Dear Friends in Christ,
I hope you are having a truly merry and peaceful Christmas!
It is such a wonderful time of year, despite its propensity to excess and exhaustion.
One thing that makes Christmas more fulfilling for me is understanding it as a season, not just a day. I light my candles, listen to the Messiah, and celebrate in other small ways throughout the 12 days. It deepens my experience of Christmas to think of it as leading up to Epiphany ("Three Kings Day") on January 6th. I also find it helps to fully celebrate the season of Advent beforehand, with its twin themes of hope and repentance. When post-Christmas letdown threatens, I remember that Easter, not Christmas, is the spiritual high point of the liturgical year. All these things help me put December 25th in perspective, and not get too jaded, jumpy, or jet-lagged by the hugeness that is Christmas in our culture. Over time I've come to appreciate the changing seasons of the liturgical year, as they highlight one facet after another of our tradition, allowing us to live out the fullness and richness of our faith.
A highlight of this Advent, for me, was celebrating the 4th Sunday of Advent with the Immanuel and St. Elias faith communities. There were many moving moments last Sunday: hearing Pastor Gabi beautifully chant the liturgy in Arabic, listening to children sing and tell the ancient nativity story, and hearing a testimonial from Bishop Wayne Miller, a former member of Immanuel. Bishop Miller told us about a time back in the 1970s when he arrived "spiritually lost" at Immanuel, and was loved and claimed by that community. After the service, we enjoyed a home-made Middle Eastern feast courtesy of the people of St. Elias, and Santa arrived with presents for the children. Arabic Christmas carols played in the background. It was a wonderful day as people from different backgrounds celebrated together.
It is so important to celebrate the joy of life. As much as he was a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," Jesus was also about joy. So I believe in parties and celebrations. Yet amidst the bustle and merry-making of the holiday season, quiet moments are hidden treasures that I revel in finding. They feel like a gift of the sacred. This Christmas, I wish you sabbath time relaxing with family and friends, and time just for yourself. In our daily lives, we do lots of things to "save" time, as we deal with continual to-do lists and deadlines. Today a phrase that came to me was "savoring" time. Sabbath time is crucial for our spiritual journeys and overall health. Can you take a walk in the snow? Listen to a recording of "The Messiah?" Take time to reflect on the birth of the Savior in our world, and the love that came down at Christmas. What that love means for you and me. Fallen and harsh as our planet may be, it is a saved one now.
I hope you will join us this Sunday December 30th at our usual time, 5:00 p.m., in the side chapel at Immanuel. Professor Paul Koptak from North Park Seminary, a former professor of Larry's, will be our guest preacher. His sermon is "On Namings and New Years." We will sing some Christmas carols. Come and celebrate with us this 6th day of Christmas!
God's peace,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements
This December 30th, our worship resumes at its normal time -- Sunday at 5:00. Professor Paul Koptak from North Park Seminary will offer us a sermon entitled "On Namings and New Years." Come celebrate with us this 6th day of Christmas! Bring some leftover sweets to share.
Laura is on call though the first week of January, for any pastoral needs or emergencies. She can be reached at christreconciler@hotmail.com A separate announcement will go out to the congregation with more contact information for Laura.
The Rev. Jolene Berkstrom-Carlson, Associate Superintendent of Larry’s conference in the Evangelical Covenant Church, will be our guest for worship on January 20th.
Our Annual Meeting is coming up on Sunday, January 27th. We plan to gather at 2:00 p.m. for a potluck and meeting, then will worship at 5:00. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this important every-member meeting.
Friday, December 28
Sunday, December 23
Sermon: Not Just Another Proud Father
4th Sunday of Advent, Year C
Sunday December 23, 2008
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25
Preacher: The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
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I have always been very proud of my son. But then I have a most remarkable son.
He is a lot like his mother. There is no one like either of them.
Maybe you think I am just another proud father. Just another proud husband.
So allow me to introduce myself. I am Joseph of Nazareth.
My wife is Mary. Our son is Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth.
You probably know much more about my wife and son than you do about me. But that’s as it should be. They are the special ones.
I’ve never been a person who needed to take credit. When I built a table, chair, or house, my reward was in seeing it done right and giving happiness to those who would use it. I didn’t need others to praise my work. I didn’t need to be the big boss, overseeing 10 other carpenters. I was happy to have my own little shop and make life a bit better for others. And so it was with this project God had in mind, that God asked Mary and me to help build. I just wanted to help.
If I did anything right, it was trusting. I trusted God. I went along with the plan, even when it seemed really crazy, scary, or impossible.
Another thing I did right was to love Mary and to stay with her. But that was easy. I have never known a soul so pure. Such a beautiful person. And she was wise, no one’s fool. Our parents had arranged the marriage, but there was no one I would rather be with. After we were engaged, she continued to live with her parents and I went to see her sometimes. One day she gave me the unbelievable news that she was pregnant. I couldn’t take it in. I knew I wasn’t the child’s father. We were not yet man and wife. Mary wasn’t the kind to do something impulsive, and I’d never seen her hurt anyone on purpose. But now she was hurting me, as I heard her strange, unwelcome news. Had she been seeing someone else? No, she said, no!
