(prayer)
There is an episode, in the
"Voyager" Star Trek TV series, called Timeless. It first aired in
1998 and centered on the key theme that dominated the whole series: The crew of the USS Voyager, under the
leadership of Captain Catherine Janeway, were trying to get back to earth
having been abruptly been taken 70,000 light years away from home by an
advanced alien lifeform. When that alien
died, so did their hopes of a quick return.
At maximum warp speed, 70,000 light years would take about 75 years to
traverse.
That's the story arc of the whole series: being alone in an unknown part of the galaxy, methodically making their
way back to Federation space, encountering new species along the way - all the
while trying to find new technologies and natural phenomenon that might get
them home earlier.
The episode Timeless describes a time when the crew
of Voyager had installed a Borg-inspired 'slipstream' drive on their starship
which would allow them to travel thousands of times faster than usual. It could allow them to get home in a matter
of hours rather than years.
The problem was that the
slipstream drive was not fully compatible with Federation technology. It was not able to automatically adjust their
trajectory quick enough to compensate for small spacial variants that were
occurring in the stream ahead of them.
The solution was to have
two crew members fly ahead of the starship in a smaller shuttle craft,
recognize the variations earlier, calculate the necessary course corrections
and send them back to Voyager with time to make the adjustments.
//
The episode is more complex
than that (involving at least two ships getting destroyed in an alternate
timeline) but I won't spoil the whole plot.
But... the fact that the series was on the air for another
season-and-a-half longer should give you a hint if they made it home that day
or not.
//
//
As it usually does, the Gospel According to Star Trek points to
a universal truth...
No matter how well we map
out the future path we want to follow, we will almost certainly be required to
make some course adjustments along the way.
//
//
//
When Jesus was about thirty
years old, he made a dramatic career change: setting aside the toolbox of a
carpenter to pick up the backpack of a travelling teacher and healer. Given the life-expectancy of a non-landowning peasant in first century Palestine,
that made this a mid-life shift.
Last week I shared the
assertion that, before Jesus fully embraced his own ministry, he spent time
among the followers of John the Baptist.
Jesus was clearly attracted
to John's basic message: The Kingdom of
God had come near. It is time to reclaim
our faithfulness.
John invited people to
symbolize this 'turning around' of one's life by being baptised in the Jordan
River - near which John had set up his preaching place.
Jesus would eventually
become a travelling preacher... he
came to you; John, on the other hand, was a settled
preacher... you went to him.
//
Like John's other
disciples, Jesus - too - chose to be immersed in the waters of baptism. [We'll be reading that story in a few
weeks... on January 8th.]
//
John's preaching invited
people to connect their faith to the world around them. He did not shy away from commenting on
current events. He preached a practical
theology. John was not afraid to point
out the life hypocrisies of the leaders of the day. Matthew, Mark and Luke all relay the fact
that John criticized Herod Antipas, the ruler of Perea and Galilee, because he
divorced his wife in order to marry the wife of his half-brother. Herod did not like this public
criticism. Since Twitter didn’t exist
yet for Herod to confront his critics, he had John arrested.
Given the fact that John
was a settled preacher, he would have
been easy to find.
//
//
As I mentioned last week,
it was after John was arrested that Jesus began a ministry of his own... emphasizing
the same message as John: The Kingdom of God has come near.
I am intrigued by the
scholarly theory that it was John's easy arrest that - at least in part -
motivated Jesus to take his show on the
road. A biblical source tradition [Q] records that Jesus
once remarked that "Foxes have holes, birds have nests: but the son of man
has nowhere to lay his head." (Lk9:58; Mt8:20)
Maybe Jesus was a bit
worried that disgruntled leaders might come after him like they had John, so
Jesus moved around a lot.
//
Not only did Jesus change
the course of his life's work, he also made, what turned out to be, a wise
adjustment to how John had been doing similar work.
//
//
In that new path as a
preacher, Jesus (like John before him) did not retreat into a theoretical theological
bubble; everything that he said and did embraced the practicalities of the
world he (and his audiences) lived in.
As I preached last week,
Jesus wanted people to experience the joys of God's Kingdom in their lives here
and now. As the New Testament would
later record, it was Jesus' prayer that God's will be done "on
earth as it is in heaven".
To that end, Jesus told
stories and mentored examples of how people could change their lives - now
- to align themselves to the joy of living as if God was caesar of the world.
Like John, there was more
than an implied rebellious political bent to his words and actions - the
Kingdom of God over the Kingdom of Caesar.
//
//
When Jesus (like John
before him) called people to Repent, for
the Kingdom of God has come near, it was a call to change course. The hebrew word that Jesus and John might
have used for repentance (teshuvah)
had a root meaning of 'returning' - a turning around. That is how the original audiences would have
understood the call to repent: to return to God.
For the greek reading
audience of the New Testament, metanoéō's root meaning of 'after mind' would have enveloped the call to repentance
in an invitation to change one's mind, so as not to miss desired opportunities.
