People of God, the world desperately needs the Good News we know. So very many people have never been told just how madly God is in love with them. Who is to tell them they are loved? Who is to show them? Why not us?
God so loved the world. God so loves the world. Let us shed a little light on God’s love for the world, and bring this good news out of the shadows.
When 19 children and 2 adults are killed in a senseless act of gun violence…what do we do now?
When a beloved family member has a sudden health crisis and dies at the age of 45, what do we do now?
When more than four thousand people have been killed in Ukraine and Russia’s invasion has caused a refugee crisis with ripple effects across the globe, what do we do now?
When so many of the the things about our beloved church communities have changed and all we want to happen is for things to go back to the way they used to be, what do we do now?
What do we do now, Jesus?
Here’s the thing, though…to get to that other side requires change. And as we know, significant change is among the greatest of challenges to overcome.
While we are in the boat with Jesus, while Jesus is trying to get us to the other side, some severe storms of what may seem like apocalyptic proportions are bound to come.
Some of us may find the privilege that we have lived with for so long it feels like it is part of our DNA ripped away by the storm.
Some of us may find layers of guilt and shame about who we are or who we love pulled from us – guilt and shame that feels so familiar we imagine we will perish without it.
We may find some of the things we thought were most important about church blown away by the wind of the Spirit as we seek to collaborate with our partners at Grace Place and the Lakeview Lutheran parish to more faithfully love and serve this world that God so loves.
Though it may seem like we are perishing, let us not forget that Jesus is with us in the boat. Jesus is with us, embodying the peace that the world cannot give. We, who have gotten into the boat with Jesus, we are MADE to survive this storm and once the storm has passed and everything has changed, to thrive. To thrive for the sake of the world.
I find myself wondering, yes even during Christmas, “can there really be redemption and restoration for this weary world.”
Yet we do take heart this Christmas.
Because the weary world does rejoice.
The prophet Jeremiah sings of this great Christmas homecoming: “See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.”
The Word is made flesh. All earth rejoices. Heaven and nature sing.
God has come to dwell with us, to make us people of God, to make all things new.
Will we receive him as he comes to dwell in us, as he comes to make his home in and with us, in all humanity, in all the earth? Will we find room, will we make room for God?
Perhaps this is our work of Christmas in this new year of 2021.
People get ready. Be prepared. See that your lamps are burning.
Welcome to the Advent…of Advent!
We may not TECHNICALLY be in the season of Advent quite yet, but you certainly wouldn’t know it from today’s readings. They are DRIPPING with Advent flavor. We think of Advent as a season of preparation for Christmas. But really Advent is more about preparing for the future, final coming of Jesus – called the parousia – when God will be all in all and, as we heard last week, the one who is seated on the throne will shelter us, when we will hunger no more, and thirst no more; when the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our shepherd, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes."
The 13th century mystic Meister Eckhart said that “we are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.”
Indeed we live in a world desperate for God to be born anew. Will we echo Mary’s yes and become mothers of God’s new creation? The good news is that we don’t have to do this work of birthing God’s new creation alone. No, it is God who will do the work through us. And we will do the work together.
This very evening God’s word will take flesh in us as we gather around this table and partake of the holy meal of thanksgiving. And nourished by God’s very body, we will be sent forth to be mothers of God in the world.
