Skunks, Cracked Stack, and Broken Dishwasher But a Joyful Christmas

 

This week more than one person has said to me, "I just don't feel the Christmas spirit this year."

It got me thinking about what that means for us, and why we have it or don't.

If you think about it, you have to admit that it is a little odd that we are expected to be all holy and jolly this time of year regardless of what is happening in our lives or the world.

I mean what if you are mourning?

What if you are dealing with serious health issues?

What if you are dealing with mental illness?

What if you can't afford to buy gifts or host a meal?

I have been dealing with what seems like one issue after another since Advent started.

It started when we had skunks under the school.

We had to move all the kids over to the church.

I spent a Monday morning at the laundry mat washing blankets and rugs.

Then our dishwasher stopped working.

In the middle of our preparations for our open house.

Then we had a leak in our plumbing at the parsonage.

Today when you come over for the open house you will see the carnage still, as we deal with the issue.

There were some other personal emergencies I had to deal with too.

All of these things are normal life things.

We are always dealing with skunks, plumbing, and things breaking.

But when these things happen during the Christmas season it seems to make it worse.

Because it is Christmas time and we are supposed to be holly and jolly.

This is supposed to be the best time of the year.

 

Just because it is December that mean we are supposed to be happy.

Everything in our cultural celebration of Christmas tells us we have to be.

From the movies, we watch to the music we listen to, to the way people tell us it is supposed to be.

But what if we simply are not in the mood?

Does that mean we are not in the Christmas spirit?

Does that mean that we are doing something wrong?

 

It seems like Jesus' question this morning is a good place for us to start.

"What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?"

Jesus asks this question about John, but also about what people are expecting him to do and be.

What is it that we are searching for?

Are we looking for something soft and easy?

Or are we looking for something more?

For a word that doesn't just fade away when we take down the Christmas tree.

For a word that strikes at what it is, that is really at the core of our unease?

For a word that isn't just about being happy, but about being joyful.

 

Because happiness is always fleeting.

Having fun is about a moment in time.

It is great to have fun and to experience happiness.

And there are moments for me where I have that happiness.

Today will be a happy day.

Having people at our house for the open house is always fun for me.

A couple of weeks ago when we went to Tandy's for Beer and Hymns that was a lot of fun.

I was really happy that night.

But Jesus is right, those things are but the reeds in the wind.

The next day, life is back to being hard.

And for a hard life, we need a message that won't simply tell us that we are having a wonderful Christmas time.

We need a word that will bring us joy.

 

And joy is different from happiness.

It is longer lasting.

It is deeper in our souls.

It is not based on our condition in life.

Joy is what Jesus brings into the world.

 

Joy is what Jesus gives us deep in our hearts.

Because it is true that we might not be in the Christmas spirit, but what we have instead is more important.

We know God's love and grace.

We know God's word given by Jesus Christ.

We know that God walks with us through skunks, broken dishwashers, cracked pipes, and all of the hard things we face in this life.

That is where joy is found, not in songs that tell us to be happy, or store clerks wishing us a "Merry Christmas".

 

I don't know if you are missing the Christmas spirit this year.

I want to give you permission not to have to feel it.

Instead, I want to invite you with me into the wilderness.

Let us go together to hear the prophet's words.

Let us hear Isaiah tell us to "be strong, do not fear!"

Because God is coming to save us.

Let us hear the psalmist remind us that the "Lord lifts up those who are bowed down."

Those are words that bring joy to my heart.

They remind us of what it is Jesus brings into the world.

A world that is hard, but where the blind see, the lame walk, captives are set free, and justice for the oppressed.

Isn't that what we need to hear this Christmas.

We don't need another song about how holly and jolly we should all be, instead, we need a message that has deep roots.

A message rooted in the word of God.

A true message of joy!

 

Because I do believe that Christmas is joyful.

It is filled with so many good things in life.

It is filled with us together right now.

It is filled with food, friends, family, presents, and lights.

All of those things are gifts from God to us.

It is just that we don't have to feel all merry and bright all the time.

We can also be frustrated that things are not going the way we wish.

Or sad that someone we love is no longer hear with us.

Or upset that our kids are not behaving.

Or frustrated that we have to buy so many presents.

Or disappointed that the world is unjust, and so many people are struggling to make ends meet.

Or whatever normal human thing we are going through.

 

Christmas can remind us that our God is not above all those things, but rather that God came to us as a human being.

That God in Jesus Christ walked this earth.

