Love is Patient, Love is Kind

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

January 31, 2010

Read: Luke:21-30 & 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Today we hear that well-known piece of the scripture where Jesus says that “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” We understand that on a surface level, but there is so much more going in this story. Jesus had just read from the book of Isaiah and is giving us the pronouncement that today that scripture has been fulfilled. The Isaiah reading proclaimed good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord's favor.

Given the history of Israel up to Jesus' day, it's not a stretch to assume that the hearers in the synagogue considered themselves to be the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed, etc, and were pleased to hear this 'local boy done good' announce that good times were ahead. But then Jesus goes on to suggest that the poor and oppressed include those outside the inner circle--Gentiles no less!--and that THEY were the ones who could now look forward to good times ahead.

You see, in the examples Jesus gave, of the widow Elijah was sent to (they would have been familiar with this story) – that widow was a Gentile who was from Sidon of all places. Sidon oppressed the Israelites, and the Israelites were God's people! No wonder they were mad; why would God save their oppressor rather than his own people? The same goes for Naaman. Naaman was a Baal worshiper who had a Hebrew slave (and who sent for Elisha for healing). Why would God let his own people suffer with leprosy and choose to save someone who didn't even believe in him? Perhaps at least part of the reason people react so strongly (and even meanly) is that they have felt betrayed by one who "should know better." The reason they attack the messenger is that they feel that they have already been attacked. In their minds, they are simply responding in kind.

To broaden the image a bit, it's bad enough to be an enemy. But the worst thing possible is to be a traitor. You are "supposed to know better," you are supposed to have the same expectations, the same experiences, the same outlook, the same devotion. To come out and say publically that you don't, is incomprehensible, especially to those with whom you grew up, worked, trained, etc.

In the people's minds that day in Nazareth, Jesus betrayed them.

Here’s modern day story:

Years ago a young man from a tight-knit community found himself headed for Harvard Medical School. The whole community was so excited. There was a small hospital that served this community, and they just knew that this young man, upon completing his studies, would come back home to set up practice. As it turns out, he did not come back. After completing medical school and an extensive internship in infectious diseases, the young man joined Doctors without Borders and devoted his life to serving the poorest of the poor. He gave up the opportunity to have a lucrative medical career among family and friends and chose instead to live on a very basic salary with people he did not know.

You would think that someone who gave his life to serve the most desperately needy people in the world would garner respect and admiration from people who knew him. But that is not what happened. On a visit to family one Christmas, the young doctor was in the local grocery store with his mother. On more than one occasion, he was accosted by people who knew him and his family with one or more versions of this criticism: "So you think you are too good for us. Because you are sacrificing yourself for others, you think you are better than us."

The young doctor was baffled by the response. What he did not know or understand is that people can move quickly from admiration and even adulation to anger when their expectations are not met. Under different circumstances the townspeople may have been proud of his decision to serve the poor. But they had decided in advance that he should live among his friends and relatives to take care of them.

Now, going back to Jesus’ story. His hometown had expections, we all have expectations, and their expectations were not met. What does it mean for Jesus to be “for us”? Does it mean that we receive preferential treatment, privilege? If we have presumptions about being an insider, about getting something special, then perhaps we’re mistaken. In today’s passage, Jesus is talking about the “other”. Jesus is talking about God radical grace and mercy. It is a profound expansion of God’s grace and mercy. There is a saying about drawing lines. That anytime we draw a line for who’s in and who’s out, you’ll find God on the other side.

So who do we imagine Jesus NOT being for today? Who would be the outsiders? Who do you imagine Jesus NOT being for in our world today? Take a moment to think about that. Where do you draw that line?

Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of a weekend retreat she attended. The opening exercise was to "tell a story about someone who had been Christ for us in our lives." People shared stories "about a friend who stayed put through a long illness while everyone else deserted, and another one about a neighbor who took the place of a father who self-destructed." There were a lot of warm fuzzy stories being shared about comfort, compassion, and rescue. Until one woman said, "Well, the first thing I thought about when I tried to think who had been Christ to me was, 'Who in my life has told me the truth so clearly that I wanted to kill him for it?'"

That's what Jesus did and what happened to him because of it. He told his hometown people something they didn't want to hear. He challenged their ideas about who was "in" and who was "out," about who was deserving of what, about who you could be prejudiced against.

And they wanted to kill him for it. Ouch. Let’s have the ears to hear today and understand that what Jesus is saying is good news. That God’s radical mercy and grace extend to all of us. God loves us deeply.

In the little book called "Pocketful of Miracles", which is a daily devotional and spiritual growth guide, the author (Joan Borysenko) under January 31st, writes:

Shakespeare said, "Pretend a virtue if you have it not". Most of us are still locked up in the petty, self-centred concerns of our egos. Nonetheless we feel the ancient longing of our soul to move beyond ego to union with the divine. It doesn't matter if our motivation for Divine Union falters, or if selfish concerns predominate. If we just pretend the virtue of longing for God and being of service to others, eventually those virtues will arise spontaneously. As my husband puts it, "Fake it till you make it."

