On the Way to Wonder

PEACE.  Joseph, fiancée of Mary, comes to peace with her seeming infidelity before marriage, as she is discovered to be pregnant.  His dreams are dashed and he prays about the way forward as he grapples with the “hand life has dealt him.”  He finds peace when an angel comes and reveals to him that God is in the events and walking with him.  But he is not the only person who has to find peace in the Christmas story. Elizabeth of Zechariah and Mary of Joseph must find peace in their pregnancies.

         In the gospel of Luke we have two women struggling to find peace.  Elizabeth, the barren, elderly wife of Zechariah does become pregnant when he returns home after his temple experience.  An old barren woman pregnant!  That certainly raised eyebrows and questions but her husband is mute and cannot explain very well.  She handles her situation by secluding herself for five months.  Keeping our secrets, secret is one way to deal with confusion.  On the other end of the age spectrum, Mary, the young girl pledged to be married, is now pregnant under questionable circumstances.  Who would believe her story?  Mary decides to visit Elizabeth who is now six months pregnant and the two women comfort each other.

         Elizabeth affirms Mary’s experience and pregnancy.  Mary bursts into song in what we call The Magnificat.  Mary praises God.  Elizabeth does have baby John who becomes known as John the Baptists and at the circumcision, Zechariah begins to speak again and he too sings a song, praises God.

         Music is one way to find peace in the midst of confusing times.  Do you notice how our radios have turned to “old familiar carols” and somehow the tension of elections and pandemic seem more tolerable and more hopeful?  During times of grief and rejection, turning to music comforts our souls and helps us work out our doubts.  “If I Had a Hammer” rang out from my youth as we dealt with Vietnam.  “We Shall Overcome” rang out in Civil Rights days and was a beacon of hope. I found it quite poetic that the president danced to “I Did It My Way” at the ball.  The poetry of music helps us to pull together the frazzled strands of our lives and find resolution.  At Christmas our music repeats the narrative we love, “Away in a Manger”, sings of God choosing poor people to bless our world.  “This is My Christmas Prayer,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCjevnXWGgI, is one version of a modern artist vocalizing the anguish of his heart about our world.  There are so many others praising God and praying for the “peace that passes understanding.”

         As we approach Christmas today and seek to find Peace with the unexpected, the unwanted, or perhaps the unplanned for events of our lives, may we hear a song that helps us praise the God who came at Christmas time in the midst of a world in chaos, who comes today in a world of challenges and who promises to return and restore.  Blessings as you listen to music today.  May it soothe your soul and bring you peace.

“but before they came together (for the wedding), she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18)” Skeletons in the closet!  Peace??? “Houston, we have a problem!”

         The Gospel of Matthew, after the list of the genealogy of Jesus through his earthly father, Joseph, fulfilling promise, jumps straight to the problem.  Jesus, through his adoptive father, fulfills prophecy to be of the lineage of King David but in-fact Joseph is not the father.  Watching Season 4 of The Crowne last week, an episode deals with the Queen Mother’s uncle who married a woman with mental illness in her family line.  To preserve the integrity of the crown, the “skeletons” are put in a closet and the embarrassing relatives are institutionalized.  Matthew, on the other hand, does not hide or circumvent the awkward, mysterious truth but opens his narrative with the realization that Joseph is not at peace with “the plan.”

         We know this scenario.  Many of us have had that child that took the path less traveled by the siblings and the family.  We call them, the black sheep.  Or perhaps, we are T-boned by accident or illness and the dream disappears in complications of the present.  Some arrive at the alter but the other has changed his or her mind.  The future is not guaranteed.

         Joseph, we know, struggled.  He had options.  He could claim his integrity that he had not broken cultural rules and have Mary stoned.  Alternatively he could have her shuffled off, “divorce her quietly,” because he had already agreed with Mary’s parents about the marriage and during the one-year engagement period Mary was to keep herself “pure.”  Joseph had options and we have options as we juggle the hoped for future with the reality of the present and ponder where the hand of God is in the decision we face.  How do we find peace knowing that there is a God overseeing our lives and yet experiencing the difficulties of life?  Do we blame God or blame self or blame “the other”?

