Christmas: Love

 In the well-known Thirteenth Chapter of 1 Corinthians St. Paul notes that Faith, Hope, Love remain and the greatest of these is love. Having looked at Kindness, Peace, Joy, and Hope over this Advent season, we now come to the core—to Love. To the “Reason for the Season” as popular memes put it.

Love—this is not a hearts and flowers sentimental, commercialized version where everything looks like a Currier and Ives Christmas painting with everything pristine and white and happy.

The Love of God is something much different. It is the promise found in Isaiah 11:1-10 which imagines a world where the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them…They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain… Speaking about this promise, Br.James Koester of the Society of St. John the Evangelist says, “As Christians, we wait not so much for Christmas, as for the day when God will reorder all creation, so that predator and prey will live in harmony, and the most vulnerable will live in peace and security. This is the vision of Isaiah, and the hope of Advent. It is the work of Jesus, and the prayer of the faithful.” 

The Love of God looks like a Jewish baby born into a humble family in the midst of a world held in tenuous peace only through the might of Roman occupiers.  

The Love of God looks like a teenage girl saying ‘Yes’ to the unimaginable and even dangerous task of bearing a child into the world of oppression and danger.

The Love of God looks like a foster-father racing with his small family to Egypt to save their lives.

The Love of God is the found in Jeremiah’s call to action that tells us For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope (Jeremiah 20:11). We are part of bringing the Love of God to the hurt and brokenness of our world. Our world of pandemic and division and racism and fear and hopelessness hopes for a new way, a true hope, a real Love.

The Love of God is, as Presiding Bishop Curry noted in an interview in October, “[when] people to build relationships across differences and face painful truths…'How do we talk about love to people who don't want it?' he was asked. 'Love them anyway.'” 

The Love of God is you and me seeking to acknowledge, forgive, and heal our own woundedness so that we can see everyone (even those we don’t like or even fear) as bearing the imprint of the Holy and deserving of the same Love we crave.

The Love of God can be found in the small acts of kindness, peace, joy, and hope that we offer one another daily. Let’s enter the new year with the intention to build up and not tear down, to heal and not rend, to offer an open hand and not a closed fist.

May your Christmas be filled with the Love of God.

Image by Laura James on Pinterest

Lent 1: RESOLVE

This is the First Sunday of Lent. If you have ever wondered why Lent is longer than 40 days when you count it on the calendar, remember that Sundays are feast days and don’t count as days in Lent. Every Sunday is a ‘little Easter’, a tiny break in the Lent disciplines. That doesn’t mean you should gorge on chocolate or spend hundreds on a shopping spree if those are things you gave up, of course. Sundays are just a little respite from the discipline you have chosen.

Many of us RESOLVE to give up something for Lent as a spiritual discipline. It could be chocolate, shopping, social media, or any number of other things. Some RESOLVE to take on a new discipline instead, doing things like making a donation each day, adding new Bible study, or going to church more often. In fact, some may RESOLVE to just live the season without taking on or giving up anything. The reason we RESOLVE to do any of these things is not to make us ‘better’ or ‘more holy’. They are simply ways of offering ourselves to God intentionally and perhaps more fully than we have been. It’s a way of taking time to see the light behind the clouds of day-to-day living.

Psalm 116 is one of many that speak of making vows to God. The Psalmist asks What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? The response is we lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. (Psalm 116:12-14)

It’s easy to RESOLVE to do something for 40 days. It can be a lot harder to keep it up. The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer collect for the First Sunday of Lent acknowledges that we are weak and easily tempted to forget to follow through on our promises. It is only through the help of Jesus that we can be strong (and it’s one day, one moment, one intention at a time).

The Collect/prayer says, Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

LENT BOX

Throughout Lent, you can create a Lent box that may help you focus and follow through with your Lent plans. You can use a small box, or even a plastic bag or storage container, to hold the symbols you will add each week.

For this First Sunday, cut a length of ribbon, about 12” long. Tie it around your wrist every day as a visible reminder that Lent is a time for doing something different. If you prefer you can use it for a bookmark in your Bible, Lent devotional, or study. You just want it to be visible. The ribbon is symbolic of the coming funeral cloths of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. If you prefer, you can use leather lacing or even a Prayer bead bracelet (as I’ve seen some people do). This is simply something that will physically remind you that this is a special time.

Living Lent

In your prayers this week, consider what you will give up or take on for Lent this year. Ask God to help you persevere in the discipline, perhaps using the prayer above, or another that is meaningful to you. You can write you own prayer asking God to be with you as you strive to deepen your relationship this season.

Share your RESOLVE with another person. It sometimes helps to be held accountable. If someone else knows about your plan they can check with you about how it’s going. You can do the same for them. .
Use the ribbon to remind you of your promise to God.

Epiphany-the Wonder of Sight

This Epiphany season we are exploring some of the wonder around us that speaks of God.  Each week we’ll take a different sense (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste) and consider a Bible story that emphasizes that sense. This week, ‘sight’ is the focus. Like the Magi, we see Wonder all around and it tells of God in action. For the Magi, the star told of the birth. What do you see in your world that reminds you of God? A sunrise? Snow on the mountains? A bird flying by? Friends? Family?

But…what if you couldn’t see all those things? In the Gospel of Mark, (Mark 10:46-52) we meet Bartimaeus of Jericho. This man was sitting by the side of the road, begging for handouts to support himself. In the culture of the time, his blindness was a sign that he or his parents were sinners, so the only thing he could do to earn a living was beg. People passing by could get credit for a good deed (a mitzvah) by giving him something.

Clearly the son of Timaeus (that’s what Bar-Timaeus means) was not content with his lot in life. When he hears that Jesus is near, he starts shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Despite rebukes by the crowd, he continues to shout for attention. Jesus hears him and calls for him.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks.

Bartimaeus responds, “My teacher, let me see again.”

Jesus’ response is compassion. “'Go; your faith has made you well.' Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way."

Notice that Bartimaeus has not always been blind. Somehow, he has lost his sight and knows what is missing. He can’t see the beauty around him, his wife’s face, his children’s smiles, the sun in the sky, or the dust of the road.

We, too, can lose sight of what is important. Perhaps it’s busy-ness that keeps us from really seeing our loved ones. Maybe it’s depression or sorrow that has made us blind to joy and beauty. Could be that we’ve just quit looking for God in the day-to-day?  

Suddenly, we can come to the realization that something is missing. Whether we are physically blind or just blind about something, we call out to Jesus. Then we might just hear Jesus ask, “What do you want me to do for you?” If your answer is, “Lord I want to see,” then you will discover that the eyes of your heart will be opened to see God all around once more.

If you are feeling like you’ve lost sight of your relationship with Jesus, and are floundering around blindly-don’t hesitate, call out because Jesus hears us when we call and ask to regain our sight. This new year could be the perfect time to quit sitting by the side of the road and start seeing again!

Next week it’s the sense of hearing that we’ll think about.