A lavish, extravagant, beautiful gift!

When I was young we used to have storytellers come to our schools on a regular basis.  Some would read to us abut there was one man who had all his stories memorized.  I was infatuated to say the least.  I actually love the art of storytelling and dreamt of being a professional storyteller at one time.  The closest I ever got to it was taking state in storytelling in competitive speech but that’s beside the point. 

One of the stories he told has stayed with me and went a bit like this.

A long time ago in a kingdom far away there once lived a beautiful princess and her wise and benevolent father.  According to tradition the princess had reached the age to marry and yet there seemed to be no viable prospects nearby, so the king put a call out to the neighboring kingdoms calling for suitors.  What is the best way for a princes to meet her suitors…you guessed it the king threw a ball. Cue the music!  No, just kidding.

Well at the ball the princess met many a young men.  Tall, short, wealthy, wise, simple, proud every size and sort of young man one could imagine.  The princess was able to weed down her choice to three young princes, each one smart, handsome and kind in a unique way.  The king agreed completely with the princess’ choices but now how to narrow the choice down.

What else but a quest the king said; “Each of you is deserving of my daughters hand and she would be honored to call any one of you her spouse alas she cannot decide and I will not decide for her, so a quest!” so the king went on; “Each of you shall set out to find the most perfect gift worthy of my daughter and she shall decide by the gifts which one of you is most deserving to win her hand” 

So the princes set off on the road from the kingdom.  Eventually they came to a place where the road split in 3 each one chose a different path but before they left they made a pact. “One week before we are to return to the castle let us all meet here at this spot and return together” they all agreed and set about their quests.

The first prince set off on the path to the right he went over hill, over dale, past settlement after encampment till one day he was passing a medicine show when heard; “Step right up I have all that can cure you!  You name it I have got it, curiosities, ointments gifts fit for a princess!”  The young prince just stopped.  “Did I just hear that?”  He thought to himself.  “Yes young man I am speaking to you everyone knows what is you seek and I have it right here in the back of my cart”

The young man approached the barker.  “Step right back here allow me to show you.  Here I have a looking glass.” “A looking glass?” replied the prince.  “What is so special about a looking glass?”  “Well nothing unless it this looking glass for the one who looks through it will be able to see whatever they wishes no matter how near or far just by concentrating upon it.”

Needless to say the prince was totally astounded and was happy to purchase the item thinking; “I have the finest gift for the princess for sure!”

The Second prince set off on the path to the left he went over roads, over rivers, and through the woods even. After sometime he came upon a small market place. He heard shop keep yell out; “Step right up I have all that can cure you!  You name it I have got it, curiosities, ointments gifts fit for a princess!”  The young prince just stopped.  “Did I just hear that?”  He thought to himself.  “Yes young man I am speaking to you everyone knows what is you seek and I have it right here in the back of my shop”

The young man approached the barker.  “Step right back here allow me to show you.  Here I have a carpet.” “A carpet?” replied the prince.  “What is so special about a carpet?”  “Well nothing unless it this carpet  for the one who sits upon it will be able to go wherever they wishes no matter how near or far just by concentrating.”

Needless to say the prince was totally astounded and was happy to purchase the item thinking; “I have the finest gift for the princess for sure!”

The Third prince set off on the path to in the middle he went from town to town and shtetl to shtetl till one day … yada, yada, yada!

 “Step right back here allow me to show you.  Here I have an Apple, Which is unique for the one who eats of it will be cured of whatever ails them.”

Needless to say the prince was totally astounded and was happy to purchase the item thinking; “I have the finest gift for the princess for sure!”

Well the princes met up at the fork in the road just as they had planned and as they started heading back one wondered… “I wonder how the princess is doing.”  Well the first said; “I have a looking glass let’s see. Oh no the king is crying, the princess is lying in bed...She doesn’t look good!”  The second said;”I have the carpet everyone get on it and it will take us to her now”  They were all whisked to the kingdom immediately where they were told they had arrived just in the nick of time for the princess was ill and there was no cure.  They rushed to the bedside where the 3^rd prince handed her the apple to eat.  Which of course they she was immediately cured.

There was rejoicing all round and the princes relayed their story of how they all took part in helping the princess with their gifts.  And after short discussion the king and princess declared they knew who would win the hand of the princess.

Well that is where the story ended.  We were told discuss who won and why.  The following year the storyteller came back and asked how many of us remembered the story from the previous year and of course not a single kid had forgotten for none of us knew how it ended though we all had our theories.