So looking at our Corinthians reading for today about love. Here is how we might think about a call to action:

If you don't feel loving
do the caring thing anyway;
If you don't feel like being kind
say something nice about the person who is being rude to us anyway;
If you don't think that someone else's plan will work and that your idea is better
let them do it regardless;
Don't think you can possibly do what God is calling you to do
start doing it anyway.

Fake it till you make it; or as Paul puts it earnestly strive for the greater gifts - the greatest of which is love.

Listen - this is about you - close your eyes as I read the passage about what love is like to you.

Love is patient. Love is kind..... I am patient. I am kind.
I am not envious or boastful, arrogant or rude.
I do not insist on my own way.
I am not irritable or resentful.
I do not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoice in the truth.
I bear all things
I believe all things.
I hope all things.
I endure all things.
Amen.

We Shall Overcome

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

January 24, 2010

Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

"I would have made a good evangelist," said Sally to Linus. "You know that kid who sits behind me at school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his religion." "How'd you do that?" asked Linus. "I hit him with my lunch box."

Somewhere inside all of us there is a longing to hit each other with our lunch boxes. We tend to shy away from diversity, and love conformity. In particular, we love conformity to our standards. In other words, we want other people to behave like us, to believe like us, and to be like us.

This seems particularly true in the church. After all, we are supposed to be one big happy family, right? Shouldn't we all behave the same way, believe the same way, and agree—at least about spiritual matters?

But this kind of thinking goes directly against the grain of the scriptures. In First Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul addresses the problem of unity amidst diversity. And he does not say that unity demands conformity. He does not say that all the Christians should look alike.

But unity does not equal conformity. Paul says,
Just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ.

We are one body. But a body has many parts. Paul goes on to point out that the eye and the ear and the hand all need each other to make the one body. They may not do the same things, but put them all together, and they make a rather nice body. This piece of scripture is probably a familiar one, used often in the church community. There’s a reason for that. We need to hear it over and over again. We need to be reminded. Paul knew that it wasn’t easy to be in community, to find a sense of unity amidst our differences.

The real challenge of this text is to celebrate difference that is possible because of the radical claim of Christian unity. To celebrate difference finds its necessity in the history of human existence. How we reject, negotiate, and accept difference has been a constant of our collective experience.

There is a yoga instructor whose mantra is: "Let go of all judgment, competition, and expectation." It is a first step in accepting ourselves as we are and then, in turn, being able to accept others as they are. None of us is perfect. And I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want to be held to that standard. And guess what? I will let you down if that’s your expectation of me – I’m not perfect. And guess what else? None of us is perfect. It is my brokenness and your brokenness coming together that can make our experience “whole.”

We know that, as a church community, there are differing ideas, styles, solutions, desires, the list goes on. If we can let go of needing the outcome to be “my way”, but instead strive for an outcome that benefits the larger community in ways that none of us individually could have envisioned, then we are on our way toward the “greater gifts” that Paul’s words end with today. More to follow next week.

Neither power-struggles nor even church-hopping take seriously the biblical solution of living in community, the solution of love.

-Love calls us to give up competing with each other.
-Love calls us to accept our diversity, to know and profit from each other's gifts.
-Love calls us to talk with each other when we disagree and to listen when we are disagreed with.
-Sometimes it calls us to compromise for the good of the other.
-Sometimes it calls for us to accept a limitation on our gift, so that the other person can exercise his or her gift.

Once upon a time, the inhabitants of a small village built a tower. All the groups brought stones from their yards to build it—the town council, the potter's guild, the teachers, the cooks, the farmers, the seamstresses, and all the others worked hard to build the tower.

But almost as soon as it was done, they started fighting among themselves.
-The town council wanted to use the tower to hold political meetings.
-The potters wanted to use it for guild meetings.
-The farmers wanted to have agricultural forums.
-Some groups wanted artistic and cultural events.

And on and on it went.

Finally, all the groups got mad, and stone by stone, they dismantled the tower. And the people took their rocks home. But one old man remained, sitting by the foundation of the decimated tower. Someone passed by and said, "Old man, take your stone and go home." The old man replied, "From the top of that tower, I could see the ocean."

We are not here merely to exercise our own gifts. We are here to use those gifts to worship God, to love God, and to serve each other. God called us together, with all our diversity, so that we can see beyond the horizon—so that we can get a glimpse of eternity.

