"The Virgin Birth, Fact Or Myth"

                               “The Virgin Birth, Fact or Myth?"

Some believe, some don’t where do you stand?   Just how important is it concerning who Jesus is for you?   How do you answer the question: “Who do you say I am?” 

Dec 27 2015   Psalm 148,   Luke: 2 41-52

Let us examine the passage from Luke 2: verses 41-52.  Luke clarifies for his readers that the boy Jesus was a very human person as well as having unusual spiritual insight and at least an elementary awareness of his divine mission.  The portrait we may have here is of a headstrong adolescent who disappeared from the company of Galilean travelers as they left Jerusalem after the Passover festival.  He went missing for three days, a terrifyingly long time for his anxious parents.  My wife and I can attest to this terrifying and anxious feeling as we lost our middle son at the local fall fair grounds one fall at the age of 3 while checking out the horse barn.   After a terrifying frantic search for what seemed like hours we found him with a friend who had seen him wondering around in the arena.  Mary and Joseph finally found Jesus in the temple questioning the learned scholars about spiritual matters. Naturally, Mary scolded him, as all mothers would.  Instead of submitting to her rebuke, he answered her back, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn't you know that I had to be about my Fathers business?  But they did not understand his answer.” The distance between the boy and his parents was already widening.  Who was this young adult who so mystified them?

The claim that Jesus was fully divine, meaning he couldn’t be a human being was not the belief of the early Christian Church.  The perspective fully divine began to take shape in the early part of the 3^rd Century after Jesus’ death and is still being taught as doctrine in some of the modern day Christian denominations.  We know from biblical records that this was contrary to the early Orthodox Christian church because Jesus was only known by the majority as a Jewish Rabbi, a very special Rabbi but yet, only a Rabbi.  Let us recall in John 20: 16 at the tomb of resurrection, Mary Magdalene encounters a gardener, after realizing the entity she is speaking with is not a gardener by Jesus himself, calls out “Rabboni!”  Meaning Teacher or Rabbi.   Jesus was never considered by the majority of his closest disciples to be God incarnate but was viewed by the early Christians as a unique agent of God with great spiritual insight and powers.   

The notion that Jesus was fully divine didn’t really come to light until some of the 1st and 2nd-century texts, written by Paul, were officially canonized to become part of what we now know as the New Testament.   At different points in his writings, Paul implies indirectly to the divine character of Jesus, but he never makes a direct connection to the claim.  To this very day, there is still scholarly debates going on as to whether or not we can call Jesus God.   I have to admit that I myself at one point in my faith journey could be quoted as publicly taking sides in the debate. 

It was the Apostle Paul within his generous contribution to the writings found in the Epistles of the New Testament that this theological perspective comes to light, Jesus as  “The Son of God”.  This also sparked a new theological perspective, Jesus as “The Son of Man” and the debate continues.   Was Jesus in fact God incarnate or was he just a man, or was he both Son of God and Son of Man, both divine and human?

It has been suggested that in some of the Christian churches today, to help prevent the total humanizing of Jesus, there has been an overemphasis of his deity.  In fact it appears that some theological camps or perspectives want Jesus to be only fully human and others want him to be only fully God.  May I suggest to you that to minimize the humanity of Jesus is as heretical as the overemphasis placed on his deity?  The writer Luke does not attempt to do anything more than tell his story and leave the reader to answer the crucial personal question which confronts us all: Who is this man we call Jesus?

Jesus himself often avoided a direct answer to this question all the way to his death.  When confronted he often turned his answer into the question: “Who do you say I am?”

Is it then heresy to question the age old story of a virgin birth as historical fact? 

Most of the ammunition to keep Jesus as divine comes to us from the virgin birth as historical fact, being conceived by the Holy Spirit not by human means.  Holding tightly to this view as historical fact clears the way for Jesus to be completely divine.  He would be void of a human nature, the nature that is prone to missing the mark.  Thus we have the perspective that Jesus was born outside the curse placed on all human seed allowing Jesus to be free from sin and fully divine.  

But there are many Christians who struggle with theology of the virgin 

birth and do not see it as historical fact, neither do they see it as a fairy tale but as historical myth.  Myth when used as a noun refers to  a traditional story, concerning the early history of a people that explains some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involves a supernatural being or events.  The historical myths of all ancient writings, including the bible always, have a hidden truth contained within the story.  It is up to the seeker to uncover the truth behind the myth. For example, a virgin birth would not prevent Jesus from experiencing the fullness of being human.   He was to experience everything we experience and be tested with every temptation of the human nature, see Matthew 4: 1-3.  The understanding of this theological perspective would allow Jesus to be full alive, fully human yet containing the full embodiment of the divine nature of God.   

