Letting Go

As important as it is to welcome the new year, it is even more important to say goodbye to the old one.  Carrying too much with us will prove to be too much of a burden.  A book entitled "The White Stone" with the subtitle, "The Art of Letting Go," by Esther de Waal came my way a few years ago and a few days ago I found myself pulling it off the shelf for the important words she had to say about moving from what is past into what is ahead.  Life is full of those times of transition when we stand at a threshold moment.  

The most profound moment of letting go surely comes as we lose a loved one.  Whenever we experience the death of a spouse, or a child, or a parent or someone loved deeply, we find ourselves in an immobilizing void.  A part of us wants to stay, to cling to the things and the memories of the past while another part of us is pulling us into whatever it is ahead.  The past is never where we can live.  Ahead is where we are being given to live.  It is always hard to let go even when our head tells us letting go is choosing to live.  Such is the kind of moment afforded to us as we stand now at the edge of an ending.  While the Apostle Paul wrote about Christ making us into new creations, it is not something once done and over.  

Every day we are given the opportunity to gather all our life experiences and decide how we are going to let those things be used by God to guide us into the future He is unfolding before us.  It is appropriate; therefore, to think of ourselves being made new every day.  Every day is a moment of letting go of yesterday so we can step into the day unfolding.  Every day is a moment for letting go and so it will be until we finally let go and take hold of the hand of the Christ who is preparing us each day for the Home He is preparing for us in the heavenly place.  

Listening in the Silence

Most visitors to the farm which provides home comment about the quiet.  It is a place gifted with quietness.  I am grateful to be able to walk in it, be immersed in it, and to hear what it teaches me.  When I leave here for more urban confines, I feel like the young boy who walked into a noisy restaurant with ear coverings.  Away from here I struggle with the sounds and sights that overload my senses.  What most people do not hear in the quiet silence of a place like the farm are its voices.  The silence has its own sounds.   

The first voice that speaks in the silence is the one which speaks about the absence of the accustomed noises and sounds.  It is always amazing how what is not present can speak so loudly.  One thing required to hear the voices in the silence is time.  There must be a willingness to sit silently in the silence in order to hear what it is saying.  To hear in the silence, it is necessary to allow the silence to come to us.  Straining to hear is of no avail.  Its voice is heard in the waiting for it to come to us.  Actually, what can be heard in the silence is not so much about "what" but "Who."  God is the One who lingers in the quietness, but it is a mistake to think that He lingers only in the external silence.  

It is an easy thing to shut down the noise makers around us; however, it is another thing to shut down the noise that comes from within.  Being immersed in the silence teaches us that we cannot hear it speaking if our minds and hearts are cluttered with the regrets of yesterday, the preoccupations of today, or the worries about tomorrow.  The real silence to be known is not out there, but in the heart where God dwells and from which He seeks to speak with a voice that is as soft and as powerful as the Wind.

Time for a Phone Call

Now that the Christmas season with its focus on gift giving is past,  there is one more gift which each of us might consider giving.  It will not be noticed in our check ledger, neither will it show up on our credit card statement.  It will require no bows and ribbons.  It will require a few minutes to give, but is guaranteed to bring a smile that will last much longer than it takes to give it.  There will not be any need to worry about size, or saving receipts in case of a return.  It is a simple gift.  One came my way today and I find myself turning it over and over again in my heart with such gratitude.  

This gift is not going to be delivered by the post office or amazon prime.  It can ony be delivered by folks like you and me.  Pick up the phone before the day ends and call someone who has blessed you in some way in your spiritual journey, or maybe someone whose prayers have sustained you through some hard place this year, or, perhaps, someone who is remembered as an individual who invested their life in yours long years ago.  The gift of being appreciated and unforgotten is an immeasurable gift.  

I often think of my high school English and literature teacher who died before I came to the place of realizing how different she made my life.  She saw in me what I could not see and she was used by God to prepare me for my ministry in ways I am sure she could not imagine.  I wish I could call her, but such is now impossible.  What I do know is that there are others who have touched my life in the same way that your life has been touched.  Maybe it is time for a phone call.

'Twas Three Days after Christmas

'Twas three days after Christmas,

'Twas Sunday to be exact,

Nary a creature was stirring, 

Everyone was asleep in the house.

Bows and ribbons were out on the street,

Dumpsters lids were open gaping mouths

stuffed with far too much to eat.  

 

The church bell high above chimed eleven,

the hardiest of saints filled the seats,

but only a few, for most were fast asleep 

dreaming of tables filled with cakes and pies,

new kitchen towels and more red ties.

Here and there a soul roused at the bell

only to make themselves more snug in the bed.

 

Jesus rose from the lifeless nativity scene,

He came to life making quite a clatter,

He looked and saw no shepherds and wise men,

and certainly not a sleeping saint like me

too hungover with Christmas egg nog

to make even a reluctant appearance

in the house where He is to be worshiped this day. 

 

The Open Hand View

The deeper we go into our years, the more we understand that life is about letting go.  In earlier days we lived with the conviction that life was about taking hold.  We lived taking hold of as much stuff as our hands could hold.  As we go along we all come to that time, either sooner or later, when we live into that moment Jesus held forth for all to see as He spoke a parable.  It was a parable about a man who had accumulated much to hold in his hands and was intent on holding even more.  In the parable the man with full hands heard God saying to him, "You fool!  This very night your life is being demanded of you.  And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"  (Luke 12:20).   

When we hold all our stuff and allow ourselves to be confronted with the question, "whose will they be?" we are enabled to see life differently.   In that moment we will either clench our fist more tightly as a way of denying reality, or we will loosen our clenched fist and embrace the viewpoint of the open hand.  The open hand view of life is one which enables us to see that what we call ours is being loaned to us.  It will not be ours forever, but for a short season.  