I have been so moved by the outpouring of support for the people of Haiti. I watched the special “Hope for Haiti” on Friday night which was the result of many actors and musicians coming together to raise money for our Haitian brothers and sisters. And there are so many other events and organizations actively doing what they can to support, to show that we do indeed understand that a part of our body is hurting. We’ve come together to help heal a part of our body. Our differences put aside for the time being. You and I both know it’s not perfect, there are problems, there will be problems when we come together as individuals - but WOW, if we focus on the positive in the coming together, in spite of our differences, we can see the miracle. We are getting a glimpse of eternity. We can see the power of Spirit working in us and through us. One of my favorite quotes from scripture is in Ephesians 3:20-21: Glory to God whose power working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

May we all be like the old man who remains by the foundation of the tower with our stones, knowing deep inside, that if we continue to share our gifts, to strive to love each other, we shall overcome some day! I ask that we all sign together the words of the great spiritual, We Shall Overcome Some Day. It’s in LEVAS # 227

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day.

We’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall all be free,
We shall all be free,
We shall all be free, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We are not afraid,
We are not afraid,
We are not afraid, TODAY

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day

Our Lives are Changed by Baptism

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

January 10, 2010

Read: Isaiah 43:1-7 and Luke 3:5-17 21-22

I don’t know where to begin with today’s scripture readings. Today we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. Jesus went to be baptized by John the Baptist. And after he and the crowd were baptized he prayed, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

In some circles we ask “why was Jesus baptized”? The church fathers said that the significant thing about this is that this is the first time that God is revealed to the world as he really is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity. Matthew answers the question of why was Jesus baptized by saying that John protested that he should not baptize Jesus, but that Jesus should baptize him. Jesus takes charge and says, "Let it be so to fulfill all righteousness", and John baptizes Jesus. In John's Gospel, the purpose of John's baptism is to discover and reveal Christ to the
world. "I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'

Perhaps the better question is “What difference does it make in my life that Jesus was baptized?”

For some people, baptism is “just joining the Jesus club.” Everyone knows what it means to join a club such as Brownies, Boy Scouts, Kiwanis, the Elks, the Rotary, and others. We have all joined clubs and every club has its rules and regulations. Baptism is joining the ‘Jesus club” and we now have to follow the “Jesus rules” as suggested by this particular congregation.

For others, baptism is like “hell insurance.” I’ll never forget Grandma Prudence insisting that her grand daughter was baptized because the family was going on a trip. Grandma didn’t want to have that baby in an accident and go to hell. Baptism is like hell insurance.

For others, they want to wait until they are older to be baptized. They want to let the child grow up until they are old enough to “make a decision for themselves.”

But God’s love between us is stronger than our differences of Biblical interpretation. In fact, the Book of Acts details several different versions of just how the Holy Spirit comes to us. Which may mean that God reaches us in different ways because we are different kinds of people. Not a new biblical thought.

So, as Isaiah tells us, God says to her and says to you and to me as well:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
When you pass through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.
When you walk through the fire, the flames shall not consume you.
I have called you by name, and you are mine.

Yes, our Baptismal liturgy is entrance into the church, it does tie together forgiveness of sins with baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. But more deeply and strongly is the claim to identity that comes with baptism. It is not a once and done thing, it is a profound moment of claiming our identity as a child of God. It is an empowerment that is with us all the days of our lives. To watch an infant being baptized is to recall that we also were “sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever”. It is to remember whose we are. That baby is part of what we all do together – our baptisms have moved us toward being a worker in the kingdom. Bringing the kingdom to the world. How do we see ourselves as participants? Baptism is actually somewhat scandalous - in other words - can you tell me how this baby’s life is changed because of the baptism. Or even adult baptisms – I know this person – how can you tell me that his or or her life is changed.

Well, as Christians, we say YES, the life is changed because we have been baptized and sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever. Baptism says that not only are we named but that we are owned by God. God keeps what God purchases and on the cross an awesome price was paid. In times of great doubt,, Martin Luther would sometimes touch his forehead and say to himself, "Martin, be calm, be calm Martin; you are baptized." In those times of our greatest trials, confusion, spiritual dryness, and hopelessness, we might do well to touch our foreheads and remind ourselves who and whose we really are.

It is easy in the confusion of this life to forget who you are and more importantly, whose you are. So the Church is here to remind you, we are here, all of us, to remind each other that we have been named and claimed. That someone greater than John the Baptist has claimed us and loves us with a love that will never give up on us. Remember your baptism and be thankful, for this is who you are.

There’s an old legend that predates the story of the princess and the frog. It has a simple but sound theological allegory: The ballad tells of how a handsome knight found coiling around a tree in a dismal forest, a loathsome serpent-like-dragon, breathing out poison; and how, undeterred by its hideousness and foulness, the knight cast his arms around it and kissed it on the mouth. The thing resisted him fiercely, but the knight persisted, and finally the beast changed into a fair lady, and he won his bride. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. Being loved when you don’t deserve it is the most transforming thing in the world.

