Seekers (January 2016 Newsletter, Pastor's Message)

Dear Emanuel Members and Friends –

"In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.'" (Matthew 2:1-12)

With the coming of the New Year, we enter into another season of the liturgical calendar.  January 6 is Epiphany, in which we remember the coming of the wise men from the east – gentile wise men, likely Zoroastrians from Persia (modern day Iran) who studied the stars and somehow knew that a Messiah was to be born in Judea.

Epiphany represents the revelation of the Messiah to the nations – to the Gentiles - to non-Jews, including the members and most of the friends of Emanuel Church.  (I say “most” because our congregation has been blessed with some very good friends of the Jewish faith, for whom we are most grateful.)  Isaiah and other prophets long ago had written that Israel would be a light to the nations, dispensing knowledge of God, and that the nations would come to Israel bearing gifts.  The coming of the wise men is both an enactment of Isaiah’s words, and a foreshadowing that many, many Gentiles, non-Jews would be drawn to Jesus, the light of the world.

“Wise Men and Women Still Seek Him!”  In recent years, we’ve welcomed a surprising number of visitors to Emanuel Church – praise God!  Some come through the invitation of friends, others through events at the church, still others because of our website, our presence on Facebook, and our occasional newspaper ads.  Some come because of family connections to our cemetery.  Some initially come seeking food or other assistance, and decided to stay.  And some just show up seemingly randomly, providentially – they walk or drive by, see our small church building for the first time, and decided to take a look.  And while our visitors may come seeking many things – fellowship, familiar hymns and comforting liturgies, words from the pulpit to restore fragile faith or encourage comfortable faith to stretch and grow in new and sometimes-uncomfortable directions, a place where their children can be brought up in the faith, assistance and support, information on departed family members, opportunities for service – ultimately they come seeking Jesus, seeking the child who is Emanuel, God with us.

“Wise Men and Women Still Seek Him!”  Our church has grown not only numerically, but spiritually because of those who have come to Emanuel Church in search of Jesus – those who grew up in the church and have been here with us for decades, and those who have come more recently.  Even though at Emanuel Church we sing many of the same hymns and worship using the same liturgy as we have for decades, our church changes – we hope for the better – every time somebody new walks through our front door.  Like the Wise Men at the manger, those who visit and those who join come bearing gifts, knowingly or unknowingly.   Renewed faith, new perspectives, fresh energy, wider networks of connections to our community (which have blessed us greatly in the past few years) – these gifts, among many others, come to us through our visitors and new members.

Who will God send our way in 2016?  What will they seek? What gifts may they bear?  May prayer is that Emanuel Church will continue for many years to come to be a house of prayer for all people, a place where all can come to find and know Emanuel – “God with us”. 

I’ll close by sharing a well-loved poem by Howard Thurman, African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader.

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and princes are home,

when the shepherds are back with their flocks,

the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the people,

to make music in the heart.

May Emanuel Church be about the work of Christmas in 2016! 

A blessed Epiphany and a blessed New Year to all

See you in church –

Pastor Dave     

Finding Jesus

Scripture:       I Samuel 18-20, 26,  Psalm 148

Colossians 3:12-17,  Luke 2:41-52

Some of you may be familiar with the “Where’s Waldo” children’s books.  They show a crowd of people doing something in a large space – maybe at an amusement park or a circus or a large birthday party – and the challenge is to find Waldo, with his distinctive red and white striped shirt, bobble hat, and glasses.  I’ve seen some variations on “Where’s Waldo” on Facebook – most recently a panel where we’re invited to find the panda amid the snowmen – and I have to confess I’m still looking for that panda; I just don’t seem him.  All I see is snowmen.

