Lk.13.31-35 ( Mt. 23.37-39)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN TOWARD JERUSALEM,
REBUILDING THE CITY OF GOD IN OUR HEARTS

Today’s Gospel re-presents basic fundamental Lenten themes: Journeying toward Jerusalem; The Way of the Cross; God’s Holy Spirit leading us/driving us, or in the words of The Collect, “….. to bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word….. .” Many of us here are taking the Lenten Course, Christ’s Life: Our Life. It’s a fabulous book written by the late Bishop John B. Coburn, in which the author continually connects, paints images of, our lives with Christ’s life, and then repeatedly asks the question, how are you doing in your walk this Lent with Christ? The chapter for next Wednesday, “His Journey Toward Jerusalem”, is one of the best.

If we think about the Lenten Image of walking again toward Jerusalem, if we connect some of the events of Christ’s life, Biblical stories we know, and then stories of our own lives and experiences, what do we imagine, who do you see? I’m going to ask you to close your eyes for a minute! Much of this is pure Bible, some straight John Coburn, much from your own life, a little from Fr. Dick. Who do you see on the road? Who’s there? Well, certainly Jesus, then the Disciples, some of the Old Testament Prophets, probably the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and when you look carefully you are too! Here are five different people, groups, traveling along the Jerusalem Road, The Way of The Cross. They’re all part of the Lenten journey, Jesus’ and ours. Can you see them? Now open your eyes!

Jesus is on the road because after the events of Caesarea Philippi (Mk. and The Transfiguration Mt. Story (Mk. 9), He “turned His face” toward Jerusalem in Mark 10- told the disciples what would happen and then He set out on the road knowing full well what awaited Him in The Holy City! The Disciples are there although they never really understood what was happening: not on the Transfigura-tion Mt., not when Our Lord told them what was coming, certainly not on the road when they asked for two seats on either side of Him in heaven. The Prophets are there reminding us that for generations God sent them as His messengers, but they were ignored, stoned, spit upon and murdered in Jerusalem. The Pharisees and Sadducees are walking too because time and time again they confronted, attacked, and eventually helped to kill Jesus. You and I are also there walking on the road because Christ calls us to walk with Him and He with us; so that, “….. He may dwell in us and we in him.”

John Coburn makes 3 major points about Jesus‘ Journey to Jerusalem and then asks us 3 basic questions about our lives! First, Jesus: (1) When Jesus heads toward Jerusalem it’s perhaps the decisive turning point in His life, the die is now cast, there’s no turning back. He’s going to confront the political and religious authorities with the authority of God; (2) The disciples just tagged along, they followed. They were bewildered and frightened and never understood until after the Ascension what was really going on; (3) Jesus never spoke just about His death alone, but always about His death and then resurrection. Now, what about us?: Can we translate Jesus’ journey into the journeys of our own lives? (A) Have we ever had to make fundamental decisions, proceed, taking full responsibility, can’t fake it anymore and no turning back?; (B) Do we know that when we trust God and life and our decisions that we may (like the disciples) move on our own, or just tag along, or be carried along by Him?; (C) Do we believe that death and resurrec-tion and new life always come together? When we trust God, move on our own or just tag along, we too we go through these experiences of life and death and resurrection and then new life.

A Lenten Journeying Prayer

“ Lord Jesus Christ, Leader in our journeys, King of life and death
and resurrection, Don’t get too far ahead of us! But don’t let us
rest or go back either! You have called us to new life! Keep us
tagging along! And when the crises come, help us to be true to
ourselves, true to you, and so more ourselves transformed by you
into you and new life. And so on our journey, go on our way re-
joicing in you with those whom you have given to us: our com-
panions along the way.” AMEN

“Son,” ordered a father, “Don’t swim in that canal.”
“OK, Dad,” he answered. But he came home carrying a wet bathing suit that evening.
“Where have you been?” demanded the father.
“Swimming in the canal,” answered the boy.
“Didn’t I tell you not to swim there?” asked the father.
“Yes, sir,” answered the boy.
“Why did you?” he asked.
“Well, Dad,” he explained, “I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn’t resist the temptation.”
“Why did you take your bathing suit with you?” he questioned.
“So I’d be prepared to swim, in case I was tempted.”

This fanciful story is told by H. King Oehmig in Synthesis for the First Sunday in Lent. We have only 36 days of Lent to go. For those of you who have given up something for Lent, have you found yourself tempted? I’ve given up chocolate, and every Lent I find that what I give up I especially crave during that time. Linda keeps chocolates in a candy jar in our living room and I find myself looking over there at the jar every time I pass through! I haven’t succumbed, by the way. But I don’t carry chocolates around with me just in case I want one and decide to yield to temptation!

This past week once again a national figure has made a confession for all the world to hear. Tiger Woods exposed his soul to his family, friends, and fans, acknowledging that he has let everyone down in the way he yielded to temptation. He confessed that he alone, through the bad choices he made on many occasions, has hurt his wife, his children, his mother, his friends, his fans, and the people who looked up to him as an example. He confessed that money and power, of which he had an abundance, went to his head, deluding him into thinking he somehow lived by a different set of rules from the average person. He confessed that he had strayed from the values his mother had taught him as a child through the Buddhist faith. He expressed tremendous sorrow at what he has done and pledged to start afresh living as a man of integrity, stating that he realized that words were not enough, that he had to prove by his actions that he meant what he said. And he admitted that he needed help in making the necessary changes in his life.

Tiger Woods’s confession and repentance are a poignant example of human failing and of how God works in our lives to bring us back to him. I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is at work in this man, even though he doesn’t acknowledge him or even recognize him. My hope is that somehow he will come to know the One who is the way, the truth, and the life and that he will know the reconciling love and mercy of God, most fully revealed in our Savior and Lord. His repentance is certainly a good start.