We are chosen by God. That means we are seen by God in our preciousness, in our individuality. We are seen as precious in God's eyes.

In God's mystery, being chosen, though, doesn't mean excluding anyone. In fact, the more we know we are chosen, that we are seen in our preciousness, the more we will realize that our friends and all people are seen in their preciousness.

Henri Nouwen, a great spiritual writer, spent time living in the L’Arche community. And he writes, “The people I live with sometimes have a very hard time believing they are chosen. They suffer, not so much from their mental handicap, but from the feeling of being not wanted, not desired. They have lost touch with the truth that they are chosen. It is hard for them to be in touch with that, precisely because often the people around them have said, "I don't want you around. I don't want you to be here. Why don't you go away?"

The life of the beloved starts by trusting that we are chosen in our uniqueness, that we are unique in God's eyes, precious.

The second aspect of the quality of the life of the beloved is that we are blessed. It is so important that you and I experience that we are blessed. The word benediction means blessing. Literally, bene means good and diction means saying. To bless someone means to say good things about them. "You are good." We need to know that good things are being said of us. We really have to trust that, otherwise we cannot bless other people. So many people don't feel blessed.

Nouwen continues….I would like to tell you a little story about our community. There is one of my friends there who is quite handicapped but a wonderful, wonderful lady. She said to me, "Henri, can you bless me?" I remember walking up to her and giving her a little cross on her forehead. She said, "Henri, it doesn't work. No, that is not what I mean." I was embarrassed and said, "I gave you a blessing." She said, "No, I want to be blessed." I kept thinking, "What does she mean?"

We had a little service and all these people were sitting there. After the service I said, "Janet wants a blessing." I had an alb on and a long robe with long sleeves. Janet walked up to me and said, "I want to be blessed." She put her head against my chest and I spontaneously put my arms around her, held her, and looked right into her eyes and said, "Blessed are you, Janet. You know how much we love you. You know how important you are. You know what a good woman you are."

She looked at me and said, "Yes, yes, yes, I know. I suddenly saw all sorts of energy coming back to her. She seemed to be relieved from the feeling of depression because suddenly she realized again that she was blessed. She went back to her place and immediately other people said, "I want that kind of blessing, too."

The people kept walking up to me and I suddenly found myself embracing people. I remember that after that, one of the people in our community who assists the handicapped, a strong guy, a football player, said, "Henri, can I have a blessing, too?" I remember our standing there in front of each other and I said, "John," and I put my hand on his shoulder, "you are blessed. You are a good person. God loves you. We love you. You are important." Can you claim that and live as the blessed one?

I think it is very important that when we are in touch with our blessedness that we can then bless other people. People need our blessing; people need to know that their father, mother, brothers and sisters bless them.

But what I would like to say is that the spiritual life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says "You are the beloved and on you my favor rests."

Jesus heard that voice. He heard that voice when He came out of the Jordan River. I want you to hear that voice, too. It is a very important voice that says, "You are my beloved son; you are my beloved daughter. I love you with an everlasting love. I have molded you together in the depths of the earth. I have knitted you in your mother's womb. I've written your name in the palm of my hand and I hold you safe in the shade of my embrace. I hold you. You belong to Me and I belong to you. You are safe where I am. Don't be afraid. Trust that you are the beloved. That is who you truly are."

I want you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is where the spiritual life starts -- by claiming the voice that calls us the beloved. Amen.

Look Where Miracles Happen

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

January 3, 2010 - Epiphany

Read: Matthew 2:1-12

We are celebrating Epiphany today because it is a church holiday that is rich in meaning. Epiphany is actually January 6th – marking the 12th day after Christmas. In many parts of the world, Epiphany is a bigger holiday than Christmas, with rituals of gift giving tied to treasure-bearing wise men instead of a jolly fat man in a red suit. In some places, children leave shoes filled with hay outside their homes. The hay is for the camels of the wise men, who leave gifts for the children in the shoes as thanks before resuming their journey to Bethlehem.

As you know, Epiphany means “manifestation”, a “revelation”, a “showing forth”, a “display”. We often use the term “I experienced an epiphany” to refer to a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something. A sudden perception of reality that changes the way we see ourselves and the life around us.

The story of the magi is the story of how God was manifested in the form of a human being – a baby by the name of Jesus. God made man. The incarnation. And the glory of this story is that God is making Godself known to all of the world. If the Magi – those who engaged in occult arts and whose occupations covered a wide range of astrologers, fortune tellers, and magicians of various plausibility.” (Raymond Brown)

If God is willing to reveal Himself to the “other” and change their lives, then surely God is willing to reveal Himself to you and me. The beauty in this story is in the contrast. The wise men ponder the mysteries in the sky. They discern God is up to something, yet remain uncertain where it might be happening. They need the scriptures to clarify and confirm their search. The chief priests and scribes have the ancient scrolls at their disposal, but they are removed from the experience of awe that the Wise Men can claim.

