Christmas Day

Beautiful Feet 
Isaiah 52:7-10

Today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is one of many gems from the prophet known as Second Isaiah. For those of you who know Handel’s Messiah, you hear the words sung. But the words themselves are beautiful. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’”

How beautiful are the feet.

How often have you said to anyone you know, “You have beautiful feet?” It’s not a part of the human body that we usually associate with beauty. Even the most glamorous of people, I expect, is rarely complimented on the beauty of her feet.

I love this Christmas Day service. One of the things I love is what I might call its ordinariness. Christmas comes, and is celebrated, in ordinary circumstances, not just the extraordinary splendor of last night. Feet, not wings, are the focus today.

In Luke’s Gospel story of Jesus’ birth, which we hear on Christmas Eve, the angels are the heralds of good news. Trumpets sound and the heavenly host assembles with shimmering wings. Hark, the herald-angels sing.

In Isaiah, the herald has feet, not wings. Tired feet, I imagine, from rushing up and down mountains to bring good news to Zion.

The passages are parallel. Both describe God’s heralds who bring good news. As heralds, the angels or messengers need some sort of locomotion. They need feet or wings to bring the news to us. The heralds bring the good news to God’s people that God isn’t just out there somewhere anymore. God is coming now at this moment to be here with us. Actively reigning in our hearts and lives.

It is the heralds’ message that is beautiful. And many sorts of wings and feet bring it to us. In our ordinary lives, the heralds mostly have feet rather than wings.

Today give thanks for the bearers of the message in your life. They are beautiful, all those people who, in so many ways, have showed us that God is with us. Our God is with us.

Give thanks for the people who have shared God’s wonder and love with us, who have brought us the good news, who have helped us sing glory hallelujah.

I think tired feet are beautiful feet, especially this time of year. Maybe your tired feet have been heralds for others. Maybe your tired feet have brought the good news of God’s love and joy, God’s tender care into the lives of others.

It’s a beautiful message. Of peace and salvation. Of God with us. How beautiful are the feet of all the heralds who bring the message to us in the ordinary times and places of our lives.

Sing for joy! Isaiah says. Our God reigns.

Christmas Eve

Chreaster

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Yes, it’s been a long day, but, No, I’m not confused. I do know that this is Christmas Eve, not Easter. The angels sweetly sing glory and alleluia on this holy night of Jesus’ birth. And all the earth joins in to sing refrains of joy and celebration. But the angels will come back—to the tomb to make another announcement. He is risen. The angels mark both Christmas and Easter with their proclamations.

We would not celebrate Christmas, of course, if it hadn’t been for Easter. The beginning of Jesus’ life would not be particularly noteworthy if we did not know how his life ends.

Tonight we are celebrating Christmas. The celebration of Christmas evokes feelings of hope and joy. Feelings that evidently even some staunch atheists are not immune from. Even as they say: I do not believe… I do not believe… The celebration of the Christmas season evokes feelings of hope and joy.

I do think God is in those feelings of hope and joy. Yet it is also possible that it is just the celebration itself that spreads good cheer. The seasonal festivities themselves may be the only source of good feeling.

I do think it’s possible, maybe easy, even for Christians to celebrate Christmas without ever really feeling God’s touch. And I’m not talking now of the rush of materialism and consumerism that tempt us all. I’m talking about celebrating the season without getting past the season to the presence of God. We all enjoy the season, its celebration, its symbols and its traditions… And the season itself evokes good feelings. It is easy to go no further than those feelings.

The celebration of the Christmas season is replete with powerful symbols…

We are surrounded by light shining in the darkness.

We celebrate a new baby and all of the new possibilities and new beginnings that come with new birth.

Families, usually at their best, gather to share time, gifts and love with one another.

Even among people of no faith this season brings a tradition of generosity.

These are good things. And they can point to God. If we look beyond the symbols…

Garrison Kiellor has written a parody of the angel’s Christmas Eve message. In his version the angel says: I’ve come with good news that should make you really happy, for there is born today a child who shall be a symbol of new beginnings and possibilities.

