God's Proclamations!

In our texts this morning what we have are proclamations from God.

Proclamations about who Jesus is, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

And because we are baptized into Christ Jesus these are proclamations that we share as children of God.

Proclamations about who we are, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

In our baptisms God proclaims to us these Biblical truths.

That we are God’s forever, and no matter what we can’t lose God.

Because we have not chosen God, but God has chosen us.

God has called us by name and redeemed us.

I know that these are concepts that seem far from everyday life.

There would seem to be an easier way to talk about God in our lives.

I have heard people talk about television preachers like Joel Olsteen.

People seem to like these popular preachers because they supposedly give messages about “everyday life”.

On the other hand, I have been told, that lots of mainline protestant pastors get caught up in theological explanation that don’t seem to have a lot to do with life.

I don’t think that is the difference at all.

Joel Olsteen, and other preachers like him, gives a message about self reliance.

He tells people that they can have it all, if they believe enough, if they are good enough, all their dreams can come true.

I think people like that message.

It is a message based on self.

I can’t give you that message this morning, or any Sunday morning really.

I can’t give you that message because it is not a Biblical message.

I also can’t give you that message because it is not totally the truth.

We all don’t make our own way.

We all can’t will ourselves to be better, or do better.

We cannot accomplish all of our dreams.

Some of who we are is defined by where we are born, what social economic class we are born into.

Some it has to do with who are parents are.

Some of it has to do with luck.

I offer as proof the amount of people who bought a lottery ticket this weekend in hopes of winning the $900 million dollar jackpot.

Why buy a lottery ticket if we can will our way to be anything we want?

If that was true wouldn’t all those who bought a ticket simply will their way to being a millionaire?

One of the ad campaigns for the lottery, it actually says, “Luck Happens.”

People bought tickets in the hopes of getting lucky.

They bought it in hopes of paying off bills, helping their families lives improve, giving some to charities they believe in.

They bought a ticket because life wasn’t all they wanted it to be, all they thought it should be.

The life they have actually worked really hard for isn’t good enough, so they need luck.

What we often hear.

What the world proclaims to us.

What we hear over and over again in subtle ways, and sometimes in overt ways, “You are not good enough.”

“Your life is not good enough.”

The things that you have actually worked really hard for don’t matter enough.

There needs to be more.

You should be in better shape.

You should have more money.

You should have smarter kids.

You should want more than this ordinary life.

I got a letter from Portico, this is the ELCA group that handles pastors retirement and health care, a while back.

It was a letter about my retirement.

And basically the message was, “You haven’t done enough for retirement. You will be broke and old someday.”

The message was I was failing at retirement and I haven’t even got there yet.

And this was from Portico which is supposed to be a ministry of the Church!

You see there are all sorts of proclamations like this in our lives.

They tell us we should be better.

They tell us we are not good enough.

And then the world tells us we don’t have what we want because we have not worked hard enough for it.

And then some religious person tells us that we don’t have because we don’t believe enough.

And we make ourselves crazy, depressed, and anxious because we don’t have the life that we think we need, or even believe we want.

Or we work harder and harder trying to get that life only to find out that is not very fulfilling either.

Some people win the lottery and their life gets worse.

Life is so much more complicated than simply get rich and life will be fine.

Even rich people have problems.

And those can’t be solved by money, fame, or buying more things.

And I can’t tell you that life will get better if you only believe more because it simply isn’t true.

What I offer you instead of a life trying always to be better, to do more, is the everyday wonder and magic of God’s grace.

I offer you the life of a baptized member of God’s family.

What that gets you is a proclamation from the creator of the universe.

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

Do not fear that you are good enough, have done enough.

Do not fear that you are worthy.

Do not fear that you don’t have enough.

Do not fear that you haven’t saved enough for retirement.

Do not fear that you are a failure.

You are mine.

You are loved.

You are good enough.

I wonder if we go through our days thinking about that fact?