Those persons who are especially gifted are targeted by Satan and his dominions, for in their ability to do much good, they also have the capacity to do much harm. That’s one reason we need to pray fervently for those in authority over us, in both the religious and the secular realms. The temptations for those in authority are great, for power can go to a person’s head, and he or she can easily abuse that power for personal gain and self-promotion; and often can get away with it, at least for a time.

The devil doesn’t necessarily have to get involved for some persons to use their gifts for their own selfish ends and in disobedience to God. Satan can leave sociopaths completely to their own devices. But with others I believe he is very active in using a person’s weaknesses in order to make him or her fall. Yes, I do believe in the Devil, or Satan, as well as in other spiritual forces of evil, whose objective is to lead us as far from God as possible, hurting as many people in the process as possible. With C.S. Lewis, I believe that the Devil’s greatest accomplishment in the modern era is convincing people that he doesn’t exist. It makes his work that much easier.

On this First Sunday in Lent, we are given a glimpse of the kinds of temptations which our Lord Jesus faced. Here is a man with tremendous ability and with all of the power of God behind him. He could use his ability and power to his own ends or he could use them for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. The kinds of things that the Devil tempted him to do he would do later on in the service of God. He would change water into wine and he would multiply the loaves and fishes. All of the kingdoms in the world would indeed be his, but in the realm of the Spirit, and not by selling his soul to the Devil. And miraculous displays would be a regular part of his ministry in giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, and even raising the dead, but they would not be for the purpose of self-promotion.

Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet he never succumbed to the temptation. He never sinned. The way he dealt with temptation is instructive for us all, as we meet the Tempter. First of all, he acknowledged the temptation. He didn’t try to deal with it by attempting to convince himself that it wasn’t real.

Secondly, he was grounded in faith. Jesus worshipped regularly with the people of God, he prayed fervently; in this instance his prayer was buttressed by fasting. And he knew the revelation of God in the scriptures. In other words, he had tremendous resources with which to meet the tempter.

Finally, our Lord Jesus used Holy Scripture specifically in fighting Satan. Because he knew the scriptures, he could counter temptation through quoting the Word of God.

Jesus didn’t deny the reality of his temptations, facing them squarely. He was grounded in his relationship with the Father. And he used scripture as a weapon to fight temptation. These things work! They are part of how God’s grace works in our lives in fighting temptation, whether we’re talking about eating chocolates during Lent or the kinds of things Tiger Woods encountered in his rise to fame and fortune. And we have another weapon in that fight: the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ to guide, strengthen, and support us.

I have rediscovered a passion that I had as a child. The last few years we have taken vacations in the summer where we have been close to mountains, and I have taken that opportunity to do some rather long hikes that included climbing to the tops of mountains. I’m not talking about technical climbs, where you need ropes. All I needed were good shoes with plenty of tread and poles to help save my knees.

Last summer we spent some time in Colorado where I climbed to the top of Mt. Pagosa, which is along the Continental Divide. Linda doesn’t share my passion for climbing, so while I’m climbing alone, she stays on level ground and reads, or shops! When I got to the top of the mountain I walked for several miles along the ridge of the Continental Divide, most of the time with no other human being around. The vistas were indescribably beautiful.

When I’m out there in the beauty of creation, walking for miles, hour upon hour, it’s incredibly peaceful, and I always find myself doing a lot of thinking and praying. And I want you to know that even when there’s not another soul around, you’re always with me. I think about you and I pray for you. And I think about my ministry and what God is calling me to do and to be. In those times I feel that God talks to me. I don’t hear voices, but God gives me new insights and ideas.

In encountering God on the mountain I’m in good company. In the Book of Exodus we’re told that Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and spent forty days and forty nights. It was there that he met God and was given the Ten Commandments. In the First Book of the Kings we’re told that Elijah, the greatest prophet of Israel, went up on Horeb, the mount of God, in order to encounter God. It was on Mt. Horeb that Moses encountered God in the burning bush that wasn’t consumed. It’s on Mt. Horeb that we read that Elijah did not hear God in the wind or in the earthquake or in the fire, but in a still, small voice. God said to Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away.” It was on that mountain that Elijah discerned what God wanted him to do. He calmed his fears, assured him that there were others who had not forsaken him, and gave him the direction he needed.

Likewise, hundreds of years later our Lord took three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on a mountain to pray, to be with God. While Jesus was praying, the three disciples had a tremendous experience in which they witnessed Jesus with two others who had mysteriously appeared with their Lord. The figures were Moses, the Law-Giver, and Elijah, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus about what he was about to face when we went to Jerusalem. In other words, they were speaking to him about his impending suffering and death.

This was truly an epiphany for Peter, James, and John. They knew Jesus was the Messiah. Peter had recently confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. What that meant exactly, no one knew at that time. Now Jesus is seen with the two greatest figures in the history of Israel, Moses and Elijah. Peter’s response was to make a memorial right there on the mountain. He proposed that they build three booths, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. He most likely came up with that idea because of the Jewish festival of the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles, in which the Israelites commemorated annually the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai to Moses. But what was happening on this mountain was not the giving of a new law. It was a much greater reality.

And then they heard the voice of God: “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him,” and when they heard that revelation, Moses and Elijah had disappeared. Only Jesus remained.

What lessons can be drawn from this account of the Transfiguration? First of all, it is one more epiphany, or revelation, of Jesus as the Messiah, revealing his nature and calling for a response, not only from Peter, James, and John, but also from us as well. We can dismiss it as just a pious legend, or we can accept at face value as a revelation from God of the nature of Jesus, leading us to him as Savior and Lord. If you dismiss it, then you can forget the next lessons we can draw from this account.

