace or hope from God, to feel joy inside us, when we have filled ourselves up with things that frighten or upset us.

And when we are filled with these things,

it is easier to believe that it’s OK to want to strike back, to hurt or even to kill others when they hurt us, or in order to accomplish what we think is most important. When we focus on the terrible things that seem to be most of what is happening in the world, we begin to think that are primary attention ought to be on our own self-protection, on the protection of our loved ones, even on protecting our own hard-won freedom.

So if the Word of God is telling us to turn the other cheek, to give in, even to let a bad guy come out ahead, we can’t hear that. We can’t accept that.

A man on the radio yesterday, on a show called “The Moth Radio Hour” that was about forgiveness, told a story about his childhood, about being bullied in high school by this guy named Mario. Mario was big, and he was mean. And he picked on this boy every day. The boy tried to ignore Mario, and he tried to punch Mario back, but nothing worked. Mario kept on bullying him. And so one day this boy dreamed up a scheme to get back at Mario. He bought a subscription to a magazine and had it sent to Mario’s house. The magazine was the kind of topic that caused Mario’s parents to believe that Mario was involved in some really bad behaviors. And one day, not long after the subscription was begun, Mario didn’t show up at school. For a whole week. And then the boy who was being bullied, the one who bought the subscription to this ugly magazine, heard through the grapevine at school that Mario was in the hospital. That his father had beaten him up so badly that he had to be hospitalized. And when Mario came back to school, he wasn’t the same anymore. He didn’t pick on the guy he had been bullying. He really didn’t do much of anything anymore. He seemed like he had been totally humiliated. He wasn’t Mario anymore.

Now. Was the boy’s action justified? He had been bullied a long time. He couldn’t figure out how to make it stop – until finally he did. He wanted to feel safe and secure again. Did his actions bring the kind of security and peace that God promises us, in the person of Jesus Christ? Did his actions reflect the joy that Christ has brought for us, the inner joy even when things aren’t going our way? Is this what we are allowed to do, as Christians, in order to establish security and peace for ourselves?

I don’t think so.

In a conversation about the scripture passage this week, someone asked me if war wasn’t justified when it brings about the establishment and protection of a free country like the USA? They asked me if violence isn’t justified when someone we love is at risk?

And I said I don’t really know what God would want me to do, how far God would want me to go to save the life of another.

Is it God’s will that I hurt someone?

Is it God’s will that I kill someone?

Does God expect me to decide for myself when I, or my family, is in mortal danger, and to shift from loving my enemies, and trusting in God’s providence, to protecting myself?

Is it OK to trust myself to not lash out when I am simply being wronged, or robbed, but not in mortal danger?

You know, I don’t know.

Here’s what I do know.

Thanks be to God, I rarely face such a situation. The odds of something like this happening in our lifetimes are low.

Thanks be to God, most of the moments of my life are made up of chances and choices to do good, and are surrounded by people who desire to do good in their heart of hearts. The apostle Paul said to the Phillipians, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If we focus our lens to these things, we will see that God has filled the world and people’s hearts with these things.

I know that I am human, and thanks be to God, God knows that too.

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to not lead us into temptation, but to deliver us from evil. I think that is especially about when the temptation is to do evil to another.

Thanks be to God, when I do make the wrong choice – when I hurt another, when I do not help another – I can trust that God is merciful and forgiving. God knows my weaknesses.

So, given that I know these things, here is what I can do.

With God’s help, I will focus on my own sin and brokenness, not that of others. I will work on the log in my own eye. I will work on my own forgiveness and my salvation with God. I will not focus my time and efforts on the failings of others. When I focus on others, it will be for the purpose of sharing the love of God, the joy of life in God, to the best of my ability. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

With God’s help, I will seek to forgive the evil of others, to trust God to deal as mercifully with them as God has dealt with me – even though I may feel that they do not deserve God’s mercy, certainly not as much as I do.

And I will try to hear God’s word in the midst of all the clamoring sounds around me, knowing that God’s word sounds like LOVE.

