"Jesus' Family as Refugees"

"Mary, Joseph, and the Child Jesus flee death by escaping to Egypt"

Question:  Was the advent period and the build up to Christmas Eve different from other years for you?   What insights or revelations did you learn from your experience this year? 

Dec 29 2013 Readings: Matthew 2: 13-23,  

We heard through scripture over the Advent weeks leading up the Christmas Eve, the struggles and hardships that both Mary and Joseph had to endure to bring Jesus into the world, yet the attributes of hope, peace, joy and love would be found in the midst of their difficult journey and the birth of Mary’s Boy child.  But the tranquility of the birth and the quietness of the stable was soon to disappear as we heard in the scripture this morning.  Jesus was no longer a baby but now a young infant living in Bethlehem when trouble begins to follow the Holy family once again.  Let us not forget the image of the Holy Family as refugees, fleeing oppression with the threat of certain death.  In fact that is what happened to them.  I believe we must include them as part of the refugee families that are fleeing oppression and the threat of death in many parts of our world today.  But as difficult as it was for Joseph and Mary to trust God they did, and God always came to their rescue.  In fact folks, the whole of the Old Testament is about God rescuing His children in times of despair.

The infant has just received extravagant gifts from exotic visitors from and foreign land, the Magi.  The meaning of His birth, the promise of His life seemed so momentous, so filled with hope, peace, joy and love, and now troubles are brewing once more.    Joseph is awakened by yet another visit from one of God’s angles in a dream.  “There is someone in search of the boy, and they want him dead.”  Can you imagine the panic?  Joseph is once again thrust into despair.  You can just imagine the frenzy of activity around their home, both Mary and Joseph quickly packing whatever they can gather together for yet another journey.  Now it’s out to the street, then to the road that leads to Egypt as fast as possible.   Joseph is now in fear every time he sees a Roman soldier on the road.  The nightmare doesn’t end when they reach their place of refuge either, as word of genocide reaches them, stained with the blood of the first born male of every Jewish mother in the region.  Their wailing and cries can be heard as far away as Egypt.  Can’t you just hear those without faith accusing God, “Heavenly Father why are you letting this happen, why do you not stop this bloodshed?”  We can assume that both Mary and Joseph would be fully aware of the reason why these children were being slaughtered, yet, at the same time in all this chaos and mayhem, they somehow have held onto their hope, trusting that God was weaving a safe path for both parents and child.   Mary and Joseph had been obedient to God’s will for their family.  They had been open, listening and attentive to the Angles nudges.  

For them and for us today the reality of our chaotic world doesn’t stop after the Christmas celebrations end.  For those who have experienced Jesus’ spirit being birth within themselves, it often intensives troubles and hardship for the believers, as it did for Mary and Joseph. Sing “Through It All”

The question we might ask here is: what in this story, can help us today?

May I suggest that God doesn’t interfere in our daily lives by stopping us from making choices, even if our choices create kayos for both us and our neighbor?  But God also doesn’t just stand aside, doing nothing.  No, no we must continue to trust as did Mary and Joseph that God is always working in the background on our behalf and in all situations, working for goodness to prevail, even when hope seems to have avoided us.

We can learn from Joseph and Mary’s choices here because they chose to put their trust in God and in God’s messengers.  The example for us here is: to continue to follow God’s nudging in life.  By them doing so, Jesus is safely returned to Jerusalem to fulfill his destiny.  I believe that same goes for us to.  This is where we must choose to follow our faith by putting our trust in God, for God will make us a way too.  Don’t give in to difficult circumstances but continue to keep hope, peace, joy and love alive in your life.   Do you know the song: “Over my Head I hear Music in the Air”

In the kayos and craziness of the material Christmas that many of us had been caught up in again this year, how attentive, open and listing to the spirit have you been this year?   The Apostil Paul often reminds us that we, like Jesus, have a loving parent who will not leave us stripped bare and alone to face worldly dangers.   As Mary wrapped her Child in the warmth of love and compassion, so God our parent offers to us, spiritual cloth to wrap ourselves in.  This special spiritual cloth contains the gifts of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, love, forgiveness and peace.  May we seek and accept these gifts from God, and may we wear them in life-changing ways as we go forward.

In conclusion many have in their hearts already put away Christmas for next year?   May I suggest putting away the stable, the manger the oxen, sheep, shepherds and Magi, but less us not put away Jesus and his family.   They need to remain visible, to remind us of the story because there are many who still reject or ignore the message that Christmas brings.  