What we call ours will one day be theirs.  When our hands are open, generosity is more likely to flow from our fingers than greed.  Open hands means open eyes.  We will be able to see the needs of the suffering broken, reasons to help instead of excuses for ignoring what we see, and the down and out as our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors.  Open hands and open eyes create open hearts. We become people who not only talk about caring, but who become those who express caring by sharing.  

Looking Over our Shoulder

A day that might be called "The Day After" is always an interesting day.  "The Day After" comes the day after Christmas, the day after Easter, the day after a birthday, or maybe even, the day after the loss of someone we love.  Such days come in all shapes and sizes.  I remember the day after, the week after, the year after I retired from the pulpit and came to a new life on the farm.  Life does bring us to moments that stand apart from what we might call the regular days, but none of us can live in those days.  Life is not lived in the special days, but in the ordinary days.  

When the disciples experienced the glory of heaven breaking in upon the earth on the Mt. of Transfiguration, they would have built shrines and stayed had Jesus approved of their building plans.  Surely, after Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, they would have chosen for Him to stay, but He was on His way back into the invisible realm from which He had come.  It is a natural thing for us to do.  Whatever is past has a way of holding us in a way the uncertainty of the future cannot do; yet, it is into the future that God is always leading us.  

Forward is His mode of operation.  When we talk about the leading of God, implicit within understanding what that means is the reality that God is not going to allow us to make a memorial out of the past or the present no matter how meaningful the moment might be.  God is always leading us away from where we are comfortable because when we are comfortable, we are easily lulled into believing that we need only ourselves. He is the God of the future and it is into the future that He is planning for us that He seeks to lead us.  We can never go forward into His future if we are looking over our shoulder.

Christmas Day, 2025

Christmas has been different in this decade of my life.  There is a tree up and decorated in the gathering room of the house this year, but such has not always been the case in these recent years.  Actually, this is the first time in a long time that a tree with its twinkling lights has stood within eye sight.  Yet, I must confess to some memorable Christmas moments.  I had hardly gotten into my seventies when I offered my mother her last communion here on earth.   A few years later, I did the same for my Dad early in the days of December.  Last year I found myself in the hospital offering the holy Sacrament on Christmas Eve to a man who would live here among us five more days.   

Yesterday, I was provided the blessing of sharing the Holy Sacrament with a small church community just up the road from here who have enabled me to experience community since I left the pulpit for the farm.  They are special folks.  I have been blessed by them in more ways than I can say, "Thank you, Lord."  One of the things Christmas holds out to us is an awareness of belonging to a loving and accepting community.   Perhaps, it is a natural result of the Christ coming into our world via Bethlehem's wooden cradle and leaving it via a wooden cross.  

He came to be One among us.  "Dwelt among us," is what the Word declares. (John 1:14).  He came to show us the way Home, to show us who we are, and to help us reclaim the purpose for which we live.  He came seeking us with a love that would hold nothing more precious than being poured out as love for us.  He came to draw us unto Himself, to let us know we are not here alone, and to enable us to re-claim our place in that invisible and eternal community He spoke of us as the Kingdom of God.  The peace of Christ be with you. 

ADVENT XXV (The Final Day)

Today is Christmas Eve.  It is also the last day of the Advent season.  While I look forward to the excitement which is always a part of Christmas Eve worship, I hate to see Advent go.  It has been a good Advent. In some ways, it has been one of the best Advent seasons of the many experienced over the years.  I had a good book to accompany me on the journey.  It helped me get my mind in the right gear for the season which, of course, was the slow gear.  It was also a season of being able to stay focused on the theme of Advent in each of my blog postings during Advent's days.    

Another thing which happened and which accentuated the season was reading the Advent scriptures with deliberate slowness allowing them to have more soaking power than they are normally given.  Reading the gospel lessons has normally been my practice, but this year I spent more time reading the prophetic readings set aside for the season.  It has always impressed me the way the lectionary readings can open new windows to see the world around me as well as what God is about in that world.  This year has been especially troubling as I have looked out the window to see not only the beauty of the creation, but also the hand of the evil one at work within it.  

Advent's word about Jesus coming with His Kingdom in hand to renew, restore, and create the new has been especially relevant.  Thus, I am grateful for this Advent season.  I hate to see it disappear for another year, but there are new things on the horizon God is bringing into view and I am eager to see them and by His mercy be a part of them.

Advent XXIV (Emmanuel)

God with us.

   So it says.

     Not up there.

       Or, yonder.

         None of those.

Here and now.

 

In the flesh.

   bone and blood,

     callous hands

       dirty feet

         breathing air,

just like us.

 

Dream dreamer,

   hope chaser,

     love giver,

      kind spirit.

       full of truth,

heart dweller.

 

Here in life,

   Here in death,

     Here risen,

       Here coming,

         Here always.

Christ is born! 

     

        

     

 

Advent XXIII (The Joseph Saga)

It is not the story Luke tells about the birth of Jesus that the lectionary uses to guide us into the Christmas season, but the indecision and the decision of Joseph as he struggled to settle on what he would do at the news of Mary's pregnancy.  It was not a moment he expected.  He expected children, but he expected them to be his.  Mary's explanation for being pregnant was one of the wildest he had ever heard.  It no doubt left him shaking his head.  He did not talk a smart man to imagine what people would be saying about Mary and the fool he would be for staying with her.   

Verse 19 of that first chapter of Matthew tells us that Joseph finally decided to quietly end their relationship rather than expose her to public disgrace.  In the moment of deciding what to do, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream telling him there was a different way.  "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:20).  When Joseph woke up, the Scripture speaks of his new resolve with the words, "did as the Lord commanded him, he took her as his wife." (Matthew 1:24).  

