Christmas Hope

            We had a wonderful Christmas.  Our granddaughter hosted the whole family for a brunch.  We exchanged some gifts, watched the little kids play and enjoyed talking with one another.  Later in the day, I went to the Church of the Atonement in Carnegie and visited with them and all of the volunteers who came from all over the diocese as they hosted the people of their neighborhood for a Christmas dinner.  I loved watching the people come in and sit down and be served the food that they came for.  There were a few families, but mostly ones and twos looking for something on Christmas Day that they had no way of getting on the other days of the year.  At first, there were more volunteers than there were customers; but slowly the people began to trickle in and the place filled up.  This church has been doing this for years, not only feeding the people who come to the church building, but also sending out dinners to shut-ins and others who have no way to get to the church.  What they are doing at Atonement is what we are all called to do by our God.  To take care of the poor, the outcast and those with no means of taking care of themselves. 

            That isn’t news to you, or really to anyone.  It has been the mission of the church since Jesus came to us; and indeed from the foundation of the world.  We forget it easily.  We get seduced by the commercialism of the season and fill our houses with brightly wrapped packages and extravagances that we could easily do without.  What distresses me, when I look at it is that often repeated phrase: Jesus is the reason for the season. That we have to say that to one another is the problem.  Our mission gets subverted by our need to gather in the bargains and spend more than last year.  That certainly isn’t going to change, it is the way of our society.  This fragile church of ours needs to exist in the midst of it, not find ways to force the culture to change.  While this commercial craze is going on around us, it is our job to make sure that those who are the neediest among us are given what they so desperately crave; not only food, clothes and shelter, but also dignity and respect. 

            I love the Christmas stories that we have heard during this season.  It is notable for me that the Angels came and filled the skies with song over the fields of the shepherds instead of on the streets in front of the houses of the rich.  The shepherds in that day were the least of the least.  They tended their flocks outside of the view of most of the rest of society.  They were the poor and the neglected.  I have always loved the fact that when Samuel went to Jesse’s house to find the next king of Israel, he saw all of his sons and then, not being satisfied with any of them, asked if there were any more.  Jesse told him that there was one more, but he was a shepherd out in the fields with the sheep.  When David appeared, Samuel knew immediately that this was the one that he had been sent to crown the king to replace Saul.  It is certainly interesting that our Lord came from the root of Jesse; born of the house of David the shepherd boy in Bethlehem.  Out of the roots of the poorest came our greatest king.

            The other image that strikes me in this Christmas season is the idea of light transforming the darkness.  John’s marvelous eighteen verse fable that begins his gospel is a great testimony to the light of heaven piercing the darkness that covers humanity:

                In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

                and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

                All things came into being through him, and without him not

                one thing came into being. What has come into being in him

                was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines

                in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

            Bringing light into the darkness of the world was God’s intention with the incarnation of Jesus.  God come into the world as a human being to comprehend the nature of humanity and to know what we all experience in this life.  To do that, God chose a humble birth for Jesus; not a noble birth full of pomp and ceremony.  Jesus began his life as an impoverished child in a stable, not a room at the Hilton.  He called disciples from the lowly of his time and he spent his life among the poor and the outcast giving them constant hope in a world full of those whose only goal was greed and power.  Taking care of those people was his ministry, and his charge to the people who followed in his footsteps.  As a church, we haven’t always done that.  We have also been often seduced by wealth and power, and have forgotten our mission.  When we have done that, we have largely disappointed God, who continues to hope that by the disciples who have been called to follow our Lord Jesus, that ministry to the poor and the outcast can be the salvation of the world.

The Blessing of Women in Ministry

            A dear friend of mine celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of her ordination to the priesthood this past week and I was privileged to be there.  I remember the time over thirty years ago when we were fighting to convince the church to ordain women as well as men to the priesthood.  There were a number of us who would gather at the home of a friend in Squirrel Hill to talk and to plan what we were going to do to help it to happen.  There was fierce opposition to this notion, but in 1976 in a wonderful rebellious moment, some women were ordained in Philadelphia by three bishops and that got the toothpaste out of the tube forever.  There were still many who fumed and fought over the very idea of women as priests; but after Philadelphia, it couldn’t be changed.  The Episcopal Church General Convention when it next met ratified the idea and women’s ordination became a firm part of our church life. 

