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"Fulfilled"

1/29/2019

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4:14-21

The first sermon preached by a minister is a memorable and pivotal moment in the life of a newly-minted preacher. You have been educated up. Call by God to proclaim the word. You have spent hours praying and studying the text. More study and pray time then poured in the actual preparation of the sermon – some estimate 1-2 hours for every page. Some gifted preachers are able to commit the sermon to memory. Others slave over a manuscript, making sure every “t” is crossed and “I” is dotted. We worry whether the message is too long, if it is appropriate, or will be well received. We practice, pouring our hearts into the words and praying the spirit will transform them into living message that touches the congregation’s heart. Then there are the comments,
One new preacher noted: when he got in the pulpit he thought he should explain why he had a Band aid on his chin. "As I was shaving this morning I was thinking about today's message when I lost my concentration and accidentally cut my chin with the razor." He then went on to preach for over an hour ½ hours. Afterwards an old lady said to the new pastor, "Pastor, next week why don't you think about your shaving and cut the sermon."

The new preacher, at his first service had a pitcher of water
and a glass on the pulpit. As he preached, he drank until the
pitcher of water was completely gone.

After the service someone asked an elderly church member,
"How did you like the new pastor?"
"Fine," she said, "but he's the first windmill I ever saw that
was run by water."

    Then we have the example of Jesus, who comes forth filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, having spent time of discernment and temptation in the dessert. Even Jesus must face the test of the first sermon. He prepared for forty days and forty nights. He returns to Galilee teaching in the synagogues and is well received. Favorable reports have spread about him. Then he hits his home synagogue, in Nazareth.
         Jesus is ready for his first sermon in his hometown. The crowd is ready and in suspense. Jesus is given the scroll from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 61, to read, and deliberately selects the text proclaiming “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...” then proceeds to announce a mandate:

To bring good news to the poor.
Proclaim release to captives and prisoners.
Recovery of sight to the blind.
Let the oppressed go free.

