Lutheran Church

Epiphany 2B-12

It was a 17-minute speech on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Martin Luther King Jr. had been so preoccupied with the demands of the historic March on Washington, he hadn’t given much thought to what he’d say.  He began to write less than 12 hours before.  He titled early drafts “Normalcy, Never Again.” Eyewitnesses say it wasn’t until toward the end of his famous speech that Martin Luther King Jr. stopped reading his notes, looked up and began to preach when the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, prompted him to “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”  Tell them about the dream.  The rest is history.

The miracle of the incarnation is God’s promise to move and speak through us.  When Martin Luther King Jr. set aside what he prepared to say God began to speak through him.  He went from being a speaker to being a prophet.  God spoke to the American people and to the world that day.  He preached a message for then and for all time:  God has a dream and invites you and I to inhabit it.

Today we linger over this invitation.  We heard Jesus say, “Follow me” (John 1:43).  We heard Phillip’s words, “Come and see” (vs. 46).  God has called us.  God in Christ Jesus has issued us a summons.  In the water’s of baptism, at the table, through the scriptures, at the cross, in the proclamation of the Word, in the prophetic voice of the prophets of old, and even the prophets of our own time like Martin Luther King Jr., God issues a personal call to each of us.  The witness of faithful people whom we have known and loved has led us to this point.  God has called, invited, implored, extolled us, again and again.  Set aside your petty self-interest and come with me to be members with the living body of Christ at work and at play in the world.  But we linger, and we wonder, because we know that to enter into the new life God has imagined for each of us means we must be prepared to leave behind the life we already know—or think you know.

The first disciples gave up their work, their livelihood as fishermen to follow Jesus.  In John’s gospel we read that some also gave up their prior beliefs and religious commitments as disciples of John.  Following Jesus will take them far from home and far from the values and lifestyle they knew as children into a new beloved heterogeneous community of fisherman, tax collectors, Jews and gentiles. (Brian Stoffregen)

Follow me, Jesus says.   Come and see.  God has a dream for the world as it should be that includes each one of us. “Who me?” we ask. “You mean right now?” We’re incredulous.  Jesus invites you to dream again like you did when you were a child.  As Martin Luther King Jr. so memorably reminded us, to respond to God’s call we must cultivate a holy imagination, because as Christian people, we are called to tell them about the dream.

In these days of polarized politics, chronic unemployment, and a shrinking middle class, the capacity for imagining what grace could do has become shriveled and atrophied.

“Unemployment, illness, injustice, and poverty can constrict our vision, imprisoning us in the pain of the present moment, [so that we are] unable to look beyond our own personal misfortunes” (Bruce Epperly, In the Spirit of Martin Luther King: Cultivating a Holy Imagination).

The French existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir tells that when she was caring for her dying mother, it was as if the entire world shrunk to the size of her mother’s hospital room.  In times of grief and high anxiety, we can lose track of our dreams.  We mistake realism for reality.  We strive merely to survive, although our God-given destiny is to thrive.  The decline of the Church in recent decades and the outright loss of so many once vibrant urban congregations has dimmed the imagination among God’s people.

It can take all the energy we have to look beyond our misfortunes and failures, to behold again this larger vision—the power of the holy imagination, the lure of an alternative reality—that has always been the inspiration for the prophet and spiritual guide. Martin Luther King’s dream reminds us that within what we perceive as limitations are possibilities for adventure and growth.

In the coming weeks and months God is calling you Immanuel to dream and to dream big.  We are called to dream, not just for ourselves, but for our neighbors and the whole church.  We are not better than other congregations.  We are not more holy.  We’re just us.  But Immanuel is especially challenged because we are especially blessed with resources.  How many other churches these days can say that?  There are literally thousands of people just outside our door who don’t know what they are living for.  How shall we use what God has given us so their vision may be restored, so that God’s people might dream again?  Specifically, how if at all shall we change or extend our ministries?  How, if at all, shall we re-shape our physical space to support the community we are called to be in the future?  What partnerships are we called either to create or deepen?

Can you imagine a time when every child in Edgewater knows someone is at home who loves them? Can you imagine a time when every child in Edgewater knows they are part of a community that cares for them?  Can you imagine a community that provides every opportunity children to get a fair and equal chance to succeed and to thrive? Can you imagine a day when every person knows God is as equally present in our cells as in our souls? We are all God’s children.

