Kings Journey (Matthew 2:1-12)

Angel Announces – Mary Sings – Joseph Prays – Shepherds Come – God with Us – KINGS JOURNEY

I have observed that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who think there are two kinds of people and people who do not.  It is in our very nature to divide between us and them, winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, State and Carolina, ECU and any ACC or instate school, rich and poor, those born below the Mason-Dixon line and those born above the line, etc. (help me out with your divisions of the world).  Just one more observation, if you are worshiping with us on this one of the lowest attendance Sundays of the year, you are the ultimate insider.

(North Point Community Church outside of Atlanta does not have worship celebrations on the last Sunday of the year to give their 1000+ volunteers a break.  When I brought this up with my staff they thought this would be a great model to follow, but others disagreed.  Most of the dyed in the wool Christians I know consider cancelling Sunday worship a heresy, excepting for snow or others “acts of God.”  I mean if its Sunday then we are … playing some football right?)

I bring this to our attention because most the lessons about Jesus’ birth are about establishing his insider status among God’s chosen sons and daughters.  The “Scandal of Particularity” is that God became flesh and blood and moved into the backwater towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth, in the backwater province of Judea on the edge of the mighty Roman empire.  If God were planning to transform the whole world (see John 3:16, “for God so loved the world …), then the plan seems inverted.  Wouldn’t have made sense to have God’s child show up in Rome and born within the emperor’s lineage?  If God is going to transform the world, don’t we need the assistance of those insiders on Wall Street (financiers), Pennsylvania Avenue (politicians), and certainly K Street (lobbyists)?

This was brought back to mind this week, when Leonard Sweet’s text message came across my phone’s screen this week.  Len’s tweet was “Where are the Wise Men? Are they disappearing from Xmas story? Particularity=Jewish Messiah. Magi open us to Universality: Savior of World.” That’s right I thought, without the Magi (and the shepherds) we outsiders do not have a chance at this flesh and blood Savior born among us.

Continue reading “Kings Journey (Matthew 2:1-12)” →

Kings Journey (Matthew 2:1-12)

Angel Announces – Mary Sings – Joseph Prays – Shepherds Come – God with Us – KINGS JOURNEY

I have observed that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who think there are two kinds of people and people who do not.  It is in our very nature to divide between us and them, winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, State and Carolina, ECU and any ACC or instate school, rich and poor, those born below the Mason-Dixon line and those born above the line, etc. (help me out with your divisions of the world).  Just one more observation, if you are worshiping with us on this one of the lowest attendance Sundays of the year, you are the ultimate insider.

(North Point Community Church outside of Atlanta does not have worship celebrations on the last Sunday of the year to give their 1000+ volunteers a break.  When I brought this up with my staff they thought this would be a great model to follow, but others disagreed.  Most of the dyed in the wool Christians I know consider cancelling Sunday worship a heresy, excepting for snow or others “acts of God.”  I mean if its Sunday then we are … playing some football right?)

I bring this to our attention because most the lessons about Jesus’ birth are about establishing his insider status among God’s chosen sons and daughters.  The “Scandal of Particularity” is that God became flesh and blood and moved into the backwater towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth, in the backwater province of Judea on the edge of the mighty Roman empire.  If God were planning to transform the whole world (see John 3:16, “for God so loved the world …), then the plan seems inverted.  Wouldn’t have made sense to have God’s child show up in Rome and born within the emperor’s lineage?  If God is going to transform the world, don’t we need the assistance of those insiders on Wall Street (financiers), Pennsylvania Avenue (politicians), and certainly K Street (lobbyists)?

This was brought back to mind this week, when Leonard Sweet’s text message came across my phone’s screen this week.  Len’s tweet was “Where are the Wise Men? Are they disappearing from Xmas story? Particularity=Jewish Messiah. Magi open us to Universality: Savior of World.” That’s right I thought, without the Magi (and the shepherds) we outsiders do not have a chance at this flesh and blood Savior born among us.

Continue reading “Kings Journey (Matthew 2:1-12)” →

God with Us (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14)

Angel Announces – Mary Sings – Joseph Prays – Shepherds Come – GOD WITH US – Kings Journey

Tonight as we continue our journey of paying attention to the no fear moments of the coming of Jesus into the world I invite us to pause over these two portions of scripture:

  • "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
    which means, 'God is with us'" (Matthew 1:23, NRSV).
  • "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14,  The Message).

I will add the context for these passages below the split, but first I want us to hear again that God in Jesus came among us!  In Jesus we see not only God's presence, but also the affirmation that God likes humanity in general and you in particular.

Much of the time we in the church spend a lot of time criticizing others for being ungodly and forget that Jesus "came among us" which is what our theological word "incarnation" means.  Jesus became (our) flesh and (our) blood to show how much God loves us, not to prove that he was God (I think that that is already known).

