Monthly Archives: December 2012

“Into the darkness there appeared a great Light”

Posted on by
Reply

Christmas Eve (Luke 2:1-20)  12/24/2012

Listen to an audio recording <select here>

After living for several years in the Chicago suburbs, my family and I moved to the Washington D.C. area as I became a student at Virginia Seminary. Moving from one place to another is never easy; moving is hard work for many reasons: packing countless boxes, wondering if something will get broken (yes, something always gets broken), and saying goodbye to good friends. Leaving a community of people is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of moving. Among the many friends we said goodbye to as we left Chicago, I found it especially difficult to say goodbye to a good friend and colleague of mine; someone who shared similar family and work experiences with me for years. I kept in touch with my friend and nearly two years after we had moved he informed me that they too were leaving Chicago and moving to CT. He had taken a job in Middlebury and they were moving to a little town named Sandy Hook. My friend and his family have lived in CT for nearly six years and I rarely heard the name of his new town during that time, but a week ago this past Friday things became very different; Sandy Hook was known around the globe and the world changed. As reports came in from the media that morning, Carol and I became very worried for our friends. The rational part of my brain understood that their girls were certainly in high school, but we sat down and counted the years just to be sure (there didn’t seem to be too many rational things happening on that day). In the midst of incredible difficulty and unexplainable sorrow I wanted to be sure that those closest to me were OK. I was searching and hoping for some distance from this unbelievable story so I might be comforted in some small way. Often times we search for places of comfort, places of safety to weather the storms of life. My friend and his family were safe on that horrible morning, but even this comfort was not enough. The reality of that morning brought sorrow so great that it seemed there was no escape, regardless of how much distance you seemed to have from Sandy Hook. The opening words of our first reading from the prophet Isaiah ring in my ears, “The people walked in darkness.” (Isaiah 9:2) The sorrow of these past 10 days has felt pretty dark indeed. And for those of us who live in this “land of deep darkness,” we wonder, “where are we to go?” Continue reading →

“Let’s believe best intentions from others”

Posted on by
Reply

The Advent season is now in full swing and as we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ we must also manage to hold back a cacophony of competing tasks and the subsequent thoughts these tasks engender: have I completed my Christmas shopping list; do I have enough cards for the season and the right mix of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays;” I wonder if those Christmas lights will work from last year; and on and on and on. These thoughts not only creep into the forefront of our minds but can take hold of our imaginations…causing us to wonder of the intentions that lurk behind the actions of others. Life in the church is no different, and add to the mix the unfortunate timing of creating budgets for the coming year and counting financial commitments made by church members. We are tempted to wonder why others delay their support…are they looking for something other than we can provide, do they require more information before making their thoughts known, or are they simply too busy with other matters that seem more pressing. The “crush of the holidays” can take hold of us and bring out the dark clouds of our imaginations. But wait: close your eyes, count to three (forward or backward, they both will do) and say the following – “I will believe the best intentions from others,” and I think you will find this is nearly almost always true. The Apostle Paul gave similar advice to the Christian community in Corinth nearly two thousand years ago and they didn’t have to worry about mall traffic or Black Friday shopping sales.

Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 10:23 – 11:1) are words we need to hear during this Advent season; a season that is best spent slowing down in thoughtful preparation and prayer for the coming of Jesus, but is often spent going fast and furious from one commitment to the other. Paul advises us to consider that “not all things are beneficial…not all things build up” but that as we continue to work and live with others we should “not seek our own advantage, but that of the other.” (1Cor 10:23-24) Paul’s lesson to us is rather simply stated but perhaps challenging to implement: we live in community, in a diversity of thought, opinion and action; but the diversity of others should best be interpreted as a variety of actions reaching for the best we have to offer. The ability to interpret our diversity in this way requires an expansive understanding of good intentions, and now we have come back to Advent. The season of Advent prepares us for something radically new, something radically powerful, something so creative and imaginative only God could have done it – and that is the Incarnation of the Word of God, so abundant with love that nothing is beyond reach or beyond redemption. If God can do this for us, maybe we can spend the rest of our Advent and the days following believing in the best intentions from others.

