Sermon Dec. 17 2017-Father Cunningham

          There is an old saying that communists are people who love the masses, one million at a time.  What this saying points to is that communists tend to be interested in big programs for big groups, but not terribly interested in individuals and the unique problems that they have.  And as much as I like to make fun of communists, it is not just them that suffer from this temptation.  I think that there is a desire in all of us to want to solve the problems of the world with a more magical wand approach – we want to believe the politicians who promise that the fix to every problem is just a government program away.  It is so tempting because that way we don’t have to individually deal with those actual people whose problems we want to fix.  We identify a problem, tell someone else to fix it, and then we are morally off the hook.

         In a similar way we want God to fix big things; like restoring civility or establishing peace on earth, but we forget that such things are made up hundreds of millions of decisions by hundreds of millions of individuals, who all need to be dealt with individually.  World peace or the restoration of civility are not a divine nob turn away, but rather require a change in the actions and thought processes of millions of people.  Yes God could turn us all into a cyborg army whose will he could control, but he loves us too much for that, and has given us free will.  And as a result of giving us free will, God has to deal with us not with a magic wand or the flipping of a switch, but on a personal level.  And because of this on Christmas Day we will see God coming in a very personal and individual way.  There will be no magic wand, only individual relationships and the changing of hearts and minds. 

         But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Today we are talking about John the Baptist, who in many ways foreshadows the ministry of Jesus.  And interestingly, while the priests and Levites often get some bad press in the New Testament, today, I think that they get things exactly right.  They understand the individual nature of the coming Messiah. And why I say that is because of what confuses them about John the Baptist.  After they ask and John states that he is neither the Messiah, nor a prophet nor Elijah they ask, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”  It is interesting that the action that makes them suspect that John the Baptist may be the Messiah or at least one of the prophets is the action of baptism.  And while there are some historical things that may have made the priests and Levites focus on baptism as being an indicator of Messiah-ship, what I really want to focus on is the individual nature of it.  John was not reigning down thunder from the sky or anything terribly grandiose but rather he was baptizing people, one person at a time.  Which probably sounds a little obvious, but in such an action he was required to deal with people on an individual basis.  He did not line up two thousand people in the Jordan and ask them to baptize themselves, but rather he touched and baptized each person individually.

         Much of my thought as of late has been occupied by the division and distrust in our country, how it has happened and by how we can fix it.  I recently read a former Facebook executive say that social media has, “created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”  Adding that with social media there is, “no civil discourse, no cooperation; [only] misinformation, mistruth.”  I think that he is on to something because in many ways social media allows us to deal with individuals in the million person chunks that the Communists so like.  And while it would suit me just fine to lay all the blame of our current acrimony on the doorstep of social media, I don’t think it is quite that simple.  If we woke up in the morning and found that there was no Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, we would still try and avoid dealing with people in the way that John the Baptist does today, that is one on one.  For we tend not to like doing what John is doing today because it is really not safe – people do not always act the way we want them to.  When we can deal with people from a distance we are not as vulnerable and open to hurt and disappointment.

         I remember years ago when Amy and I were first married the church we were attending did one of those Christmas outreach programs to some underprivileged families.  What this meant was that a group of people at the church purchased a number of presents and food items to take to a family just before Christmas.  In this outreach Amy and I got the job of delivering the presents.  In the car ride over to do this, I was full of Christmas cheer.  My head was filled with visions of how things were going to take place.  I expected to blush slightly when this grateful family told me that I must be an angel sent from heaven – I mean that’s what they always do on TV and TV can never be wrong.  Well, that didn’t happen, it was in fact one of the most disappointing events of my life.  The house were they lived was dirty and unkempt and smelled of something I could not quite identify.  When we brought the presents they were not carefully placed under a tree instead the children greedily ripped them open and then asked if there were anymore.  When this happened I looked pleadingly at the mother hoping she would give me some backup, but she repeated the question.  When we told them there was not anything else, they signaled that they were through with us and we were shown the door.  Now I am not saying that all people act like this, but some do.  Some of humanity will not be appreciative or polite and will only care about us only for as long as we are giving them free stuff.  And I have struggled over the years with what this experience was to teach me.  And I think the best I can up with relates to what Jesus said in Luke 14 where he stated, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”  We take care of the ungrateful because it is the right thing to do and because it allows us to act like God acts towards us.  For in our ungratefulness, God still loves us and waits patiently for us to return to him.