We are told that Mary pondered many things on her heart as she witnessed the birth of Jesus.  One of the things I have been pondering most this year is the recurrence of the promise to  "fear not" (KJV) or "do not be afraid" (NRSV).  The question that continues to come to me is this: "Is God looking for people who will look fear in the face and stand firm knowing that God is with us?"

Continue reading “God with Us (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14)” →

God with Us (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14)

Angel Announces – Mary Sings – Joseph Prays – Shepherds Come – GOD WITH US – Kings Journey

Tonight as we continue our journey of paying attention to the no fear moments of the coming of Jesus into the world I invite us to pause over these two portions of scripture:

  • "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
    which means, 'God is with us'" (Matthew 1:23, NRSV).
  • "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14,  The Message).

I will add the context for these passages below the split, but first I want us to hear again that God in Jesus came among us!  In Jesus we see not only God's presence, but also the affirmation that God likes humanity in general and you in particular.

Much of the time we in the church spend a lot of time criticizing others for being ungodly and forget that Jesus "came among us" which is what our theological word "incarnation" means.  Jesus became (our) flesh and (our) blood to show how much God loves us, not to prove that he was God (I think that that is already known).

We are told that Mary pondered many things on her heart as she witnessed the birth of Jesus.  One of the things I have been pondering most this year is the recurrence of the promise to  "fear not" (KJV) or "do not be afraid" (NRSV).  The question that continues to come to me is this: "Is God looking for people who will look fear in the face and stand firm knowing that God is with us?"

Continue reading “God with Us (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14)” →

God with Us (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14)

Angel Announces – Mary Sings – Joseph Prays – Shepherds Come – GOD WITH US – Kings Journey

Tonight as we continue our journey of paying attention to the no fear moments of the coming of Jesus into the world I invite us to pause over these two portions of scripture:

  • "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
    which means, 'God is with us'" (Matthew 1:23, NRSV).
  • "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14,  The Message).

I will add the context for these passages below the split, but first I want us to hear again that God in Jesus came among us!  In Jesus we see not only God's presence, but also the affirmation that God likes humanity in general and you in particular.

Much of the time we in the church spend a lot of time criticizing others for being ungodly and forget that Jesus "came among us" which is what our theological word "incarnation" means.  Jesus became (our) flesh and (our) blood to show how much God loves us, not to prove that he was God (I think that that is already known).

We are told that Mary pondered many things on her heart as she witnessed the birth of Jesus.  One of the things I have been pondering most this year is the recurrence of the promise to  "fear not" (KJV) or "do not be afraid" (NRSV).  The question that continues to come to me is this: "Is God looking for people who will look fear in the face and stand firm knowing that God is with us?"

Continue reading “God with Us (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14)” →

Shepherds Come (Luke 2:8-20)

Angel Announces – Mary Sings – Joseph Prays – SHEPHERDS COME – God with Us – Kings Journey

I joined my son's classmates on Friday to watch The Tale of Despereaux at the local theater. Two lines stood out from this movie about a mouse who decides to be a man ("Are you a mouse or a man the mouse council?" asks him).  The first line was Desperereaux's insight that "A hero doesn't appear until the world really needs one."  How true, and how much are we in search of a hero today?  I remember Drew University's poet laureate introducing the thought of Governor Tom Kean becoming our president with the thought that every institution needs a messiah and asking was Cain Abel?  Americans are in desperate search of a hero or a messiah, and anyone will do as long as the hero does!

The second line was the communal understanding that mice were to "scurry and cower" when presented with certain objects (kitchen knives) or situations (encountering people).  Despereaux is unable to perform these actions because he is a person of the book.  Not any ordinary book, but a book he was to digest (literally) as a test of his mousedom, but chose to digest (metaphorically) the stories of a knight's quest to right a wrong.

Continue reading “Shepherds Come (Luke 2:8-20)” →

So, “Is heaven’s gate wide or narrow?”

My colleague George Bullard, at the Columbia Partnership, noted on his facebook page the question "Is heaven's gate wide or narrow?" commenting on the article "Many Beliefs, Many Paths to Heaven " in USA Today, which referred to the Pew Institute's recent survey.  I found the interactive guide far more interesting.  The geekiest of data-miners will be able to manipulate Pew's research data for themselves.  Go ahead, let your mouse lead the way.

What? Greed Is a Sin?

I don’t know much about the world of our financial markets, but the recent months have brought attention to the fact that human beings commit sin.  Somehow this comes as a shock to some people, but not to me.  As a pastor I meet all kinds of people, in all stations of life, in all kinds of situations.  The following are several links to articles that have appeared recently in Tina Brown’s eclectic news site, The Daily Beast.