A person, a family, a neighborhood and a nation thrive on vision and possibility, not fear and negativity.  We have to tell them about the dream. With hands extended in fellowship we must follow wherever God in Christ might lead. We must be ready to leave behind the familiar comforts of the past so we might embody the dream of beloved community as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us in daily life.

The March on Washington put much more pressure on the Kennedy administration to advance civil rights legislation in Congress.  Following the speech and March, Martin Luther King Jr. was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine in 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But more importantly, the conscience of the nation was awakened to the pernicious social evil of racial discrimination.  King’s dream that one day every child not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character convicts and leads us still today.  It is a dream worthy of our dedication and sacrifice. It is an ennobling dream. Martin Luther King and the faithful community of his day engaged heart, soul, strength, and spirit.  They persevered through hardship and persecution.  They did their part.  God did the rest!

God calls us today, like he called the first disciples, like he called Phillip, Nathaniel, and Martin Luther King Jr., to serve the kingdom and bring the Gospel to a broken and thirsty world.

It is not a command but a call. It is an invitation to dream again.  Come, follow, seek and find healing for your wounds as well as purpose to dignify your life.  Jesus invites us walk the path to wellness that will not be easy, and possibly even dangerous.  Come, Follow me, Jesus says, I will teach you how to dream again and how to live.

Proper 28A-11

November 13, 2011

The universe is 14 billion years old. Our spiral-shaped galaxy, fondly dubbed the Milky Way contains 200-600 billion stars.  At the speed of light you could zoom from one side of our galaxy to the other if you had between 100,000-120,000 years to do it.  Scientists estimate the universe contains 125 billion galaxies like our own.

As if this were not awesome enough to contemplate, last week, I listened to theoretical physicist Brian Green explain to NPR’s Terry Gross about the high probability of multiple universes, layered and twisted around our own like fibrous strings in handmade paper, folded together in one unimaginably big and complex origami.

When we are confronted with the true size and scale of the universe—or multi-verse—the obvious question is who are we that God should be concerned with us?  The psalm we sang today (Psalm 90) contrasts the infinity of God with the obvious finitude of human life: “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, which passes like a watch in the night. You sweep them away like a dream; they fade away suddenly like the grass.” (Psalm 90: 4-6).

An old Jewish proverb said we should carry two notes in our pockets: the first saying, you are dust and to dust you shall return; the second affirming, for you the universe was made!  Indeed, the dust from which you are made is stardust.  Incredibly, the faith we confess is that “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us.” (St. Augustine)  Moreover, what you choose to do or not to do makes a real and lasting difference—not only to God—but also to how the story of the universe unfolds.

Our scripture today is a call to awake to the wonder of each breath and every encounter.  In the spirit of the American poet Mary Oliver, our readings ask us to consider: “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” (Mary Oliver, The Summer Day)

The faith we confess stands in sharp contrast to the one in fashion today.  Most people believe in God but will tell you, either with their words or actions, that God is very distant from their lives.  God is an abstraction rather than a concrete reality.  So God becomes irrelevant to the daily rhythm of our deliberations and decisions.  Just be good and be happy. It’s all the same to God.

The prophet Zephaniah had strong words for those who believe that God is indifferent to us, or our world.  They’re in for a surprise, and not a good one! Harm will come to those who “rest complacently (like old wine) on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’” (Zephaniah 1:12).  Could it be we all have something to lose when God leaves center stage in our lives?

Could there be tragedy and pain, not just for us but for the people we love –for our children and grandchildren when God is no longer someone in our lives, not a person to whom we must be accountable but is only an idea, an abstraction in a book but not in our hearts?  The faulty faith many of us where raised with will say God jealously punishes those who withdraw from him.  But our scripture preach something different: God is light, face into the light as the flowers and trees do so that you will may thrive; God is love, dwell in this love that drives away fear; God is undying life, partake in this abundance that you may become generous and warm in spirit.

With today’s readings we move into the twilight of the season of Pentecost and into the dawning of the season of Advent.  From now until Christmas we’ll examine our life and our place in God’s graceful universe from what is often an uncomfortable point of view for us—namely that of God’s expectation, God’s judgment, and ultimately, weighing out the value of the lives we have lived—not just as individuals, but corporately.  What kind of community have we built, what kind of society have we made together as members of the church and the children of heaven?