As Christians we do not celebrate Christmas because it is a symbol of anything, even a symbol new beginnings and possibilities. Christmas is much more than a collection of hopeful symbols that make us feel good. We celebrate Christmas because the story that begins in the manger ends in glory. We celebrate Christmas because of how this story ends.

The Christmas lights will come down (some as early as tomorrow!) Families will disperse. Decorations will be packed up. We’ll stop singing Christmas carols. The symbols of Christmas will go away.

And babies grow up. All babies grow up. Even that most significant of Christmas symbols is transient. And with regular human babies—not Jesus—no matter how much hope and promise we may feel at their birth, we cannot be confident of their future. Without Easter. Without Easter even the most hopeful of beginnings can end up anywhere.

Without Easter, the feelings evoked by Christmas symbols will fade as the trees grow brittle and the needles fall off. Without Easter, once the crèche is put away we are left with nothing except wistful memories.

So we need to celebrate Easter, too, tonight. And we do.

Listen carefully to Christmas carols, at least religious Christmas carols. A lot of them use phrases that sound pretty Easter-y. And remember, Handel’s Messiah is actually an Easter oratorio. Christmas and Easter are all wrapped up together. We need to celebrate them together.

So. Alleluia. Christ is risen.

Have you noticed that we always say that Easter acclamation in the present tense? And Jesus is born in the present tense, too.

The Christmas story and the Easter story are the same story. And they take place in the present tense. Our present tense.

What does all of this mean for us? There is a Christmas blessing that includes these words: “May Christ, who by his Incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with his joy and peace..."

The events of Jesus’ life gathered into one things heavenly and things earthly. Whether you think of things heavenly descending at Christmas. Or things earthly ascending at Easter. Earth and heaven are gathered into one. That’s God’s Christmas/Easter gift to us in Jesus. Our earth and God’s heaven are gathered into one.

In another blessing that we will use this evening, we say that Jesus joins earth to heaven and heaven to earth.

Alleluia. This baby Jesus is risen, tonight, his earthly flesh gathered into one with heavenly glory. This baby Jesus born in poverty in a dirty stable is risen.

And through Jesus, our babies, all of our babies, are risen. Now in the present tense. Whether born into poverty or privilege… whatever their earthly prospects may seem to be, in every human baby earth and heaven are joined. Each newborn shines with the glory of heaven.

All that Jesus experienced in his earthly life, he gathered heaven into those experiences. He wove together human experience and heavenly glory.

Jesus, who worked hard and walked far is risen to highest heaven at the same time his feet trudge the dust of earth.

Jesus, who was unjustly maligned and criticized on earth, brings the splendor in heaven into those human experiences.

Jesus, who shared feasts and fellowship with friends is risen. So he brings God’s angels to the feasts and songs of human fellowship.

Jesus, forsaken by friends and followers is risen, gathering into one earth’s profound despair and heaven’s unquenchable hope.

And we are a part of this. Now. In the present tense. Our earthly lives are raised with Christ. Our human experiences are made one with heaven. The weak and vulnerable, tired, dirty, forsaken, hopeful, confused, afraid, joyous are raised. All of our earthly experiences are joined with heaven. Our work, our journeys, our trials and our celebrations. Our lives shine with the glory of heaven even after the tree is down and the twinkling lights are dark.

Alleluia! We are risen.

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

Greetings, Favored One
Luke 1:26-38

The Gospel passage we just heard is a very familiar one, usually called The Annunciation. It tells of the angel Gabriel’s annunciation—announcement—to Mary that she will bear a son Jesus who will be God’s own son.

Thinking about this very familiar passage I want to share something old and something new. Something that has been a part of my reflection on this passage for many years and something that is new to me this year.

First the old. In Frederick Buechner’s book, Peculiar Treasures, he provides interpretive descriptions of many of the people of the Bible. Some are illustrated. The entry on Gabriel includes an illustration. It’s a line drawing of a rather dilapidated and worn out angel. We are looking at him from the back and can see that, behind his back, Gabriel has his fingers crossed. In the text, out of his own imagination, Buechner wonders: how many houses has Gabriel visited before he found a young woman who would say yes.