Now I want to turn to today’s story Mary wants to bestow a gift upon Jesus.  Knowing that he is coming to dinner and he has just gifted her with her brother’s life.  Martha was busy serving and well Lazarus was almost as much of an attraction onto himself as was Jesus.  What could she do?

 Adam Copeland writes

Lazarus, by his very presence, spoke to God’s provision. Just days before, he was dead and buried in a tomb, his body decaying and had begun to smell. But Jesus miraculously raised him from the dead and now Lazarus has him over for supper. (I hope to goodness Lazarus had made Jesus an open invitation to his house. I’d say raising someone from the dead certainly should certainly qualify you to a free meal whenever you’re in town.) Lazarus served by just being there, present and alive.

The rest of the disciples were there too, each with his own gifts and graces. Judas’ job, we read, was to carry the common purse, but he was corrupt. Of course, Judas later betrays Jesus to the authorities, but in this passage he raises a fair question, really. Why doesn’t Mary sell the perfume and give the money to the poor. It could have bought meals for hundreds, maybe even saved a life or two.[1]

Can you imagine Mary’s panic in this situation?  After all that has happened in her household she had to do something. So she rushes off and gets a Jar of the finest perfume oil.  Now this is not cheap cologne but scented, pressed, and filtered oil. Now it is custom to anoint the feet and perhaps forehead of an honored guest to offer comfort and welcome. But here is Mary in her excitement she just went overboard, or perhaps this is completely intentional and she is just going all in.

The story tells us “Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard,” (John 1:5) now according to Wikipedia, Nard is a flowering plant of the Valerian family that grows in the Himalayas of Nepal, China, and India. The plant grows to about 1 m in height and has pink, bell-shaped flowers. It is found in the altitude of about 3000–5000 meters or 1.5 – 3 miles up. The closest Himalayas to Bethany are a distance of 3,101miles.

 So Judas wasn’t exaggerating when he stated how much the perfume could bring in for the poor. To be more exact a danarii has often said to be equivalent to dime yet it was also said to be a day’s wage.  Well, the average day wage earned in the United States based on social security reports is about 103 dollars multiply that by 300 and you get 30,900 dollars.  Umm yup!

Many people find this passage a bit confusing.  I mean after all isn’t it Jesus who is always reaching out to serve the poor, the marginalized, and the underserved?  Isn’t Jesus the one who instructs the disciples to feed the hungry on the hillside instead of sending them off?  Isn’t Jesus who stops because one poor cripple just wants to see him? Yet in this moment Jesus affirms Mary.

You see Mary has a prophetic vision.  She had bought this oil for Jesus’ death and burial but in this moment of presence and joy and communion she chooses not to wait but to express all she has in abundant joy and to anoint Jesus now.  She chooses to take her lavish, extravagant gift and give it now and give it completely and not wait for a later day.

Adam Copeland goes on to explain; “Sadly, throughout Christian history some have used Jesus’ response to Mary, ‘The poor you always have with you’ as justification not to help the poor. These interpreters miss the fact that Jesus was probably alluding to a passage from Deuteronomy which commands generosity toward the poor exactly because ‘there will never cease to be some in need on the earth’ (15:11).” He goes on to explain that “Stanley Hauerwas takes it even a step further: ‘The poor that we always have with us is Jesus. It is the poor that all extravagance is to be given.’ [Feasting on the Word, Year C, v2, p. 145]” [2]

So what does all this mean for us,  well I believe we are called to be extravagant givers, we are called to give out of our excess, we are called to give out of what we are saving up for tomorrow or for that last great day.  This is about practicing what Christ and now Mary are teaching us that every day we must walk the walk and talk the talk, and talk it well each and every day.

This isn’t about being a Christian and or a member of this community just on Sunday.  This is about digging deep and giving all you have lavishly and in great abundance.  Now for each of us this looks different.  Some have a gift of art or music; some have gifts of skilled hands and vision of spacial relationships, some have the gift and skill of clever finance, and some have the gift of devotion and prayer.  The point is these are gifts of God to be lavishly returned to God not just on Sunday but every day.

 God speaks to different people in different ways. Sometimes are gifts seem odd or could be spent on better things  But this passage suggests that God isn’t always put off by extravagant gifts that are short-lived. The flowers we buy for decorations wilt and die in a few days, but they are a lavish gift. The lesson that a teacher prepares lasts 45 minutes and then is gone yet does it? Faithful giving is hard to assess by worldly accounting.

     Jesse L. Jackson once said, “If a person has a goal for living into which one can put everything he or she has, that person is blessed.” You see that is true but many people spend time waiting for that opportune moment when they can lay everything on the line and feel good doing it. Mary uses her expensive perfume, nard oil, for the Lord she doesn’t wait, she goes all in.