Secondly, it is another example of Jesus as a man of prayer. There is no one closer to God than Jesus. In fact, he is God. Yet he needed prayer and regularly sought out times to be with his heavenly Father in prayer. Jesus sets the example for all of us to pray frequently and regularly.

Third, prayer does not take the difficulties of this life away from Jesus. In fact, this particular incident in our Lord’s earthly life served as a time of preparation for the ordeal he was about to face in his suffering and death. We often view prayer as an attempt to escape the difficulties we are facing, and sometimes God does give us what we ask for. But more often, prayer leads us to deeper levels of commitment, taking us into the fray, rather than out of it.

That is one reason we don’t resort to prayer more often. We fear what it might lead up to. You see, in prayer one of the things that happens is that we are lead to discern God’s will, and his will is often contrary to the wills of us sinful human beings. Are you having trouble in your marriage? Take it to God in prayer. But don’t think that God is going to say, “If you’re having some problems, then you should get out of the marriage. After all, I want you to be happy.”

I realize that divorce is a very complex issue, and that there are times when divorce is the lesser of two evils. But divorce is certainly not where God is going to begin. He is much more likely to say, “Work at it. That’s what your vows are for. Remember, you said ‘For better, for worse.’ And that person you met that you think would be so much better to be married to than your husband or your wife—you need to cut off the relationship with that person immediately if your marriage is going to have a fighting chance. Happy Valentines Day!”

Jesus is revealed as God’s Son, he gives us the example of a life grounded in prayer, and just because we pray doesn’t mean life is going to get easier. It might just get harder as a result of discerning God’s will. Yet, God doers indeed want us to be happy, and true happiness can only come from living in accordance with his will. When we do that, we experience that peace that passes understanding.

You and I don’t have to go to Colorado to meet God on the mountaintop. We are on the mountaintop right now, communing with God. He gives us this opportunity not only for our own good, but for the purpose of sending us into the world in witness to him. That may not always take us to comfortable places, but it will give us peace.

GOD ALWAYS CALLS YOU AND ME AND THE CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER TO LIVE IN HIM, SO THAT HE CAN LIVE IN US!

Every week in the Eucharistic Prayer’s [ BCP,pgs.336, 363] we say these words “…that we may be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him.” To put it another way: God calls us all to live our lives in the Life of His Son. Christ wants us to discover our own unique spirits within His Spirit. The Holy Spirit drives/drags our lives into Christ’s life.

Similarly, today’s lesson’s talk about calling, uniting and going forth! Jeremiah is formed, known, consecrated and led forth by God even as a youth! The Psalmist seeks and finds strength in The Lord ever since he’s been in his mother’s womb! Paul learns that everything, all our different gifts and spirits (even God’s) must be rooted in love. And when Jesus proclaims that “The Spirit of The Lord is upon me” He declares that God’s love has no limits nor boundaries. As Fr. Fred reminded us last week, and today’s Gospel does so again, you and I and this Church of The Redeemer are all called to live in this Spirit and in this Love, both within God’s church and also outside in the world all around us. So, like the Prophets, the Psalmist, St. Paul and Our Lord, we are called to live into The Spirit of Christ, to discover our own spirits, to live into and write our own stories and then to weave them into the fabric of The Living Christ.

On this Annual Parish Meeting Day, I want to say four things: (1) Anyone who believes God no longer moves in such ways; that these things only happened in ancient times; that God doesn’t still call, empower or direct His people is simply wrong! This person has never entered into nor really been inside this church. (2) This person has never experienced, been lifted up, caught up, carried along by the power of the liturgy. (3)This person has never been washed in the majestic beautiful sounds of the music, in the spirit or voices of this place. (4)This person has never really listened to, never heard, God’s Word as it is taught and proclaimed here week after week to children, youth, adults, men and women in such a multitude of different groups and ways, or as it is preached every Sunday in this church. They are the unfortunate ones. You and I are the lucky ones!

But, let us always be clear about one thing! No one ever achieves, never attains Christian perfection! Rather, we simply learn that the only way our lives will ever become meaningful or make any real difference in other people’s lives, or in the world around us, is when we strive to live in Christ so that He lives in us! This is true in every part of our lives; but maybe especially in the hardest times. Live in (hang on to) Christ and He’ll live in you!

Last week as I thought about people I’ve known who epitomize living in Christ and Christ in them the Cowley magazine of The Society St. John The Evangelist arrived in our mailbox. The Winter issue highlights the life of Fr. Paul Wessinger. If Fr. Paul was not a saint, he was sure pretty darn close. His life was one of great patience with life, himself and even with God. As with many faithful Christians, he lived a life of real humility, but he never saw himself as particularly humble. Above all, Paul believed that a life lived in Christ must be a life lived in love. One of the best stories about Paul Wessinger is when a group of earnest young men visited the monastery and considering the religious life, asked Fr. Paul what was the most essential quality or character one needed to thrive in the religious community- some great spiritual virtue, a particular discipline, perhaps some unique gift? Fr. Paul thought a few moments, then with a twinkle in his eyes he replied, “A sense of humor!”

So today, my brothers and sisters give thanks that God still fills us with His Grace
and power! Thank Christ that He still dwells in us and we in Him. Thank The Holy Spirit who pushes Our Life into Christ’s Life. I thank God that The Church of the Redeemer continues to be a place where God’s Word, Life and Will are heard, lived and shared. I thank God
I’m here. I thank God for each one of you, especially for your spirits! I Thank God! AMEN

How many of you have heard the saying, “If you have your health, you have everything,” or something like it? This bit of popular wisdom is usually offered to people who are healthy, and one of the characteristics of being in good health is taking it for granted. The person with a sound body doesn’t usually go around wondering what the most important part of the body is. All parts are important; there are no parts we would choose to do without. In fact, even to speak in such terms seems odd, for while the body is composed of parts, we are much more accustomed to thinking of our bodies as a single, unified whole.