Regardless of whether or not we imagine Gabriel visiting multiple houses, preachers and interpreters of this passage often focus on Mary’s “yes.” And the obedience and humility Mary shows as she assents to God’s plan for her.

But what might this passage have to say to us before we get to Mary’s “yes?”

If we do imagine that Gabriel might have visited a whole string of houses before he God to Mary, did he use the same greeting in each of them? Did he say to each young woman as he came to her, “Greetings favored one?”

The new window into this passage for me this year is that word “favored.” Gabriel uses it twice with respect to Mary, calling her favored, one who has found favor with God.

So I wonder: Was Mary God’s special favorite? Was she favored in some unique way? Or is this just how angels greet humans? Greetings, favored one… Maybe that’s what angels, God’s messengers, always say when they encounter humans. Greetings, favored one.

I did a little research on the Greek word that Luke uses that is translated “favor” or “favored.” It has absolutely no connotations of favorite, of being somehow set apart from others. It’s related to grace. Joy. One who brings delight. So what Gabriel is saying to Mary is, Greetings, “graced” one, one whom God fills with grace. Greetings, one who brings God joy and delight. Greetings, you who bring joy and delight to God.

After Jesus’ birth and after all of the events of his life, death and resurrections, Christians have certainly looked back at Mary as uniquely favored, as special, more blessed than others. Looking back, we have attributed a special and different status to her. And hers was, of course, a unique vocation. We hold her in special esteem.

But before Gabriel came to her, was she more favored by God than others? The Scriptures do not seek to paint her that way. And I think they would have been deeply tempted to do so if there had been even the slightest perception or evidence that she was chosen because she was special. She is not described as unusually pious or prayerful. She has no special status or role. She’s just a young woman from a small town. She could be any young woman.

And the awesome angel Gabriel shows up and says, Greetings, favored one. And she says, who me? Me? Favored?

As Luke tells the story, she is much perplexed and apparently afraid, by the greeting. This is before Gabriel mentions what God has in mind. Mary is perplexed by the greeting. She is confused and frightened by an angel who describes her as favored by God.

We may assume that she does not see herself that way. She sees herself as ordinary and unremarkable.

One writer says that the greatest thing that happens in the course of this remarkable passage is Mary’s journey from being who she sees herself to be to becoming who God sees her to be. The greatest part of this story is Mary’s journey from seeing herself as ordinary and unremarkable in God’s eyes, to seeing herself as what she has always been—favored by God.

Do you see yourself as one favored by God? Do you know and feel like you bring joy and delight to God? If the angel called you favored one, would you believe him? Or would you look over your shoulder to see to whom he was really talking?

Jesus was born because God favors us! Each of us. Pure and simple. Christmas happened because God favors us. Each of us favored by God.

It took Mary a little bit of time and reflection to absorb and accept what Gabriel said. And it may take us a little time and cogitation, prayer and wonder. But the same journey is ours to make. From who we see ourselves to be to who God sees us to be.

You are favored by God. The words are spoken by Gabriel to you today. Greetings, favored one. In the midst of whatever may be going on in your life right now. Greetings to you, favored one.

Mary wasn’t expecting a visit from Gabriel that night. She hadn’t made any special preparations. Actually, we have no evidence that it was night. Maybe it was day. Maybe she was cleaning, or harried with duties. Maybe she was in a foul mood. And the angel Gabriel came to her and said: Greetings, Mary. You are favored by God. You bring joy and delight to God. God pours his grace upon you.
Today, the angel says that to you. That is how God sees you. You are favored by God. You bring joy and delight to God.

There’s a prayer in our compline service that I’ve always found a bit quaint. We pray: Almighty God, keep me as the apple of your eye. It actually comes from the psalms. And we are, each of us, the apple of God’s eye.