That God wore our skin and knows our sadness, frustrations, and disappointments, and that we get upset.

God knows we are not always in the Christmas spirit.

And because of that, we know that whatever comes our way.

Whatever difficult things we face we are never alone.

We are able to deal with it, and even among all those things still have joy.

Joy in knowing the strong roots of God's love, mercy, and grace.

 

So there might be skunks under the school, and things might be broken.

I may have a broken heart or dealing with something difficult this Christmas season.

I might not be in the mood for Christmas spirit.

But the good news is that is ok.

Because Jesus has come into the world, is coming into the world, and is here now with us.

And with that,

we can face it all.

Because what we go out to see is not all merry and bright, but the truth of God's word.

The promises of God's redemption and saving.

So, we can have joy deep in our souls.

 

May all of you have a joyful Christmas, and remember the promises of God are with you always.

Amen

 

 

I Need John the Baptist This Year

 

Is it just me or does it seem that Christmas is coming fast this year?

It is always a challenge when Advent starts right after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve is on a Saturday.

It means a shortened Advent season.

And that means that all of our preparations have to speed up.

Not to mention that this is the first time in a long time that we are having a more "normal" Christmas.

We are doing all of the things we did before the pandemic again this year.

I mention it this morning because I am always a little worried that our preparations for the Christmas season will drown out our preparations for Christ to come again.

That is preparing for gifts, parties, and time with family, we will forget what it is we are doing this season.

 

I don't like these two weeks of Advent when I have to preach on John the Baptist.

But this year I need John.

John is the one who comes to prepare the way for Jesus.

He comes in the wilderness to preach about repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to call us back to God.

John reminds us that we can't merely rely on our religious beliefs.

We can't pretend to say that we have Abraham as our father.

Or that we have Jesus and all is well.

Our faith compels us to a continued life of repentance and forgiveness.

 

We have to admit that it all seems a little out of sorts.

I mean where is there time or energy for that this season.

We have so much to get done.

We have to buy gifts.

We have to bake cookies.

We have to cook the food.

We have to attend the parties.

We have to watch Christmas movies.

Where will we find the time to confess our sins?

What does that have to do with Christmas?

Why do we have to even consider it?

 

At Thanksgiving, my aunt was talking about all the Christmases that my family had when I was growing up.

My aunt would be there most Christmas eve with us.

We were marveling at all the work my mom put into those times.

The meals that she prepared.

The way she created this perfect feel of what Christmas was supposed to be.

I have such wonderful memories of those times, and so did my aunt.

And Christmas was always about more than the presents and the food.

We went to two Christmas eve worship services most years, or at least my parents would.

We would read the Christmas story before opening our presents.

My point is that one did not take away from the other.

They were intertwined.

Our lives of faith are not divorced from the lives we live.

It isn't just that we went to Church.

It is that Christmas was a holy time.

It had everything to do with Jesus coming into the world.

Even the food and the presents.

Those things were just symbols of love.

They were symbols of the love that we shared as a family and the love that we were given by God through the birth of Jesus Christ.

We can't have Christmas without going out into the wilderness to confess our sins, any more than we can have Christmas without whatever way you celebrate it.

We can't have it without some contemplation on what it means for us.

There is nothing wrong with wanting our Christmas time to be wonderful and joyful.

There is nothing wrong with wanting our family to be together and happy.

In fact, that is a huge part of this holiday season.

I think that what we are asked by John to do is think more deeply about why those things matter.

 

They matter because they are symbols of greater love.

John tells us today that he is not the final word.

That there is fire coming into this world.

We need the fire.

We need to be set ablaze so that our hearts are centered on what God asks of us.

John is setting up what is coming in Jesus Christ.

And the question that is proposed to us in Advent is are we ready?

Not for Christmas eve, because let us be honest none of us is ready for that this year.

But are we ready for Christ to come?

 

One of the things we have been doing in our house to get ready for Christmas is clearing the clutter.

We have to move things so we can put up our tree.

We have cleared out old things so there is room for people to come and have a good time at our house.

We need this not only physically but also we need this spiritually.

We need to clear out all of the things in our lives that are holding us back from being who God has called us to be.

We need to be ready so that when Jesus comes we can accept his love for us and the world.

 

I know that one of the things I am trying to rid myself of this Advent is my propensity to be pessimistic.

I am trying to clear it out so that I can be surprised by God, the world around me, and other people.

