Advent 4 Thursday/ Christmas Eve: A Familiar Story

The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The O Antiphons, in reverse order, were:

O Emmanuel!        (God-With-Us)      
O Rex Gentium!    (King of all Nations)
O Oriens!               (Morning Star)

O Clavis David!     (Key of David)
O Radix Jesse!       (Root of Jesse)
O Adonai!              (Lord)
O Sapientia!           (Wisdom)

The first letters of the Latin titles form an acrostic "Ero Cras!":

"Tomorrow I will be there!"

Our scripture passage this evening is Luke 2:1-14, in the New Revised Standard Version.

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴ Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵ He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
⁸ In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹ to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,  the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

You can click here for Lectio Divina suggestions, and return for the meditation and prayer.

~~~

Angel by Gary Blythe, in "This is the Star," by Joyce Dunbar and Gary Blythe

It is such a familiar story. And we all can conjure up the scene: the stable, the hay, the cow standing nearby, the father bending near, the mother holding her precious baby... who seems to be glowing, somehow! That's because, we know, this child is special: This is Jesus, the Son of God!

We can see it. We HAVE seen it!

And yet... it is a strange story, isn't it?

What does that mean, all the world should be registered? It means the Roman Empire is in charge, and it doesn't matter that your wife is 39 weeks pregnant. She will have to walk or ride a donkey 70 miles or so, because Caesar wants to make sure he has you on the tax roles.

What do you mean, there is no room for you? This is your hometown! Supposedly. Shouldn't being descended from King David make you at least a low-level celebrity of some kind? Can't you maybe stay in a palace somewhere? Evidently not. Forty generations after he lived, David's descendants might well have been, well, everybody.

It is so familiar, and so picturesque. But so unfamiliar, too, this couple with names-- Yosef and Maryam, is how they would have pronounced them-- names that might well have gotten them on a no-fly list, if their story had unfolded in 2015. 

The story is as familiar as powerlessness. As familiar as pain, of labor, and birth. As familiar as being on your own, without your mother near, for the first time in your life, and facing... who knew what? This story is as familiar as not having a space to call your own, even when you are at your most vulnerable. 

Why is the story told this way? What are we supposed to learn from it? What does it tell us about God? 

Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, performed by the Arizona Girlchoir

Prayer:

Lord, Christ, born as a vulnerable baby and yet our Prince of Peace, teach us to welcome you into our hearts, and to live your life of oneness with our Abba God. We pray in your holy name. Amen.

Advent 4 Wednesday: Here and Now

Let your light scatter the darkness, O God, and shine within your people.

December 23: O Emmanuel! O God With Us!

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,

the hope of the nations and their Saviour:

Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Our passage this evening is Jeremiah 31:10-14, in the New Revised Standard Version

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,

and declare it in the coastlands far away;

say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him,

and will keep him as a shepherd a flock."

¹¹For the LORD has ransomed Jacob,

and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

¹²They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,

and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,

over the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and over the young of the flock and the herd;

their life shall become like a watered garden,

and they shall never languish again.

¹³Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,

and the young men and the old shall be merry.

I will turn their mourning into joy,

I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

¹⁴I will give the priests their fill of fatness,

and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the LORD.

You can click here for Lectio Divina suggestions, and return for the meditation and the prayer.

~~~

This day before Christmas Eve-- as a friend called it today, Christmas Adam (think about it...) we are offered a passage from Jeremiah that speaks to the rescue of the people from exile. It is a song about joyful homecoming.

The people are promised that God will be their shepherd, which must have been welcome after a long time without one.  What follows is a party: The people are radiant, they experience God's goodness in the promise of grain and oil and wine, in their own flocks.

"Their life will be like a watered garden."

They. Will. Make. Merry. 

I have always been captivated by the old illustrations of Fezziwig's Ball from "A Christmas Carol." The spirit of Christmas Past shows Scrooge this scene from his youth, old Fezziwig throwing a party for his clerks. Scrooge was young, and he was poor, and the old man knew his young workers needed an outlet for their pent-up energy as well as to express their Christmas cheer. Scrooge remembers the merrymaking with gratitude and poignancy. It doesn't need to be spelled out for him, what a different boss he is from Fezziwig. 

Faith lives at the intersection of what is and what is hoped (or perhaps what is dreaded). The return of God for the exiles is not a theoretical thing: Jeremiah promises, it will make a difference in terms of their everyday lives. They are poor, and they have long been grieving, and they have almost given up on these simple pleasures that signify "the good life." Grain. Oil. Wine. A garden. A flock. Not riches. Not jewels or doodads or luxurious clothing or the best of anything. But enough.

"My people will be satisfied with my bounty," says the Lord. 

The bounty of God is enough.

"Riu, Riu, Chiu", 16th c. Spanish, Anonymous, sung by The King's Singers

Prayer:

Make haste, Lord, make haste! Come, without delay! Bring your people your delights, for our exile has been long. We pray in your Holy Name. Amen.

Advent 4 Tuesday: Law and Gospel

Love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss.

December 22: O Rex Gentium! O King of all Nations!

