Christmas Eve, December 24, 2018

St. Andrew’s Church, Grimsby Ontario

200 children remain separated from their parents as a result of Trump’s intolerant and illogical immigration policy. 15,000 children and young people continue to languish in desert tents in remote places in the US. Hundreds of asylum seekers who come to Canada have to choose between placing their children in foster care or keeping them with them in a detention facility. All of this is unnecessary and could be managed better. All of this results in significant psychological trauma for children. And all of this because we are afraid.

Meanwhile Christians the world over, celebrate the story of a mother and a father cocooned in a manger, leaning in with single-minded love to protect and nurture a small child. The incarnation is all about vulnerability, potentiality and the sacramentality between the sacred and mundane.

This beautiful Christmas story brings me shame and it brings me hope.

My prayer today will include children who are with families but who feel alone. Children who are alone because they are separated from their families. Children who are protected and nurtured through their families. I will ask for forgiveness, courage and peace. May your families be places of peace, hope, joy and love.

“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Luke 2:1-14 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 Saviour, 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 favours!’¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ ¹⁶ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Isaiah 9:2-7  The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation,
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden,
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
    and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His authority shall grow continually,
    and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
    He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 23, 2018

Mary window, St. John the Evangelist, Thorold

Run Mary, run! Make haste to the place of acceptance and kinship. Even though you are tempted to stay put and “ponder these things” in your heart, do not isolate. Do not keep this spiritual experience—this Divine mystery—a secret. Instead, leave your safe haven, propel yourself across an unknown territory. Reach out in wonder and sadness, delight and confusion, and fall. Fall into the shelter of love. Collapse into the community of another: another woman, another mother, another mighty proclaimer of truth.

LUKE 1:39-45 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 

MICAH 5:2-5A You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace. 

From a little, unknown and obscure place, God reveals God’s majestic kingdom. It is a glorious place of restitution, peace, security and abundance. I so deeply yearn for this place.

My prayer to God: Help me not fall into despair about the state of the world.

God’s prayer to me: Come and sit with me for a while.

CANTICLE 18, BAS (LUKE 1:47-55) My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! (Even though some would say that it was an apple that got us into this mess in the first place.) Mary discipled her child to be an outspoken rebel, a socially challenging advocate and a lover of humanity.

“He has scattered the proud in their conceit” or, as the King James Version says, “the imagination of their hearts.” When we live fearfully, greedily or selfishly, we live into a lie about ourselves. We are so much smaller than we think or feel, yet worth so much more than we have or want.

In the silence of this moment I ask God to help me see into the imagination of my heart.

HEBREWS 10:5-10 When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’ (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Incarnation. “The God-Man or the Man-God.” God becoming human so that we might become God. Show-stopper, really! The rest? Casuistry if it weren’t for the love….

The love.

 

Third Sunday of Advent, December 16, 2018

Advent Altar Hanging. A gift from St. James Meritton  to St. George’s St. Catharines“

You brood of vipers!” Imagine starting Sunday services with that call to worship! It would certainly make you sit up and quickly account for the week’s indiscretions! “What then should we do?” was the uneasy response from the people of John’s day. His answer was surprisingly simple, anticlimactic even. “Be decent, look out for others and do your job!” There you go. Nuff said.

As political news continues about increasing authoritarianism and environmental degradation, I too want to scream into the chambers of power: “Be decent, look out for others and do your job!” It is interesting how this message was perceived to be good news by the people who visited John in the wilderness, but for the powerful it was anything but. Remember, John was ultimately executed by the authorities of the day for his outspoken message. Today, like then, those that dare to proclaim such good news take on a great risk. This year, TIME magazine is honouring journalists because of the personal sacrifices they make for sharing messages like the one John proclaimed.

It is strange, but as I draw quieter in my prayer I am finding I am becoming louder and bolder in my speech. The fear of upsetting people and political powers is being replaced with an intolerable unease.

How is John’s message good news to you? How is it bad news? How is it ultimately good news for everyone? Who or what empowers your prophetic voice?

LUKE 3:7-18 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. 

ZEPHANIAH 3:14-20 Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. 

Zephaniah was a prophet who likely lived around 600 years before Jesus’ birth and spoke to the people about the implications of disconnecting from God. This, the final passage from his very short writings, ends on an optimistic note of hope and restoration.