When times are difficult for you, when the road ahead looks bleak and there seems to be no way, God will make a way for you to.  Faith in God is more precious than the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Mere Folks.   Let us continue our journey with the Holy Family in the next few days so we too can experience the complete Christmas.  And let us wait in expectation of the spirit being birthed in you, for He shall come again.    

    

"A Love Not Bound by Rules"

"The 4th Sunday of Advent is Love" 

A Spiritual Master said to his young student: "Rule # 1, Do not physically touch or look directly into the eyes of a women lest your human nature get the best of you"  Just then a rain storm turns a ditch into a river.  On the other side of the rushing waters, a beautiful young lady is pleading for help.  The Master carefully wades across the now river and picks the young lady up in his arms carries her to the other side, sets her down, looks straight into her eyes and tells her everything will be all right.  As the Master and his new student continue their walk, the student finally asks.  "Master rule # 1, I do not understand?"  The Master replies, "There are no rules when Love Calls." 

Dec 23, 2018 Readings:  1 Corinthians 13: 4-7   Luke 1: 26- 38

One great thing about Christmas morning for both children and parents are the surprises.   When else in life do you get to pile 10 or 20 surprises all together at one time, then sit for an hour enjoying each of them? One after another, surprise after surprise.   Even though it is a material Christmas it is wonderful in that way. I can still remember how I felt as a child, the amazement, the astonishment of Christmas morning.  Even the tree seemed different, more alive, bigger and brighter.
Chuck Swindoll writes, “surprises come in many forms and disguises: some good, some borderline, some are amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious.  But there's one thing they all have in common, surprises aren't boring.”   Let me tell you a true story about how God sometimes springs surprises on our lives.   It is a story about a professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day's lectures.   His housekeeper had place the day’s mail on his desk and he began to shuffle through them, discarding most to the wastebasket.  He then noticed a magazine, which was not even addressed to him but delivered to his post box by mistake.  When he opened it, there facing him was an article titled "The Needs of the Congo Mission".   Casually he began to read when he was suddenly consumed by these words: "The need here is great.”   We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo.  The writer went on to say “And it is my prayer as I write this article, God will lay His hand on one - one on whom, already, the Master's eyes have been cast - that he or she shall be called to this place to help us."   Well!  As Paul Harvey would say, now for the rest of the story.  That Professor name was Albert Schweitzer, and after closing the magazine, he wrote this in his diary: "My search is over." I shall give myself to the Congo.  In 1913, Albert Schweitzer opened his hospital, bringing modern medicine to the French Congo.    Now here in lies the surprise:  The magazine was not addressed to Albert, but somehow landed in his mail box, and then somehow fell open to that particular article.  That little article, hidden in a magazine which was intended for someone else, OR WAS IT!!!  It was meant for him.   Now I Ask You could that have been by Chance?  No, I believe it was it truly one of God's surprises.   Sometimes surprises have happen to us like this but in smaller ways, has that ever happen to you?   What mission has God been placed upon your heart, what mission or task are you being called to.    

This morning we heard another one of God’s great surprises, when an angel by the name of Gabriel appeared to a young teenager by the name of Mary.  Through Gabriel with the help of Mary and Joseph, God gave the whole world a surprise, by fulfilling an ancient prophecy.    A miracle was to be preformed through Mary and a convenient of unconditional love was to be made known to the world.  The surprise was that this love would be unlike any other kind of love the world had ever known.  Many today struggle to understand the difference between human love and God’s love.  In our world, human love is often confused with infatuation, personal pleasure, we sometimes have even been know to love things.  And most generally we look for confirmation that we are loved by a return.   This kind of love is fragile and in many cases similar to happiness because it doesn’t last long, let alone be forever.   Quite often People fall in and out of love quite easily.   The reason for and the difficulty with this kind of love is its tailings, meaning it has conditions.  In order to keep this love exciting and alive we need to have it reinforced, I love you and you should then in return, love me.  Often one of us needs to do something, to prove or to remind us how precious we are to them.  As strange as it may sound the need for acknowledgement becomes the flaw.  But there is other kind of love, God’s love, it is a love without conditions.  Here in lay the magic that makes it flawless, having no strings or tailings attached to it.  Here is another strange thing about God’s love.  The only way you know you have it, is when you share it.  It doesn’t come from others nor does it need reinforcement.  It is already within you.  It was placed in you when you were conceived, you were made in its image.  All you need is just to accept it, trust it, and believe in it and then share it.  Do you know why it makes you feel so good!  It’s not because the other person loves you, it is because of your love, love coming out of you.  Being the lovable person you were meant to be, even when and if others rejected it.  Rejection has no power over this love.   We know from 1 Corinthians 13:  that this kind of love isn’t like our human love, because it is always patient, always kind.  It does not envy, or boast nor is it proud, it is not rude, nor self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, never delights in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, trusts, hopes and always perseveres.  You do not have to say or do anything physical to win it or retain it, it is already in you, in fact you are its truth when you share it.   This love was made visible for the world to see through Mary’s boy child.    This love is much harder to understand but much easier to accept and hold on to.  Here is another one of its surprises, if you accept yourself as the gift and embrace it, it can change the love you offer others and it makes it impossible for conditions to steal it away.  It also has the power to make other forms of human love tolerable, forgivable and workable.

