Monday, December 30, 2013

Peace, Goodwill Toward Men.

Brad Sullivan
Christmas Eve, Year A
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

Romans 1:1-7
Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

This passage from Luke’s Gospel, verses 8-14, is one of the best known passages to me (although for this passage, the King James Version is the one I usually remember).  The reason I know and remember this passage so well is not because I’ve heard it in church a lot, although I have.  The reason I know and remember this passage so well is because I have seen “A Charlie Brown Christmas” many times, and this is the passage which Linus recites to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. 
This was not a big church event or some religious leader or elite proclaiming the story of Jesus’ birth.  In this secular story, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” a little boy told his friend about the Christmas story.  I rather doubt you remember every Christmas sermon you’ve ever heard…or even any Christmas sermon you’ve ever heard, but if a friend of yours were to tell you the Christmas story, and tell you what Christmas is all about, I bet you’d remember that.
God has a way of breaking through and working with the ordinary stuff in our lives.  …of course God could have come in power and great might.  God is powerful and mighty, and yet, God so often identifies with the lowly.  God has power and doesn’t need us to brandish our power in order to impress him.  God is powerful, but even more so, in his very nature, God is relationship and love. 
God identifies with love even more than with power. So, God comes to us in the loving act of the birth of a child.  There are few more loving moments than when a child is born.  I remember when my kids were born, and each time, I looked at them, and I felt this new love just happen, this new space in my heart suddenly be created as I looked at my sons for the first time. 
God came to us in a way that would bring out the very best in us.
Once a year, for twelve days, we get to look on that baby Jesus and love God as a newborn baby.  Once a year, for twelve days, we can have the best brought out in us again.  After that, we’re into Epiphany, and we hear stories about Jesus as a grown man, and he starts getting into our business and messing with our lives, but for now, we just get to give our love to Jesus and receive God’s love for us in his gift of himself to us. 
What is the point, though?  What is the true meaning of Christmas?  Well, I don’t think that question has one answer, but many.  Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that God brings out the best in us, giving us a gift of love so that we might love him more.  Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that God has become one with us in Jesus and this shows us that God has never and will never give up on us.  God joined himself to us in Jesus, so if God gives up on humanity, then God will have to give up on himself.
Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that along with never giving up on us, God will continue to strive with us, to dwell with us, to love us, and that one day, Jesus will return and will put all things right.  Jesus, the savior, the messiah, will come again to restore all of creation.  In the mean time, we get to love God as a little newborn baby.  We get to share that love with others.  We get to be with others in the ordinary parts of their lives and strive with them, just as God strives with and never gives up on us.  We get to tell others the story of our faith, the story of Christmas and why we believe in this little baby whose birth we remember today. 
We get to share this story and the meaning of this night.  I doubt you’ll remember much of what I’ve said tonight in a year.  Any of your friends could hear this sermon and likely not remember much of us either.  If you tell your friends what Christmas is all about, however, I bet they’d remember that, just as I remember the words from Luke’s Gospel.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:8-14Amen.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Put God to the Test

Brad Sullivan
4 Advent, Year A
Sunday, December 22, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25