Jesus was born because God favors us.

Can you make Mary’s journey? From however you may see yourself to how God sees you as favored and full of grace? It’s a journey we should all do our best to make. It is actually a form of the sin of pride to see ourselves as less than God sees us, to presume to discredit God’s care and favor. And Mary’s journey is part of the Advent journey towards Christmas. It is part of preparing for Jesus’ birth, of being able to welcome him into our lives.

Maybe it lurks in some intellectual corner of your lives… Yes, I know God cares for me, but… There are no buts. Bring that awareness up and out into fullness, into the open in your life. You bring joy and delight to God. Greetings, favored one, and one, and one, and one, and one…. Greetings, favored ones.

The Third Sunday of Advent

Three Principles for Christian Living
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24


As I did last week, I ask you to imagine a scene with a child and a parent or other caregiver. It’s the child’s first day of kindergarten. Or maybe it’s the child’s first day of middle school or any other great endeavor. And the parent is giving her child last minute advice before the bus comes. Very important instructions for making the most of life… Basic principles to hang on to…

All of us have been the child in this scene. Many of you have also been the parent. What kernels of advice were you given or did you give? I recently asked one mom what advice she gave her daughter on the first day of school. Three things. Remember these three things, she said: Pay attention. Listen, especially to your teacher. Have fun. Good advice for a young student. Good principles to live by in kindergarten.

These sorts of principles are important. Parents pass them on to their children in the hope that the children will be more than just passive participants in life, but will flourish and make the most of life’s opportunities. They help us grow. Grow into who we are called to be.

In addition to the principles our parents may impart, there are many other sources of principles for living.

The boy scouts have twelve. That seems to me like too many to remember, and yet many scouts have remembered them and, to at least some degree, tried to live by them. A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

This time of year, many African Americans will soon be celebrating Kwanza. Central to that celebration is the affirmation of seven guiding principles for living. Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, faith.

One more example. I’ve had Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute in my head all weekend. I don’t see the current production at Lyric until January, but once the music gets in your head, it stays. It is about the young hero’s journey towards love, purpose and fulfillment. Whenever he comes to a crisis or needs help, three young spirits appear to encourage and guide him. In their clear treble voices they sing: Sei standhaft! Duldsam! Und verschwiegen! Even if you don’t understand the German, they sound like laudable, vigorous principles. Be steadfast, patient and discreet, the spirits sing. These will enable you to achieve your goal.

None of these various collections of guiding principles are explicitly Christian. None are anti-Christian, but none speak specifically to living a Christian life. Thinking again of a child heading off to the first day of school, if we are the child and God is the parent, what instruction might we be given? What principles should we hang onto during the day so that we might be who we want to be, to live as Christians?

We have the ten commandments, of course. These precede the Christian witness, but are certainly worthwhile principles to live by. Jesus provides the summary of the law: you shall love God with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself. This is very important guidance, but could feel a bit abstract for daily living.

Then there’s Paul’s advice in the First Letter to the Thessalonians. I’m surprised we don’t repeat and emphasize these more. In the passage appointed for today, Paul is bringing his letter to a close. He is saying goodbye to the Thessalonians and giving them parting advice. Paul had just founded the Christian church in Thessalonica, and he had probably only been gone a month or two when he wrote this letter. Remember these are brand new Christians. They need basic, practical advice on how to be Christians. They live surrounded by pagan and secular pressures and temptations (as do we).

And Paul gives them three principles to live by: Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.

Paul gives the same advice in Romans, Colossians, and Ephesians. As one commentator says, these principles “belong essentially to the Christian life as Paul lived and taught it.”

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.

One thing strikes me immediately as I consider this list. All three things happen all of the time. Paul does not say, rejoice when it’s your birthday. He does not say, pray when you are in trouble. He does not say, give thanks when you get an A or win the game. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. There are no gaps. There is no time when you put the Christian life and identity aside.