Perhaps someone had taken advantage of her. But again she said no. She said she was carrying God’s child. Then I thought maybe she was not in her right mind. Yet she seemed to be making sense about other things. She just had this problem and this wild story. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I was losing my own mind. I saw all my hopes for our marriage dissolving. What kind of life would we have together, with a beginning like this? I told Mary I would not be able to see her for a while. I would have to think.
So I went home and thought. And thought. Agonized. And it seemed to me that the best thing would be to quietly end the relationship and call off the wedding. I was not interested in having Mary punished or disgraced. It would be hard enough for her, an unmarried woman, with a child. I hated to think about the life she would live, how other people would treat her, if they even allowed her to live. But how could we marry, under these circumstances? And how in the world was I going to explain this to my mother, or my future in laws? I had a very difficult night, tossing and turning in my bed. Finally, when it was almost morning, I shut my eyes.
In a dream, one of God’s angels spoke to me. And told me not to be afraid to take Mary as my wife. That the baby came from the Holy Spirit. I should name him Jesus, which means “God saves.” He was the child the prophets had spoken of, the child who would one day come to deliver our people.
In the dream I felt a peace and joy I had never known. When I awoke, I felt it still. I went to see Mary. I took her hand and told her I would still like to marry her. We would raise the child together. I told her about my dream. We wept. We knew the road ahead could not be easy. But we loved each other. And we trusted God.
The rest of the story, I think you know. We had our Jesus, under difficult circumstances, but God was with us. I continued to dream, and God continued to guide and protect us. Like all parents, we had happy and sad times with our child. And Jesus’ amazing life unfolded the way it was meant to. He was my son. But he was much more than that. He was also God’s son.
Sometimes as parents we think we own our children. We do not. Sometimes as married people we think we own our husband or wife. We do not. In a way, Mary and Jesus belonged to me, but in a way, they never did. God lent them to me as a gift, to care for them. It was a great lesson to me about what love is and is not. It is not ownership. I loved and cared for them. And that was enough for me. I never needed to have the credit or be the big boss. And I know that even though my role was relatively small, I was important to the success of God’s plan. I think it’s safe to say it wouldn’t have worked without me.
If there is any special message I could offer you today, it is this: Trust God. Even when the going gets rough, even if your spouse or child does something really strange, even if all of your plans for the future get turned upside down, Trust God. Easier said than done, I know. Maybe that was my real gift, my contribution to the divine plan, being able to trust. And that is what I wish for you.
From me you can also learn that no one is insignificant to God. Mary and I were not rich or famous. We were not from a big important city, like Athens or Jerusalem. Sometimes I’ve wondered, why me? How did I get chosen for this part, mixed up in this drama? Yes, OK, I am descended from King David, but I am just a carpenter. It seems God can work through all kinds of limited, ordinary people like me. So don’t sell yourself short, and don’t lose hope. Your life is important to God, and you matter, regardless of who you are and where you come from.
I would also like you to remember Jesus’s whole life. Not just the angels, manger, and shepherds. Amazing and wonderful as those things were, there’s much more to the story. Remember the way my son reached out to the sick, poor, blind, and lame. Remember how he ate with outcasts. How he treated women and children with dignity. Remember what he taught us about life, love and forgiveness. Don’t forget his sacrifice on the cross, and how he lived on after that. Because the way Jesus was conceived and born – while truly amazing –is only a small part of the Great Story.
My son was called “God saves.” Remember that you are saved. The world is saved.
My son was also called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” It may seem sometimes that God is very far away. But God is always with us. God may not send you an angel in a dream, as He did for me, but God can speak to you through friends, family, teachers, even strangers. God speaks too through Scripture, and through communities of faith. And if you get quiet and listen, you may also hear God’s voice inside yourself, still and small.
Jesus was an extraordinary light in this world. There was no one like him. But that light is in you and me too, if we believe in Him. We let it shine when we forgive, accept, and help one another.
Remember the love Jesus has for you and me. Love never dies. Especially when it comes from God.
I guess you could say things worked out for me, following that plan of God’s that seemed so crazy at first. May you also be open to God’s plans for you, and may the light of Jesus, shining in all of us, bring about many small and large miracles this Christmas and beyond.
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Saturday, December 22
Worship 4 Advent 12/23/2007
Our worship Sunday December 23 will be held at 1:30 PM, in a joint worship service with St Elias and Immanuel.
We return to our regular worship time of 5PM on on Sunday December 30th
We return to our regular worship time of 5PM on on Sunday December 30th
Sunday, December 16
Office Hours
Larry will not be keeping his Thursday "office hours" at Ennui Cafe until after the first of the year. Larry will begin keeping office hours again at Ennui Cafe beginning January 3rd.
