The Infamous Advent Calendar Sermon

Advent 3 - December 13, 2009
Year C Revised Common Lectionary
Zephaniah 3:14-20, Canticle 9, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18
Mid-December Check-In

Loving God, you call us to be your stories in the world. We come before you seeking to be touched by your story. Open our lips to share our stories with one another and to bring comfort, inspiration, joy and laughter to each other. Amen

Good Morning! Good Morning! It’s time for our mid-December check-in. Did you all bring personal organizers? Your Blackberries? Your iPhones? It never ceases to amaze me how quickly we can fill these things up. Here, let’s start with mine. I actually prefer to use a paper pocket calendar and some index cards—more flexible. All right, it’s a little small for you to see, so I’ve enlarged a portion of it so you can see it better.

Okay, we might as well start with today. I have two entries for today, the first is “Preach at Grace,” [Put up the Post-It that says “Preach at Grace.”] and the second is Bishop Smith at Grace. [Put up the Post-It that says “Bp. Smith at Grace.”] Somewhere between those two I’ like to get in 30 minutes to an hour of practice. Actually, I try to get that much flute practice in every day [Put up “Practice” Post-Its.] except Tuesdays. On Tuesday’s I mentor an Education for Ministry Seminar. [Two “EfM” Post-Its.] Then on the 23rd I travel to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with my brother and his family [“Train to PA”], which means I have to pack [“Pack”]

You may note that some of these entries are marked with “VC.” Those are the days I’m on Vacation. But before I can do that, there are a few things to take care of at work. On Tuesdays we have a Formation Group check-in [“Formation Group Check-In”]. Then every other Tuesday afternoon, we have an Evangelism & Congregational Life staff meeting. [“ECL Staff Meeting”] This coming week our team leader will be in New York City, so we’ll be having a Budget meeting on Wednesday. [“Formation Budget Meeting”] And on Thursday we’ll be having lunch with the Province IX Provincial Youth Ministry Coordinator. [“Lunch w/ Prov. IX Rep] In terms of my own work, I need to finish the outline draft of a workshop a colleague and I are presenting in January [“Draft Workshop Outline”] and finish preparing the handouts for the Spiritual Autobiography workshop I’m presenting at the same conference. [“Handouts for Spiritual Autobiography”] And, of course, I have to make some changes to my office web pages. [“Update Web Pages”]

Which reminds me, I also have to update the parish web site. [Two “Update Parish Web Site” Post-Its]

One of the benefits of working for the Church Center is opportunities for daily prayer, both in the morning and at noontime. I generally try to take advantage of Morning Prayer, and next week I will also be officiating two days. [Four “Morning Prayer”] Are we done yet? Nope.

December 20th will be a busy day. In the morning we will gather in the gifts we purchased for the tags on the tree in the Narthex [“Gathering of Gifts”], and that afternoon I will be at a Holiday party with some friends from various faith traditions. [Celebration with Friends]. Somewhere in the middle of all of this I have to shop for the gift tag [“Shop for Gift Tag] and finish the rest of my Christmas shopping [“Finish Shopping”] And down in Pennsylvania, we’ll probably spend Christmas Eve morning running last minute errands. [“Errands”] Of course, once all the shopping is done, everything has to be wrapped! [“Wrap Presents”]

Finally, there will be Christmas Eve services with family [“Christmas Eve Service with Family”] and our traditional Christmas Eve activities, including watching A Muppet Christmas Carol.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired just looking at this. And I’m sure I’m still missing something. One of the things I often do with children at this time of year is to make Advent Calendars. Every day of Advent, you open a little door and there’s a message, a saying, or a small gift, depending on your calendar. Since this shows the last half of Advent from my calendar, let’s see what happens when we open this door. [Turn the page to reveal a new page with “Jesus is Coming!” written on it.]

Oh my stars! as one of my grandmother’s friends would say. Oh my stars, Jesus is coming and I haven’t cleaned the bathroom!

As if preparing for Jesus is some sort of one time task or event. As if Jesus really cares whether or not the bathroom is clean.

The Church has long called for Advent to be a time of preparation, a time to prepare for the coming of Jesus. It treats Advent as if it were a mini-Lent, a time of penitence and rededication to living a Christian life. A friend of mine calls this the invitation to “Don’t just do something, stand there!” But even the Church in its infinite wisdom—as if the Church has all the answers, but that’s a discussion for another time—even the Church gives us mixed messages about this season. All you have to do is look at today’s readings from the lectionary.