In our Gospel reading today, Mary and Joseph are playing a game of “Where’s Waldo” – except they’re looking, not for Waldo, or for a panda for that matter, but for their 12-year old son Jesus, and they’re not enjoying the game at all. They had all gone up to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover, and after the festival was over, they headed back home – except that apparently Jesus had other ideas.  There were throngs of people returning from Jerusalem, and Mary and Joseph apparently traveled as part of a larger group containing their extended family and friends, likely for protection – safety in numbers, as travelers on the roads from Jerusalem were subject to attack by robbers.  They assumed that Jesus was among the group, but by the time they got a day’s journey from Jerusalem, Mary looked at Joseph and said, “Have you seen Jesus”? and Joseph said to Mary, “No, have you seem Jesus?”  “I thought you were keeping an eye on him?”  “I thought you were keeping an eye on him.”  They hurriedly look among the caravan with whom they’re traveling, asking each person “Have you seen Jesus?  Have you seen Jesus?” – nope, no Jesus.  And panic sets in.  You who are parents know this feeling if you’re ever gotten separated from your child at the mall, or at the beach, or in an amusement park.  Where is he?  Is he ok?  I hope nobody tries to rob him or hurt him or, God forbid, abduct him.  And with a major festival having just ended, Jerusalem would have been full of families, many with 12-year old boys….many of whom would have looked a lot like Jesus – Jesus wouldn’t have been wearing a “Where’s Waldo” red and white striped shirt and bobble hat and glasses to make him easy to pick out in a crowd.  Nor did Mary and Joseph tell Jesus something in advance like “if we get separated, wait for me at the information counter”.

So Mary and Joseph are running through the streets of Jerusalem in a panic, looking for Jesus among the various shops and bazaars and side alleys, and the longer they look and the longer they don’t find him, the more their hearts are racing and the more their guts are knotted up in worry. 

Finally they check in the Temple – and there sits Jesus, calmly listening to the learned elders and asking them questions.  Mary said, “Child, why did you do this to us?  Your father and I have been half out of our minds worrying about you.”  And Jesus replies with something like, “Well, where else did you expect to find me?  Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  As far as Jesus was concerned, he hadn’t been lost at all; Jesus knew exactly where he was. Of course, Mary and Joseph had no idea what he was talking about…..as far as they were concerned, the house of Jesus’ father was back in Nazareth, where they’d been heading before they had to return to Jerusalem to search high and low for him.  And then they all went home….Luke tells us that “Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.  His mother treasured all these things in her heart.”  Well, that’s one way of putting it…..

Only Luke’s gospel includes this story, and so this account is really the only glimpse of Jesus we get in the Bible between his infancy and adulthood.  We’re reminded that the Holy Family were not plaster saints, but human beings, and like any other human beings, sometimes they got their signals crossed.  And Jesus was at that age, then and now, where a boy starts to become a man – and in that culture, the transition happened much more quickly than in our own.  Jesus was beginning to engage with the world around him, and religious faith was at the center of that world.  He was beginning to claim his faith for himself, and not rely only on the faith of his parents.

It’s a transition we all have to make, sooner or later…..and actually, a transition that happens over and over again throughout our lives.  As children, we look on God and Jesus, and on life in general with wonder.  Our parents provide everything for us, when we cry, they come running to us.  And the church, whether it’s a grand cathedral or a humble chapel on a side street like ours, is a place that’s warm and safe and lovely, and people there care for us.   Our parents tell us that God loves us, and our Sunday school teachers tell us God loves us, and we trust in that.  We look on the beauty of the world, and it all seems magical, and we’re at the center of it.

And then we grow older, and we start to notice things that seemingly don’t fit the story we were told – and this may happen more quickly or more slowly, depending on our circumstances, and on our parents’ circumstances.  As we get older, when we cry, our parents don’t come running quite as quickly; sometimes they don’t come running at all, but instead ask us to do things for ourselves or to help out around the house, rather than have them do everything.  “You’re a big boy now, you’re a big girl now, and you can make your own bed or clean up your own room, or take out the trash.”  Or tragedy strikes: a grandparent dies, and we have to wrap our minds around the idea that we won’t have a chance to talk to them again, at least not in this life.  Or a parent becomes seriously ill, and the child may have to pitch in and help care for the parent.  In some neighborhoods, where gunfire and police and ambulance sirens are a daily part of life, this realization that life isn’t perfect, that life can be really messed up, can come very quickly; for others, where parents have the resources to shield children from life’s harshest realities, it may come more slowly.  But it comes to all of us eventually. 

