The Annunciation of Christ... mas!

If clergy are allowed to have favourite pieces of scripture then the Gospel Lesson we are using on Sunday has got to be one of mine (Luke 1.24-36). It is the Annunciation of the Lord Jesus to Mary. In recent weeks there has been a show on television put together by a bunch people, for a purpose that is not totally clear to me. That is unless they wish to shoot do all the traditional doctrine that surrounds Jesus that has accumulated over the past two millenniums and try to rip out the foundations of the largest faith on the planet.

Problem is, not one of these people is a trained theologian. They are professors from history and religious studies departments and they have no training in terms of theology. Worse, they are posing modern, post enlightenment writing standards on what was a largely oral culture. Was there editing and revision? Yes. Of course there was. It took time for the things that the Church believed to be delineated and accepted. The Scriptures are holy to the community because they belong to the community. Modern understandings of ancient texts cannot begin with a word processor. It didn’t work that way. Altering a text was done in and by the community, not just a single solitary soul. The community accepted what was written and it took time for the Scriptures to become sacred to the community.

One of the things that makes this particular passage powerful for me is the fact that Luke, in order to get his orderly account, must have spent time with Mary and the family from which Jesus came. Mary herself must have at some point relayed something of the experience of the Annunciation. It is why we have it. It points to the great truths to the wider story of God working out our rescue, our salvation. The Annunciation is the fulfilling of the promise that was made in those awful, final moments in the Garden.

What promise? Try Genesis 3.15, when God tells the serpent that there will be hostilities between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; that the serpent will strike his heel and the Seed of the Woman will crush him. God in Christ is working to bring us back and to bring us home that we can be with him and be with him forever and ever.  There is nothing and no one that will stop that. One day he will come again, and the angels and the new City and we will be with him.

It is not something that diviners can see. It is not something that any historian or university professor can predict. This is God’s doing and it ought to be marvelous in our eyes. He has made his dwelling among us and we have seen the glory of the One and only, full of grace and truth (John 1.14-18)

Take time to be with family this Christmas. Take the time to be with friends and those whom you care about and who care for you. And in the midst of it all, make room for him who loves us; who left his Father’s presence to bring us home and spend some time giving thanks that our rescue is in hand for what is ahead. And most of all remember what Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me as you have said.”

Jason+

What to expect when you are expecting...

When my wife and I were expecting our first son, we had a book in the house that was new at the time. It was called “What to expect when you are expecting.” Of course such a book is considered to be mandatory reading these days in getting ready for a baby. No one... nobody should leave for the hospital before you've read it. But what do you read and what do you need to know when you are expecting a Messiah?

John questions Jesus through his disciples, “Are you the one or should we wait for another?” (Matthew 11.2-11) John asks the question because Jesus was not acting like many thought the Messiah of Israel. He was not there to kick butt and take names. He was not leading a war against the occupying Roman Army and its Empire. There was no bloodshed, wailing, crying or annihilation of garrisons of soldiers. In other words, Jesus by John’s estimation was not acting like the Messiah many were expecting him to be. And because what he was hearing about the Messiah and his ministry he needed to find out if his announcement of the king and his kingdom was premature or mistimed in some way. Had John gotten it wrong and had he put his faith in the wrong horse?

We need to be careful when looking for God to do something: his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts because his ways and thoughts are higher than ours. He sees from another perspective and has his plan of salvation, of rescuing of us to fulfill. Therefore Jesus tells John’s disciples to go back and report what they see happening around them: the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk, the leapers are made clean, the dead rise and the poor receive the good news of the kingdom that is to come. The kingdom that was and is expected is breaking into this world but it is not all that it is yet. Blessed are you if you don’t fall away because you don’t see me doing what you think I should be doing.

In essence, we are being challenged to redefine what we are expecting when we are expecting the Messiah. God’s kingdom is not like the kingdoms of this earth – Jesus made that clear before Pilate. Yet so often we live our lives and our faith as if it is the kingdom of me and mine: me, me, me. Mine, mine, mine. The kingdom has to conform to me and to my thoughts and my doctrine or it isn't right. It is rather idolatrous of us to think and act as such. We need to deal with it before God and with each other.