Put God to the test.  That was my advice to a parishioner earlier this week who had been given some gift cards in order to give them to hungry people.  This person came to the church and offered the gift cards to me so that I could give them to folks who came to St. Mark’s asking for food.  I thought that was a pretty good idea, but then, in a surprise move, I refused the gift cards, insisting instead that this person give them to hungry people he found or ran into in his life.
A conversation ensued.  This person wasn’t against giving these gift cards to hungry people, he said he just didn’t really know any, and didn’t know how to get them to people who would need them.  He also thought it would be insulting to ask random strangers if they were impoverished and needed some food.  I agreed, and then I said “put God to the test.”  We talked about this Sunday’s passage from Isaiah with Ahaz refusing to put God to the test and the story of Joseph believing in God, and I told the person in my office to pray for God to send folks his way.  Hungry folks are all around us, I said, and if you pray to God multiple times a day for God to send those folks your way, I bet they’ll find you.  Put God to the test.
In our Isaiah reading, King Ahaz, one of the not overly good kings of Judah (seemed to have no faith in God at all, an idolater, offered up his sons as burn sacrifices…lovely guy), King Ahaz said he would not put God to the test.  You may remember Jesus telling Satan, when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, that it is written in scripture, “do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah.”  This was referring to a day, shortly after God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea, and the people were thirsty.  They quarreled with Moses, saying, “why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us…with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3). 
They didn’t believe in God or trust in God that God could or would save them.  After God had freed them from slavery with many miracles, they hit a road bump, and decided they no longer trusted in God.  They put God to the test meaning they stopped believing and demanded a sign so that they would believe again.
When Jesus quoted to Satan, “do not put the Lord your God to the test,” Satan was trying to get Jesus to attempt suicide, forcing God to save him, to prove that God truly loved him.  Jesus was saying, “I trust God, and I don’t need to come up with some crazy scheme to test whether or not my faith in God is justified.  I trust in God, and I won’t put him to the test.”
Now, back to Ahaz in our Isaiah reading from today, God offered Ahaz a sign, and Ahaz decided to quote Deuteronomy back at God, using scripture as a tool against God to refuse God’s offer.  This was not a man of faith, trusting in God saying, “I believe in you, and I will not demand a sign or put you to the test in order to believe in you.”  This was a man who flat out didn’t trust in God, and was misusing scripture to further his lack of trust and confidence in God.  It’s like he was trying to trick God by using scripture, but God wasn’t buying it.
When I say “put God to the test,” I don’t mean drive some bargain with God whereby you can prove God’s existence or prove God’s goodness.  When I say, “put God to the test,” I mean tell God, “I will trust and believe in you, God.  I will ask for your help and guidance, and trust in you.”  This is not, however, a bargain, telling God, “If you deliver, then I will have faith in you.”  Rather, I will have faith in you, God.  I will follow your commandments.  I will live according to your way of life, and I will trust in you, even if the thing for which I pray doesn’t happen. 
See, I would say that when Joseph decided to stay with Mary after the angel told him that the Holy Spirit had conceived the baby in her, that Joseph put God to the test, meaning, Joseph trusted in God.  Joseph could have left. 
His wife was pregnant, not by him, and that’s all he really knew.  He was probably fairly heartbroken, maybe a little bit angry, hurt, humiliated, and yet he decided to dismiss her quietly, not to shame her publically.  She could have gone on and been with the father of her child, so Joseph thought.  It might have been a scandal, but they’d have probably been ok, and Joseph would have been heartsick. 
Then, an angel came to him in a dream and told him to stay, that Mary was still a virgin, that it was the Holy Spirit who had conceived God’s son inside of her.  He could have thought it was just a dream.  He could have let someone else raise the child that was not his.  He chose instead to believe.  Joseph chose instead to make Jesus his own child, to be his son and family, and to raise him as his own.  He never knew for certain if Jesus was truly conceived of the Holy Spirit or of some other guy.  An angel appeared to him in a dream…hell, I’ve had some pretty fantastical dreams.  Joseph chose to believe, to put God to the test, not as a bargain, not saying, “if you do this, then I will believe.”  
Joseph simply chose to believe, and things seem to have worked out pretty well.  We don’t know too much more about Joseph.  We know that he and Mary had other kids together after Jesus was born.  We know that he raised Jesus and taught him his trade as a carpenter.  It seems that Joseph died before Jesus began his ministry, because Joseph was never mentioned along with Mary and Jesus’ brothers and sisters during Jesus’ ministry. 
What that means is, Joseph may never have seen the miraculous signs and wonders that Jesus did.  Joseph may never have had any confirmation, any proof or tangible evidence that Jesus was the Son of God, as the angel told him in his dream.  Joseph chose to believe the story and let that belief be real enough to bless his life.
When it really comes down to it, none of us know that Jesus is God’s son or if there even is a God.  We don’t.  We don’t know.  We believe.  We have faith.  We have varying levels of conviction in our faith, and we choose let that belief be real enough to bless your life.
Regarding my advice to this St. Mark’s parishioner to put God to the test, to ask God to send hungry people his way so that he can give them these gift cards, people may come or people may not come.  This was not a test to prove God’s existence.  This was a chance to trust in God without fear.  This was a chance actually to believe that God will help us fulfill whatever ministry he has for us. 
In Joseph’s case, this meant raising Jesus as his own, and loving him completely.  Putting God to the test, simply meant trusting and believing in God without agenda, without any examination day.  So, put God to the test.  Trust in God.  Believe in God, and allow that belief to be real enough to bless your life.  Amen.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Affluenza, John the Baptist, and Jesus' Stubborn Refusal to Kill the Romans