This rendering of the events of those days is such an appropriate text for this fourth and final week of the Advent season.  It is a story about waiting.  It is a story of God acting and coming.  It is the story of a way being prepared in the heart of the man who would serve as the earthly Father of the Son of God.  It is a story of hope for as the angel said to Joseph, "...she will bear a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  (Matthew 1:21).  It is a story which reminds us of the "He is here..yet, the still to come One."  

Advent XXII (The Final Week)

Today marks the final Sunday of Advent.  The week is shortened since Advent always ends on Christmas Eve. Those worship communities which adhere strictly to the liturgical calendar may continue with Advent worship, but for most communities of faith, it will be observed as Christmas Sunday.  It becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the nearly here day of Celebration even though most Christmas Eve Worship services will surpass it in terms of attendance and spiritual energy.  

The Sunday after Christmas is actually the first Sunday of the Christmas season, but practically speaking, it is hard to generate a lot of excitement in worship for a day that has been celebrated so powerfully on Christmas Eve.  No matter what worship leaders do, the Sunday after Christmas falls upon the church as anti-climatic.  With the four candles of the Advent Wreath ablaze and the Acolyte holding the fire over the large Christ Candle in its center, our focus shifts from the Christ who is coming to the Christ who has come.  Indeed, these final four days of the Advent season is a moment for considering and reflecting on the way the coming of Christ in Bethlehem has radically changed our life.  

I watched an old Christmas movie classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," and was reminded of the way one person's life can bring change to the lives of so many people and even a community.  The one life brought forth from a virgin's womb long centuries ago in Bethlehem is still sending its rippling power across the history of the world. Who can imagine life without Christ?  Who wants to imagine such a life?  Even as Jesus has changed the trajectory of my life, so has His life changed the life of each one of us.  Thanks be to God!

Advent XXI (Off the Hallmark Card)

The stage hands are getting in place backstage to close the curtains on the Advent stage.  As they do so, sounds of the Christmas music can be heard in choir rooms, sanctuaries, and other gatherings where people are gathering to celebrate the season which is about to dawn fully upon us.  The music of Christmas is such special music.  Unlike songs like "Amazing Grace" which can be heard throughout the years, songs like "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Silent Night" echo in the air only once a year.  Both the infrequency of their use and the message they proclaim make them into music which deeply stirs our hearts.   

As an older guy with lots of memories, I miss those days of the past when folks would gather for an outdoor trek through neighborhoods singing Christmas carols.   There were times when a wagon filled with hay would transport us along our way.  After a knock on the door and surprised faces appeared at the door, we would start singing.  Those were times of singing, wishing neighbors "Merry Christmas," hot chocolate, and memories being made.  

Our culture has changed much in the years since those memories were made.  Fear drives our present culture in such a way that we afraid to respond to a knock on the door after dark.  The older people who used to live out their lives in the homes where they reared their children have been shunted off to nursing homes.  It is more likely that are neighbors are strangers rather than friends.  Times have indeed changed.  Perhaps, the biggest change is that we have become too busy for such an act of giving this gift of joy to those around us.  What a wonderful thing it would be if we could get this picture off the Hallmark card and back in the minds and hearts of our young.

Advent XX (A Day of Rejoicing)

As far as Advent is concerned, we are just beyond its middle.  Maybe to say we are in the stream of Advent just above the rapids would be a good enough description.  Christmas Day has always been out there ahead of us and now it seems to be rapidly pulling us toward that moment of the shepherds, the angels, the innkeeper, and, of course, that world changing birth in Bethlehem.  The more we have allowed ourselves to soak in the silent and slow moving waters of Advent, the more we will experience when we gather with the church to celebrate the Christ event.    

His coming is what our life and the life of the church is all about.  His coming at Bethlehem started a revolution.  Some more scholarly than I have called it an invasion which is certainly a good word to use about that moment when God in Christ became flesh and dwelt among us.  From that moment everything changed.  Any hope the evil one held for victory started fading and by the time of the cross, it was more than certain that a victory for the Kingdom of God was secure.   While all this is true, it is also true that the One who has come is coming again.  

When He comes again, we will not look for Him in some obscure village for our vision will be overpowered with the majesty and glory of heaven breaking fully into our midst.  On that day in history, evil will not only know its defeat, but will know what it is to be vanquished so completely as to be seen no more.  There is more to the celebration which is coming than we can possibly imagine.  As the old gospel songs says, "What a day of rejoicing that will be!"

Advent XIX (Something to Think About)

One of the ways for the church to focus on Advent as a season of waiting expectantly is to make it a season of withholding.  While making Advent a season of withholding is not likely to happen since the practice of Christmas is so entrenched in the month of December, there might be some value in considering what such a discipline might mean.  In some cases it would likely result in a major revolt within the church that would result in finding new worship leaders.  

What we all recognize is that we live in a culture of instant gratification.  We wait for very little and if we do wait, we do so begrudgingly.  Suppose for a moment that the church decided to wait and actually open the Christmas season on Christmas Eve.  Nativity scenes would remain in storage.  Christmas carols would stay in the hymnbook in favor of the Advent hymns.  Aside from the Advent Wreath, the church would be unadorned with greenery.  I know.  It sounds like Grinch and Scrooge would have to be put in charge.  The thought is that if the celebration of Christmas was actually something that happened at Christmas, the church would be filled with an expectancy beyond definition waiting for it.  

As it is, there is nothing for which we wait, we have the elements of Christmas worship now instead of later.  By the time Christmas actually shows up on the calendar, we are too worn out with Christmas to really celebrate it.  I will be the first to recognize that this practice of withholding is not going to happen.  Any attempts I made as a pastor and worship leader to push Christmas back during the Advent season were met with more than a little resistance.  Still, it is something to think about.  

Advent XVIII (The Advent Tension)

James, the Apostle, is not one of those front page guys in the gospel.  He was one of the twelve and accompanied Jesus up the Mt of Transfiguration which suggests he was one of the smaller inner group closest to Jesus.  All the things which are recorded in the. gospel were, of course, witnessed by James.  While all this is true, his letter to the church never seems to get the billing that those written by Paul, or Peter, or John.  Perhaps, it is because of the way it lifts up an action based faith.  