To proclaim of the year of the Lord’s favor – the Jubilee year, which according to Leviticus 25, is a Sabbath of Sabbaths, to occur every 50 years. In the Jubilee year slaves were set free. In the Jubilee year property that was sold for automatically revert to its original owner (Leviticus 25:10; compare 25:13). In the Jubilee year those who, compelled by poverty, had sold themselves as slaves to their brothers, regained their liberty (Leviticus 25:10; compare 25:39). In the Jubilee year, debt was cancelled. In the Jubilee year farms and fields got a Sabbath rest, were to lay fallow.
       Now the Jubilee year was never successfully, fully implemented. It was too complicated, too difficult to follow. There were minor attempts, here and there throughout history. Yet it is this very law that Jesus chooses to discuss in his first sermon at Nazareth.   Eyes fixed on him in anticipation; Jesus gives what must be the shortest sermon in recorded history: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
       What is Jesus declaring? He announces to the people, right from the beginning of his ministry that this unobtainable mandate, this the living out of God’s favor in human time, is fulfilled in Jesus.    Jesus certainly fulfilled George Burns’ notion of a good sermon, when he quipped: “The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”
       Still, it must have been electrifying to hear Jesus’ words. Electrifying like when the Jewish exiles returned home to Jerusalem. Recall how they felt when they gathered to hear the scriptures read by the priest Ezra. They heard the interpretation of what it meant to be a covenant people returned to their home. Both Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest told the people, who were bowing and worshipping upon hearing the Law of Moses, not to weep. But the people wept because their heard their heritage read to them.   God’s promise to be faithful was fulfilled on that day. It was a new day. They could now start over. Remember, Ezra told them, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
        So, Jesus, like Ezra, preaches a word for an oppressed people to understand and for which their hearts long for.   Like the exiles who had returned home to rebuild the ruins, to resume life, to reclaim their spiritual heritage, the people in Nazareth are being called by Jesus to join him to fulfill the word Jesus spoke – messianic words from an ancient prophet, built on the Law of Moses.   The year of God’s favor, Jubilee, was declared by Jesus. The impossible, unfulfilled law, now in Jesus is fulfilled.
        Jesus could have chosen his first sermon about prosperity. He could have chosen a fire and brimstone text. But he didn’t. Instead he chose this difficult text, at least unattainable by human means.    Who wants to forgive debt? Who wants to return land? Who wants to release slaves? Who wants the land to rest? This is a hard choice for those who are rich and prosperous. We need God to achieve this act, to bring equality and justice to us all. To live faithfully. For oppressor and oppressed to become reconciled. Slave and freeman become equal. For rich and poor to experience connectedness, sharing based on need and not greed.
Jesus is God’s Jubilee. Jesus brings God’s eternal restoration. Everything Jesus does is to fulfill God’s favor. In Jesus God forgives eternal debt. In Jesus God offers freedom. In Jesus God grants creation rest. In Jesus sets the enslaved free. What is Jesus’ sermon? Jubilee is fulfilled in Jesus’ midst.
        Jesus’ first sermon was his vision for his entire ministry, and what he wants for us.   Jesus is preaching to us today – to be fulfilled.   For all of us are captives to one thing or another. Sin. Greed. Self-centeness. All of us are blinded by one thing or another. Ignorance, Spiritual or emotional pain. All of us are oppressed in some fashion – by our upbringing. By the hard-knocks of life. Our lack of knowledge of the Word of God. By health or financial conditions. Why, many of us are even blinded to the ways our lives are oppressed or held captive to either sin or conditions that would leave us unfulfilled. Jesus proclaims he is here to fulfill us. To enable us to see. To become free. To hear good news. To know God’s favor.
        Jesus’ first sermon in Nazareth echoes timeless themes that our hearts can still grasp and pray for. As we gather for our annual meeting today, let Jubilee be our goal and theme, That we can declare Jubilee, create Jubilee, a time of forgiveness, to begin over in God’s grace. Jesus’s word’s open us to embrace the conditions of the oppressed and refugees clamoring to be free around our word. That’s what our congregation needs. Our Community needs. The World needs. The message of Jubilee.
Jesus word’s opens our eyes to our spiritual blindness, and to see what we are overlooking, and see our blindness to other’s struggle, the needs of our community. Because there is plenty in this world for all to have a simple, decent life. If we just have eyes to see.
        Jesus’s words awaken us to Jubilee, the freedom to have a fulfilling life, with a social and spiritual structure that supports us instead of working against us. To be free from the yoke of sin. To experience spiritual freedom and not oppression. We feel the oppression of financial problems, building issues, but Jubilee finds us in our pain, and our fear, and brings us hope. Jubilee brings us rest to enable a vision of a new time to manifest, to call us to declare, “the joy of the Lord is my strength,”
These are freedoms that Jesus laid out in his first sermon. A vision that all peoples could be fulfilled. This is a sermon worth pondering, re-reading, holding on to and signing up with. It is a sermon Jesus lived, died and rose to fulfill. May we embrace the Jubilee, so it can be fulfilled in our time. Amen.

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"Water into Wine"

1/21/2019

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Isaiah 62: 1-5; John 2: 1-1

An advice column contained the following:
"Dear Family: I am asking for your cooperation and understanding. My wedding will be very costly, and this has caused me to make some unpleasant decisions.
"I hope you will see this as a request for a donation and not a charge for you to attend my wedding. I cannot figure out any way other than to ask each guest to contribute to the cost. If anyone is insulted by my request, I am sincerely sorry.
"Your $330 contribution must be received on or before June 30. Only postal money orders will be accepted. Thank you for your contribution."

My question is, how should this "invitation" be handled? Should we tell the bride-to-be what bad manners this is? -- APPALLED IN OHIO

DEAR APPALLED: No. Please allow me to do it for you. What you received is not an invitation. It is a solicitation. Not only is it tacky; it is unbelievably insulting. When a couple marries, all monetary contributions should be voluntary. To specify that the "gift" be paid via money order implies that there might be insufficient funds to cash the check. If I received such an "invitation," I would not send a money order. I would send my regrets. I recommend that you do the same. Readers, I challenge you to top this!