It is when something goes wrong with one of the parts of the body that we become conscious of the importance of that part. A broken leg, a loose tooth, a headache, a stiff back—these things make us realize how important to us even seemingly insignificant parts can be. Several years ago a heavy garage door fell right on my big toe (how it happened is a long story that I won’t go into right now!). I had to go to the emergency treatment center, had to keep my foot elevated for several days, and I missed a Sunday in church for the first time in my memory. If asked what the most important part of my body was at that time, I would have answered without hesitation, “My big toe on my left foot!”

St. Paul, in his first letter to the Church at Corinth, refers to the Church as the Body of Christ. Each member is a part of the Body, and every part of the body is absolutely crucial. Paul had to say that to the Corinthians because some of them felt more important than others—namely, those who spoke in tongues thought that that gift made them more special than those who had not received the gift of tongues. He was attacking that age-old problem of spiritual pride, and when talking of spiritual pride the point must be made that all members of the Body are equal.

In another sense, however, we can indeed say that some parts of the Body are more important than other parts. The part of the Body of Christ that is most important is that part which is injured, just as my left big toe became the most important part of my body when it was injured. The person in our midst who is ill, or who is going through a divorce, or who has lost a loved one, or who has lost a job, and so on, is the most important part of the Body. And if the Body is functioning properly, then other members of the Body who are not injured are focused on that member who is.

Over the years, in the parishes I have served, I have noticed something that often occurs when a member of the Body of Christ is injured. Whether the injury is physical, emotional, or spiritual, the tendency is often the same. That tendency is for the injured member to remove himself or herself from the Body. In other words, something bad happens to the person, or family, and instead of drawing closer to the Church, that person or family leaves the fellowship of the Church. It doesn’t always happen that way, but all too often it does. A couple get a divorce, a person loses his job, a person gets sick and completely withdraws from all church relationships, a person finally faces the reality that he is an alcoholic. It’s as if some people have the attitude that the Church is a place for people who have their act together and when it is revealed that that isn’t the case, then they are embarrassed and feel that the Church isn’t the place for them. The attitude is that the Church is a kind of club for saints.

Contrast that with the group Alcoholics Anonymous. Can you imagine someone with a problem withdrawing from AA out of embarrassment? Of course not. People in AA are people who don’t have their act together. Problems are expected. That’s what the group is for.

The Church should be much more like AA than it is. None of us has his act together when it comes to our relationship with God and when you get right down to it, none of us has his act together when it comes to other problems in life. We all have them. They aren’t there always for all the world to see, but they are there. The Church isn’t a club for saints; it’s a hospital for sinners.

One Sunday, when Linda and I were on vacation one year, we visited another church, which is our custom when on vacation, and it happened that on that Sunday, in place of a sermon, a member of the congregation gave a presentation from one of his trips to Mexico. He is a doctor, and every year he takes a week of his vacation and goes to Mexico to work in a local clinic. The poverty in the area which he visits is great, the needs are overwhelming, especially for medical attention. When there, he works longer days and sees many more patients than he does in a comparable time at home. He takes no payment for his work, and he made his presentation at church in order to enlist more people in his healing ministry. This man understands that to be a member of the Body of Christ is to use his gifts to heal the members of the human family.

The work that is going on in Haiti through the Episcopal Church and many other churches after the earthquake springs from this understanding that as members of the Body of Christ we have a responsibility to that larger Body of the human family when members of that Body are injured. Our work in the Dominican Republic for many years is derived in part from our understanding that the members of the Body of Christ in that place are in greater need than in other places and therefore deserve our attention, the giving of our time, talent, and treasure. We can’t go everywhere in the world where there is need because our resources are obviously limited, but we can go somewhere, and so we have chosen the Dominican Republic. As you may be aware, we are also involved in mission work in China, Europe, and Rwanda, in addition to being involved in many local mission and outreach ministries, such as Resurrection House, Caritas, and the interfaith food bank. This all comes as a result of our theology, brothers and sisters, that we are members of the Body of Christ, which is a sign of the unity of the whole human family, and that therefore we must care for one another.

Our Lord came into a sinful and broken world, a hurting world, an injured world. To him, every member of the human family for all time is important, but his focus was and is on the injured members of the Body, and in a very real sense that includes us all. And so, as the beginning of his ministry he takes the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he reads the words that pertain to himself:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you and upon me, and he has anointed us, through our baptism, to be agents of healing to those members of our Body who are injured.

We are still in the midst of the beautiful season of Christmas. The readings from Holy Scripture are a kind of reflection on the meaning of the incarnation, the embodiment of God in a human being, Jesus of Nazareth. In the Gospel we have now passed from Jesus’ birth to Jesus as a twelve year old boy. It was the feast of the Passover and the Holy Family traveled to Jerusalem to observe the feast. When it was over, they started the journey back home, along with other relatives and friends who had traveled with them. Mary and Joseph assumed that Jesus was with the group, but discovered after they had been gone for a day that he wasn’t with them. Can you imagine how they must have felt when they finally discovered Jesus’ absence?

We aren’t given many details at all about this incident. St. Luke is the only account of the Gospel that includes this story about Jesus in the temple, and it is only nine verses long. Furthermore, it is the only glimpse in all four of the accounts of the Gospel that is of Jesus as he was growing up. There are the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, this story of Jesus when he was twelve, and the rest of the material in the gospels deal with Jesus when he was around 30 years old.

Let’s think a bit about Jesus. We know he is fully human and fully divine, that he is “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” We know he is a very intelligent person and probably always was a real challenge to his mother and foster father. Gifted children always are a challenge to their parents, and surely Jesus was the epitome of the gifted child. In this story from Luke, he is an adolescent. We don’t know how he came to the realization of his calling, or exactly when that occurred, but my guess is that in adolescence he was beginning to sense his vocation without knowing the details. When Mary and Joseph caught up with him he said, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” That certainly appears to be a sensing of his vocation.