         What we see in the life of John the Baptist and in the life of Jesus – they dealt with us.  We don’t have a record of how the people that John baptized behaved, but I am guessing that some were real jerks.  I mean we know that Jesus got yelled at for healing people, so why would we expect any different.  And here is the thing for us, if John the Baptist and Jesus dealt with us and God continues to deal with us on an individual basis, who are we to opt out of that model.  Certainly there will be times were interacting with others will be incredibly disappointing.  There will be times where we are mistreated but restoration of our relationships with our fellow man will not happen without such interaction.

         So here is my rather simple lesson for Advent 3 let’s try and go a week where we follow Jesus’ command to love one another.  This means even the people who we don’t like and those people who are annoying.  Yes this is not easy and much in us may fight against it, but most things in life that are worthwhile are not easy.  If God deals with us and all of our issues, we need to do the same for others, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.

Sermon Dec. 10 2017-Father Cunningham

         I was listening to someone the other day saying that they could recall a time when the world was more unstable.  I might quibble a little bit with that assessment, but with much of what is going on currently, it does feel that things are spiraling out of control – the falcon cannot hear the falconer and all that.  North Korea is acting even crazier than usual (which was a pretty high bar already), Russia seems to be pining for the old Soviet days, China is building islands and then claiming them as sovereign territory, the Middle East seems even more Middle Easty than usual and in the United States the people who are not involved in sexual harassment seem to make up for that by just hating each other.  The only good news that I have heard in a while is that George Clooney says that he is going to be taking a break from acting.  And the question that this inspires in many of us is when will it change?  When will there be peace on earth and goodwill towards men?  And further, I think the question asked by those of us who are religious and even by many of the non-religious is why is God allowing this to happen?  Shouldn’t God intervene?  What is the point of being God if you let us humans make a dog’s breakfast out of everything?  Well, there is an interesting line that we have from 2 Peter today, that while not answering that question in its totality does offer some thoughts.  It states, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” 

         This passage addresses two things.  The first is the seeming slowness of everything.  That is if Jesus came to save mankind why are things still so messed up?  It’s initial answer has to do with the timing, that is it will happen, but not quite yet.  That is what it means by saying that a day to God is like a thousand years.  So while it may seem like God is not doing much we need to see things from God’s perspective, where it has only been two days since Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  And that may be interesting but I really want to focus on the second piece of information which has to with why God allows for the world to be in such turmoil.  The answer according to Peter is that this allowing for poor behavior is in actuality a gift.  We may not like that the world is in its current state, but in order for God to save as many as possible, which is his will, he needs to be patient.  

         In the small scale you can think of it like when you are doing something wrong.  Do any of us want God to come back at the moment when we are egregiously sinning or would we like God to wait a few minutes until we have calmed down and put our house in order?  The idea that Peter seems to be expressing is that, if God would like everyone to repent and return to him, it is going to take time.  So if God came at this moment and separated the sheep from the goats lot of people would be on the goat side of the fence.  But since God wants everyone to return to him he is patient, he is waiting for things to change.  And of course with anything involving humanity such a hands off aproach will have its good side and its bad side.  Giving us time to get better also gives us time to make things worse. 

         We are in the season of Advent, which contrary to popular belief is not a divinely sanctioned shopping trip, but rather a time of preparation.  A time in which we look at ourselves and ask what in us is not ready for the Messiah to come.  A way to think about it is like the parable we heard a few weeks back about the wise and foolish bridesmaids.  If you recall half of them brought extra oil and half did not and so when the bridegroom finally arrived those that had not brought enough oil were not ready for him.  And so the question for us is are we ready for Christ to come, or put in the terms of our reading from today, what in us is God being patient about because he does not want us to perish?