May I suggest to you here that either way there is room for the understanding that Luke’s intentions in telling his version of the Christmas story was to provide a narrative which would start the debate that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.  Let me leave you with the question that we all have to wrestle with in the development of our own faith.  The question Jesus asked his disciples:  “Who do you say I am”   

The Divine and Human as one, Incredulous!

Christmas Eve service 2016

I would like to tell you a story I heard recently about a nativity pageant, that like life itself didn't go quite as planned... The youth group at a city church was performing a manger scene.  Joseph and Mary and all the other characters were in place and ready.  They had practiced their parts with seriousness and commitment.   During the performance as the shepherds were proceeding to the altar steps, Mary and Joseph were looking earnestly at the straw in the manger, which contained a single naked light bulb that was playing the part of the glowing newborn Jesus, the light of the world.    With his back to the congregation, one of the shepherds said to the person playing Joseph, in a very loud whisper for all the cast to hear, "Well, Joe, when you gonna pass out cigars?"    Mary and Joseph's quiet snicker erupted into loud bursts of laughter.  This caused The chief angel, standing on a chair behind them to break out in laughter also.  She was laughing so hard that she fell off her chair and took the curtained back drop and many of the staged props with her.    The whole set was in shambles.   But do you know what?  The only thing that didn't go to pieces was that light bulb in the manger. ... it never stopped shining. --- Folks that baby in the manger is a light for the entire world.

We gather tonight to celebrate a birthday, but not just an ordinary birthday, for this birthday involves all of us here tonight and all those around the world who have come to accept, believe in, and practice the Christian religion.  In the beginning before our religion was formerly formed by the early apostils, we were simply know as People of The Way, followers of the light, the light that shines in our darkness days when things are not going as planned either.  The light of Christ is a light that shows us the way to wholeness.  For the early followers it was the same, they too struggled and tried very hard to follow in his way and abide by teachings.  Some began to see and understand that Jesus was not just an ordinary man, his extraordinary compassion for humankind, and his understanding of life and death seemed beyond their comprehension.  He performed many miracles, the lamb would walk again, the sick and possessed would be healed and set free, and the dead would rise.   Jesus did not teach from a pulpit within a synagogue or church building but simply went from community to community teaching on the hillsides, in the streets and in people’s homes.   His message was simply to Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as you love yourself.  He choose just ordinary people like you and me to carry on his teachings, and his message of salvation and love throughout the world.  The Christmas Story was not meant to be a celebration for on one specific day or evening of the year, but was meant to inspire us to live as though every day was the last day of our lives.  To live with hope, for a new and better tomorrow, to love others as He loved us, to work for peace and justice in our personal lives, our community and in the wider world.       Jesus’ beloved disciple John, writes of a cosmic Christmas story in his writings found in the Gospel of John.  John doesn’t start with the human birth of Jesus but his gospel begins at the beginning of creation.  He uses the metaphor of the word, which in my perspective was an entity that we call the Christ.  The Word or the Christ became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  John goes on to say: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.  John’s Jesus is not confined to a manger 2000 years ago but rather reaches out to us from the very beginning of time itself.  Jesus was no ordinary man – Let us hear these words from the gospel of John   Chapter One:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

This is truly what we celebrate here this night.  A love and its story of cosmic prepositions. He was there in the beginning as the Christ, just as he is still with us in spirit now, the Spirit of Holiness who speaks only the truth to our hearts.  May your Christmas experience this year be a blessed one.   

"Human and Divine Together As One " Impossible?

That a child would be born into our world, who would fill his life so much with the love of God, that in him , thousands upon thousands would be moved to make the incredible claim that they had actually met their God in person. 

Dec 20 2015   Readings:  Psalm 80   Luke 1: 46-55

One of the great theologians and renowned author of our time, Karl Barth, was asked to be a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School.   Dr. Barth being quite elderly, not well and quite tired, sat quietly after his arrival.  The organizers for the lecture thought after speaking Dr. Barth shouldn't be expected to handle the strain of the many question that were expected from students.  It was decided that the presider would ask one general question for all.  He turned to the renowned theologian and asked, "Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?    It seemed the perfect question for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into print.  The students held pencils right up against their writing pads, ready to note down the great insights of one of the greatest theologian of their time.  Dr. Barth closed his tired eyes, and he thought for a minute, and then he half smiled, opened his eyes, and said to those young theology students, "The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so”

Karl is right folks, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest love story ever written!  If it weren't for Christmas we might never have known the intensity of the love that God has for each and every one of us.

