I was visiting a parishioner in a nursing home on Christmas Eve and as I was leaving I caught sight of an ornament hanging on one of the many Christmas trees throughout the center. It read: "Believe in the magic of Christmas." Well I don't. I believe in the miracle of Christmas!
I believe that God is intimately involved in our lives and sometimes without controling peoples' decisions or actions, God makes a way where no way seemed to be. Such an event happened this Christmas and I want to tell you about it.
My friend LindaMay had just finished her training as an OTR truck driver (yes the 18 wheel variety) and began her first solo trip the day before Christmas. That meant her Christmas would be spent driving the interstate and camping out in her truck. I've been keeping in close contact with her and so I called her Christmas morning. She was stuck in an ice covered parking lot without any facilities wondering where she would get something to eat and more importantly how she would be able to get back on the road so as to make a timely delivery. Not yet equiped with wireless internet, I offered to call her back on Skype so that I could view weather and road conditions for her on my laptop. I advised her to sit tight until 2 p.m. when the temperature would be above freezing and warming throughout the day.
Fast forward to the late evening. I'm driving east on I-64 from my brother and sister-in-law's in Lexington, KY following my parents to their house in Winchester, KY where I planned to spend the night. I call LindaMay and she is heading west on I-64 and is 55 miles from I-75. For those who don't know Kentucky geography, I-64 and I-75 intersect in Lexington. In other words we are less than 50 miles apart traveling towards each other on the same highway at a combined speed of nearly 140 mph! She was planning to stop for the night in the Lexington area. Instead, I gave her instructions to meet me in Winchester (20 minutes east of Lexington) and she spent Christmas night at my parents. We warmed up some leftovers from our Christmas dinner which featured sauerbraten, a favorite German dish, and then her and I celebrated Christmas mass around the kitchen table with a host cut from a slice of bread and a glass of my dad's homemade wine!
There were no hope that we would be able to spend Christmas together. It never crossed our minds. Thank God for the beauty of winter ice that delayed her departure that made our rendezvous possible! Thank God for making a way on a cold winter's night for two dear friends to gather and celebrate the birth of the Only Begotten Son. Thank God for making a way on a cold winter's night for Mary and Joseph to find a place for her to deliver her child. Thank God for making a way for Christ to come down from heaven to be for us "a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord." (Luke 2:11 NSRV)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
My First Christmas Sermon
“. . . she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”
How is it possible that we are to know God as a baby lying in a manger? How can we see our Savior, our Messiah, our Lord in the baby Jesus, who was born of human estate, vulnerable and utterly dependent on Mary and Joseph? That’s an amazing statement of faith! For some it is a struggle. But let me ask you, how is it that one could gaze into the eyes of any baby and not see God? Is there a more precious gift in all the earth than a new born baby? A baby, pure and innocent, is always God’s gift of love wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Not every baby is received as the gift that it is. When this is true, it may be hard for the parent and the child to love or to believe in God. It may be hard for them see God in the baby Jesus or any other baby.
Let me say something very important here. Our worth as a human being, our self-esteem, our membership in the Family of God, or our role in God’s plan is not contingent upon the circumstances of our birth or our raising. All of those things are contingent on the most important thing; God loves us. God loved us from the first moment and always will and at Christmas especially, we know that love in the baby Jesus.
Since the time of Adam and Eve, there has been an indestructible bond between us and God. Human betrayal of that bond both in the first instance and in all sin since has marred the bond, but God will not abandon us no matter how hard we sometimes try to abandon God. That’s the story of our faith.
We were created in God’s image and Jesus was born in our likeness. In Jesus Christ dwells both the fullness of divinity and humanity. In Christ, is God’s promise that never shall the divine and the human be separated. As miraculous and mind boggling as it might be that God would become human in the person of Jesus Christ entering the world as we all do as a vulnerable and utterly dependent bundle of joy and love, can we imagine any way that God could be closer to us than in a new born baby? All of our potential as human beings both as individuals and as a society is given new hope and possibility in each newborn baby.