            In 1994, I was privileged also to attend the ordination of a woman in Blackpool, England.  She was among the first women to be ordained in England.  She went on to be the vicar of a church near Hadrian’s Wall and is still doing her ministry, and doing it well. 

            When I look back on all that has gone on in the church over these past thirty years, it seems almost quaint to me that there should have been such argument over something that has been of such immense benefit to not only the church but to our society.  Women bring compassion and gentleness to the work of ministry that men often lack.  They can be remarkable pastors and can bring their feminine talents to their work and help the people of their churches to understand in their lives the remarkable work that has been given to us by our Lord to do in this world.  I thank God for women in the priesthood.  I have been personally blessed by a number of them.

            Luke’s Gospel speaks of the annunciation in a way that lift’s Mary up as the anointed mother of Jesus so that we can understand the beauty of the birth of Jesus in a way that would be impossible otherwise.  Mary’s fear at first dissolves after the angel Gabriel tells her what God has in mind, and when Gabriel is done, Mary simply acquiesces and simply says to the angel:  Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Mary’s quiet faith brought forth her blessed Son, Jesus, who has given to humankind the amazing blessings that have lasted through the two thousand years since his birth.  Here again, is a woman acting as a servant of God to bring about God’s desire for humankind.  This has been continued through the years by women in remarkable ways.  I think of Teresa of Avila, Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa, all of the Roman Catholic Church, and the work of the women religious of that denomination.  They have been the lifeblood of Catholicism over the years, despite what the male leadership of the church might try to say about them.  Recently, the Vatican has published a document that has found that nuns have contributed generously of their lives to the church.  This was after there were rumors that the church would determine that there were significant problems with female religious orders.  That the church recognizes the value of women in their ministry offers hope that one day, they will share with their fellow men in the Roman Catholic Church the work of the priesthood. 

            That this has already happened in the Episcopal Church is a reason for celebration and gladness.  Thank God for this great blessing.

The Meaning of Christmas

            We decorated the house this week for Christmas.  It is an incredible job for a couple of senior citizens.  I have to get all of the boxes down from the attic, we have to unpack them and find all of the things that we thought we had lost.  I put up the imitation tree and Rosie puts on the ornaments.  We get the light strings more or less sorted out and hang them in appropriate places.  Santa goes on top of the china closet and Mrs. Santa finds her place on top of the refrigerator.  We work to get it all done by this coming weekend because we will celebrate multiple birthdays this Sunday.  Mine is the sixteenth, Beethoven’s birthday, our daughter Melanie’s is the fifteenth and our grandson in law, Pete has his on the eleventh.  Beth, Melanie’s partner and friend has hers on the eighteenth.  There is a lot to celebrate and we will have a great celebration dinner to commemorate all of it. 

            But decorating the house only one way that we get ready for the great festival of Christmas; there is shopping and cards and all kinds of things that we have to do before the great day comes: we need to decide what to get the kids for Christmas and which of the many events we will try to attend.  Jennifer always has a wonderful “cookie day” when she and all of her friends and the little ones gather in her kitchen to bake cookies.  There is always a dinner and I am always one of the cookie “judges”, which puts me in a terrible position of having to decide which are the best cookies.   It is a festive time and I love getting together with all of the people and celebrating. 

            Celebrating is really what this season is all about.  It isn’t about getting things, although we have been taught that it is from our birth.  For many of us, we have enough of everything and we don’t really need more.  Television and the other media constantly tempt us to buy.  Everyone is always having some kind of a sale; the car dealers offer specials, the appliance stores and the department stores tempt us with what look like remarkable bargains, which may or may not be true.  The bottom line is that we really don’t need more “stuff”.  The people who need stuff are the poor and the homeless and they sometimes benefit from the season, but it isn’t really the heart of the matter. 

