“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And He made man in His own image.
He fell. The image is marred.
Our beginnings are thus already headed toward endings. Some children don’t even make it out of the womb. Others are cut down too soon….
Read More“When all was still, and it was midnight, Your almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.” That’s the antiphon for Christmas Midnight. By itself, it’s serene, much like this service. There’s something joyously peaceful about assembling here when all through the town not many creatures are stirring, and celebrating the first liturgy of Christmas while everyone else is nestled all snug in their beds.
“When all was still, and it was midnight, Your almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.” The context, however, is not so serene. It comes from the Wisdom of Solomon, and it describes the beginning of the tenth plague, bringing death to all the firstborn in the land of Egypt….
Read MoreThe satire in Peter Gabriel’s song Big Time is often missed. From college basketball to professional wrestling, it’s bumper music for success. “I’m on my way, I’m making it, big time.” It’s the American dream: you can be anything you want to be; you can make it big.
There’s a religious dimension to the song that fits perfectly the modern obsession with bigger and better churches. “And I will pray to a big god as I kneel in the big church.” Then later, “And my heaven will be a big heaven, and I will walk through the front door.”
The way God works couldn’t be more different….
Read MoreJoseph is in agony. He’s spent the very first season of Advent contemplating divorce. Joseph is betrothed to Mary. Some Bible translations render it “engaged,” but it’s much more than that. Betrothal is a legally binding marriage that is not yet consummated. Today, you can break an engagement without any consequence except the down payment on the reception venue. But Joseph and Mary are not engaged, they are betrothed, and the only way out of that is divorce….
Read MoreLife goes through seasons. Some days, or years, it doesn’t feel there’s much to rejoice about. Some people are determined to fight. The Psalm says, “I am for peace, but they are for war.” In this life people often show themselves to be our enemies. We want peace. But there is something in the human spirit, a corruption. This corruption of the heart imitates the Satan. In Hebrew, the satan is the accuser. Enemies are quick to accuse us, sometimes unjustly. Jesus bears it in silence. Do we? No, too often, in turn, we are quick to assume the worst about others. Thus we become their satan, their accuser. Our only rejoicing, then, is at the downfall our enemy. This is not the proper Gaudete, the proper rejoicing….
Read MoreBut here’s the astonishing kicker: we are to present these cries of desperation with thanksgiving: “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” We’ve been accustomed to think of thanksgiving as an acknowledgement of abundance. Thanksgiving is for the prosperous and well-fed, with family gathered in a warm house and a rest from work. But here, Paul directs our thanksgiving to arise from our lack, our poverty, our need, our desperation….
Read MoreChildren are “offered,” committed, handed over in Baptism. We hand our children over when we need help, when they need something we can’t do for them ourselves. You ever handed your child over to a surgeon? You hope you get him back, but there are no guarantees. In suffering and trial, God is teaching us to relinquish control, to hand over all our cares to Him….
Read MoreThere are many congregations, but one church. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic church finds its expression in local assemblies. That’s what the word church means: assembly. Today’s Epistle reading is a letter to one of those local assemblies: “To the church of God that is in Corinth.”
We tend to think of Christianity in individual terms, a private faith, a personal experience or decision. Certainly the individual is involved, but Paul writes to Corinth as he does to all the other local congregations: collectively…
Read MoreIn the Bill & Hillary Clinton Airpot in Little Rock, Arkansas, a large sign advertises a local church, with the slogan Expect an Experience. That captures perfectly the American religion: Emotivism. Faith means experiencing happiness. Big Evangelicalism equates faith with success, prosperity, health. If you lead a good life, good things will come to you. One slogan puts it this way: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” The first part is true. But God’s plan for the disciples of Jesus might not be what the world calls “wonderful.” Bonhoeffer’s famous saying is more accurate: “When God calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Faith will not eliminate tribulations in your life. Afflictions come to the faithful to strengthen their faith further. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens….
Read MoreToday is the commemoration of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and one of the greatest minds of the western church. It is fitting for us this morning to look to him to guide us on our task of forming minds in the classical Christian tradition.
Augustine teaches us that true education is listening to the Word of God, even—especially—when it tells us what we do not want to hear.
Your best servant is he who looks not so much to hear from you what he wants to hear, but rather to want what he hears from you….
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