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion, shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. (Zephaniah)

And on that day 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; (Canticle 9)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. (Philippians)

And then there’s John: “You brood of vipers!”

“What then should we do?” the people ask John the Baptist. Share what you have, don’t take more than is your due, don’t extort things from others… Of course, what John describes is not as extreme as what Jesus tells the rich young man, “sell everything you own, give the proceeds to the poor, and then come and follow me.”

But even following John’s guidance only seems to add to the frantic-ness of this time of year. Shopping for the gift tags. Taking the time to bring a little extra for the food pantry for holiday meals. Some of these things many of us do year-round, but now they become one more thing on the already full calendar.

So where in the midst of all of this do we find the time respond to that invitation? How do we “stand there” at a time of year when even finding the time to go to church can be difficult?

And once we’ve done all those things? Where’s Jesus?

Paul writes to the Philippians, “The Lord Is near.” And how do we find him? When even the Church has a myriad of things for us to do. Clean the dishes. Prepare the music. Green the church. Write the sermons. How do we find Jesus?

Don’t just do something, stand there!

Everyone has a different way of taking time out and relaxing. Finding Jesus involves doing just that. For some it may mean sitting quietly with a candle. For some reading the Bible or prayers written for the season. And quite frankly, even though the “liturgically correct” will have a hissy fit when I say this, you can even put on a CD of Christmas Carols and just sit and listen to them.

Don’t just do something, stand there!

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Thoughts On A Bumper Sticker

Yesterday I ran some errands before church. A car pulled onto the highway in front of me, and I noticed one of its bumper stickers. At first I thought it had a word on it, but I couldn't make out the letters. Then I realized it was a series of symbols, some representing different religious traditions. Ah, I thought, someone who belongs to an Interfaith church. Traffic slowed as I got off my exit, and I finally saw that the symbols did indeed spell out a word:

When I went looking for it on the Internet, I found at least two other versions, an international one:

and one using flags:

I thought it was kind of neat. Of course, when I went looking for a picture of the bumper sticker I also found a variety of blog postings on the subject. Here are a few to peruse:

• Tom McMahon - The Ten Most Obnoxious Bumper Stickers Found In Madison
• The Political Environment - The "Coexist" Bumper Sticker's Meaning, Symbolism Gets Deeper
• Edu Blather - Coexist
• Pondering Wanderer - Coexist

And at one point, the McMahon post started a brouhaha in Madison, Wisconsin. Having spent the 1982-83 academic year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that doesn't surprise me.

It never fails to call me up short when some Christians are so insistent that their religion is the only way to the truth. They fail to remember that their beloved Jesus was a Jewish man calling people into rightness with God. When the Canaanite woman confronted Jesus (Matthew 15:21-28), he sent her on her way having commended her on her faith and healed her daughter. He didn't send her away a Jew, or even a Christian. And given what Christians have done to Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom--of rightness with God--over the centuries, I have to question the "truth" of their religion.

At the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) Jesus tells the lawyer "Go and do likewise." We would all do well to ponder those words again.

Peace,
Jeff

Winter Arrives, Advent Ends, Insecurity Abides

Winter began today, but we've already had two snowstorms, Friday's a major one. We expected more today, but we ended up with rain. If it had been snow, we would have been buried like further north--a friend of mine said they had close to 14" in Danbury.

I'm done with Winter. I'm ready for Spring.

The problem is that there is no Spring without Winter. No Easter without Good Friday. No Good Friday without Christmas. No Christmas without the Annunciation. No Annunciation without... All the way back to the Creation, and no Creation without God.

I've been having a "where is God in all of this" year. Discerning about my job. Discerning about the parish. Discerning about a call to ordained ministry. Everything is up in the air; life is in flux, and yet things seem stuck. As I look at what is going on in the church--the parish, the denominational headquarters, the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, and the larger Church--I find myself asking again and again, "God, what are you thinking!?!? Why me, and why now?"

And yet, every now and then, I get glimpses of the answers. Like this morning during Lois' sermon on the Annunciation:

Saying yes to God's call often means saying yes to Holy Insecurity.

Having hope means trusting that God has not forgotten the recipe for manna.

Of course, glimpses of the answers are more often than not immediately followed by the appearance of more questions. So for now I will work on learning to live in Holy Insecurity and to have hope.

Peace,
Jeff

Preaching At The Church Center

Vigil of All Saints/Halloween
Chapel of Christ the Lord, Episcopal Church Center, New York, NY
Luke 14:1-6

The last time Miguelina asked me to preach, I got sick, so last week I started taking extra doses of Vitamin C. When she invited me to preach today, we both commented on the irony and the appropriateness of the staff person for Children’s Formation preaching on Halloween.