It is pretty hard for us to conceive and live a love that only loves.   A love that says:

 I love you NO MATTER WHAT.  And here is another on of God’s surprises. When we examine the story of Mary and Joseph we can see the struggle with the conditional love of family and community.  You can imagine Joseph’s doubt with Mary’s pregnancy, how could she be with child, the Shame brought to their families.    It would also be shown to us through 12 disciples who struggle with their conditional human love for the Master.  Jesus’ love for them didn’t change when they rejected him in his final hour, nor did he stop loving those who were threatened by his love, those who hurt him, and even those who put his body to death on a cross.   Then in a super surprise this tragedy turns into the greatest act of unconditional love the world would ever know.   How did He do it?  He truly was God’s love incarnate.

We must begin to understand that this love is different.   Those who try to exist on human love alone will never see the flaw, nor gain the gift.  This year let Christ be birthed in you. Let that be your surprise gift, that you too are love, accept it now, it is what you are meant to be, you will never be the same again as it has the power to turn your human love into something beautiful. 

"The Universal Christ"

The Universal Christ

 From the Beginning of Time

Christ is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of God’s nature, sustaining the universe by God’s powerful command. —Hebrews 1:3, Jerusalem Bible

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. The word Christ is a title, meaning the Anointed One, which many Christians so consistently applied to Jesus that to us it became like a name. But a study of Scripture, Tradition, and the experience of many mystics reveals a much larger, broader, and deeper meaning to “the Christ.”

The above passage from Hebrews says that Christ “sustains the universe.” The concept of Christ can be used to describe reality in an archetypal, symbolic, and profound way. But it names the shape of the universe before it names the individual who typifies that shape, the one we call Jesus Christ. All of creation first holds God’s anointing (“beloved” status), and then Jesus brings the message home in a personal way over thirteen billion years later!

This is a different way of thinking for so many Christians. The three synoptic Gospels are largely talking about Jesus, the historical figure who healed and taught and lived in human history. John’s Gospel presents the trans-historical “Christ” (which is why so very few stories in John coincide with Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This Christ frequently makes universal “I AM” statements and claims (see John 6:35, 48; 8:12, 24, 58; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1), mirroring the unspeakable name of the Holy One (Exodus 3:14).

Many people don’t realize that the Apostle Paul never met the historical Jesus and hardly ever quotes Jesus directly. In almost all of Paul’s preaching and writing, he refers to the Eternal Christ Mystery or the Risen Christ rather than Jesus of Nazareth before his death and resurrection. The Risen Christ is the only Jesus that Paul ever knew! This makes Paul a fitting mediator for the rest of us, since the Omnipresent Risen Christ is the only Jesus we will ever know as well (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

Jesus’ historical transformation (“resurrected flesh”) allows us to more easily experience the Presence that has always been available since the beginning of time, a Presence unlimited by space or time, the promise and “guarantee” of our own transformation (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-58). In Jesus, the Timeless Christ became time bound so we could enjoy the personal divine gaze (see 1 John 1-2).

Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is the Christ. Jesus fully accepted that human-divine identity and walked it into history. Henceforth, the Christ “comes again” whenever we are able to see the spiritual and the material coexisting, in any moment, in any event, and in any person. All matter reveals Spirit, and Spirit needs matter to “show itself”! I believe “the Second Coming of Christ” happens whenever and wherever we allow this to be utterly true for us. This is how God continually breaks into history—even before the first homo sapiens stood in awe and wonder, gazing at the stars.

"The Christmas Blues"

What does the season of Advent mean to you?

Nov 29 2015 Advent 1 Readings:   Psalm 25   Luke 21: 25-36

It seems to me that no matter how hard we try, every year at the beginning of Advent we become preoccupied with pre-programed Christmas traditions and the stress of keeping them up.  Many have forget what the season of Advent is really all about.   We get doing, doing, and doing, often out of some form of obligation to church, family or community.  These activities often cloud out our reflective critical thinking about what Advent and Christmas is all about.  Does this sound familiar to you?   