“Why the Boy Scouts are wrong…again”

Posted on by
Reply

As a young boy I looked forward to Wednesday afternoons because after school my friends and I would gather as a pack, a pack of Cub Scouts engaged in crafts, games and many other activities. My involvement with Scouting continued and my personal growth and appreciation for everything that Scouting taught me continued until a myriad of other activities in high school pulled me away. Although I never achieved the highest levels of Scouting as a young man, my memories are as distinct as the lessons I learned: respect others, appreciate your community and try to give back, give thanks to God for all that has been given you, and of course many lessons of outdoor life and skills. I can also list many things that Scouting never taught me, because these things just never seemed to matter to those involved with learning and having fun together: the color of one’s skin determines who you are, you are limited by who you keep company with, and your personal sexuality is a cause of judgment against you. These last things were not only never addressed, but if one were truly attentive to the Scouting Oath and the Law of Scouting they were proved to be completely false…or so I thought until fairly recently. Continue reading →

“And so it ends, but do we all go to Heaven? C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce”

Posted on by
Reply

Lewis Great DivorceThe Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis; chapters 12-14

These few chapters conclude the fantastical tale of Heaven and Hell by C.S. Lewis. Chapter 12 begins with the introduction of a dazzling woman whose goodness and light spreads out like the widening ripples of a wave. We learn that the woman would have been barely noticed on earth but her goodness was so wonderful that she is sparkling in Heaven, where all inner goodness shines for all to see. She meets her departed husband, a man who is a ghostly image of a man, a man still clinging to his pride and self-righteousness. The dazzling woman asks the man for his forgiveness for any wrongs she may have committed and invites him to do the same, leading him toward the ultimate understanding of self-emptying love. His love, however, has conditions, stories, and excuses connected to it. As much as he might want to let go, he cannot bring himself to the full understanding of love.

Chapter 13 continues the story of the dazzling woman and the ghostly man, leading the reader on a journey that brings us to an important question: can those in Heaven truly be happy and filled with joy knowing that others remain in the torments of Hell? The narrator of the story cannot bear to think that true joy can be savored while aware of the plight of the damned. The heaviness of this thought brings our narrator to think that only when everyone is within Heaven’s gate can true joy be had…but our narrator’s heavenly guide says, “not so fast!” In one of Lewis’ most provocative thoughts of his tale, Lewis offers the following proposition: “What some people say on Earth is that the final loss of one soul gives the lie to all the joy of those who are saved,” and his guide responds, “Ye see it does not.” (p. 135) The heavenly guide continues to explain why not, “The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.” (p. 135) In the concluding lines of the chapter Lewis’ makes it plain that Heaven shall not wait on those pride-filled and stubborn ones who refuse to let go of their own designs…God is the One true source of love and light and Heaven will move on without them, should they choose to absent themselves from God’s abundant love.

The final chapter tells us that the narrator was simply having a vivid dream; a dream of the heavenly places and choices that are set before us all, but a dream nonetheless. And as with any dream, some bits of the story remain quite vivid and real, other bits appear to slowly disappear into the fog, but the entire story lingers and brings us into conversation with questions that seem to hold some universal truth.

“Come out from under that fir tree – the season of Advent is here!”

Posted on by
Reply

Advent 1 (Luke 21:25-36)  12/02/2012

Listen to an audio recording <select here>

I imagine that many of us have special memories from our past, vivid memories that are so unforgettable the experience seems to have occurred only recently. One of my lasting memories happened when I was just a young boy, many years ago. As a young grade school student, I was allowed to go home to eat my lunch and then return back to school in the afternoon. My parents worked but I was fortunate that my grandparents lived just down the street and I was able to have lunch at their home …and grandmothers are known to spoil their grandchildren! I was quite happy until one day I was told that my grandparents would be going on a one week vacation and I would have to have lunch at a nearby neighbor’s house. The neighbor was a very good friend of my parents’ and a loving mother of three children. But I wanted no part of this new routine, even if the change was only for one week. The day of my new lunch location loomed in front of me until the day had finally come. I walked down the street and as I arrived in front of my neighbor’s house I saw her at the front door waving at me. My own house was just a bit further down the road and as I approached my neighbor’s front walk I decided to run as fast as I could to reach the comfort of my own home. My mother’s friend seemed to expect something funny might happen and in moments I noticed her quickly heading toward her bicycle. Now, a young boy running in canvas sneakers is no match for a determined mother riding a bicycle…and I quickly noticed a large fir tree in a neighbor’s yard. I crouched behind the large tree and hid myself behind the trunk and the green drooping branches. I tried to remain quiet as I watched her ride by me, calling my name and looking throughout the neighborhood. She returned in no time and suddenly stopped in front of the tree, looked through the branches and called for me to come out. I thought that I might “faint from fear and foreboding of what was coming.” (Luke 21:26a) Continue reading →