   Pastor Jeff Richards at Faith UMC in Cheyenne States; “ Lastly, let us praise rather than criticize when we meet somebody who uses his or her gifts extravagantly for God, and learn from them. Jesus, our Lord, commends their extravagant giving.”[3]  In Mark 14:6 Jesus says in the same story “She has done a beautiful thing to me. I tell you, truly, wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her,”

     So who remembers the story if relayed at the beginning of the sermon?  Which one of the three princes was chosen?? 

     You see the next day the King called all the men into the great hall and there sitting upon her throne was the princess.  The King commanded that the men present their gifts.  The first presented the eyeglass proclaiming “It was through this that each of us knew of your dilemma “The second prince stepped forward and stated; “Here a magnificent magic carpet which brought us all here to you!”  The third sheepishly stepped forward and said I have nothing to present.” 

     The princess arose from her throne stepped forward and gently placed her hand under the princes chin lifter his face as to look in his eyes and says; “I know for you have given your gift completely and fully to me, yes the others used their gifts of which I am grateful but yours was given fully, completely and wholly, therefore I choose you!”

Okay this was a long road to get to a quick point but if you have anything at all be it a simple word of prayer or the everyday mundane job that makes it possible for you to get here on Sunday that is using your gift for God.  But if you take that simple word, that mundane job and give all you have to it and give that to God everyday….That is a lavish, extravagant, beautiful gift indeed.!

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[1] Adam J. Copeland, Lavish gifts, http://www.adamjcopeland.com/2010/03/21/sermon-lavish-gifts-john-121-8/ (accessed February 27, 2013).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Jeff Richards, Extravagant Giver, http://www.faithcheyenne.org/_pdfs/Extravagant%20Giver_03212010.pdf (accessed March 7, 2013).

The Stone Path

Today’s section of Luke’s Gospel focuses on Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem.  This is a cry of sorrow not necessarily for what is about to happen but for what Jerusalem has done, her history.  Jesus’ lament is a cry as one who loves a child and has to sit back and watch the child make its own mistakes.

I have said that Jesus’ cry from the cross comes down to us through time and history and looks at each and every individual and asks “why have you forsaken me?”  And here again it is the same thing.

Fr. Richard Rohr in Falling upward spirituality for the two halves of life (which I highly recommend) reminds us that;

      Catholics used to say at the end of their Latin prayers, Per omnia saecula saeculorum, loosely translated as “through all the ages of ages.” Somehow deep time orients the Psyche, gives ultimate perspective, realigns us, grounds us, and thus heals us.  We belong to a mystery far grander than our little selves and our little time.[1]

I believe this is again occurring here. Jesus’ Lament for Jerusalem can be translated into any time, place or person.  So how does this sound if we were to replace some words.  Listen; America, America the nation that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it.  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  OR what if I were to make it more personal Joseph, Joseph you have killed prophets and have stoned those I sent to you.

You may be saying to yourselves that makes no sense.  I have never known a prophet...And I have never actually stoned anyone.  Yet each and every time I have dismissed a stranger or passed up an opportunity to pause and truly listen...I have killed a prophet.  Each and every time I have mocked writing, dismissed an opportunity for ministry, devalued myself… I have thrown a stone.

Reverend Michael K. Marsh an Episcopal priest actually names the stones that we throw quite well. “Stones of inadequacy – stones that say, ‘go away. I’m not worth your time or love.’ Stones of arrogance – stones that say, ‘My way is better.’ Stones of isolation – stones that say, ‘I can do this all by myself. I don’t need you.’ Stones of fear – stones that build walls instead of a home in which all are welcome. Stones of immaturity – stones that say, ‘I don’t want to grow. I don’t want to take responsibility. Just let me play by myself.’ Stones of prejudice – stones that say, ‘You’re different from me. You’re not wanted or needed around here.’ Stones of defensiveness – stones that say, ‘Don’t change or challenge me. Let me stay in my narrow little world.’”[2] These are the stones of violence that deny another’s dignity and humanity.

Each and every stone we throw is not just a rejection of the other but in reality it is a rejection of ourselves.  Those we may have dismissed or tossed a stone at will walk away and probably forget it in ten minutes but we hold onto it and …well improve upon it.  We improve upon it in many different ways...I can make my hate a little stronger…my words a little harsher or even the quilt I feel for what I have done I can beat myself up a little better.  These actions, behaviors, allow us to discount ourselves to claim to be unworthy, that we are not children of God.  Yet, just as Jerusalem is a holy city, we are called to be that sacred place, that holy city, the place where God dwells and can be found.

