Bellow are some of the documents that will be presented at the Annual meeting. 1/23/2008 added Annual meeting agenda and Social Action Committee Report.1/24/2007 Pastoral Team report was added. discernment Committe Report Added 1/25/2007. LEK
Annual Meeting Agenda
1, 3, and 5 year plan
Vision Statement
Pastoral Team Annual Report
Secretary's Report 2008 Annual Meeting
Discernment Committee Report
Financial report for 2007
Proposed Budget 2008
Social Action Committee Report
Tuesday, January 22
Monday, January 21
Sermon Second Sunday After Epiphany, "Where are you staying?"
The Lectionary Readings for the Second Sunday After Epiphany
Sometimes a bit of Scripture transforms things you have lived with for a long time. Sometimes Scripture upsets the way you look at what you and who you are. This is what happened as I meditated on today’s Gospel. As I contemplated what the Scriptures might be saying to us I began to see our vision as a church and my own understanding of it broadened and changed. The bit of Scripture that began transform my sense of our ecumenical vision was the following portion of Johns Gospel;
1:35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,
1:36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"
1:37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
1:38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
1:39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
1:40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
Two disciples of John follow after Jesus no longer simply content with understanding and encountering Jesus along the Jordan witnessing to Christ with John. But only after John’s reiteration of his witness do these two disciples suddenly head off after to ask of him a question, but why this question in response to “What are you looking for?” “Rabbi, Where are you staying?” Of all they could possibly ask in that moment why that one? They want to be where the Christ is, not just encounter him, and find him in the world but to be and to stay where Jesus stays. Do we know where Jesus stays today? How do we seek out Christ and come and see where he lives? How do we move beyond witnessing at the Jordan, knowing Jesus but not abiding with Jesus? Have we come beyond the encounter of Christ as “Lamb of God” at the Jordan? I wonder if it is somehow easier to stay at the Jordan. Certainly not all disciples of John the Baptist sought out Jesus, though they heard Johns witness (Acts testifies that follower’s of John the Baptist continued to exist after Jesus’ ministry death Resurrection and ascension). Are we seeking to know where Jesus abides, stays, lives? Perhaps you are thinking but don’t we know. He is among the poor and oppressed, or the Sunday school answer “Jesus is in my heart I invited him in”. Or simply I know Jesus what more is there? What I want to suggest is that these answers are like choosing to live on the Jordan to recognize who Jesus is but to hope, and to plan, encountering Jesus where we are rather than to find and encounter Jesus where Jesus is. The current context of Protestantism and denominationalism perhaps does not encourage us to seek out Jesus and to find where he stays. There are a variety of ways we might do this, and there are personal practices and disciplines, but I want to focus on what is probably the foundational aspect, which is finding and knowing where the Church is. The seeking out of a firmer sense of what the Body of Christ is. Thus , seeking to move beyond the witnesses of our divided denominations to the unity of that place where Christ truly abides, not where Christ shows up now and again, not where you or I first encountered Christ, not the Jordan but that other place, to which Jesus invites us to “Come and see.” This search to abide where Christ lives is, I believe, ecumenism at its best by following after Andrew and that other first disciple of Jesus. In the end this is I believe Reconciler’s vision as an ecumenical congregation. Which means that to embrace Reconciler’s ecumenical vision is to be on a journey, and to admit an ignorance, to move into a position of humility of saying I don’t know, but I am seeking out Jesus and I will ask of him this simple question. “Where are you staying.”
The above assertion is in part personal testimony of my own engagement with ecumenism and my experience of being in the particular denomination The Evangelical Covenant Church. This also admits that my own personal search has lead me to come to some conclusions about what the Church the universal body of Christ is. It is that place where Christ is because it is Christ in the world. It is also a reflection of what I think was a motivating factor behind starting Reconciler, or at least articulates a longing that lead me here, to this sermon, to this pulpit, to pastoring an ecumenical congregation I helped start. I am also asking something of you all here tonight, to test these words. I am asking that as we begin a third year as a church start that we question our vision: have we moved beyond these longings and desires? Is God in bringing us together around this vision leading us to articulate our being brought together in a different way? That is not what I feel God is saying to us. I believe that God is saying to us follow the example of Andrew seek to find where Jesus the messiah stays in the world. But these are the sorts of questions I hope my words today will stir up in us, and I hope will lead us closer to what God has called us together to be and do.
