​GOOD NEWS!!!
Luke 2:1-20  Christmas Eve 2017
    We often look at the shepherds in the story of Christmas and think, “What a peaceful, wonderful life.”  But the life of a shepherd was really anything but peaceful and wonderful.  They were in danger from the same predators that hunted the sheep.  The people of the towns didn’t trust them and looked down on them because they lived a nomadic lifestyle.  If the angels had come today, they might have come to one of the many homeless encampments to make their announcements.
    Despite, or maybe because of their low position in society the shepherds looked forward to the time when the Messiah would come and restore the kingdom of David.  We still look forward to the time when the King of Kings returns to establish God’s Kingdom.  I think the story of the shepherds is our story when we receive the good news of Christ’s coming.
    Even though the shepherds looked forward to the Messiah with Joyful anticipation, when the time came, Luke tells us that they heard the good news with fear and trembling.  Isn’t that how we respond when we first hear the Gospel?  Oh, we celebrate the idea of God’s love, of God’s kingdom, but when it comes to living that Gospel we become afraid because the message is so different from what the world has taught us.  We are afraid because we know that no matter how good we become, we can’t be good enough to deserve the love that God gives us when he gives us his son.  But that fear turns to joy as we begin to understand that God’s love is not based on our goodness, but simply on God’s love.  God loves us before we even realize that we are in need of a relationship with God.  When we realize that God loves us and all we have to do is to accept that love, we can experience almost the greatest joy imaginable.  We have to find out more.  We have to investigate and see whether these things are true.
    When we investigate we experience God’s love even more.  We know God’s love is true because it is true for us.  We discover that God’s love is real!  We discover that God loves us-- even us-- in our own lives.  This is the greatest love.  It is the love and the peace that passes all understanding.  It is the love that calls us back to God.
    When we experience a love like that, we must do more than just accept it.  Like the shepherds who left rejoicing, we must share the good news of God’s love with everyone we meet.  The love of God, the light of the world changes us so that we can change others.  Because the love of God, the light of Christ has come to us we can share that love with all we meet.  That’s how God’s love spreads.  It is shared from person to person, until the whole world is ablaze with God’s love.
    But God’s love is not just a one-time thing.  It is renewed every day, every minute as God surprises us with God’s love in ways we can’t imagine.  The Bible tells us that Mary, Jesus’s mother pondered all these things in her heart as she added the events of the first Christmas to all of the other ways God had blessed her.  She pondered after all the ways God loves.  I think after they returned to their flocks, the shepherds pondered as well.  They pondered the meaning of all they had heard and experienced in this night of God’s love.  They pondered what they would be called to next.    We too have the privilege of pondering the meaning of God’s love.  We can ponder what type of call God has for us to share God’s love with the world.
    So this Christmas, Fear not!  Rejoice at the coming of the King of Kings!  Tell the world of God’s love.  And take time to ponder what all of this means in your life.  Amen.

​The Lord’s Servant
Luke 1:26-38 Dec 24 2017
    Mary was “Much perplexed” by Gabriel’s greeting.  It’s no wonder.  Here she was, alone with a man who was not family—that alone was scandalous.  During the betrothal period, she was not even allowed to be alone with Joseph¸ her husband.
    This is an annunciation story  like the story about the birth of John the Baptist that comes right before it, and like several other stories in the history of Israel.  This man who called himself the angel Gabriel was with her and telling her that she would have a child who would be the Messiah.  What an honor.  To be the mother of Messiah was the greatest honor a Jewish woman could receive!  And the privilege fell on a virgin in Nazareth.
    But this was not only an annunciation, it was a call to be a servant of God. Mary would be the mother of the Messiah.  His father would be the Holy Spirit.  This baby would be both God and man and iIt would be Mary’s job to teach the Son of God how to be human.  
    This call came with a cost.  Mary was a virgin who would soon become pregnant.  She had to know what that meant.  There was a socially acceptable process for these things.  First was the betrothal, then the marriage, and then came children.  Mary’s pregnancy, no matter how divinely ordained would be scandalous.  It would bring shame on Mary and her family, on the child, on Joseph, and on his family.  Mary had to wonder whether a child born into such a scandal would ever have a chance to be accepted in society, let alone to be the prophetic voice of the Messiah.  She had to wonder whether her loved ones would even allow her to carry the baby to delivery and what would happen to her.  She remembered that the punishment for adultery was death.  Accepting this call was taking a huge risk.
    Even though she knew the consequences  Mary replied to Gabriel, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." (Luke 1:38 NRSV).  Her faith and submission to God’s will are reflected in Jesus’s words in Gethsemane, “not my will but yours be done." (Luke 22:42 NRSV). It’s one thing to pray for God’s will when we think it aligns with our desires.  It is completely another to know that obeying God will bring shame and suffering and obey. Mary taught her son well.  
    Mary taught Jesus well. Throughout history many who love Jesus have answered God’s call to challenge the social norms.  Peter and John were commanded by the Sanhedrin to stop preaching about Jesus and they refused, preferring to obey God rather than humans.  Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the truth that the Jewish leaders had killed the Messiah.  In the 1500’s Martin Luther challenged the teaching of the church. He was convicted of heresy and excommunicated, but his protests reformed our church—even the Catholic church that he protested.  In the 1700’s John Wesley was refused the privilege of preaching in many Anglican churches because of his obedience to God’s call.  Eventually he chose to become “more vile” and preach in the highways and coal fields.  His obedience was the beginning of our church today.  And even more recently in the late 1900’s Agnes Bojaxhiu (Agnes Boy-a-ju) left her home to serve the poor in India.  We know her as Saint Theresa of Calcutta or Mother Theresa.
    Today we are called to live out God’s call on our lives.  This comes at a price as we act and speak counter to the social norms.  People will question our motives and even reject us as we answer God’s call to love those who the world says we should hate; to accept those the world has rejected; to give all we have of our riches, our power, and our pride, instead of seeking more riches, power, and pride; to care for the world and for all in it rather than simply exercising using it up; and to encourage others to do good rather than criticizing their failures.  You see, we will be going against the ways of the world because God calls us to cast a new vision in the world—a vision of the Kingdom of God.  We are called to do God’s will.
    In this Christmas time, let us answer God’s call with the words that Mary taught Jesus.  I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be with me according to your will.  Amen