The Wise Men, in their own way, share the awe of the shepherds in our Christmas Eve story. They have not been beckoned by an angelic voice. In no way do they represent the dispossessed or the poor of Israel. They are Gentiles, outsiders in every way. Yet they are strangely attracted to the Christ child, and they travel at great cost to find him. The magi’s search begins with a star that only God could have put into the sky. During the journey, the inference is that they are protected by divine providence. Even after they find the One for whom they were looking, God warns them in a dream to avoid Herod and go home by another road.

Even though they were outsiders to the promises and stories of Israel, God found a way to include them.

Some years ago, Wayne Robinson visited Israel in the company of the evangelist Oral Roberts. They were granted an audience with David Ben-Gurion, the Prime Minister of Israel.

As they gathered, Oral Roberts handed his Bible to Ben-Gurion and invited him to read his favorite scripture verse. Ben-Gurion smiled and began turning pages to find the verse he wanted. Then he read these words: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Wayne Robinson was just an observer -- just watching and listening -- but he thought that Ben-Gurion had picked a pretty dumb verse. Robinson could think of better verses from the Psalms and elsewhere. His disappointment was compounded when he saw that a cameraman was recording the scene. He wished that Ben-Gurion had quoted a more earthshaking quotation to be recorded on the film.

But then Ben-Gurion explained. He said: "Before we were Americans or Russians, Israelis or Egyptians, before we were Christians or Muslims, Hindus or Jews, before we were any of the things that divide us today, we were men and women created by God. And that is the message of the great religions." To which Oral Roberts replied, "Amen!"

And that is the message of this story -- the story of the Wise Men and Jesus. They came from afar -- from some other country. They were Gentiles -- outsiders -- part of the great unwashed masses, according to the Jewish thought of the day. But God brought them into the very beginning of Jesus' story to remind us that God's love knows no bounds. He loves us, but he also loves those who might seem very unattractive to us. Accept that as Good News. If there are people on the other side of the fence whom you don't find very attractive, you can be sure that there are people on the other side of the fence who don't find you very attractive either. But God isn't one of those. There is no "other side of the fence" with God. And that is Good News!

A famous poem by John Donne goes like this:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less....
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

In his book, The Hungering Dark, Frederick Buechner wrote of humanity as forming an "enormous spider web, so that if you touch it anywhere you set the whole thing trembling."

Epiphany is a festival of dreamers—of wise men who dreamt that God could lead them by the brightness of a star, of Christians throughout the ages who trusted in God’s dream for creation, people like Martin Luther King, Jr. whose “I Have a Dream” speech continues to echo in our hearts and minds.

We, also, are called to ask what dream God beckons us to follow. Where is our bright star? Where do we look for God? Where do we find our road to follow? Where is our Epiphany? Where is it?

Where? Is a question of the ages. In Matthew, the magi come looking for the "child born king of the Jews" and the first word they speak is, "Where?" It is the first word of human characters in the book of Matthew. It is also King Herod's first question. Where? Where is God showing up in that world and in this one?

We prefer to be in control and to keep our world just as it is, with us on top and everything the way we expect it to be, so it is still possible to miss God by nine miles or more. We still ask, where?

Christianity is a faith of many paradoxes. One of them is that the only way we can live freely is to turn control over to God—to let God be God. As the magi journeyed to worship the Christ child, we, also, begin every journey of faith in worship, finding the freedom to enter life so that we might fully participate in God’s dream to heal and restore the world.

Yes, the journey of the wise men is surprising. But even more surprising is the journey of God. God comes the distance—from heaven to earth—to bring salvation and new life.

We can go home by another road. So, where is the One who came to redeem the world, to save us from our sins? Where can we find that bright light today?

You could look where miracles happen. According to Mary Rose O'Reilley, it is "on the edges of time zones, on the border of the woods, in the void between perch and free fall." They happen in small towns and small churches and even outside them. They happen when people who are apart, come together: clueless but obedient and hopeful magi, and even a scheming and violent king under a star. The beautiful, fancy word for this space is liminal, the Latin word for `threshold.' (The Love of Impermanent Things, 154). The wise ones stepped across the threshold of a stable and came into the presence of God. Thank God. Amen.

The Light of Hope Shines on Us

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

December 24, 2009 - Christmas Eve

A student at The University of Georgia got a job as a disc jockey at a little radio station in commerce, Georgia. He also got a room at a hotel in town and commuted to school, which was not far away. Sometimes at night, he would crawl out of his window and sit on the roof of the hotel. He would look out over that little town. One night when he was up there, he wrote a song called “City Lights”. The rest is country music history. His name was Bill Anderson.