Do we live our lives under that truth?

Because that is what grace is about.

It is about knowing that what we do will never be enough.

We can never do enough to make life better.

But what we cannot do, God has already done.

I really do believe in the core of myself that if we could really live under that grace our lives would be truly better.

Not superficially better, but really better.

We would love more and judge less.

We would give more and horde less.

We would try more and worry less.

Because you see often times we don’t try because we worry about failing.

But failing at something is not the problem.

It is the idea that we would never do it because we might look foolish.

My daughter this week tried out for the spelling bee in her class.

Truth is she is like her father and not very good at spelling.

But I was proud of her, not because she won, but because she was not afraid to fail, and tried anyway.

That is what our Baptisms can do for all of us.

It can help us to know that even in failing we are worthy, and loved.

That is true to life.

It is the real experience that we have.

Not that if we just try real hard, and believe we will succeed.

But that sometimes even when we try and believe we will fail, and that is ok because at the center of our lives, at the center of the universe is a God that has proclaimed us loved, redeemed.

A God who has called us by name, and we know we belong to God.

I hope you all go out this week and fail.

And that in the failure you remember that your worth is not determined by what the world proclaims about you, but about what God has proclaimed about you.

Amen

Christmas Story

Our choir sang the song, “There has never been a night like this!”

It is true that this night is wonderful, beautiful, magical, because there has never been a story like the one we share tonight.

That talks of God’s glory, majesty, and love.

What is it about this story?

What is it that makes it so important to us?

Why do we write songs about it?

Why do we make up plays about it?

What draws us here tonight to hear it again?

We should admit from the start that this is a story in opposition to other stories.

Because even at the time of it’s telling there are other stories competing for attention.

Consider that nowhere is there any Roman historian who wrote about Jesus birth.

If I could put it in modern terms there were no news cameras there, no mention of it on Facebook or twitter.

It would seem on the surface of all things to be insignificant.

A baby is born, is generally not news, unless it is a baby from some famous person or royalty.

This baby is born in a unassuming way in a manger, in a little town of no real significance.

Jesus birth really does not mean anything.

But it does.

It means everything.

The story has gone on for two thousand years.

It is here tonight for us to marvel over and receive grace and hope from.

Luke’s Gospel tells us that Jesus was born in the middle of another story where an empire ruled the known world.

Jesus was born among a story of military might, and lots of petty despots.

Jesus story is counter to the popular narrative.

Jesus story tells us of poor shepherds, of angel singing “peace on earth”.

Jesus story tells us of good news for all people!

The Roman story told us there was peace because of military might.

The Roman story told us that it was good news if you were a Roman citizen.

The song that Phil sang at the start of worship tells us that Jesus was born among a troubled time.

That Jesus was born in a weary land, filled with people that wanted to kill him, filled with a counter story.

And we too live in a weary land.

I don’t know about you but I often feel weary with all the things going on in the world.

I feel weary because the story we often hear is about how horrible things are.

The story we hear is of exploitation of people and of the earth.

We hear a story of violence, hatred, and greed.

And perhaps that is why we love this story.

It is counter programming for us.

In our world that is torn apart by political dissension.

In our world where we are told that a strong military makes us safe, but we don’t feel any safer.

In world where there are nightly news reports of bad news.

We still need a story that tells us of good news and true peace.

 We need to know that in small places that no one is paying attention to, mystical, spiritual things are happening.

We need this story, and that is what keeps us going.

That is why we come to hear it.

Why we sing it.

Why we put on plays with cute kids.

I must say that I have been one for keeping the story straight.

That Luke’s telling of the story is different than Matthew’s for theological reasons.

But I am also aware that the story that most of us know is not only from Luke or Matthew it is from both.

Growing up before we could open our gifts we had to read the Christmas story.

And the story we read was a mash up of Luke and Matthew’s Gospel.

It had both shepherds and Wise men.

It had the stable and the manger.