So Jesus finds himself in the temple along with some of the most devoted people of Israel and he finds himself drawn to these people. His mother and father had prepared him well, so well that adults who were immersed in the faith were impressed by his knowledge. He had found his niche. He was fully at home. He could stay there for ever.

Do you remember when you were a teenager and you found something in your life that you could sink your teeth into? Nothing else mattered. You had found your true home. I suspect that something like this was going on with our Lord at this early stage of his development. He probably had no idea about what was going to happen 18 years later and the specific path his Messiahship would take. He only knew that he was strongly drawn to his heavenly Father, and that was all that mattered.

We are also not given much information about what Joseph and Mary went through as they looked for their son. All that Luke tells us that Mary said when she saw Jesus was, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously?” Anxiously indeed! They had looked for three whole days until they finally found him. They must have been frantic. Put yourself in their position. “What kind of parents are we, anyway?” they might have thought as they were looking. “How could we leave Jerusalem without making sure he was with us? How can we live with ourselves if something happened to him? On the other hand, he knew when we were supposed to leave. We had given him explicit instructions regarding when we would be leaving and from where. This is just like him to do something like this! He is always striking out on his own, not thinking about the consequences. He never thinks about us and how his actions affect us. When we finally catch up to him, he is going to get the tongue lashing of his life!”

I have one question that nags at me when I think about this story of the adolescent Jesus, the very intelligent, very gifted, Jesus, in the temple, and there is no way of knowing except when we get to ask questions in the next life. When Jesus was confronted by his mother and foster father in the temple, where he obviously isn’t remorseful at all at what he put his parents through, I wonder if he was tempted, or maybe if he even did, roll up his eyes into his head when his mother chastised him. You know, that’s a very adolescent thing to do and I’m not sure if it’s sinful or not. If it’s sinful, then obviously he didn’t do it; but if it isn’t, he might have. That’s something to ask in the next life!

At any rate, Mary and Joseph finally found Jesus. They were relieved and not a little perturbed. I suspect it wouldn’t be the last time in his adolescent life that their parenting skills would be tested. We are told that even though he felt he must be in his Father’s house, he returned with his parents and was obedient to them. This is a good lesson for all of the adolescents in the congregation about how you should behave even when you disagree with your parents. You should be obedient to them.

Of course, I don’t know that any of this actually happened, other than the few scant details that Luke gives us. What I have done is look at the story from my own perspective of being a parent, having reared two children, neither of which, I hasten to add, is God incarnate. And even though I’m separated from the temple story by 2000 years, I suspect that there are certain things that are common to parents of any age.

I wonder if Mary and Joseph ever asked themselves, “Am I being a good parent to Jesus? Will he turn out like he should because I have done the right things, or will he somehow take a wrong turn because of something I did or didn’t do?” Or maybe that’s just a modern concern. In the current issue of Christianity Today, there is an article titled “The Myth of the Perfect Parent.” The author, Leslie Leyland Fields, states that “More than any other generation, today’s parents are worried sick that they will mess up their children’s lives.” We have an attitude today that parents somehow have the power to determine how their children will turn out, that, as the Bible says, “As the twig is bent, so grows the branch.” And then, when our children don’t measure up to our expectations, when they make those inevitable mistakes, and when they sometimes fall away from the Church, parents often blame themselves. It must have been something they did or didn’t do.

Of course, what we do as parents is very important, and it is crucial that we bring our children up as faithfully as we can, but in the end, each person is different and makes his or her own free choices. One of the best insights of the article comes toward the end when Fields says, “We will parent imperfectly, our children will make their own choices, and God will mysteriously and wondrously use it all to advance his kingdom.”

When Jesus hung on the cross, I wonder what his mother thought and I wonder if she questioned whether or not she had done something wrong in her parenting that led Jesus to the cross. Whatever questions she may have had must have been answered when she saw her risen Lord.

In this Christmastide, as we continue to reflect on the meaning of the embodiment of God in Jesus, may we give thanks for the role that Joseph and Mary played in rearing Jesus and ask God’s guidance upon all parents that they may bring their children up to know him, to love him, and to serve him, trusting that how that works itself out is not under their control.

I received a wonderful gift. It wasn’t a Christmas gift. It wasn’t mine to keep. It was a loan a few months ago from a young man by the name of Michael just before he left for college. He loaned me three books and told me that these were the three most significant books in influencing his life up to this point. It was a wonderful gift to me because this young man cared enough about me to share this important part of his life with me.

The first book is titled Ninety Minutes in Heaven, by Don Piper. Don Piper is a clergyman who had had a terrible car accident, after which he had been declared dead. He was in that state for an hour and a half before a friend, who felt strongly that even though his friend was dead he somehow must pray for this man to live. He went to him , praying fervently, and he was brought back to life. Piper’s book is about those 90 minutes in which he experienced Paradise and about his post-heaven experience of his lengthy recovery and witnessing about his life-after-death experience.

The second book was a history of 20th century Tibet, written by His Holiness, the Dalai Llama, for the purpose of convincing all who will pay attention that Tibet should be a free and independent country—not a part of communist China.

