On our anxieties and our tragedies and God's redemptive promise . . .

      I know I had threatened not to hold this service in January of last year.  It seemed a service that was needed for a few years but had run its course, in terms of participation by Adventers and those in the community around us.  That was, of course, before the Covenant shooting happened, Hamas’s attacks of October 7, and Israel’s response to those attacks.  Those who were here back in late March/early April might remember that we used this service to pray for the victims of the shooting and their families, to pray for the Covenant community, our neighborhood, and the family of the shooter.  If my follow up conversations with those who attended are any sign, not only was it needed, but it was very well received.  Many Christians in our area think it a sin to complain to God, and a few were worried that laments were unworthy of people who have great faith.  If nothing else, we had a chance to teach some in other churches that God encourages to come to Him with our pains, our hurts, our fears, our doubts, our angers and frustrations, and even our hopelessness.  In light of all that, we decided to observe this feast, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, again this year.

     For many of us outside the liturgical traditions, such an observance this week seems out of place.  We just celebrated the Feast of the Nativity on Sunday, a few of us went to church on Christmas Day to give thanks to God for the birth of Jesus, and it seems to me that many in the wider Church are realizing that Christmas is a short season, and not just a day.  I confess I love it when people confess they have “never heard of such a thing,” and I get to remind them that of course they have, and then I see the light bulb start t brighten as the realize the carol, Twelve Days of Christmas, has been teaching them that all their lives!  But I do understand the seeming whiplash.  Those of us who grew up in non-liturgical churches are unaware of the rhythm of the Church and how that rhythm reinforces much of the teaching about the Incarnation and our Lord’s purposes of Holy Week and Easter.  FWIW, this is NOT the first martyrdom we remember in the Church this week.  The Feast of St. Stephen, one of the first deacons in the Church and the first martyr, is celebrated on December 26.  Imagine attending a church named for Stephen and celebrating his feast day the day after Christmas!  But, as I said, all of this is to remind us that Jesus came into the world of darkness and would be rejected by those whom He came to save.  Though the Gospel ends on an amazing note of power and hope and promise, we are constantly reminded of the sin and death and evil that permeates the world.

     Such an observation and realization should not be shocking t God’s people.  The prophet Jeremiah had the wonderful God-appointed task of declaring the Exile to God’s people.  Prophets, as most Adventers have heard now for nine years, were supposed to be honored in Israel’s culture.  God was a speaking God, and He chose to speak through individuals such as Jeremiah.  The prophet was the only real check on the king.  If a king determined to do something, and the prophet said “Thus says the Lord, Don’t,” the king was supposed to listen.  Unfortunately, neither Israel nor her kings listened to the prophets very much.  Worse, they refused to be guided by God’s torah and stone those self-declared prophets whose prophesies did not come true.  For their part, all Israel recognize that Jeremiah was God’s prophet.  They just refused to listen to him, really to God.  In fact, the king tossed Jeremiah in a cistern to imprison and silence God.

     Our reading tonight begins with the recognizable formula.  Jeremiah is declaring that these words are the words of Yahweh.  “A voice is heard in Ramah.”  Where is Ramah?  Literally, the word could just suggest a height.  But as so often the case, poetry allows for a number of interpretations.  Ramah was the place where the first prophet, Samuel, was buried and where Rachel, the beloved favorite wife of Jacob, was buried.  The Lord is calling to memory through Jeremiah’s prophesy a great deal of history and imagery.  Those of us who do not pay close attention to the OT might not remember Rachel’s struggle with infertility.  Her sister Leah kept having children for Jacob, but she was unable in the beginning of their marriage.  Part of what we remember tonight is the grief and frustration and anger of the death of the oppressed or innocent.  Imagine what it was like for Rachel to lose Joseph when the brothers reported they found his coat torn and bloodied.  Some among us have no need to imagine it.  A few among us have lost children or even grandchildren to untimely or unexpected deaths.  That feeling of rage and impotence and who knows what else was experienced by them just like Rachel.  And God is using that image to prophesy how all Israel will feel about their upcoming Exile.

     That prophesy of Exile allows for yet another interpretation of Ramah.  Guess where the people of Israel were sorted and assigned as they were dispersed throughout the kingdom of Babylon?  That’s right, Ramah.  As Jeremiah will remind us in just 10 chapters or so, families and clans were divided in Ramah and dispersed throughout the empire as a way to protect the empire against future uprisings and revolts.  Imagine the grief and shame.

     Jeremiah goes on to describe the lamentation of Rachel.  Indeed, he instructs us that she cannot be comforted because her children are no more.  This wonderful poetry reminds us of the grief and rage and frustration we all have toward unjust suffering and death.  In fact, the Hebrew itself, when pronounced correctly, is not unlike the sound of sobbing we make when we are inconsolable.  Imagine the emotions at work and the sobbing in Israel when the words of Jeremiah proved true.  God swore His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God promised that their descendants would be numerous and a blessing to the world.  What made Israel special was that God chose them to be His People.  They had been instructed, through the torah, what it meant to live in relationship with a holy God.  They had been instructed that, when they went astray, He would send a prophet to speak correction and warning with His voice.  They had been instructed that signs would be given them by Him when they were straying from the Covenant.  Most of all, He promised them that if they failed to repent in spite of all these warning, He would cause the Land He gave them to reject them, to spit them out.  Jeremiah had the unenviable task of telling his brothers and sisters that God’s patience had been exhausted.  His people were going to be carried off into oppression.  And God’s people responded by ignoring Jeremiah’s warnings and tossing him into a cistern in Jerusalem.  We can all imagine that bitter shame as it came true.

     In many ways, some of our stories are just as tragic.  All of us wrestle with disease and death.  Heck, as a nation we are into our third year of pandemic living.  We have experienced deaths in our community and in our families.  Worse, many of us are uncomfortable when challenged by others in our lives as to why God allowed the pandemic or death, if He is so powerful.  All of us live with more anxiety about war, right?  A couple years ago, none of us probably gave the “rumors of war” a second thought, unless family was serving in the military.  But now . . . how many of us are giving thoughts to nuclear war for the first time since we hid under our desks in school?  How many of us are genuinely worried about WW3?  A wrong move by Putin or Iran could turn regional conflicts into worldwide conflagration.  And let’s not forget about our favorite little dictator in North Korea, who seemingly shakes his fist and throws a tantrum whenever he thinks the world is not properly fearing his might and power.  Who among us can stop such escalations?  How can we really protect ourselves against such oppression?

     Speaking of oppression, how many of us, and our loved ones, have been battered by economic forces beyond our control this year?  Inflation has gone crazy.  Oil has spiked, yet again, thanks to these wars.  As badly as we have been hit, and let’s be honest, most of us are economically privileged, the real economic oppression has been felt by those least able to deal with it in the world around us.  Some of those whom we serve through Body & Soul work three and four part-time jobs trying to make ends meet, and they cannot.

     Locally, of course, we have all experienced more oppression.  I have already reminded us of the Covenant shooting that took place late last March.  Many of us did not give mass shootings and school shootings much thought until they happened here.  But at least we have our politicians working to solve all these problems, right?