In the birth of Jesus, God gave to us an eternal hope of our potential as beings created to love. In the birth of Jesus, God gave to us an eternal hope for our reconciliation and redemption. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, “. . . God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” In order for Paul to say this, he and we also have to realize that God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ was born for us. God did not merely speak words of solidarity, God joined us in the trenches of life. In Christ, God holds all of the brokenness of human life in union with God’s self until such time as all creation is reconciled with God.
This union of divinity and humanity is made new each time another person is baptized in Christ, when they are born again of water and the Spirit. In the Sacrament of Baptism we are once again that new born baby. As Jesus was the incarnate manifestation of God in human estate, so are we in baptism made the incarnate manifestation of Christ as new members of his Body.
Our baptism and our life as Christians then are to be an expression of God’s eternal promise of our potential, our reconciliation and redemption. To those who cannot fathom the love of God or see such love in the face of a new born baby, we must be that love. It will be a difficult task and one that will bring with it much suffering. When that love is rejected, we will know an experience of dying. When it breaks through and God’s revelation of love in Christ is realized through us, we will experience resurrection.
Love is ultimately stronger than any force that tries to separate us. Paul speaks to us again in his letter to the Romans: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This day the only assurance we need of God’s immutable love for us; that nothing can separate us from God’s love is found in the new born baby, Christ our Lord.
How is it possible that we are to know God as a baby lying in a manger? How can we see our Savior, our Messiah, our Lord in the baby Jesus, who was born of human estate, vulnerable and utterly dependent on Mary and Joseph? That’s an amazing statement of faith! For some it is a struggle. But let me ask you, how is it that one could gaze into the eyes of any baby and not see God? Is there a more precious gift in all the earth than a new born baby? A baby, pure and innocent, is always God’s gift of love wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Not every baby is received as the gift that it is. When this is true, it may be hard for the parent and the child to love or to believe in God. It may be hard for them see God in the baby Jesus or any other baby.
Let me say something very important here. Our worth as a human being, our self-esteem, our membership in the Family of God, or our role in God’s plan is not contingent upon the circumstances of our birth or our raising. All of those things are contingent on the most important thing; God loves us. God loved us from the first moment and always will and at Christmas especially, we know that love in the baby Jesus.
Since the time of Adam and Eve, there has been an indestructible bond between us and God. Human betrayal of that bond both in the first instance and in all sin since has marred the bond, but God will not abandon us no matter how hard we sometimes try to abandon God. That’s the story of our faith.
We were created in God’s image and Jesus was born in our likeness. In Jesus Christ dwells both the fullness of divinity and humanity. In Christ, is God’s promise that never shall the divine and the human be separated. As miraculous and mind boggling as it might be that God would become human in the person of Jesus Christ entering the world as we all do as a vulnerable and utterly dependent bundle of joy and love, can we imagine any way that God could be closer to us than in a new born baby? All of our potential as human beings both as individuals and as a society is given new hope and possibility in each newborn baby.
In the birth of Jesus, God gave to us an eternal hope of our potential as beings created to love. In the birth of Jesus, God gave to us an eternal hope for our reconciliation and redemption. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, “. . . God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” In order for Paul to say this, he and we also have to realize that God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ was born for us. God did not merely speak words of solidarity, God joined us in the trenches of life. In Christ, God holds all of the brokenness of human life in union with God’s self until such time as all creation is reconciled with God.
This union of divinity and humanity is made new each time another person is baptized in Christ, when they are born again of water and the Spirit. In the Sacrament of Baptism we are once again that new born baby. As Jesus was the incarnate manifestation of God in human estate, so are we in baptism made the incarnate manifestation of Christ as new members of his Body.
Our baptism and our life as Christians then are to be an expression of God’s eternal promise of our potential, our reconciliation and redemption. To those who cannot fathom the love of God or see such love in the face of a new born baby, we must be that love. It will be a difficult task and one that will bring with it much suffering. When that love is rejected, we will know an experience of dying. When it breaks through and God’s revelation of love in Christ is realized through us, we will experience resurrection.