Sunday, December 9
Reconciler Update
Welcome to winter! There are several inches of snow on the ground, and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as the song goes. Welcome also to the season of Advent, a time when we prepare our hearts for the spiritual coming of Christ. We remember his birth in Bethlehem, and prepare for a time when he will come again.
Just on the cusp of Advent, one week ago, 14 members of Reconciler participated in a remarkable retreat at the Cenacle in Lincoln Park. The themes of the retreat were leadership and discernment. Our retreat was grounded in Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. We stayed overnight Friday night and met all day Saturday, while the snow flew. On Friday evening, Amy Knickrehm, a member of the Community of the Holy Trinity who has worked with the Christian Peacemakers, led us in a workshop on the consensus model for group decision-making. Amy gave us an overview of the consensus model. Reconciler member Charity Ryerson then led us through a role play to help us put into practice this new information.
Saturday morning we started out with lectio divina, reading aloud and sharing our responses to a passage from 1 Corinthians 12: "For 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. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...If one member suffers, all suffer together wth it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."
We then shared questions we had brought with us to the retreat. These were questions about church and Christian leadership, 1st Corinthians, and how we make decisions as the Body of Christ. We found that we had one overarching question: "Who are we as a church, who is God calling us to be, and how do we discern that?"
After Eucharist with the Cenacle sisters and lunch, we regrouped to tackle that question. We took turns talking about why we had first come to Reconciler and why we stayed. Some very important things emerged from this conversation. First, we heard common themes that help us define who we are and what draws people to our church:
"ecumenism, flexibility, strong liturgy, solid preaching, historical orthodoxy, women pastors, real, small & new, great music, different but with substance, meditative, goth pastor, Bible study, a place we can invite a range of people, good blog, pink hair, delightfully eccentric, good pastoral care, the people here."
In the course of that conversation, some of our weaknesses as a congregation, as well as our strengths, emerged. Some said they would like to see our church demonstrate a better balance of heart and head, and more effectively care for each other and offer hospitality to newcomers.
We came up with concrete goals to remedy that: 1) The pastors will clarify our availability for pastoral care, and will continue to reach out to newcomers and those in any need or trouble. We will get a common cell phone that each pastor will carry when he or she is on call. That way, members need only remember one phone number, and can always reach a pastor for pastoral care and emergencies. 2) We will work to be open with one another and take care of each other in the spirit of genuine Christian agape (unconditional love) as described in 1 Corinthians 13. 3) We will get together at least once every other week, targeting Wednesdays, for informal faith-sharing and fellowship. Jeremy John is creating a "list serve" so that all members can receive emails about where and when these will occur. 4) We will have a "coffee hour" -- with or without coffee -- where we hang out together for 30 minutes after the Sunday service. 5) We will have greeters who stand by the front doors of the church to help direct newcomers to our service. 6) Some members of the congregation will assist in putting things away after the service to allow the pastors more time to meet with people and offer pastoral care as needed.
From the Pastoral Team's persective, some very important things came from this retreat. Those gathered did a good job defining who we are as a church and where we need to grow. In that process, people took risks and were responsive to each other. The lay members seemed to feel empowered, recognizing that every-member ministry and ownership is key to healthy congregational functioning. All of us are Christian leaders. Also, those gathered recognized that central to this enterprise of church is having a spirit of love for and amongst one another. This is not a corny or sentimental kind of love, but an active spirit of caring and understanding that can in fact be quite challenging. It also creates a very appealing environment, both for those inside our church and those who might wish to join.
Speaking personally, I was delighted by the retreat and like my co-pastor Larry, emerged refreshed. It was a good balance of productive sessions, shared worship, socializing, and "alone" time. I got to know people better. It was heartening to see that through an organic process of asking and trying to answer our own questions as a group, we could emerge with some very healthy anwers. Some of them were humbling to hear, others affirming, but all very helpful.
Godspeed, Good Ship Reconciler.
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal...Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love never ends....And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." -- 1 Corinthians 13
Advent Blessings and Love,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for the Pastoral Team,Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements
Pastoral Care:
Larry is on call this month (December) for pastoral care and pastoral emergencies. He can be reached at christreconciler@hotmail.com
While Larry is away Christmas eve through December 31, Laura will be on call. She will also be on call in January. Laura can be reached at christreconciler@hotmail.com.
More information about the pastors' availability and contact #'s is being sent out in an email to the congregation.
Sunday December 9th there is a brief congregational meeting, directly following worship, to present and approve the slate of officers for our church council that will be up for election at our annual meeting at the end of January.
Discernment Committee meets Monday December 17th at the 'Nidge at 7:30 p.m..
Council meets Thursday, December 20 at the 'Nidge at 7:30 p.m.
Immanuel is looking for volunteers from Reconciler who can assist with the Altar Guild and the Buildings and Grounds committees.