One of the lessons for the Third Sunday in Advent comes from James 5:7-10.  It begins with the word, "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord."  (James 5:7) He goes on to liken the patience of the farmer who waits for his crop to those who are waiting on the Lord to come.  Of course, the farmer is not one who sits on the porch rocking, but one who does all that can be done while waiting.  Such is surely the posture we should have as we wait for Jesus to come once again.  There is a certain amount of tension in the Advent season.  

We are called to wait with expectancy for Christ to come.  We are called to live with a hope that He will come quickly and restore order, overcome evil, and right injustices.  Hoping and waiting; however, does not give us license to sit in the rocking chair. As the farmer works to bring his crop to harvest so are we called to work to alleviate suffering and to stand against the power of evil present in the world.  James insist that we see the relationship between faith and works.  Advent does the same.

Advent XVII (The Pink Candle)

It has been some days since the sun has shined on this place.  Gray has been the color of the day.  Clouds have been hanging heavy in the sky.  Cold enough for coat weather has been the norm.  On such a day I think of my Uncle Alvin.  It is not that he was a man overwhelmed with depression, but instead was one whose favorite song was an old hymn which he often sang, "O they tell me of a home far beyond the skies, Oh, they tell me of a home far away; Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise, Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day."  He loved singing that song.  I love the memories he gave to me.   

Somehow, it is a song which seems appropriate in these days of Advent when the banners are furled and the church has it eyes turned toward the eastern sky as it anticipates the Christ returning.  Though purple is the liturgical color for the season of Advent, it has often seemed that gray would have been a better choice.  Advent is not a season for burning ashes, but it is a time when the mood is more somber and contemplative instead of celebrative and joyous.  

It is such a hard season that the Advent Wreath will have within its circle a pink candle.  The third Sunday which came only days ago is called Gaudete Sunday and speaks of a period of relief from the somber nature of the Advent season. It is the Sunday the pink candle is touched by the flame to burn brightly among us.  As the song writer longed for "a home where no storm clouds rise," so does the church long for the land of unclouded day where "no tears ever come again," and His smile "drives...sorrows all away."

Advent XVI (A Season of Hope)

To read the Old Testament lesson assigned to the Third Sunday in Advent is to be enveloped by words which sound like heaven.  They were first spoken to the Hebrew people when they were exiled in Babylon.  They had eaten the dust of servitude and endured long days and nights of suffering at the hands of their oppressors.  So many of those who remembered Jerusalem had died and those who had managed to survive knew it mostly from the stories told by the old timers who had walked the road of oppression when they were young.  Seventy years is a long time.  It is long enough for people like the Hebrews to give up hope.   

It is to such a. people that Isaiah speaks the words of comfort and hope which are found in the 35th chapter of the book which bears his name.  In poetic beauty he speaks of the hard way which had been walked from Jerusalem to Babylon as a way which would not only receive them on the journey home, but would blossom in abundance and rejoice with joy.  (Isaiah 35:1). The way home will heal instead of destroy. The desert sand shall break forth in pools of water.  Danger and harm will not travel that road and at its end "sorrow and sighing shall flee away."  (Isaiah 35:5-10).  

Let us not forget that though Advent is a hard and somber season filled with visions of the Lord returning to judge and restore, it is a season of hope.  It is a season that gives us hope that the evil which seems to run rampant in our day shall be no more.  It s a season which gives us hope that injustices will be made right and sorrow will be turned into joy.  It is a season which gives us hope that the Hope of all nations will come and turn battlefields into lush rich gardens filled with harvest.  As this ancient prophecy of Isaiah fed the hope of suffering Israel, may it do so for us in these hard days in which we live.

Advent XV (The Third Week)

The one person no one figured to see on the Third Sunday of Advent is John the Baptist.  Already he has appeared on the drama unfolding in this holy season.  Last Sunday he took center stage modeling his camel hair clothing, breathing his locust breath all over us, repulsing us with him beard matted with honey, and speaking words we basically felt to be offensive.  All he talked about was our need to repent while we were looking for the comforting story of two young parents giving birth to a baby.  No one really wants to see him again this Sunday, but if the lectionary cycle is allowed to guide the church, there he is once again.   

We cannot help but wonder what those men of long centuries ago were thinking when they organized these Scripture lessons.  We cannot help but wonder why John continues to stand in the spotlight when the Star of Bethlehem is nearly ready to shine in the heavens.  One very obvious answer is that John the Baptist is as much a part of the story written by the Sovereign God of the Universe as were the shepherds, the men from the east, or the innkeeper.  He it the one who could simply be known as the Voice instead of the Baptizer.  His Voice was the prophesied voice of God.  

The eleventh chapter of Matthew which contains the gospel lesson for the Third Sunday of Advent enables us to know John the Baptist through the eyes of Jesus.  According to Jesus this man of the wilderness was more than a prophet.  He was God's messenger.  He is "Elijah who is to come."  (Matthew 11:7-14).  John has a place on the stage.  He is a necessary part of the story that God through the Holy Spirit is telling us.  As Jesus said, "Let anyone with ears listen!"  Matthew (11:15)

Advent XIV (Radical Change)

Advent is about radical change.  The gospel lesson which pushed the church into this Second Week of Advent is a word about John the Baptist that takes us back several centuries to the prophet Isaiah.  This Old Testament prophet spoke of one who would come as a "voice in the wilderness."  (Isaiah 40:3).  The language of preparation is powerful as we consider the images created with the ancient words.  The one who would come to prepare Israel for deliverance would come in such a way as to "make a highway in the desert."   