Mary and Joseph, far from home because of imperial rule, a peasant mother giving birth in unsanitary substandard conditions... There was no fanfare, no religious delegation and no royalty in attendance.  They just gently laid their newborn in that manger, amazed at the miracle of new birth, gauzing in joyful celebration as they looked at his little face, just like every new parent does.   But this child would be different for He was to be the sign of God’s true unconditional love for the world to see and to know personally. 

True love accepts us for who we really are; God chooses to love us precisely because we are all His and because we are all subjected to the human condition... Let us set aside the myth that we are loved only if we are good, for if that were true, none would be loved.  Let us also set aside the myth that if we are bad we are not loved, for if that were true none would be loved.   How come the same?   Mary and Joseph had nothing to offer but their obedience to a calling beyond themselves and that is precisely all we have to offer, a calling beyond ourselves.  It is an invitation to trust and surrender our lives over to the care and control of something greater than ourselves. 

Jesus was to be the Son, the true Son of God so patiently waited for, and now to be born into our world.  This child would be the ONE, the one who was willing to finally embody God’s unconditional love for all to see and experience.  Not just some of the time, not when it was convenient, but in every waking, breathing minute of every single day... It is the birth of that love into our world that we celebrate at Christmas.    It’s not about being bad or good folks.  It’s about a love so unconditional that its power transcends good and bad.   Who would have ever guessed that this crossing of paths, this intersection of the divine and the human, would take place in the remote village of Bethlehem?  That a child would be born into our world, who would fill his life so much with the love of God, that in him , thousands upon thousands would be moved to make the incredible claim that they had actually met their God in person.   On Christmas night God would sent out a love letter of cosmic proportions. This was the moment, in that little town of Bethlehem when God and humanity were joined as a bride and groom on their wedding day.  As Jesus grew and went out into the world, so our understanding of just how much God loves us also grew.   We find in Jesus that God's love doesn't demand perfection, that forgiveness isn't given away sparingly but recklessly and indiscriminately, that unconditional really means unconditional, and that God's love is completely and thoroughly inclusive.  Why was and still is, this profound truth so hard for the religious and non-religious to grasp and hold on to?   We find that even the likes of us gathered here this morning fall within the embrace of that love, and that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.   But I also know this folks,…. that.without Christmas my life would be positively unbearable!  ---  that for me, the baby in the manger is the light of my world, even when my world is in shambles...For in that baby the Divine and the human miraculously cross paths.   The infant Jesus is our living, breathing sign of the immeasurable love that God has had for all of us from the very beginning.

Christmas is the living promise that we are never ever alone.  No matter where we are in life, no matter in what condition we find ourselves, no matter how far we might stray away, or how unfaithful we are, God, the supreme lover, will pursue us in love for eternity!    It's a love that never stops shining.

May God bless each of you and those you love this Christmas. 
                               
                                  Bonny M sings Mary's Boy Child 

Still Still Still

"What Will It Be For You"

Happiness Verses Joy 

Often we think of happiness and joy in the same breath but are they the same?  What do you think?

  Dec 13 2015 Advent 3   Isaiah 12: 2-6   Philippians 4: 4-7

Have you grown up with an understanding that being happy or joyful are basically one in the same?   May I suggest to you that this notion might not be true.  Some scholars suggest that worldly happiness is fleeting and illusive and that it is a product of the mind, brought about by desire.  We think we feel happiness in our heart but it only resides in the head and doesn’t hang around very long either.  

In fact happiness comes and goes just like your pay check.  One minute you have it the next minute someone or some- thing has it.  Did you know that the Joy found through faith in God and taught by Jesus, does not require happiness as a companion?    Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.  This joy is not of the mind it is a deeper joy, a knowing, something of the heart it doesn’t make you happy it makes you joyful.  When you accept this joy, it’s yours forever and no one can take it from you, although you do have the power to refuse, ignore or reject it.   Once you have accepted this joy, the words from all holy scriptures begin to speak to your heart.  Such as Psalm 27: God is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? God is the stronghold of my life: of whom shall I be afraid.  Joy has the power to dispel fear.  Happiness has no power here. 