An Episcopalian minister in Boston worked himself to near exhaustion. He was on the verge of a complete breakdown. He was greatly depressed and almost gave up in despair. But, he took some time off and went away on a trip. He traveled to a place where he had never been before. He saw the lights of a small town, walked along its streets, and in those lights he found hope again. He wrote a song which has in it these words:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

The rest is church history. His name was Phillips Brooks.

The light of Bethlehem still shines. The child that was born to us, Jesus Christ, is the true light of the world. It is tonight, Christmas Eve, that we are so strongly reminded of the gift of Jesus in our lives – the gift that is born in us over and over and over again. It is a season that has no end, if only we could keep ourselves open to seeing the wonder of the light that shines in our midst each and every day. Every ordinary day.

Our scripture tonight from the book of Isaiah was written during a dark and dangerous time. During a period of 150 years, both the northern and southern kingdoms were threatened by their enemies. Both kingdoms fell and the people suffered the worst kind of defeat and agony. Eventually, even Jerusalem was overrun, the walls torn down, and the temple destroyed, but in the midst of those years of darkness, even before the worst had come, the people were offered hope. A singer, a preacher, gave them words of hope. Here are the words he gave them:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.

The rest is Bible history. His name was Isaiah.

The people who heard those words of God from that preacher needed to hear them because there was darkness all around them. Powerful enemies had been trying to destroy them for centuries, and they were on the verge of destruction, but in the darkness of despair, words of hope came to them.

We can still relate to the concept of darkness in our world today. We can relate to feelings of despair, hopelessness, hostility, etc. But the light shines on. The light of hope still shines on us all. The light of hope shines brightest in despair. It really does not take much light to shine in the darkness. A little light goes a long way.

A friend relates an Army story. When he was in night training they stood on a little hill there in the darkness, looking far down into the valley below. Suddenly, a person out there struck a match. They could see clearly that little light shining far away in the darkness.

Whatever is facing you, and whatever darkness surrounds you, there is a light that shines in the darkness, and that light shines on you. That light enables you to find your way.

Virginia Law told of her experience as a missionary in the Congo. She said that at their mission station, there were men who served as night sentries. They carried oil lanterns. One night, one of them brought her a message. She noticed his lantern and said, “That lamp doesn’t give much light does it?” He replied, “No. It doesn’t. But, it shines as far as I can step.”

We can find our way, as far as we can step, to wherever we need to go, in the light of hope which shines on us.

And we can share the light of the hope, and increase joy, and break yokes of despair. We can be a witness of this light by living the meaning of it, by being a person of hope, by reflecting the light of Christ, by sharing the warmth of it in our daily lives.

Brita Gill-Austern, a professor at Andover Newton Theological School tells this story:

One Sunday I was on my way to church in the subway in Philadelphia reading and editing my sermon that I was to give that morning. I was wrapped up in my world, my worry, my self-preoccupation about how it would go. Yet I was forced to look up from my manuscript when a man walked in the subway at the next stop. He was very grubby, dirty, and had at least a three-day-old beard and generally the appearance of one you hoped would sit elsewhere. As he entered he said, “Good morning, Sally and John. Good morning.” People gave him a quick glance, but no one spoke to him. At the next stop as people got on, he called out again in a most cheerful voice, “Hi, Robert and Janne, Peter and Diane.” Still, no one looked. At the next stop, same thing. Again silence. Then all of a sudden he plopped himself down in front of me and said, “I recognize everybody, but no one recognizes me.”

Finally, I got it, and I put my sermon down to turn to this man and began by asking him his name. “Bernie” he said. “What’s yours?”

“Brita”. “Brita”, he said, “do you know what?” “What, Bernie?” I said.
“Do you know that you and I are twins? Yes, you and I are twins.” A bit taken back I said, “Twins?” I did not exactly see that there was a great similarity between us and obviously had been more tuned to the difference than similarity. Then he looked at me and said with a big smile, “Yes, twins. You see both have two eyes, two ears, and a mouth. That makes us twins.”

Brita concludes, “Bernie was the one who shifted the perception for me to see that only those who see their unity with all, truly see. It is hard for me now to meet any stranger, to be in the face of otherness, and not see Bernie’s face reflected there.”

And so, tonight, we creep up to the manger at Bethlehem, peering over the edge, anxiously wondering what is born among us, and there we see, to our never-ending surprise and eternal delight, the Friend. "I know you and you know me," (Barth) we hear the little one say as we come face to face. His face is our face and the future is His—and so the hope is ours. Amen.

Not Safe, But Good

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

December 13, 2009

Read: Luke 3:7-18

John has some harsh words to say this morning. First he addresses the crowd – those people who went out of their way to travel into the wilderness to see him and hear him – by calling them a “brood of vipers”. How would you like to be called a viper? And notice it is a brood – in other words, children. Children of snakes he says. And don’t begin to say to yourself, well…Abraham is my ancestor, so it’s all ok. Forget it.