I think it is healthy to not have too high of expectations for people.

People are simply people.

They are complicated and sinful.

They do things that don't always make sense to me.

However, I am trying to carve out some room for God to do things with people that I don't expect.

I am making room for hope this Advent season.

Hope that God will bring new things to our world.

Hope that people's hearts will be changed by God.

Hope that we can learn to really love each other.

Hope that we learn to say what is true about ourselves and others.

Hope that we will know the grace of God.

 

That happens to us when we confess our sins and hear the promise of God's forgiveness.

We begin to hope.

Hope that our lives will change, that the world will change, and that things will be different.

That is why it is so important not to skip over it this Advent.

It is why we need to go out into the wilderness and once again confess our sins.

Because all of the things we do to make this season special for our loved ones are dependent on that.

It is vital for us to be able to know God's love in order to share it with others.

We know that love is by being forgiven, and by allowing God's grace to work its way through our souls.

 

Christmas may be coming soon.

We might be feeling the crunch of time.

But it is not too late to take some time to go out into the wilderness and listen to John the Baptist tell us to repent.

And in that repentance to receive the wonderful words of God's grace.

There at that moment, we experience the wonderful hope that this season has to offer us, and that we can give back to others.

 

May repentance be part of your Christmas season.

May the fire of Christ be in you, so that you might know the hope that Jesus brings to you and the world.

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

God's Time

 Advent is about time.

It is about marking time before the world changes.

It is about marking time before we change.

It is about marking time for another magical event in our lives.

It is about marking time as we wait for justice, peace, love, and joy.

Marking time has become strange to me these days.

And not just me.

I have had multiple conversations this week with multiple people about time.

People are having trouble since COVID started remembering when things happen or don't happen.

I know that I am really struggling with this these days.

I just keep saying that everything was about 5 years ago.

One person was saying how they remembered being at our open house last year.

The problem is we didn't have one.

 

I know that we think of time as linear.

As we grow older, time moves on.

But the older I get the less linear time is.

My memories all collapse into one thing.

Can any of you remember one advent being different from another?

What about Christmas?

Maybe that is a good way to mark the time.

Certainly, I have certain memories about different Christmases.

They are laid out in some timeline.

The Christmas of my childhood.

The Christmas of being married.

The Christmas of living in New York.

The Christmas of living back in New Hampshire.

But the actual one all mesh together on that timeline.

What about you how are you experiencing time these days?

 

In the Bible, time is not necessarily linear.

We are told that God's time is not our time.

The events in the Bible don't always unfold on a linear path.

There are repetitions and things that go out of sequence.

And this morning we are told by Jesus that the ultimate end of time is not for us to know.

Perhaps because our own sense of time is not always reliable.

What we see in the world can only be viewed through our narrow understanding of time.

We live in certain times.

Those times all have their moments of war, famine, and pestilence.

They all have their moments of false prophets.

And we can only view what is our past and present.

We don't have a special view into what will be the future.

And for me, this is the most important thing about advent time.

Is that all we have is our past and present.

And even our past is complicated.

We don't remember everything and we don't always remember it in the right sequence.

All we have is moments in our mind's eye.

Moments that remind us of the love we shared with someone.

Moments that remind us of our failure and how we overcame it.

Moments of joy and sadness.

 

And this for me is the most important thing about Jesus teaching on the end of time.

It is really all about faith.

This is what time has to teach us.

This is what our memories of the past have to tell us.

That it is about faith.

It is about living in an uncertain world and still setting our sites on God's future.

It is living through all of the ups and downs.

It is living in a world filled with sin and still having hope for the good.

 

I saw on Facebook someone said, "I can't give thanks this year because of all the bad things happening in the world."

This I don't understand.

I understand that the world is a mess.

We see mass shootings piling up, the war in Ukraine, rampant inflation, people experiencing homelessness, political division, climate change, racism, homophobia, and a mental health crisis like never before.

There is no doubt the world is a mess.

However, when we give thanks it is because the world is a mess.

We give thanks to saying that in spite of all of it we still believe in the goodness of God.

We still believe in love, peace, and justice.

We still believe that God will see us through.

I can acknowledge the problems of the world, and see all the wonderful things in my life that God has given to me.

Giving thanks to me amplifies our need to help people living in different conditions.

 

Because as I look back on my life.

As I think about where I have come from.

I know this for sure.

None of it is possible without faith in God.

I won't go into specifics, but this has been an extremely difficult year for my family.

