"The Jesus in me loves the Jesus in you"

A sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent
Luke 3:1-6

As much as we would like to jump ahead to stories of shepherds and angels and the birth of a newborn, Luke’s Gospel calls us back into the Advent season with a focus on “sin” and “repentance.”

“Sin” can be defined, not as a particular moral failure, but as “missing the mark.” God created each one of us uniquely for life, and time and time again, we choose to turn our backs on God and God’s good for us.

“[We figure] we are justified before God by our good lives. We are pretty good people because [we follow the law or] we aren’t as bad as [those people], those sinners.[i] And when we do make mistakes, “[we say to ourselves, ] “I can make myself do better.” “I can try harder.” ”[ii]

In Scripture, John calls us back to God, to accept that we can not do it ourselves. As Luther taught, we are all saints and sinners. But John calls us not to judgment, condemnation or shame but to confession and repentance. If sin is missing the mark, then repentance is re-aiming.

In repentance, we name our dependence on God, and say to ourselves and others, “I can’t.”
But our declaration isn’t met with deafening silence.
Instead, we hear the Good News which is, “God can.”

We cannot do better ourselves, but God, who works in us, through faith, can.
Throughout the history of Scripture, God calls, people answer and eventually our arrogance, pride and self-centeredness push God into the margins again, but God doesn’t leave us.

Miraculously, God doesn’t get tired of us and shut us out or leave us behind.
God remains, everlasting and merciful, and,
keeps the door to forgiveness open,
he calls again and removes our sin, washing it away.

While only two of the gospels include the story of Jesus’ birth, all four give us the story of John the Baptizer calling people to repentance. Telling the story of the “voice crying in the wilderness,” the writers quote from Isaiah chapter 40.

Scholars believe this Old Testament book was written by two or three different authors, dividing the chapters into First, Second and Third Isaiah because the events span two hundred fifty years of Israel’s history. The earliest chapters are attributed to the prophet Isaiah who preached in Judah before the fall of the southern kingdom. A second portion of the book was written to the people who were living in exile in Babylon. The final chapters are written in the period after exile, when the people have returned to Jerusalem. Chapter 40 falls within that middle period, when the people were living in exile and in uncertainty, separated from the place where they had once known God.

Into this desert wilderness, this no-man’s land, the “voice crying in the wilderness’ speaks hope and the promise of forgiveness. Luke extends the verses from prophets adding, “All flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord.”

For Luke a central theme of the Good News of Christ coming is that Christ comes for all of us. No one is beyond God’s call. No one is left out of God’s family.

With our sin washed away, our eyes are opened to see that God has created us for relationship and for belonging within a community.

This is Luke’s definition of salvation – it is not “get out of hell free”, or even “be healed”, but
be restored to life, and be brought into community,
saved from the wretchedness that sin wreaks on our lives,
and freed to live as God wants.

It is within this community that we realize the promise heard in Isaiah: that “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together..."
It is within this community that we will see Jesus – “Jesus in the manger – Jesus on the cross – Jesus at the font –Jesus in the wine and the bread – and Jesus in the person sitting next to us in the pew.

We all know the song, “Jesus loves me”, but there is a Gospel choir song that says, “The Jesus in me loves the Jesus in you.”

Right now,
I invite you to turn to the person next to you, in front of you or behind you, “The Jesus in me loves the Jesus in you.”

Now, one more time, all together,
“The Jesus in me loves the Jesus in you.”

As we continue the journey through Advent to Christmas Eve when we will get to hear the shepherds and angels proclaiming good news of great joy in Bethlehem, John the Baptizer reminds us that our preparations for the season include more than the holly and evergreens. We are called to prepare our hearts and to reorient ourselves to see God’s glory all around us.

Let us pray…
Merciful God, you speak into the wilderness of our lives
and invite us to receive Your love and forgiveness.
Thank you for your faithfulness and your everlasting mercy.
Teach us your promises, revealed in your Son Jesus, as we wait and prepare for his coming.
Amen.

[i] Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes on Luke 3:1-6
[ii] Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes on Luke 3:1-6

Bearing Hope

A week ago I sat parked outside the Greyhound station in Charlotte waiting for a bus to bring a visitor for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was dark and wet and I sat in the car with the engine running and the windows closed, watching the station exit.While I was waiting an older man walked by on the sidewalk. His long coat hung on his frame and his whiskers were gray. He pantomimed asking if I would give him anything.

I don't carry cash, so I really didn't have anything to give, and, besides, after dark in a neighborhood I don't know isn't where I strike up conversations with people I don't know. I shook my head. He walked in front of the car to get my attention again and when he reached my side of the car, he stood and saluted to the street, in a pantomime of a soldier. I shrugged my shoulders helplessly and said through the window that "Thank you, but I don't have anything I can give you." He looked irritated and stomped away down the street behind where I was parked. Eventually I couldn't see him any longer.

It left me feeling like I had failed. I didn't welcome a stranger. I didn't feed the hungry. I tuned inward and isolated myself from the world outside. And that isn't what following Jesus looks like.