It had angel’s appearing and the star.

I have come to see that as part of our need for this story.

It is not enough to know Luke or Matthew’s we want to understand this story from all the angels.

It is why we make up songs that are not 100% Biblically accurate, but that get at what the story is trying to tell us about our lives and what God was doing through the birth of Jesus.

Because what the birth of Jesus means is mind blowing, and quite frankly impossible to fully understand.

To think that the Lord of heaven and earth would become human is an amazing thought.

To think it would happen in this way is even more amazing.

If God was going to come to rule, why not come as a emperor?

In fact, that was the story of Rome that the Emperor was god on earth.

That people should worship the Emperor because he had conquered foreign lands.

The story we love does not make sense.

It is why many disparage it as a fairy tale.

In fact, one atheist group put up a billboard that read, “Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is to skip church. I am too old for Fairy Tales.”

Many people they can’t understand why God would come to earth in such a way.

If God were to come to earth it would be bigger, grandeur, better known.

But all of that misses the point.

The fact that it happened in this way is the point.

God is not interested in the same story as the Roman Empire.

God is interested in the story of a savior coming to show us another kingdom of heaven filled with love and peace.

God is interested in using people like the shepherds who are not very interesting.

God is interested in using stories of the ordinary becoming extraordinary.

This is the story of the union of heaven and earth through the love act of God.

It is the story that we love and we can’t get enough.

It is the story we keep telling.

It is the story we keep re-inventing through plays, books, and song to help us understand it better.

Tonight we hear that story again.

We remember God’s extraordinary, amazing love through shepherds, two poor people, a baby born in lowly circumstances.

And we remember that the story we often hear in the media, in political speeches, on television does not have to be the only story.

There is one greater, and with deeper meaning to us.

It is the story of God’s good news for all people.

It is the story of God coming down to earth to reside with God’s people.

 Let us leave here tonight as the Shepherds did after hearing this amazing unbelievable story, “glorifying and praising God for all we have heard and seen, as it has been told to us.”

Amen

My Hope for 2016!

I can’t wait for 2015 to be over.

For me it has been a really dreadful year.

Filled with people I love dying, getting sick, and just all round bad news.

There were many times this year when my wife and I would look at each other and just say, “This is just an awful year.”

This doesn’t even account for all the bad news that we have heard about in the world, the shootings, the terror, the be-headings, the racism, the xenophobia, and the unpredictable weather.

I can’t remember a year that was worse.

I am looking forward to putting it behind me and moving on.

Perhaps you have had years like that filled with more bad then good.

Perhaps you have had days or months like that.

But here is the thing I am hopeful.

Despite what has happened in my life and in the world I am still hopeful.

I am hopeful for 2016.

Let me say that I am not sure that 2016 will actually be any better.

I am not sure that there will be any less death and sickness.

I am not sure that we will have any better news about things happening in the world.

But I know that in 2016 God will be in my life, God will be active in the world.

I believe in faith that God through death is always birthing new life.

And that is what gives me hope.

As the philosopher Vaclav Havel once wrote, “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

I believe in faith that even in 2015 God was at work in my life, in the world through all the bad.

And that is the good news that we experience at Christmas, that God is not detached from our lives.
God is not unconcerned about our struggles, our pain, our heartache, but is somehow using them to birth new things into being.

Consider our Gospel story for this morning.

It is of two women who are both struggling.

They are caught up in a story bigger than themselves.

They don’t know exactly how everything goes together, but in faith they have decided to trust God, because of that trust they hope that this is all part of God’s bigger plan.

Elizabeth who is old and thought it was impossible to have a child is chosen by God to give birth to the prophet John to prepare the way.

If any of you have known people in your lives of people that couldn’t have a child but wanted one, you will know of the sadness that comes with that fact.

You will have seen the pain it causes.

For years Elizabeth lives with that pain and loss.

And even now she probably doesn’t know exactly why this happening.