And then John gets out the ax. The ax is lying at the root of the tree and every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Not so warm and fuzzy. And so, the crowd asks John. “What then should we do?” It’s a great question.

In C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books—also now produced as movies—the central character is a powerful and mysterious lion named Aslan. Clearly Aslan is intended to be a Christ figure.

Four human siblings are magically transported from earth to the kingdom of Narnia, where Aslan rules. One by one, the four children are invited and challenged to follow Aslan. Early on, two of them become Aslan’s followers. The others aren’t so sure about it all, and one of them asks a sibling, ”Why should we follow Aslan? Is he safe?”

And the reply comes, “No, Aslan’s not safe—but he’s good!”

Doesn’t the preaching of John the Baptist tell us the same thing about Jesus—he’s not safe—but he is good!”

Is that what we are expecting this Advent? Are we expecting Jesus? Are we just expecting Jesus to wave a magic wand and make everything right? Or are we expecting Jesus to shake things up—to change the world, maybe even change you and me?

John makes it clear that Jesus is going to make some changes—and those changes will begin with us. Because, like Aslan, Jesus is good—but he’s not safe! Especially for those who are complacent, those who rest on our laurels, those do not take seriously the call to repentance—Jesus is NOT safe!

“What should we do?” the people plead with John, after he announces it’s time to repent.

And here’s where it gets dangerous: “You might have to change your lives!” John responds. Share with others. Treat others fairly. Don’t exploit them. Don’t take advantage of them. Be content with what you have.

Not safe—but good. (Rev. Rick Thompson’s phrase)

Good, because it’s a change that will make goodness possible in us. God is doing something new, and it will be good—but the old has to go!

In the old movie The High and the Mighty, a plane is over the ocean when the pilot announces, “There is a problem. We cannot correct it. We are not going to make it. I want you to know, so you can prepare for the inevitable.”

An elegantly dressed woman begins to remove the diamond broach from her neck, and a large, expensive right from her finger. She peels off her false eyelashes, and takes off her make-up—revealing an old scar on her forehead, previously hidden by the make-up. She is preparing herself for the end, and will go there as she really is.

Unexpectedly — but, of course, this is a movie — the flight is saved, and lands at the airport. But the woman has changed. She had an opportunity to be honest about herself, and she took it.

That’s how it is with repentance. That’s how it is when we expect Jesus to come. We’re invited to be honest about ourselves. We’re warned that he comes in judgment. But we’re also told that his ultimate purpose is to forgive our sins, to save us, and to heal the creation.

No, he’s not safe. But, yes, Jesus is good!

That’s why preacher and Bible scholar Fred Craddock says of John’s preaching, “When repentance and forgiveness are available, judgment is good news.

What is it that God wants from us? There is a story from the Middle Ages about a young woman who was expelled from heaven. She was told she could return when she could bring back to God the one thing that God valued most. So she searched the world for what God might want most.

She collected coins given by a destitute widow for the poor. She brought back dust from the shoes of missionaries who had spread the gospel to distant lands. She even brought back drops of blood from a dying martyr. Yet every gift she brought to God was turned back.

One day she watched a small boy playing in a fountain. A man rode up on horseback to take a drink. When he saw the boy playing in the fountain, the man remembered his own childhood innocence. Then he looked into the water and saw the reflection of his hardened face. He was overcome by the sin of his life. At that moment he wept tears of repentance. The young woman caught one of those tears and brought it back to heaven. She was received by the angels with joy.

Preacher and author Walt Wangerin tells the story of a dream he once had.

“In my dream, a friend was coming to see me, and I was excited! I didn’t know who the friend was...but the anticipation and certainty of my friend’s coming occupied me.

“As the time of arrival drew nearer and nearer, my excitement increased. I felt more and more like a child….Laughter fell from me like rain. I wanted to stand on the porch and bellow to the neighborhood, ‘My friend is coming!’ Joy became a sort of swelling in my chest, and all my flesh began to tingle.

“A wild kind of music attended my waiting. And the closer my friend came, the more exquisite grew the music—high violins rising higher by the sweetest, tightest, most piercing dissonance, reaching for, weeping for, the final resolve of his appearing.

“And when the music had ascended to nearly impossible chords of wailing little noises…and when excitement had squeezed the breath from my lungs, I started to cry.

“And my friend came….then I put my hands to my cheeks and cried and laughed at once.

“He was looking directly at me, with affection—and I grew so strong within his gaze. And I knew at once who it was.

“It was Jesus.” (Wangerin, Walter in Eifrig, ed., “Waiting for a Friend to Arrive,” Measuring the Days: Daily Reflections with Walter Wanterin, Jr., pp. 326-7. )

As Eugene Peterson wisely says: Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god . . . Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.