Brad Sullivan
3 Advent, Year A
Sunday, December 15, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Isaiah 35:1-10
Canticle 3 / 15
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
           
So there’s been a lot of outrage on the interwebs and the facebooks this week over a teenager in Texas who stole booze from Wal-Mart, drove drunk, crashed his car, and killed four people.  The outrage has been that this young man avoided prison by claiming “affluenza” as his defense. Instead of prison, this young man is going to a posh drug treatment center and is on probation for 10 years.  The idea was this.  His parents had spoiled him so thoroughly, and they had bought his way out of trouble so much, that he had no real concept of right and wrong or of there being consequences for his actions.  So, because he was rich, he had learned that there are no consequences for his actions, and therefore he should be given special treatment by the courts and act without consequences. 
I’ll warrant that perhaps rehabilitation and treatment are what’s in order for this young man.  The outrage is that the only reason he’s able to get that treatment is because he’s rich.  A poor young man, doing the same thing as this kid, would have gone to prison.
The unfortunate lesson people are learning is, if you have enough money, you can kill other people with near impunity.  “Yeah, I killed some folks, but it’s not my fault, I have affluenza.”  If you’re rich and powerful, you can get away with murder.  That’s a bit of an overstatement, but that’s how people are feeling, hearing this story.  That’s the lesson learned. If you’re great and mighty, and powerful, then you can pretty well do whatever you want, and if you hurt other people on the way, well too bad for them.  That may be greatness in our kingdoms of earth, but that’s not greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  The kind of power and might that kills with impunity due to wealth has no place in the kingdom of heaven. 
Ironically enough, however, that’s the kind of greatness people were expecting out of Jesus, perhaps the greatness even John the Baptist was expecting out of Jesus…great, mighty, powerful, ready to kill a bunch of Romans and get them out of Israel.  John was in prison at this point for upsetting king Herod, and I can imagine even John thinking Jesus was going to be the messiah they were expecting, a mighty king who would raise an army and kill all of Israel’s enemies, ushering in this reign of peace for Israel.  John sent his messengers to Jesus from prison, and I think he was basically saying, “ok Jesus, I did my part, got all of Israel to repent, and yet here I am stuck in prison.  It’s time for you do your messiah thing, spring me out of here and kill all the bad guys.
Jesus responded to John’s messiah question by affirming nothing at all of what John and everyone else was expecting.  “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”  ‘That’s great, Jesus,’ John and the people are thinking, ‘you’re a super nice guy, friend to the needy, but what about becoming powerful and mighty and killing our enemies?’ 
Jesus then tells the people that John the Baptist, crazy John with his camel’s hair and wilderness repentance kind of ways, jailbird John the Baptist is the greatest of all men, and yet, Jesus says, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.  That sounds rather insulting to John, doesn’t it?  I think Jesus was not insulting John, but illustrating the extent to which violence and vengeance and power and might have no place in God’s kingdom. 
