December 6, 2015
Advent 2
Luke 1:67,78-80
Luke 3:1-6
(prayer)
I have not researched any
actual statistics, but I would guess that... many (if not most) people in our
culture - even if they are not active in a Christian church - are (at least
minimally) aware that Christmas is (at its core) the celebration of a birth.
At the heart of the joy of
Christmas is... baby Jesus.
//
//
The Christ Mass -
celebrating the birth of Jesus - has been celebrated on December 25th since the
fourth century CE. Although this is a
long tradition, it bears noting that there is nothing in the bible to indicate
when Jesus was born: not even what time
of year.
The two main theories as to
why December 25th was chosen are that:
1.
The
bible is quite clear that Jesus died in the spring (during Passover week)
around the time of the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Early Christian theologians (like Irenaeus of
Lyon) in the 2nd c. CE, who liked balance and perfection, assumed that Jesus
might have begun his life (been conceived) around the same time. The traditional date for the Feast of
Annunciation (the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary) is March 25th. Add nine months and you have the birth of
Jesus in late December.
2.
A
far more likely and practical reason for why Christians began celebrating
Jesus' birth around the winter solstice is that - within the Roman Empire - it
was already a time to celebrate renewal and birth:
·
The
Roman festival celebrating the God Saturn always coincided with the return of
longer days after the winter solstice
- which was known as the birthday of the unconcerned sun (s.u.n);
·
The
Persian sun god, Mithra, is said to have been born on a Sunday around the
solstice (coincidentally, which is why
we call that day of the week 'Sunday');
·
In
Hebrew culture, around the same time of year, the festival of lights (Chanukkah) was held.
The followers of Jesus may have
adjusted the cultural renewal and birth celebrations of the time of the winter
solstice to meet their own needs.
Makes sense to me.
//
For whatever reason, we
follow this lead of our tradition of the last 1700 or so years and set aside a
special day at this time of year to remember our saviour's birth.
//
//
It may come as a surprise
(to some of you) how little attention the birth of Jesus actually gets in our
bibles. Two of the four (50%) canonical
gospels ignore Jesus' birth entirely.
Matthew focuses more on
Joseph's pre-fatherhood worries than Jesus' birth. Luke devotes a bit more space to the details
the hows and wheres of Jesus' birth, but only after devoting more space to
focus on how Mary reacted to becoming pregnant.
Truth be known, the start
of the gospel of Luke does devote a lot of attention to a birth story - only it
is not about Jesus. Luke starts with the
circumstances surrounding the birth of John - who would later be called
"The Baptist".
//
//
Zechariah was a priest in
the Jerusalem Temple during the time of King Herod the Great of Judea (who
reigned from 37 to 4 BCE). Zechariah and
his wife, Elizabeth, lived in the Judea hill country east of Jerusalem. Luke's gospel begins by telling us that they
were an elderly couple and that (for whatever reason) had never had children.
The first story in Luke is
not about Jesus, but of a time when Zechariah was performing an
incense-offering in the Temple: he was visited by an angel of God named Gabriel
(the same angel that would later visit Mary).
Gabriel told the priest
that Elizabeth would become pregnant and give birth to a son - who would be
named Yohanan (graced by Yahweh or Yahweh [God] is gracious).
Zechariah's first reaction
was fear - angels appearing at the Temple altar was not a normal
occurrence. And, as is almost always the
case in the bible, the first words spoken by the heavenly messenger are
"Don't be afraid!"
Over and over again, angels
do not want fear to be the
predominate emotion.
Zechariah's second reaction
was a logical, practical disbelief in the angel's proclamation of a child in
his future: "How can this be? I am an old man and my wife is getting on in
years."
Zechariah could not focus
on a future with a child because nothing in his past allowed him to grasp that
hope.
//
When Zechariah finally left
the inner sanctuary and joined the rest of the congregation, he tried to
address them, but discovered that he was unable to speak. The best he could do was arm movements and
facial expressions.
Rumours quickly spread that
the priest must have experienced something mysterious in the sanctuary -
perhaps a vision.
//
Although, Elizabeth hid
news of her pregnancy until it was physically impossible to ignore, the fact
that the 'barren wife of the priest' was with
child gave credence to the notion that something miraculous must have happened
to Zechariah that day in the Temple.