         I was having a discussion with a friend the other day about the fact that many Christians can be a real pain and do not behave in very Christian ways.  The friend asked me why this was.  I said that there is always the issue of original sin, but I said that I think there is another issue, that while not entirely Martin Luther’s fault, comes from a sort of over-eager reading of his doctrine of sola fide, that is by faith alone.  This doctrine came out of the Reformation and was basically meant to show that we cannot earn our way into heaven.  In other words, I cannot do enough good things to make God have no choice but to let me in.  It said, instead, that it was really only through faith in the power of God that we can be saved.  Salvation is the work of God and not through our own works, abilities or actions.  And I do not disagree with this as a theological understanding, but in practicality it can become a sort of the hammock of salvation.  In other words you can claim that you have faith and then just sot of lie back and do whatever you want, because if works do not have anything to do with salvation then why bother to do anything?  Why try and make the world a better place or for that matter make yourself a better person?  Now I don’t think this is what Luther was getting at, but a misreading of that idea has lead to a sort of stagnation among some.  However when properly understood, faith is not just an ascent to a certain belief, but rather is something which should infiltrate every part of our being.  If I have faith in gravity I am not going to try and walk off a cliff like the Wile E. Coyote did in the old Looney Tunes cartoons.  Instead I am going to act in ways that accord with my faith in gravity.  Similarly, if I have faith in God I am going to live in ways that are in accord with my faith in him.  And if there are parts of my life that prevent this from happening, those areas need to be examined and changed. 

         And this is much the idea of not only what Peter is getting at but with Advent in general.  We are to look at ourselves and ask what in us is not glorifying to God and needs to be changed.  There should be something different about us because we are Christians.  Yes, I certainly know that none of us will be perfect, but that is what we are striving towards.  God is very patient with us, God does not want us to perish, but this requires some cooperation on our part.  It requires us to try and be a little better today then we were yesterday.  It requires a little more of us to be conformed to the will of God.  In the great Christmas Hymn Joy to World, which we will sing in a few weeks, we hear the line, “Let every heart, prepare him room.”  And that is the question for us: are we preparing room for Jesus’ coming, or is God going to have to be patient with us for another year?  The goal of course is to make ourselves conform to God and his perfect will so that we may be his both now and forevermore.   

Sermon Dec. 3 2017-Father Cunningham

         I made an observation the other day and it is probably not original and probably not entirely true, which may make you wonder why I am going to share it, but hey I needed an introduction.  Anyway that observation is that the amount of Christmas decorating someone does is inversely proportional to their church attendance and general ascent to the basic tenets of the Christian faith.  Incidentally, this idea came to me when I was speaking to a Unitarian who was unboxing a giant inflatable lawn Santa and so at least anecdotally I think I am on pretty solid ground.  Anyway, I am not sure of the reason for this inversely proportional relationship, but I hold out hope that it has something to do with our reading from Isaiah today describing the coming of the Messiah.  Just listen to its opening:

 

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence-- 

as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil-- 

to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

 

          Not a mention of red nosed reindeers or dancing snowmen, but instead a sense of power and justice.  God coming down to earth is not seen as sentimental or kitschy, but is actually looks a bit dangerous.  So maybe the more you know about God coming to earth the more you are unsure about decorating for it.  The image of fire kindling brushwood and nations trembling at God’s presence is not something that would show up in a Hallmark Christmas special and does not make for wonderful inflatable lawn decoration.  And I know that this is not how everything played out, that when God became man a dwelt among us it was not the burning fire and trembling nations type of appearance but I don’t think we can totally discount such predictions as those found in Isaiah.  The reason I say this is because it helps us think of Christmas a little differently.