We’ll look fully into the face of the fact that the gracious gift of freedom we are given by a loving God means that the consequences of our actions cannot be nullified.  The present becomes indelible past, and past has power either to open or close doors to the future.

God’s graceful universe is compatible with the reality that we shall reap what we sow. To be sure, God seeks to minimize the negative consequences of our actions, and to bring good out of evil, but our turning from God to do whatever we want, without regard to others, is a stumbling block to the abundance God desires for us.  “The good news from Zephaniah’s words of apparent doom is that we and our actions really do matter to God and the future of the planet, and that we can, as Mother Teresa counsels, “do something beautiful for God.”” (Bruce Epperly) Our faithful and life-supporting actions become ripples in pond radiating into the universe that enable God to help us and future generations be more active and creative in bringing healing and justice to the world. (Bruce Epperly)

Rather than in hope and abundance, lots of people today are like the third servant in Jesus’ parable from Matthew.  They live frozen with fear out of a false understanding of God and out of ignorance about the origins of their lives.  Truly they live as people “…cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30). We are called to show them another way.  We all have something to lose when even one of us lives in fear rather than hope, in scarcity rather than abundance, in death rather than life.

Our readings today teach that God has placed a fabulous treasure in your hands.  In this unimaginably immense and complex universe, God blesses each moment of your life with her full and loving attention.  Still more, God has given you an ownership stake in the universe.  God has given you power to shape the future. God has richly blessed you with talents and spiritual gifts.

Jesus’ parable of the talents challenges each of us.  It confronts this congregation to think big and to live big. We are called and equipped to be spiritual visionaries. “God gives us the seeds, [but through our lives] we must produce the fruit” (Rev. Peter Gnomes).  What great thing is God calling you toward today? What vision of Immanuel’s future is drawing our congregation forward?  What self-imposed limitations and false understandings do we need to let Christ Jesus break –personally, and congregationally—in order to become God’s partners in healing the world? (Commentary by Bruce G. Epperly)

Jesus’ parable of the talents means that each of you is extravagantly blest with God-given talents and abilities.  We are not all blessed equally.  Some possess five, some two, some just one—but each of these God-given talents is indispensable.  Each gift is intended to make its own contribution to the well being of the body of Christ, and to the wider community in which we live.

Like unused muscles, God’s spiritual gifts atrophy and become useless when they are not used.  The consequences can be tragic, for us and for those we love.  Like candlelight, the gifts we have from God, aren’t diminished when we share them with others; but are doubled and spread throughout the community to drive away the darkness in us all.  Neither is our ability to love diminished by sharing it.  There will be more love in the world.  Neither is the power of the gospel diminished by spreading it.  There will be more people living in confidence and love working to re-make our society as God intended it to be.

Our failure to trust God and, then, take appropriate risks shrinks the size of our world and diminishes our sense of possibility.  Yet despite our timidity, new possibilities to love and serve God are always on the horizon when we awaken to the gift and power of God’s grace alive and at work in the far distant corners of the universe –and right here now.

Proper 26A-11

Matthew 23:1-12

The famous 19^th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is quoted saying,  “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”  He was a notoriously pessimistic, lonely and difficult man.  Change may be an inescapable reality of life, but it is seldom something we are truly comfortable with.

I was thirteen when my mother enrolled in college.  That was a big change for our family—a good change.  Yet when it was my turn to make dinner once a week, slamming cupboard doors, frustrated words, and ill-timed food emanating from the kitchen made it clear I wasn’t too happy to take on extra responsibilities.

Of course, change can be marvelous—even miraculous—as when a political prisoner like Nelson Mandela goes free and becomes the leader of his nation; or like when the Berlin Wall came down; or when a black man named Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, or perhaps like the current people’s movement called the Arab Spring.

Much of the social upheaval in religion and politics of the past hundred years can meaningfully be tied to the social consequences of change and especially, the increasing pace of change across cultures and around the world.

The first computer I ever owned came fresh out of the box in in 1987 packed with 64,000 transistors in it’s little, 1 inch square computer brain.  That still seems like a lot—but that number is dwarfed by my current laptop that has 291 million            transistors in the same space—almost unimaginably more.  Revolutions in computers, communications, transportation, and medicine are resulting in parallel revolutions in domestic, economic, political and religious life. Today, we are bold to wear red and celebrate the reforming power of the Holy Spirit.