With God’s help, I will try to remember that God’s peace is not the kind of peace that the world can ever give, and God’s security is not the kind of security that the world can ever give. It is peace and security in the midst of hardship and trial and persecution – because we know that Christ has already conquered sin and death for us, so we do not need to fear it anymore. This is the true source of joy.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a poet and a post-trauma specialist, wrote a piece this week entitled “We Were Made For These Times.” In it, she said this:

“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

“What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.”

With God’s help, I will come to the table with my heart open to take in Jesus Christ in the bread and the cup, and to carry him out into the world with and in me, remembering always that it is in me – in my words and actions and behaviors - that Christ’s peace, hope, love, and joy, is revealed to a world that so desperately needs Good News.

Tender Mercy

Isaiah 40: 9-11

Luke 1: 68-79

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For much of my engineering career, I headed back and forth to and from Jackson along I-94. Right on the east edge of Jackson there is a Motel – a local place, like a motor lodge. It’s been there a long time. Right above the sign for The Michigan Motel that looms over the freeway, is another sign that says “Prepare to Meet Thy God”.

It’s kind of ominous, seeing that sign there every day. I think it’s intended to do that – as if it’s saying “Are you ready? Are you living your life in a way that is pleasing to God? Do you need to turn around your life before it’s too late?”

Advent begins today. It’s a time of waiting, a time of preparing for the coming of Christ, the birth of God incarnate, the visiting of God upon us.

John the Baptist was born before Jesus, and in our gospel reading today we hear the song of praise and prophecy that his father, Zechariah, proclaims as the first words out of his mouth since he was made unable to speak nine long months before. When the angel Gabriel came to him to tell him that he and his wife Elizabeth, who was well past her childbearing years, would be giving birth to a son, Zechariah would not, could not, did not believe it. And so he was struck mute until Jesus’ cousin John was born. Zechariah gets a white board and a marker and writes an emphatic note – “His name is John”. And then he is able to speak again.

And the great event he proclaims is the same event that Isaiah proclaims – the coming of the Lord God.

Isaiah says “The Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him”.

And what will God’s arms be used for?

“To gather the lambs in his arms,

to carry them close to his bosom,

to feed his flock like a shepherd,

to gently lead the mother sheep.”

This is amazing grace; this is tender mercy.

We’ve talked before about the way that grace is the foundational element of our faith as Presbyterians. We’ve also talked about the relationship between grace and mercy – how grace is getting from God what we don’t deserve, what we have not earned and what we cannot possibly earn – God’s favor, our place as God’s children, adopted and heirs of the kingdom. This is truly amazing grace.

And mercy is not getting what we do deserve – the judgment, the punishment that our sins ought to carry. Because God has forgiven us, has forgotten our sin, has separated us from our sin. That is truly tender mercy.

Zechariah says it this way:

“God has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors.

God has remembered the holy covenant given to Abraham,

that we were rescued in order to serve him without fear, all of our days.

John, this new miracle baby, will prepare the way of the Lord.

He will give God’s people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

By God’s tender mercy, the dawn will break, bringing light to those in darkness,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Tender mercy.

The Greek word that is translated here as “tender” is a word that is used to describe our inner organs – our heart, lungs, spleen. So this is mercy that is closest to the heart of God, the essence of God. Tender mercy. Heartfelt mercy.

One of the first books I picked up as I began the journey that eventually led me to seminary was a book by Brennan Manning called “The Wisdom of Tenderness”. I picked it up in an airport bookstore on the way home from a business trip, and I found that it spoke to the stirrings that were already in my heart – that the world was intended to work in a way that was different from the dog-eat-dog, competitive, achievement-oriented lifestyle that I had been steeped in for so much of my adult life. God had been calling me to consider a new way, and this book was one of the first to put words to it. The Wisdom of – Tenderness. Tenderness seemed like the polar opposite of what was being taught at the business schools, as the way leading to success.

I pulled this book out and read it again this week, as I was pondering the meaning of “tender mercy”.  Its author, Brennan Manning, wrote many books on grace, mercy, and the promise of the gospel during his life in ministry, before his death in 2013. His best known work is called “The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out.” He experienced the tender mercy of God firsthand, as he was saved from near-death from alcoholism.