As strange as this may sound, the companion for biblical Joy isn’t happiness it is struggle or suffering.  Does that disturb you?!!   You can’t have one without the other, they are companions.  Now I ask you, try to make struggle or suffering a companion for worldly happiness.  No matter how you try it, making them companions just doesn’t seem to work.   Yet suffering and Joy as buzzer as it may sound to some, do go together, much the same as hot and cold, darkness and light, bad and good.  You cannot know one without the other.   Jesus’ conception and birth produced pain and suffering for both Joseph and Mary, yet brought them great Joy, just as Jesus’ suffering on the cross produced great Joy for our world.  The bible tells us that the Joy He offers us, would be a joy the world could not understand.  Somewhere deep down in our hearts we know that you can’t really appreciate light until you have been in the pit of darkness.  You can’t feel relief, unless you have experienced the pain.   Joy and suffering are companions, they go hand in hand.  You can’t really appreciate the joy of living that the New Testament offers us, until you have learned to work with the bitterness of life that the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament offer us.  We also know that continual happiness is a foolish dream, a fragment of our imagination and besides, it’s illusive.  Joy on the other hand can bring you something much greater than happiness, it can bring you contentment.  Meaning you can be happy with nothing.  Now I know that’s not good news for some of us especially those who have a lot to lose.   Here is a stranger thing about happiness and joy.  To maintain happiness, it requires you to hold on, to cling to someone or some “thing” believing you cannot be happy without it.  To maintain Joy, it requires you to let go, let go of “things” not clinging to anything you will receive the freedom joy offers.    Then something profound happens, it changes you.   Don't get me wrong I am not down on happiness we just need to understand its true purpose and limitations.  
I want you to think about this for a moment folks, the companion of worldly happiness is to gather and achievement not to be contented.  You have to do something, you have to achieve something in order to fulfill or attain worldly happiness, and we all know that this kind of happy feeling only lasts for a short period.   You can’t maintain it for long, soon we slip back into old patterns of wanting or needing more, just so we can be happy again.  It is a vicious circle of unending anxiety and confusion.   With happiness contentment is eluded.   On the other hand as strange as it may sound, the companion of Joy is to struggle.  As we struggle with the “things” of life and then let them go, contentment begins to find you.  Once you have experienced joy, no one can take it from you, but it is up to you to maintain it.  It doesn’t come from things, and it doesn’t just make you happy it fills an emptiness within you and when it happens, you begin to know and understand what the bible teaches us about the suffering that brings Joy.    One of the greatest examples I know of, especially for women is, pregnancy.  It’s scary at first, then you become uncomfortable, your body begins to loose it shapeliness.  Often rashes can brake out; there could be morning sickness, major mood swings can occur.  It doesn’t stop there either: soon you feel the pain and many suffer during the hours of labor, then it comes.   Mothers tell of the overwhelming joy, of great relief, and a wonderful sense of contentment. Now everything is changed, not just momentarily but forever.  This was the experience of Mary and Joseph on that wonderful night.  Joy did not mean that their troubles were over, and neither is ours, but the joy Jesus would bring to the world would last for eternity.  True Joy is the quiet confident assurance of God’s love in our lives no matter what.   God assures us, I will be there for you through the good and bad day of your life, all you need to do is trust in Me.  To have a relationship with His son is the most joyful thing you will ever do in your lifetime.  For He is truly the source of Joy, He is the Prince of Peace, He offers Hope to those who feel lost and loves us unconditional.   Isn’t that GREAT!!!  do you have this JOY!!!!

Did you know that there is such a thing as wasted suffering?   What I mean here is, suffering can get trapped as it become rooted in un-forgiveness or pride, revenge, anger, hatred, jealously, or good old conditional love, rendering it wasted.  The scriptures tell us about how destructive these things can be for us.  You know the old joke,   I paid dearly for my misery, and no one is going to take it from me.   The limiest test for unhealthily suffering is the absence of joy.  Again what is Joy?  May I suggest to you that Joy is the quiet confident assurance of God’s love in our lives no matter the circumstances.   Wasted suffering can only produce more agony if rooted in any of the things I just mentioned.  Pain is prolonged and intensified because of where it is trapped.   On the other hand suffering that is not wasted is rooted in a relationship with God in Christ.  Jesus teaches us that our suffering is not wasted if we can turn our suffering into compassion for others.  By serving others we not only bring hope to them, we begin to feel the Joy of serving.   When we can turn our suffering into forgiveness for those who have trespassed against us, we not only bring hope, we begin to feel the freedom our Joy offers us through the gift of forgiveness.   If I can look into a mirror and truthfully love the person I see, it fills the heart of God to overflowing and I begin to feel the contentment and Joy of God's unconditional love.   You are precious, unique and loved, may you remember that your name is carved on the palm of God hand, and God will never forsake or you.   