The third book’s title is There Is No God, with the word No crossed out and the word A replacing it. There is a God. It was written by Antony Flew, a philosopher and one-time atheist “who set the agenda for modern atheism with his 1950 essay, “Theology and Falsification,” which became the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the last half-century.” Flew “discloses how his commitment to ‘follow the argument wherever it leads’ led him to a belief in God as Creator.” In the book, Flew tells how science led him to change his belief from atheism to theism, explaining that when science postulated the Big Bang theory of creation, that changed everything from a philosophical perspective. If the universe had no beginning, which was the prevailing thought before the Big Bang theory, then there is no need for a God, according to Flew. If, on the other hand, things began with the Big Bang, philosophically Flew states that there must be an omnipotent intelligent Being who brought it about. Hence, the scientific evidence led him to theism. Flew hastens to add that his understanding is different from the great monotheistic religions of the world—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—in that it is not based on a revelation from beyond science.

This book is the reason I was led to tell you about my wonderful gift of three books from Michael, for it speaks so clearly to our situation today. While very few people are philosophers, I am convinced that philosophy influences the belief systems of all of us. I cannot begin to count the number of people who are related to the Church, either intimately as active members or tangentially through family members, who have told me that they are scientific people who find the claims of Christianity to be antithetical to a scientific view of the world. I bring this up to you now, at this celebration of Christmas, because the law of averages would suggest that there are many who attend services at Christmas especially who consider themselves to be scientifically-minded people and who therefore consider everything the Church professes at Christmas to be at best metaphorical and at worst a total fabrication, with no grounding in reality. The nativity is just a pious story for unsophisticated, maybe even ignorant folks.

But if Flew is right, and the scientific evidence leads us to belief in an omnipotent God, isn’t it a small jump, and a reasonable one at that, that this God should want to make himself known by the beings in the universe who have the capacity to know him, if only in an imperfect way? How would that happen except through his intentionally revealing himself? The Bible is a record of that revelation, beginning with our first parents, moving on to the establishing of a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; on through the prophets of ancient Israel, who prophesied that someday One would be born to a virgin and his name would be Immanuel, which means, God With Us.

The New Testament is a record of that very revelation of God, through whom all things were made, taking the flesh of the Virgin Mary and being born as a human being, Jesus of Nazareth, who lived among us, gathered a group of disciples around him; who taught, healed, and even raised the dead; and who suffered and died for our sins. God then raised him from the dead, and he appeared to many before he ascended into heaven. He then sent the Holy Spirit to be with his followers from then on, until he comes again to judge the living and the dead. Furthermore, he has revealed himself as one God in three persons, thus having within his own being the essence of love, for love needs the other in order to be expressed. It is indeed one thing to say there is a God and quite another to say what the nature of the God is, and that is the stuff of revelation. If you happen to consider yourself a scientifically-minded person, and have therefore considered belief in God to be for the more simple-minded, you should reconsider, and in reconsidering, think about what Christians have believed and lived for 2000 years.

This revelation that we have been given in Jesus Christ is not just for the enlightenment of our minds. Perhaps the most amazing claim of our faith is that the immortal, invisible, omnipotent God, who made all things, knows you and me. This God loves each one of us and he wants each one of us to love him and to live with him for ever. And he wants our lives to reflect his own nature of divine love.

As we give and receive our gifts this Christmas, let us all remember that the reason Jesus was born was because of God’s love for us, that he wants that same love to be born in us anew this Christmas and always.

A little-known Christmas hymn by Christina Rosetti, Hymn 84, puts it beautifully: Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead, love incarnate, love divine, worship we our Jesus, but wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine, love to God and neighbor, love for plea and gift and sign.

I give thanks for that love, and at this moment, I especially give thanks for those three books Michael loaned me.

I’d like for you to use your imaginations for a moment. We’re going to go back into prehistoric times. A written language has not been invented. There is no way to record the memory of previous years, previous generations. You are living during that time. You are part of a tribe that believes in many gods. Every year the same thing happens, and every year it causes you great anxiety. The trees have lost their leaves and look dead. Many of the plants have also died. The grass is brown. It’s getting colder and colder, and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Yes, it happened last year the same way, and the year before, but for all you know, things might not turn out the way they turned out before. Maybe the process will continue, the cold will become unbearable, and daylight will eventually cease altogether. The food will run out, and all living things will die just like the rest of nature.

Then, one day that process appears to change. The day doesn’t get shorter but actually lasts a little longer. Or was it your imagination? The next day, though, brings more good news. The day is yet a little longer. It’s time to rejoice, to give thanks to the gods. The sun was not going to die.

I imagine that anxiety is not unlike what ancient peoples went through with the approach of winter. We know that all sorts of pagan rituals developed around that day which has become known as the winter solstice, and which happens every year around the 22nd of December. In the Roman Empire, the celebration of the winter solstice with precedents that surely were prehistoric, was known as Natalis Solus Invicti, the birth of the unconquered sun. The choice of the 25th of December to celebrate the birth of our Lord is connected to this cycle of nature. It is believed that the 25th was chosen to counteract the pagan festival. Whatever the reason, we celebrate the birth of the Redeemer of the world just as nature itself seems to be saying that when things seem darkest, there is hope.

Advent is just about over. As the days are still growing shorter, our Advent trindle has become brighter and brighter, until on this fourth Sunday of Advent, it is ablaze with light. Light shining in darkness is a wonderful symbol for who we are as Christians.

When we baptize someone, one of the things we do after that person is baptized is light a candle, from the Paschal Candle, and give the candle to the newly baptized person. It is a symbol that that person has passed from darkness to light.

The image of the light shining in the darkness doesn’t speak too well of the world, for it is the world without Christ that is characterized by darkness. It shouldn’t take much persuading to convince the average person that the world is in darkness. The newspapers are full of stories about violent crime, increased drug usage, Ponzi schemes, Tiger Woods’s escapades, and of course the wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan—the list is endless.