We dare to be bold in the face of change because there is another constant that is eternal, perpetual and immortal in the midst of continual contingency—namely the unchanging, steadfastly loving character and presence of God.  God is with us through tragedy and triumph.  Today, we do not celebrate, or even condone change for its own sake.  Not all change is good.  But we praise God who busily exerts the lure of grace to bring wisdom and renewal more and more out of each moment of our lives, and out of every situation, not matter how devastating.

For Martin Luther, the Bible is the Word of God not just because of what it says about God, but also—and even more so—because of what it conveys.  The bible ushers us into the presence of the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ, to be grasped in faith.  In the pages of scripture, we encounter God’s Living Word, as Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “which is also at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Reformation is about being formed again in the image and likeness of God.  Therefore, Reformation Sunday is about more than church history.  It’s a day to remember that the church will always be imperfect and in need of reform.  It’s a day to remember that God’s Living Word brings renewal to our personal, business and social lives as well.  Today we honor the fact that though change is difficult for us—we can all use a little renewal.  We stand in need of transformation.  We strain toward the resurrection of our lives!  Yet we also remember that no matter how good or longed for, this change will not come without pain.  As Gloria Steimen once said, “the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”

Marching into Jerusalem and cleansing the temple did not win Jesus many friends, especially among the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  Reformation meant the end of business-as-usual for the Pharisees and scribes, and they don’t seem to know what to do about it. They’re offended by Jesus’ parables. They are indignant at listening to this dusty prophet-healer from the hinterlands that paraded (literally!) onto their turf and publically critiqued them, both in parable and debate.

Their response to Jesus’ graceful word is to test and trick him, hoping to trap him into heresy so they can have him arrested.  They don’t want reformation.  They just want things to go back to normal.

It might be easy for us to understand where the scribes and Pharisees are coming from.  But Jesus is unrelenting. Chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel is a long and heated speech by Jesus who is outraged at the hypocrisy of the very ones entrusted with leading the people by example toward lives of greater faithfulness to God. (Kathryn Matthews Huey, Sermon Seeds)

We are living in a time when the Christian gospel must compete in the marketplace of ideas promoting themselves as pathways to happiness and wellbeing. Gone are the days when the church held sway as the place to go to find your best life now.  Can the church deliver on its promise to usher the seeker into the fullness of the presence of God?  Or, will it be just another in a long line of disappointing institutions more interested in merely serving itself?   Does the Christian gospel lead into wisdom and the resurrected life of abundance, hospitality, generosity, and joy?  Or, is it merely one system of belief among many that promises more than it can deliver?

Well, the proof is in the pudding.  With words that echo the psalmist, we say, “Taste and see that the Lord is God” (Psalm 34:8).   Rightly or wrongly, Christian community as it exists across the country today has a reputation for pettiness, hypocrisy, and judgmentalism more than transforming, life-giving grace.  The truth about how people view the church is painful.

Yet the church was built for continual reformation.  Our Lord Christ Jesus walks with us through the pain. He says, ‘do not be afraid.’   Renewal of the Church comes with the reformation of our lives and our community.  You and I are living signs, walking billboards of community in Christ.  All that we need do is love God, one another, and ourselves as God loves us—to ensure that our religion does not become just another means of self-deception, to protect our personal privilege and shelter us from the full force of God’s reforming grace which the church is meant to exemplify.

Our gospel today points out the dangers of religious hypocrisy.  But it also offers the promise of the radical egalitarianism of Christian community. “Rabbi,” “father,” “instructor” and other titles of authority are to be shunned (verses 8-10) by Matthew’s community.  Instead God and the Messiah are the only authorities to be accorded honor.  Christian community is rooted in the vision and practice of radical egalitarianism.  You and I are members of one another and the priesthood of all believers.  The purpose of the church is to make little christs—who are marked with the cross of Christ, anointed in baptism, as living signs of God’s holy, living and reforming Word.

“Matthew proposes an alternative world, a world seen from the perspective of the kingdom of God, an alternative family where the approval of God removes the heavy yoke of self-justification” (M. Eugene Boring writes: Matthew, New Interpreter’s Bible). We stand in need of reformation.  We share a deep need for love, justice, compassion, health and dignity.  Today we are called to be humble before God so that we may claim our power to be living signs of God’s grace.