Appalling and tacky weddings are the rage now -- immortalized on television with shows such as “Bridezillas,” “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding,” “Platinum Weddings ,” and the more refined “Say Yes to the Dress.” Just last night at Mulcahy’s in Wantaugh was the “My Big Fat Fake Wedding” a comedy take off where you can come dressed as the minister, the wedding crasher and as a anonymous crowd, create the wacky wedding of your dreams. Practically gone are the days with a simple, no-frills wedding in church or in the living room, followed by a pot-luck reception. Weddings are a hefty 72-billion-dollar industry in the US. The average wedding costs close to 26 thousand – not including the honeymoon. In Manhattan, that figure jumps up to 66 thousand. My big fat Manhattan wedding -- whose 14th anniversary we’re celebrating February 1- -- was characterized by everyone pitching in – cousin Bee made a superb wedding cake; other friends did flower arrangements for the tables, others pitched in the Champaign, someone sang during the ceremony, friends in a Appalachian folk band played for the service, and another brought his fiddle and friends and offered some bluegrass tunes. Yes, my dress came off a rack at Macy’s, as well as Forrest’s suit, both paid with gift cards!

Weddings and commitment ceremonies are major, stressful events in the life cycle. Traditionally weddings signified more than a couple uniting. It symbolized the forging of alliances between families, clans and villages that may be hard for us to appreciate. Weddings were a serious business matter in the ancient world. The festivities went on for up to a week. The entire village would be invited. It was a welcomed, joyful respite from the hard, monotonous village life. As a result, the wedding families were burdened with significant expense – often debt -- not only bride prices but the cost of the wedding itself; especially paying to entertain, food and drink, for a sizable crowd.

According to the gospel of John, Jesus’ first miracle, or sign, was at a wedding – the wedding at Cana, which wasn’t far from Nazareth.

It’s a fascinating picture. According to John, Jesus’ first miracle isn’t forgiving someone of their sin. Nor is it healing someone of a bodily ailment. Or casting out a demon. Nor is it a conversation, teaching or parable to lead someone to spiritual enlightenment.   Jesus’ glory is first revealed at a simple village wedding. Jesus brings the extra wine.
The wedding is going well until the third day. To the chief steward’s horror, he discovered seven days’ worth of wine were drunk in half the expected time. This wedding was headed for disaster. What’s a village wedding without its wine? This was a crisis for the wedding family. For this family, hospitality is everything. If you invite people to a wedding, hospitality demands that everyone have enough. Enough to eat. Enough to drink. To not have enough wine or food was a humiliation, a disgrace, they would never be able to live down. It was a bad omen for the marriage.

     Jesus’ mother recognizes the problem and goes to her son. Jesus responds in a non-committal way. He doesn’t think it’s his hour. But the dire need of the moment necessitates action. We plan, but then life has other plans. Mary has faith and instructs the servants to just do what Jesus commands: which is to fill up six empty large stone jars with water. The servants were ordered to draw out some of the water now wine and take it to the chief steward. The Steward tasted the wine – and proclaimed it far superior to anything they had consumed so far. They had saved the best for last. So, Jesus produced 180 gallons of first-class wine for his first miracle.

      This passage reveals some important insights into Jesus. He is present to us in our daily walk and especially in life’s transitions. He understood the problem of not having enough wine. So, in his generous act he spared the wedding family probable humiliation. He helped them saved face. It reminds us of what his foster-father, Joseph did for his mother Mary—Joseph refused to expose Mary to the humiliation of the law when he discovered she was with child. So, Jesus, like his foster-father, is sensitive to the feelings of others caught in a social quandary. Jesus cares about maintaining human dignity. Not only does he turn water into wine - he turns it into the best wine. He didn’t have to do this. It could’ve been a Gallo Burgundy instead of a Rothschild’s Cabernet Sauvignon. Jesus gave the very best.

It is no accident that Jesus performs this sign at a wedding. Because a wedding, a wedding feast, is a very appropriate image to use when talking about the new reality that Jesus brings about. The Bible uses this image of a wedding banquet many, many times, both in the Old Testament and in the New, to describe what God promises to his people and what Jesus then brings about. Wine, the ancient symbol of joy, is our gift from Jesus in our new alliance with him.

       Dr. Martin Luther King reminds us: “When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I'm speaking of that force which all the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: 'Let us love one another. For God is love.'

     Jesus today is revealed as our Divine Bridegroom, who claims us and make us channels of this sacred wine of love. Our water is turned into wine to serve the world in joy. Our empty jars are overflowing. Jesus has given us the very best. Therefore, as Paul declares: “Let us keep the feast!” (1 Cor. 5:8) Amen

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"Like a Dove"

1/15/2019

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Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-18, 21-22

There is an old legend of a swan and a crane. A beautiful swan alighted by the banks of the water in which a crane was wading about seeking snails. For a few moments the crane viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired: "Where do you come from?"