Months later (after the
child was born), Zechariah would be able to explain what had happened - people
learned that an angel announced the birth of his child and that Zechariah was made mute during the pregnancy.
It wasn't until the child's
naming ceremony and circumcision that Zechariah regained his voice.
//
That is where we picked up
the story in today's reading. After
nine-plus months of being limited to gestures and writing tablets, Zechariah
had some things to say.
He praised God - recounting
a holy history of mercy and promise.
And then the new father
spoke directly to his eight day old child: you
will be a prophet for the Most-High-God; you will prepare ways of salvation and
forgiveness for the Lord. We will know
light not darkness, peace not strife.
//
//
For thirty years, John grew
strong in the spirit until he began to proclaim a call for people to turn back
to God. He invited the crowds to accept
a ritual washing - a baptism - as a sign of dying to an old way of living and
giving birth to a new life.
The author of Luke and the
other gospel writers would be reminded of God's saving actions at a time when
the people of Judah journeyed across the wilderness and returned home after two
generations of forced exile by the waters of Babylon.
John the Baptist (as he
became known), like the prophet Isaiah of old, spoke of God's commitment to
reconcilliation: God has created a
straight and sure road for us to return to our faith. The 'saving grace of God' is our destination.
//
//
This is all consistent with what the angel
Gabriel had told Zechariah: that John would turn
the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord.
But Gabriel also described
John's mission another way - that
he would turn the hearts of parents to
their children. (Luke 1:17)
Turn the hearts of parents to their
children.
Think about that for a second - what
does it mean for parents to 'turn their
hearts' to their children?
//
//
For me, this adds a whole new dimension
to what John the Baptist is all about.
For the most part, John's seeks to redeem the people one heart, one
soul, one mind at a time. His baptism is
an invitation to the individual - to look inward and seek a personal
turn-around.
Although it sounds like crowds came to
see John and responded positively to his call - each baptism was a unique
personal event. I can picture a line of
people waiting their turn to go in and out of the water with the man in the camel
skin tunic.
Each pilgrim had their own moment in
the river.
That is deep and powerful.
We follow that same pattern in our 21st
century church on baptism Sundays.
Even when there is more than one person
to be baptized - even if they are from the same family - the ritual and the
liturgy is repeated for each individual.
Baptism remains a celebratory act of God's love and mercy for the individual
who is doused with the water.
//
Yet, the holy message was... that John
would also turn the hearts of parents
to their children.
That goes beyond the personal
individual experience to a communal one.
It takes us out of the moment at hand and invites us to
consider the days to come.
Turning the attention of our hearts to
children naturally gets us thinking about the future.
//
When we turn our hearts to the children
of our age, we are allowing ourselves to care what kind of future they will
live into: what kind of world we will pass on to them.
//
Luke tells us that John proclaimed a baptism of repentance.
The language of repentance is that of
making changes - of choosing new and better paths. "Repent" literally means to re-regret: to be so impacted by our past
actions that we are prepared to make changes as we move forward.
Using the travel metaphor, to repent is
to turn onto a new and different path.
//
Based on the angel's promise we can say
that John the Baptist's baptism of repentance was intended to also including
turning our hearts to the children.
If we consider - in the most caring and
compassionate parts of our hearts - how the path we are on will affect the
generations to come, we can be motivated to adjust our course if the future is
not bright for those who will inherit it.
//
Sadly, people are far more
likely to adjust the direction of their lives when the current situation is
damaging to them on an immediate,
personal level.
Experience and observation
tells us that if a person's life is not directly affected by some damage, they
may not be all that motivated to be part of a 'change movement'. And experience and observation informs me
that is even true when it comes to potential future danger to the world's
children.
//
I am a life-long city boy,
so I cannot speak with any authority to ranching or farming life. But I have to admit that I am a bit baffled
why it appears that our Alberta hearts are resistant to turning to the health and safety of our children and agricultural
workers in the same way that the rest of Canada has. Why wouldn't we want to see the kind of
favourable statistics that BC enjoyed since they changed their laws?
As I said, I haven't lived
in that world, so I may be missing something.
I mean, is it just an
economic argument?
It is amazing to me how
easily fear of a negative economic impact
gets in the way of what otherwise might be a greater good.
//
As a general rule - my
heart longs to see a better future... more than it desires to live in the
nostalgia of a good past.