I think that both the
Galilee and Greek contexts of Jesus' and John's call to repent for the Kingdom of God has come near are helpful for us to
hear that same invitation today.
To centre one's life on God
is to make adjustments to the paths of our lives so that we can [better] match
the scriptural goals that Jesus said were paramount: Love God with your heart, soul and strength (Dt6:5) and love your
neighbour as yourself (Lev19:18).
//
Jesus and John were raised
in a tradition that encouraged regular ritualistic acts as reminders to realign
the practice of their lives with the goal of their faith. Don't think of this as straying from their faith and returning, but as a discipline of
pausing regularly within the busyness of the normal practices of daily living
and consciously appreciating that they were belov`ed creatures of a loving God.
It is normal and
understandable that we can get so caught up in the details of life that we get
distracted from the big picture of whose
we are. That is equally true whether
we are happy or stressed with the distractions.
//
//
I want us to discard the
guilt-focused notion that repent for the
Kingdom of God has come near is all about 'confession and forgiveness' and
replace it with a welcome that emphasizes 'gratitude and enjoyment'.
A gratitude-enjoyment focus
is the much older and authentic biblical tradition... and it certainly was the
approach that Jesus emphasized... even more than John the Baptist did...
another course direction Jesus made when he filled the void left by John's
arrest.
//
Gratitude and Enjoyment.
//
There is another
interesting difference between the habits of John and Jesus.
The Baptist was described
as living a very meager life out in the wilderness: wearing rustic clothing and
eating simple foods of the wild. The
image is that of a person who is privately fasting as a spiritual discipline...
preparing for a joy that is still to come.
Jesus, on the other hand,
seemed to enjoy the social nature of feast gatherings... as if the joy was a
present reality.
If we had read a few verses
further in Matthew, chapter eleven, we would have heard Jesus describe that
both approaches drew criticisms from onlookers: John came neither
eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a
friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” (Mt11:18-19)
Damned if you.
Damned if you don't.
//
//
Jesus made the course
correction from confession and forgiveness
to gratitude and enjoyment.
//
It was a course that had a
history of hope within Jesus' hebrew faith tradition: The
wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and
blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and
singing... they shall obtain joy and gladness and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Is35:1-2,10)
//
//
//
The third candle lighting
our advent way stands out among the others... placing a special emphasis on the
value of joy being a companion on
this journey of faith.
Today we find ourselves at
the midpoint of 2016's advent season.
Our scriptures and our
candles-and-banners today are inviting us to examine how much time we are
allotting for joy in our lives right
now.
//
I know as much as anyone
that joy doesn't necessarily come easily in our world today. We often feel obligated to delay joy in
favour of hard work. Joy is sometimes
seen as a luxury we can't afford right now.
For many years now, I,
personally, have struggled with what I
am prone to call my December Blues. With the help of family, friends and
counsellors, over the years, I am now better able to understand how and why
this is a pattern for me.
Please allow me a personal
moment here: from a purely personal perspective, I use this third Sunday in
Advent as a spiritual discipline to try and change the direction of my December
Blues by intentionally pausing in moments of gratitude for the joy that does
exist in my life right now, as opposed to the joy that I know is lacking. Some years the attempt has a lasting impact;
other years, I simply need to appreciate the respite of the moment.
//
For most of the sixteen
years, I have been St. David's minister, I have offered a special service late
in the advent season to honour the feelings of grief and sadness and worry that
exist for some people at this time of year that everything around us is proclaiming
it to be a time of Joy to the World
and Glad Tidings. This is not especially unique to St. David's:
lots of churches hold Blue Christmas or
Longest Night services.
I know a singer-songwriter
who openly admits that one of the reasons he plays songs is because he just
wants to hear music. Sometimes, we are
drawn into vocations or volunteer activities that offer something to others
that we, too, are trying to achieve.
I lead an annual Longest Night Service, in part, because
I need to know my own sadness and worry is not forgotten or ignored by God.
This year,
because I was too slow at putting the December 21st Longest Night Service on
the church calendar, a music recital will be happening in the main sanctuary
that night. And so, my service will be
held in the Children's Sanctuary (room
3).
I didn't plan
it, but I am embracing the symbolism of having to find time and space in the
midst of a busy season to work at squeezing some needed joy in to life. And to do this not by ignoring the less
joyful aspects of our humanity, but by acknowledging that - even in our
loneliness, God is with us.
Contrary to
what many people think... joy takes work.
But it is good
work. Good for us.
//
//
And so, as this
Advent journey moves closer to a stable in Bethlehem, I (personally) will be
working on being grateful for the joy of being a child of God, even as this
child of God has his worries to carry as well.
There are
course adjustments that I will need to make along this way.
//
I encourage you
to never be afraid to reorient yourself towards God's joy too.
//
Let us pray:
God, you are the source of all
goodness. We long to be happy and
safe. We hold tight to your promise of
joy to the world. Amen.
#326VU “O For a Thousand Tongues”
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