On the Way to Wonder

JOY.  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:3).”

         Week 3 of Advent, named Gaudete Sunday back in the fourth or fifth century, shifts the Advent theme from prophecy/hope and peace to rejoicing.  Advent is a time of waiting, of waiting for the return of Christ, of waiting in our humanness for hope, peace, joy and love to develop in our character – or the other’s!  It is a time of waiting for Christmas in the midst of a pandemic and political angst.  It is not that different than the first Christmas with Rome’s harsh enslavement of the Jews, Herod’s paranoia of a prophecy of a new king, and Joseph and Mary living with a questionable pregnancy traveling.  Many of us wish we were traveling and are dealing with the grief of separation of family at this important time, the time of birth. 

         Advent 3 signals that we are halfway through the Advent season and focuses us on the promised redemption.  (I am tempted to post Michael Jackson’s YouTube song, We’re Almost There, 1975.  The lyrics start, “No matter how hard the task may seem, don’t give up our plans, don’t give up our dreams. No broken bridges can turn us around, ‘cause what we’re searchin’ for will soon be found.  Cause we’re almost there just one more step.  Cause we’re almost there, just one more step.  Just one more step, don’t give up, Cause we’re almost all almost there.  Cause we’re almost there.”)  Joy is a shift of our focus from the prophecy of those ancestor who came before and persevered in similar trials to today, shifts our focus from the conditions of our world that drive our hearts to plead for peace, and shifts our focus to God.  The Living Bible, a modern translation, phrases Philippians 4: 4-6 this way, “Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice!  Let everyone see that you are unselfish and considerate in all you do.  Remember that the Lord is coming soon.  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.”

         The Christmas story is embedded and fleshed out in the lives of people living in a world as confusing as ours.  We will look at those stories found in the four gospels this week but to prepare our hearts, may I suggest we take a moment to write a brief list of what weighs our hearts down right now.  A second column might list possible resolution, answers.  Some of the situations cannot be resolved with vaccinations or environmental controls, or zoom meetings.  Where would you like to see God’s hand working in your life this Christmas?  Make your list and check it twice, then offer it up in prayer with thanksgiving. He is present, listening and is able: joy!

PEACE.  “Hark the Herald Angels Sing, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw38pGhPXIk) is one of those “ole Christmas carols” we sing at this time of the year.  It highlights he angels message at the time of the birth of the Christ child – peace on earth. 

Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace to men on

Whom his favor rests.  Luke 2:14

The lyrics to this familiar song were written by Charles Wesley in 1739.  George Whitefield modified the words slightly so that both of these founding fathers of Methodism are given credit for this carol.  Interestingly, Felix Mendelssohn wrote the melody a hundred years later.  “Wesley envisioned the song being sung to the same tune as his Easter song “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.”  William H. Cummings spruced up Mendelssohn’s tune and we have our song today.

         As we finish week 2 of Advent, may I encourage you to read the words of this hymn.  We find peace when we realize God walks through our trials with us like Joseph of old.  We find peace in praise as music draws together and clarifies like Mary and the Magnificat or Zechariah’s song.  We find peace as we confess and receive forgiveness and reconciliation as Mark through John the Baptist challenged us.  And John tells us that then we have to power to become the children of God we were designed to be, each unique and purposeful.  This hymn sums it up in the closing lyrics, “Gory to the newborn King!”

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With th’angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ by highest heav’n adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

PEACE. It is the second week of Advent.  Only 14 days till Christmas.  The ads are already warning us that we cannot buy and have gifts delivered in time.  I have finally found my video, The Nativity, and will play it Sunday evening to review the narrative of the historical story and again see God’s hand moving in history.  My music is playing.  I still need to send cards to the “beloved” and well, those I am trying to stay in relationship with and find peace with in spite of our differences.  Sigh.  The gospel of John, similar to the gospel of Mark we looked at yesterday, offers a perspective on Christmas peace but tracking back to creation.  John 1:10-13 shares about Jesus’ birth,

                  ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him;     yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and      his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who        believed in his name, he gave power to become children of   God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the          will of man, but of God.