You know, part of our rejection of us as dwelling place, that rejection of God dwelling within us, often comes from a fearful place.  We live in fear of love, we live in fear of stepping beyond ourselves and we live in fear of ourselves. So often we see ourselves in the worse possible light as opposed to the light of love in which God sees us.  This keeps us from growing in God and deepening our relationship with God.  Allow me to refer to Richard Rohr again as he reminds us that “the most common one liner in the bible is ‘Do not be afraid’; It is located in the Bible 365 times.”[3]  That is one do not be afraid for every day in the year.

This an invitation to find a moment of non fear based living. In that moment of no fear, in that time of loving ourselves when we seek to love the other so that we might more fully know God in our lives, therein lays the very truth of God.  Henri Nouwen has said; “The fact that I am always searching for God, always struggling to discover the fullness of Love, always yearning for the complete truth, tells me that I have always been given a taste of God.”  In other words the spark of God is within us and we need to take time to pay attention to it.

Norvene vest in tending the holy reflects upon benedicts rule and his practice of becoming aware of God and paying attention to God in our lives.  She speaks of the way of humility. She states; “the way of humility in the rule of Benedict begins with the constant acceptance of our human, fallible reality, fully known by God who embraces us totally in our goodness and in our particular weakness”[4] God knows our faults and loves us through them and doesn’t hold them against us.  This is a non fear moment…we have to be fearless in loving ourselves beyond our own fallibility.

Norvene goes on to explain benedicts view on this…

Benedict describes the honesty, self love, love of others and God-which is the fruit of freedom from fear and the integration of love resulting from a life of humility-as ‘Good Zeal.’  It is manifest in the ability to be consistent in ‘showing respect to others,’ in ‘supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weakness of body or behavior,’ in the desire to do what one ‘judges better for someone else’; in ‘mutual love’ for one’s companions along the way, whether family, community members, or coworkers; in ‘Loving awe of God’; in ‘unaffected, honest and sincere love of those who have some authority in one’s life’[5]

In other words those stones that I spoke of earlier, that we throw at ourselves as long as we embrace them with grace filled humility and not use them to punish or belittle ourselves God is already there with you embracing you through them.  That humility, that grace filled humility, is a practice in and of itself that we, as Christians, must nurture.  As we do practice humility we can be free, free from fear to love our selves and others.  Supporting each other in our flawed reality of just being human the way God made us.

This is what Lenten period is about…taking that time to get to know God within us, around us, in our friends, family and community a bit better.  So that one may get to know God better there is required spiritual discipline.  YOU HAVE TO LOOK FOR WHAY YOU ARE YEARNING FOR.

During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence. The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ's carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches devoid their altars of flowers, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious paraphernalia are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of this event. In certain pious Catholic countries, the consumption of meat is traditionally yet varyingly[1] self-abstained by the faithful, while grand religious processions and cultural customs are observed, and the faithful attempt to visit seven churches during Holy Week in honor of Jesus Christ heading to Mount Calvary.

Some still surrender something for lent that is of value to them.  Such as if you love star bucks… (I am not picking on star bucks) then you may want to give up a Grande a day or as my grandmother always did she gave up sweets for lent.  In the ancient day one would clean out the cupboards of all meat and dairy products.  This is what led to many of the carnival type celebrations.  Use up all the riches of the cupboards and eat and drink as much as you can for come that first day of lent it is gone for 40 days actually about 44 for Sundays are not counted as days of lent.

Give up.  Let go of something you hold too tightly:  a dream, a person, a possession.  Give up trying to impress people, Give up wearing uncomfortable shoes, worrying about tomorrow.  Give things away, like love, a word, your life.  Serve, not expecting anything in return.  Love without expecting a reward.  Give up trying to save yourself.  Be righteous but know that God doesn't love you because you are righteous.

I often suggest that one try to take on something for lent. I try to take on some new spiritual practice, some task of prayer or meditation which I struggle with or seek out opportunity to minister.  Perhaps one could find time to volunteer with a local community based feeding program or perhaps seek out a program for youth that could use assistance and or mentoring.

This taking on something for lent is not just going out there and doing volunteer work.  Now don’t get me wrong volunteering is all well and good but what makes the Lenten project different is that as you do it you perform it with prayer full attention.  This is work dedicated to God as a way of getting closer to God and though the practice of a volunteerism is enough with prayerful intent it can be even better.