More than a year ago, I had talked about putting some items in the car for people I meet on the street, but I had never gotten around to it. That Thanksgiving eve encounter renewed my resolve not to turn a person away empty-handed again. There are any number of "supply lists" for providing for the homeless on the web, but one I had saved. suggested the following items are appreciated:

shampoo	conditioner	comb
toothpaste	toothbrush	deodorant
razor	chapstick	hand lotion
hat	scarf	gloves
thermal socks	lightweight snacks	small bottle of water
small first aid kit	gift cards(small amounts)	words of encouragement

Near its assortment of trial and travel size toiletries, the big box store had convenient 10-piece travel kits for $5.97. Both the men's and women's zippered plastic bags contain an extra zip-top bag, toothpaste and a toothbrush, a comb, shampoo, conditioner and deodorant. Men also get mouthwash, shaving cream and a razor while women get hand lotion and floss picks.

I took the packaging out, and to this foundation I added a bottle of water, two packages of peanut butter crackers, chewing gum, loose bandaids, a pocket size package of Kleenex tissues, a small tube of petroleum jelly, a pair of winter gloves, a washcloth, mouthwash and a razor for the women and lotion for the men.

And then it all went into a zip top gallon size plastic bag, and into the car for the next person I meet.

In this Advent season when God breaks into our world and reminds us of the promises we have been given and shows us how to have hope, courage, love and joy, this is one way I can show others glimpses of the gifts faith  gives me each day.

What our Sunday clothes say about who we are

The online community at RevGalBlogPals is participating in #NaBloPoMo, encouraging writers to respond to prompts every day throughout the month of November. If you haven’t discovered it yet, RevGalsBlogPals is a network or web of women clergy and their allies who support each other through prayer, fellowship, and conversations about the Sunday lectionary readings. Our virtual community intersects with our face-to-face lives when we find other RevGalBlogPals in our own local communities and networks.

Female clergy colleagues often note people’s propensity to comment on what we are wearing, which makes me chuckle at the first prompt which says:

“Write about what you wear at church (your best clothes, your comfy clothes, robe, stole, etc.) What does the phrase “church clothes” look like in your world?"

On Sundays in my Lutheran church, I am teaching, leading worship and preaching, so I wear a clerical shirt with whatever other clothes I wear that day. On a work day or the day of our annual congregation picnic, that may be blue jeans, but most often, it is business clothes. During worship in my traditional setting, I most often wear a plain white cotton alb with a rope cincture or rope that wraps around my waist, and a liturgical stole that reflects the colors of the season in the church year. On some of the major festival Sundays, including the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas Eve), Easter Sunday and Pentecost, I also wear a chasuble, which is an outer garment that I wear over the alb and stole.

Because the stoles and chasubles reflect where we are in the church year, they help me tell the story of the promises we receive in this gift of faith that God gives each of us. And while this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mark 12:38-44) says, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes,” I see my vestments, and especially my alb, as a reminder of those promises:

“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)

Why write? Reflection on National Blog Posting Month #NaBloPoMo

What is the adage about forming a habit? Some estimate that something you do every day for as few as 21 days will become a habit.National Blog Posting Month (#NaBloPoMo) is a whole month - 30 days - focused on writing daily. It's a practice to encourage writers to write something every day.

I began November on a retreat where I met a woman who had written four lines in a diary daily since she was a fourteen year old teenager. She has begun the tedious task of transcribing those scribblings, and shared that the entries show her that the girl who wrote those lines fifty years ago isn't who she thought she was.

Daily writing piques my curiosity because, in practice, I think I default to the thinking that if we don't put words to it, it isn't real. If it isn't written down, did it happen? And how do our words enliven, or embody, the events of our lives?

So I'm going to try #NaBloPoMo and see what happens. I may only write four lines, but I want to see where my words lead. The second writing project I want to complete this month isn't online. It will require a pen, paper, envelopes and stamps. In this season of thanksgiving, I am going to write one note each day to a different person to tell them thank you for their presence. Too often I scurry from one day to the next in a blur. Perhaps this practice too will become a habit.

Frightful Friday Five

I never watched any of the ten Halloween movies, American Horror Story, Nightmare on Elm Street or Psycho. “It’s the Great Pumpkin,Charlie Brown!”  is more my taste.  And I’d rather hear Hedwig’s theme from Harry Potter than Monster Mash. 

But I have a photograph from when I was six years old that shows my older brother and his friends and I sprawled out on the family room floor trading candy, and the photograph makes me smile.

Costumes aren’t just for little ones though; my husband and I were Raggedy Ann and Andy for our first Halloween together. And, on one of my oldest daughter’s earliest Halloweens, dressed as a clown, I joined a group of costumed parents and kids to travel house to house for treats. Ten years later, pickin’ my five-string banjo, I accompanied my younger daughter as we went door to door. And last year, I channeled NCIS’ Abby Sciuto, minus the coffin, for our congregation’s Trunk or Treat event.

This year, with my daughters away at school and without a neighborhood with many trick or treaters, my favorite autumn treats are setting a pumpkin on the hearth and enjoying the spectacular palette with which God paints our mountains and trees in North Carolina.