The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Free Spirits
Psalm 62:6-14
Mark 1:14-20

Last week the Old Testament reading included a call story—the story of God’s call to Samuel. God called Samuel my name to a life of prophetic proclamation. Today, particularly in the Gospel reading, we hear some more call stories. Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John to follow him. And they do.

These are familiar stories. Simon and Andrew, James and John, fishing on the Sea of Gallilee. Familiar as these stories are, they have always gnawed at me. There had to have been more going on, of course, than Mark’s bare-boned telling of the story. But it seems so incredible that they would respond so quickly and radically. Some stranger walks by and says, “follow me.” And immediately they do without any apparent reservation.

Jesus was a stranger to them!

Remember we’re still in the first chapter of Mark. Years before Peter would recognize and confess Jesus as the Messiah. We have no evidence that Simon, Andrew, James or John had any idea who called to them. I’ve often imagined that there had to be something irresistibly compelling about Jesus. But the Gospel writers don’t mention anything special. Mark tells us only that he was preaching repentance. A stranger strolls passed preaching a call to repentance. I would find that pretty easy to resist.

Or maybe word had spread throughout Galilee… Maybe Jesus’ reputation had preceded him and they had heard of his grace a power. Maybe. Although again we have no evidence. All we know is that out of the blue Jesus said “follow me” and they did. It’s incredible.

They left everything behind… family, the social network of the village, their place in the community, their only means of supporting themselves, their whole identities, really. It’s hard to believe. In that context how could Jesus possibly have presented an attractive option? How could following Jesus have appeared as the preferred path?

Now I can imagine some other settings where following Jesus would definitely seem like an attractive choice. It would be one thing if Jesus showed up in the middle of a difficult history test and said, “Oh, let’s blow off the test. Follow me.” That would be tempting. Or if Jesus showed up when you were in the middle of working on your income taxes and said “Put those aside and follow me.” Or if he showed up in the midst of a deadly office Christmas party and said, “Let’s skip this joint and go have some fun.”

If Jesus came offering a means of escape, an opportunity to flee life’s unpleasant burdens. Then the call to follow might sound pretty good.

In a way, that’s exactly what Jesus offers. Freedom.

Jesus calls us to be free spirits. Literally. He does offer us freedom. Escape.

One way to think of Jesus’ call to us is as an invitation to become free spirits. Come, be free spirits. Literally.

Writing about this passage in Mark, William Loader writes “the calling of James and John and Simon and Andrew…function as a protest… against societal structures which simply perpetuate the past and trap people into the service of the status quo and its gods.” False gods imposed by society, or family, or peer groups trap us. We are trapped in the service of false gods.

Jesus says, let’s run away and be free spirits.

Ask yourself: Do you let society or even family determine which gods you worship? False gods like social standing or conformity. Material success. The false god of family reputation or even tradition. The false gods of physical strength or beauty. Do you feel forced to give yourself to the worship of these gods? Or maybe others?

Jesus offers an escape. Freedom. Lose yourself in love and worship of the one true God. For God alone my soul waits, as the psalmist sings.

Come, be a free spirit, Jesus says.

Maybe there’s a small voice in the back of your head saying, “I can’t become a free spirit. That would be irresponsible!” We can’t just abandon the people who depend upon us. It is our responsibility to maintain an ordered society. Surely Jesus doesn’t intend for us to thumb our noses at all responsibility and run off to be free spirited hippies.

I could point out that actually that is pretty much what the disciples did. But I would agree that following Jesus does not imply a selfish indifference to the care of others. Free spirited does not mean self-centered or indifferent to God’s children or God’s creation.

But becoming a free spirit does offer us freedom from the imposed worship of false gods. There is a difference, for example, between a parent who cherishes a child as a gift from God and would do absolutely anything to help that child flourish in the love and wonder of God. In contrast to the parent who worships the competitive gods of family reputation or financial success and maybe even with good intentions forces a child to worship those gods, too.

Remember, Zebedee let his sons go.

Ask yourselves which gods you worship, which gods you really give yourself to. And do you feel bound, or trapped? If you feel bound or trapped, look deeply within and ask why-- false gods bind and trap. False gods bind and trap us in their service. Jesus does not.

Jesus says, hey! I can set your spirit free. That’s a pretty attractive offer any time and place. I will set your spirit free. Come, follow me.

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

The Call of Samuel

1 Samuel 3:1-20

Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

John1:43-51

The lesson we heard today from the Hebrew Scriptures is usually referred to as “The Call of Samuel.” It’s a wonderful story that almost preaches itself.