For some, that can be the end of faith as well.  We ask, if God loves us, why did God let this happen?  For some, the conversation goes no further, and faith dies.  But if we’re fortunate, our parents and our Sunday school teachers and our pastor can explain to us that though God is in charge, God also gives humans the freedom to make our own decisions – we know from our own experience that sometimes we make mistakes, and other people make mistakes as well, sometimes humans make really awful decisions, and sometimes even do so on purpose.  God gives us freedom, and sometimes we use that freedom to inflict incredible pain on others or ourselves.  And sometimes, with the best of intentions but a lack of foresight, we do really just plain dumb stuff.  And the natural world itself isn’t always safe, weather events and disease can wreak havoc.  But even though there’s a lot that’s wrong with the world, and wrong with other people, and even a lot wrong with ourselves, God is still at work to try to save us all, and that’s why God sent Jesus.  If we’re fortunate, when we come of age, our parents send us to confirmation class, and our pastor teaches us what the Bible says about God and what the church believes about God – and all of this is really a process of handing down the faith that has been handed to us through the ages.  I haven’t actually had any confirmation classes since I’ve been here – no children of confirmation age quite yet, but in a few years, Lilly and Eric and a few of the other children will come of age, and confirmation class will become part of the schedule.

And so we’re confirmed.  And for many people, confirmation is where their relationship with God stops developing…it’s as if they ‘graduated from church’.  Their faith gets put on a shelf along with the Bible the church may have presented them at confirmation, and both gather dust.  We don’t see them at church again until they come to be married, or until there’s a death in the family. 

And it’s at that time that many struggle with their faith.  Just as the answers we were given at age 6 didn’t always work for us at age 12, the answers we’re given in confirmation class at age 12 may not work for us at age 22, or age 52, or age 82.   Because as our lives continue on and we mature, life brings different questions.  As we mature, our relationship with God needs to mature as well.  At one stage of our lives, faith may be all about getting to heaven.  At another stage in life, or in different circumstances, faith may be about just getting through the day with body and soul together and intact.  And at yet other stages in life, faith may not be all that much about us at all, but more about those around us, asking questions about why other people are suffering, asking why God lets other people suffer, and maybe getting to the point of asking what God is asking us to do in response – as Jesus said, “Those who would save their lives will lose them, and those who would lose their lives for my sake, and the sake of the Gospel, will find it.”  Yet even as we mature, we hope never entirely to lose that childhood sense of wonder. As we come to the end of our lives, and we no longer have the strength to do much for our neighbor but pray, faith may once again be mostly about getting to heaven, and surely we can face that question with confidence if our lives have been spent in God’s service…as Catherine of Siena said, “All the way to heaven is heaven, for Jesus said, ‘I am the way’”.  So faith begins with God and us, but as we mature, inevitably it leads us to our neighbor….and ultimately from our neighbor back to God.

We can learn from the life of Jesus.  As an infant, his parents kept Jesus out of harm’s way, keeping him safe from the murderous King Herod.   As Jesus grew into early childhood, if he had any questions, he asked his parents.  As a 12-year old, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem to bring his own questions to the learned elders in the Temple.  Twenty or so years later, Jesus would again enter the temple, but this time with a whip of cords, to cleanse the Temple of the corruption that he saw – corruption that was surely also present when Jesus was 12 years old, but that Jesus at the time didn’t question, but if he even knew about it, accepted as a given, as “just the way things were”.  And while Jesus embraced the Jewish faith of his people, he developed his own unique perspective on it - theologians have a fancy word that they use, “hermeneutic”, which means framework of interpretation.  As the Gospel writers present it, while the Pharisees emphasized purity and while the Temple authorities emphasized religious observance – sacrifices, tithes, attendance at festivals and such – Jesus emphasized love, not a sentimental love of trying to feel warm and fuzzy about everyone, but love in action, as demonstrated by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, liberating the captive, and binding up the wounds of the afflicted – love in action, as Jesus loved us so much that he laid down his life for us.  And so as our faith matures, the life of Jesus can be a guide to us.  Our answer to the question “What would Jesus do?” may not resolve all our problems, but it’s a really good start.