But what could this mean to seek out and find where Jesus Christ is staying? I want to begin to answer this question by directing our attention to parts of our vision. Reconciler’s vision:
We say “It is in worship - word and table- where we are invited to lay aside what divides and are joined together as the one body of Christ. We affirm and seek the unity we are called to by Christ.”…. “United as one body with many members serving not only our particular identities but the identity of Christ our head.” … “We then see this ecumenical congregation as a proclamation of the universal body of Christ—the one holy catholic and apostolic church as a concrete spiritual reality… As such we hope to draw those who find Christ hidden by the disunity of Christians and our various claims to be church, that all may find reconciliation offered them in Christ Jesus.” To what does all this language of unity, of one body, the Body of Christ, of identity with Christ our head, the universal body of Christ point? What is the scandal of disunity that keeps Christ obscured to us and to those beyond the boundaries of Christianity? I am stating this in a starker way but still what the vision statement at least begins to say. If we are followers of Christ we are called to unity. We are called to this unity because by virtue of faith, baptism and Eucharist we are supposed to be the Body of Christ in the world, that is, we are to be Christ in the world. The Church is supposed to be that place where Christ stays abides and is to live. This is what it means for the Church to be the body of Christ. Where the Church is there is where Christ is to be found! Not that he can’t be found elsewhere as well, but the place where Christ stays from where Christ moves out into the world is the Church. Our vision also indicates that this reality is somehow obscured rendered ineffective or ruined somehow by our divisions. Our divisions while they allow our denominations to continue to witness to Christ they also keep people from finding Jesus Christ and coming to live where he lives.
All of our denominations will speak of the church or their congregations as the Body of Christ. They give witness to this reality. They like John speak the truth about Christ. Yet, there is something amiss. When we began Reconciler we were identifying divisions and denominationalism as that which is amiss, and that Reconciler was to be a journey to something else, something offered to us by 50 years of the World Council of Churches and ecumenical dialog between various denominations, and agreements that those involved in these dialogs have come to about the faith and the nature of the church, its ministries its sacraments and its mission. Yet, Christ remains obscured. The vision with which Reconciler began took this and said we need to find Christ in our coming together, in seeking that faith that was once delivered to the Saints, to seek out the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In a sense we were saying (though we didn’t know it at the time) that our denominations as denominations as separated Christian groups fail to be the Church. They function as witnesses to Christ, but they fail to show Jesus Christ fully and intimately. We in our Protestant context of denominationalism (and its offspring non-denominational and independent churches) are more like John the Baptist on the Jordan, witnessing to something we do not fully comprehend, something to which we can only point but not fully experience. Our denominations and we who cling tightly to denominational identity are better John the Baptists giving witness than we are Andrews. We are content to stay on the Jordan.
In saying the above I risk being heard as preaching some form of pure church, or as saying that what makes Christ abide is through members of the church/Christians living out the Gospel perfectly or at least very consistently. But this puts the emphasis on us and not on Christ’s abiding presence. Our actions our divisions do not prevent us from being the Church they prevent us from asking the right question, they prevent us from seeing clearly where Christ abides. So this is not “Oh if only Christians were more Christ like! Oh if only there were no ethical and moral scandals then we would know where Christ abides, and we must seek out the morally ethically and doctrinally pure individual Christians and all band together and then we would be the church.” That has already been tried and every time it has been attempted it has been found wanting and is the reason we are in the place that we are in now. The opening of Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in relation to the rest of the letter (One can do this with most of Paul letters) is revealing in this regard. Paul speaks in glorious and exalted terms about the church of God in Corinth (and he does this in every epistle) yet in much of the letter he is correcting the actions of those in that church for not agreeing with the exalted reality they supposedly live in. In fact Immediately following the exalted words we read today about the church of God in Corinth Paul begins by castigating them for falling into identifying with the person and practices of this or that prominent and leader of the church, when their focus should be on Christ as the one with whom we are to identify and be identified by. No the high view of the church does not mean that Christians always live up to it even those who are in the place where Christ lives. Unfortunately the performance of individual Christians either saintly or sinful will not really tell us about where Christ is staying. So what obscures our vision aren’t the conduct of those in our denominations, but the fact of our divisions and our conflicting identities and loyalties that are not of Christ and of the Church. We are talking something more mystical and less moralistic.