Probably 20 years ago or so, I went to a convention of the National Association of Episcopal Schools (My parish at that time had a school). Highly acclaimed educators all echoed the same theme without having collaborated. That theme was the need for schools to teach values and morals; the need for schools, in other words, to be a light in the darkness. They were all saying that schools need to educate for character because that education was not happening elsewhere, including and especially the home. Another corollary to what these educators were saying was that television and popular music were having a tremendous impact on weakening the moral fiber of society. As I said, that convention happened 20 years ago or so. Things haven’t gotten any better. Certainly what we see on television and the movies and the music that many of our children listen to have only gotten worse.

One response to the condition of the world in which we live is to wring our hands, to despair of hoping for any change. But that is not a Christian response. The Christian response is to do what we are doing today. As the world gets darker, we light more candles. The motto of the Christopher Society says it well: “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” Children in our society are suffering from a lack of values, and so we work harder to instill values in the children who come to our Sunday School.

Business practices by many we know are unethical, but the Christian business person continues to hold the line and deal with people honestly and fairly. People continue to get sick, and we build hospitals. We continue to sin, and we forgive. Society becomes more inhuman, and we work in our small corner of the world to be more compassionate.

We light our candles because we do not lose hope, and we do not lose hope because God has not given up on us. Today’s Gospel is God’s answer to the darkness of the world. When the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin, Elizabeth, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! …Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Through her the Savior of the world took flesh and entered this world as a human being. God chose to deal with the darkness of the world he had made by sending his Son. He is the light that shines in the darkness.

Whenever I am tempted to think that the darkness of the world is winning, it helps me to recall that God never loses hope in us, that he has already won the victory over darkness in sending his Son, Jesus Christ. And most of all, what gives me the greatest hope is our life together in Christ. I see how you all deal with the chances and changes of this life, I see the strength that God gives you to deal with all kinds of challenges, I see your Christian values and convictions being lived out in your work and in your families, and I see the light shining in the darkness. Yes, we are a flawed community. We make many mistakes and we fall from time to time. God isn’t finished with us yet! But it is the Christian community through whom he has chosen to continue to make himself known. I give thanks to God for you, and I pray that for you I, too, can be one through whom light shines.

CHRIST IS IN US! Lk.3.1-6

THE ADVENT COLLECTS: Cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light——–Give us grace to heed the prophets warnings and forsake our sins——–Stir up thy power and with great might come among us——– Purify our consciences so that Christ may find in our hearts this year a mansion prepared for himself.

Advent Prayer Ladder: casting away-putting upon; repenting-forgiving; stirring up; preparing our hearts.

The Church has always celebrated two Advent Comings: the Birth of Christ and His anticipated Second Coming at the end of time. Now, a third Advent Coming (originally portrayed by St. Bernard de Clairvaux in the 12th C.) has been revived focusing upon His also coming again among us each Advent season.

Msgr. John McIllhon, a long time Pastor and Retreat Director in the Diocese of Des Moines, tells the wonderful story of the little girl who runs home excitedly one
Advent Sunday after church: That afternoon she blurts out to a visiting neighbor, “ Guess what, I learned today in church- God is really in the world.” The man smiles, puts his hand on her head saying “I’ve got something even better; God is in this room, in you, and in all of us!” The young girl stops, thinks hard for a moment and then looks right at the young family priest also standing in the family living room for the Advent holiday celebration: “Is he telling me the truth!” The smiling priest replies, “Yes, Beth he is!” Now, she’s still again for a moment and then with a huge smile on her face she boldly announces to everyone in the living room: “ Well, that really makes it all very different, doesn’t it? ”

So, Advent means “ Three Comings.” We celebrate and commemorate Christ’s birth! We await His Second Coming one day in power and great glory! And we prepare ourselves each year for His return among us in the Season of Advent. And the Advent Collects instruct and help us: To cast away and put upon; Heed and forsake; Ask God to stir up His power and come among us; Prepare in our hearts a mansion made ready for Him. And young Beth is right: It all does make it very very different!

On the second and third Sundays of Advent, John The Baptist becomes the focus. He was born of priestly descent. His father, Zechariah, was a priest in the Temple. His mother Elizabeth was a kinswoman of Jesus’ mother, Mary. John was born in Judea and as a youth he spent much time in the wilderness. For John, the “Sons of Abraham” had been disinherited. The “Promised Land” was occupied by the legions of Rome. The chief priests of the Temple had no king, but Caesar. John was honored in Isaiah 40 as “The Forerunner”; by some as the prophet Elijah returned; or even as The Messiah himself. John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to the multitudes and Scribes and Pharisees alike. He challenged birthrights alone and prior baptisms with the message that God wants your fruits not roots; God seeks for your spiritual rebirth. Two important Advent questions for us today might be: (1) What is God’s message for me now through John The Baptist and (2) Who has been the most John The Baptist like figure in my life and what have I learned from him or her?

Finally, on this Second Sunday of Advent I want to share an unexpected Advent surprise which I experienced this week. On Thursday eve. and Friday morn. I celebrated both Eucharist’s in the Chapel which Sister Mary Judith and The Rvd. Mother Superior of the Order of Julian of Nor(w)ich in Waukesha, Wis. attended. It was a great Advent blessing for me! They’re leading a retreat at DaySpring this weekend. The appointed lessons were for missions/monastics and I shared these words from the letters of Fr. Alan Whittemore, O.H.C. in upstate N.Y.:

“Dear Sister, you stated your difficulties clearly and succinctly. Would that I could reply as well…… Of course, the solution is never so much a matter of the head as of the will…… We are all plodding, traveling along a road which leads ultimately to heaven, provided that we keep on going. Incidentally, with the going, the problem often tends to take care of itself…… As you travel along the road robbers and assassins may spring out upon you; indeed, the very same group of enemies will often meet you. In other words, particular temptations to which you have been liable are apt to attack you, at times, throughout your entire life……

But, as one goes on and reaches, as I am now doing, the close of the middle-age period and the beginning of the last, he/she learns one lesson above all: “He or she that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Mk. 13.13….. And enduring to the end means never letting go of one’s highest aspirations and ideals. Keep on shooting at the highest mark…… Never stop wanting and trying to be a saint…… Never forget, the Christian life in an unending series of new beginnings……The saints are the sinners who kept on trying. He or she that endureth to the end shall be saved,”….. always remember: your prayer-life first: Your Masses, Offices, Meditations, Spiritual Readings….. and never, never refrain from practicing The Presence of God. …..