At age 12, Jesus stayed behind in the Temple, as his parents ran all over Jerusalem asking, “Where is Jesus?”  And that’s a question for us as well – Where is Jesus?  Where can we go to find Jesus?  The creed says he’s seated at the right hand of the Father – that’s one place, but not a place we can visit at the moment.  We hope to find him at church, and that’s one place…but if this is the only place Jesus can be found, that leaves him sitting around in the sanctuary twiddling his thumbs six days a week.  Where is Jesus?  Jesus said that he can be found wherever even a small number of believers are gathered, for he said, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”  We find him among the poor and dispossessed, for Jesus said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of these my brethren, you’ve done it unto me.”

We’ll soon be starting a new year, 2016.  As the year 2015 ends, may we be grateful for the places and situations and people in which we have encountered Jesus.  As the new year begins, may it bring opportunities to encounter Jesus in new places, in new situations, in new people whom God puts into our lives.  May our eyes always be open to seeing Jesus, and when Jesus calls, may we answer. Amen.

 

Favor (4th Sunday in Advent)

Scripture:       Micah 5:2-5a,  Psalm 80:1-7

Hebrews 10:5-10,  Luke 1:39-55

Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent, and after two weeks of reading about that nudge John the Baptist, we get some more pleasant company for a change.   Our readings lead us into the company of two women, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus.   Two pregnant women, neither of which are expected to be pregnant, or even supposed to be capable of being pregnant.  Mary has just been visited by an angel who told her that she would be a mother, and that her child would be called Son of the Most High – though she had not to that point been with a man.  The angel also told Mary that her relative Elizabeth in her old age had conceived a son – Elizabeth and her husband John had been unable to conceive and had almost given up on children – and Elizabeth’s baby was to be named John.

Mary arrives on Elizabeth’s doorstep, and Elizabeth felt the child leap in her womb.  And even though Elizabeth herself has experienced divine intervention, her focus is on Mary as she says, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And why has this happened, that the mother of my Lord visited me. For as soon as I heard your greeting, my child jumped within my womb.  And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord.” 

And Mary replies.  I should mention that each of the four Gospels has its own distinctiveness.  Matthew’s gospel, written for a predominantly Jewish audience, gives us lots of references to Old Testament prophecies; Mary and Joseph can hardly blink without Matthew adding “And this blink was to fulfill the words of the prophet.”  In the case of Luke’s gospel, we get canticles - songs – really, at times it’s as if the gospel had been written as a musical, show tunes and all.  Mary’s reply to Elizabeth is the first of four canticles or songs in the opening chapters of Luke’s gospel.  It’s called the Magnificat, from the Latin for the opening words, “My soul magnifies” – and our 2^nd hymn today was a modern setting of the Magnificat.  The second song, from Zechariah after his son is born and his speech is restored, is called the Benedictus, again from the Latin for the opening words “Blessed be….” – and we sang a modern setting of that song a few weeks ago.   The third song is a brief song of the angels, called the “Gloria” – glory to God in the highest – and our first hymn this morning is based on that song.  The fourth is the song of the aged Simeon as he sees the baby Jesus being taken to the Temple – It’s called the “Nunc Dimittis”, from the Latin for the opening words “Now let thy servant depart in peace…” 

So Mary’s reply to Elizabeth a song, and what a song.  She begins by expressing her own incredible joy and gratitude: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.  Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” 

She starts out in personal terms, praising God for what God has done for her, but expands to sing of God’s blessings in cosmic terms – “His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts…..”  And as she goes on, we might be tempted to tell Mary, “hold on there, Mary, you’re getting all carried away now” as she sings, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendents forever.”  As Mary tells it, because of the baby she’s carrying, the world will be turned upside down, with the poor at long last being lifted up and getting all the good things they’d lacked for so long, and the formerly rich and powerful being taken down a notch – or many notches – and being sent away destitute.  More than that, Mary speaks about these things in the past tense – “he has brought down the powerful and lifted up the lowly” – as if they’d already happened, even though as she’s singing all this, Caesar and Herod and Pilate and all the other movers and shakers are still in power.  Mary looks ahead to the changes Jesus will bring, and sings about them as if God has already brought them about, as if they’re already a done deal.  And how we respond to Mary’s song depends on our situation.  If we’re among the powerful, among society’s movers and shakers, we’d probably want to tell Mary to zip her lip.  If we’re among the powerless, among society’s moved and shaken, we’ll want to sing along.  I believe our congregation can look on Mary’s words as good news.

