Speaking to our Fears at Christmas Time

After thirty plus years of hearing the Christmas story, I find myself questioning the deeper meaning of this story. Surely, this story so beloved by the generations can still speak to a rational, progressive Christian such as myself. It is clear that the gospels don’t remember this story the same way, and Apostle Paul, the first Christian writer, did not even know about birth narrative.  There are probably any number of ways that we can rationalize the Christmas story. In fact, we could even agree that the birth of Jesus did not happen in this way. Scholars and theologians over the years have even questioned the authenticity of the birth narrative and if it is really that essential for the post-modern believer.  All of this intrigues me and over 25 years of interpreting this story, I can accept that Matthew and Luke each had a different reason for remembering the birth of Jesus the way they did. I can even accept that maybe this story isn’t literally true and that this is really an effort on the part of Matthew and Luke to help us understand the distance that God will go to dwell among humanity. One could debate this in any different directions and I would welcome such a powerful conversation, but today I would like to write about one small part of the Christmas story and one that doesn’t even include Mary, Joseph, the stable or baby Jesus. As I’ve read and re-read the Christmas narrative this year, I am drawn to a small part of Luke’s narrative, of what the modern believer calls the Christmas story.

In Luke’s version of the story, the angels find the shepherds in a field watching  their sheep and the voice of God says to the shepherd, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people…” The assumption that the shepherds were afraid draws me to reflect upon the Christ Child as a 21^st Century Christian who has certainly observed the growing despair, anxiety, and fear of the America people. It would seem that over the last 8-10 years, our civilized nation has regressed to a state that seems primitive and out of place for what many would claim as a strong Christian nation. I would argue that this has never been true, but for the sake of argument, I will accept this assumption. It would seem to me that the phrase, “…Do not be afraid…” is pointing to what seems to lie behind our facade as being a great nation of brave men and women. I think that when we are brave, we are brave for the wrong reasons. We think that having the best military in the world, somehow justifies our presupposition that we are a brave and courageous people. I think for some that is what they truly believe. I would argue that we are not. Rather, we are like the shepherds on that first Christmas morning. In fear they drew away from the voice of God. The fear was so obvious to God that the first words out the mouth of God was, “…Do not be afraid…” In many ways we are just like the shepherds on that first Christmas morning -- afraid.

It seems that behind our stoicism, our air of confidence and superiority, we are really people who are very afraid. Many of us would not admit to this, but we are. We’re afraid of changes and new experiences. We’re afraid to move away from the communities and families that we’ve known all of our lives. We’re afraid of sickness, suffering and dying. We’re afraid to be alone or quiet, always looking for one more distraction so we don’t have to face the monster within. In the middle of the night, when we find ourselves face to face with our own insecurities,  is probably the only  time that we are most honest with ourselves. As even a casual observer of the American culture, one can see how fearful we are of religious groups that believe differently than we. We are afraid of people whose skin is a different color and afraid of people who act and do things differently than we do. Instead of really having a good conversation with folks, we talk about the latest football game or basketball game. We bring up the weather, we complain about the government and we tell people that we won’t talk about money, politics or religion because we’re really afraid of being relevant, real, connected, or heaven forbid that we should believe differently than someone else. We bury our faces in our cellphones when we’re having supper with friends and choose to surround ourselves with televisions and noise so that we don’t have to have an honest, interested, and stimulating conversation with other people, lest we disagree or even have a robust debate.  We are a fearful people and we are  folks who have a lot of difficulty trusting one another and even trusting God. When we experience a faith crisis in our life, we are more than likely experiencing a lack of trust in God and in God's actions. Ultimately, this translates into fear. 

During this time of year, when the world seems safer than any other time,  we are invited into a world where the shepherds heard about something new, a new King that the angels proclaimed was the Messiah, the one we will come to know as Christ Jesus.  The shepherds on the hillside remind us of our own vulnerabilities, our own insecurities, or our own distrust of God and one another. In the night, while shepherds watched their flocks, the voice of God comes into our darkness and touches our fearful hearts with words that inspired the shepherds to make haste and go to Bethlehem to worship the Messiah who is Christ the Lord. 

Even in times when Christmas is a distant memory or still a long way off, we can come face to face with our humanness and hear the angels sing. In our discomfort and in our uncertainty, we can remember the Christ child who was born in less than ideal circumstances and we can still follow the star that leads us to a place where we can find peace and comfort, joy and wholeness and a place where we can hear the angels proclaim to us again, “...Fear not for I bring you good news!” As the apostle Paul writes, “…nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus." This I can believe.

Today I declare...

This is a sermon that I preached at our Community Thanksgiving Service on November 24, 2013. This Thanksgiving Reflection is based upon Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and John 6:25-35: 

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” This is the opening sentence of the formal declaration of President Lincoln as written by his Secretary of State, William Seward in October 1863. Such became our American tradition -- to set aside the last Thursday in November as “a day of Thanksgiving and praise” for the bounty that God has blessed us with today.

My experience this summer has probably not been much different than your experience this summer. This has been a good year for gardens, fields, farmers, and harvest. Throughout the summer and the fall, I’ve been blessed with tomatoes, blueberries, peppers, pears, potatoes, and apples. The farmers in my area, tell me that the harvest has been good, record harvest from wheat to beans. “As the year draws to its close, we have been blessed with fruitful fields and healthful skies…” Our words have spoken about the wonder and beauty of a fruitful year, but how have these blessings translated into meaningful actions? What will our actions declare today? By what action will we declare the goodness of God who has blessed us with our ‘fruitful fields and healthful skies’? By what action will we return our thanks to God? Will we see our blessings and share our bounty? What will our actions declare today – this week?