The Voice

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11    Psalm 126 (UM847)    1 Thessalonians 5:16-24    John 1:6-8, 19-28

​December 17, 2017

    According to the Christian calendar this is known as Gaudete Sunday.  Gaudete means Rejoice. The Advent candle we light today is known as the candle of Joy.  It is interesting to me that we celebrate a time of rejoicing during this darkest and often saddest time of the year.  While many of us are trying to celebrate the joy of the nearness of Christmas, we often find ourselves depressed by the decreasing sunlight, by the absence of those we have lost or who are away from us for the first time, or simply by the stress of trying to make the time perfect.  Because of this natural depression, many churches hold a “Blue Christmas” service to acknowledge our mixed emotions during this holiday season.
    So how do we, how can we, rejoice in the midst of this time of darkness?  I believe that we rejoice because we remember that God sent God’s Word, the Light of the World into a world that was suffering in darkness.  Jesus came into a world just like ours to give light to the world.  He came to remind us of God’s love.  He came to show us how to live.  He came to save us from our sin.  He came to restore the loving relationship with God and with our neighbor that God originally intended for us.  He came to be the light of our lives.
    John the Evangelist tells us that John the Baptist came to be a witness to God’s light.  He tells us that John was not the Light, but he was simply a voice calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  John the Baptist’s voice was different from the others who came claiming to be prophets or even claiming to be the messiah.  According to the Gospel of Luke, John was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and his words reflected that.  Even more, there were a few things about John that teach us about our faith today.  He knew who he was. He never claimed to be   Messiah or even a prophet.  He knew he was the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” He knew his purpose was to baptize listeners with water signifying cleansing from sin. He knew his importance.  He knew that as great as God had made him, he was still unworthy to do the most menial tasks for the true light that had come into the world. As John’s gospel reminds us, he was not the light, but he came to prepare the world to receive the true light.
    I believe that we are called to be like John.  We are called to be witnesses to the power of Christ in this world.  We are empowered and emboldened by the Holy Spirit as soon as we accept the grace of God offered by Jesus. Like John we are now voices crying in the modern wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord.”  Like John we have a purpose in the world.  Our purpose is to point others to the return of Christ.  We do this by sharing the love that God has for us.  We share that love that always calls us and the world back to our original state of loving relationship that God has always intended for us.  We know who we are, but we also know whose we are.  We confess that the light we let shine before all people is not our own light but the light of Christ that shines in and through us.  
    In this time of seasonal darkness we realize that we are still a people who live in darkness.  But even in this darkest part of the year we rejoice!  We rejoice because even now the light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness will NOT overcome it.  And we have the privilege of being witnesses to that light!  Thank God.  Amen.

Mark 1:1-8

1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,' " 
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 
5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 
6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 
7 He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 

    John the Baptizer, Jesus’s cousin and the first one to recognize Jesus as the savior of the world was sent into the world to prepare the way for the saving work of Jesus.  He proclaimed a gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  His message tells us that we prepare to enter into the kingdom of God by repenting of our sin and receiving God’s forgiveness.  But we have questions. How do we repent?  What assures us of forgiveness? And how is a call to repentance good news?
    William Barclay reminds us that repentance begins with being honest with ourselves, with those we have wronged, and with God. We start by examining our lives and seeing where we have allowed our will to replace God’s will, where we have placed our desires ahead of God’s offer of a loving relationship, and where we have allowed other gods (money, status, power, etc.) to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts.  We also become aware of the things we have allowed to get in the way of our relationships with those we love and those who love us.  Once we realize where we stand, we need to confess our sins—to ourselves first, then to those we have sinned against, and finally to God(i).   Repentance begins with conviction and confession.
    But to repent means more than just being sorry for our sins.  The Greek word Metanoia means to turn around.  It means to turn away from our past and to turn toward a better way of living.  Repentance means that we abandon the path we are walking and begin again on the path that leads us into the presence of God.  Repentance changes our perspective on our own life, our outlook on the world, and our relationship with God.  Because of the great change, others can see the fruit of our repentance in how we act and react toward others.
    How do we know that our repentance leads to forgiveness?  In this we need to trust the word of God. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(NRSV).  We can trust God, after all, it is God who loves us so much that he sent his son so that we would have eternal life.
    So here is what makes this such good news.  As many people who have tried to turn their lives around can tell, repentance is nearly impossible when we try to do it by ourselves.  Our power to truly repent is not ours.  We cannot change our ways alone.  We can only do it through the grace of God.  It is God who convicts us of our sin.  It is God who emboldens us to confess that sin to ourselves, our loved ones, and to God.  It is God, only God, who empowers us to turn away from that sin and toward God. And it is God who forgives our sin, welcomes us into God’s presence and walks with us to show us how to live.  That’s the good news; that God’s grace never abandons us and constantly draws us closer to God’s kingdom.  Thanks be to God!
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​(i){Barclay2001}