He writes these words in the preface of this book, “The Wisdom of Tenderness”.

“The crux of this little book can be stated briefly and succinctly. In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself, “Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?” (Not loves me, because theologically God can’t do otherwise.) “And do I trust the God likes me, not after I clean up my act and eliminate every trace of sin, selfishness, dishonesty, and degraded love; not after I develop a disciplined prayer life and spend ten years in Calcutta with Mother Teresa’s missionaries; but in this moment, right now, right here, with all my faults and weaknesses?” If you answer without hesitation, “Oh yes, God does like me; in fact, he’s very fond of me,” you’re living in the wisdom of accepted tenderness.”

Hearing Brennan Manning’s words coming straight from him is a better way to consider this gift of tender mercy. Let’s watch this short video excerpt from one of his talks.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0iaZp3CzUXk

The gift that comes at Christmas, the miracle of God with us, is that God’s judgment is expressed in tender mercy, in a light that shines in our darkness. This is true for each of us, and for all those whom we feel worthy of determining that they certainly must deserve God’s judgment. 

Our salvation is revealed in the tender mercy of God – because if we had to earn it, we would be doomed – each and every one of us.

Our God is so much bigger than what we so often perceive.

Our God is big enough to love us just the way we are, not the way we should be – because we never will be what we should be.

Thanks be to God, the one we are waiting for, the one we are “preparing to meet”, is not a God we need to fear, but is the God who comes with arms wide open, with tender mercy, with a warm embrace and a “welcome home”, just as we are, whenever we are ready to receive it.

This is a God who comes to light our darkness, to guide our feet in the way of peace. And God knows, we desperately need that kind of guidance.

This is a God that the world needs to know, and that we can show, but only through our own love and mercy toward others.

Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare the way of the Lord. Live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness, now and always. Amen.

Welcoming Hope

Scripture Texts from We Make the Road by Walking (Brian McLaren) - Week 13

Isaiah 1: 10-20, 2: 2-5

Romans 15: 1-13

Matthew 9: 10-17

For Matthew, this story, recorded in his gospel, is very personal. Because Matthew was a tax collector, one of the very kinds of people that are coming under the scrutiny and the questioning of the Pharisees, those experts in and excellent followers of the laws of Moses.

The Pharisees pull the disciples aside to say, “What is up with your teacher, anyway? Why doesn’t he reject people like you and the other ones he is always hanging around with – tax collectors, low-lifes, and sinners of all varieties? What on earth would possess him to prefer “them” over “his own people”, “his own kind”?

Here we are, morally upright, law-abiding, followers of God’s commandments and laws, earning our livings and our reputations in a most respectable way, say the Pharisees. We are the ones who deserve recognition from him. We deserve it because we have earned it!

Even John the Baptist’s disciples can’t quite get it. They don’t understand why Jesus doesn’t think it’s important for himself and his disciples to make a positive example, a model for others to follow, in how to obey laws like fasting, and so on. Aren’t these the ways to live a sacred life?

And Jesus, as always, offers replies that are confounding to them, and to us; responses that are life-altering to them, as well as to us.

·      I have come for those in need, not for those who think they have it all figured out.

·      If you are doing so well, what do you need me for?

·      I desire mercy, not sacrifice; show me your steadfast love, not ritualistic offerings. Go and learn what this means, he tells them.

o   Jesus is quoting the prophet Hosea, and he is also saying much of what we heard from the prophet Isaiah in our Old Testament passage today.

·      Isaiah’s opening words to the people of Israel is that they had better stop acting like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who had sinned against God by not aiding the poor and needy, even though they were prosperous, with excess food and easy lives.

·      Isaiah says the Lord has no interest in rituals, sacrifices and prayers, that are offered as if they earn God’s approval. Solemn assemblies with unclean hearts are not pleasing to the Lord.

Instead, God’s people are called to cease doing evil, and learn to do good. Specifically – to seek justice, to rescue the oppressed, to defend the orphan, to plead for the widow.