     And what of those untimely deaths?  As a community, we have all grieved the loss of MC and Jim, and many of us mourned with Gregg and Lynn as they buried a grandson, a grandson some of us fed or taught as a child in this parish.  How many of us complained they did not know what to say to them or ourselves over those tragedies?

     Lastly, but maybe more important to us, what of those individual oppressions, traumas, and tragedies we have experienced but I have not named?  Ladies among us have suffered miscarriages.  Many among us have lived through cracking and breaking relationships.  Many among us have had dreams replaced by anxieties through personal traumas.  Other diseases besides COVID have plagued us.  Cancer has not taken a break.  Neither has shingles.  I won’t bother to ask who is recovering from injuries, but you know who you are.  Some of us are dealing with heart problems, vision problems, and attacks by our immune systems.  What of all those?  Where is God in the midst of those?

     Thankfully, and mercifully, God’s words through Jeremiah ends with hope.  Jeremiah promises them that one day they will come back from the land of their enemy.  One day, Israel will be restored.  Though these various oppressions will happen, God will not forget the promise He made to their fathers and mothers.  One glorious day He will restore.

     That same promise of hope and freedom from oppression is proclaimed to us, as well.  Even as we hurl our complaints and laments at God in this liturgy, you and I should also hear that still small voice reminding us of His promise of redemption and restoration, that we will one day dwell with Him and He with us.  Even as we struggle with worldwide, national, local, and personal oppression, we are reminded by His covenant with us that nothing will separate us from Him or His purposes, that nothing we suffer is beyond His power to redeem.  Though this event, the deaths of the toddlers at the command of an enraged, unfaithful king of God’s people did not take place for some two years after the birth we celebrated Sunday night, we celebrate it in the season of the Incarnation to remind us both of the evil that we face and God’s Will to redeem that evil in the lives of those who proclaim Him Lord.  We are reminded in this season of God’s incredible love for each one of us.  We are reminded in this season that God become fully human, that we might see and know Him clearly in the flesh, that we might see lived out a pattern of holy living in our midst, and that we might begin to see our need for a Savior.  We are intentionally reminded in this season that even though we ignore, reject, betray, and mock Him, still He loves us enough that He wills Himself to hang on that Cross for our sakes.  The Incarnation, without that reminder of Easter and the path that led to His death, is meaningless.  But because God demonstrates His power over suffering and death in Christ Jesus, you and I know that no oppression, no suffering, can separate us from God’s power, love, and Will to redeem.  Such is His promise to us.

     So, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, hurl your complaints at Him.  Sob your lamentations in His ears.  If you are so inclined, lay the complaints and anxieties of those whom you love at His feet.  But also remember His promise to you that He made at your baptism and confirmed in the life and death and resurrection in our Lord Christ as you are anointed for healing or eat of His flesh and drink of His blood.  Know that your cries do come to Him.  Know that it is His Will that His Light shines in the shadows that oppress you.  Know that it is His Will and promise that one glorious Day in the future, all will be restored.  All our hurts, our pains, our bruises, and even our deaths will be wiped away.  I cannot imagine how such promises can be fulfilled to make any of us not shed any tears for our sufferings, but such is His unending promise to each one of us gathered here tonight.

     Or, to put it more simply, none of us can assuage our sufferings and complaints.  None of us can assuage the sufferings and complaints of those around us.  Thankfully and mercifully, though, we know the One who can, Lord Jesus Christ!  Him we serve and Him we proclaim, trusting in His promise and His redemptive power!

 

In His Peace and Power!

Brian†

From Speaking to Enfleshment and Our Joyful Hope!

 

     We have reached the end of the big rush of the season.  That, at least in part, explains why we are an intimate group this Christmas morning.  It’s probably just as well.  The sermon idea that I had for this morning was a bit, I thought, . . . esoteric.  But now that I see our small group, maybe it really was from God.  By that, I mean, I can promise you all that none of you have thought of the Gospel of John in this way, as it is something that popped into my head over the last week as I was doing Greek with Joshua and Brian.  But each of you has turned out for your third service of Thanksgiving in the last twenty-four hours.  You have braved Nashville traffic in the rain, dodged the flock of turkeys who keep crossing Lakemont, and girded yourselves for a normal “boring” Christmas message, right?  Be careful about patting yourself on the back too hard.  Nathan can tell you shoulder surgery rehab is neither fun nor pleasant!  But this odd sermon that was coursing through my head since last Wednesday is likely only to land with those who both take their faith seriously and need a bit of reassurance, given the testimony of the world out there.

     Now that I have your attentions, I’ll explain.  I am certain all of you noticed that I read the Prologue of John in lieu of the Nativity story of Luke.  Part of that decision arose from the fact that I focused on Luke last night at both Nativity services, focusing on imagination at the early service and on the focus on “you” at the late service.  Both of those followed a discussion about transformations in the Advent 4 services.  Each of you heard two of those four sermons and, I trust, still remember them.  Good.  Unlike the other synoptic Gospels, John has a different perspective.  In particular, as we read the Prologue last night after the late Eucharist and again this morning, John is focused on the idea that Jesus, the Word of God, is the beginning of the re-creation promised by God.  In some ways, we might say that John’s prologue serves as a Genesis of the New Testament.  With me so far?  Good.

     There is a progression about God that is unfolded during the Advent season, and we reminded ourselves of it yesterday and this morning.  The progression, as John reminds us this morning, begins with logos.  Logos is a Greek word that is full of all kinds of understanding, pun intended, and almost as much nuance.  The quick definition would be something along the lines of divine reason or ordering of chaos or understanding.  There are a number of Christian theologians who argue that the imago dei, the image of God, that is in us is the logos.  Our ability to think and understand and solve is that part of God that separates us from the animals of the world, or, for those of us feeling creative this morning, the spark that jumps from God to Adam in Michelangelo’s ceiling on the Sistine Chapel.

     To speak particularly anthropomorphically this morning, logos is the thinking or idea in God’s mind.  With me so far?  Good.

     I say we are speaking particularly anthropomorphically because we understand what is revealed through our own processes.  Logos is kind of like an idea or understanding that you and I have in our heads.  But something changes when that idea or understanding is expressed.  Generally, for us, we begin to make or describe or to solve something.  There seems to be a bit of change in the nature of things, at least so far as the authors of Scripture are concerned, between what is in what’s God’s head and what happens in the cosmos around Him.

     Think back to yesterday morning and the angel’s emphasis to Mary that what God has spoken cannot NOT happen.  Our translation rendered it poorly as “nothing is impossible with God.”  As Brian and Joshua will tell you, that translation captures the basic meaning of what is behind the grammar, but there is still more to meaning we lose.  Specifically, we lose the emphasis of the double negative in the Greek and on the reminder about what God has spoken must occur.  Luke could have chosen all kinds of way to express “nothing is impossible for God,” but, and we assume inspired by the Holy Spirit, Luke chose HIs words to reflect something being revealed by God.

     Specifically, think of the role of the prophet among God’s people.  The prophet was elected to instruct the king when the king went astray because the king’s primary responsibility as a steward of God was to lead the people of God into right relationship with Him.  As a consequence, there were usually prophets among the people of Israel for most of the Old Testament.  The prophet spoke the logos of God hoping for a return to God’s instructions.  More often than not, though, the people and kings ignored the voice of the prophet, that which was spoken.  Some might say that Israel did not fully understand how dependent they were on God’s voice in their midst until it disappeared in the time between Malachi and John the Baptizer.