                                            Let there be Joy

"The Peace That Passes Understanding"

When you hear these words “The peace of Christ be with you”   What comes to mind? 

Dec 6 2015 Readings:  Advent 2 John 14: 22-27

This morning I would to take a moment and focus on the creation story as found written in Genesis 1.   In the beginning, Humankind existed in perfect peace and harmony with God the creator.  That’s the story.  Unfortunately, this perfect state of harmony and peace was rudely disrupted by the intrusion of something we know as free will and personal desire.  Well, we all know what happened then right?    May I suggest that deep within the human spirit is this great desire to re connect to that relationship of peace and harmony with our creator once again.   Thus we have the spiritual battle of personal desire and free will over the peace and harmony we once enjoyed.     In order for true peace to be restored in our lives once again, something has to change.   As I had mentioned on the first Sunday of Advent, Advent for the Christian is the season of transformation and change.   Many teachings in our world today believe that real peace is on the other side of conflict and can be brought about by human effort.   That humans can be the source of pure love, perfect peace, hope and true joy.  This is a false teaching because our world is plagued with domestic strife, political rivalry, religious separation, ethnic hostilities, emotional and economic instability and wide spread social disorder that continue to dominate our world.   All human efforts to restore us to this perfect state of harmony and produce a complete peace in our world, have failed.   Many peace treaties have been signed and many peace organizations are in search for peace but unfortunately there is no peace.  No parliaments can effectively legislate it and none of our laws from governments have been able to maintain it.  Here in lies a major question for us today?    Maybe we are looking in the wrong place for peace and maybe we do not understand that this state of harmony and peace was not meant for the world.  May I suggest here, that it is an inner peace we seek, not formulated in our minds and not of the world, but an inner peace that quenches the spirit?  We are not to look to the world for this peace but are to look to its source, to God, who offers peace of mind in harmony with the spirit.   If we look closely at the story found in Genesis 1, true peace only existed between the created humans in the Garden of Eden and God.  Our world, planet earth. had already been created from the kayo, know of as the big bang.  May I suggest that this is just another expression for our Creator clapping his hands together to bring order to creation?   Please note here I did not say bring peace to creation, only order.   For I believe, that peace we are talking about here cannot come from created order, the world, nor can it come from any other physical creation.  In the story of Genesis 1, peace and harmony only existed between the human and God while in Eden and continued until humans discovered their free will and the desire to exercise it.    Now I don’t know about you but free will and personal desire have gotten me into a heap of trouble over the years.   When people ask me today how are you doing Sim?  Often I say “just trying to keep out of trouble”.  Well what I really mean is:  I’m trying to set my will aside when dealing with others, all the while looking to God for guidance.   I did say trying right!!!!  

Therefore it seems to me that true peace cannot come from us.  True peace comes to us from that which created us, from God.  We  Christians understand Jesus to be the carrier of peace and our scriptures often refer to Him as the Prince of Peace.  As followers of his way we don’t say “my peace I give to you”, we say, “the peace of Christ be with you”, and our response back is “and also with you”   When we quote this, we speak the truth, for true peace doesn’t come from us, it comes to us, through surrendering our ways for the ways of the Christ.   In verse 2 of all of these writings: Ephesians 1, Philippians 1, or 2 Thessalonians 1:  they all make this statement “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.   This genuine peace is a divine gift and for those who surrender their ways, for the ways of God, they will experience it.   They truly fear not. 

For the authentic Christian it comes as a result of taking Jesus into your heart, not you’re your head folks but your heart and there, accepting him as mentor and Master over your life.  You will then experience this peace in times of personal joy but also in times of suffering from deep grief, pain, or loss.    Somehow through the mystical power of surrender by entrusting whatever it is to the care and control of Christ, this extraordinary peace that passes all understanding will flood over you.  This peace has the power to defeat fear and anxiety.  It can quite the voices of jealously, anger, resentment or deep conflict.   You’ll feel lighter, more carefree, unburdened and you will have the strength to face all personal circumstances.   These entities can no longer take you over, they don’t hang around long and become for many just fleeting moments.   It is an inner peace experience, within your spirit and this amazing experience allows you to see the world around you and your circumstance differently, with less fear, more compassion, a greater calmness, and a sense of hope.    John 14: verse 27 is where Jesus first introduces us to his gift of peace.   “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives, do not let you hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”   

Hope, peace Love and Joy are gifts of the spirit that come to us not from the world but from God.    The world would have us believe that we can be the source of these gifts, but the truth is the gifts do not come from us, we are not the source, because we are flawed with conditions and personal agendas.   Worldly peace is also flawed in the same way.  God’s peace is a divine gift offered to all, packaged in grace and wrapped in 

God’s love, fully inclusive with no conditions attached.