Love is ultimately stronger than any force that tries to separate us. Paul speaks to us again in his letter to the Romans: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This day the only assurance we need of God’s immutable love for us; that nothing can separate us from God’s love is found in the new born baby, Christ our Lord.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Gift of Hope and Love
Over the past few days, I have been feeling a bit blah. That's not an all too uncommon feeling for many as the holiday season approaches (or winds down from the commercial viewpoint - but that's a topic for another blog). You see I was bewailing the fact that I won't get to see many I hold dear this Christmas. Some of that is due to my new life in Granville when many of my closest friends and most of my family still live in Cincinnati. Some of it has to do with situations in their lives.
As I lay mulling over my feelings of lonliness and rejection in my prayers last night, I thought of Jesus on the cross and his feeling of abandonment by God. I've always wondered how Jesus being divine as well as human could feel abandoned by God, but he did. Any of us would have in his situation. Jesus was experiencing his human identitiy. Our feelings are always to be honored, but they don't always reflect the reality of things. Even as he expressed his feelings in a loud cry, there was a deep down trust in God. His knowledge of God gave him hope. In that moment he could also know that his feelings were not expressing the truth. He was not abandoned. God was with him as close as ever if not more so in his time of trial.
It might seem a bit odd to be reflecting on Christ's passion at the time of the year that we are celebrating his birth, but we really can't begin to comprehend either without the other. All of Jesus' life, death and resurrection are incarnational. They are the reason for his birth in the first place.
As I pondered all of this, my spirits lifted and my feelings shifted. I realized the truth was that I was not abandoned either. I began to feel less lonely and thought about a parishioner who lives in a nursing home with a severe handicap from birth. How lonely might he feel this time of year. As far as I know he doesn't get any regular visitors except from church and some of them have been "out of commission" themselves lately.
I'm going to visit him tomorrow. Together we will know the incarnate presence of Christ as we break open the Word, share in the prayers and receive Christ's Body and Blood together. We will be God's gifts of hope and love to each other. These are the same gifts God gave to us 2000+ years ago in the birth of Jesus Christ, God's Only Son, our Lord and Savior.
As I lay mulling over my feelings of lonliness and rejection in my prayers last night, I thought of Jesus on the cross and his feeling of abandonment by God. I've always wondered how Jesus being divine as well as human could feel abandoned by God, but he did. Any of us would have in his situation. Jesus was experiencing his human identitiy. Our feelings are always to be honored, but they don't always reflect the reality of things. Even as he expressed his feelings in a loud cry, there was a deep down trust in God. His knowledge of God gave him hope. In that moment he could also know that his feelings were not expressing the truth. He was not abandoned. God was with him as close as ever if not more so in his time of trial.
It might seem a bit odd to be reflecting on Christ's passion at the time of the year that we are celebrating his birth, but we really can't begin to comprehend either without the other. All of Jesus' life, death and resurrection are incarnational. They are the reason for his birth in the first place.
As I pondered all of this, my spirits lifted and my feelings shifted. I realized the truth was that I was not abandoned either. I began to feel less lonely and thought about a parishioner who lives in a nursing home with a severe handicap from birth. How lonely might he feel this time of year. As far as I know he doesn't get any regular visitors except from church and some of them have been "out of commission" themselves lately.
I'm going to visit him tomorrow. Together we will know the incarnate presence of Christ as we break open the Word, share in the prayers and receive Christ's Body and Blood together. We will be God's gifts of hope and love to each other. These are the same gifts God gave to us 2000+ years ago in the birth of Jesus Christ, God's Only Son, our Lord and Savior.
The Beginning
Today marks the beginning of my new blog, just two days before Christmas when we will celebrate the coming of the Son of God as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes laying in a manger.
In my prayers, I often recite a montra: Your will O Father, your way Lord Christ, your power Holy Spirit. From this montra comes the name of my blog: Will, Way & Power!
In my prayers, I often recite a montra: Your will O Father, your way Lord Christ, your power Holy Spirit. From this montra comes the name of my blog: Will, Way & Power!
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