42 - Advent 3 For every year of their lives the people had been hearing about “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” The year of the Lord’s favor The time when god would come along a make everything right Everything. As Isaiah put it so powerfully in chapter 61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Think about that promise for a while. This you are a first century Palestinian. You live in a one room hut. Your life is dominated by a few fat wealthy men who have all the money and all the power! Lets say…. 1% of the population. You get paid a wage that does not really support your family for working long hot days in the merciless sun. If your child gets sick, it likely dies. You have…..nothing But week after week you go to the synagogue and hear the promises… the time will when there will be good news for the poor, release for the prisoners, praise and joy rather than despair….. What does that look like for you. That day, that time that deliverance? Think about that for a moment an then then think about this. Would it ever, in your wildest dreams have sounded, looked, like this? Luke 1:26-38 During quiet normal, time in the midst of the tough times, God sent an angel named Gabriel to the village of Nazareth in Galilee. Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary who was engaged to be married to Joseph, who was descended from King David. Upon seeing her, Gabriel said: “Good morning! You are God’s beautiful daughter. May God be with you!” As you can imagine Mary was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was going on. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear, God has a surprise for you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son you’ll name Jesus.” Mary couldn’t imagine this and said to the angel, “How can this be? I’ve never been with a man.” Gabriel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, God’s spirit will hover over you and the child you birth will be called Holy, the Son of God.” Ok, from Mary’s perspective this might have been shocking, exciting, amazing. But do you really think she put this event together with the promises of Isaiah and all those huge voices from the past. And the rest of the village? I don’t think the promises of God often came the way people throught they would And my guess was that the gifts of god often came in ways not only different, but smaller, less global than expected. Lets jump forward a few thousand years The troubles are still around. Hate, fear, evil, poverty, hunger. There is sorrow, and pain and loss. So we still not only have at some level, the promises of Isaiah, and Amos, and all the rest. But we have even more expectations… because now added to those prophets of old are the worlds of Jesus, Paul, and more. So when we get in the middle, what are we expecting. The eschaton? The GREAT ACTION of God, now, finally! Boom! The change!!!!!! Most of you know about my last couple weeks. I had a week on the road. It was grueling, but great. Awesome learning, some special friends, nights talking about where mental health is headed, how each of us is trying to move forward and create better care. Super creative time. But after a great walk in PDX with friends, and fun dinner I went to bed, early. I woke up a few times noticing my knee was sore. By morning I could not bend my left knee. The pain was so seriously I couldn’t lift the leg. I shuffled through the day, my neck hurt. I send a mychart message to Dr. Powers and she pulled 400 plus ML of fluid off the knee. White count up, but no bacteria… so the surgery went on. It worked. And so for a week, about, things were good. Then the bottom fell out. I woke with booth legs swollen and painful. From hips to ankles. I could barely move either leg or put weight on it. Made it through the day, next day… it was worse. Another trip to Dr. Powers. She looked at my legs. “I don’t like this.” Next phrase “I am worried about you”, next phrase, “you look really bad.” Bottom line, You are going to the hospital. For two days they tested for cancer, lymphoma, leukemia, Lyme disease, Lupus, you name it. I didn’t give a crap about any of that. I could barely move. Limited by my surgery and pain, and swelling, I could not even adjust my body in the bed. It took every amount of strength I had to just set up. I couldn’t stand. I felt like my body was giving up. Quitting. At one point I remember looking down and saying, who took my legs and gave me these pieces of crap? Really!! These can’t be mine! For two days I was low…. All those promises…. The way I was thinking about them, they were pretty much not there. I have never had so little hope! End of times, rescue of the world. Hell, Jesus wasn’t even rescuing me… At least not the way I thought God should. Then while reading a blog from Richard Rohr something broke open. Faith broke open, Advent Christmas, everything! He quoted a familiar passage from scripture, the one where Jesus says to this disciples… “Be awake. Be alert. You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man travelling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work. And he orders the gatekeeper to be on watch. So I tell you, watch. You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cock crow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you, I say