“God will renew you in his love.” Love is the only power that can overcome our differences and the forces of hate and fear. Let us find a quiet moment to allow God to envelop us in love. It is when we experience God’s love first-hand that we have something significant to share with others.

CANTICLE 3, BAS (ISAIAH 12:2-6) REFRAIN Ring out your joy, for the Holy One of Israel is in your midst. Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defence, and he will be my Saviour. Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation. And on that day you shall say, Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his name; make his deeds known among the peoples; see that they remember that his name is exalted. Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things, and this is known in all the world. Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy, for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.

A song of joyful rejoicing! Reflect on the day that lies ahead: Where do we anticipate feeling joyful? Where do we anticipate feeling burdened and at odds with this song of joy? Dear Lord, remind me to “draw water” from you, the “spring of salvation.” Bless and renew the day ahead of me, I pray.

PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

This is a short passage from a letter of Paul to a Christian community in Philippi, a city in eastern Greece. He likely wrote it 20-25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection after visiting Greece on one of his missionary journeys. It is a tender letter to a community he obviously loved very much.

Last week, I was at a meeting where we were listing our various spiritual practices. A wise and reflective member of the group said that her spiritual practice was to stay hopeful and not get overwhelmed by the political news of hate, greed and decline. Simple, but very difficult, I think. We need enough concern to stay engaged and move beyond the inertia of apathy. However, too much worry, and we are quickly overcome with fear and anxiety.

“Do not worry … for God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” A spirit of hope is an act of faith which requires wilful turning from negativity and despair. In this way, hope is a spiritual practice.

This day, “Rejoice in the Lord!”

Second Sunday of Advent, December 9, 2018

Altar frontal, St. Andrew’s Grimsby

LUKE 3:1-6 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Woe to you who are readers this Sunday. “Prepare ye!” This passage is a minefield of tricky names. Interestingly, God skipped over all those tricky names of earthly greatness to settle on a peculiar plebeian crying out in the wilderness. John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin and the church’s last great prophet.

S.O.A.P. Method (Scripture, Observe, Apply, Pray)

S: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.”

O: John is quoting from another great prophet, Isaiah. But the words now seem destructive as report after report warn of the devastating environmental consequences of persistently mowing down fields and forests. Of course the metaphor wasn’t meant to speak to our treatment of the earth but to the landscape of our souls. Ironically, how we treat the earth is likely one of the most significant “mountains” of sin needing repentance.

A: What is the typology of my soul? How easy is it for God to get to me? Better yet, how easy is it for me to become aware that God has already got me?

• Mountains: where I make thing unnecessarily difficult.
• Valleys: when sadness and despair sets me up for ambush.
• Crooked paths: distractions and shiny objects of ambition, security and sense-numbing pleasure.
• Rough ways: random and irregular circumstances of life.

P: My prayer to God: “Help me level. The drama of mountains and valleys is exhausting.”

God’s prayer for me: “My way is easy and my baggage is light.”

MALACHI 3:1-4 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 

Malachi is the last book of the Christian Bible and is from a prophet living around 420 BCE. Israel had returned from exile to the Promised Land and was anxious to restore a right relationship with God. Malachi suggests that the people should stop their efforts and instead let God do the work of making them ready. “For God is like a refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap.”

In the quiet of prayer when I place myself into a greater awareness of God’s presence I sense my limitations and my imperfections. They are my strengths. They are my weaknesses. They are my beauty. They are my ugliness.

My prayer: Help me God, be what you see.

CANTICLE 19, BAS (LUKE 1:68-79) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. 

The Nunc Dimitis. It so easily trips off the tongue from those countless services of evensong. The first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke are filled with singing. This song, sung by John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, serves as this week’s psalm. Zechariah was silenced because of his scepticism. His first words after he regains his speech are a in a song of celebration at the birth of his son.

“Guide our feet into the way of peace.” As I sit with this passage I realize how important it is to know when to speak and when to be silent. For now, a moment of silence before God. Amen.

PHILIPPIANS 1:3-11 I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Paul wrote this letter while in prison to the first church in Europe. It is hard to imagine anyone writing such a joy-filled, generous and thoughtful letter in such conditions.

How do we know we are making good choices, individually and as a society? Make sure our hearts are overflowing with love. Where does this challenge me?