God the Father showed us just how much vengeance and violence have no place in his kingdom by allowing us to kill his Son, Jesus with impunity.  God did not take vengeance on humanity for killing his Son.  Rather, God allowed us to kill him to show us his radical love for us, and God demonstrated his power not by killing us in vengeance, but by raising his son from the dead, forgiving us, and inviting us to share in the Resurrection life with.  In Jesus, God showed us the power and might of love and forgiveness.
God showed us the power of his kingdom in which the great and powerful are not those who use their wealth and power to kill with impunity, but those who use whatever they have to serve others.  God’s kingdom is great not because God can destroy the Romans, or any other group that people don’t like.  God’s kingdom is great because in God’s kingdom, “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at [Jesus].”     
Love, forgiveness, service, and humility are hallmarks of God’s kingdom, and there is a lot of what we hold onto now that must be left behind to live in God’s kingdom.  Vengeance and violence, they have no place in God’s kingdom.  Resentment and anger have no place in God’s kingdom.  Absolute lack of caring for other human beings has no place in God’s kingdom.
Jesus said, “how hard it will be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”  We see in this tragic killing why it is so hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  If one’s wealth allows a person to buy his way out of trouble so much that he comes to care so little for human life that he feels he can even buy his way out of trouble for ending human life, then we the truth of Jesus’ words.  “How hard it will be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven,” and yet, Jesus says, “with God all things are possible.” 
God can change our hearts.  God can make us new.  In Jesus, we can become new creations and be a part of God’s new creation.  The Kingdom of Heaven is not just some place that good people go when they die.  Rather the kingdom of heaven is lived out in this world, in fits and starts right now, then eventually, when our waiting is over and Jesus returns, the kingdom of heaven will be lived out fully, as God renews, remakes, and restores all of creation, including, if he wants to be a part of this new creation, the young man with affluenza who stole, drove drunk, and killed four people. 
He probably couldn’t live there right now, but with God all things are possible, and if he wants to, that young man can be remade and be part of God’s new creation.  That may be a tough pill to swallow, the thought that that spoiled kid can have a place in God’s kingdom, but “blessed [are those] who take no offence at me,” Jesus said.  Blessed are those who don’t shun that kid and desire vengeance upon him.  Blessed are those who pray for and seek his restoration, that he will have a new heart and be remade through Jesus in God’s kingdom. Blessed are those who pray the same thing for the poor people as well who do stupid things, who steal, drive drunk, and kill. 
In God’s kingdom, blessed are those who forego their anger and desires for vengeance at the evils of the world.  In God’s kingdom, blessed are those who seek not to become great and change the world not by adding violence upon violence, killing those deemed to be enemy (as people wanted Jesus to do to the Romans).  In God’s kingdom, blessed are those who seek to change the world by serving others, by being humble, by living as the kind of humble messiah Jesus proclaimed to John.  Amen.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Burn Away the Chaff: Love God. Love People. Do Stuff.