"I come from heaven!" replied the swan. "And where is heaven?" asked the crane.
"Heaven!" said the swan, "Heaven! have you never heard of heaven?" And the beautiful bird went on to describe the grandeur of the Eternal City. She told of streets of gold, and the gates and walls made of precious stones; of the river of life, pure as crystal, upon whose banks is the tree whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations. In eloquent terms the swan sought to describe the hosts who live in the other world, but without arousing the slightest interest on the part of the crane.

Finally the crane asked: "Are there any snails there?" "Snails!" repeated the swan; "no! Of course, there are not."    "Then," said the crane, as it continued its search along the slimy banks of the pool, "you can have your heaven. I want snails!"

Besides the debate about snails in heaven, our story reminds us that it is a new year, a new beginning, the start of new possibilities. We are reminded of the potential that lies ahead for us. We are asked, what do we apply ourselves to: Heaven or stay stuck in the mundane matters of life: like seeking snails. Filling our belly. \\\\   Here at Freeport and Merrick there are great goals to accomplish in 2019 – to grow in faith, reach out into the community, fill our pews and the spaces in the church. In each of our hearts are dreams, a 2019 bucket list. What’s on that list: the vision of heaven or snails?

        Today we encounter Jesus as an adult ready to embark on his step into public ministry. In an account captured by all four gospel writers, Jesus enters public life through baptism at the hands of his cousin John. As he enters the Jordan River, and allows himself to be immersed, Jesus identifies as one of us – as members of the loved, but sinful human community in need of redemption.

A Heavenly voice affirms Jesus: “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Powerful words to mark Jesus as he begins his work. These are Words to carry him through the trials and joys as he lives out the ministry of healing, teaching preaching, serving, confronting, forgiving and restoration. Jesus is given one more precious gift to mark the beginning of his public life. That gift is the Holy Spirit who descends upon him in bodily form like a dove. (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32).

Why a dove?   Out of all the birds whose shape the Holy Spirit could have assumed, why a dove?   Why not an eagle, the king of birds and ruler of the sky? Why not hawks or falcons, which vigilantly criss-cross the length of the Holy Land many times a day? Why not an owl for wisdom? A pelican as symbol of sacrifice? An ostrich whose eggs were placed in tombs and graves, as symbols of resurrection or immortality? Or a swan which symbolizes grace and purity? Or even the common sparrow for that matter – all birds people would have recognized? Why a dove?

If you recall, the dove is one of the two birds mentioned in the story of Noah’s flood, which begins in Genesis 6. As the waters began to slowly recede, Noah first sent a raven from the window in the ark, and the raven flew back and forth until the waters were dried up, and it did not return. Next Noah sent a dove, but the dove returned to the ark after finding no place to rest its feet (Gen. 8:7-9). What’s worth noting here is that a raven will eat the bodies of dead animals, but a dove will not. When the dove went forth from the ark, it returned because doves will not rest on a carcass or eat decaying flesh.

Noah sent the dove out a second time and the dove and the dove returned to the ark with an olive leaf in its mouth. Of the hundreds of possible tree leaves to reappear after the earth was covered with water, the dove found the leaf of a tree created by God to produce olives. The olive branch in the ancient world has long been a symbol of peace, so the dove is the conveyor of the symbol of peace, a new start in a sin-ravaged world.

Doves bridged the peace between humanity and God in another way. Turtledoves or young pigeons, were the sacrifice for sin in the Old Testament within the reach of the poor, who could not afford a lamb, or a ram or bull to sacrifice (Lev.1:14). Doves were a special offering for purification after a woman gave birth to a child (Lev. 12:5-6), a law about which Luke makes a point to detail that Mary and Joseph complied (Luke 2:22-24).

        There are other traits about doves that give us insight why the Holy Spirit chose to identify with this specific bird. Doves are not predatory. They do not attack other birds as hawks and many other birds do. A dove will withdraw from a fight if at all possible. Doves will not steal from other birds as ravens and other birds do.

Doves are faithful creatures: they mate for life. Baby doves get their milk from both its’ mother and father. Both genders create milk to nurture babies. The dove is the only male bird that creates milk. The cooing of turtledoves has been translated as the language of love, and not surprising the Song of Songs mentions doves seven times. The image of two doves has become a standard symbol for love, commitment and fidelity in marriage ceremonies.