Just to review: The young boy Samuel and his mentor Eli are working in the Temple. It is their job to ensure that the rituals and worship of the Lord in the Temple are maintained. It’s night. Both have gone to bed. Samuel hears someone call his name and he runs to Eli, but Eli says it wasn’t him. Samuel definitely heard someone call his name. They both go back to bed. The same thing happens two more times before Eli begins to wonder at what might be going on. Following Eli’s advice, the next time Samuel hears his name he recognizes that it is God who is calling, and he stops to listen.

There are a number of points to note in this story.

First, even people in the professional religion business did not immediately recognize God’s voice. They heard it, but thought it was someone else. And that’s something to highlight. They heard God’s voice… they clearly heard it, but thought it was someone else.

We should also note that God persisted. God called again and again and again and again, until Samuel recognized him and stopped to listen.

And, finally, God called Samuel by name. God did not post a general notice on Craig’s list: Prophet Wanted. God called Samuel name. God wanted to talk to Samuel, about Samuel’s vocation.

In Samuel’s case, the vocation God called him to was not an easy one. Samuel was called to a lifelong vocation as a prophet, and his first task was to condemn the iniquity of his mentor Eli.

The adult Christian Education class this week asks the question: What is the purpose of your life? In the class, the context is a study of God as creator. God doesn’t create casually or capriciously. God creates for a purpose. What purpose were you, as an individual, created for?

The general answer is to fulfill God’s call for you. Your personal call.

God knows us individually. We are baptized by name. We do not baptize Christian number 4 trillion thirty seven. You are sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever, by name. The psalm appointed for today speaks of how God knows us. Lord you have searched me out and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. Lord, you know me. This psalm is a source of great strength and comfort to many people. In times of need or longing, it is nice to know that God knows and cares for us individually, that God responds to our personal, individual needs.

The Gospel also highlights how God knows us. Jesus knew Nathanael, even though they had not yet met in the flesh.

God knows us individually. This is a comfort when we think of God responding to our individual needs. But it also means that God calls each of us to our own individual vocations.

God called Samuel by name.

And God calls us individually by name. Sometimes to grand life vocations. Samuel’s call was to a lifelong vocation of prophetic witness. Here in the U.S., we remember the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend. He, too, was called to an all-consuming life of prophetic witness on behalf of civil rights. Jesus called the disciples call to leave behind everything else to fulfill their calls to discipleship.

God’s calls are often not easy to follow—witness Samuel and Dr. King. Scripture is full of stories of people who answered reluctantly when God called them by name, feeling unwilling or unable to respond to God’s call.

But when God calls us by name, it is not always to a grand and challenging life vocation. Sometimes God calls us to smaller tasks of everyday life or life within the church. Think about the stories in the Gospels. On several occasions a particular individual was called to host a dinner or offer hospitality. There’s the young lad who shared his lunch. Just one day, one lunch, a loaf and a few fish. Someone was called to offer his colt when Jesus needed it to ride into Jerusalem. We are called, as individuals, to everyday tasks like these, too.

We hear this particular Old Testament story and this Gospel story during Epiphany because Samuel and Nathanael had epiphanies. Within the context of these stories, they recognized that it was God who was speaking to them. The voice Samuel heard in the night calling him by name was God’s voice. The person Nathanael saw across the way was Jesus, Son of the living God. Voices, people that were there, a part of their lives. Samuel and Nathanael came to recognize God’s presence, God’s voice with them.

Similar Epiphanies await us all.

God knows you personally and calls you by name. You have a roll to fulfill, a call to respond to as part of God’s action in the world. Maybe it’s a grand vocation or maybe it’s an occasional task in the midst of daily life.

Remember Samuel’s story. God will call you by name… persistently until you stop to listen. God may call while you’re trying to sleep, or while you’re just standing under a fig tree, or while you’re at soccer practice with your kids, or this Sunday at coffee hour. Sometimes God speaks directly; sometimes through other people.

So consider…. Everytime you hear your name… Every time you are directly spoken to… Consider the possibility that God is speaking to you. Consider that this might be an epiphany moment for you. A time for you to recognize that it is God’s voice, God’s presence, with you in your life. It’s not always easy to tell at first—remember Samuel and Eli—but God will persist until you have your epiphany.

And when that epiphany comes and you say with awe: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It is you. When you have that epiphany of recognition, remember Samuel and follow his example. Stop whatever else you’re doing and say: Speak to me, Lord, for your servant is listening.

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?