The making of the way for the deliverer would be like valleys being lifted up, mountains being made low, rough ground being made level, and rough places being made easy to walk.  (Isaiah 40:4). What we hear is not a prediction of some cataclysmic earthquake, but instead, a word which speaks to the fact that His coming will be about radical change.  John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way of the Lord by calling for radical change of the heart.  His call for radical change was framed inside a message which called people to the work of repentance.  Repentance is about radical change of the heart.

If we miss the Advent word which calls us be about radical change then we have missed its message completely.  We have drifted off to sleep as did the disciples in the Garden or as did the bridesmaids who waited for the bridegroom.  We have decided that Advent is about Christmas trees, gift lists, and church programs and have drifted off with these visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.  The truth is Advent is about being ready for imminent coming of the Lord.  The place where readiness is truly required will be unseen by others for it is the radical change of the heart that will enable us to live in sync with the will of the One who is out there just beyond sight and, yet, still somehow already here among us.

Advent XIII (The Hard Choice)

After the First Sunday in Advent with its emphasis on Jesus coming again, we go to church looking for someone less threatening to us and we get John the Baptist.  The Second Coming of Jesus may speak of a judgement to come, but with John the Baptist we get judgement in the now.  John's message is one that does not beat around the bush.  "Repent, for the Kingdom of God has come near."  (Matthew 3:2).   Some translations translate "has come near" to say "is at hand."  The point is the Kingdom is nearer than we figured when we got up this morning.  It is inching closer.  It is nearer.  It is at hand.   

What John tells us to do in light of this reality is to repent.  Repentance is a tough word for our culture.  It is a tough word for us.  It means that we acknowledge that there is something wrong.  It means taking responsibility for the sense of wrong in us that causes us to feel somehow separated from who we were created to be.  It means there is a brokenness in our life.  Perhaps, harder than taking responsibility for those attitudes and deeds which we allow to exist in us that separate us from our Creator and His intentions for us is accepting the fact that there is nothing we can do to make what is wrong right.  We can therapy ourselves to death, but at some point we have to come to the hard moment of repentance.    

To repent not only means we have chosen the wrong path, it is not only about acknowledging our sin against God, but it means turning away from the wrong choices to ones that affirm life and declares that we belong to God.  To repent literally means turning around so that our life is directed toward a different goal.  It means depending on what Christ has done for us on the cross instead of what we are trying to do for ourselves. When we hear John's call to repent, we hear a word which calls us to turn away from anything which separates us from God.  We look that way no more.  Our eyes are focused not on accomplishing our will, but upon His.   

Advent XII (The Kingdom Life)

When we read the prophets of the Old Testament, we see a culture gone awry and we hear God's words of judgement.  What we also find midst all the harsh words of the prophets who speak for God are words of comfort and hope.  God's judgement is not so severe as to exclude hope and deliverance.  Out of those times when the Hebrews went after idols and alliances, wealth and military power, there were always words which pointed toward a God who could never completely forsake and abandon His people.  When the Apostle Paul wrote "For whatever was written in former days was written for instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope,"  (Romans 15:4) he is speaking to our day.

This Word which serves the church as part of the Epistle Lesson on the Second Sunday of Advent is a word of hope which originates in the crucible of despair.  How many times have we known it to be true that there are moments when we have stood with hope and hope alone?  Even in those hard, dark, and difficult moments of life when hope makes no sense, we dare to claim it as the only way forward?  Hope is our life line to the future which is unseen and yet unfolding in God's time.  Though it might seem to some that we grasp at straws as we grasp for hope, we know differently.  

Hope is what keeps us moving when we stand midst the mire of hardship and suffering.  It is what enables us to see what is still not yet fully seen which is a life where every injustice will be righted, a life where there is no hunger and war, and a life where "God will wipe away every tear...death will be no more, mourning and crying will be no more."  (Revelation 21:4).  It is Advent's hope that shouts that this Kingdom of God life is coming.  

The Deepening Mystery

The closer we walk with God, the deeper is the mystery around us.  It would seem that a nearness to the Holy One which has been growing for years and maybe even a life time would enable us to see more things clearly.  It only makes sense to our common sense that deepening nearness would bring greater understanding, but it can only be said that the exact opposite is true.  There were times in the beginning when we thought we knew something about God.  As we walk into the years with which He graces us, we finally come to the place of knowing that what we do not know will always be greater than what we know.  

One of the things which has loomed largely before me in these closing days of the year is the way each year brings about changing landscapes, changing relationships, and changing goals.  In the small town which adjoins the farm, it is often said that nothing ever changes, but we know it is a lie.  Even the local community cemetery is expanding its grounds to accommodate the change!  It should not surprise us that our relationship with God is unfolding into a life that would not be recognizable to the young person we used to be.  

When we read that Corinthian passage about believers being new creations, we often think it is a once and done thing.  We meet Christ and we are changed, but what is really true is to say that to meet Christ is to enter into a life of constant change.  Not only does the relationship call forth from us different things in the different seasons of our life, but He begins to reveal more of Himself to us in such a way that draws us deeper into holy mystery instead of the expected understanding.  We catch more glimpses than visions.  We become more aware of what is invisible and waiting to be seen.  The Word about the Kingdom of God coming and being in our midst makes more sense even if we see ourselves straining to see it.

Advent XI (Maranatha)

The Old Testament reading for the second Sunday of Advent comes from an Isaiah passage that is worn out with human hoping.  It speaks of a time not yet come, but one for which we hope.  It is a passage of powerful images, "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid...the cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together....the nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp...They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain..." (Isaiah 11:6-9). It creates images idyllic enough for Camelot and perfect enough for Utopia, but the images of Isaiah go far beyond what mortals can comprehend to speak of the Kingdom of God.   