Do you remember receiving a gift, a letter, a token of friendship and the sigh deep in your soul as you realized the other did remember you, did cherish you, and was reaching out to you?  At that moment there is a deep sense of peace in the soul that all is right in the universe.  The feeling lasts only a moment but those moments when I receive, when I realize the giftedness of that moment, when I allow the worries in my soul to melt away – even if momentarily, I am at peace. 

         Sleepless in Seattle, a beloved video, captures that sense as the mother tells her daughter about meeting the man she knew she would marry and in that moment knew everything would be alright.  “It was magic,” she says.  Her daughter starts a search for that magic moment and realizes it at the top of the Empire State building as she meets Tom Hanks. Sighhh.  Perhaps it is a chick-flick but we do search for those moments.

         Christ was part of the creation of the world, the Word that was spoken, and yet as God there was a divide with the creation.  There is no more walking and talking in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening because of sin.  We cannot see this God we talk about.  Our senses are limited as well as our life.  We walk by faith and not by sight.  At Christmas time we are reminded that God resolves the distance by coming to us in an unthreatening tiny baby, offering us love, his life offering insight into his character, his deeds offering healing, and the cross offering reconciliation with him.  We choose to receive the gift, as we believe.  In that “aha moment” we find peace with God and the “power to become children of God…born of his will,” not ours.

         Christmas is about stories, the stories of our lives.  Christmas is about music.  Christmas is about relationships.  Christmas for Christians is about the gift of peace as God enters his creation to offer us the gift of being his children.  May we take a moment today and breath in the “aha” and peace of that truth.  Blessings as you prepare! 

PEACE.  In the gospel of Matthew, we see how Joseph, the fiancée of mother Mary of the Christ child, comes to peace as he trusts that God is indeed involved and walking with him through Mary’s pregnancy.  Peace is found in faith.  In the gospel of Luke, we see how Elizabeth and Mary find peace with their pregnancies as they encourage each other and praise.  Many times peace is found through music, through praise.  In the gospel of Mark, we start the narrative of Jesus, not in Bethlehem but at the birth of his ministry. Mark introduces his gospel with the Old Testament prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist, son of Elizabeth.  John, the prophesied forerunner of the Messiah, appears in the countryside “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1: 3)”  Peace often comes from forgiveness.

     In Swahili, Christians would differentiate between “makosa” which roughly translates into English as a serious “mistake” as opposed to “dhambi” which translates “sin.”  People confess their mistakes but really those slips are not considered to be of the same magnitude as outright murder, adultery or whatever we feel is truly wrong.  Many of the actions we do that prick our conscience we are able to dismiss and compensate for – cover with a kiss, sex, a gift or a promise to do and be better next time.  Many mistakes fall in the realm of my self-control, my ability to improve.  John the Baptist is not talking about mistakes.  Working harder to be a better person rarely results in spiritual peace.  Mistakes chain me to the treadmill of works.

         Mark is talking about finding peace with those actions, those feelings, those thoughts, those habits that we know are sin and that separate us from the Holy and from others.  (Walter Waangarin spends a whole chapter in his book As For Me and My House talking about forgiveness and is an excellent resource.)  Forgiveness, as Mark shares, comes from repentance.  When we realize we cannot resolve our actions by our own efforts and we call on the Holy for help.  Christians call this Holy “God” but others refer to “a greater power.”  Repentance turns the outcome over and we admit our limitations. 

         Perhaps, at its core, the Christmas story is an internal realization that our world cannot be changed by me.  My best present will not bring love from the other.  Love is for the other to give.  We now talk about the vaccine that is about to hit the market but we realize that there will be a hierarchy of who receives and for many of us, we are at the bottom of the food chain.  Our lives are in God’s hands.  Christmas calls us to a mystery, a small baby born in Bethlehem who will grow and offer forgiveness, who will offer peace with God, not through our actions to be good and better, but through his death on the cross.  As we confess our faith in this little babe, we humble ourselves under this faith and find peace.  The peace does not come from what we have done but is a trust in what he is doing.  This is indeed a peace the world cannot offer, a peace that passes understanding.

         As we struggle with our inadequacies, our financial limitations, our social spacing, and the viruses of our actions, may we find peace this Christmas by turning to the Christ child in the manger for forgiveness.

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.