to all: stay awake.” –Mark 13:33-37 Rohr suggest we are trained to see this passage as about a big cataclysmic even full of judgment and punishment, something threatening or punitive. Be ready, live right, or I’m going to come back, and if you aren’t ready…..I’m going to get you….big time. But with that outlook he suggests we largely miss the point in this passage. This he says, is the bad fruit of using religion and Scripture to threaten people into love, which is actually a total impossibility. Most people who start with fear stay with fear and end up with hate not love. No, he insists the passage works this way. Jesus is not talking about the second coming of Christ. He’s not talking about your death, either. What he’s talking about here is the forever coming of Christ, the always coming of Christ, the eternal coming of Christ…now…and now…and now. In the above passage Jesus says this clearly: “in the evening, at midnight, at cock crow, [and] in the morning.” You see, Christ is always coming; God is always present. And suddenly it hit me. And we don’ see it. We don’t see him, or the kingdom gifts he brings, because it’s not what are taught to look for, or in some cases expect, or perhaps even want. I suddenly sensed Jesus advent in that hospital room. I don’t believe the illness was brought by the Sacred. I don’t believe the Sacred brings illness period. But I believe that the sacred could send along gifts of love that would help me with that illness. Gifts thatt could change my life and heart. And the way I respond to the crisis facing me. So I sat there thee looking at those gross legs ( Which are almost normal again…) And I started thinking about gifts…. All kinds of new points of focus, new values, new attitutudes and imperatives. Steve… slow down Steve, pay attention to your body Steve, see how resilient the body God has given you really is. Steve. Think about how many people shared how much you mean to them And how you have helped them Stephen Paul, remember how important your sisters are, and how much the love you Stephen, your kids are busy, but they care Stephen look at how your wife had you back all the way And your staff Stephen look at some of the unique, special wonderful gifts, some from people who probably could afford them…….. Then the lesson got it even more general. You are complaining because god hasn’t come.. but Jesus is the always coming Messiah. And every time he comes a new glimpse of love emerges. a new awareness of gifts that have been three all along. And at that point poor poor pitiful me became more….. My legs do move, they will get better. Sue reminded me that for Dan with ALS, tings quit and never came back. Talk about a new perspective. I have breathe I can type half a thought before falling asleep, and almost understand what I was trying to type before I crashed, since I was so groggy I was keys off. I can see. I can stagger across the room to take a leak. I can sometimes get by body situation in bed and get the covers back on. And the Dark night of despair became Advent…A deep awareness of Christ always coming. My arthritis layered upon arthritis is no fun. But as I deal with it, I am never alone, and there are gifts along the waylll I cannot truly share with you how powerful the transformation was that night, except to say just wept An when I tried to talk to Midge the next day, I wept, and I’m still weepy. Something deep has been touched. Something that has change me. May change my ministry, may change this church. I don’t know… I do know that the promises are there, God will make things different. I am not denying the Kingdom is coming. What I am suggesting this is bigger than some even, somewhere in the future. This is about now. And the suggesting is there that Christ is always coming, always adverting And our job iw to be open Mary had to be open to that conversation with Gabriel. I guess angels are hard to ignore But still, if 99 out of a 100 people had head that encounter they would not have connected the dots This was God, arriving starting his new big thing How often often do we get so caught up in what we expect, oir want, caught up in what we are told is all about, thwe we fail to connect the dots too? So next time you are on a roll Or the next time you are sitting in your own bed room, or study, or office, in a hospital room. Looking at alien legs, or thinking about an alien organism in your body, a cancer… think The Messiah has come, the messiah is coming… again and again….what new thing is he going to do with this? Whether I live or die, what Is the messiah going to do? Us whatever is going on to feed the hungry Give someone freedom Hope Forgiveness Release A new vison for life For You see, Christ is always coming; God is always present I’ve decided what I want, if I get to pick. Its that last promise from Isaiah. He will be called an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. Yep, I don’t want to be sitting there, bent over, beaten, twisted, defeated I want to be a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor I may still be twisted and bent of, but never, never defeated For that is why Christ came And comes, and keeps on coming And coming And coming
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 00:27:18 +0000
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