How did Mary end up here, singing about God’s favor and the toppling of society’s powerful?  Basically, by saying yes to God.  An angel had come to Mary with the words, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.  Do not be afraid.”  The angel then told Mary that she would conceive  a son, and though Mary asks the obvious question – “how can this be, since I’m a virgin” - at the end of it she said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be done with me according to your word.” 

In his greeting, the angel called Mary “favored one”.  Mary sang, “God has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”  What does it mean to be favored by God?  Our culture, and many of the prosperity preachers on TV, tell us that wealth is a sign that we’re favored by God, and poverty is a sign that we’ve been disobedient or that God has for some other reason passed us over or abandoned us.  But that surely would have been news to Mary – as it would have been news to the prophets, to John the Baptist, and to Jesus himself.  A little later in Luke’s gospel, at Jesus’ baptism,  the aged Simeon warns Mary that her son is “destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, a sign that would be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many would be revealed…and a sword would pierce Mary’s own soul too.”  And indeed, for Mary, God’s favor brought disruption and hardship into what otherwise could have been a quiet life – a 90-some mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, on foot or donkey, childbirth in a cold, filthy stable, a hurried journey into Egypt chased by Herod’s men.  And then when Mary’s son turned 30, he went out to get dunked in the Jordan River by his weirdo cousin, Elizabeth and Zechariah’s son John the Baptist, spent 40 days in the wilderness, and then he abandoned the family carpentry business to run all over the place talking about God.   At least once when Mary and the family tried to visit Jesus where he was staying, he didn’t even stick his head outside the door and say “Hi Mom”, but left Mary and the family standing outside the door.  As Simeon had warned, Mary’s son got into trouble with the authorities, and in her old age, when her children should have been providing for her – and we surely hope Mary’s other children did provide for her - Mary watched her son as he was tried, tortured, and nailed to a cross on a rocky hill outside the city of Jerusalem.   All this was what being “favored by God” brought into Mary’s life.

What does it mean to be favored by God?  It means to have the privilege of being part of God’s work in the world, of being available to God for God’s purposes.  I remember when I was a little kid, and my dad was making something out in his shop, I’d watch him and say, “I want to help”.  And, often, there really wasn’t much of anything I could do to help; at age 6 or 7, I wasn’t strong enough to lift much and my aim with a hammer was pretty scary.  But sometimes he’d find something small that I could do, and it just felt good that I could do something to help my dad – even though in reality he probably could have gotten it done faster without me.   But it was important for him that I try to learn, and it was important to me that I try to help.  And for me, that’s sort of like what it feels like to be of service to God – that God loves us enough to allow us to be a part of his work in the world. 

And so our struggles are not a sign that God has abandoned us.  Indeed, our struggles may mean that we are in exactly the place where we can be of use to God.  We may be exactly in the place where God can use us to help others.  The question is, are we willing?  Are we willing to listen to the still small voice of God in our lives?  Are we willing to follow where God leads – even if it means inconvenience, losing sleep, losing friends, living with insecurity, living with danger?  Are we willing to say yes to God? 

To say yes to God almost certainly won’t make us wealthy or popular.  To say yes to God likely won’t make us powerful in a worldly sense, and in fact may surround us with powerful opposition.  Indeed, saying yes to God can get us into trouble.  But it will put us in a place where our lives have meaning, where our lives matter, where the action is, where others will be better off for our having passed their way.

“Greetings, favored one.  The Lord is with you.  Do not be afraid.”  May all our lives be a “yes” to God, that we may enjoy the cost and joy of God’s favor, and may God use our lives to bring God’s favor to the lives of others.