     For our part, such an understanding source of hope in the promises of God.  If God has spoken something through the prophets or Scripture or even in His communications with us, then we know it will happen, or, as Gabriel told Mary, it cannot NOT happen.  To the extent that things do not happen, we understand the fault is with us.  Either we have misunderstood or misapplied what God has spoken.  Because He has spoken and because what He has spoken cannot NOT happen, we know the problem lies with us and not Him.  We are not attended to Him correctly.  Just to be clear, we are no worse than those who claimed to preach or teach or instruct in His voice throughout history.  One of the ways that God’s people were to judge prophets was by whether what the prophet said happened.  If it did, then the people knew the prophet was of God.  If not, the false prophet was to be stoned.  Imagine how carefully we should claim to be prophets of God if the consequence of our misunderstanding, assuming good intentions, was a stoning!  Yet how many “false prophets” are among us in the Church today!

     For his part, John the Apostle captures this understanding well.  John instructs us about the Logos.  Specifically, John instructs us about the Word of God that dwells with the Father in the beginning, the Word who is with God and is God.  He even instructs us about the silence and our need for God’s voice in our life as we live and work in the darkness.  He reminds us that there was another John who proclaimed that the Word, the Logos of verse 1, outranked him because He was before Him.  Yes, John’s Prologue helps us understand the Trinity better, not completely, but there is another teaching going on.  John the Baptizer comes after 270 years of God’s silence to proclaim that the Logos was coming into the world, the Logos that was with God and is God in the beginning!

     Now for the fun part for us.  Again, speaking anthropomorphically about God, if there is a double negative emphasis on the fact that what God has spoken cannot NOT happen, what do we make of what we celebrated last night and this morning and for the next twelve days?  John tells us in verse 14.  This Logos that was with God and is God, which has been spoken through the prophets until this point in salvation history, became flesh and lived among us.  Better still, in this Word made flesh, we are able to see the glory of Him whose glory before this moment in salvation history would blind and even destroy us were we to see Him in His glory unmediated.

     I see some pondering faces.  Now you know why I said this was not for those who do not steep themselves in their attunement to God in worship and study and prayer.  There is a progression in God’s revelation that ought to reassure us or comfort us or be a source of hope that cannot be quashed.  If what God has spoken cannot NOT happen, how much more meaning is attached to His enfleshment and dwelling among us?  Put in simple English, rather than Johannine language or Greek, as much emphasis as the angel places on the “cannot NOT happen” about God’s spoken words, how much more emphasis must there be upon His enfleshed Word?  

     We know the answer, of course.  This Babe whose birth we celebrated last night and this morning comes to restore the intimacy we lost in the Garden and through our sins.  This Light that has entered the darkness of the world will be scorned, rejected, tortured, and eventually killed.  But even then, when it looks like the world has won, the Father acts and raises His Son from the dead and speaks, reminding each one of us who proclaim His Son the Lord of our lives will share in HIs Resurrection. And as much assurance as we find in God’s spoken words through the prophets, how much more so are we reassured by His Incarnation, Resurrection, and Ascension!

     My friends, we are sent back out into a crazy dark world.  Our politicians rule for their own aggrandizement and not those whom they serve or the One who grants them authority.  Nature itself seems chaotic with floods and tornados and volcanos and earthquakes far too common.  And, lest we forget, the microbes of nature are working a triple whammy on us even as we gather a God’s people remembering the awe and mystery of the Incarnation this morning.  Economically speaking, there is a shift happening before our eyes, a shift whose outcome none of us can accurately forecast.  For two years we have gathered as God’s people when wars, rather than rumors of war, have reared their heads.  Some of us who understand human nature and the willingness of human beings to treat other human beings as less than, recognize both the tragedies unfolding in real time before our eyes and the dangerous possibilities of escalation.  And I have not yet even drawn your attention to the discord and suffering on our individual lives.  How many of us face challenges of family dynamics during this joyful season, dynamics that were stoked by events of Thanksgiving?  How many of us are pouring the deaths of loved ones?  How many of us are struggling with our own aches and pains and sufferings or those of loved ones in our lives?  The list of darkness goes on and on.  And what of the unaddressed evils in the world.  Misogyny was not fixed by #metoo; racism was not cured by Black Lives Matter.  Oh, and lest we forget, we get the wonderful privilege and experience of living through another presidential election next year, and all the positive, nation-building advertisements that will stream on our devices or be heard on radio or seen on television as commercials.

     Yes, the darkness is real.  The world is oppressive.  But because God’s Logos has become enfleshed and lived among us, you and I have a source of hope that reminds us, encourages us, exhorts us, that God will not fail us!  The rest of the world might reject our work, might mock us for our faith, but we know both God’s purpose and power in this event we call the Incarnation.  And because we know how He promises this story will end, we know we can work in any darkness, minister in the midst of any oppression, confident that, if God has called us to such work, we, and He, cannot fail.  Even if such work takes our life and we appear defeated to the world around us, we know One glorious day He will return and finish what He began in earnest with the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Best of all, we who trusted, who proclaimed Him Lord, worked to accomplish His will in the world around us, and who repented when we failed, have been proclaimed heirs by His Apostle and promised a share in the Resurrection begun in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  And armed with that understanding and comfort, we are sent back out into the world with those candles we lit last night, trust that God will use our flickering flames to draw others in our lives to His saving embrace.  God has spoken; God has enfleshed Himself and dwelt among us.  He cannot and will not fail!

 

In His Peace,

Brian†

On Nicholas and Imagination . . .

      Look at you!  Everybody is looking nice but fidgeting.  What’s that mean?  Well, in the dark ages before the internet, my teachers would say we were acting like we had ants in our pants.  It sounds like a few moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas heard the same example.  Fidgeting means we just can’t stop moving.  We are too excited, to nervous, too worried, and we just have to move to get rid of that extra energy.  It’s an exciting day!  Christmas is tomorrow.  I know.  It’s an exciting day.  When you are a kid, it might be the best day of the year, although one or two of you might say the last day of school is the best day, right?  I’ll let you in on a little secret.  It’s a pretty good day, too, when you are a mom or dad.  Most of us love seeing our children excited and happy, so we get a kick out of watching our kids open presents.  What if you are a grandpa?  I figure it’s twice as good, since you still have kids and then grandkids opening gifts and squealing with laughter, but I’m not entirely sure, yet.  I'm old, but not THAT old.

     Thank you all for taking turns decorating the creche.  I know it is hard to use manners when we get excited, but y’all did a great job letting everyone have a turn.  So thank you for that.  Well, he’s checking his list twice.  True.  But I am going to assume y’all chose to use your manners because you are good kids and maybe try hard to be like Jesus rather than just because of a naughty list once a year.  Should we ask the parents and grandparents if I’m right?  NO!!!!  Hmmm. Now I am having second thoughts about that.  Fair enough, though.  I won't ask.

     Part of the reason I called you up here was to have you all help me with a sermon.  I know they call it a children’s homily or sermon in the Orders of Worship, but it has to be for everyone here or everyone gets fidgety.  That would be funny if we all moved like this!  It might be.  Maybe we will do that next year.  Maybe I’ll have you teach a Fortnite dance or something fun to the congregation.  But back to the homily, I invited you up to help me teach the adults and maybe learn something yourself.