We enter in to these practices in order to get to know God and Christ a little better, a little closer. We want to think, confess, and understand, but also to encounter, worship, and be transformed by God. The primary way we do this is through liturgy in both word (reading and preaching about the Bible) and sacrament (baptism and the Eucharist). But we also do this through practicing the liturgical seasons like Lent. In order to know the Good News about Jesus holistically, beyond something that we work out in our brains like a word problem, we try to enter into this story with our bodies.

Tish Warren a student at Vanderbilt University in a blog for women in ministry writes of her friends; “I have a friend who gave up alcohol for Lent one year. He’s not an alcoholic, but he found that he was relying on alcohol to get through social events in a way he felt was unhealthy. Now, he still drinks alcohol, but after his Lenten fast he returned to it freer, knowing that it was not what made him okay, and he is able to abstain from it more readily. Some of us would do well to limit our working hours or practice Sabbath-keeping over Lent to repent for how we rely on work or busyness to make us feel okay. I have a friend who gave up her smartphone for Lent because she felt like technology had become, in some sense, a god in her life. She didn’t know how to live without being plugged in 24/7, so Lent was an experiment in letting go of a false god to rely on the true God.”[6]

One year for lent I took up the practice of photography.  We all take pictures and this is a normal thing often used to commemorate special events.  I was still working for the hospice at that time and I was driving all over Ventura, Orange and Los Angeles counties.  I had decided for lent I would seek something out that spoke of god to me.  One picture each day….that didn’t work out so well….over the forty days I took 194 pictures.  When one starts to look for God, to seek out that deeper relationship finding god in the everyday is really not difficult..

I would like to refer to Reverend Michael K. Marsh from his blog interrupting the silence again which states; “A battle is brewing on the road to Jerusalem. At first it looks like just another confrontation with the Pharisees and a puppet tyrant. But it is more than that. It will be a battle between a hen’s wings of love and a fox’s claws and fangs, a battle between stone and flesh. That does not sound like a fair fight and it is not. Only Jesus, however, seems to know that.”[7]

Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem.  So here are the Pharisees.  We do not know if they are headed the same direction or where they are coming from and yet here they meet.  There is no greeting.  No words of comfort only a warning. Herod wants you dead now go away; words of rejection, painful and frightening words, words that are hurled stones.

See Jesus knows the fight is not with Herod, not with the Sadducees nor the Pharisees.  Jesus’ fight is neither with Simon the Zealot nor with Judas Iscariot.  Jesus’ fight is with Jerusalem.  Michael Marsh reiterates; “’Jerusalem, Jerusalem.’ In those words I hear my name. For you see, Jerusalem is the universal name. It is the name of every family, language, people, and nation. Jesus is calling your name and my name. And I cannot help but begin to recall the stones that I have thrown.”[8]

Christ looks past all our stones.  Christ continues on the path towards Jerusalem, the path towards us upon the path paved with stones. You see it is the practice, the intention of seeking God out during these forty days. That helps us with taking those stones that are thrown at us or that we throw at ourselves and laying them down and pave the path to Jerusalem.

With each step on the path to Jerusalem Jesus is calling to us and offering compassion, understanding and healing. Christ is calling us to be a whole and holy people.  He comes to us in opportunity everyday through the poor, the hungry, the immigrant, the homeless, those who suffer from mental illness, physical disabilities.  Anyone who may challenges us and strike up that old fear in us.

“Every day he comes to us. We hear him in the cries of the poor, the immigrant, the homeless, the needy, and the hungry. We see him in the faces of those who are different from us, who threaten us, who scare us, those who live on the fringe of what we consider acceptable, those who would stretch us, confront us, and maybe even change us. We feel him in the touch of friends, parents, spouses, and mentors, whose hands support, encourage, sustain, and challenge us.”[9]

Again I encourage you throughout this Lenten period to take time to be alone with God in prayer.  Take time to seek God out in the world.  Take a moment to go beyond your fear.  Get past your old stones and lay them down.  Allow this to be a time of transformation, reformation, and renewal.

Over the next few weeks we will be hearing of different aspects of Jesus’ ministry that always leads to one place and one place only.  I bet you think I am speaking of Golgotha or the cross but no I encourage you all to look to Easter Morning.  For all the work and practice you may enter into during this Lenten period will lead to a new morning, a new way of seeing yourself, a glorious Easter morning where you will be able to see a road behind you paved with old stones that now glisten in that morning light.

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[1] Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), xxx.

[2] Michael K. Marsh, Interrupting of Silence, http://interruptingthesilence.com/tag/jesus-laments-over-jerusalem/ (accessed February 14, 2013).

[3] Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, 6.

[4] Norvene Vest, ed., Tending the Holy: Spiritual Direction Across Traditions (Harrisburg, PA.: Morehouse Pub., 2003), 126.