         As Joseph wrestles with his situation, he dreams and an angel comes to him and says, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid.”  God is in this situation and walking with him, it is “from the Holy Spirit.”  Perhaps you do not believe in angels coming in dreams with messages, but in experiences that we traumatize over, when someone comes alongside and affirms relationship and involvement with us and not judgment and rejection, we find the peace, the courage to continue.  We are not as afraid.  A friend who survived cancer shares the story.  A friend who went through divorce shares the experience.  A survivor of abuse tells the story.  AA provides community to fight the addiction. 

         I believe the story as Matthew tells it, that Matthew was conflicted, weighing alternatives because of the narrative of Christmas and how it was unfolding and in the midst of that unrest, he came to peace with God, with Mary with Mary’s family and with the public distain he would have to live with.  An angel visited and assured him God was in his plight and with him.  He need not fear to embrace his life.

           So where are we experiencing angst today and weighing our options?  It could be something like picking just the right Christmas present to send just the right message to that beloved person.  It could be coming to peace with the results of the presidential elections or the seemingly pervasive presence of a dangerous virus we cannot see.  There may be a skeleton in the closet we have tried to hide for a lifetime, a teenage pregnancy, an addiction problem, a problem child, and a failed marriage.  The Christmas message helps us find peace with God who holds our lives and with the others who walk with us through life.  We have options and faith is the option to trust the God who walks with us.  And in that faith, we find peace. Blessings.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” recorded here in a more modern version by Casting Crowns, introduces Advent Candle 2: Peace.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7670CXvPX0).  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1865 wrote a poem Christmas Bells, in the midst of the Civil War, his beloved second wife having died and his first son having joined the army against the poet’s wishes.  Burl Ives and Bing Crosby brought the song to the public.  Casting Crowns updated the tune a bit but the lyrics still focus our attention on the dissonance that exists between the reality of life with pandemics, controversies over elections, job insecurity and family conflicts – just to name some of the obvious – and the faith we hold that there is a God acting behind the scenes, creating peace between God and people.

         So how do we define “peace?” We remember the Paris Peace Accords signed in 1973 ending the Vietnam War…but it did not end war for we also remember Desert Storm, 911 and the seemingly unending conflicts in our lifetime with refugees fleeing all over the world.  Today we remember Pearl Harbor and WW2. Webster defines peace as a state of tranquility, an absence of hostility and violence, or a state of security or order provided by law or custom.  Whether we think of national wars or social unrest in our streets, peace seems to elude us. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)” The peace we talk about this second week of Advent is not political nor necessarily social but rather is spiritual.  We will look at our four gospels again because the authors turn our hearts from the tensions of this life to the eternal peace we talk about at Christmas.

         Perhaps a fun way to unlock our thinking would be to do an acronym on the word peace.  Take each letter of the word peace and write word associations that start with that letter.  So “p” may bring to mind “pity – peace is not pitying my plight nor the plight of others.”  I have a friend that might think of “peas” that she was made to eat to clean her plate as a child and so she thinks about coming to peace with that memory and peas.  Be creative.  Christmas is creative.  Tomorrow we will look at how peace became reality for Joseph in the gospel of Matthew.  Peaceful ponderings as you go through today.

“Mary, Did You Know?” picks up many of the thoughts of this week.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE.  I was surprised to learn that the lyrics were written in 1984 by Mark Lowry and the tune in 1991 by Buddy Greene.  It is already considered a Christmas classic!  The lyric writer asks Mary, mother of Jesus, if she truly understood how the prophetic message of the angel at Christmas time, would unfold in Mary’s lifetime.  We experience prophecy but do we know exactly how it will be lived out in reality?  We hope and often those hopes reflect our dreams of “the good life.”

         This week we looked at different ways that the gospel writers open their letters to tell people about the life of Christ. 