//
As we gather today, over
150 world nations are in the midst of discussing the future of humanity's
impact on the earth's climate with a ‘degree’ of seriousness we have not seen
up to this point.
This is in spite of decades
of prognostications that this is an issue the world would ignore at its own
peril.
As strange as it sounds, it
does seem that we need to become directly
afraid in our present before we are
motivated to act for the future.
we
have proven that we cannot be trusted with the future tense.
//
Of course, now that Climate
Change is evident, we are open to change - not because our hearts have finally
turned to our children and their future, but because we are feeling the direct
effects of geographically uncharacteristic droughts and floods; of changing
agricultural seasons; and of 100 year storms that happen with ironic
frequency.
It is as the comedian said,
We have been repeated asked 'don't you
want to leave a better world for your grandchildren' and we have collectively
responded, 'nah, [forget] em'. We have
proven that we cannot be trusted with the future tense.
Sadly, in lots of
situations, present fear has a habit of trumping future hope.
//
It is still happening.
//
The facts are still
emerging, but it seems that just a few days ago a California couple (who were
making obvious grand jihadist plans for mass death and destruction) moved up
their plans when something personal set one of them off at a work holiday
party.
Even the hard emotions of
the present may have trumped the sadistic terrorist hopes of Ms. Malik and Mr.
Farook to follow in the guiding footsteps that Mr. Dear walked (just five days
earlier), when he entered a Planned Parenthood Clinic bent on forcing his kind
of change.
Of course,
nationally-inspired domestic Christian
terrorism is not viewed the same way as internationally-inspired domestic Islamic terrorism. They
rejected an attempt on Friday, but maybe in the near future, the NRA-loving US
legislators might may (at long last finally) restrict gun sales (at least) for
those on terrorist no-fly lists. But...
we all witnessed how the death of 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook
Elementary School only motivated thoughts
and prayers, but no action. So, let's not be shocked if 'present fear'
wins out over 'future hope'... yet again.
//
//
As challenging and
impractical as it may be, to me, our world needs to embrace the angelic
promise of Luke chapter one, verse seventeen - that we turn our hearts to the
children.
This means we need to
repent of the knee-jerk lifestyle that is only motivated by present fear... and
open our hearts, minds and souls to future hope for a more peaceful world.
“Hope” (not fear) is the
first candle on our advent wreath.
//
Two weeks ago, I preached
that Jesus lived and preached a peace
through compassion over the empire's preference for peace through the threat of violence.
It would have served Jesus'
immediate, selfish needs to give into governor Pirate's worldview and embrace the
fear, but - as Jesus said - his kingdom
was not of this world.
The attitude of...
Just
walk away.
Nothing
to see here.
It
doesn't affect you.
has dominated our action-choices for
far too long. We must consider a bigger
picture!
//
Zechariah hoped that his
child would point to the one who could guide
our feet in the way of peace. (Luke 1:79)
Jesus is that guide - the
one whose commitment to a peace through
compassion would not yield in the Empire's context of fear because the
future's path is at least as important as the one we are walking right now.
//
It will not be easy to
convince the world of the value of more open minds, hearts and souls.
There are already ample
voices loudly proclaiming that the needed response when dealing with fears of the moment is to create higher
and wider barriers; to build walls and dig trenches around ourselves, hoping
that passive thoughts and prayers and empty rhetoric will be enough to change
things.
We will need to lead by
example.
// [end] //
We honour a God who calls us
into action: a God who does not hold our feet in place, but guides them in the
ways of peace. We are called to move
forward on that hard road.
//
We follow a Christ who
desires us to react to walls and trenches with the tools to make straight paths
- to smooth out the rough places, not to reinforce them.
//
We are inspired by a Spirit who
enables us (to not just inject our spiritual energy into the universe through our
thoughts and prayers but also) to allow that collective spiritual energy to
change our hearts so that we are able to be
answers to the prayers of others through tangible and world-impacting
actions.
//
As Jim Strathdee wrote and
sang:
We
are the hands
and
feet of Christ
serving
by grace
each
other's needs.
//
Let us turn our hearts to
the path before us and let our feet be guided in the ways of peace.
Let us pray:
Holy One, give us hope in the midst of
fear to continue to live in the heart of Jesus.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, we pray. Amen.
***offering***
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