[5] Ibid., 127.

[6] Tish Harrison Warren, Giving Up and Taking Up: What we do (and don’t do) when we keep Lent, http://thewell.intervarsity.org/spiritual-formation/giving-and-taking-what-we-do-and-dont-do-when-we-keep-lent (accessed February 19, 2013).

[7] Marsh, Interrupting of Silence.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

saginaw michigan by Johnny Horton is so hard to find it drove me nuts

Chasing Rabbits

I would like to start with a story by Fred Cradock the man who literally wrote the book on preaching.  Fred speaks of seeing the grey hound races on the television.  These big graceful dogs run around the track chasing a mechanical rabbit.  Once they get too old the y are put up for adoption.  Fred visited a family who had just adopted such a dog;

It was a big old greyhound, spotted hound, lying there in the den.  One of the kids in the family, Just a toddler, was pulling on its tail, and a little older kid had his head over on that old dog’s stomach, used it for a pillow.  That dog just seemed so happy and I said tot eh dog, “Uh, are you still racing any?”

            No, no, no, I don’t race anymore.”

I said, “Do you miss the glitter and excitement of the track?”

He said, “No, no.”

I said, “So what’s the matter you get old?”

“No, no I still had some race left in me.”

“Well, did you not win?”

He said, “I won over a million dollars for my owner.”

“Then was it bad treatment?”

“Oh no they treated us royally when we were racing.”

I said, “The what?  Did you get crippled?”

He said, “No, no, no.”

I said, “Then what?”

He said, “I quit.”

“You quit?”

Yeah that’s what he said, he said, “I quit.”

I said “Why did you quit?”

And he said, “I discovered that what I was chasing was not really a rabbit. And I quit.” He looked at me and said, “All that running, running, running, running, and what I was chasing, not even real.”[1]

This is Jesus’ hometown he is returning too. Jesus was a Nazarene. He lived most of his life in the town of Nazareth within the province of Galilee. Although a small village, Nazareth was close to a couple of metropolitan centers.  Unlike some of its neighbors, Nazareth was a Jewish enclave. It was also relatively poor and overpopulated; there were little if any natural resources such as water and fertile soil. There was much sickness and disease all around.

The people, the Jewish people of the villages were tired of living under Roman oppression.  They were seeking a messiah, but what that messiah was and what his message would be was not agreed upon.

Professor Gerard Hill of Brisbane catholic university points out that there were four major schools of thought or ways of being Jewish at that time.

There were the Zealots who wanted a revolutionary Messiah one who would help the people to rise up violently against their oppressors.  There is some evidence to suggest that this movement was just beginning and really did not get moving until 30 or 40 years after Christ. The suggestion goes on to state that Simon the zealot was just that zealous for Christ’s ministry. But I choose for traditions sake to include this group.

 The Sadducees were a group of the upper echelon of the Israeli people.  They were content to maintain the status quos.  They were committed to the Jewish faith on the basis of the earlier books of the bible. Moreover, as the people at the top of the pecking order in the Jewish society of their time, they were much more concerned with present-day affairs and attempting to maintain their own stability as opposed to speculation on the life-to-come.

The Pharisees sought to live a life of spiritual purity by a meticulous following of the torah (Jewish law). They were not looking to compromise with Rome nor seeking revolution as the zealots did.  With their focus on the law they often could fall into a trap of pious legalism which would lead to the accusation of hypocrisy. Many of the Pharisees were truly deeply religious people. They believed in the resurrection of the dead. Yet Jesus was a problem for he was condensing the law making it easy for all to comprehend.

The Essenes, preferred to withdraw to a monastic-like setting instead of dealing with Rome or any of the other Jewish sects. They were a commune of sorts; they completely opted out of mainstream Jewish society. The most notable group in Jesus' time was the Qumran community who lived an ascetic life and was waiting for God's apocalyptic intervention in human history. [2]

Jesus understood his role here on earth and proclaimed it to his hometown. Jesus comes back from his baptism, full of the Spirit, and understands his purpose.
He understands for certain why he is here on earth and then he starts to tell the world.

So what happened?  Jesus message when first heard is taken with acceptance and a modicum of joy.  “All spoke good of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came out of his mouth.  They said is this not Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:22)  Remember Jesus had just proclaimed that what he read from the scroll is being fulfilled in the hearing of it.

Have you ever played the whisper game?  You whisper something in one person ear and by the time it gets to the 20^th person it is a much more condensed and completely different message than what you started with.  Well imagine the message of salvation being proclaimed as here and now.  Whose salvation??  Whose interpretation of what we just heard.  Jesus goes on to head off their anticipated rebuttals including one to come at the cross.