It is not surprising that the Holy Spirit chose to take the form of a dove to affirm Jesus of the ministry that lay ahead. It was a symbol to all who witnessed Jesus’ baptism, and is a witness to us, that Jesus too comes to bring peace & reconciliation in the midst of the floodwaters of sin. It is a symbol that Jesus is loving, faithful, lowly, non-predatory, as Jesus himself would extol when he said: (Matt. 11: 28-29)"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS."   Yet like the dove, Jesus would be the anointed sin-offering accessible to all humankind.

Though one of the lowliest and most common of birds, the dove reminds us that the Holy Spirit loves us, is committed to us and anoints us for service – just like Jesus was. In our walk of faith in 2019, the dove reminds us to seek out opportunities to serve, and to be harbingers of peace and reconciliation. The dove reminds us of our forgiveness found in Jesus Christ, so too we can start over and bring the olive branch of good news of forgiveness to others.

The dove reminds us we are called, anointed and equipped for ministry. We are capable and we have work to do – that only we can do.   What will we seek, heaven here on earth, or dig for snails? This gift of the Holy Spirit, symbolized by the Dove, is a part of our life. So be peaceful, like the dove. Be faithful and loving, like the dove. Be a conveyor of forgiveness, like the dove.   Be an anointer and enabler of good works, as the dove symbolizes. Use time well, so that the Holy Spirit may descend upon you in all you do, in every minute, every hour, every day every week every month. and create a year of service, love and peace. Create a haven like heaven, here on earth. Yes, like a dove. Amen.

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"Star Light, Star Bright"

1/8/2019

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Isaiah 60: 1-9; Matt. 2:1-12

How was a slave to find freedom? Harriet Tubman found freedom through a star. By day, she hid in the homes of former slaves, as well as Quakers and abolitionists. By night, she traversed the backwoods of Maryland and Delaware – the North Star, Polaris as her compass, and her only friend on a lonely journey.

On a crisp November morning in 1849, Harriet Tubman crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania. This was the first of what would be more than a dozen journeys along the Underground Railroad. She would help to free more than seventy slaves, and in all of her trips back down South, she never lost a passenger. Years later, Tubman would recall her first visions of freedom:   “Stars illumine the world we long for – they dwell above the intersection of expectant hope and realized joy.”   http://sardisbaptistcharlotte.org/sermon/following-the-star/

Hope and concerns are at the forefront today as we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. Today is officially the last day of the Christmas season. In the ancient church, Epiphany was the most important day of observance, not Christmas. It is the feast of light. Manifestation. The in-breaking of revelation.

The gospel lesson for Epiphany is always the story of the journey of the Wise men, the Magi, some even call the Three Kings, from the Far East, bringing gifts to bear to the child Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrrh. It is a story of a story of a star that led the Magi to divine Freedom, hope and a promise of a new life.

Matthew tells us that these Wise Men, the Magi, the learned, scientists/astrologers of the day, were the first foreign people to visit the Child Jesus, the first foreign people who recognized the significance of Jesus’ birth, and deduced who Jesus was. They noted his Star at its rising, took a long risky journey, until the Star seemed to stop over Jesus’ home.

Epiphany for better or worse, brings sudden insight. When we connect the dots on a problem we’ve been sorting out, or we look out at a sunset or gaze at the stars at night and are struck at our place in the universe – when a piece of music transports us… or when a child’s handmade drawing helps us see the truth of a situation – these are epiphanies.   Today our lesson, would give us an epiphany, this last day of Christmas, as we follow God’s beckoning into this New Year.
   The gift of epiphany, simply put, is that Jesus is our Light. He is the “Bright and morning Star” (Rev. 22:16), “the Light of the world,” (John 8:26) that shines in our heart when we look within.   But Jesus’ light is no ordinary light. The rabbinic writers in the Babylonian Talmud, the earliest commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures, talked of a hidden, primordial light of creation, light that God used on the first day of creation, “Let there be light,” is not the same light we experience as coming from our sun; after all, the sun and the moon are not created until day four. Instead, this first, primordial light was unique to God alone. Rabbinic tradition teaches us that this hidden light will shine once again during the days of the Messiah. So this primordial light of creation is Jesus: as the evangelist John declares: Through him all things were made (John1:3); and Psalm 36 tells us: “in your light we see light.” In Jesus, Light Incarnate, Light in which we find light, we see how we are to live. To love. To forgive. To be community. We see that this Christ light is life. It gives us the energy to live and grow and become Christ-light. Star-light.