4th advent December 23 we will be having a joint worship service with Immanuel and St Elias, at St Elias' worship time of 1:30 PM.
We will not worship at our normal time of 5 PM. We are invited to come to a brunch at 11:30 put on by Immanuel and also a Christmas dinner organized by St Elias after the service. Come eat and worship all day! :-) If you would be interested in helping out the preparation and organization of either meals, let us know and we will get your name to the people in charge of organizing the meals.
The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Just on the cusp of Advent, one week ago, 14 members of Reconciler participated in a remarkable retreat at the Cenacle in Lincoln Park. The themes of the retreat were leadership and discernment. Our retreat was grounded in Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. We stayed overnight Friday night and met all day Saturday, while the snow flew. On Friday evening, Amy Knickrehm, a member of the Community of the Holy Trinity who has worked with the Christian Peacemakers, led us in a workshop on the consensus model for group decision-making. Amy gave us an overview of the consensus model. Reconciler member Charity Ryerson then led us through a role play to help us put into practice this new information.
Saturday morning we started out with lectio divina, reading aloud and sharing our responses to a passage from 1 Corinthians 12: "For 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. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...If one member suffers, all suffer together wth it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."
We then shared questions we had brought with us to the retreat. These were questions about church and Christian leadership, 1st Corinthians, and how we make decisions as the Body of Christ. We found that we had one overarching question: "Who are we as a church, who is God calling us to be, and how do we discern that?"
After Eucharist with the Cenacle sisters and lunch, we regrouped to tackle that question. We took turns talking about why we had first come to Reconciler and why we stayed. Some very important things emerged from this conversation. First, we heard common themes that help us define who we are and what draws people to our church:
"ecumenism, flexibility, strong liturgy, solid preaching, historical orthodoxy, women pastors, real, small & new, great music, different but with substance, meditative, goth pastor, Bible study, a place we can invite a range of people, good blog, pink hair, delightfully eccentric, good pastoral care, the people here."
In the course of that conversation, some of our weaknesses as a congregation, as well as our strengths, emerged. Some said they would like to see our church demonstrate a better balance of heart and head, and more effectively care for each other and offer hospitality to newcomers.
We came up with concrete goals to remedy that: 1) The pastors will clarify our availability for pastoral care, and will continue to reach out to newcomers and those in any need or trouble. We will get a common cell phone that each pastor will carry when he or she is on call. That way, members need only remember one phone number, and can always reach a pastor for pastoral care and emergencies. 2) We will work to be open with one another and take care of each other in the spirit of genuine Christian agape (unconditional love) as described in 1 Corinthians 13. 3) We will get together at least once every other week, targeting Wednesdays, for informal faith-sharing and fellowship. Jeremy John is creating a "list serve" so that all members can receive emails about where and when these will occur. 4) We will have a "coffee hour" -- with or without coffee -- where we hang out together for 30 minutes after the Sunday service. 5) We will have greeters who stand by the front doors of the church to help direct newcomers to our service. 6) Some members of the congregation will assist in putting things away after the service to allow the pastors more time to meet with people and offer pastoral care as needed.
From the Pastoral Team's persective, some very important things came from this retreat. Those gathered did a good job defining who we are as a church and where we need to grow. In that process, people took risks and were responsive to each other. The lay members seemed to feel empowered, recognizing that every-member ministry and ownership is key to healthy congregational functioning. All of us are Christian leaders. Also, those gathered recognized that central to this enterprise of church is having a spirit of love for and amongst one another. This is not a corny or sentimental kind of love, but an active spirit of caring and understanding that can in fact be quite challenging. It also creates a very appealing environment, both for those inside our church and those who might wish to join.
Speaking personally, I was delighted by the retreat and like my co-pastor Larry, emerged refreshed. It was a good balance of productive sessions, shared worship, socializing, and "alone" time. I got to know people better. It was heartening to see that through an organic process of asking and trying to answer our own questions as a group, we could emerge with some very healthy anwers. Some of them were humbling to hear, others affirming, but all very helpful.
Godspeed, Good Ship Reconciler.
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal...Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love never ends....And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." -- 1 Corinthians 13
Advent Blessings and Love,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for the Pastoral Team,Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements
Pastoral Care:
Larry is on call this month (December) for pastoral care and pastoral emergencies. He can be reached at christreconciler@hotmail.com
While Larry is away Christmas eve through December 31, Laura will be on call. She will also be on call in January. Laura can be reached at christreconciler@hotmail.com.
More information about the pastors' availability and contact #'s is being sent out in an email to the congregation.
Sunday December 9th there is a brief congregational meeting, directly following worship, to present and approve the slate of officers for our church council that will be up for election at our annual meeting at the end of January.
Discernment Committee meets Monday December 17th at the 'Nidge at 7:30 p.m..
Council meets Thursday, December 20 at the 'Nidge at 7:30 p.m.
Immanuel is looking for volunteers from Reconciler who can assist with the Altar Guild and the Buildings and Grounds committees.