            Mary’s wonderful Magnificat spells out the responsibility that those who follow Jesus have not only at Christmas time, but all year long.  She sings this great psalm after the Angel Gabriel announces to her that she is pregnant with Jesus, who will grow up to be the hope of the world.  She sings this tribute to God:

            He has shown the strength of his arm,  
    he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
   He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,  
    and has lifted up the lowly.
   He has filled the hungry with good things,  
    and the rich he has sent away empty.

            There is the essence of Christian responsibility for anyone who wants to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Getting and spending is not our agenda.  Taking care of those who have nothing is what we are here for.  When I see the Salvation Army kettles outside of the supermarkets, I feel that something is being done; but never enough.  We still tramp all over each other to get to the specials in the stores and knock the homeless aside in our rush.  This is the essence of sin: the overwhelming need that we have to get more and more. When we can finally decide that those who have nothing are more important than we are is when the world will finally settle into peace.  Until then, we will continue to have racism, terrible political controversy and religious differences that seem to be insurmountable.  The way through this is through the lives of the poor and the homeless.  Can we make their Christmas a bit more merry?  That really isn’t as hard as it seems.  It only requires each of us to look upon those in need with compassion and without judgement.  God bless us in this magnificent season and God bless all of those who hope that they can escape the prison of want and need.

The Peace of Jerusalem

            When we were in Jerusalem, I looked all over the place for signs of Christianity.  I was hoping to find some absolute proof of the life of Jesus in that place.  I couldn’t find it anywhere.  That holy city is the home of all three Abrahamic religions.  They vie with each other to use the space.  The Muslims have taken over the area where the Jewish temple once stood.  The incredible Dome of the Rock sits in that space, commemorating Mohammed’s leap into heaven on a horse.  Al Aqsa mosque also sits on that hill, and has been a constant thorn in the side of the Israeli people who would love to reclaim the space where their old temple stood.  The only remnant is the hallowed Western Wall of the old temple, where the faithful pray daily. 

            We have been taught to pray for the peace of Jerusalem; but there has very seldom been peace in that place.  It has erupted countless times in religious wars that have killed many and sometimes mocked the hopes of the world’s people that the city be a symbol of peace and God’s kingdom.  I think that city has become instead a symbol of a constantly divided world, and our prayers need to be for ourselves as we cope with the terrible divisions that exist among us.

            Here it is Advent again.  We look forward to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the great preacher who lies at the heart of Christianity.  It was Jesus who by his short life taught us all the Way of God, the hope of the ages.  Jesus came not with a short list of things that we all have to believe in order to be “saved”, but instead a list of instructions about how to live our lives in the service of those around us.  His eloquent Sermon on the Mount tells us what to do in order to make this world a place of peace and hope.  We aren’t expected to all agree on our doctrine, but instead to agree on how to take care of each other, regardless of what we believe.  That for me is a lesson that is made clear in the strife that exists not only in Jerusalem, but throughout the world.

            We look at the war that is going on between the Islamic State and others in the Muslim community and the Christians who are also present and we react in despair at the loss of life and the terrible things that are said by the participants; but these people are doing things that are no different from what Christians have done to each other throughout the centuries.  We have also excluded one another from our community because of the differences in our belief systems.  In the Inquisition and through the difficulties of the persecutions of numerous people because of their religious differences with the rest of Christianity, we have done exactly what the people in Syria and Iraq are doing presently.  Why our religious issues ought to determine who lives and who dies is a disgusting testimony to our inability to live according to what our Lord told us.  We are to love one another as he loved us.  That is a simple commandment and the one that we have ignored over and over again to produce the chaos that presently exists in this world. 

            When I see countless people protesting the actions of the police in recent weeks by holding their hands up and chanting, “Don’t shoot!,” I am reminded of the great divide that separates all of us from each other.  It isn’t only religion, it is also our skin color, or our nationality.  What is it that brings up these ridiculous issues?  I know it is our greed and our inability to look at each other with love and understanding instead of threat.  This is why there is not peace in Jerusalem, or Staten Island, Cleveland, or Ferguson.  We are the ones who can do something about this if we can simply look at each other with love instead of suspicion.  The greatest Christmas present that we can give to each other is our unconditional love.  God bless us in this season of expectation.