Just like Matthew, the apostle Paul hears himself in the words of Jesus and the words of Isaiah. For he was just like the Pharisees through and through; a devout Jew who dedicated himself to observing the laws of Moses, and who had become so threatened by Jesus’ disciples and their insistence on loving sinners and Gentiles, of proclaiming Christ as Messiah, that he had taken it upon himself to lead a resistance movement that would shut them down, would do them in. He organized the tortures and killings of early Christians.

And then he encountered Christ the King.

And now, when he writes to the Romans about following Christ the King, Paul says all sorts of unexpected things.

·      We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves, but we must please our neighbor in order to build up that neighbor.

·      That which was written in former days was written so that we might have hope, which comes to us by the encouragement of the scriptures, and by steadfastness.

·      May the God of steadfastness and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another.

·      Welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed you. In doing this you give glory to God.

o   You give glory to God by welcoming one another.

·      Even the Gentiles, those non-believers that we Jews have always disregarded up to now.

·      Abound in hope.

·      May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

These words are not about strict adherence to the rule of law. They are about the steadfast and abundant nature of God, as shown in Christ Jesus the King, the Lord and Savior of Heaven and Earth. As shown in the unending and unfailing power of the Holy Spirit.

As it is offered to all people in abundant joy, abundant peace, abundant hope, abundant welcome.

As we are called to generously share that abundant joy, peace, hope, and welcome with all those who do not deserve it, at least in pwm our way of judging who does and does not deserve things.

Paul had to get over it; he had to get over the judging and the false ways of dividing himself and his type from other people.

We have to do that too.

Because Christ the King calls us to do so; calls us to accept that the new way, the new commandment, the new covenant, the new wine cannot be held in old wineskins. It will burst out. We are reborn into new life, and we must carry that life out in new ways, in new structures, in new understandings of church, and of loving one another. In new ways of being Christ’s hands and feet and heart and spirit here on earth, to all who have need of it.

To give the hungry food, to give the thirsty something to drink, to welcome the stranger, to clothe the naked, to care for the sick, to visit the prisoner.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and sits on his throne of glory, he will affirm the inheritance of those who do these things, who do these things for the least of these, for the most marginalized and the ones seeming least deserving, because that’s when they have done that for Christ.

There is no basis for judging who should receive our favor, our kindness, our generosity, our hope, our compassion, our love. Because when we freely give to anyone in need, it is as if we have given to Christ himself.

It’s been a rough time lately to have to face that call from Christ.

The world scares us in new ways every single day.

·      Terrorist bombings in Paris and Baghdad and Beirut.

·      Hostage taking in Mali.

·      Boko Haram massacres continuing in Nigeria.

·      Refugees fleeing for their lives from the total hopelessness of the Syrian Civil War.

There is so much temptation to close the doors, lock them tight, keep ourselves inside and safe, keep the strangers out.

How can hope even be a thing in the midst of all this?

How can we look around and see anything to be hopeful about?

To abound in hope, as Paul says – it feels like a lovely abstraction, but nothing that could become real for us or anyone else, for that matter.

How can we possibly hope to step past our fears to express love and hope to others when we don’t even know them?

Our tendency as human beings is to only proceed with an abundance of caution, if at all. To put safety first.

But Christ the King never promised safe lives. Not to his disciples, not to Paul, not to us.

The Lord God, acting throughout the Old Testament scripture, never promised safe lives to Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or Joseph, or David, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah….

God promises to be with us. God promises to supply an abundance of hope. God promises to work through us, person by person, loving act by loving act.

God’s plan is all of us. God’s plan is that we all engage our whole lives in small acts of great love, and that when those combine with all the other small acts of great love, that the world will be changed.

Christ the King modeled this way for us. Christ the King called us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, worship through mercy and not sacrifice. To love our neighbors and our enemies. To love ourselves and the other.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. Christ was and is and will be a King that is completely unlike any other – a King that confounds us when we try to make sense of his call on our lives – a King that calls us to be brave in our love, to be fearless in our hope, to return good for evil, to trust that God will work with that in ways beyond our comprehension, to create more good than we ever could on our own. But we must provide the spark, must be the hands and feet and smile and warmth and welcome. For all. And God will take it from there.