 The Apostle Paul speaks of this peace as “the peace of God which transcends all understanding:   because it is not of this world.    Worldly thinking will never understand it, for it is a language of the spirit.   ” This kind of peace will enable Christians to live with a peace filled life, fearless in a world that is full of tension, turmoil and hostility.    God will not remove tension, hostilities or difficult circumstances from your life, but those who follow in the ways of Christ will remain unafraid and uninitiated by the raging tempest and hostility of the world around them. This unique peace that Jesus gives is transforming not just for your inner self but in your outer appearance as well.   As you surrender yourself and your way, for His way, the ways of God, you will be blessed.         

"Will Jesus Really Come Again?"

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 I have tried, every year at the beginning of advent I along with others become preoccupied with the stress of doing.  Doing, doing, doing, often out of obligation to church, family or community.  How about you?   It appears that our mindless doings can cause us to become distracted from the real significance and meaning that Advent offer us.   Believe it or not, this is not, nor was it ever meant to be a season of rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off trying once again to get in our holiday shopping or pushing ourselves to squeeze in all the events and festivities that have become our traditions.  How many of us got taken in by newest commercial shopping tradition here in the western part of the world!  "BLACK FRIDAY".  Often for many,myself included it has become a time to lose our good sense of doing, spending, and indulging.   We often work ourselves to a frenzy trying to keep up the seasonal traditions of family, community, church and gift giving.   Are you with me Folks?  

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?"  The older gent replies:  "My motto is, if you’re going to step out into the street, you had better look both ways"    

You know I think that is what happens too many of us at Christmas time, it is as though we have the blinders on and we don’t see it coming.  I mean the aftermath of what we are creating, with our doings in the moment.   I think that living for the moment might be an OK thing to do folks, but not if we are so busy that we get lost in the moment and don’t see the circumstances we are building around our doing.   You just might get hit with that cement truck.  I believe the essence of that saying, especially during this time of the year should be: be present to the moments in your life.  In order to be present, may I suggest that would include, understanding and reflecting upon your experiences of Christmases pass, along with looking to a future filled with hope.  Remembering that hope does not exist in past events, or in the things we now have or know, hope is reserved for things unseen and for those who can be transformed and changed for a new tomorrow.  

Christmas is not just all about the past, yet most of us live Christmas through our past.  Christmas is about being present to the moment and it is about our lives in the future. 

Each Sunday of Advent should remind us that the Christ is coming once again to transform and change many.  He originally came as an infant, Then he came again through resurrection as the Christ and is here now in the present and he will come again in the future.  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?   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 downer.  

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 and 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 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 cannot, not do.  

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would probably be appalled at what we have done to and with this loving intimate and transforming moment in our history.   Our hope does not lay in a

manger some 2000 years ago, it lay in the transforming risen Christ that has and will continue to come into our midst.  For the promise is, that He will continue to come again and again until every knee has bowed and every tongue confesses that Jesus the Christ is Lord 

of 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 Christ who is in our midst.   It is our hope that there will be a time as scripture states when he comes again to establish 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 HEART not he head and it will abide within the will of God.   My challenge for you during the season of Advent is this:  are you willing to accept his coming and begin to reflect on being present to the moment, with the hope that his spirit will transform and change  you this season.                                                     

                                                           " A song of Hope"

"EGO" Edging God Out

Can anyone name a place in today’s world where will you find a King or Monarch and his Kingdom?  There are a total of 28 you can google them to get the list.   What images comes to mind when you hear the words a King and his Kingdom?    