         Matthew started with the genealogy of Jesus.  Hope.  The doctor says we are pregnant, and I use the pronoun “we” because it involves two people.  We hope and dream about that life that is forming.  My son has written a book on the dashed hopes when the miscarriage came and the hoped for life was very short lived. (Letters to My Unborn Children: Meditations on the Silent Grief of Miscarriage)  In the face of that grief, though, they eventually had three very cherished daughters.  Mother Mary knew she would have a son that would come from the line of Abraham, the promised Messiah, but she nor anyone truly understood how his life would be lived out.  They hoped.  Mary, did you know your son would…?

         Mark, the second gospel, starts with a Scripture quote about the “sign”, the forerunner, that would announce the coming of Christ.  It is so easy to get lost in looking at signs and wondering if “now” is the time for a prophecy to be fulfilled, that we loose sight of the prophecy giver.  We all listened to the news broadcasters predict who would win the presidential election and half of the country was disappointed and half struggles with the slowness of the fulfilling, the transition.  Prophecy often is a timely process.  The Lord is my Shepherd but my eyes are looking for green grass.  Mary, did you know that your son would die for our sons and daughters?

         Luke, the third gospel, starts with spiritual experiences that give us hope.  Zechariah and Mary are visited by angels.  WOW.  But they still had to live the journey.  Hope does not destroy reality but allows us to live in reality trusting the God who walks with us and gives us promises.  Mary did you know that your son would walk on water?

         John, the fourth gospel, claims the final line, “Mary did you know that your baby boy was heaven’s perfect Lamb?  This sleeping child you’re holding is the great ‘I Am’?”  In the beginning was the word and the Word was God.

         Do we know?  Ultimately our hope rests in the integrity of the prophecy giver, the God who gives birth to the genealogy, the God who inspired Scripture, the God who comes to us today in spiritual experience, who is the God of eternity.  We don’t know exactly how events in our life will play out but we do trust the One who holds our lives and at this time of the year we focus on the hope that gives us to face the uncertainties of tomorrow.  He is the great “I Am!”  Blessings.  Next week is peace.

Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously says,

 “This above all: to thine ownself be true.  And it must follow as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”  Act 1, Scene 3.

Hope often springs from the words given us by a person who is true to self and true to his word.  We can count on his or her integrity.  The apostle John whom most assume to be the author of the gospel of John, and who is known as “the apostle Jesus loved,” opens his gospel with the famous words, “In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God from the beginning.  Through him all things were made… “  John did not develop a chronological account of Jesus going from Christmas birth to East resurrection but rather shared a more philosophical, thematic understanding showing how Jesus, the Word that created at the beginning, the Word materialized in the Christ child, and the Word coming in the end, is a word we can trust and in which we find hope.  Jesus is true to himself and cannot be false to others, us.  His promises, his “I am”s are foundations for our hopes.

         Matthew started Advent with genealogy and fulfilled prophecy through heritage..  Mark started Advent with Scripture and fulfilled prophecy through time.  Luke started Advent with experiences of the Holy by Zachariah and Mary and fulfilled prophecy in our everyday lives.  John starts his gospel with the importance of integrity between word and action.   This theme of word and actions is embedded in our culture.  “Words are cheap!” we say, shrug our shoulders and doubt.  “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words will never hurt me,” we yell at the kid teasing us and we walk away wounded with our head held high, hiding the tears.  Jean Val Jean sings, “Who am I?” in Les Miserables – my prison number tattooed on my arm or the reformed person I am trying to be? Audrey Hepburn sings, “Words, words, words…” in My Fair Lady and our hearts agree.
         Advent is a time when words are hugely in focus as harbingers of promise. “What do you want for Christmas?” we ask our children or friends.

“I’ll be home for Christmas,” we sing and realize this year the end, “if only in my heart” may well be the truth.  Which ad can we trust to be telling us the truth about a product we are interested in?  Our heads swirl.  It is easy to point to “the other” at this season and remember hopes unmet, promises broken, dreams bashed, but I would challenge us to honestly exam the integrity found in the word of God, in the life of Christ.  He spoke and the blind saw, the deaf heard, and the dead rose.  Perhaps we look at that tiny babe in a manger and all the fantastic prophecies that he will be the promised Messiah, the descendant of Judah, the fulfiller of promise and we weigh those promises against the television news reports of the world we live in.  It is so easy to be skeptical and doubtful and Grinchy.  Our hearts need to grow three sizes.  The gospel of John pulls us back from the microscope of today to a cosmic view of history that gives hope.  The Word was there at the beginning.  The Word is active in our world today.  The Word will come to take us to our real home.