4th advent December 23 we will be having a joint worship service with Immanuel and St Elias, at St Elias' worship time of 1:30 PM.
We will not worship at our normal time of 5 PM. We are invited to come to a brunch at 11:30 put on by Immanuel and also a Christmas dinner organized by St Elias after the service. Come eat and worship all day! :-) If you would be interested in helping out the preparation and organization of either meals, let us know and we will get your name to the people in charge of organizing the meals.
The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Sunday, December 2
Sermon
Advent I, Year C
December 2, 2007
Scriptures: Isaiah 2:1-5, Ps. 122, Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44
Preacher: The Rev. Laura E. Gottardi-Littell
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It’s Advent. And also the holiday season.
A time of hopes and fears.
A Christmas carol talks about the “hopes and fears of all the years”
Our personal hopes and fears often get stirred this time of year. Memories and longings surface around our own Christmases past, present, and future. And about the rest of our lives. At this time of year, we can experience the hopes and fears of all our years, the themes, the leitmotivs that run throughout our own individual lives, the hopes and fears we’ve always known.
This time of year is an intensifier. A microcosm.
It can be the best and worst of times. People are kinder, except when they’re stressed or depressed. Music is great, if you like non-stop Christmas carols. The snow is fun except when you have to shovel or drive in it. The traditions, decorations and lights are so wonderful, unless you’re grieving, ill or having a hard time for some other reason and then they just remind you of how you’re supposed to be happy and aren’t. It’s wonderful to be with family and friends, unless we’re tired from too much socializing and sad because some dynamics are difficult and don’t seem to change year to year.
It can be a manic depressive time, a time of great highs and lows. High as we think of how happy we’ll be and we’ll make everyone: low when we sit down after the gift-giving is done, with a pile of stuff we don’t particularly want, and seeing in others’s faces that they too ended up with a pile of stuff they didn’t really want. High as we rush from church to store to home, from baking to decorating to wrapping to traveling, having a great time. Low when our natural energy levels run out, when loved ones are arguing, when despite all our efforts we can’t make it a perfect time. High when we experience the love, joy and peace that are real and can be heightened by the season. Low when we see the world is still the world, the war is still on, people are still dying, suffering, cheating, and lying…and where is Jesus anyway?
It’s a very hopeful and fearful place – this world of ours. And it can seem more so at this time of year.
As we begin a new church year today, and enter the season of Advent, our Scriptures call us to another layer of hopes and fears. They talk about end times, and new beginnings. Today’s lessons are about the hopes and fears of all the years.
Isaiah speaks of a future time when the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the mountains, and all the nations will stream to it. God will judge between nations and arbitrate for many, beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Paul writes to the Romans about the now, Paul’s now, nearly 2000 years ago. Now is the time for the church in Rome to wake from sleep. Salvation is near. The night is far gone, the day is near. Time for Christians to put aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; living honorably. Stop getting drunk, having a lot of promiscuous sex, being jealous of each other, and fighting. Jesus is coming, so clean up your act.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus talks to his disciples about the future, the end of the world as we know it. When the Son of Man will come on clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Jesus compares that future time to the Great Flood, the time of Noah’s ark. Some will be saved and others…not so much. No one knows when this time will come. So we have to stay awake. Be vigilant.
On the one hand, these Sciptures give us great hope. Nations will cease from warfare. All people will come to God. Salvation is near, light is dawning. Jesus is coming back. How wonderful. How hopeful.
Yet these readings also have fearful elements, or at least elements of real uncertainty.
Isaiah says all nations will come to God, the god of Israel. Does that mean all other world religions will be no more? And as much as we may love our own faith, is that what we really want deep down? A monolithic world? Our God the winner, other gods the loser? Maybe on some level we want that, maybe on another level, not. It’s something to think about. It’s a deep question, it’s a question that emerges for me as I encounter this text.
Paul says salvation is near. The night is far gone, the day is near. Paul says Jesus is coming back soon. How incredible. How hopeful. Yet looking back through the lens of nearly 2000 years, we see that Jesus didn’t come when Paul or Matthew expected. Why not? What happened? Where is he?
Matthew says Jesus will come again in great glory, at an unexpected hour. And that some people will be taken with him and some left. How hopeful to be the ones to go with Jesus, to be part of the saved community, but how fearful to be left behind.
These Scriptures bring up mixed emotions for me. They stir my faith and doubt, my hopes and fears. And I think as your pastor I owe you that honesty. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. It is a necessary integral part of our faith journeys.
I don’t know what the second coming will look like. I hope Jesus will come back, because we need him. On some level, I also fear Jesus will return, because what will happen then? What will life be like? What kind of world will he usher in? How will I or any of us do at the last judgment? Who can stand when he appears?
And how do we reconcile this judgmental God with the God of love, the God of the New Testament?
So you see, it can be a manic depressive kind of thing, a swing between hope and fear, reading these apocalyptic Scriptures for today. In an already manic depressive time of year.