We can sense something of how extraordinarily different the Kingdom of God is and will be as we contemplate our existence in the here and now.  As Tess of Hardy's novel would say, we live on a blighted star. We live where the devil lurks like a roaring lion.  We live in times so darkened by evil that it seems foolish to even hope for light.  Martin Luther had it right as he penned that hymn of the church which causes us to sing, "but still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe, his craft and power are great, and harmed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal."    

Advent is a season within the life of the church which causes us to express our longing for a new world, a world where love and peace and good will does indeed prevail, but we know that despite all our best efforts, the world of our hope will not come completely among us until Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom upon the earth.  It is for this reason that the cry of the church is always, "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)

Advent X (A Defeated Foe)

There is a sense in which Advent prepares us for the Christmas, but to a greater degree it is designed to help us to prepare for the final Christ appearance.  To be focused solely on Christmas coming to the point that the still to come Christ becomes simply an invisible passenger in the back seat is to miss entirely the core meaning of the Advent season.  Who actually is driving the Advent season is not the baby in the manger of Bethlehem, but the King who is to come one day out yonder in the future to bring an order into history for which we can in the present only hope.    

We not only live in a time between the first and second coming of Jesus, but we live in a world where we hope for good and see so much evil.  As much as we would like to think it is possible, evil has not yet been overcome.  Neither is it likely to be overcome tomorrow.  It does not make its appearance in the creative acts recorded in Genesis, but it shows up not long after the creative work is completed.  We see its stain across the story of the Old Testament and its power being unleashed on that day when Jesus was hung on a cross.  The pages of history may record the progress of humanity, but alongside the progress are always the evidences of the lurking power of Satan.  

Advent does nothing to diminish the power of the evil one.  It does not deny its presence.  What it does do is announce that while it for some reason is allowed to work its woe, its power will one day be not just diminished, but destroyed when Christ comes in the clouds in His final victory.  This is our hope.  Between now and then, in the. midst of evil is where we live.  Our final hope is not in what we are able to do, but in what Christ is going to do when He comes again.  

Not So Quick

There are moments which change who we are.  Perhaps, it is more appropriate to say that there are moments which begin an unfolding process of change whether we are ready for it or not.  It may be true that we can be changed by a single experience, but to look at such a moment more reflectively is to understand that we were moving toward that moment long before it came.  Such is the case with Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road.  Preachers like myself have used that Biblical story many times to illustrate what might be called an instantaneous conversion.  (Acts 9).  Sometimes I wonder if such a thing exists.  

For example, when we first see Saul of Tarsus, he is a coat watcher for those who threw stones and killed Stephen.  (Acts 7:59).  What this tells us is that Saul heard Stephen's sermon.  He saw the violent reaction of those who were threatened by the young man.  He, along with others, was in the overflow of the heavenly shower of blessings which fell upon the servant of Jesus.  He went along with the others as they dragged Stephen out of the city to the place of stoning.  He watched the coats of those who threw the stones and he heard Stephen cry out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." (Acts 7:60).  Saul was complicit in everything.   

We cannot read the story which opens up for us in the book of Acts without seeing the connection Luke was making between the stoning event and the saving event.  It has often been said that the church is built upon the blood of the martyrs.  Certainly,  the conversion of Saul is an illustration of this truth.  Saul of Tarsus may have come to his senses and opened his life to Jesus on the Damascus road, but it started back on that day, and, perhaps, even before when he witnessed the death of a man who willingly gave his life for the Christ.  

Advent IX (The Three Act Play)

If the story of Jesus was a three act play, the first act would open with the angel Gabriel coming to Mary before the action quickly moved to Bethlehem where Jesus was born.  Just before the curtain was closed on the first act, we would see the twelve year old Jesus reluctantly leaving Jerusalem with His parents.  The second act would be announced by the sound of curtains being pulled open, but the stage would be empty of everything except total darkness.  It would mystify many as they sat in their seats in absolute darkness and complete silence for what would seem like forever.  

When the curtains closed and then opened again for act three, a wild looking wilderness man would be on stage shouting, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near." (Matthew 3:2).    Only then would Jesus once again visibly appear on stage to live out the most important story of human history.  Every thing which followed on stage would point to what had been prophesied centuries earlier.  Even the appearance of John the Baptist was a part of the predicted saga.  Isaiah spoke of him as "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.' "  (Matthew 3:3)   

John the Baptist's role in the Advent season is to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God through Jesus, the One who came as Messiah.  The Baptizer fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy as he proclaimed from the Jordan River that God was about to do something new.  People needed to be made ready for this new act of God which is why he called them to repentance and baptism.  The Christ who has come is coming.  The question of Advent for us has to do with what we are doing to make our own hearts ready.

Advent VIII (The Second Week)

As the calendar turns to December, most people show up in church expecting to catch a glimpse of baby Jesus.  After all, there is this tree which mostly looks like a Christmas tree and the windows are adorned with greenery and candles.  The church says look for Jesus and to the surprise of many an unexpected guest arrives on center stage.  We are looking for Jesus and John the Baptist shows up for a two Sunday stay.  He is not the kind of fellow any respectable Father would want his daughter to bring home with the words, "Daddy, this is the man I am going to marry."  

With his tangled hair, honey matted beard, breath reeking of locust, and clothing made of rough smelly camel hair, he looks more like a wild man of the wilderness than a candidate for matrimony.  It is shocking to our senses that this character is the focus of a Sunday worship in December when it could be Jesus of Bethlehem.  To be honest, we are not prepared for the message of John the Baptist.  It is not the message of "peace on earth, good will to men," but a message calling his listeners to repent and his critics to know that God's wrath is going to fall upon them.   

During these early days of Advent, John the Baptist does not point us toward the second coming of Jesus, but instead announces that One called Jesus is about to show up to establish a new order which will shake the pillars of every institutional establishment and the core values of everyone wrapped with the robes of self righteousness.  Something new is breaking in among us he declared and Someone new who has never before been seen will bring it into being.  John shows up in Advent because he is the messenger of what God is about to do.  God is still about the business of doing new things and this is a day for making ourselves ready.  Now is the time for the work of making ourselves ready.  It is not the time for delay.  