I grew up unchurched, for many reasons that aren’t particularly important here. Halloween was always a big deal. We planned for weeks ahead of time, because we always made our own costumes. There was no discussion in our house, or our neighborhood for that matter, about the origins of these customs or the appropriateness of participating in them. It was simply a time to dress up and run around the neighborhood collecting candy.

Flash forward a few years, when I had just started putting my foot back into church, and we started learning about the pre-Christian roots of All Hallows’ Eve and how the Celts believed that at this time of year—their festival of Samhain—is one when the borders that separate our world from those of the faerie and the dead become very thin. We also began seeing the pattern of how the Christian hierarchy renamed and took over many pre-Christian celebrations to aid the spread of their faith. And so Samhain and All Hallows’ Eve became All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

A handful of years later, after coming back to the Episcopal Church, and every year since then, this season brings conversations about the secular culture’s commercialization of Halloween and discussions about whether or not we should be promoting participation in what is essentially a non-Christian festival.

So when the question finally comes around, “Does dressing up and going trick-or-treating endanger our children spiritually?” My reply is often, “Does bringing an evergreen tree into the house around the beginning of Winter and decorating it endanger our children spiritually?” That usually brings the conversation up short.

Ultimately, however, we should be listening to our children. Children are innately spiritual, and children are not stupid. As they leave the shelter of the family home and enter into the neighborhood, the community, and the world, they see and hear things. We cannot shelter them forever. And they will ask questions. It is their questions we should be listening to and discussing. And frequently, as Jesus does in today’s Gospel reading, the best way to answer a question is to pose another question.

So today, my question to all of us is: Do we teach our children to be rigid like the Pharisees, or do we teach them to follow Jesus?

Amen.

Martha Mode

When Robyn hired me to be her Program Assistant, the office was two-thirds of the way through the planning process for the "Will Our Faith Have Children?" conference. In seven months over 600 people would be descending on a Chicago suburb to participate, and there was a lot of work for me to do as one of the key logistics people involved in the planning and implementation of the event. However, Robyn told me that I would be able to hear the terrific keynoters, participate in worship, and perhaps attend a couple of the sessions.

We arrived a couple of days early to set up and be on site to greet speakers, guests and participants when they arrived. Once the conference started, there were all sorts of glitches to work out and details to follow up on. I was so busy that the hotel staff would chase me down and make sure I ate. By the second day of the conference it was quite clear that I would not be able to participate in any of it, and I had become quite frustrated.

At one point I had to run up to my room and grab a folder with some notes. When I got off the elevator I met one of the women--a nun--who had come to staff the Peace Village that was set up on the mezzanine of the second floor. She asked me how I was enjoying the conference. I explained that I had not participated in any of it, as I was too busy running around trying to make sure everything was running smoothly for the attendees. Some of my frustration must have leaked out--I am not always good at schooling my emotions. She took both my hands in hers and said, "Sometimes we have to be Martha, and this is just your turn." She gave me a smile and a silent blessing and then went on her way.

That simple statement put the whole conference--and my job--in a whole different perspective. Someone has to do the hospitality work in order for the Marys to be able to participate in the teaching and learning. Not that we should complain about it, just recognize that sometimes we have to do the work, and sometimes we get to listen and learn. Now whenever I am planning a meeting or conference, I tell Ruth-Ann, my current boss, "Okay, time to go into 'Martha Mode.'"

I have not been keeping track of the lectionary readings (today's can be found here), so the story from Luke caught me by surprise. Often when I hear or read it, my first reaction is to look at Jesus and say, "Excuse me? You think the food is just going to walk itself to the table? Or were you planning on repeating your little stunt at Cana? Do you honestly think these people are going to be able to concentrate on what you're saying if their stomachs are all grumbling from hunger?"

But, as someone said during today's "conversational sermon," Martha is doing the work grudgingly. And someone else added that work can be done prayerfully, or even be prayer. In other words, things have to be done, but they don't have to be done the way Martha was doing them.

Lois ended the sermon by leaving us with three questions and a small gift. The questions are:

What would my day be like if it began with sitting at the feet of Jesus?

What would I have to do/want to do in order to sit at the feet of Jesus before every decision? Before everything I did?

What can we--the church--do to help you?

And the gift? A simple phrase from the contemplative tradition:

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy.

Peace,
Jeffri