Scientists tell us we that life as it currently exists cannot live and grow properly without light. We cannot see properly without light. We would not have energy without light. Epiphany celebrates Jesus as the manifestation of light. Holy light from which all things were made. Light that enables us to not just physically survive, but spiritually thrive. Jesus manifests the light we need to manifest our dreams – to confront our concerns.

        Epiphany would give us another gift. Yes, Jesus is light. But our true nature, so often forgotten, was forged from the stars. Award-winning author Glenda Burgess writes, “Physicists say we are made of stardust. Intergalactic debris and far-flung atoms, shards of carbon nanomatter rounded up by gravity to circle the sun. As atoms pass through an eternal revolving door of possible form, energy and mass dance in fluid relationship. We are stardust…” It reminds us of that old Joni Mitchell song, “I don't know who I am but life is for learning. We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion-year-old carbon, And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

And therein lies our challenge and choice. Do we cover our God-given light, do we close our heart to those wrenching epiphanies of love and faith? The age-old battle of good and evil is real – we know it in our lives, in the choices we make. We know it in the actions our government takes. Yet deep down, we cannot change who we are. Children of Light. Our most ancient of ancestors were the Stars, and their pairticles now structure are being. The universe is bred in our bones. Galaxies flow through our veins. We are not only star-dust we are the channel through which divine light of Jesus flows.

        Epiphany gives us the gift of choice. In our lesson from Isaiah, we learn that the people of Israel have been released from captivity from exile to Babylon. What did they find? The Jewish cities were in rubble and their homes were in rubble and their farms were in rubble and their temple was in rubble and their lives were in rubble. Isaiah writes with words of such hope: “Arise, shine, your light has already come…Nations shall come to your light!”   In the midst of trouble and despair, the people were directed to light. We can find light, in the choices we make about how we live. Light heals and rebuilds. And so, the people of Israel rebuilt. And their light was renewed. And through this light, the country was healed.

   So, Epiphany leaves us precious gifts to begin our year: Jesus is our Light – a light of creation, salvation and growth. Remember that Child’s saying, gazing into the sky chanting “Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight.” How often I said that as a girl. The stars never fail to be portent of 0f hopes and dreams.

We too are creatures of light ---made of the stuff of stars. We need to remember from whence we came. What we are. We are meant to shine. But we have a choice. Will we arise and shine? Will we be dream bearers in 2019?

In your bulletin, I am sure by now you have found a star with words on it. These words are for you to meditate on this year. These are the words the stars are sending you to reflect on. What does your star want you to learn, to grow, to spiritually develop in 2019?   What is your wish and how does it connect to your star?

        Scientist Carl Sagan once said: “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” So, we leave today knowing that the fullest manifestation of light is love. So, arise from your worries. Arise from whatever enslaves you. Arise from whatever detours life has sent you on. Find your journey to freedom. Your Light has formed into words. The Bethlehem Star calls to your essence – so Stardust, arise and shine wherever you are – what word-light beckons you, what light will make a way for you, and show you the way to Christ—and how we can love more deeply, ever more. Amen.

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Searching for Jesus

1/2/2019

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Luke 2:41-52 A number of years ago, my church had a Christmas fair. The good folks from Handcrafting justice came to sell handiworks from artisan communities in developing countries worldwide, We were selling Christmas trees and also selling art from homeless artists. We had a Czech marionette sow and a [presentation of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by our resident theater company. All in all a wonderful church holiday fair.

It the late afternoon I went to tell my eleventh year old daughter and her two friends when we would be leaving but they were gone. Jan Hus had a five story Neighborhood House with lots of rooms, a gym, a theater, a nursery school, a residence, offices and I didn’t know where to begin to look for the girls. Did they leave the building to go buy a slice of pizza? Did they go to the drugstore to buy candy or nail polish? I searched throughout the whole building second time, this tie including the patio and fire escapes, No girls. Four volunteers joined the effort. After over a hour a fruitless searching I started to pain, Just as the police were called in to help, the girls came walking I leisurely down the stairs, wondering what all the fuss was about.