Nov 25, 2012       2 Samuel 23: 1-7  John 18: 33-37

Herod knew all about kings and their kingdoms.  In fact he himself was a king, the king of Judea was his title.  When he asked Jesus if he is the king of the Jews, Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  In other words Jesus was saying the Kingdom he reigns over is nothing like the worldly Kingdom Herod knows and understands.  “If it were” Jesus tells Herod, “my servants would have fought to the death to protect me from being arrested.”   The King and Kingdom Jesus makes claim to, is not ego centered.  Herod as with many of us in today’s modern world, cannot comprehend a King or a Kingdom void of EGO. When we look around at the leadership in our world today within our governments, our political systems in the west or the dictatorships and Kingdoms of the East we see EGO dominates their core.  This is one of the reasons the Dalai Lama is hated and feared in the East.  Jesus further confuses Herod as he goes on to explain his kingdom is not of this world but it is in this world but has come from another place.   The open  discussion we had earlier about what comes to mind when you hear the words king or kingdom displayed how ego centered we think of our leaders are, be they politicians in the western world or kings and dictators who rule in the eastern part of our world.   In other words Jesus is describing a Kingdom free from violence, war, material wealth, power and control over its people for personal gain.  Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom ruled by the HEART not he head and abides within the will of his Father.   Same world but two different kings and kingdoms.  One who listens and responds to the voice of EGO {devil} and the other who listens and responds to the voice of truth {God}

Let us reflect for a moment upon one of the examples from the Old Testament, King David.  At first he is just a humble shepherd boy whom God has chosen to lead his people.  A humble fearless shepherd who is eager to slay the lion, one who would do no harm to his flock.  This humble shepherd boy would put his trust in the Almighty, then  face and defeat the giant Goliath.  He starts out listening to and following the voice of truth heard from a prophet and he obeys.  David's ego begins to feed on power as he becomes a King.  Something changes in him and he begins to build a set of circumstances that would bring havoc and kayos to him for the rest of his life.  His devilish ego would get the best of him in the end, as it brings him to covet another mans wife and he has him sent to his death. 
   

Eckhart Tolle in his book the “The Power of Now” describes ego as an entity that is part of our human nature that needs to feed in order to thrive and stay alive.  The interesting thing about ego is that it doesn’t care what it feeds on.  It could either be a positive or a negative feed, either way it is all the same to ego.  It has only one goal, to survival and that requires ego to feed on someone or something.  It cares not if the deed is good or bad, it just needs to feed to survive.       
                                    Eckhart and the Dalai Lama

I choose King David as the example here but you do not have to be a King to be plagued with the circumstances that your ego can develop.  At first glance, as the young shepherd boy we may not see the ego feeding in David’s life but as his story unfolds and the world creeps in we can see it beginning to take its dominant place in his reign.  This is a common thing in much of our lives as well, as we mature we often like to build ourselves up and we see it is a good thing to do now and again. We all do it, myself included but the question that comes to my mind is: does your ego help build self-esteem, respect I mean, for the true self or does it give us a false sense of self?    

I’m not sure how familiar you are with the story of Moses another great man of the bible.  In fact Moses is the most important prophet within Judaism.  Moses was considered a good but ordinary man whom God chose to free the Jews from slavery in Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land.  Yet even he at the very end of his journey because of his ego would not accompany the Jewish people into the Promised Land.  This task would be bestowed upon his brother Aaron.  Moses makes a very poor choice in the desert during the very last leg of the journey.  The people are dying of thrust.  Moses prays for deliverance.   After receiving instruction from God, Moses taps a might rock with his staff and water comes pouring out.  But his ego gets the best of him as he boasts “here is the water I give you.” 

We run great risks when we steal away Gods thunder folks.  Not because God will punish because reward or punishment come from our choices which in turn build the circumstances around our own lives.  One of the most common ways this happens is when our ego takes the full credit for our accomplishments or our ability to acquire the things needed to sustain our lives.  When we boast about the generosity or our works or our giving’s or when we think of ourselves as superior.  Ego helps us to forget the fact that life is a gift, a gift from the one who creates life.   Your ability to do anything is also a gift given to you by your heavenly parent, your creator.  Arrogance, egos brother is full of its own punishment and can bring with it circumstances that feed and create kayos, another relative of our devilish ego.   God, our creator with infinite Grace has given us tools to combat such kayos.  Accepting our mistakes, surrendering and turning from those things that bring pain and suffering into our lives brings with it a sense of relief and wholeness.  
Here are the two the most important tools of all.   Repentance and forgiveness of self.  They produce in us a sense of humility and are precious gems l in the tool box of right thinking and living.   These two tools, can open a pathway back to the place where we can start all over again.  Here, no one is lost, and as Jesus described to Nicodemus, we will be born anew, forgiven, and we can once again start over.    
                                                "Hide me In your Holiness" 

   

"Is It Really All For Not Jesus"?

Jesus predicts that every stone in these buildings will come down
Not one stone will be left one on the another.

Ever heard the saying “Like the rock of Gibraltar” what comes to mind?   Something you can count on, never changing, solid as the rock of Gibraltar.  Well we all know that is not a reality for change comes no matter what.

What in your opinion is the most significant change that has taken place in our world during your life time?  