See in the next little section of today’s scripture Jesus doesn’t allow the people to continue to chase after nothing, chase that rabbit around the track each with their own agenda.  He tells them;

Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor cure yourself!’  And you will say ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did in Capernaum.’  And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.  But the truth is there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.  There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the Prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naam the Syrian.’  When they all heard this all in the synagogue were filled with rage.  They got up and drove him out of town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.  But he just passed through the midst of them and went on his way. (Luke 4:23-30)

Barbara Brown Taylor points out that “Jesus gets in terrible trouble for pointing out that God sent Elijah to save a widow in Sidon, and Elisha to heal a leper in Syria when there was no shortage of widows and lepers in Israel.”[3]  You see Christ is pointing out that this God thing, this Love thing is not for you to hold sacred and keep to yourself but it needs to be shared and shared with the most unlikely, it needs to be shared with the stranger.

So you see what Jesus is saying is you’re not getting what you want, what you expect. I have come to give this planet and its people the lessons it needs, the model of a life lived in love, peace and care for all.  Not for one, not for some, but for all.

I think this is the problem many of us may suffer a bit from today.  We want a Jesus that is here Just for us.  Just for me!  The old evangelical question comes to me “have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior.”  I think sometimes we say “yes I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personalized savior.” Again I quote Barbara Brown Taylor as she states; “the Great wisdom traditions of the world all recognize that the main impediment to living a life of meaning is being self-absorbed.”[4]  Jesus is challenging that in his people and today in us.

If you watch how Jesus proceeds on his journey it is all about encounter and humility.  He doesn’t limit himself, definitely not to his hometown and actually not to the people of Israel.  He doesn’t seek out people who look and think like him.  He will look a roman Guard in the eye just as easily as Samaritans or lepers.  He will walk with a Syro-Phoenician woman as well as angry Judeans.  He speaks equally to slave and master, to young girls and great men.  Christ’s call to each and all of us is to look for the image of God in each we encounter and greet that image, seek that image and minister to that image.

In our humanity we are always seeking ways to justify the faith we hold as an ultimate; making those who do not believe as we do a little less.  “If we can convince ourselves that God wants it too – even if that means making God in our own image so that we can deny God in our enemies—Then we are free to engage in combative piety.”[5]  This allows us to be angry when the message of love Challenges us.  This allows us to cower in fear at opening our doors to others.  This allows us to continue to chase our own meaningless rabbits.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in the dignity of Difference states that “the supreme religious challenge is to seek God’s image in one who is not our image.”[6]  In other words do not fear the stranger for in the stranger is opportunity, an opportunity to hear a different way of being in God.  An opportunity to learn and broaden our community for each stranger that you greet, get to know, engage changes you which changes us collectively.

I hope that through this year of discernment and exploration we can hear the call of Christ to walk with the other, to serve the other and to welcome the other to make our sanctuary a little larger to make our table a little longer and to make our faith a little stronger. Amen.

---

[1] Fred B. Craddock, Craddock Stories (St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, 2001).

[2] Gerard Hall, The world of Jesus' time, http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/gehall/xtology2.htm (accessed January 2, 2013).

[3] Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith (New York: HarperOne, 2009), 97.

[4] Ibid., 91.

[5] Ibid., 99.

[6] Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations (New York: Continuum, 2002), 60.

The Santa at the Manger

The Santa at the Manger

Julie Worcester in Abingdon press preaching annual relays a story of Christmas

“Advent and Christmas are always beautiful, but one of my fondest memories is of celebrating the season with my new spouse in our new church home, First United Methodist Church. The lovely sanctuary was made even more beautiful by the greenery adorning the windows, the walls, and the chancel area. Children’s eyes sparkled as they gazed upon the beautiful Christmas tree and heard stories behind the hand-stitched symbols and stories of the saints. One of the few decorations in the sanctuary that was not greenery or Christmas candles was the small statuette

of Santa kneeling at the manger. It sat atop the church’s organ. It was so unique, so different, so appropriate, and it piqued my curiosity. I asked the organist and some fellow choir members about the statuette following worship the Sunday prior to Christmas and was surprised by the varied responses. The comments ranged from, “I know, don’t you just love it?” to “Humph!” to “Yea, well . . . ,” and my favorite—“We don’t talk about it.”