And the only way I have been able to survive and keep going is through faith.

And that faith is not my own.

It was handed down to me from my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents.

I saw how they struggled but kept going by the grace of God.

I saw firsthand the power of faith in our lives.

 

Friday, was my wedding anniversary.

My wife and I were talking about the things we have faced in our 22 years of marriage.

A couple of things stood out from that talk.

One, we can't remember all the details.

Two, some days it seems like 22 years flew by, and other days it seems like it is two lifetimes.

(Time is a funny thing.)

Three, we were thankful for our faith which is the foundation of our marriage and our life as a family.

We both know that we would not have been able to get through everything without it.

 

I want to be careful about this next part.

I don't want to give the impression that what is most important in life is coming to church.

I do lament that kids are not being given that same foundation.

Because I think the world feels like it is coming undone.

It feels like things are always falling apart.

And the thing that we lean on in those times is our faith.

 

This week I was visiting with one of our members who just had surgery.

They were telling me that before that surgery the nurse told them that they seemed very calm.

They told the nurse that they were calm because no matter the outcome they knew God was with them and everything would turn out the way it should.

That is the kind of faith we need to face these days.

That is the kind of faith our children still need.

That is the kind of faith that our forebearers taught us.

They too lived through famine, wars, false prophets, political division, and pestilence.

They faced all those things with faith that God's time was coming, and that everything will turn out the way it should.

That God's time is not our time.

That we don't have to know the future just live with faith, hope, joy, and love.

 

For me, that is the time that marks our advent season.

It is not about linear time.

But about God's time when all will be well.

Where we give thanks not only for our blessings but the ways in which all God's children know God's love.

A time when our faith will be rewarded with all the goodness of God.

Until that time.

Let us live in this time.

Let's take the memories of the past and use them to make today the best it can be.

Let us have faith in God's ability to turn things around, and make us only live in God's time that is filled with faith, hope, joy, and love.

Amen

 

 

 

 

To My Children on Their 16 and 18 Birthdays

 To my children on their 16 and 18 birthdays

On your 16th and 18th birthdays let us pause to acknowledge the miracle that is this day! The fact that you are here is a miracle. It is a miracle for so many reasons. You traveled through the heavens to come to be my children. It is a miracle that your grandparents all went to the same church. It is a miracle they were friends. It is a miracle that your mom and I knew each other for our whole lives. It is a miracle that we happened to both be working at camp in the summer of 1998. It is a miracle that we fell in love. It is a miracle we got married. You are a miracle to me.

But now that means even more. Your being here today is a miracle. It is the providence of God that you are here. The thing about miracles is that we don’t know their meaning, or why. All we can do is accept them in gratitude. All we can do is thank God for this day. We can appreciate the miracle that is in our lives. We can look back and thank God that we were saved from our own paths of destruction. We can pray for more miracles.

Miracles are not always big and splashy. They are not always a burning bush, calming storms, or healing some disease. Instead, they are the small things that make up our lives. They are leaves in fall, a sunny day by the lake, a good meal shared with friends, love of family, hard work, a job well done, and a new skill developed. Miracles are the everyday things that give our life meaning and purpose. I didn’t understand that until I became a father. Until I held each of you in my arms for the first time. I saw in you my miracle. You are my life’s meaning and purpose. I hope you forgive me for all the failed times that I forgot what a miracle you are to me.

As you turn 16 and 18 I am thankful for the miracle that you are. I am thankful every day that you are my children. I am thankful every day that all of the miracles that proceeded you have led to this day. I hope every day you stand in awe of it all. I hope you see how precious you are. I hope you see that love has traveled through the universe, through the heavens to bring you to this point. I can only pray for more miracles for you. As the universe unfolds before us, God who holds all things together will continue to unfold the love and grace that brings all things together for good.

Love,

Dad

Living In Paradox

 Lately, I have been working on an important spiritual practice.

I have been working on holding that two opposing ideas can both be true.

In this world, we are often told that we have two options.

And we must choose one or the other.

We are told that it is right and wrong for every situation.

We are told that we must decide what one emotion we will have for a given situation.

Most of our faith is put to us in this way too.

We have to choose.

We have to choose which side we are on, and what is the right way to believe.

 

For example, have you ever answered one of those political surveys?

They give you a topic and then ask what you think or feel about it.

And it is always only two choices.

I really dislike those because I often don't think either of the solutions they offer.