         May our words be words of integrity during this season.  May we build hope.  May we point others not to presents under a Christmas tree but to a God of integrity that holds our lives in his hand and walks beside us…today!  Blessings.

For some, heritage or genealogy brings hope.  A long line of survivors gives courage to the person who is struggling.  A family of priests encourages the priestly aspirations.  Henri Neuwan speaks of his godly family.  The gospel of Matthew starts with genealogy.  For others the prophecy of Scripture leads to hope.  Rough times and opposition are part of the package of life but a better tomorrow is predicted.  Mark felt that way as he opens his gospel with a quote from the Old Testament.  There is another, smaller, group that is blessed with a direct experience of the holy.  Luke, the gospel to the Gentiles, opens his gospel in Chapter 1 with the visit of an angel to Zechariah, the father-to-be of John the Baptists, and Mary, the mother-to-be of Jesus.  Both are about to experience an extraordinary event and the angel wants them to know beyond a doubt that what is happening is of God.  Both have no children, he because of age and a barren wife, she because of youth and a pledge to celibacy during engagement.  He doubts the angel and becomes mute until the birth but does conceive with his wife.  She believes and steps into her future.

         It is easy to flick these reports off as “stories” and yet, I suspect, God speaks directly into our lives more than we realize.  Have you ever been at a low moment and suddenly the phone rings and that special person calls and suddenly life is bearable?  I have crumpled up on my bed in tears, reached for my Bible, and opened to just the right verse to encourage me.  Then again there has been that check in the mail that was unexpected that helped me make it through the month.  After a long grueling day, seeing a beautiful orange and red sunset sitting on the beach has lifted my spirits and given me hope for tomorrow.  Glancing up at a tree to see a beautiful bird singing its heart out in spite of the flurry of life below brings hope.  I must admit I sat looking at the horizon and when I looked down, there was a snake sliding across the sidewalk.  I watched its body twist and push it across my path.  Amazing.  All this is to say that indeed God speaks in words, through angels, through Scripture, through friends, through nature, through the events of life into our lives today and sends us hope. The prophecy may be about some event that is going to take place in the future but I suspect often we are encouraged to realize his presence with us as the future unfolds.

         As you light your first Advent candle tonight for a brief moment of meditation and prayer, reflect on where you saw the hand of God in your life today.  Perhaps think of one person in your family that has encouraged you and given you hope.  Is there a verse of Scripture that helps you face the future?  And yes, today God is there putting arms of hope around you.  Blessings.

President Daniel Arap Moi pointed his presidential stick as he walked into the school cafeteria at our newborn daughter and said, “She too will go to this school!” We were part of the crowd lining the walkway and I was holding our new baby.  Through the years my other children have asked if any prophecies were spoken over them about their future.  Our daughter did graduate from that school in Kenya!

         The gospel of Mark, the second gospel, opens with an equally startling prophecy. 

         Mark 1:1-3, “ As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; ³ the voice        of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,       make his paths straight,’”

Mark has skipped the birth story of Bethlehem and gone straight to the meaning of Christ’s birth. But he starts with this prophecy that predicts a forerunner to come before Jesus, John the Baptist, the fascinating evangelist holding camp meetings out in the country side. “Prepare” is the word that jumps out to me this morning.  John will “prepare” the way for Jesus, and calls us to “prepare” the way for the Lord.  Prophecy calls us to “prepare” because something big is coming.

         About mid November, radio stations start playing Christmas songs and  Black Friday ads fill the internet.  Sale offers fill our emails.  We start preparing gifts, decorating houses, writing letters and setting our hearts and minds on what is about to happen.  We understand preparing.