But she might have been the only one who took Mary’s pregnancy with such joy.

She might have been the only person in Mary’s life who said that this pregnancy was a “blessing”.

That was is so great about Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth is that among these difficult time and circumstances God is doing a new thing.

And that is what hope is for us.

It is the ability to believe that God is at work even in the most trying and difficult of times.

It is to be able to sing Mary’s song no matter what is going on in the world and in our lives.

As Mary sings, “God has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

This year I sat in a pew at the Lutheran church in East Long Meadow.

I sat next to my friend and put my arm around him as he cried because his wife at the age of 37 had died.

We sang hymns, listened to stories about her, shared in the Lord’s meal, and heard the good news of God.

I don’t know if I can say I was hopeful on that day.

I was sad.

Even now I am trying to give it some meaning, some purpose.

I don’t know if I can.

However, I can tell you that in faith I believe that God will bring life from that death.

That is where my hope lies.

Not in my ability to understand why certain things happen.

Not in my ability to find deeper meaning in the events of the day.

Not in some happy pronouncement about finding a silver lining.

Not in optimism.

My hope lies in the God of Israel who remembers his promises and is with his people forever.

This year I sat in the Lutheran Church in Warwick Rhode Island.

My friend’s sister had lost her son who was only 2 years old.

It was actually the second child she has lost.

I sat in the back this time.

We sang songs, heard the good news of God through Jesus Christ, and heard stories about the 2 year old boy.

I am not sure I felt hopeful on that day.

I am not sure I have words to convey how any of it made sense.

I know I cannot tell you why.

But in faith I am hopeful.

Not because it makes sense.

Not because I believe in some grand plan, but because the God of Israel has sent his Son into the world.

The God of Israel chose an unmarried poor teenager who lived in the backwater no good for nothing town of Nazareth to give birth to the savior of the world.

The God of Israel is my strength in such times.

I could go on and tell you other stories like this about my year.

I will spare you those other stories.

Maybe you had some like these yourself.

Maybe you are trying to make sense of it all.

This morning I am not trying to make sense of it all.
I am here to tell you the good news.

The same good news I heard at all the funerals I went to this year.

It is the good news that keeps me going.

The good news that has me looking forward to 2016.

The good news that gives me hope when everything else in this world is going so bad.

It is the good news that we hear today.

That the God of Israel, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the mighty one whose mercy endures forever that God sent us Jesus Christ so we might know of God’s love and mercy.

God sent Jesus Christ so that we have hope.

I realize that my sermon this morning could sound kind of like a downer.

I am telling you all the things that went so wrong in 2015.

However, that is not what I want you to leave her this morning thinking.

I don’t want you to leave here thinking, wow pastor had a really bad year and he must be really sad.

That is not my intention.

I want you to leave here with hope.

Not optimism.

For me optimism means that I am pointing to something and saying, “this will get better, because ….”

Hope as a person of faith says, I believe that God is at work, even when I can’t see it, or don’t know why, or am devastated with sadness.

Even when there are no answers, and please don’t try to give me any, I am not looking for that.

I am saying that my hope doesn’t come from what is going on around me, it comes from God.

It comes from promises that God has made to us.

Because I don’t know what kind of year I will have in 2016.

I don’t know what kind of year you will have in 2016.

I know that God will be there through it all, and that is what gives me hope.

It is the same hope that gave Mary and Elisabeth the strength to believe God, even though they were struggling to understand it all.

It is the same hope that gave Elizabeth the insight to call Mary’s pregnancy a blessing when no one else would.

And it is the same hope that this year will be the year when our mighty God will look with favor on the lowliness of his servants.

And that our spirits will rejoice in God our savior.

This morning I want all of you to leave here and have hope, not because life is great, but because you know the God of Israel has mercy and has made promises to do great things for us.

May we leave here singing Mary’s song of blessing, and knowing of God’s love and mercy shown to us in Jesus Christ.

May we have hope in 2016.

Amen