By the time Tripp approached me about planting Reconciler and I began to help Tripp David Gortner and Jane Schmoetzer flesh out the founding pastoral vision, I had tired of simply witnessing to Christ, and yet feeling distant disconnected from those in the Body of Christ who had gone before, all those saints commemorated by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. I was struggling with what it meant for someone to convert to Christianity, to come to Christ, by becoming a Covenanter. I had already come to feel that there was something partial and incomplete in this picture of living out my life as simply a Covenant minister. Yet, I loved and still love the Covenant, I know it, it is my home it raised me in the faith. In fact the emphasis that Ecumenism at its best is to be a search to find where Christ abides and to stay where he stays in relationship with Jesus Christ and those who have also found that place, in part is informed by the faith of Swedish Lutheran Pietists who formed the Covenant. I believe they were seeking to find where Christ stays, feeling the incompleteness of Lutheranism that claimed for itself the complete articulation of the faith and attempted to claim that Christ abides in its institution. We saw that while it gave witness to Christ in so many ways it showed that Christ did not stay there, and so we went out from the Lutheran Church in search of Christ that we may invite people into a fuller relationship. Some 130 years later I a great-great grandson of those Swedish Lutheran Pietists was looking at the denomination they founded and asking some of the very same questions they had asked of the Lutheran Church but added to those questions was the answers and questions given and asked by the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches. Thanks to these, the questions were also asked with a greater understanding of the best of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and a deeper understanding of the history of catholic and orthodox Christianity. I was in a quandary one I still am in as I stand before you today: I do not doubt that in the Covenant Church I have encountered Christ, that Jesus Christ is witnessed to, and yet I cannot say that the Covenant church is where Jesus Christ stays. In fact until preparing this sermon my own commitment to my denomination had hid this very question from me even though it articulates the very longing that lead me to help form a vision for an ecumenical congregation and help start it. All the longings the questions that lead me to embrace Tripp’s thoughts of an ecumenical congregation are summed up in this “Rabbi, Where are you staying.” I want to be in that place where Christ is, where Christ stays where Christ abides. As I probe and test my own denomination and other Protestant denominations I know that Christ does not stay in any of them. Our divisions obscure Christ’s habitation, and I find I am incapable of evaluating Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claims that Christ abides among them, that they are not just witnesses to Christ but are in fact the Body of Christ.
So where does that leave me? Where might that leave us? My hope is that our ecumenical vision, our coming together, are having been brought here by God and the spirit indicates that we are on that journey from the side of John the Baptist on the Jordan witnessing to the coming of Christ and the presence of Jesus Christ in the world and in our lives, following Andrew on our way to finding where Christ truly abides that we may know where Jesus Christ stays in this world that we can show people where Christ is staying. So that we may truly bring them to Jesus Christ, not to John the Baptist and the Jordan, not to my idea of Christ, but to the one who truly is my head my identity, that I may fully together with all the disciples, in continuity throughout history, be Christ in the world, Christ’s Body, and be able to say come and see, we know where the messiah lives and we live in him and he in us, because I can tell you for sure where the Church is and thus where Christ abides.
For now all I can say is let us journey together from the Jordan affirming the witness of John the Baptist, and seek out Christ and say together “Rabbi where are you staying.” We have met you we know you but we do not live where you live, and that is what we want, that is what every spiritual longing in us wants. We want to bring people to where you live, where they will know they can find you, not to the Jordan where they may get a glimpse of you and hear witnesses and rumors of your presence in the world. Perhaps I am alone in hearing in this the articulation of my deepest longings but I hope not, for to me that is ecumenism, it is all about being with Christ, about truly being his Body, about being able to say to people not journey with me to the Christ, but come and see, this is the fulfillment of all your longings here is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, he is in us we are in him because we abide where he abides. I am not there yet; I do not believe we are there yet. And it may be a long road to follow Andrew. Following Christ to where he stays may be longer road for us, but I believe this is the path we must go if we are going to be able to know where Christ stays and bring people to Jesus Christ and not just witness to others about Christ presence in the World. This is how I have come to see our vision, this is the adventure and journey I invite you all and any who may come to us as we live out our ecumenical call and vision together.