Brad Sullivan
2 Advent, Year A
Sunday, December 8, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
So folks tend to think of repentance as a rather less than joyous affair.  “Repent” we hear John the Baptist cry, and, nowadays quite honestly, “repent” we tend to hear fairly angry sounding preachers cry.  It seems like repentance is supposed to be this miserable activity where we say, “yeah, your right, I’m terrible,” and then are left just feeling kinda terrible.   
Advent is a season of repentance so in the secular world, we skip Advent all together and go straight for Christmas, and my biggest problem with that is not that the secular world ignores the need to repent and largely forgets about Jesus.  My biggest problem with secular pre-Christmas is not the commercialization and rampant consumerism.
No, my biggest problem with overdone secular pre-Christmas is that unlike most of the year when, if you don’t want to hear a particular song or any music at all, you basically just don’t turn on your radio and problem solved. During secular pre-Christmas, however, the Christmas music, both good and bad is unavoidable, and two weeks after going to HEB one morning, the Beach Boys’ Little Saint Nick is still running through your head.  You’re welcome.  I’ll take a little Advent repentance over that any day plus, I think Advent is a joyful time.
I spent the weekend with youth from St. Mark’s and around the diocese at a youth conference at St. Martin’s in Houston, called Conspire.  The name of the conference is every bit as provocative as it sounds.  The point is for the youth to conspire together about how they can change the world, in Jesus’ name for Jesus’ sake.  In the words of our keynote speaker for the weekend, Bob Goff, how can they and we “Love God, love people, and do stuff.”  That’s the conspiracy:  love God; love people; do stuff. 
The keynote speaker, Bob Goff is a lawyer and author of the book, Love Does, and he’s one of the most joyful souls I’ve met.  He was a trip, and he talked about our need to stop agreeing with Jesus.  What he meant was our propensity for reading the Bible, agreeing with what Jesus says and then not really living that out. 
Sometimes our fears keep us from living as love, living as Jesus said.  Sometimes feeling totally in adequate or overwhelmed by the enormity of the task Jesus has for us, keeps us form living as love.  Jesus has a task for all of us, something which each of us is particularly suited to do. 
For Bob Goff, it turns out that his task is to help children in Uganda who have been victims of child slavery, among other things.  He goes over there every sixty days to help get kids out of slavery, to prosecute the bad guys, and to help the bad guys repent.  He loved his enemies.  He started a school for some of these bad guys who were hurting children, and when they graduated, he was there, giving them their diplomas, proud of them, and loving them…and telling them that if they ever harmed a child again, that they would die in the deepest darkest hole of a prison that Uganda had, which from the sounds of it is a very deep dark hole.  That’s loving your enemy, and keeping the children safe. 
Mr. Goff didn’t plan to do all of these things.  He had the knowhow, as a lawyer, to prosecute.  He had the resources to go over there and help, and he had a heart full of love to say yes without fear whenever he was met with the next challenge.  So, stop agreeing with Jesus, Mr. Goff said.  Go and do what Jesus says.  Become Love itself.  Love God; love people, and then do stuff. 
This is really what John the Baptist was talking about when he told people to repent, adding that “[Jesus] will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12)  Love God; Love your neighbor, and do stuff.
Ok, it may sound kinda dissimilar, but here’s the deal.  All wheat has chaff.  That’s the outer covering of the wheat.  The wheat grows inside it until it is mature and then the chaff is removed when the wheat emerges.  The chaff is thrown out and the wheat is used.
We have both wheat and chaff within us.  Our fears and insecurities are part of our chaff with which we try to protect ourselves.  Whatever we use to protect ourselves in such a way that we are unable to love God and love people:  fears, insecurities, anger, holding on to past hurts, these are all our chaff.  Now, we can grow somewhat even inside of our chaff, but we can also become those fears, become those insecurities, become that anger, become those past hurts.  We can, if we choose to, turn our wheat into chaff.  Then, in then end, will there be anything left other than chaff? 
Our true selves are the wheat.  The chaff is just our protective covering which can help of for a time, but eventually keeps us from becoming love.  Jesus loves us that we may become love and be truly and fully human ourselves, to get rid of our chaff.  Once we are love, once we are truly human, we don’t need to worry about what Jesus means or what all the answers are to all of our questions.  We don’t need to know how it’s all going to end.  Once we get rid of our chaff, become love, become truly human, then we just need to do stuff.
Repent, John the Baptist said.  Start removing your chaff.  Turn around, John said, and begin the process of undoing the harm you’ve done, healing the wounds you’ve made, and then walk in the path you see Jesus leading.  Follow Jesus step by step, one step at a time.
We’ll mess up and fail, and we won’t know where exactly the end is, and that’s ok.  We just keep following, offering up to God the chaff of our lives as our burnt offering to him, praying for Jesus to burn away the chaff we hold onto, and praying for the Holy Spirit to grow the wheat inside of us.  Repent.  Follow Jesus, and become love.
Advent is a joyful time.  Repentance is a joyful occasion with or without Little Saint Nick.  Repentance is part of the process whereby we ask God to help rid ourselves of our chaff and become more fully the wheat we were made to be.  Repentance is part of the process whereby we follow Jesus and become more fully the beloved and loving human beings God made us to be.  What could be more joyful?
At the Conspire conference, the youth were told that they could become love, that they could conspire together to change the world in Jesus’ name…and they believed it, and so it will happen.  When John proclaimed a baptism of repentance that folks could turn their lives around, wash and be made clean, they believed him, and so it happened.  If we believe Jesus can burn up the chaff in our lives, that we can repent, and that God’s Holy Spirit will grow the wheat in our lives and turn us into love, then it will happen as well.  Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near.  Love God.  Love people.  Do stuff, and be not afraid.  Amen.