If that escapade wasn’t enough for our family, two friends of ours went to California for the holidays and entrusted our older so to care for their cats. These friends just happened to be senior elders at the church, But the day after Christmas we discovered the keys were mission. We searched high and low, every couch cushion unturned, ever pants pocketed emptied.   No keys. A week of searching, long distance pone calls, we finally gained entry in to the apartment with the help of a SYMPATHETIC SECURITY GUARD, We found two hungry but otherwise happy cats --- and a set of keys wedged between the cushions of the couch—where my so had last sat. At the risk of giving ou the impression that our family has the unfortunate habit of misplacing children and other vital house hold objects,

I share thee antidotes to illustrated how much I sympathize with Mary and Joseph’s frantic three-day search for the missing Jesus. What we experienced is nothing to the hundreds of migrant children here in the US, still separated from their families. And the families of 8 year old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, and 7 year old Jakelin Caal, both who died apart from their families. How many children are missing, being searched for? How many waking moments, how much searing pain, consume the parents' hearts as they seek, search, beg God for the miracle of reunification?

Anyone who has lost sight of a child n a store or outdoors even for a minute will testify to the enormous anxiety the situation creates. Even loosing your keys, glasses, wallet or cell phone can be incredibly disorienting and set us off on the wrong foot,   So yes, I have a lot of sympathy for Mary and Joseph. They were good parents,   They observed the festivals and kept Jesus involved in the customs of their people,   Earlier in the gospel of Luke takes great pains to records Jesus being circumcised and dedicated in the Temple, in accordance with the ordinances of the Jesus faith.

In this particular visit to the temple in Jerusalem, they were traveling with other kin and townspeople of Nazareth, it would hot have been an uncommon thing to assume Jesus was walking with some other group of friends or neighbors.   Imagine walking for an entire day only to discover your child is missing? They did what any other parents would do: return, no matter how tired they were they immediately retraced their footsteps.

They searched And searched. They searched for three days until they found him in the temple sitting with the teachers, listening and asking and answering questions.

The passage is the only story we have of Jesus’ youth, The gospels are completely silent about the long years between his infancy and adulthood. The scriptures are also silent about the years after Jesus is I the temple, until he began his public ministry some 16 years later, So this passage is particularly precious to us as it helps us to see that JESUS AHD HIS Parents like us had to deal with inevitable life transitions, the messy process of growing up, the life lessons we gain the process of loosing letting go, and then finding and acquiring something new.

Twelve, if you recall is a significant age in Jewish culture. It is the age when a person ceases to be child and enters the adult community, It is what we would call “the coming of age,” It is the age that many scholars assume that Mary was visited by Gabriel the archangel with the news that she would bear Jesus.

This story shows Jesus gravitating toward to the temple being about his father’s business. Listening, Learning, asking and answering questions, amazing the scribes and priests,   If we go to the end of Luke’s gospel we find Jesus doing almost the exact same ting in the temple just weeks before his death, Jesus in the temple, questioning debating, cleaning and cleansing the temple of the money changers and creating the temple an appropriate house of prayer.

Luke show us the consistency and integrity of Jesus life, he was at the Temple at the beginning of his adult life and at the end of his life. As he went missing for three days from his parents so Jesus went missing for three days in the tomb,

Jesus made a fateful decision to stay in Jerusalem when he was 12.   Something larger was calling Jesus, he felt the pull of something more, greater than his family, relatives or village.   Jesus found a new home, a new kinship with the rabbis, a deeper familial connection with the God he would call Abba.

Jesus’ allegiance to his Heavenly Father was beginning to manifest in new and hard to understand ways, Jesus had to separate physically, even for a brief time from the people he loved, in order too discovered who he was and the work his heavenly Father was calling him to.

We too, learn to let go, explore life, make new connections in this journey called life, in the call of the Holy Spirit for us to grow in Christ-like maturity. We are constantly called forward.

As we face a new years, 2019, let our hearts be open to new travels, new questions, engaging in spiritual discussions that envelop our world and lead us to grace. Let this be a year of listening and learning, Let our New Year’s resolution be to reclaim what we have lost in ourselves, perhaps courage, patience, mercy, or loving-kindness.
What ever we need to bring forth, dust off and allow to life again, Let us find Jesus anew, and with him, be about Abba’s work. And may we, like Jesus, increase in divine favor in 2019 now and forever more. Amen

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