Sometimes a bit of Scripture transforms things you have lived with for a long time. Sometimes Scripture upsets the way you look at what you and who you are. This is what happened as I meditated on today’s Gospel. As I contemplated what the Scriptures might be saying to us I began to see our vision as a church and my own understanding of it broadened and changed. The bit of Scripture that began transform my sense of our ecumenical vision was the following portion of Johns Gospel;
1:35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,
1:36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"
1:37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
1:38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
1:39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
1:40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
Two disciples of John follow after Jesus no longer simply content with understanding and encountering Jesus along the Jordan witnessing to Christ with John. But only after John’s reiteration of his witness do these two disciples suddenly head off after to ask of him a question, but why this question in response to “What are you looking for?” “Rabbi, Where are you staying?” Of all they could possibly ask in that moment why that one? They want to be where the Christ is, not just encounter him, and find him in the world but to be and to stay where Jesus stays. Do we know where Jesus stays today? How do we seek out Christ and come and see where he lives? How do we move beyond witnessing at the Jordan, knowing Jesus but not abiding with Jesus? Have we come beyond the encounter of Christ as “Lamb of God” at the Jordan? I wonder if it is somehow easier to stay at the Jordan. Certainly not all disciples of John the Baptist sought out Jesus, though they heard Johns witness (Acts testifies that follower’s of John the Baptist continued to exist after Jesus’ ministry death Resurrection and ascension). Are we seeking to know where Jesus abides, stays, lives? Perhaps you are thinking but don’t we know. He is among the poor and oppressed, or the Sunday school answer “Jesus is in my heart I invited him in”. Or simply I know Jesus what more is there? What I want to suggest is that these answers are like choosing to live on the Jordan to recognize who Jesus is but to hope, and to plan, encountering Jesus where we are rather than to find and encounter Jesus where Jesus is. The current context of Protestantism and denominationalism perhaps does not encourage us to seek out Jesus and to find where he stays. There are a variety of ways we might do this, and there are personal practices and disciplines, but I want to focus on what is probably the foundational aspect, which is finding and knowing where the Church is. The seeking out of a firmer sense of what the Body of Christ is. Thus , seeking to move beyond the witnesses of our divided denominations to the unity of that place where Christ truly abides, not where Christ shows up now and again, not where you or I first encountered Christ, not the Jordan but that other place, to which Jesus invites us to “Come and see.” This search to abide where Christ lives is, I believe, ecumenism at its best by following after Andrew and that other first disciple of Jesus. In the end this is I believe Reconciler’s vision as an ecumenical congregation. Which means that to embrace Reconciler’s ecumenical vision is to be on a journey, and to admit an ignorance, to move into a position of humility of saying I don’t know, but I am seeking out Jesus and I will ask of him this simple question. “Where are you staying.”
The above assertion is in part personal testimony of my own engagement with ecumenism and my experience of being in the particular denomination The Evangelical Covenant Church. This also admits that my own personal search has lead me to come to some conclusions about what the Church the universal body of Christ is. It is that place where Christ is because it is Christ in the world. It is also a reflection of what I think was a motivating factor behind starting Reconciler, or at least articulates a longing that lead me here, to this sermon, to this pulpit, to pastoring an ecumenical congregation I helped start. I am also asking something of you all here tonight, to test these words. I am asking that as we begin a third year as a church start that we question our vision: have we moved beyond these longings and desires? Is God in bringing us together around this vision leading us to articulate our being brought together in a different way? That is not what I feel God is saying to us. I believe that God is saying to us follow the example of Andrew seek to find where Jesus the messiah stays in the world. But these are the sorts of questions I hope my words today will stir up in us, and I hope will lead us closer to what God has called us together to be and do.
But what could this mean to seek out and find where Jesus Christ is staying? I want to begin to answer this question by directing our attention to parts of our vision. Reconciler’s vision:
We say “It is in worship - word and table- where we are invited to lay aside what divides and are joined together as the one body of Christ. We affirm and seek the unity we are called to by Christ.”…. “United as one body with many members serving not only our particular identities but the identity of Christ our head.” … “We then see this ecumenical congregation as a proclamation of the universal body of Christ—the one holy catholic and apostolic church as a concrete spiritual reality… As such we hope to draw those who find Christ hidden by the disunity of Christians and our various claims to be church, that all may find reconciliation offered them in Christ Jesus.” To what does all this language of unity, of one body, the Body of Christ, of identity with Christ our head, the universal body of Christ point? What is the scandal of disunity that keeps Christ obscured to us and to those beyond the boundaries of Christianity? I am stating this in a starker way but still what the vision statement at least begins to say. If we are followers of Christ we are called to unity. We are called to this unity because by virtue of faith, baptism and Eucharist we are supposed to be the Body of Christ in the world, that is, we are to be Christ in the world. The Church is supposed to be that place where Christ stays abides and is to live. This is what it means for the Church to be the body of Christ. Where the Church is there is where Christ is to be found! Not that he can’t be found elsewhere as well, but the place where Christ stays from where Christ moves out into the world is the Church. Our vision also indicates that this reality is somehow obscured rendered ineffective or ruined somehow by our divisions. Our divisions while they allow our denominations to continue to witness to Christ they also keep people from finding Jesus Christ and coming to live where he lives.