I remember one time I was taking one of those surveys, and I was talking about how I felt and thought about a particular subject.

The pollster said, "Sir, you have to just pick one of the answers?"

 

Life is not as binary as we are told.

It doesn't have to take it or leave it.

My way or the highway.

This or that.

 

I really started to think about this after my mother died.

Because I often felt two emotions at the same time.

I felt extremely sad and extremely grateful and even glad.

Sad that my mother was no longer here on this earth with me.

Sad that I can't go and talk to her and get her advice.

Glad that I had her as my mother.

Glad for all the things she did teach me.

Glad that I was blessed to have her love.

Two seemingly opposing emotions at the same time.

 

Maybe our emotions and our thoughts have room for paradox.

Maybe we actually experience paradoxes more in our lives than we want to admit.

What if our faith was built around this idea that two seemingly opposite things can be true at the same time?

 

It would start at the cross.

It is here that we see paradox most strikingly.

Jesus is strong by being weak.

The king of our lives is the one who dies on a cross.

A sinless savior is killed as a criminal.

Jesus saves us by giving up his life.

Today in our Gospel we hear people mocking Jesus because he saved others, but seemingly can't save himself.

Jesus did miraculous things for people.

He healed people from physical and emotional trauma.

He fed 5,000 people.

He calmed storms, and walked on water.

He walked among us as one of us, even though he was God.

Power comes from serving and letting go, and not commanding and ordering others around.

And in Luke's Gospel here is Jesus on the cross actually saving others.

Here is Jesus telling a criminal that he will be in paradise.

The cross is filled with contradiction.

It is filled with paradox.

No wonder the Gospel writers don't really try to explain its meaning.

Instead, the show us what it was.

Instead, they let it stand as it was.

And they let us work through what it means for us.

 

Some have tried to make the cross only about one thing.

Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin and death.

That is the sentence that we hear most often.

I believe that.

But it isn't all the cross means.

It isn't all it has to say to us about our faith in God.

The cross says so much more.

And perhaps we don't have to make it only say one thing.

Because it is also an example to us of what it means to follow Jesus.

It is also God's way of laughing at evil and saying it has no real power over us.

It is also God's way of showing us that there is more to life than what the world says is power.

It is also God's way of showing us the true nature of God's love for us.

I could go on and on.

But the point is that it is all those things for us.

 

In our lives, we need paradox so much.

Because what I have found is that one thing is never enough to explain all the things I have to face in this life.

One emotion is not enough to explain my pain at losing someone I love.

One thought is not enough to explain how I feel about the issues that we face in this life.

One idea is not enough to solve the problem I am facing.

One way of looking at life does not explain all the complexities of the reality of people's existence.

One word is not enough to explain my faith.

It is complicated and needs more than all of that.

 

I fall into the either/or category very easily.

And it is often at my own peril.

I will sometimes make declarative statements.

At the time they sound good.

And then later on I will say the opposite, and someone (usually my wife) will remind me that I just recently said the opposite.

Then I have to confront that I am either a liar or that life is more complicated than I wanted to admit.

 

The cross always confronts our ability to make everything easy.

Or to make us comfortable with absolute statements.

On the cross, God took away our self-righteous talk, and our self-justification.

Instead, we are left to confront the parts of ourselves that are the two thieves on either side of Jesus.

Both of them are wrong, but one with a declarative statement about how the world works.

The powerful use it for their own good.

The other sees sin in himself and confesses his need to be remembered for something.

On any day I can be either of those two people.

One day totally confident in who I am and what I am doing.

The next realized that I don't know anything.

One day I will believe I figured out how the world works.

The next realizing that it can also work in other ways.

 

I believe holding things in paradox is an important spiritual practice.

It keeps us away from absolutism.

It keeps us honest about ourselves and our ability to make sense out of everything.

It keeps us humble.

It shows us our need to be remembered by God.

It helps us to see our neighbor's life and hold it in high regard even when that is not our life experience.

 

If you are confused by life.

If you are searching for spiritual help.

I want to suggest to you that you too can hold two opposite things in tension.

I know that doing that has helped me mourn.

It has helped me to love my neighbor as myself.

And it helped me to start at the cross because it is there that I am saved.

I am saved from myself, from my need to be a know it all.

It is at the cross where our king dies to save us.

That paradoxical statement is the truth that leads us to paradise.

May the cross be the place where we are remembered by God, where we give up our need for simple answers, where we learn to love our neighbors, and where we are saved.

Amen