     Now, before we get started, I need to make it clear that the ideas that follow may not be my own.  In fact, I’m launching from a sermon given by Bishop John a couple weeks ago, as he tried to inspire the clergy to do a good job over Christmas.  You mean you are cheating?  No, but that’s a great question.  As the adults are hearing on the news all the time, it is cheating when you do not give somebody credit for something they said.  But we gathered as clergy to celebrate the life of St. Nicholas, and the bishop preached about Nicholas.  His sermon kinda gave me the idea for this one, and I have told you he gave me the idea.  

     So, my first question is does anyone know who St. Nicholas was?  Sometimes that’s what people call Santa Claus.  That’s right.  But does anybody, except Katie & Abby and Hannah & Joshua, know much about Nicholas?  We talked about him this morning, so that’s why they are giggling and rasining their hands.  Nicholas was a bishop around 1700 years ago who is famous for a couple things.  One is about a fight.  A fight?!  Yes, a fight.  There was another bishop for a while, named Arius, who wanted the Church to teach that Jesus was not the Son of God or God.  He wanted the Church to teach that Jesus was just a normal human being.  Wow!  That’s craaazzy.  Well, remember it was a long time ago and people were still trying to figure our stuff you and I take for granted.  Anyway, most of the bishops kept saying that Jesus was one of the Three Persons in the Trinity, and Arius kept arguing that He was not.  Eventually, Nicholas is said to have gotten up and done one of two things: either he punched Arius in the nose or he hit him with his crozier.  What’s a crozier?  The crozier is the shepherds crook that bishops carry.  Those here a few weeks ago saw Bishop John, our bishop, carry his crozier when he visited.  Remember?  I bet he got in trouble.  I get yelled at when I punch my brother.  I bet he was in trouble.  Well, few people like it when people fight, especially parents when their kids fight; and I am certain Jesus is not proud of us when we fight in the Church.  But your parents may have seen memes about Nicholas punching heretics on their social media pages.  It’s kinda silly for us adults, thinking about a bishop punching another bishop, and so we laugh a bit.

     The other reason Nicholas is famous, though, is that he was a very generous bishop.  We have lots of stories in the early Church where Nicholas is said to have provided clothes and food to children whose parents did not have much money.  And we have stories of Nicholas even giving small toys or presents to children who didn’t have many.  That’s why he is Santa Claus!  Sorta, it’s a bit more complicated than you want to hear and I want to say tonight.  And, to be fair, Nicholas did lots of good things for adults, too.  I had a different lesson for you and the adults today, though.

     Bishop Nicholas, like us, was criticized by some people for his generosity.  If kids were hungry, why not give them more food?  If they needed clothes, why not more clothes instead of toys?  Sometimes people fuss at us here for giving lobster or shrimp or steaks to those whom we serve at Body & Soul.  Every now and again someone will fuss when we give away toys or bath salts or lotion or things like that, too.  They want us only to give people food because they think that’s all we are doing and all that God wants.  But we are trying to remind people how much God loves them, that He loves them so much He sent His Son, on this night a long time ago as a matter of fact, to show us.  It's part of why Ms. Nancy and Ms. Hilary decided to name it Body & Soul rather than Advent Food Pantry or something like that.  Oh, that's how it got its name.  Coll, they got to name it?!

     Why do we give kids toys and lotions and clothes, do you think, if we are running a food pantry for those who do not have enough food?  Surprises are nice!  True.  I’m sad when I don’t have nice things.  Me, too.  It’s like Christmas.  Why do you say that?  It’s just the best when we get gifts.  Ah, it makes you feel special or loved?  Yes!  Well, I understand what you mean, but we are all Christians, right?  We are all supposed to know that we are loved and created by Him, right?  So maybe our gift-giving reminds us of how God loves us?  Maybe?  Y’all sound unconvinced.  But that’s ok.  I hope you learn it as you grow because too many in the world around us do not feel loved and do not know that God loves them.  That’s part of what makes this night so special.  And Santa Claus.  And Santa Claus, yes.  We can’t forget him.

     But I think there’s another cool reason this gift giving night is popular, especially among kids.  What’s that?  Why?  When we read about St. Nicholas and the passages of the Bible associated with him, we read those passages where Jesus tells the adults they need to be childlike to become children of God and where Jesus tells His Apostles that the kingdom of God belongs to children.  Do y’all know those passages?  What’s that mean?  Wow!  That’s neat!  I am glad you asked.  Sometimes, we preachers will talk how we need to be like children and trust God the way children trust good parents.  Sometimes we preachers will tell people they need to be like children and do as they are told like good children.  Sometimes I do, but sometimes I don’t listen.  Sometimes I am playing games and just don’t hear.  I know.  It happens.  But do you know another way children are like God, a way we don’t talk about much?  No.  We are not strong.  No!  We are not that smart.  We are kinda creative, though.  Great answer!  You get the gold star tonight.

     Everybody knows God makes each one of us special, right?  The Church says that we are all made in the image of God.  Have you ever heard that term?  I have.  No. No.  We believe that God creates us to show others what He is like.  Most of us can think.  Most of us have bodies that are not unlike Jesus’.  Some of us can make people laugh.  Some of us have sympathetic ears and shoulders.  But that creative characteristic is another gift He gives us.  We call it imagination.  One of the ways you and I are made is that most of us are given good imaginations.  Now, who uses their imagination the best, children or adults?  Us!  Kids.  Often, that is true.  Why, do we think?  I see that’s a toughie.  Well, how about this?  When we are old, we adults have been taught what we can do, how we should do it, and why other ways do not work.  Do you all know all that?  No.  So what do you do?  We try lots of things and lots of ways.  That’s right, you use your imaginations to figure things out.  You explore, maybe pretending the trees in your back yard are a great forest.  You play with dolls or build things with legos or play video games you pretend are real, right?  Imaginations seem to be very important to God, and they seem to be used best by children.  Cool.

     Have you ever thought that your imagination was something given by God and important to Him?  No.  But think about tonight.  How amazing is God’s imagination?  Do you think adults might have imagined God becoming a human being?  Do you think adults might think to have the Babe be born outside Jerusalem or another city?  Do you think adults might have the imagination to use people like the shepherds or like you and me to tell people how much God loves them?  No!  Who would?  Kids!  Maybe Nicholas was onto something in his efforts to give toys to kids, in his work to give them an outlet for their imagination.  When do you practice using your imaginations the best?  At Christmas!  Tonight!  Maybe part of your work tomorrow, then, is to remind people of God’s imagination.  Maybe it’s your jobs to show your parents and grandparents just a little part of how imaginative God is?  Maybe it’s your job to set an example that they can better understand?  And all the while, as you are trying on new clothes or playing with new toys, you are joyful and excited as you do your work tomorrow, which is just how God tells us adults that’s how we should be at Church or serving others.  You know, God is so imaginative that he can use kids like you to teach adults like them and like me?  What do you think?  Cool!  Yeah!  Awesome!