Advent VII (The Counter Culture Message)

The Lectionary is a three year cycle of Scripture readings to assist the church in its movement through the Christian year.  Each one of the cycles focuses on one of the first three gospels so that in a three year period the church has opportunity to hear the all the gospels read.  Readings from the gospel of John are interspersed throughout those three years.  Advent is the first season of the Christian calendar and this year the gospel lessons come from Matthew.  The gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Advent is from Matthew 24:36-44 and while it is familiar to most readers, it ends with the warning, "Therefore, you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."    

For so many of us, this word seems so out of step with where we are in these days.  The church is unpacking the wooden characters for the nativity scene, putting in candles for the Advent wreath which speak pleasant words like hope, peace, joy, and love, and hanging enough greenery in the sanctuary to make it look and smell like a forest.  In the midst of such activity, who wants to be talking about Jesus coming again?  What one of us is ready for this conversation when all everyone is talking about is the celebration of Jesus being born in Bethlehem as a sweet little baby?  The popular message is that Advent prepares us for Christmas when in fact it is asking us if we are ready for Christ to come again.    

It is no wonder that Advent is perceived by some as being so counter culture.  Everyone in the secular world is talking about Christmas trees and gift lists and Advent is talking about Jesus returning.  What is surprising is that even the church is hesitant to talk about the Biblical teaching that Jesus is coming again.  It is not a message people want to hear and the church is too eager to be accommodating by making a hard message more palatable as it ignores the warnings about readiness.

Advent VI (Nothing to Change)

There are four Scripture Lessons assigned to the First Sunday in Advent.  There is a  Psalm, an Old Testament Lesson, one from the Gospel, and then a Lesson from the Epistles.  The Epistle Lesson for the first Sunday in Advent comes from Romans 13:11-14.  It begins with a warning, "...you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers..."  (Romans 13:11). To read deeper into the lesson is to hear it calling us to put aside the works of darkness so that we might put on the Lord Jesus. Here is a reminder to us all that it is later than we think.  

I have known some folks who were sure that they would not die, but that they would be here when Jesus comes again.  The fact that they were wrong about when He was coming did not change the reality of their meeting Him in all His glory.  Whether we live until He comes, or die due to His delay, the result is the same.  This moment for us is always nearer than it was and in all likelihood sooner than we think.  It is an interesting thing to spend some time reflecting on how we might live today if we knew that tomorrow was our last day on this earth with those we love.   

It gives pause for wondering what we might do.  Who thinks they would run to the bank to check on their balance of funds?  Who would walk through the storehouse of their accumulations once more?  Who would choose to make those hours moments for making right broken relationships?  Who would spend time seeking and offering forgiveness?  Who would draw those with whom we work close and who would draw close family?  Who would find time for some serious praying?   I remember one author who spoke of such a moment by saying that those who are living as the righteous would simply keep on living today as they had yesterday and would be tomorrow.  Nothing would need to change.  May it be so for each of us.

Advent V (The Bone Yahweh Picks)

An Old Testament passage which marks the beginning of the Advent season is one very familiar to many of us.  It comes from the second chapter of Isaiah and has within words such as, "In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains...He shall judge the nations,...they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nations shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more."  (Isaiah 2:2, 4)  It is a passage of Scripture which evokes such powerful images as it causes us to think of what we dare not think will one day be.  

We use it often in our political discussions without really considering that it is a Word addressed more to folks like us than those who lead us.  The bone which Yahweh picks with Israel is not so much with leadership as it is with the changes in culture which is sending the nation on a downward spiral and away from its dependence on Him.  In the historical framework of the Old Testament, God used for His purposes political leaders like Moses to thwart the power of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument of judgement upon Israel for  forsaking the ways of righteousness, and Cyrus for returning the exiled Hebrews home.

Righteous living implies caring for the concerns of God as well as caring for the concerns of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the disenfranchised and marginalized, and the invisible.  Another prophet named Amos thundered forth to the people of the nation, "But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."  (Amos 5:24). It is not just leaders who have forsaken God's pathway, but a culture of people who worship not God, but affluence, accumulation, power, and prosperity.  

Embrace the Vision

The sixth chapter of Isaiah tells us that Isaiah's career choice was to serve as a priest in the Temple.  As a young man he could see nothing else in his future.  He spent the best part of his youth training and preparing for the day when he would serve Yahweh and the people of Israel as a priest in the place most holy in all the land.  It was on an ordinary day of service that his life changed.  God appeared to him in a way that Isaiah described by writing, "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of His garment filled the Temple."  (Isaiah 6:1).  Within that moment of vision, he saw himself as a sinner and a man whose sin was blotted out as his lips were touched by a live coal.   

The final part of the vision was an act of sending forth to become a prophet.  His future would no longer be centered in the Temple speaking the words of religious ritual, but centered in a community of people where he would speak as the voice of the Lord.  The experience of Isaiah reminds us that God does not bring us to moments where it seems that we are walking midst the clouds of glory so that we will have a great witness on testimony night, but so that we can be about the great things He has in His heart for us to do.  The greater thing He has planned may not be bringing a nation to revival, but to bring us to a place where we will choose to live a kinder and more gentle life where the heart of Christ can quietly touch the lives of hurting people.  

When a vision comes, we should never put it in the file of precious memories.  Visions come for a reason.  They come to carry us from where we are to where God wants us to be.  They equip and empower us for a service which would not be seen without going through the vision.  A vision seen and from which we walk away will always have us looking over our shoulder wondering what might have been.  When God's holiness breaks in upon us in an extraordinary way, never look behind for God is surely sending us forward.