Nov 15, 2015 Readings:  Hebrews 10: 11-14, 19-25, Psalm 150 VU p 874, Mark 13: 1-8

As the disciples walked out of the Temple in Jerusalem Jesus paused, looked back at the Temple and predicted, "Do you see all these great buildings. Not one stone will be left one on another." To the disciples this was bedrock.  Jerusalem was the foundation of everything they believed in.   Nothing could bring down these walls. "Look, teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" they said to Jesus. 

We know today from history that the smallest stones in the structure weighed 2 to 3 tons. Many of them weighed 50 tons.  In fact the largest existing stone, is still part of the Wailing Wall, and you can see it today.  It is 12 meters in length and 3 meters high, and it weighs hundreds of tons! 

The stones were so immense that neither mortar nor any other binding material was used between the stones. Their stability was attained by the great weight of the stones. The walls towered over Jerusalem, well over

200 feet in one area history tells us. 

Do you think this passage is about the end times, a time when the world as they and we know it will come to its end, perhaps, but please do not stop there, for I believe that this was not Jesus’ only intent here.   I believe Jesus’ illustration was also challenging the very foundations of humankind, meaning the things they and we put our hopes, dreams and security in, could they possibly be all for not.  The things that we think are important for our future and are sometimes thought to be indestructible, as the old saying goes, solid as the rock or Gibraltar.   How many of you remember that saying, I believe it was the slogan for “Prudential life” in its hay day.  Well everything man made has its hay day, doesn’t it, but then change forces it to transform or come to its end. 

Folks if we are honest with ourselves we know from experience that nothing resists the forces of change, that everything mankind has ever made no matter how well designed or built it was in the beginning, eventually crumbles under the weight of change.  The earth is an organism birthed from the Universe, programmed to evolve.  Even the very building we are sitting in this morning is being affected by the changes that our religion will have to face tomorrow.  We will either accept and face the change and be transformed or die.  Yet our faith teaches there is one thing that never changes, and we can trust it to guide us in changes.  It is the same yesterday, today and will be there for all our tomorrows.  What is it!  God’s unfailing love for all his children, not just a few, not for a chosen race, but for all God’s children.  This is where our belief and trust belongs, with God’s unfailing love, I will never forget or leave you for I have carved your name on the palm of my hand, Isaiah 49.

Church buildings are closing their doors all around us as I speak and the status quo does not seem to know where these changes will take us.  But there are some who are facing this truth today and are beginning to take steps towards rebuilding their future.   “Is the Christian religion and its churches as we now know and understand them at risk?   Of course they are if we take Jesus seriously when he tells his disciples that the stones that hold their and our lives together will all eventually crumble.   We are mortal folks, and eventually under the weight of stress or age we too will be torn down.  

We don’t know when but our bodies will return to the dust from whence they came.  May I suggest that Jesus was indicating that all manmade structures and systems are doomed to fail the final test.  The stones in what we think the foundations of our lives are secure will be the dust of tomorrow.  You know this might be a good time for us to stop and contemplate our own mortality or the mortality of our church congregations. To start, we need to ask ourselves these questions:  What can we consider as stones in our foundation and how does our connection to these stones affect our relationship with God?   We have a stone of wealth.  How much emphasis is put on wealth today?   How much of our time is dedicated to securing buildings and the wealth to maintain them.  Take a look around at the homes that are being built today or the churches that had been built in the past and the cost of maintain them.  We have a stone of church doctrine and worship.   A stone of possessions, all that we have.  A stone of accomplishment, all we have done.  A stone of seeking to be loved by our families and friends.   A stone of what you personally would consider most important in your life or the life of your church.    

Imagine them as the stones in the building Jesus and the disciples were looking at.  A building containing thousands of stones, stones which represent those things that we seek out, those things we turn to for a sense of permanence, stability, for comfort, for peace of mind, all built into a building that, when there is trouble in our lives we make our place of refuge, and when there is joy we make the place for our thanks offering. "Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." A hard image to get hold of is it not?   We, just like disciples, want to reject these thoughts.  For some - the question is - how could this happen?  For others the image is a challenge - something to work with not to resist.   Here we must learn to work together not as individuals.  God has not abandoned us, God has not removed our ability to bounce back by taking risks.  In fact when we have come to the edge of all that we know and are about to step off into the darkness once again, we can trust that one of two things will happen.  On the other side of our darkness we will find the light, something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly but we will not be forsaken or abandoned.  That we can trust in.  
                               " I Will Never Forget You My People"