Unfortunately, John did not live to see the fulfilling of the plan: the ways in which Jesus suffered, died and was raised from the dead. He didn't foresee the formation of the Church and what the Church was going to be asked to do. There are some things that are hard to see when you are imprisoned and your own neck is on the block. You sit there in the silence and the grief and you wonder if it was the right thing and if it was worth it. You will question yourself and have your own doubts. God call and challenges us to change our expectations so that we can see what he is and to have better goals than what we demand of him and others for ourselves.

That means we can start by changing what it is we are expecting this Christmas. Instead of trying to keep trying to keep Christ in Christmas, try keeping Christ in Christians. If we can make room for him in our cells, then maybe the door to freedom will swing open wide and we will walk, finally free.

Jason+

Welcome, your Majesty!

As I sit here on a cold Saturday night and reflect on the lessons that are before for Sunday, and on the things that have happened this week, it is almost unfathomable all the things that need to be completed in ministry. There is the day in and day out things. There are little things that need to be done so that other, much bigger things can happen. The way needs to be prepared for the coming King. Roads need to be improved. Bridges need to be strengthened and shored up. Then the King’s servants will announce the coming King's arrival.

Essentially, that is what Advent is about: rebuilding roads, rebuilding, bridges and traveling to meet the King. When we think all is mostly ready, some of us need to actually get out on the roadway and go looking for the opportunity of welcoming and escorting the King into the city. In the ancient world, failing to go out of the city and welcome the King would be to invite disaster upon the entire city. The King would have the city razed to the ground by his army.

That is what John comes to do, as his ministry for the people of Israel (Matthew 3.1-10). He works to get them ready for the King. He calls them to repentance and holiness of life. He challenges the religious and the spiritual people of his time and calls the leadership not to rely on who and what they think they are: children of Abraham. Rather, they are to give God the right place, first place in their lives and in the life of the nation knowing that God has come near.

They see him as a holy man and recognize him as a prophet. They know this and see this because they see how he is dressed and hear his words. Nevertheless, in spite of this they reject him and his message. Though he reminds the people of their past and calls these same people to repentance and to a great future, many reject John as an idealist and a radical and not for real people. His message does not share their faith, their beliefs and they do not agree with him. Therefore he is of no account.

How does this tie into the week? There have been a lot of moments of sudden ministry this week.  There have been a lot of opportunities to boldly declare the good news of God in Christ. These are moments where one takes care of a mom and dad whose seven week old son died and you are responsible for speaking a word of hope to them and to the family at the funeral. These are moments where you take the time to stop and pray with a fellow clergy who is ill and to anoint the family with oil. There are moments of courage and even of disagreement with people who don’t understand or want to be in control when they are not or worse, are not suited to be. There are moments when the kitchen tap springs a leak or a friend receives news that they have Cancer. In and through all of this, there are the opportunities in which we can shine or shrink; rise or fall.

How will you preach the gospel this week? What opportunities will you take and whom will you serve? Don’t worry about how you will be dressed and never mind what you will end up eating. Concern yourself with what you will preach and how you will actively demonstrate the Good News. I’ll see out on the road.

Jason+

The King of Calvary

The kingdom is coming to you... are you ready?

As I sit at my desk in the quiet of my office, I have been reflecting on the Advent and Christmas that is to come and the sermons that need to be preached over the next four weeks. The lectionary (from which we draw our rota of readings for the years and seasons) starts with a wide view in where God is going in terms of the kingdom. The vision then begins to narrow down into the lives of people until it comes to the focal point of a little boy, born of a woman and laid in a manger. All of the hope, all of the love and all of the mercy that God has and that God is going to use are made available in this one child.

Advent is not a celebration, nor is it only the precursory preparation to the great event. It is not about Black Friday or Digital Monday or anything else that the box stores, Time-Life or the Shopping Channel can dream up to get to you buy something. Satisfaction and the entrance in to the kingdom that God is building cannot be purchased or negotiated. Admission is free and needs to be accepted without condition. Membership has both its privileges and it’s with all the responsibilities that go with being invited in to be a guest.

Advent is about getting a new and fresh vision of the kingdom that is growing in spite of how hard some are working to stop it, to kill it, and to destroy it in favour of something that is suitable and making God in their own image. Our attention is slowly turned on the future and what it might hold. Remember the furour over the end of the Mayan Calendar and the possibility of the end of life as we had known it? Or even further back when we though our digital age was about to come crashing down because of Y       2K and the fact that they had not used a clock that was only yy instead of yyyy? Remember the fear those such insignificant things cause?