As I think and pray about all of this and you one thought, one idea comes again and again into my head and heart: Persevere; Keep on going; Endure to the end; Trust and do not be afraid. One day seemingly out of nowhere you will find yourself no longer ‘plodding’ but now ‘racing’ along the road, ‘flying’ across the deserts of your life and God will surely be soaring with you…… Say a prayer for me that I too may endure and soar with Him!” Joy In Holiness- A Collection of Letters and Other Writings of Spiritual Direction by Alan G. Whittemore, O.H.C., Holy Cross Publications, West Park, N.Y. 1964.

Advent means Coming! We prepare once more to remember and celebrate the Birth of Christ. We await His coming again in power and great glory! We invite Him into our hearts this year and we prepare a room for His coming again within us. Come Lord Jesus Come! Amen.

How would you define hypocrisy? Let me give it a try. Hypocrisy is saying one thing and doing another, professing with your lips something as being the truth, and then living as if the opposite is true. In our faith, hypocrisy is saying that the most important thing in life is living according to the law of love for God and for one another, and then living a totally self-centered life. It’s coming to church and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, whose death is not only a sacrifice for our sin, but also an example of godly life, and then going home and saying hateful things to the people closest to us. Hypocrisy is keeping your religion separate from your daily living.

If you accept that definition, then we are all hypocrites at one time or another. We all fail to live up to the hope of our calling. In the words of St. Paul, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” For the Christian, hypocrisy is a given in some ways. The point of the religious life is to strive, by the grace of God, to reduce the gulf that separates what we profess with our lips from what we do with our lives.

We start a new year today. Obviously it’s not a new year in our calendars, but it’s a new Christian year. The Church Year begins on the First Sunday of Advent. It is one of the many new starts that God gives us. We are given a new start every time we confess our sins and receive absolution. We are given a new start when we receive Holy Communion. Our loving and merciful God gives us a new start whenever we ask for it. Advent is one of those new starts.

Ironically, Advent also provides us with a tremendous temptation to hypocrisy. Perhaps more than any season of the Church Year, what we say and do at church is at odds with everything that is going on around us, and in which it is impossible to avoid participating in one way or another. And let’s face it, most if not all of us don’t want to avoid it. We enjoy the secular observance of Christmas that takes place in Advent, and most Christians aren’t disturbed in the least about the difficulty in keeping Advent with Christmas being celebrated in our culture at the same time. What happens is that Advent ends up not being kept at all in most Christian households. Thus, what we do and say in church ends up being entirely divorced from what we do and say in the rest of our lives, which is the very definition of hypocrisy.

In an effort to help us avoid the temptation to hypocrisy, let’s take a look at what exactly the season of Advent is about. It is a season of preparation to receive Christ anew when we celebrate the birth of Christ on the Feast of the Nativity on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And it is a season of preparing for the coming of Christ at the end of time, when he will come again to judge the living and the dead. This Second Coming is the focus of the Gospel appointed for today, when “we will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

For centuries the Church has taught that the way to prepare rightly to celebrate Christmas is the same way that we prepare to receive him when he comes again in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead. The Collect for the First Sunday of Advent says it succinctly and beautifully: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal…”

The petition in that collect gives us our focus for the season: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” That is just another way of saying, “Give us grace to repent,” for that is what repentance is, casting away those things in our lives that take us away from loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and from loving our neighbor as we love our very selves, and then putting on those things that enable us to be more loving of God and others. True repentance, then, is not just being sorry for our sins and committing ourselves to forsake them, but it is also replacing those behaviors with acts of love. In a nutshell, that is the theme of Advent. By the way, you have already said you agree with that goal if you said Amen to the Collect at the beginning of the mass. Amen is the Church’s word for “I agree.” I agree to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, by the grace of God.

So, how do we observe rightly the season of Advent, so that it truly is a time for casting away the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light? First of all, we need to acknowledge and confess the works of darkness we have committed. Take time this Advent to make your confession, if not to a priest, then at least in your own prayer life. Write down, to the best of your recollection, all of the works of darkness you have committed since your last confession, both sins of commission and sins of omission—angry words you spoke to your spouse, dishonest dealings in your business, failure to ask forgiveness for a wrong you committed, and so on. Use the Decalogue as a guide to help you recall your sins, and the explication of the Decalogue in the Catechism is a thorough way to understand the Ten Commandments. Confession is an essential part of Advent.

Make sure you attend worship on Sundays and consider adding a weekday mass or more to your activities during this season.

Put an Advent wreath on your table at home and do Advent devotions when everyone in the household can be present. The Advent devotional guide in the Pelican is an excellent resource.

Refrain from decorating for Christmas until after the fourth Sunday of Advent. This is particularly easy to do this year since there are several days following Advent IV before Christmas Day.

You will be going to parties most likely this season, but when you do, remember that you are a child of the light in how you conduct yourself (That’s a good rule year round, by the way!). If possible, put off having Christmas parties yourself until the twelve days of Christmas, which start on the 25th of December and end with the Feast of the Nativity on 6 January.

Confess your sins, be faithful at mass, keep Advent in your homes and in your prayers, and conduct yourself as children of light. Our loving God has given us a fresh start in this beautiful season of Advent. May we receive it gratefully, and use it, by his grace, to the nourishment of our souls, that when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.