     I know tonight and tomorrow will be crazy with excitement and fun and maybe good food.  Perhaps you will visit with family or they will visit with you.  But I want you all to remember when you settle into playing with whatever you play with or dressing up however you dress up that your imagination is a wonderful gift from God, that your imagination reminds the adults in your life of the creativity of God and the imaginations He gave them, too.  And maybe, if you really have heard what I said, as you grow and adults and teachers accidentally try to squash that characteristic in you as you grow to adulthood, you remember how important creativity and imagination is to God, and you determine to use that gift He gave each of you to share His love with those around you.  Who knows?  Maybe, if your imagination is really good, other kids might be sitting around a priest in 1700 years not talking about Nicholas, but about one of you!  How cool would that be!  Wow!  Whoa!

     Now, let’s get back to our parents and grandparents and celebrate the very best gift we will ever be given and the very best imagination we know—God’s!

 

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†

Speaking into and Transforming our lives . . .

      We continue our annoying liturgical mash up with the story of the Annunciation.  For those of you wondering why I use the term “mash up,” you might have needed to be here last week to appreciate fully how we need to work to line up our liturgies and readings.  Last week we lit the pink candle in the wreath and celebrated “Mary Sunday.”  Naturally, our readings were about John the Baptizer . . . for a second time this Advent.  Better still, in the suggested Advent candle lighting liturgy, our focus was on . . . the patriarchs.  Apparently, it is really hard to coordinate candle colors and readings and themes.  Now, I can wrap my head around how the fruit of Mary’s consent enables the fulfilment of God’s promises to the patriarchs and matriarchs of the OT, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why we can’t read about Mary on her day as we light the pink candle.  But that’s a rant for another day. 

     The Gospel story today, of course, is well known.  Those who have attended Advent for the last eight years know its importance for us to comfort and encourage our sisters even as we correct our brothers’ attitudes toward women.  If you are newer or visiting, there exists in some corners of the Church the idea that women are responsible for sin entering the world.  Since Eve ate the forbidden fruit, women are responsible for bringing sin into the world.  Genesis does not make that claim.  Adam eats of the fruit even though God has instructed him directly not to eat the fruit.  But, if we have friends and coworkers and others in our families who hold to that non-biblical perspective, the Annunciation serves as a correction or, even better, redemptive story of that line of thinking.  Mary, in her answer to the angel Gabriel, consents to bearing the Baby, thus the means of salvation enters the world through her.  So, if people want to blame Eve, they must credit Mary.  Y’all are attending an Episcopal church, and Church of the Advent at that.  We are well established in our fight against misogyny in the church.  We have not entirely stamped it out, but at Advent, we are not surprised that God uses women to lead the parish or do His work in the world around us.  And if some men of a certain age trend toward misogyny, they have at least learned to keep such thoughts to themselves, right?  I’m glad even you guys are laughing at that.  But on a very serious note, I am sure all of us know women who have heard that Eve blame as a theological justification for misogyny, both from the pulpits and in their homes.  Mary’s consent at the Annunciation is really a good way to tend to our sisters and brothers who misunderstand God and forget that He created us all in His image.

     Like all great biblical stories, though, there are lots of teachings for us to explore in the Annunciation.  Just to place us all in the context, I’ll remind us of the wider story as we look at the specific Annunciation.  In the bigger background, God has been silent for nearly 270 years.  Malachi is the last recognized prophet who spoke with God’s voice.  Now, the people of Israel are dealing with the reality that God does not speak to them and they have been subjugated by foreign powers.  By the time Mary the Mother of Jesus appears, Rome is the oppressive empire.  The big pastoral problem facing the priests and rabbis is the silence of Yahweh.  Prior to this period of silence, Yahweh was a God who spoke.  He spoke to particular figures, but He also spoke to all the people through the voice of the prophets.  Because of their circumstance, the people of Israel wonder whether God is still honoring the Covenant He made with their ancestors.  It makes sense to us.  Israel is not experiencing the blessings of the Covenant at all and God is silent.

     A little closer to home and just a few months before our story, Elizabeth and Zechariah have been told they will give birth to the one who will announce the birth of the Messiah.  Their son will be the one crying out in the wilderness.  For her part, Elizabeth is thrilled.  She has lived her life accursed by God, insofar as her neighbors are concerned.  Barrenness was a sign of God’s curses in those days.  You know this, even if you have forgotten.  Sarah, the wife of Abraham, is the first woman in Scripture whom we encounter who is desperate for an heir.  Others appear, perhaps Rachel and Hannah the next most famous.  And we should all remember Naomi’s misfortune of losing her husband and two sons in her older age.  Good.  I see some nods.

     Some of us may be scoffing at the stories in our heads.  A few of us may even be thanking God in our heads that He does not cause us to have babies later in life.  That’s ok to doubt.  You are not alone.  Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband is a priest.  The angel tells him that he will have a son who will introduce Messiah and whose name will be John.  Zechariah scoffs and gets nine months of silence for doubting God’s plan.  We talked a bit last week about the unique ministry of John the Baptizer.  His primary job was to announce the coming of the Messiah.  But because He spoke with the voice of God, because he was a recognized prophet, the people flock to him to hear his preaching and teaching and to be baptized.  For their parts, the Temple leadership does not know what to make of the child announced to Elizabeth and Zechariah.  The Temple leadership sends their subordinates to listen to John’s preaching and teaching and report back to them.  Cynically, when later confronted by Jesus on the nature of John the Baptizer, the leadership is unwilling to state they believe that John’s authority comes from God.

     That’s our big background.  God has been silent for a long time.  Now He has spoken to two women, Elizabeth and Mary, and asked that they play significant roles in the redemption of humanity.  With me so far?  Good.

     There’s one other background of which I want to remind us.  Each of the Gospels was written with the redemption of the world through the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.  But each of these books was written, inspired by the Holy Spirit, by authors with particular foci or goals in mind.  For example, Luke pays a lot of attention to the healing miracles of Jesus.  It makes sense.  Luke was a physician.  Matthew gives us some of those numbers and wealth parables.  Again, it makes sense to us since he was a tax collector.  The Church has held for nearly 19 centuries that Luke spent years interviewing the major witnesses to God’s work in Christ Jesus.  Some of the stories, like this one, has interesting observations because Luke had the opportunity to ask the Apostles and early disciples what they experienced, what they felt, and what they thought.  So when we read Luke commenting on such things, he was likely told these during his interviews of the one described in the Gospel that bears his name or in his sequel we call Acts. 

     Now, look at our passage from Luke.  Mary gets this weird greeting from the angel Gabriel declaring her blessed among women.  How does Luke say she responded to the greeting?  She was “much perplexed” is a pretty good translation of the participle used.  I bet she was troubled.  Imagine if an angel appeared to us and declared we were blessed among women or among men or among children, how would we feel?  Now, put some decades between the event and an interview with Luke.  How would you describe your thoughts and feelings at the time?