So where are we called to stand? What to make of these Scriptures? What to do with them? What do they have to do with where we are today, in the 21st century, at the beginning of Advent, facing down another Christmas?
I think we are called to stand smack dab in the middle between hope and fear. Knowing that sin, death and pain are real. Knowing love and kindness and justice are equally real. Knowing that there is something beyond us, some force that draws us together and beyond our own limits in ways that are knowable and incredible, as I think many of us experienced on our retreat. And yet knowing that there are times when God also seems absent in our lives, when we experience the darkness and the void.
In our own lives and as Christians in the world, called to stand between our hopes and fears. We’re called to stand between darkness and light. Knowing that intermingled sun and shadow is the nature of life right now. Someday maybe we will see fully, but now we see only in part, through a glass darkly, as we read from 1st Corinthians on our retreat.
As I struggle with my hopes and fears about the last days, there is some help from theologian Karl Barth who reminds us that in the Biblical worldview, a judge was not so much one who comes to reward or punish but one who comes to set things right, to restore justice and harmony. I long for, and I know you long for, a world where harmony and justice are restored. That is a hopeful thing to contemplate. Yet if it brings up our fears, that is something to pay attention to. Are we unjust? Are we living out of harmony? Then we have some self-correcting to do. Do we see injustice and disharmony outside of ourselves? Then we have a role to play in helping correct that.
We may all have our own vision of what a restored world looks like. And I think it helps to understand the Scriptures we read today as culturally conditioned. Yes, they are God-inspired but also they are human depictions of what a new world, a new Jerusalem could look like.
And so if your own hopes and fears are a bit different from what you heard in Isaiah, or Paul, or Matthew today, I think that it is all right. And if Paul and Matthew didn’t get the timing of the second coming down just right, that’s OK too. But these Scriptures point us to a hope that is important to hold on to. That there can be a better time, a better world.
We need this hope. Otherwise we get caught up in the paralysis of despair.
We’re called to stand in this gap, between hope and fear. Not swinging between one pole or the other, in a manic depressive sway. We’re called to stay awake. Be alert. And alertness presents us from between unrealistic optimism and naivete, on the one hand, and doom and gloom despair on the other.
In between Pollyanna and paralysis is where we’re called to stand this Advent and always.
We know what the past holds. For our own lives. For the world. We don’t know what the future holds. Good things we hope. For ourselves. For our world.
But it’s now in the present that we need to focus. Be alert. Live in realistic hope, knowing it’s a fallen world but knowing there’s also much more than sin and death. Live in the middle ground between hope and fear. Know the reality and validity of both. Pay attention to and don’t discount either. Don’t be bi-polar. Be grounded. Keep awake.
We’re in an in between time. Smack dab in the middle between hope and fear. In between what our faith tradition tells us is the first and second coming of Christ.
Know that Jesus is with us, in this mingled time of sun and shadow.
Another theologian writes:
“The central message of Advent is that God is not just a light at the end of a dark tunnel. God is in the dark tunnel with us. In the dark times of our lives we struggle to be faithful to God in spite of doubt and failure and guilt. And we struggle with the pain of grief and fear and illness and personal calamities. It’s crucial for us to hold on to the belief that God is with us in those hard times. He doesn’t just suddenly show up when things get better…God is in the darkness. We cannot wait for the light to come on at Christmas before we choose life. But we know the light is coming. Christ will come, not as a magician to solve our problems, but as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, bearing in his flesh the scars from the whips and the nail holes in his hands and feet. He will take us by the hand and walk with us through our shadowlands into such a bright dawn as we cannot yet imagine.”
Immanuel means God is with us. God is with us now in the present, as well as the past and future. Jesus is the place where past and present and future meet. In him, all the hopes and fears of all the years are met.
So what to do this time of year? How to make it a meaningful time, even a happy time? Look for Jesus. Find him in the quiet moments, in the beauty, solemnity and festivity of the season. Prepare your heart. Prepare him room. Advent is an excellent time to step up our prayer lives and I’m reminding myself as well as you of that. See God all around us, even as we despair over the difficulties of life. The darkness of our world, even the darkness of Madison Avenue, don’t have the power to take Christ out of Christmas.
And be him. Be the light in the darkness. Our time together on the retreat clarified that that we are the body of Chirst, each of us living members, and that Christ is in us and and among us We are called not only to see light and hope but to be light and hope for each other You are the light of the world, Christ told his disciples. You and I are the light of the world. Let’s offer it to one another and to as many as we can.
In this in between time, as we wait for Jesus, while we know and experience the reality of the fear and the darkness, we are called to increase the hope and the light of the world, even as we wait for its full completion.
We don’t know, with a scientist’s certainty, about that birth in Bethlehem, long ago. What really happened there. We don’t know with a scientist’s precision what the end of the world and the second coming might look like.