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

This evening's passage is Galatians 3:10-14, in the New Revised Standard Version.

¹⁰For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law." ¹¹Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for "The one who is righteous will live by faith." ¹²But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, "Whoever does the works of the law will live by them." ¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" — ¹⁴in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

You can click here for Lectio Divina suggestions, and return for the meditation and prayer if you like.

Nadia Bolz-Weber, First Lutheran Church, Albany, NY

I had the joy of hearing Nadia Bolz-Weber speak about a week ago, and also had the distinction of misunderstanding her and asking her a question based on an Emily Litella-like faux pas.

I asked, "What does it mean to you to be a 'long gospel' preacher?" I thought I'd heard her say that.

She didn't. She said that she was a "law and gospel" preacher.

This passage, with too many words, is trying to say what Nadia said with great deftness and clarity. No one can live out the law perfectly. That's a fact. She is especially convicted of this due to her own years in recovery from alcoholism. She is convinced that, on her own, she is not capable of living as God would want her to live. In fact, she would tell you she was pretty much hell-bent on destruction.

I do not do the thing I want to do, Paul says elsewhere. But I do the very thing I do not want to do.

Anyone?

The only way we can be holy, the only way we can live wholly, the only way we can live with hope of getting off the path of destruction, is by the grace of God. This is very, very good news, in that it has nothing whatsoever, in any way, shape, or form, to do with our deserving it. It is a gift. This is such good news, trust me. God says, essentially, Here. Let me do that. I love you too much to see you destroy yourself/ your loved ones.

Nadia said that most mainline Protestant preaching is bad news/ bad news. "Here's what's wrong," we say, "and here's what you should do about it." It's all up to us.

Nadia's law and gospel is good news/ good news. When we realize what God is doing/ has done (Good News!) we are ready to overflow with the kind of love for neighbor, community, and even self that Jesus demonstrated (Good News!). We can't manufacture what we need. We have to receive it, let it flow through us.

This is the Good News.

"Some Children See Him" by Alfred Burt, arranged and played by Dave Grusin

Prayer:

Holy One, Come and save the human race, we whom you fashioned out of clay. Let us rest in your salvation, with the trust of little children. We pray in the name of the One who comes as a child. Amen.

Advent 4 Monday: Blessed

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with my people... Grace and peace to you in the name of Emmanuel, God-With-Us.

December 21: O Oriens! O Morning Star/ Star in the East!

O Morning Star,

splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Our scripture this evening is the story of the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, Luke 1:39-45, read in the New Revised Standard Version.

³⁹In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."  

You can click here for Lectio Divina suggestions, and return for the meditation and prayer.

Elizabeth and Mary, painting in the church of El Sitio, Suchitoto, El Salvador

~~~

It's always good to notice: who (or what) do we turn to in a crisis? Where do we go when we are overwhelmed? Who do we trust to help us to get through the unimaginable?

I have always been moved by this coming together of Mary and Elizabeth. The first time I truly contemplated it, it was because of a piece of art: "A Dancer's Christmas," of which I was privileged to see the very first performance at Boston College in 1980. The Christmas Story, which depicted the annunciation to Mary, her sharing the news with Joseph, her visit to Elizabeth, and finally, the birth itself, were all set to the astonishing "A Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The coming together of Mary and Elizabeth was so tender, so beautiful. Their care for one another, the astonishment of both at the condition they found themselves in, and the elation-- the sheer joy of what God had done, was doing, in them and through them-- they were all captured without need for words, only movement and music. That experience has burned itself into my soul.

In this moment of being swept up in God's salvific work, Mary turns to one who might, possibly, have an inkling of what she is experiencing.

If you choose to listen to the music posted below, know that the opening bars, as I saw them choreographed--about two minutes-- are the Annunciation to Mary. When the orchestra joins in, Mary is with Joseph. The folk-song themes in the middle are Mary's visit to Elizabeth; and the final iteration of the lark-- the violin solo returned-- is the birth of Jesus.

"A Lark Ascending" performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with David Nolan on Violin

Prayer:

Help us to know, God beyond knowing, of the wonders you bring to birth in us, through us, and for us, in the name of the one who is the Star in the East. Amen.

Advent 4 Sunday: The Compassion of God

People, look East, and sing today! Love, the Guest is on the way!

December 20: O Clavis David! O Key of David!

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

We will be spending one more moment with Zechariah, and so our passage is Luke 1:78-79, the last sentence of the "Benedictus" ("Blessed"), New Revised Standard Version

78 By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

You can click here for Lectio Divina suggestions, and return for the meditation and prayer.

~~~

Today's meditation is very brief: it is a passage from this morning's sermon.

And here, we see how fatherhood has transformed Zechariah. Hidden in this verse (because you’d have to read Greek to find it) is an odd little word (splangchna)that literally means “entrails.” It’s an attempt to describe the feeling you get in your gut when you are moved by compassion for someone. When you see the face of someone in pain. When you hear the voice of someone crying. When you hold a beloved child—maybe the baby you thought you would never have—in your arms for the first time. It hits you in the gut. Zechariah sings it: the warmth, the deep down love and care that we know as a physical response. He gets it. He gets God’s love for us. (Elizabeth gets it too, but I imagine she’s resting now.) God’s loving gaze is shining on us, and it’s just like dawn breaking, like the welcome warmth of the rising sun after a long, cold, dark night. That warmth comes straight form the heart—or maybe the guts—of God.