Rejoice always. Rejoice in the gift of faith… the gifts of the spirit. Rejoice even in difficult times. The psalmist rejoiced in times of plenty and in times of trial. Paul rejoiced even in his suffering. Rejoice. Have fun. Rejoice because the spark of wonder and joy has been implanted in your heart by the Holy Spirit. On this third Sunday of Advent, our focus is often on Mary, although it’s not explicit in the Scripture readings this year. But remember the Magnificat, Mary’s great hymn of praise. My spirit rejoices in God my savior. My spirit rejoices in God. Always.

And pray without ceasing. This doesn’t mean we need to be on our knees reciting prayers from the Prayer Book 24/7. It does mean we should maintain our conversation, our connection, with God at all times. We should seek God’s presence and guidance and be open to God’s word to us in every aspect of our lives. Never let your focus on God wane or cease.

And give thanks in all things. Flip through the Book of Common Prayer and you will find many prayers of thanksgiving for all sorts of occasions and circumstances. This service that we participate in each Sunday, the Holy Eucharist, is a service of thanksgiving. In all circumstances, there is opportunity for thanksgiving. And we are called to be more than thank-ful; we are called to give thanks. One of the general thanksgivings in the Prayer Book concludes with a thanksgiving for the opportunity to know Christ and make Christ known. Give thanks in all circumstances for the opportunity to know Christ and make Christ known.

So every morning, when you embark on whatever your day holds, whether it is a grand new adventure or a day of mundane routine, hear Paul speak to you with these three important principles for Christian living: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances.”

The Second Sunday of Advent

Pay Attention
Isaiah 40:1-11
Mark 1:1-8

I’d like you to bring to mind a scene that you can undoubtedly imagine or remember. A child is trying to get the attention of a parent or teacher or some other adult. The child has just learned some great new skill or accomplishment or has made some wondrous discovery, and he wants to share it. But first he has to get his father’s attention. Speaking, poking, pestering, waiting… sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t work to get an adult’s attention.

And how often, even if the child succeeds in drawing his parents’ attention, does the parent say, “Yes, I’m watching, dear” and then immediately turn back whatever they were doing or talking to before?
In this scene, God is the child, and each of us is the preoccupied adult. God has wonderful things to show us if only he could get our attention.

Prophets are often thought of as soothsayers, people who predict the future. That is never the Biblical witness. They are spokespeople, individuals who speak for God. Or, the more I think about it, maybe the primary job of the prophet is to get the peoples’ attention. The prophet tries to shake the people out of their routine… To get them to stop whatever they are preoccupied with long enough to see or hear God.

The Old Testament prophets were good at getting peoples’ attention. There was a great example in the daily office readings this week from Amos. Amos painted a vivid picture of the dire consequences that would ensue if the people remained indifferent or oblivious to God.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, Isaiah, too, is trying to get the peoples’ attention, but in a different way. He paints a picture of hope and promise for those who focus on and follow God. But he’s still saying, “pay attention.” If you will only pay attention, God has great things in store for you.

It is not easy to get our attention.

I recently heard an interview on the radio with Harvey Weinstein. He’s a movie producer credited with “inventing” the modern Oscar campaign. These days producers actively advertise and campaign for their films to receive Oscars. In any case, I heard this interview and I thought “Advent.”

Weinstein said: “I… grew up in politics and I used to work for the Democratic party. When I first got into politics, I met Frank Sedita, who was the mayor of Buffalo … and he told me: ‘When I was young, Harvey, we didn’t have media TV advertising or any of those things to get a crowd. … It’s hard to get people’s attention. … What we used to do is throw a little bomb in the middle of the street. Everybody would come out of their houses in the 1920s to see what all the fuss was.’ [Sedita would] grab a soapbox, get up and say, ‘Hi, I’m Frank Sedita and I’m running for so-and-so.’

“The metaphor to me was: If you can make some noise, perhaps you can find a way to get people away from seeing the stupider movie that week or the movie that the kids want to go to. … You just say, ‘You know what? I’m sorry, guys, I’m going to go and nourish my mind instead’” (www.npr.org).