Lesbian feminist theologian and trail blazing Episcopal priest Carter Heyward writes beautifully about the humility that leads to reformation in the October 21, 2008 issue of The Christian Century.  She writes, “Genuine humility is a gift from God which has nothing to do with downcast eyes, a misty voice and noble stories of sacrifice. Humility is, rather, living courageously in a spirit of radical connectedness with others, which enables us to see ourselves as God sees us: sisters and brothers, each as deeply valued and worthy of respect as every other.” Jesus was able to see each person as deeply valued and worthy of respect, because he “had a strong sense of his place in the larger scheme of things in God’s world.” Jesus, then, keenly knew who, and whose, he was. Jesus knew that all of us belong to God, and as his followers, “we know ourselves as spiritual kin to everyone” (Christian Century 10-21-08).

Radical connectedness…genuine humility…deep compassion…this is the vision of personal and communal reformation Jesus shared throughout the Gospel of Matthew.   Even as he neared death on a cross, Jesus remained true to this vision, even in the face of power that has lost its way.  Reformation is always painful but it leads to life and the abundance of life.  This too is eternal, perpetual and immortal, God will be with us through all the changes.

Proper 25A-11

It’s been years since I attended school.  But I remember words I encountered at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago written on the wall of the men’s room. It was a three line logical argument to unmask God’s true identity. The first proposition was that 1) God is love.  2) Love is blind. Therefore, 3) Ray Charles is God.  The first thing I thought was—now this is the sort of graffiti you can only find at a high priced Divinity School—two propositions and no phone numbers!  Besides being a good joke, it makes a good point about how easy it is to reason toward false conclusions even when we start with good information.

Some how or other we humans always make things more complicated than they need to be, and then we fight about it. Church history is filled with good examples.

In the year 1054, all Christendom split over whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, or from the Father only. The bishop of Rome excommunicated the bishop of Constantinople and the whole Eastern Church, and the bishop of Constantinople excommunicated the pope and the whole Western Church. Now Jesus never talked about the Holy Trinity.  In fact, you won’t find the word Trinity in the bible.  So, how on earth could anyone ever know what the answer is? (Marcus Borg, “What’s Christianity All About?”, Day1.org, 2/6/11)

Another one, Lutherans and Catholics fought over the meaning of grace.  Today, five hundred years later, the two churches signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (celebrated here in Immanuel’s sanctuary).  It says essentially…oops, no actually, we agree on grace.  Lutherans and Methodists fought over sanctification –now, not so much.  Just over one hundred years ago, many congregations argued over whether to install indoor plumbing. Is it really permissible for Christians to do that in the House of God?  The first congregation I served fought about when to extinguish the candles after worship.

Christians will have disagreements, and even many important ones.  This is natural and to some extent necessary to discern God’s will.  But we must never forget to be humble.  Today’s gospel is a reminder that the true test of our theology, our prized religious traditions, our worship and our congregation is how well all these usher us past themselves and into deeper relationship with God born out in faithful lives and deeds rather than pious ideas and words.

Many congregations become confused and divided.  Is the church a building or is it a community? Is it believing the right things or putting trust in Jesus? In today’s gospel, Jesus offers up a bracing cup of clarity.  The church is people, stupid.  To be a true Christian is to love God and your neighbor.

Somehow, as traditions develop, institutions mature, and religious leaders become more educated, they naturally tend to make faith more complicated. But Jesus makes it simple.  Being a Christian is about loving what God loves. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37).  These words of Jesus are often called the Great Commandment.  It’s an ingenious summary of the Ten Commandments.  The first three Commandments instruct believers to love God.  The remaining seven offer instruction about loving our neighbor.

Jesus says, ‘to love God is to love your neighbor’ (NIB, Matthew, p. 426).  To love one is to love the other, to neglect one is to lose them both—or as theologian Dorothy Day once put it, “[You] really only love God as much as [you] love the person [you] love the least.”

“For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son” (John 3:16).  Literally, the bible says that God so loved the cosmos –in the biblical language of John’s gospel this is not meant to include all the stars and planets of outer space, but the God-hating world, everything and everyone opposed to God—that’s who God loves and for whom God sent his only Son.

It doesn’t take long to realize that the love Jesus is talking about here goes beyond human comprehension. God’s kind of love is not like human love.  It is not an exclusive romantic love. It is not love such as friends have who share important things in common.  God’s love is unconditional, total, without reserve, without end, and all the way down.  It’s that simple. It’s that amazing.