Advent IV (The In Between Time)

Advent tells us we live in a time between the first coming of Jesus and the second.  The first is spoken of as coming by the Old Testament prophets, documented as something which did indeed happen by the gospels, and accepted almost without question by the church and the believers who are its witnesses.  The second coming of Jesus is hardly given a glance.  It does not challenge our faith as the idea of Jesus coming again seems to be nothing more than on the edge theology which really has no bearing on the way life is lived in the present age.  

Better to be concerned about degrees for the future, finding a marriage where happy ever after is going to happen, and putting money in the retirement fund than to think about the unlikely possibility that Jesus is going to show up in the clouds to re-order history and create an entirely new way of experiencing reality.  Yet, this is exactly where we live.  In this in between time is exactly where the church is located and it is the real context in which we live.   Over and over the Advent message is to live in a state of readiness.  Advent's call is for us to live as if today, or maybe tomorrow is the day that Christ will return.  The parable of the bridesmaids in Matthew 25 should be understood as a word which speaks clearly about the urgency of living in a state of readiness.  

Some of those within the parable were wise enough to know that readiness was important while others foolishly lived without the urgency of preparation.  While there are things which require our attention, the Advent message is one that reminds us to daily keep an eye toward what God is doing in our midst with every intention of being a part of it.  Participating in the plan of God and expecting Him to show up once again is the life to which Advent beckons us.  It is not a season of being prepared for Christmas, but a season of being prepared for Christ to arrive once again.

At the Onset of Rest

The sky is filled with a heavy gray.  The pecan trees are bare, like skeletons against the sky full of endless clouds.  The ground is littered with the last leaves of fall which have danced one way and then another until spent beyond any hope of dancing again.  The brown earth burnt of all green lays ready to receive those spent leaves for tomorrow's nurturing.  Squirrels are running here and there burying nuts as if hard lean days are to come.  Crow are fussing that the abundant harvest is about done and deer are roaming about in a endless search for something still green.  Ah, winter is near; perhaps, according to some, here.  

Another view is that creation is entering into its Sabbath rest.  Since the first breath of warm air touched the air nearly a year ago, the creation has been at work.  Foliage started sprouting on trees.  The pecans began to show like small green precious stones.  The land started coming to life bringing it power to grow and nurture to the surface once again.  Crops were planted.  Fields were harvested as the produce of the earth.  For such a long time now the creation has been hard at work.  These days which have finally come to us are days of rest.  It is not just the dormant season, but the season of rest.   

Would that we mortals could hear the creation's word to us in these days?  Would that we could hear the voice of the creation as the Voice of the Almighty speaking to us about the order of life first ordained before the Garden?  Even as the creation needs this extended Sabbath rest, so do we need such rest interjected regularly into our lives.  Life is about more than producing and accumulating.  Life is about more than working and staying busy.  It is about living. 

Advent III (The Red Headed Stepchild)

Advcnt does not take us away from  here and now, but it does causes us to see there and beyond.  Advent opens up with a strong eschatological word.  For those not versed in such big and strange words, eschatology refers to things to come and in the case of Advent, it is not what is to come, but Who.  Christ Jesus is to come.  He who has come is scheduled by God the Father to come again to bring history as we know it to its closing moments while bringing all that is earthly into the realm of the Kingdom of God.  The Word of God speaks of the Kingdom of God as something that is and is yet to be and to speak of eschatology is to speak of the "yet to be" as the present reality.   

One of the clearest Words about what is to come is found early in Acts.  After Jesus has been with the disciples for a period of time in his resurrected form, the Word tells us, "...as they were watching, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight,"  (Acts 1:9). As they gazed upward toward heaven, "...two men in white robes stood by them.  They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come again in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.' "  (Acts 1:11)  When He comes again, He will not be coming to provide the church with another date to celebrate on the Christian calendar, but to close the pages on all calendars.  He will come to fully usher in the Kingdom of God upon the earth.  

This Biblical teaching about the return of Christ is the opening word of Advent.  It is also the red headed stepchild of the church as it is hardly mentioned in its preaching or teaching and when the Scripture seems to mandate its message, what is preached is hardly recognizable as a Word about Jesus coming once again in all His glory to bring history as we know to its final moment. Ready or not, Advent tells us that the One who has come is coming again.  

Advent II (The Stand Alone Season)

Advent marks the beginning of the Christian Year.  Even though this is true, no preacher stands and joyously declares "Happy New Year!" for there is nothing festive about the season of Advent.  If Advent is to be characterized, a word like somber is appropriate.  The mood of Advent is one that gives pause to reflection and repentance.  The music is strikingly different, often feeling more like a funeral dirge than a hymn of celebration.  The liturgical color is purple, but were gray an option, it would be a good choice.  

While the church often wants it to be a season of preparation for Christmas as Lent is a season of preparation for Easter, it is hard to force it into such a framework for unlike Lent, Advent is more of a stand alone season on the Christian calendar.  Beginning with Christmas the liturgical calendar takes the church on a spiritual journey as it focuses first on the Incarnation, or the birth of Jesus.  As the next season, Epiphany, comes, we are caused to see through the coming of the men of the East, the mission of the church to the world.  This season is followed Lent, a season of repentance, Easter which enables us to celebrate the resurrection, and then Pentecost, a long season focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit.  

With all this in the rear view mirror and in the memory of our experience, Advent jolts us as it announces what is not yet come, but yet to be.  Advent immediately opens the curtains on a drama not yet played out on stage.  The script has been written, but only the Father whose hand has done the writing knows the details.  Advent is like a modern day trailer for a movie about to be shown as we are enabled to catch a glimpse of the Christ who has come in Bethlehem as a baby coming again, a second time, but not as a flesh and blood child.  Advent opens the drama of the gospel story with the coming of Christ the King in the clouds bringing into existence the hope of the prayer we pray each week, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done."