It’s hard to get people’s attention. But maybe if you throw a bomb into the middle of their lives… Maybe if you make enough noise… So God sent John the Baptist.

God want to nourish our souls. God wants to show us the wonder of the incarnation, the birth of God’s son among us. But first God needs to get our attention. And that is not easy.

Evidently, John the Baptist did a pretty good job of grabbing people’s attention back then.

By all accounts his physical appearance was an attention-getter, wearing sackcloth and eating locusts. Would that get your attention today? Outlandish dress hardly creates a ripple these days. At most, we might give it a passing glance.

John offered forgiveness for sins. Would that get your attention? Would you drop what you are doing to listen to sole voice preaching repentance?

John proclaimed that someone of immense power and majesty is coming. Would that get your attention?

What would it take to break into your awareness, to distract you from personal preoccupations? What would it take to really get your attention long enough to see and experience the wonder of God’s birth in the world?

And consider this: This Advent season, how can you be a prophet for someone else? What can you do to get someone else’s attention so that they can witness their Savior’s birth?

The First Sunday of Advent

The Blessings of This Day

The season of Advent is about time. The passage of time is a recurrent theme within Advent. In this mortal life we all live within time, of course. Advent nudges us to reflect upon the passage of time. The primary symbols of Advent are about time. The Advent wreath on which we light additional candles as the weeks pass. The Advent calendar which marks the passing days of the season.

All seasons cover a span of time, but Advent is defined primarily as time—the time between a set beginning and a defined end. Advent is the time before Christmas. It doesn’t so much have its own identity as it is just time before Christmas. Time which starts four Sundays before Christmas Day.

We often talk about the time of Advent as time for hopeful waiting. A time when, in our spiritual lives, we savor the sweetness of anticipation. Advent reassures us of the sureness of God’s promise, a promise that will be fulfilled in a future time. We hope that as this season draws us forward, it also draws us closer to God.

This year I’ve been thinking about Advent as a time spent waiting for God. In all aspects of our lives, we miss a lot if we’re spending our time just waiting for the future. No matter how faithfully or hopefully we may be waiting, if we’re just waiting for some future event, we’re missing the present. I don’t think God intentionally tarries just to teach us how to wait.

Maybe Advent is less about waiting and more a lesson in learning how to praise the blessing of time. Time itself is a gift. Don’t waste it waiting. Don’t waste the gift of time in impatience or indifference or in a blind focus on some future event or expectation.

Advent is not just one more countdown. We’re good at those… counting down the time as we await some exciting event. We countdown to space launches (or we used to) and that exciting roar of liftoff to adventure and exploration. A prisoner counts down the days to release. Our culture counts down the shopping days until Christmas (with stress and excitement). A school child counts down the days to vacation with eager anticipation. We countdown time, eager to put it behind us as we wait for the excitement of the future.

Advent is more than a holy countdown.

I’ve been thinking about the difference between an Advent calendar and a calendar on which we are counting down the days to vacation or some other exciting event. I think over the years I’ve undervalued the power of the Advent calendar as a symbol, seeing it as just another way to count the days until Christmas. To remind you how an Advent calendar works: They should start today, the first Sunday of Advent, although the ones you buy in the stores will start December 1. A window or door covers each day. And as that day comes, you open the window and there is always a wonderful treat inside. Sometimes it’s chocolate, or a word of encouragement, or a beautiful picture. It’s always a treat, a blessing, a source of joy.

On calendars when we are “counting down the days” we X off each day as it passes. It’s X’ed out… over with, gone, useless. All we want from those days is to get them behind us so that we can cross them off and get closer to whatever we await in the future.

In an Advent calendar, each day is a window that opens upon a treat, a blessing.

Advent reminds us to cherish the present time, to celebrate the joy of this day. As time passes, each day brings a gift, a blessing from God.

During this Advent season, we do look forward to the celebration of our Savior’s birth. But I’m encouraged also to look to time much closer at hand. We have a whole span of days before us. And a treat is offered to us in every single one of them.