Did you know that Advent is actually the beginning of the New Year for the Christian Church.   It is the first season of the liturgical year for Christians.  First there is Advent, then Christmas, Ordinary Time or as some demonization’s refer to it as a Time after Epiphany, then Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time  or as some refer it as a Time after Pentecost.    Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Eve and as many do not know, includes the four preceding Sundays? 

The general meaning of the word Advent means, the appearance or arrival of a notable person, thing or event?    

The four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve were originally meant for preparation. It was never meant to be a season of rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying once again, to get it all in. The holiday shopping, the push to attend or put on the events and the festivities that have become our traditions.  Many North Americans have bought into the new commercial shopping craze called “BLACK FRIDAY”.  Did anyone here see the shoppers beating each other up over a sale item on the TV last week?  How crazy is that.   Often for many, it has become a time to lose our good sense do doing, spending, and indulging.   Many work themselves into a frenzy trying to keep up the seasonal traditions of family, community, church and gift giving.   Does any of this sound familiar to you?

 Two elderly gentlemen are strolling, one shares.  "Live for the moment is my motto.  You’ll never know when your time is up".  "You could step out into the street tomorrow and WHAM, you get hit by a cement truck!  You'd be sorry then, if you didn't fill your bucket list.   That's what I say - live for the moment."  What about you,    "What's your motto?"  His friend replies:  "My motto is, if you’re going to step out into the street, you had better first look both ways.”  Critical reflective thinking during our moments of Advent just might be a good thing to do forks.  

You know I think that is what happens too many at Christmas time, it is as though we have the blinders on and don’t see it coming.  The aftermath I mean, of what is being created by some of our mindless doings. 

I think that living for the moment is not a bad thing to do but not if you are so busy that you are not present to the moments taking time to assess and reflect on what is really important in your life.   Living without checks and balances being conscious and present to the moments I mean, can cause a great deal of grief in a person’s life.     In order to be present during Advent, may I suggest that would include, some form of scriptural readings, discernment and reflection upon your experiences of Christmases past along with looking to a future that is filled with hope.

Remembering that our hope does not exist in past events, or in the things we already know or have.  Our Hope is reserved for things that are hidden, unknown or unseen and for those who have hope, their lives can be transformed and changed so as to experience something new.  

Christmas for many is still all about the past, because most of us live Christmas through our past experiences.  Christmas hope therefor cannot even be preparing for the child that has already come, because as I have already stated hope cannot be found in past or in something we already know.  Advent “Hope” is for what then?   Our Hope here, is reserved for the second coming of Christ as you heard in the reading from Luke this morning.  Luke 21: 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.    

May I suggest that the first Sunday in advent is a time to reflect on and re-evaluate the way in which we have responded to Christmases past?   To dis-guard the sentimental false hopes we have built up around this time of year.   But it is also meant to be a time when we look with hope to our future, a time for transformation and change?   It was never meant to be a shopping party folks.   I would also like to suggest to you that many of us have lost the reality and true meaning of Christmas over the years.  Many have traded it in for a mixture of secular and Christian traditions.  The commercialization of the season has stolen away its meaning for many Christians and their church gatherings.  The Advent season was not meant to be a repeat of Christmases past as many of our traditions demand, but to re-evaluate what has become meaningless, mundane and extravagant.  The season leading up to Christmas Eve is often over flowing with excessive food, money and doing. Often we run the risk of burn out because we think we have to keep on keeping up with the many traditions of family, community and church, much of which is written in concrete obligations, things we feel we must do. 

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would probably be appalled at what we have done with this loving intimate and transforming moment in our history.   But behold our hope does not lay in a manger some 2000 years ago either, it lay in the transforming unseen risen Christ who is to come again.  For the promise is, that He will continue to come again and again until every knee shall bow and ever tongue will confesses that Jesus is Lord or all.   

The Season of Advent is not meant as a time to relive the events of Christmases past, but to be present to the really of the risen Christ who will come again just as the scriptures have promised.  Our hope also lay in a Kingdom free from violence, war, material wealth, power and control over its people for personal gain.  Christs’ kingdom will be a kingdom ruled by the unconditional love of God.   The very image in which we were created.  My challenge for you during the season of Advent is this:  begin reading and reflecting on being present to Advent with the hope that his spirit will transform and change you this season.  Let us pray.