     The angel goes on and tells Mary she will conceive in her womb a son whom she is to name Jesus.  Her son, the angel goes on to tell her, will be called the Son of the Most High and will inherit the throne of His ancestor David and reign forever.  Mary, for her part, wonders how this can be, since she does not know a man.  I know there is a lot of discussion around the song “Mary, Did You Know” on social media right now.  A few people have come into talk about it.  Most of the time we just give thanks that it did not make it into our hymnal, as there are some troubling misogynistic attitudes and claims in the song.  But then we talk about whether she did know.  My answer is a little bit of yes and a little bit of no.  Did she understand the sword that would pierce her own heart, to use a reading coming up later in the Christmas season, in the way that it did?  She watched her son, miraculously conceived through the power and Spirit of God, crucified.  What could have prepared her for that?  And would she have done it had God spelled it all out for her in advance?  Would any of us?  But she understands how babies are made.  “Knowing a man” is an idiom for being a virgin.  She likely knows that if she gets pregnant, there will be rumors and gossip.  But she is willing to submit to God’s plan and do what is asked of her.  The young lady is a true model of faith and heir of Abraham.

     That is, of course, not to say that she has no doubts.  She has already questioned how she will give birth without knowing a man.  Luke tells us she was perplexed by the angel’s greeting.  Who knows what else she was thinking!  But, the angel addresses her doubts and concerns with the emphatic double negative that nothing spoken by God cannot not happen.  By speaking, God causes His Will to occur, no matter what experience or nature teaches us.  And reminded of the power and speaking of God, Mary consents to play her part in salvation history.

     We know how it all ends.  In fact, most of us will return tonight to celebrate the Incarnation announced in this pericope, as will a number of visitors and friends and family.  But this morning, we are reminded of the impact of God’s spoken word in a unique way.  Each of us is reminded today that when God speaks of us, whatever He intends cannot not happen.  That first spoken word of us is likely our creation.  When God breathes life into us, we are indelibly stamped in His image.  We know, of course, that His image is in some way infinite, so we are unsurprised that we may differ by appearance or by temperament or by passions or by talents or anything else we might use to distinguish.  But that God speaks life into our very being is a foundational understanding of our existence.  To use the language of Prayer C, by His Will we are created and have our being.  How do we know God knows us and cares for us?  Because our very existence and continued existence is upon His Will!

     In some ways, that should likely be enough for us, but God knows our needs before we ask.  His next spoken word about us is at our Baptisms and Confirmations.  God reminds us in that Sacrament and Rite that by virtue our acceptance of His Will in our lives, to use the language of Mary today, we are heirs of His promises.  To put in easier language and of the language of today, we understand that God cannot not redeem those who have come to the water of baptism in faith.  Talk about surety!  That does not mean that our lives will be easy.  It does mean that God will redeem all our suffering and even our deaths because He has spoken that covenantal love over us.  Like His Son, whose Incarnation we celebrate tonight, our lives may not resemble what the world values.  He may even call us, in imitation of His Son, to lay down our lives for His sake.  But the promise us there that our sufferings will be redeemed and cannot not be redeemed!

      Lastly, and perhaps a bit buried in our story, is the transformative nature of His grace on our lives.  Elizabeth, an older lady presumably past menopause, becomes pregnant and births the last of the Old Testament prophets!  Mary, a young virgin, becomes pregnant and gives birth to that Holy Mystery we call the Incarnation, the fully human and fully divine baby who will grow to become the Savior of the world, even when the world rejects Him and His purposes.  By virtue of our Baptisms and Confirmations, you and I are grafted into that amazing story of salvation history.  You and I are promised that we can become vessels of His saving grace in the world around us.  We are reminded that we can do whatever He asks of us because what He speaks cannot not happen.  We can tackle evil in His Name.  We can fight injustice in His Name.  We can fight privation in His Name.  We can do anything that He asks of us because of the certainty with which He made each one of us, promised each one of us, and chooses to dwell with each one of us!

     And perhaps, on this the Fourth Sunday of Advent, as we wrap up our patronal season and reminder of our spiritual DNA as a parish named after this season, we are all corporately and individually reminded of how His dwelling with us transforms us.  God took an older barren lady and transformed her into the most important of Old Testament prophets.  God took a younger lady and transformed her into the God Bearer, to use the language of our Orthodox friends and neighbors.  He even transformed the way He relates to us by virtue of that Holy Mystery we call the Incarnation.  Because humans could see and hear Him, because He came and dwelt among us, we are reminded of His heart for all human beings and for ourselves.  And remind of all that, what can He not do for and with us!

 

In His Peace,

Brian†

Keep awake, you wise bridesmaids . . .

      I suppose this is one of those weeks I mis-discerned where we needed to be as a community.  I knew Monday I wanted to be in Joshua, but God had other ideas.  Rick & Morty replayed the dinosaur return episode a couple times this week, and then Forbes pointed out how our exports had reached highs not seen since the Obama Administration.  Then came the discussions and observations with or of colleagues who were really struggling with the Gospel passage this week.  A number of colleagues outside the diocese were expressing how Matthew’s parable could not really be a part of Jesus’ teachings.  Jesus is radically welcoming and the idea that he would lock virgins out of a feast clearly false teaching.  A few even went the route of “Hey, I think the real lesson is that the wise virgins are the evil ones in the story.  What do y’all think?”  A few even tried to tie the wisdom and foolishness to the sleeping.  To be fair, Jesus is exhorting His disciples to be alert or awake in this section of the Gospel, and He does fuss at the Apostles for their weak flesh in the Garden of Gethsemane; I think most of us, however, realize that both the wise and the foolish virgins are treated the same for their sleeping.”  All of that raises the question, though, of what is going on and why Matthew would relate the passage.  And don’t worry if, now that you have re-read it, you are a bit confused or worried.  If the professionals are struggling that badly, or teaching it that poorly, God knows.

     As an aside, though, before we begin, I do want to point out to us all that, were the proposal of the Advent Project to be accepted by the wider church, today would be the First Sunday or Advent.  Yes, that means Christmas is only 43 days away.  Whoa, that is a lot of murmuring.  It also means, though, that we are nearing the end of the Season after Pentecost and that our readings will be taking us on a quick sojourn through the eschaton, or then end of the age as we like to call it in Christian circles.  As Adventers, we should not be surprised nor worried.  Part of our spiritual DNA is that we have an eye on Christ’s first Advent and expectant eye on His next Advent.  We look to the past as a source of encouragement and to the future as to an impetus to do the work He has given us to do.  The rest of the Church, well the parts that use the lectionary, will be intentional in the looking forward and looking back for the next few weeks.  I’ll let you all discern whether you think our readings are influenced by the colors on the altar or of our stoles.

     Back to our lesson.  The first issue we have in the reading is simply one of context.  I know we are Christians and have been taught, whether we have internally digested it or not, that marriage is the image which our Lord uses to describe His relationship with His people.  In the NT, this is mostly expressed as “Jesus is the Groom; the Church is the Bride,” right?  Good.  I see nods.  The image of marriage, though, is well used in the OT.  God often describes Himself as a faithful Groom and Israel, His chosen people, as adulterers.  Hmm.  Not nearly as many nods.

     Part of our challenge is understanding the importance of a marriage in the culture.  Today, in our culture, it is far more performative.  Brides are encouraged to be a princesses for a day.  Experts and influencers tell them what that means.  Mostly, it comes down to dollars and cents.  One of the first discussions I have in pre-marital counseling is how stupid that really is.  Today, according to the experts, the average wedding costs $26,000.  The average wedding cost $26,000.  Think of that number for just a second.  I see the nods and a few elbows.  There’s a wedding party to clothe, a cake to have baked, a dress.  And let’s face it, money does not go as far as it once did.  Those of you who have recently walked granddaughters through a wedding know all about the other expenses, such as venue, reception, and who knows what else.  It adds up quickly.