Friday, December 6, 2013

I Don't Suppose You Could Speed Things Up?

Brad Sullivan
1 Advent, Year A
Sunday, December 1, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Canticle 4 or 16
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

You do not know when the Son of Man will be returning, Jesus said, so be ready, and wait expectantly for the coming of the Son of Man.  If I’m really honest, I’m not the biggest fan of waiting…waiting and wondering and sitting around.  I tend to want things right away.  Jesus tells us to wait.  The season of Advent tells us to wait and gives us a chance to wait.  In the words of Stanley Hauerwas, Advent reminds us that we are to be a patient people in a world of impatience. 
Jesus told us that he would return and put all things right, he just didn’t say when that would be.  We don’t know and can’t know when Jesus is coming back.  We just know that we’re waiting.  We know that when we wait for more than a few minutes, hours, or days for much of anything, we lose patience or lose hope.  I’m not going to wait forever, we might say.  Well, two-thousand years of waiting isn’t forever, but it’s about as close as we can realistically imagine, and here we are still waiting. 
There is something deeply gratifying about that, about knowing that as a people, we’ve been waiting for nearly two millennia, and we are still here, waiting patiently, hopefully, and often joyfully.  Waiting is not usually associated with hope and joy.  I tend to think of waiting as a boring if not down right morose affair, waiting for some good thing to happen.  Life must be less than great now if we’re waiting for something great. 
Admittedly, we are waiting for life, the universe, and everything to be a whole lot better when all is restored with Jesus’ return.  There is plenty of darkness in the world, and as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, creation itself waits with eager longing for Jesus return.  We all want the world to be put right, and it can be easy to get discouraged by the darkness in the world.
Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to be bored or morose or discouraged, however, as we wait for his return.  There’s plenty of darkness in the world, and I don’t believe Jesus wanted us to add to that darkness as we wait for him.  We’d want Jesus to return; we’re sad about the darkness of the world, but we don’t wait by being mopey or fearful.  We wait by being joyful in our faith and in our crazy hope that all of the darkness will one day be dispelled and that light will reign forever. 
Waiting in a world of impatience, waiting faithfully and joyfully – that is the challenge.  We often wait for things by distracting ourselves.  We come up with some activity to pass the time, to anesthetize ourselves to the reality of waiting.  The trouble is that when we are distracted or anesthetized, we tend to forget.  The longer we are distracted, the less ready we are for whatever is coming.  Jesus tells us not to be distracted but to wait patiently and be ready. 
Wait and be ready without distraction, and by the way, you have no idea how long you’ll be waiting.  That’s a rather tall order.  In Matthew 5, Jesus told his disciples, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)  I think this passage gives us some idea of how we are to wait.
I’ve often heard sermons talking about our need to wait and be ready, and while not specifically stated, the basic feeling I’ve gotten from the sermon is “you’ve got to be religious, and pious, and miserable in order to wait and be ready for Jesus.”  Well, whenever I’m miserable, I don’t have an overabundance of light shining.  Let your light shine before others, Jesus said.
            Jesus calls us to wait with hope and joy.  How do we do that?  Perhaps counterintuitively, I think we wait with hope and joy by slowing down.  We often want to go do something fun and exciting to be happy as we wait, but I don’t think that’s necessarily how we wait for Jesus.  We still get to have fun, don’t get me wrong, but moments of fun don’t really sustain us. 
            Wait with hope and joy by slowing down, spending time in prayer, spending time with loved ones.  We wait with hope and joy by slowing down enough to be still and know God.  We wait with hope and joy by slowing down enough to notice the joy and blessings in our lives.  We wait with hope and joy by slowing down enough to realize that we are waiting with hope and joy. 
We also wait with hope and joy by slowing down enough to notice the darkness and misery in the world.  Talk about counterintuitive.  We choose as disciples of Jesus to notice the darkness and misery of the world and then to respond by prayer and action, speaking out in love and acting out in love. 
            Specifically this Advent, we can wait by not being overcome by the clutter of the commercialized, secular Christmas season.  We can wait this Advent by praying, by being still, by giving thanks, by looking for opportunities to serve other people.  We can give to those who are hungry or to those who have a hard time keeping their electricity on.  We can wait by slowing down, keeping our faith with hope and joy, and letting our light shine before others that they may see our good works and give glory to God.
            We wait by keeping our faith and joy, waiting patiently in a world with little time for faith or patience. 

The Sea The Sea
Re:  Blah from the album Love, Are We Love

There’s no such thing as having too much faith.
There is only losing faith,
And why, oh why would you go to that place
Where you have lost your faith?

You say sometimes you have too much faith in people
They have a way of letting you down,
I say, don’t be quick to judge those people
‘cause that kind of thing has a way of coming back around.

You say sometimes it’s all out of focus
And all of this chaos is bringing you down
I say, just let it go, and love somebody,
‘cause that kind of thing has a way of coming back around.
‘cause that kind of thing has a way of coming back around.

There’s no such thing as having too much faith,
There is only losing faith.
And why, oh why would you go to that place
Where you have lost your faith?
Where you have lost your faith.


Amen.