"What Wondrous Love" sung by the St. Olaf Choir 

Prayer: 

Compassionate God, your heart goes out to the suffering of your people, and you come close in love and mercy. Open our hearts to your way of being in the world, a way that truly speaks of your promised faithfulness made manifest. We pray in the name of the One who comes. Amen.

Advent 3 Saturday: Sing Out!

Grace and peace, as God kindles the lamps by which we see the promised salvation.

December 19: O Radix Jesse! O Root of Jesse!

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

 

Our reading this evening is Luke 1:67-80, in the New Revised Standard Version.

⁶⁷ Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior^[a] for us
    in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹     that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
    and has remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
    to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness
    before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    by the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ By the tender mercy of our God,
    the dawn from on high will break upon^[b] us,
⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

⁸⁰ The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.

Scene from the animated film "The Promise" by Glorious Films.

You can click here for suggestions on doing Lectio Divina, and then return for the meditation and prayer.

At the end of the infancy story of John the Baptist comes the ecstatic prayer of his father. But it is a song; any time scripture is laid out in poetic format, we are "hearing" a song.

Zechariah endured nine months of his own silence-- inability to speak-- and his first utterance when his tongue is freed again is to sing these praises to God.

I'm struck at how the bulk of this prayer is about what God has already done. Some scripture nerd (a nerdier nerd than me) combed through the first 8 verses of this and found no fewer than 32 allusions and quotations from the Hebrew scriptures. They boil down to one claim, a claim that is arguably at the heart of the belief systems of the three Abrahamic traditions: God is faithful.

God is faithful. So faithful, that Zechariah must burst into song about it.

What makes you burst into song?

I always think of my college pal Steve S., who was known to enter a room singing,

"What a day this has been! What a rare mood I'm in! Why it's-- almost like being in love!"

Which, of course, would tend to suggest that.... he was in love. (Were you, Steve?)

And my entire seminary community raised, spontaneously, songs of communal lament on September 11, 2001.

Songs come forth from us when our emotions overwhelm us and mere words simply won't do the work of expressing what we feel. 

We tend to burst into songs at times when our hearts are filled with overwhelming emotion.

Zechariah is overwhelmed because: God is faithful.

God is faithful.

What makes you burst into song?

"Come Love Away" by the Bright Wings Chorus

Prayer:

Faithful God, hold us in that space between what you have promised and the world as we see it. Hold in our vision your place of delight and peace. We pray in the name of the root of Jesse: your child Jesus. Amen.

Advent 3 Friday: Another Child is Born

God's dawn from on high shall break upon us.

December 18: O Adonai! O Lord!

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Our scripture passage this evening is from the gospel of Luke 1:57-66, in the New Revised Standard Version.

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. 60 But his mother said, "No; he is to be called John." 61 They said to her, "None of your relatives has this name." 62 Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. 63 He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And all of them were amazed. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. 66 All who heard them pondered them and said, "What then will this child become?" 

"The Visitation" by Jacques Daret (1404-1470)

You can click here for Lectio Divina instructions, and then return for the meditation and prayer.

~~~

This is such a biblical moment.

If that sounds like an odd way to single out a passage of the bible, consider this: the trope of the so-called "barren woman" having a child is used throughout scripture to show us both the power of God and the extraordinary nature of the child (always a male, sometimes two!).

And if Advent is leading us inexorably to our celebration of the incarnation-- God coming into the world as a human baby-- we certainly are being prepared appropriately for a story showing God's power and the extraordinary nature of that baby.

I really wish there were some biblical adoptions stories, though.

Well, there are. Abraham, when a baby is not forthcoming for him and Sarah, decides to adopt Eliezer of Damascus. (I'm betting that's a name you've never heard until this moment, or, maybe one you'd read but forgotten...) There's nothing wrong with Eliezer of Damascus, mind you. It's just... it's clearly not what God intends for Abraham and Sarah, which we learn because of how the story unfolds. 

I guess what I want to say, is, I wish there were some great biblical adoption stories. Stories about individuals whose worth, whose value, whose importance is not inseparable from their genetics. AND, stories in which the worth of women is not predicated on their giving birth to children (always, always, male children).

But this is what the ancient texts give us: a blissfully happy couple who, without the advantages offered by 21st century medical technology, manage to have a baby through the intervention of God.

God is powerful. The baby, John, will be extraordinary.

I just wish, once in a while, a "biblical" moment would not be at the cost of every woman who was not in a position to raise a baby to whom she'd given birth, nor of every child who was blessed to be raised by terrific adoptive parents.

"The Lord of the Dance" by the Dubliners

Prayer: 

Great God of Might: Our lives are in your hands, and we trust you to bring to birth in those things that give us life. Give us your life, dear Lord! We pray in your holy name. Amen.