     I suppose, all things being equal, it would be easier for us to stomach if we knew that the money spent was in direct proportion to the expected length of the marriage.  Who among us would not spend extra money if we knew it would help our sons’ and daughters’ marriages last?  Heck, I’d be happy if the church venue would increase the likelihood that the marriage will last.  Unfortunately, venue does not seem to matter.  If God declares it so important, you’d expect Christians to do a better job in marriage.  The truth is, though, we are no better at marriage than the heathens around us.  Almost half of all Christian marriages will end in divorce, and God describes it as representative of His relationship with His people and as indissoluble.  Can you imagine what our marriages would be like, absent His teaching? 

     One of the challenges we have, though, is understanding how important a wedding was in Ancient Israel.  I have tried and tried to teach you how to understand Israel’s emphasis on the Promised Land.  For Israel, marriage was not just a social construct or economic relationship, as the world around us tries to describe marriage today.  Ownership of the Promised Land had an eschatological hope.  Simply put, if one could not be alive when God’s chosen one, the Messiah or Christ to use our language, ascended the throne, one could only make sure his or her family would participate in the joyful blessing of that time.  Marriages were how the eschatological promise could be experienced by any family.  With families often comes the hope of children.  Children means another generation will be there, if Messiah comes.  I have explained that our best way to understand this would be to pretend if I excommunicated you, you really believed you were cut off from God’s promises.  We are Americans and Episcopalians, so we have a difficult relationship with excommunication.  I can do it, and the bishop can ratify it, but how many Episcopalians or Americans will not just “look for another church” were I to do it. 

     We are well read enough and imaginative enough to understand the threat intellectually.  Priests and bishops do have the authority, but do we really understand the authority as significant to us or our relationship to God?  For their part, those of Ancient Israel understood that ownership of their land was the guarantee that they would participate in Messiah’s reign.  That’s why children, or barrenness, was so important in Ancient Israel.  Owning the family plot, so to speak, was proof that they were part of God’s chosen people.  As a result, the whole community treasured weddings.  In villages where everybody knew everybody, everybody celebrated marriages because of their significance in the community.  With me so far?  Good!

     Not to oversimplify, but imagine who took control of these events in the days before wedding and event planners.  That’s right, the mom’s.  In general, the mother of the bride oversaw what you and I would call the nuptials, and the mother of the groom oversaw the wedding feast or reception.  Once everything was ready for the feast, the groom would be told to go and get his bride.  The groom and others would process to the house of the bride.  The bride would be waiting for the groom to show up so that they could be married.  Then, everyone at the nuptials would process back to the groom’s house for the great celebration, the wedding feast.

     You and I live in an age where venues and people are overscheduled.  We would be scandalized would either party not show up early for a wedding, right?  We would assume there was a problem were one or the other significantly late for their wedding.  Heck, I have to remind everyone in the wedding party not to show up drunk or high or late at rehearsals or for the event itself!  Good, I see nods.  And we have all seen shows and headlines that talk about the moms of brides and grooms who do their very best to make sure the event is about them rather than the couple, right?  Imagine, though, if the wedding and the reception were held at your house.  Imagine our favorite matriarch hosting the reception for her son or daughter and celebrating God’s promises alive in her family as a result!  What would that celebration look like?  Now you get the idea.  The food has to be ready.  The wine has to be good, and the toasting wine great.  The servants and slaves have to be ready to do their jobs and wash feet.  The lights have to be lit and the tables set.  You get the idea.  Grooms could not get their brides until everything was just so.  And as an aside, maybe you understand a bit better by God’s declaration that the eschaton will begin with THE Wedding Feast.

     Back to the procession and especially the job of the virgins, or bridesmaids as our translation calls them today.  When the groom went to get his bride and the rest of the bridal party, it was all done on foot.  It will be hard for us to understand this part because we live in motorized Nashville, but imagine yourself in the country, so street lights every tenth of a mile, having to walk from one location to the next.  What will you need to keep you from stumbling?  What will you need to keep the predators at bay?  What will you need to help protect you against bandits?  That’s right, lights.  It’s almost like you listened to Funmi’s Gospel reading.

     Now, in the Gospel reading, what do you think was the job of the bridesmaids, based on what you just heard?  That’s right, they provided the light for the procession.  And I am sure that many mom’s intended for marriages and feasts to start earlier in the evening, but remember this is an honor culture.  This is an enormous thanksgiving event.  This is a Covenant Reminder event.  Oh, yeah, and lest we forget, it is a bit of a social competition.  Everyone wants to have arranged the most memorable celebration, right?  I mean, human beings are human beings, and mothers like to outdo one another every bit as much as fathers, right?

     And to be clear, as Joshua and I had a discussion in Greek this week, the lamp of this verse is a different lamp from Jesus’ description of hiding it under a bushel.  This one is a traveling lamp, a lampas; that one is table lamp, a lychnos, for those who want to do extra research this week.  They serve different functions.  A table lamp might well have a larger reservoir for the oil because it is not going anywhere.  It could be heavier because no one had to carry it.  There was a limit for most people as to how big a lamp and reservoir they could carry, so that was often, though not necessary, difference.  And in this story, we are talking about younger girls rather than weightlifters.

     If your job is to light the way, what are your responsibilities?  Oil.  Trimming the wick.  Maybe flint, in case the light goes out.  A covering, in case it is windy or rainy.  You could probably name more responsibilities if I gave you time.  Now, if you know what is necessary sitting in Nashville 2000 years later, do you think people understood what was necessary 2000 years ago in Ancient Israel?  Great.  That is where Jesus’ judgment comes into play.

     Jesus calls one set of bridesmaids wise and the other set foolish.  I am guessing everyone here now knows why the one set is foolish and the other wise.  One group took its job or responsibilities seriously, and the other did not.  There will be folks who hear sermons trying to justify Jesus’ harsh words, in their minds, saying that His issue was their sleepiness.  Do not both the wise and the foolish fall asleep?  That cannot be the divider between wise and foolish behavior.  There will be folks who hear sermons trying to explain that Matthew was caught up in judgment, but not Jesus, as if Matthew did not travel and study under Jesus for three years.  And if there is anything Matthew insists upon, it is how Israel, and especially the Temple leadership, is judged by Jesus.  But is the parable that hard, once we understand the background?

     Let’s push it just a bit.  Does the denial by the wise bridesmaids seem harsh to our ears?  It’s ok, be honest.  It does.  Why?  That’s right, we know Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to serve others in God’s Name, trusting He will give us what is necessary to glorify God in our lives.  Remember, though, we are well before Jesus’ enthronement.  We know Jesus’ instructions are all true, because He has been raised from the dead.  As crazy as some sound in our ears, and how poorly many of us try to keep them, how do you think they sounded in the ears of His disciples before His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension?  This illustration would not be one of those hard teachings, though.