The Hebrew Scriptures provide us with an insight into an ancient culture that did not write a Thanksgiving Proclamation or set aside the last Thursday in November to be a day of “Thanksgiving and praise”. For this culture, the declaration was not an excuse to invite family and friends to come and eat their fill of Turkey and then spend the afternoon watching the football games. More than a day off, the Hebrew people declared that the land, the fruit of their fields, and the gift of bounty did not belong to them, but was a gift to the people by God’s hand of grace. “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess…you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the Land that the Lord your God is giving you and you shall declare…” Deuteronomy 26:1-3.

Through their long and tedious journey through the wilderness, a tribal people once enslaved to Egypt are set free from the chains of slavery and through the miraculous power and grace of an omnipotent God they were blessed with a “land flowing with milk and honey” and they would declare their complete dependence upon God’s grace and bounty by remembering their story:  “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; he brought us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey” Deuteronomy 26:5b-9.  This they would declare on their day of praise and thanksgiving.

Their day of thanksgiving and praise remembered not only their bountiful blessings, but also their faith story – the reason they “live and move and have their being…” What do our actions on Thanksgiving declare? Has Thanksgiving for us become a convenient excuse to eat more in one meal than thousands, perhaps millions of people throughout the world eat in weeks, perhaps months. Is our Thanksgiving a good time to invite the folks over for beer, pretzels, and football? What do our actions declare? As Jesus says to the disciples after John’s version of “the feeding of the 5000”, “…You are not looking for me because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” John 6:26. In other words, do we know that God has blessed us with the food that fills our hungry stomachs or have we become so detached from our Creator that we’ve forgotten who we are and to whom we owe our gratitude for ‘fruitful fields and healthful skies?”

On this Sunday before this blessed holiday, we have the foundation and the time to remember who has given us our bounty. As miraculous as the ‘feeding story’ that the four gospels agree is an important event in one’s understanding of Jesus Christ, the miracle is our invitation to declare our story, our identity, and our complete dependence upon God’s grace. Jesus reminds us, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” John 6:32-33. This is our story to declare – this is the story of Thanksgiving – this is the living bread that endures for eternal life. This is the bread of life. May we proclaim with the disciples, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Amen.

Successful Musings

In America it is not hard to find community leaders, politicians, preachers and teachers who talk about or give any number of speeches on the American dream as the land of opportunity and that anyone can be successful if you are willing to work hard. In America, we believe in fairness at the starting line, but once the starting pistol roars, indicating the start of the race, the rules change because we are a nation that believe that the winner takes all. Only in America do we reward so generously the winner and punish so severely the losers.  In America we define success in black and white – you can win or you can lose. In America success is deserved and failure is also deserved. In the Medieval times there were two categories of people in this society – the fortunate and the unfortunate. The fortunate were often defined by privilege, family titles, military prowess, or royalty. Everyone else – the serfs, the peasants, or the slaves were the unfortunate. As society moved away from the family farms and into the cities, they became laborers and worked long hours for low wages and were still losers – unfortunates. 

In an age when our identity is inextricably bound with our chosen vocation and how well we do something, there is a tremendous amount of anxiety in living in today’s world, especially in the United States. There was a time when our identity was not bound to our jobs or chosen vocation. How often don’t we get asked the question, “what do you do?” If we are engineers or lawyers, we don’t hesitate to let people know how successful we are. How many times haven’t I heard people respond to the question, “what do you do?” with eyes cast down and the simply say, “I’m 'just' an electrician or a plumber” How many garbage men and women are quick to brag about their job or the delivery person, proudly proclaims, I deliver things. Probably not too many. Why? Because in America these aren’t vocations that successful people pursue.  Some sociologist might call this division of vocation, “job snobbery”. 

 "We are living in a time when our character is not dependent upon who we are, but by what we do."

This has not always been the case. The question, ‘what do you do?’ is a modern question – a question that could only come to a society and culture where higher education and further training were accessible to the ordinary person. Three hundred years ago, what you did didn’t matter because what did matter was where you came from and who is your family? What tribe are you a part or what village to hail from? These were the questions of identity. Success depended upon the reputation of your family and the tribe to which you belonged. In today’s society, what is printed on our business card and what is deep inside of our very being are not always consistent one with the other. We are living in a time when our character is not dependent upon who we are, but by what we do. There is a profound sadness in the world and there are a lot of people who are longing for respect, dignity, and to be understood. By rewarding the successful and snubbing the losers, we are creating a culture that is not a land of freedom, opportunity, and liberty, but a caste society of the privileged and the successful and the losers and the unfortunates. 

As a Christian, I cannot say that I am comfortable with this.  The burning question for me is what should be the response of our religious communities to something as offensive to our Creator God as the American notion of “winners take all” and “losers” deserve what they get? Is this the world God had in mind when in a dramatic and powerful way, Creator God separated the light from the darkness, the water from the land, and breathed living breath into the beauty that surrounds us? In my judgment, the scriptures, especially the Christian scriptures, I am reminded that for all intents a purpose, Jesus was by no means successful by the standards of the modern world. Jesus was crucified among criminals. What could be more ‘unfortunate’ than this? As I see it, the success for Jesus was and continues to be an invitation to live one’s life free of the fear of failing. Even as Jesus hung, dying, on the cross he did not see himself or his ministry as a failure. The world may have seen it this way, but Jesus did not. In the seventies, a time when our young people and the media were flirting with secular humanism, there was a poster that read and I still remember it, “God doesn’t make junk.” When God breathed life into our very being, God did not see a loser and neither did he see one people more privileged than another. All were equal. In God’s world, there are no fortunate or unfortunates, there are only people who are loved equally by God. In God’s world, we know the successful people by the ones who, like Jesus, are known by how well they have loved.