We are in the present. This is where our salvation lies right now. And Christ is with us in our darkness and our light. Christ is not only the light at the end of the tunnel. Christ is with us in the tunnel.
Advent is an in-between place. In between Jesus’s first and second coming. In between hope and fear. And that, my friends, is where we’re called to stand.
Amen.
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December 2, 2007
Scriptures: Isaiah 2:1-5, Ps. 122, Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44
Preacher: The Rev. Laura E. Gottardi-Littell
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It’s Advent. And also the holiday season.
A time of hopes and fears.
A Christmas carol talks about the “hopes and fears of all the years”
Our personal hopes and fears often get stirred this time of year. Memories and longings surface around our own Christmases past, present, and future. And about the rest of our lives. At this time of year, we can experience the hopes and fears of all our years, the themes, the leitmotivs that run throughout our own individual lives, the hopes and fears we’ve always known.
This time of year is an intensifier. A microcosm.
It can be the best and worst of times. People are kinder, except when they’re stressed or depressed. Music is great, if you like non-stop Christmas carols. The snow is fun except when you have to shovel or drive in it. The traditions, decorations and lights are so wonderful, unless you’re grieving, ill or having a hard time for some other reason and then they just remind you of how you’re supposed to be happy and aren’t. It’s wonderful to be with family and friends, unless we’re tired from too much socializing and sad because some dynamics are difficult and don’t seem to change year to year.
It can be a manic depressive time, a time of great highs and lows. High as we think of how happy we’ll be and we’ll make everyone: low when we sit down after the gift-giving is done, with a pile of stuff we don’t particularly want, and seeing in others’s faces that they too ended up with a pile of stuff they didn’t really want. High as we rush from church to store to home, from baking to decorating to wrapping to traveling, having a great time. Low when our natural energy levels run out, when loved ones are arguing, when despite all our efforts we can’t make it a perfect time. High when we experience the love, joy and peace that are real and can be heightened by the season. Low when we see the world is still the world, the war is still on, people are still dying, suffering, cheating, and lying…and where is Jesus anyway?
It’s a very hopeful and fearful place – this world of ours. And it can seem more so at this time of year.
As we begin a new church year today, and enter the season of Advent, our Scriptures call us to another layer of hopes and fears. They talk about end times, and new beginnings. Today’s lessons are about the hopes and fears of all the years.
Isaiah speaks of a future time when the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the mountains, and all the nations will stream to it. God will judge between nations and arbitrate for many, beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Paul writes to the Romans about the now, Paul’s now, nearly 2000 years ago. Now is the time for the church in Rome to wake from sleep. Salvation is near. The night is far gone, the day is near. Time for Christians to put aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; living honorably. Stop getting drunk, having a lot of promiscuous sex, being jealous of each other, and fighting. Jesus is coming, so clean up your act.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus talks to his disciples about the future, the end of the world as we know it. When the Son of Man will come on clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Jesus compares that future time to the Great Flood, the time of Noah’s ark. Some will be saved and others…not so much. No one knows when this time will come. So we have to stay awake. Be vigilant.
On the one hand, these Sciptures give us great hope. Nations will cease from warfare. All people will come to God. Salvation is near, light is dawning. Jesus is coming back. How wonderful. How hopeful.
Yet these readings also have fearful elements, or at least elements of real uncertainty.
Isaiah says all nations will come to God, the god of Israel. Does that mean all other world religions will be no more? And as much as we may love our own faith, is that what we really want deep down? A monolithic world? Our God the winner, other gods the loser? Maybe on some level we want that, maybe on another level, not. It’s something to think about. It’s a deep question, it’s a question that emerges for me as I encounter this text.
Paul says salvation is near. The night is far gone, the day is near. Paul says Jesus is coming back soon. How incredible. How hopeful. Yet looking back through the lens of nearly 2000 years, we see that Jesus didn’t come when Paul or Matthew expected. Why not? What happened? Where is he?
Matthew says Jesus will come again in great glory, at an unexpected hour. And that some people will be taken with him and some left. How hopeful to be the ones to go with Jesus, to be part of the saved community, but how fearful to be left behind.
These Scriptures bring up mixed emotions for me. They stir my faith and doubt, my hopes and fears. And I think as your pastor I owe you that honesty. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. It is a necessary integral part of our faith journeys.
I don’t know what the second coming will look like. I hope Jesus will come back, because we need him. On some level, I also fear Jesus will return, because what will happen then? What will life be like? What kind of world will he usher in? How will I or any of us do at the last judgment? Who can stand when he appears?
And how do we reconcile this judgmental God with the God of love, the God of the New Testament?
So you see, it can be a manic depressive kind of thing, a swing between hope and fear, reading these apocalyptic Scriptures for today. In an already manic depressive time of year.
So where are we called to stand? What to make of these Scriptures? What to do with them? What do they have to do with where we are today, in the 21st century, at the beginning of Advent, facing down another Christmas?