     Let’s say the wise bridesmaids feel sorry for the foolish bridesmaids and give them oil.  How much oil have the wise bridesmaids secured beforehand?  That’s right, enough to get them to groom’s house.  What happens if they divide their oil?  Imagine, you are in a wedding party proceeding to the great reception, and the lamps burn out plunging you in darkness.  You have failed in your one responsibility.  You have embarrassed your family.  You have put everyone at risk.  Keep in mind, it is not like us forgetting to turn our headlights on while traveling Franklin Pike at night.  This is long before most ambient lighting.  It’s not that the wise bridesmaids were being mean.  They knew that that their light would be necessary to get the bridal party to its destination safely and without stumbles.  Ten lights would be better for this group; but five is much better than none.

     What about the Lord’s response when they return with oil?  Doesn’t He seem harsh.  With all due respect to Owen Wilson and Vince Vaugh, wedding crashers have probably been around since weddings were first celebrated.  Let’s face it, all the angst surrounding weddings have probably been around since the very first wedding.  Some of us may have experienced wedding crashers at our own weddings or that of our children or grandchildren.  Maybe they were strangers; maybe they were just uninvited extended family or acquaintances.  The bigger and better the wedding and reception, and the more important the families involved, the more everyone wants to be at the event.  Also, there were nefarious motives for attendance.  Maybe if everyone gets drunk, I can pick their pockets.  Maybe I can find some goodies in the house that fits in my pockets.  It was an inconvenient and sometimes dangerous thing to open your doors after dark in antiquity.  It would be more common sense not to open one’s door after the wedding party has arrived.  Everyone should have been inside once the bride and groom entered the house.  The southern 15 minutes late was not a virtue in those cultures!  And, given the size of this party, remember it takes 10 bridesmaids to conduct everyone to the groom’s house, it is very possible that the groom, or the father of the groom, truly did not recognize the voices of the late arriving bridesmaids.

     One of the admitted challenges posed to modern readers of the Gospel of Matthew is its focus on the eschaton, on the judgement.  The eschaton seems to consume far more of Matthew’s attention than any other NT writer other than maybe John.  Much of Matthew’s focus is on who is in and who is out of God’s kingdom, to be sure.  But Matthew spends a great deal of energy pointing out to his audience, us, that it is incredibly difficult for us to discern who is in and who is out.  The wheat and the tares grow together.  Sometimes the Gentiles respond better to the Gospel than Israel, God’s son.  Often, those who should know the mercy of God the best are the ones most determined to weigh down others with their own rules.  The only One fit to judge is the Lord.  He alone knows the heart; He alone knows who belongs to Him and who rejects Him.

     Matthew’s Gospel today is made a bit more challenging because we can identify with the wise and the foolish bridesmaids during the course of our lives.  Were the story not a parable, we might fall rightly into the belief that we earn salvation, that we are responsible for being adopted into God’s family.  But it is a parable, and so we try to figure out why Jesus would have shared it, why Matthew would have remembered and recorded it, and what application it has for us today.  We are further challenged by Matthew’s teaching that Christ is paradoxically the narrowest door but the most wide-open invitation possible.  It is hard for us to accept that others, whoever the others are in our lives, will receive the same blessing, the same salvation as us.

     There is that famous line in Spider Man that was well-used especially in Britain, with great power comes great responsibility.  I see a few nods.  Evangelical Anglicans used it to remind our brothers and sisters that we have a responsibility to God and our neighbors because of what He has done for us in Christ Jesus.  To translate it into James’ words, faith without works is dead or useless.  Because of our adoption into God’s holy family, we have a responsibility.  We give thanks that we have been adopted, but we are reminded that it falls to us to invite all others into that saving embrace.  How we do that, of course, differs in our contexts, our charisms, and our internal digestion of how blessed we truly are.  Dale’s gifts are different than Jane’s gifts whose gifts are different than Jean’s whose gifts are different than my own.  Look around.  We all have different gifts and passions and experiences that make us perfect ambassadors in one sub-culture but make us a bit less perfect for another sub-culture.  To use the language of the day, we all have work to do given us by God.  How we do that, though, is very personal.

     To use the image of Scripture and the Church, we try to let the light of Christ shine forth in our lives.  How do we do that most effectively?  Through attuning ourselves to God.  We go to worship, we pray, we study the Scriptures, we fast, we serve—there are lots of ways in which we can attune ourselves to God.  We might say, to use the image of this day, that we are gathering oil for the flame that is supposed to be within us.  All of us sitting here know there are times when we have acted wisely and have acted foolishly when attuning ourselves.  All of us likely have periods in our lives when we feel like we would be counted wise by the Lord when he arrived, but all of us likely have periods in our lives when we worry that He might judge us fools and leave us outside the feast.

     We have to be careful when we read parables.  Sometimes, the examples used by Jesus need to be contextualized for us to understand them better.  My colleagues who struggle with the groom’s judgment in this parable simply do not understand the importance of light bearers in a dark world.  It makes sense, as our world, for the most part, is full of street lights and other lights, especially in our urban settings.  But another problem with parables comes when we ignore what has been handed down from those who heard the parables—what we Episcopalians and other like-minded Christians call tradition.  We receive these parables in a tradition, and Christ’s disciples and Apostles shared their meanings with later audiences, who later shared them with others, and so on.  As in any game of telephone, we have to be careful that the message we hears corresponds to the tradition.  Can we read works righteousness in this parable?  Sure.  Can we assume that the groom was a jerk, based on our context?  Yes.  Can we even be focused on the wrong part of the story and miss the forest for the trees?  You bet.  But, do those interpretations or misfocuses align with what has been handed down or with the Gospel?  There’s the rub.

     Jesus tells the story, in part, to remind us of our need to keep alert.  Perhaps we would do well to read the passage on Advent 1 when we focus on keeping alert and staying awake.  But we Christians are warned, admonished, encouraged, whatever language you want to use, by our Lord that we must pay attention.  Like the bridesmaids of our story, we do not know when the Groom is coming to retrieve His Bride.  Any inattention on are part can have disastrous consequences, and not just for others, but even for ourselves.  And just like the bridemaids needed to have oil, trimmed wicks, coverings, and who knows what else for their job, you and I are called by God to be prepared for the work that He has given us to do.  We are nourished by the Sacrament, instructed by His word, attuned to Him through prayers and other disciplines—all for the purpose of doing the work that He has given us to do as we head back outside these walls.  Best of all, when we discover ourselves to be foolish, when we discover ourselves to be inattentive to His call on our lives, we repent and endeavor to attune ourselves to Him better, that we might glorify Him in our lives.  And in the end, those who live seeking to glorify Him in their lives, which includes that repentance for inattention or foolish behavior, are the ones who will be judged wise when He comes again, as they were the ones who lighted the paths of others to His saving embrace.

     My friends, you and I are those to whom it falls to live and to speak as if His words are true and worthy to be believed.  The Church, the Bride of Christ, is called to live as if She believes His return can happen any moment.  His instruction to be alert, to pay attention, should motivate us to live each day as if He might come and that we desire to be found by Him like the wise bridesmaids of our reading today, prepared for His appearing no matter the hour or the day, knowing that, when that Day finally happens, we will find ourselves at the Wedding Feast, celebrating the work of salvation He has accomplished in our own lives and those around us who claim His as Lord and Savior!

 

In His Peace,

Brian†