Don’t talk about it? What was so controversial? Instead of laying the issue aside, I pressed on in search of an answer. I asked church members and our pastor. I first found out that those who knew who purchased it would not divulge the identity of the family for protective measures. Some in the congregation felt Santa had no place in church, some felt it childish, for some it didn’t matter one way or another, some liked it but were bullied by factions that didn’t like it. Those wonderful congregational disagreements; I know, another sermon for another time.

It took me almost ten years to find out the story of the statuette. The purchase was made by a fellow choir member. She and her husband had happened upon the statuette during a vacation in New Mexico. The purchase was made because this couple felt that Santa should be in the

church. It’s where Santa began and where Santa served. Church was most definitely where Santa belonged and where he should have been all along….”

Saint Nicholas was probably born near 270 C.E. in a port city known as Patara in Myra. Patara was the major naval and trading port of Lycia (Modern day Turkey), located at the mouth of the Xanthos River, until it silted up and turned into a malaria-plagued marsh.

Nicholas of Myra was born to wealthy merchant parents. Nicholas’ parents were Christian and the family worshiped in a congregation that was begun by the Apostle Paul toward the end of

his third journey where he had done some missionary work in the area between voyages.

Legend says that Nicholas’ parents were childless for most of their married life. They prayed every day for a child, and in later life their prayers were answered by the arrival of a son whom they named Nicholas, which means “God is victorious.”

Unfortunately By the time Nicholas was thirteen years old, he was an orphan. The plague claimed the lives of his parents. With no other family, Nicholas turned to God and the church for

solace. Nicholas gave his entire inheritance to the Roman Catholic Church and became a priest. He was appointed Bishop of Myra at the age of twenty-four and lived a life of service to others.

The young bishop was respected and beloved by his congregation and his community for his many acts of generosity.

Nicholas fought for truth, justice, and the Christian way. The gifts that Santa Claus brings are meant to be representative of the gifts and acts of kindness demonstrated by Nicholas for those in need, be it money for dowry or money to help a family pay their taxes to Rome that kept a child out of slavery, arguing before the Emperor Constantine for lower taxes on behalf of a community and region, or saving the lives of those who had been wrongly accused.

Nicholas died in 345 C.E., but within one hundred years of his passing the Santa we know today began to take shape. The stories of the Bishop of Myra spread to all parts of the Roman Empire, including present day England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

Saint Nicholas, Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession became known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and that is how he became the model for our modern concept of Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions ( which is a removal of sounds) and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos" 

In one story attributed to Nicholas a poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment, would have to become prostitutes. When he heard of this, Nicholas decided to help him, in order to be humble or more likely to prevent the man from being embarrassed by accepting charity he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses(one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house.

There are three versions of this story one has him throwing the gold through the window on three different nights, and another over three different years, each time just before the daughter comes of age.  The third year the father lie in wait to see who was bringing these gifts when caught Nicholas states that he should not be thanked but the glory should be given to God.  In a final version, Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney instead; and finally it may have been that the daughter had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell into the stocking.

See some traditions beginning in this story.

Over time the bishop’s robe, staff, mitre, and Bible were replaced with toys and other treats as symbols of St. Nicholas. His name even began to changed form  Sinterklaas toFather Christmas,

Papai Noel, Niklaus, Père Noël, Winter Grandfather, and Christkindl

Over the years Saint Nicholas became something for the children as opposed as a story of compassion and justice for all people.  He became a cartoon character finalized in a coke add in Haddon Sundblom’s depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company’s Christmas advertising in the 1930s.

Finally Back to where we started and Julie Worcester’s story of Jesus at the Manger she asks “Would Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, approve of the changes? No” she answers. “

 This pastor and priest, Nicholas, would have insisted that the focus be returned to God. Nicholas would have been directing our attention back to the manger of our Savior where Nicholas’ present-day likeness was kneeling. Like the good bishop, we should be pouring over God’s holy word and worshiping the One who came to this earth, fully human, fully alive and fully divine, the One who was sent to free us, free us from our own preconceived boundaries and allow us to be expressions of the God whose image we are created in.

If we look around, we will find that the kneeling Santa is us. As people of Christ, we, the modern day Santas, present ourselves to God with open hearts and open minds in search for opportunities to help those in need. As disciples of Christ, we should not limit to whom and when we should offer help, and we should seek justice for those who have no voice. We can accomplish all these things because of God’s amazing grace.

As I think of the image santa at the manger, I discover that, like Nicholas, I have been transformed. I have knelt before the manger and left as a new creation because of the grace and forgiveness found in Christ. Like Nicholas of old, and the kneeling Santa of today, may we live always in Christ and strive to live as the Spirit leads us, and may the Prince of Peace and Wonderful Counselor be with you and yours this coming new year.