            In many ways what we think of as “Christmas” is much more of a secular celebration than it is a religious one.  And please don’t think I am here to say it is all terrible – I like Christmas trees and decorations as much as the next guy, but the specialness of the season seems to be ascribed to something besides God.  Yes Jesus get’s an occasional nod, but he is really just a piece in the overall celebration.  Christmas is less about the incarnation and more about something vaguely called Christmas magic.  In fact if you don’t believe me put Christmas and magic together in a Google search and you get 36 million hits.  Whereas if you put Christmas and “tremble at your presence” you get a mere100,000 hits.  But anyway the point is I think we might need to up our game a little bit on how we deal with Christmas.  The word magic does not seem to be the right word on which to focus in this season partly because it sounds a bit too much like a Disney World commercial.  Magic is a cheap version of the true wonder that we are to have.  Instead of magic I think we need to instead focus on the word mystery – not in the Scooby Doo sense but rather in the sense of how does this God as described by Isaiah show up as a baby in Bethlehem?  How does the all powerful God of the universe become so meek and mild?  And, of course, we will get into more of that as we get closer to Christmas, but I want to take a few moments and focus on what that act tells us about God.  What the God as described by Isaiah must be like. 

            Now I know it is very out of favor to conceive of God as fearful and perhaps even a little wrathful.  In our day and age we have a very comfortable forgiving God.  A God who, like Santa Clause, may know who is naughty and nice but does not really do anything about it.  This God understands when you skip church because you stayed up late watching the directors cut of “Dude where’s my Car?”  This God would prefer that you have certain moral standards, but really just wants you to be happy.  Now I am not calling for us to conceive of God in a completely Jonathon Edwards, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” sort of a way but I do think there needs to be a balance.  Christmas, as currently conceived by our culture, offers a glimpse of a god who is a rather saccharine god, who is really just there to make us feel good about ourselves.  And I think because of this most people do not have much of a relationship with God because what they are presented with is not much with which to have a relationship.  Just as a Hallmark Card is a rather thin distillation of a relationship, the Hallmark Christmas is a rather thin distillation of Christmas.  What I mean by this is we do not get to see any of the power of God and why God became man and dwelt among us.

            And so what I think I am asking for in this season of Advent is not a return to seeing God in purely fearful and wrathful terms but rather to view God as who he truly is –seeing the mystery of God as being both all-powerful and all loving.  If we say that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe – this is a pretty big deal.  It implies an amount of power that we cannot understand.  And if we further believe that God is pure good it should at least make us pause and ponder what such a God might do with the things that are not pure good.  On Christmas Day, we know that he did not wipe us from the earth or blow up the earth like the Death Star did to Alderaan.  But we need to keep this in mind because it will make the Christmas all that much more meaningful.  If we realize just who this God is it will make a big difference in how we look at Christmas.  I think too often the wonder and magic of Christmas become clichéd sayings that give us a vague warm feeling but should rather be seen in the context of this God who has come to begin a mission of setting the world right.  A God who is capable of behavior that would strike fear in us, but instead came in the most vulnerable of ways.  God has granted us a reprieve not out of an inability to act, but out of love.  That may be the take home from Advent I, for us to act with love and mercy.

            The other day I was on what purported to be a Christian website and all of the articles were about what other Christians were doing wrong and how these Christians were on the fast track to perdition, if they did not come around to this website’s way of thinking.  I got the feeling that if it were in this websites power to destroy all of those with whom they disagreed and get away with it, there would be no hesitation.  But is that what we are building towards in this season of Advent?  Is the power and wonder of God with which we open going to end in apocalyptic ways on Christmas Day or are we building to the first act of the greatest act of mercy in the history of the world?  As partisan bickering, anger and mistrust are so prominent in our world maybe we should not be worried about Christmas magic, but rather Christmas mercy.  Maybe when we have the power to inflict judgment we should instead hold back and through our mercy invite others into the mercy of God.  As we begin this journey of Advent it is a time to contemplate God and our relationship to him so that we might show forth his power and grandeur not in works of vengeance but in works of mercy, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.