  • Alexandra Penney describes in “The Bag Lady Papers” the shock to her system to discover that her life savings disappeared on Thursday of last week as the Bernard Madoff scandal unfolded.  I share with some commenters their uncomfortableness of Penney’s dispair at possibly selling her cottage in West Palm Beach, her studio in New York city, and releasing her maid.  More importantly, here is someone who “made it” the city as an artist and author and is seeing that go away.  The pain of a broken trust is real.
  • Annette Tappert on the other hand, is grateful that she “Survived Hurricane Bernie.”  Tappert reveals the weekend angst in Palm Beach at the revelation of the betraying news.  Angry comments directed toward a “recruiter” for Madoff, condos going up for sale on Monday morning, and her quiet relief that she had nothing invested with Madoff.
  • Charlie Gasparino’s piece entitled “How the SEC Got in Bed with Madoff. Literally” provides a good background to why Madoff got by with his Ponzi Scheme for so long.  But the best quote in the piece is from the commenter who stated: “You say the SEC “literally” got in bed with the Madoffs, which piqued my interest. How many of the SEC members could you possibly fit into a bed. even a king-size one, and yet after a three page story, I can’t find ANY mention of ANY kind of furniture at all, much less beds. Does anyone at The Daily Beast know what the word “literally” means?” Priceless!
  • I reached back a few weeks to recover this piece from Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street and Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity.  Mort Zuckerman noted on The Daily Beast’s Buzz Board an article Lewis wrote at Portfolio.com.  In “The End” Michael traces the journey of Meredith Whitman and her mentor Steve Eisman who both saw the train wreck of the mortgage crisis looming.  Whitman posted her concerns about mortgage securities in October of 2007.  Eisman had been on the case since 2005 and seems to know the mortgage brokering industry better than it knows itself.  How smart do you have to be to see the insanity of loaning a strawberry picker making $14,000 a year a loan on a $750,000 home in southern California and then bundling that loan in with others and saying “its all good.”
  • Of course, the most revealing moment for me was when Alan Greenspan stated in a congressional hearing: “As I wrote last March, those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief… Such counter-party surveillance is a central pillar of our financial markets’ state of balance. If it fails, as occurred this year, market stability is undermined.” Come on Mr. Greenspan, the notion that people will put themselves first is a shock?!

Generosity in America

Martin Marty’s Context always brings (at least) a note worth paying attention to in a fresh way.  Today I received January’s issue with this quote from Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money by Christian Smith, Michael O. Emerson, and Patricia Snell:

“We think most American Christians do possess the financial resources to give generously–say, 10 percent of after-tax income–if they were committed to doing so, although for many such giving would come at a real lifestyle cost to consumer spending. Such generous financial giving by American Christians would require an intentional, principled, upfront decision to give faithfully, consistently, and systematically and would require the support of local church cultures in which generous financial giving is collectively expected and honored. “Most American Christians, we think, do not give generously for a combination of reasons. [All italics are in original.] The first reason is that many have, for various reasons, simply not seriously confronted and grappled with the theological and moral teachings of their traditions to give generously–they are only vaguely aware of or perhaps even avoid those teachings. Second, we think most American Christians do not give generously because many of their churches settle for low expectations of financial giving–there is a simple cultural lack of strong community norms encouraging and celebrating generous giving.  Third, some American Christians do not give generously in part because they lack a complete confidence in the trustworthiness of the churches and charitable organizations to which they would give money. Fourth, most American Christians do not give generously because, due to the total privatization and lack of accountability of such issues, there
are few or no real consequences or costs to stingy, intermittent, or no giving. Fifth, most American Christians do not give generously because most tend to practice giving on an occasional and situational basis, not as a disciplined, structured, routine practice.— Passing the Plate, Oxford University Press, pp. 97-98.

To subscribe to Martin Marty’s Context follow this link to Context Online.

Thoughts on Christmas Carols

Bill Tenny-Brittian posted a good commentary on Christmas Carols the other day.  He began with a thought that many of us think when our hymnals invite us to sing “Good Christian Friends Rejoice” and our mouths find themselves singing “Good Christian Men Rejoice” (it just happens, honest):

Every time I pick up a mainline hymnal that was printed anytime after 1990 I get just a little bit disgusted. In an effort to save our sensibilities and to be as politically/theologically “correct” as possible, many of the old hyms were lyrically changed. Now, I’m all for inclusive language and all that, but I find myself bemused as I flip through the hymns and see the ones that were “tampered” with and the ones that were somehow seen as too “holy” or something to mess with.
I’m not going into the specifics here, but I say all that to say this …

On Sunday, I was at a church where we sang out of one of those “mainline” hymnals. It’s Advent time, so churches all across the world are singing Christmas carols. We sang some of the good ol’ ones like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” that suffered only a modest molestation in the transition to the “new” hymnal.

But Bill is not done, check out the twist he offers here:

Continue reading “Thoughts on Christmas Carols” →