I think we are called to stand smack dab in the middle between hope and fear. Knowing that sin, death and pain are real. Knowing love and kindness and justice are equally real. Knowing that there is something beyond us, some force that draws us together and beyond our own limits in ways that are knowable and incredible, as I think many of us experienced on our retreat. And yet knowing that there are times when God also seems absent in our lives, when we experience the darkness and the void.
In our own lives and as Christians in the world, called to stand between our hopes and fears. We’re called to stand between darkness and light. Knowing that intermingled sun and shadow is the nature of life right now. Someday maybe we will see fully, but now we see only in part, through a glass darkly, as we read from 1st Corinthians on our retreat.
As I struggle with my hopes and fears about the last days, there is some help from theologian Karl Barth who reminds us that in the Biblical worldview, a judge was not so much one who comes to reward or punish but one who comes to set things right, to restore justice and harmony. I long for, and I know you long for, a world where harmony and justice are restored. That is a hopeful thing to contemplate. Yet if it brings up our fears, that is something to pay attention to. Are we unjust? Are we living out of harmony? Then we have some self-correcting to do. Do we see injustice and disharmony outside of ourselves? Then we have a role to play in helping correct that.
We may all have our own vision of what a restored world looks like. And I think it helps to understand the Scriptures we read today as culturally conditioned. Yes, they are God-inspired but also they are human depictions of what a new world, a new Jerusalem could look like.
And so if your own hopes and fears are a bit different from what you heard in Isaiah, or Paul, or Matthew today, I think that it is all right. And if Paul and Matthew didn’t get the timing of the second coming down just right, that’s OK too. But these Scriptures point us to a hope that is important to hold on to. That there can be a better time, a better world.
We need this hope. Otherwise we get caught up in the paralysis of despair.
We’re called to stand in this gap, between hope and fear. Not swinging between one pole or the other, in a manic depressive sway. We’re called to stay awake. Be alert. And alertness presents us from between unrealistic optimism and naivete, on the one hand, and doom and gloom despair on the other.
In between Pollyanna and paralysis is where we’re called to stand this Advent and always.
We know what the past holds. For our own lives. For the world. We don’t know what the future holds. Good things we hope. For ourselves. For our world.
But it’s now in the present that we need to focus. Be alert. Live in realistic hope, knowing it’s a fallen world but knowing there’s also much more than sin and death. Live in the middle ground between hope and fear. Know the reality and validity of both. Pay attention to and don’t discount either. Don’t be bi-polar. Be grounded. Keep awake.
We’re in an in between time. Smack dab in the middle between hope and fear. In between what our faith tradition tells us is the first and second coming of Christ.
Know that Jesus is with us, in this mingled time of sun and shadow.
Another theologian writes:
“The central message of Advent is that God is not just a light at the end of a dark tunnel. God is in the dark tunnel with us. In the dark times of our lives we struggle to be faithful to God in spite of doubt and failure and guilt. And we struggle with the pain of grief and fear and illness and personal calamities. It’s crucial for us to hold on to the belief that God is with us in those hard times. He doesn’t just suddenly show up when things get better…God is in the darkness. We cannot wait for the light to come on at Christmas before we choose life. But we know the light is coming. Christ will come, not as a magician to solve our problems, but as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, bearing in his flesh the scars from the whips and the nail holes in his hands and feet. He will take us by the hand and walk with us through our shadowlands into such a bright dawn as we cannot yet imagine.”
Immanuel means God is with us. God is with us now in the present, as well as the past and future. Jesus is the place where past and present and future meet. In him, all the hopes and fears of all the years are met.
So what to do this time of year? How to make it a meaningful time, even a happy time? Look for Jesus. Find him in the quiet moments, in the beauty, solemnity and festivity of the season. Prepare your heart. Prepare him room. Advent is an excellent time to step up our prayer lives and I’m reminding myself as well as you of that. See God all around us, even as we despair over the difficulties of life. The darkness of our world, even the darkness of Madison Avenue, don’t have the power to take Christ out of Christmas.
And be him. Be the light in the darkness. Our time together on the retreat clarified that that we are the body of Chirst, each of us living members, and that Christ is in us and and among us We are called not only to see light and hope but to be light and hope for each other You are the light of the world, Christ told his disciples. You and I are the light of the world. Let’s offer it to one another and to as many as we can.
In this in between time, as we wait for Jesus, while we know and experience the reality of the fear and the darkness, we are called to increase the hope and the light of the world, even as we wait for its full completion.
We don’t know, with a scientist’s certainty, about that birth in Bethlehem, long ago. What really happened there. We don’t know with a scientist’s precision what the end of the world and the second coming might look like.
We are in the present. This is where our salvation lies right now. And Christ is with us in our darkness and our light. Christ is not only the light at the end of the tunnel. Christ is with us in the tunnel.
Advent is an in-between place. In between Jesus’s first and second coming. In between hope and fear. And that, my friends, is where we’re called to stand.
Amen.
+++
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