Jesus reminds that we will not know when the end of this present age will come (Matthew 24.36-44). What we need to concentrate on are simpler things. God has promised that there will be a kingdom and that we can be a part of it. We are in the meantime meant to get ready and be prepared for that moment. And as we await that moment there are things to do. We need to especially regard the fact that we need to hold out the hope that we have from God in Christ that the kingdom is coming and coming soon. The “When” of the coming of our King has been determined but not foretold to us. We need to be ready and prepared for what is next. Are you ready for what is next?

There is a story that is told about a tourist who went to the Lake Como region of Northern Italy. While looking around, the adventurous tourist discovered a walled in estate. Peering through the bars of the gated entrance he saw an amazing courtyard. It had gardens full of flowers and trees and vegetables divided by immaculately manicured lawns. The Caretaker invited the visitor in and gave him a lengthy tour which was fully enjoyed.

At the end of the tour, the visitor asked, “Who lives here, in this great place?” The caretaker replied, “Just me.” The visitor was astounded. “Where is the Master who owns this place? When was he last here to at least visit?” In answer the caretaker said, “well it has been 11 years since he was last here and I get directions as to what I need to do from his agent.” Flummoxed, the visitor inquired, “So if the Master was to show up you would be ready for him tomorrow?”

After a moment, the caretaker said, “No... not tomorrow. I am ready for him today. I am ready for him today.”

Jason+

Can you get up, your Majesty?

(Just an aside: when I was learning to play the French Horn as a boy, I was given the music of this hymn "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide" without the words. I played it for weeks not knowing what it was. It was not until the day of a competition, that I discovered that I was playing a well known hymn and that the place where we were competing was a Church. quickly learning the words, with some help from my dad, it emboldening me and enabled me to compete to my utmost. Now we uphold the cross for others to see that they might come and follow too.)

This week we recall that the kingdom is coming, in all of its fullness, with all of the pomp and pageantry, the power and glory and all the quietness of a thief in the night.

This week we are reminded of the events that now seem so long ago... and it was only holy week and Eastertide. We are reminded of how he was arrested and tried repeatedly and by different judges. All of them demanded truth and then, if they got an answer, rejected it as impossible, preposterous and an outright blasphemous lie.

Pilate gave Jesus one last chance to recant; one last opportunity to save himself and to act like one of us. He had chances to save his own skin and to walk away free but he did not take. And so Jesus was taken and crucified. He died being proclaimed as a king.

I was talking with a friend this past week. We have both been standing in spots where kings of this earth, have been taken and executed by the people. In my friend’s case it was the Jerusalem Room at Westminster Abbey, where the King James Bible was authorized and where King Henry IV was killed. In my own case it was a grand meeting room in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg where Tzar Nicholas II and his family were arrested and were taken from to be executed elsewhere. I have stood where the Tsar stood and I have stood at his tomb in Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral. None of it is as powerful as recalling what happened that last night, as Jesus is betrayed, arrested, beaten and eventually dying.

I have never been to the places where he lived... where he preached and he healed. I have never seen the hill where he died. Yet, I now his life, his presence and his healing in my own life in this moment...and in this moment, etc... Jesus is more real to me now that any king or Queen, any prince, ruler power or even Bishop.  Thus maybe it should be recognized that there really is power in the blood of the king. We need to know that we have failed and fallen and that we need his strength and mercy to help us stand up again.

There is a line in the movie, “The Passion of the Christ” that has stayed with me and I come back to it now and again. The scene is Jesus has fallen under the weight of everything he is doing and going through and one of the soldiers sarcastically asks him, “Can you get up your Majesty?” the soldier clearly wasn’t aware of the power that there is in the blood of the king. He wasn’t aware of what God was accomplishing in Christ for him and the rest of the world. And he was not aware of what God could do to him in his anger over the execution of his Son. It is why Jesus prayed, “Adda, forgive. They don’t know what they are doing.” It wasn’t the force of the soldiers; neither was it a fear of the critics and the scoffers nor the strength of the nails that kept Jesus on the cross. It was our need for love grace and mercy of God that had him remain there.

So then the next time you pray “Our Father in heaven,” remember that you are praying for his kingdom not yours and for his will to be done in you and not yours in the world. That is a kingdom worth coming into.

Jason+

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, 

we shall remember them. We shall remember them.

Lest we forget, lest we forget!