All God requires of us is to love God, and love our neighbor.  But there’s a problem.  We can’t get there from here.  Such love as God has is not possible for us. It’s not possible, unless we walk in the Way of the cross, passing through death, and are resurrected with Christ into the life of abundance God has prepared for us and for all people.  It’s impossible for a fish to live out of water, unless they are caught up in the proclamation of the gospel.  Impossible, unless we become part and parcel of one another as living members of Christ’s body alive and at work in the world.  Impossible!—for us to love one another as God loves us except that God provides this unconditional love to us so freely in every moment, so we have it to exchange with one another.

To most people, today’s gospel is summed up by that old commercial for Coca-cola: “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…”  Or perhaps, in the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”  I’d say most everyone I meet today, inside and outside the church agrees it’s important to be a good person in order to have a good life and be happy.  Yet, how tragic it is when once we begin to realize, we can’t get there from here.  The command to love one another is an empty sentiment without God. The Coke commercial is crap without the cross!

Despite this, the Christian gospel is constantly being co-opted, re-packaged and handed back to us by the dominant culture in ways that serve narrow commercial interests rather than God’s.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are now holidays more than they are holy days.

For evidence, look no farther than your own living room.  Having older siblings means our youngest child Leah bypassed all the sweet children’s programming on T.V. and went straight to the hard stuff— she’s not into Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, Clifford the Big Red Dog, or even Arthur like our boys were when they were her age.  Instead, it’s iCarly, Spongebob and Victorious.

To be fair, the message in these shows does seem to be that it’s important to care about people –at least if they’re your friends.  But certainly no transformation is required.  Just be yourself.  There’s no church in Bikini bottom, iCarly or Victorious.   In fact, there are no parents operating in these kid’s lives that don’t seem stupid or silly.  They are extremely privileged and affluent.  Victoria fronts her own rock band even at high school.  Carly has her own high-tech web-cast studio on the third floor of her apartment in downtown Seattle.

Such extreme income inequality is a cancer that eats away at our national wellbeing.  Yet even as the Occupy Wall Street movement raises the question: Why is the net worth of the wealthiest 400 families in the United States greater than the combined net worth of the bottom 150 million Americans? (America’s ‘Primal Scream’, NYT, By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, 10/15/11)– my daughter, at home in our family room, is learning to sing Victorious’ new hit single. Her music video plays two or three times every hour.  She sings, “All I want is everything, everything.  Too much is not enough.”

As we approach the holiday season, it’s a good time to ask ourselves, how will we make this year different?  What ways will we prioritize the gospel rather than the culture this year –how will you honor yourself, your friends and family as children of God, rather than as mere consumers?  At Immanuel, we’re attempting to recognize the full twelve days of Christmas in order to reclaim the tradition, and distinguish the Christian holy days from the commercial holidays that is oppressively omnipresent on television, radio, in shops and billboards today.

Being Christian is about becoming the kind of person who can love God and love what God loves.  This is not possible without transformation or resurrection –of the kind that can only happen as we live in community. The process of growing up does not incline us to that deep love of God and that deep love of what God loves. The growing up process in our culture today inclines us to be concerned about ourselves.  (Marcus Borg)

Transformation into the image of the loving God happens in a community of transformation.  It happens at the Table and the Font.  It happens as we gather around the gospel in prayer and with each other in Christ’s name.  The church, despite its historical failures and shortcomings, is a place to be re-socialized so our sense of identity and our values is shaped by the Christian gospel.  Through encounter with the gospel and each other in the name of Christ, little by little, and all at once, we are surprised and inspired to find God’s great love working in us and through us.

God’s love is beyond human love, but this does not mean it lacks feeling.

Scholar Marcus Borg says being Christian is “about participating in God’s passion. This is what we are called to. So, ultimately, being Christian is about loving God and changing the world. It’s as simple and challenging as that, and it is the way of life.” (Marcus Borg)

A prayer of the North African bishop, St. Augustine, some 1,600 years ago is appropriate for us today:

“O God, from whom to be turned is to fall, to whom to be turned is to rise, and in whom to stand is to abide forever. Grant us in all our duties your help, in all our perplexities your guidance, in all our dangers your protection, and in all our sorrows your peace.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Body, and our Blood, our Life and our Nourishment. Amen