The person who will endure is the one who has made himself or herself ready. Preparing for Christ’s return calls for soul-searching and repentance, two of the great, but often-forgotten, themes of this time of year. God is pleased with the gift of our sincere repentance – a seeing of our sins, a sadness over our sins, a willingness to try, with God’s help, to amend our living, a turning back to God, a turning things around. A willingness to try.

Jesus Christ is our Savior. He rescues us from our broken relationship with God and offers us a new relationship under God’s kingdom rule, which completely reorders creation and the human community. And this is good news. Not safe, but good! Thank God! Amen.

Prepare the Way of the Lord

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

December 6, 2009

Read: Baruch 5:1-9 and Luke 3:1-6

From Baruch: “For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God”. From Luke’s gospel: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” All flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Such hope filled words. Hope. Hope in a time of great difficulty. Baruch was the secretary to the prophet Jeremiah and this book is addressed to a people in dispersion. They wanted to go home. He also writes of repentance, similar to John the Baptist’s message of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. At the Jordan, the entrance to the promised land where the exodus generation had been “baptized” by crossing the river to show their commitment to live as the covenant community, John proclaims a baptism that signifies repentance and results in forgiveness. It signifies a break from earlier life.

So, we have a lot here today: repentance, forgiveness of sins, restoration, salvation.

Where to begin? Well Luke begins his account of John’s preaching, and therefore, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, firmly in the context of world history. John is rooted in history - a specific time and place into which God spoke and came...God still speaks and comes to people rooted in specific times and places. To you here in 21st Century Coatesville God comes.

The Word of God is unfolding...the word of God is revealed in and is tested by time. In our Philippians reading when Paul suggests that the people who have worked hard for the "harvest of righteousness" will be rewarded – perhaps this reward will be the awareness that the Kingdom of God has been 'unfolding' slowly through the work of their hands and the making straight crooked paths.

In the feel-good times of getting ready for Christmas, today’s readings are a wake-up call. But a wonderfully hopeful wake-up call. What are we doing with our life?
In the words of a newly popular song by Bon Jovi, entitled, “We Weren’t Born to Follow,” he sings:

This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles
This one goes out the ones in need
This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical
This ain't about no apology
This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry
This road was paved by the winds of change
Walking beside the guilty and the innocent
How will you raise your hand when they call your name?
We Weren’t born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe
Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren’t born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Someone who stood up for what he believed had these words to say:
“I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. also had this to say: “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” Which leads me to another man’s story.

My son now plays Rugby and is interested in seeing a new film about to be released on December 11, Invictus. The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela, after the fall of apartheid in South Africa, and during his first term as president, campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match. The title, Invinctus, comes from the fact that Mandela had the poem written on a scrap of paper on his prison cell wall. The poem, written from William Ernest Henley’s hospital bed ends with:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

Now as many of you know, Mandela spent 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid. After he was released and elected as South Africa’s first black president, he preached reconciliation. He preached reconciliation. When he decided to support the country’s rugby team—long a symbol of white oppression—his countrymen were stunned. And Mandela had this to say to the crowd: “Forgiveness liberates the soul…that’s why it’s such a powerful weapon.”

In today’s Parade magazine interview, Matt Damon, as the white rugby captain Francois Pienaar wonders to his wife, “how can you spend 30 years in a tiny cell and come out ready to forgive the people who put you there.” “It makes you consider your own place in the world and your behavior to other people”.

Those are truly powerful words, if explored. “It makes you consider your own place in the world and your behavior to other people.” John the Baptist’s message was one of repentance leading to the forgiveness of sins. Repentance is a somewhat inadequate translation of the Greek word, metanoia, which describes the more basic change of mind and heart and attitude demanded by personal conversion. Conversion or repentance calls for a re-forming of our self- and our life- by turning toward God and away from the evil forces that dominate our world. It is a life-long challenge-- do you hear that? a life-long challenge-- to order ourselves and our world according to the vision and values of Jesus and to live that out in whatever way we can. God comes to the ordinary – look at Zechariah, Mary, John the Baptist, David, so many– who were all very ordinary people who heard God’s call and followed. The captain of our soul is Jesus. We were born to follow Jesus.

There is a spiritual exercise called the Examen written by St. Ignatius of Loyola. It can be done at the close of every day and involves a review of our day. There are five points to the method. We give thanks for all the blessings. We ask for the help of the Spirit to enlighten us so that we might see with the light of God’s grace. Going back over the events of the day, we look at where God has been present and where we may have kept God out. Express sorrow and ask for God’s forgiving love to heal and strengthen. And then pray for the grace to be more totally available to God who loves us so totally.

I’d like to close with Benedicto written by Edward Abbey:

Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you -- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls."

Amen.