         The historical fact of Jesus coming (advent) was predicted in his genealogy as we heard yesterday from Matthew.  A clue to the impact of his coming was predicted by the prophets and found in Scripture.  In Advent we practice waiting and preparing for the coming of Christ.  We remember both the birth of Christ and the prophesied return of Christ.

         This Isaiah prophecy gives me hope in the midst of our struggles today because even though I do not know when Christ will return, God sends “messengers” to help us prepare.  The coming may be like “a thief in the night” but we need not be unprepared.  We have scripture that talks about “signs” encouraging us to hold on for wrong will be righted.  We have nature that is going into winter, only to bring forth flowers in spring.  We have testimonies of friends whose lives have been impacted by the reality of faith.  We have “messengers” that give us hope.  We may be in a “wilderness” right now but Scripture, nature and community call out to us to prepare for better days ahead- hope.

         Perhaps Isaiah is not your “go-to” place to find hope for the future.  Maybe you find hope in other passages like Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd, that says we are not alone when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  Perhaps you find hope in the stories of a returning Christ who healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. Scripture helped Mark understand “who he was and what God expected of him.”  Ponder today what Scriptures help point you forward and give you hope when you are feeling like you are in the wilderness.  Allow those verses to rise in your memory and orient you as we head into this season of flurry and scurry.  There are messengers helping us prepare our way in this wilderness but perhaps we need to take time to listen and hear the hope in their presence.  We are not alone. God’s Spirit is here speaking.  Listen!  Blessings.

Andy Williams made famous the song, “Where Do I Begin”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxEazBfPVFg, in “Love Story.“  The lyrics start,

         “Where do I begin, to tell the story of how great a love can be, the     sweet love story that is older than the sea, the simple truth about the     love she brings to me. Where do I start?”

Where do we begin to tell the story of the love of God, of Advent, of Christmas and the Christ child?  Week 1 of Advent starts with prophecy and we light the Hope Candle.         Prophecy opens the window of hope in our hearts.  The future holds potential.  Each gospel writer tackles this differently.  The four gospels give us four different lenses into the life of Christ and each has a unique start. Perhaps it is like four news broadcasters telling their impression of a major event.

         Matthew, the first gospel in the New Testament, starts with the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  Matthew continues saying who gave birth to whom down to “Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”  Matthew’s target audience was the Jews and so he started back with Abraham.  In Genesis 12: 1-3, when God first calls Abraham, he promises him, “all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  God is keeping his promise to the patriarch of the Jewish people through the story that Matthew is going to unfold.

         Genealogies tell us who we are and give us clues about what God expects of us.  I have friends where the family comes from a long line of musicians and it is as if music is in their blood.  When the family gathers, they gather around the piano.  Others are born into “the family business” and it is expected someday they will inherit the business.  Not unlike While You Were Sleeping and the subtheme that our hero would take over his father’s business. Genealogies speak to our ethnicity, our talents, our network of relationships, our geography and often more.  We talk about the “skeletons in the closet,” that weird relative we don’t talk about.  We track medical histories through families.  My husband was adopted so does not have those “you look just like” pictures or know what medical conditions he has passed on to our children.

         So how do genealogies and hope interface?  Genealogies speak about lives.  There is a past that speaks of a future yet to be filled in.  Genealogies tell stories of hope.  We hear about our immigrant ancestors overcoming hardships or the stories of war heroes who gave their lives protecting our freedom or stories of slavery bravely endured, stories of inspiration, stories of creativity – stories that point to life.

         As we read the genealogy of Jesus, we read of God’s faithfulness to some pretty flakey people in some pretty difficult situations.  We read names of men and even women.  They are people we may not recognize but they are people other’s believed important enough to record. God sees our life. 

         Christmas is a time when we realize, for better or for worse, we are part of a network of people we may choose to give gifts to and we come from a network of people who have gifted us.  As you think about the people who have brought you to today, who are some of the heroes whose stories you enjoy?  Who are the ones that are kept in the closet but perhaps from whom you learned from their mistakes?  As you look forward to Christmas, what hopes have been born out of your family’s history?  Let’s take time to say thanks to the Lord who has worked through them, blessing you now, and opening doors for your future.  Blessings.