All of our denominations will speak of the church or their congregations as the Body of Christ. They give witness to this reality. They like John speak the truth about Christ. Yet, there is something amiss. When we began Reconciler we were identifying divisions and denominationalism as that which is amiss, and that Reconciler was to be a journey to something else, something offered to us by 50 years of the World Council of Churches and ecumenical dialog between various denominations, and agreements that those involved in these dialogs have come to about the faith and the nature of the church, its ministries its sacraments and its mission. Yet, Christ remains obscured. The vision with which Reconciler began took this and said we need to find Christ in our coming together, in seeking that faith that was once delivered to the Saints, to seek out the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In a sense we were saying (though we didn’t know it at the time) that our denominations as denominations as separated Christian groups fail to be the Church. They function as witnesses to Christ, but they fail to show Jesus Christ fully and intimately. We in our Protestant context of denominationalism (and its offspring non-denominational and independent churches) are more like John the Baptist on the Jordan, witnessing to something we do not fully comprehend, something to which we can only point but not fully experience. Our denominations and we who cling tightly to denominational identity are better John the Baptists giving witness than we are Andrews. We are content to stay on the Jordan.
In saying the above I risk being heard as preaching some form of pure church, or as saying that what makes Christ abide is through members of the church/Christians living out the Gospel perfectly or at least very consistently. But this puts the emphasis on us and not on Christ’s abiding presence. Our actions our divisions do not prevent us from being the Church they prevent us from asking the right question, they prevent us from seeing clearly where Christ abides. So this is not “Oh if only Christians were more Christ like! Oh if only there were no ethical and moral scandals then we would know where Christ abides, and we must seek out the morally ethically and doctrinally pure individual Christians and all band together and then we would be the church.” That has already been tried and every time it has been attempted it has been found wanting and is the reason we are in the place that we are in now. The opening of Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in relation to the rest of the letter (One can do this with most of Paul letters) is revealing in this regard. Paul speaks in glorious and exalted terms about the church of God in Corinth (and he does this in every epistle) yet in much of the letter he is correcting the actions of those in that church for not agreeing with the exalted reality they supposedly live in. In fact Immediately following the exalted words we read today about the church of God in Corinth Paul begins by castigating them for falling into identifying with the person and practices of this or that prominent and leader of the church, when their focus should be on Christ as the one with whom we are to identify and be identified by. No the high view of the church does not mean that Christians always live up to it even those who are in the place where Christ lives. Unfortunately the performance of individual Christians either saintly or sinful will not really tell us about where Christ is staying. So what obscures our vision aren’t the conduct of those in our denominations, but the fact of our divisions and our conflicting identities and loyalties that are not of Christ and of the Church. We are talking something more mystical and less moralistic.
By the time Tripp approached me about planting Reconciler and I began to help Tripp David Gortner and Jane Schmoetzer flesh out the founding pastoral vision, I had tired of simply witnessing to Christ, and yet feeling distant disconnected from those in the Body of Christ who had gone before, all those saints commemorated by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. I was struggling with what it meant for someone to convert to Christianity, to come to Christ, by becoming a Covenanter. I had already come to feel that there was something partial and incomplete in this picture of living out my life as simply a Covenant minister. Yet, I loved and still love the Covenant, I know it, it is my home it raised me in the faith. In fact the emphasis that Ecumenism at its best is to be a search to find where Christ abides and to stay where he stays in relationship with Jesus Christ and those who have also found that place, in part is informed by the faith of Swedish Lutheran Pietists who formed the Covenant. I believe they were seeking to find where Christ stays, feeling the incompleteness of Lutheranism that claimed for itself the complete articulation of the faith and attempted to claim that Christ abides in its institution. We saw that while it gave witness to Christ in so many ways it showed that Christ did not stay there, and so we went out from the Lutheran Church in search of Christ that we may invite people into a fuller relationship. Some 130 years later I a great-great grandson of those Swedish Lutheran Pietists was looking at the denomination they founded and asking some of the very same questions they had asked of the Lutheran Church but added to those questions was the answers and questions given and asked by the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches. Thanks to these, the questions were also asked with a greater understanding of the best of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and a deeper understanding of the history of catholic and orthodox Christianity. I was in a quandary one I still am in as I stand before you today: I do not doubt that in the Covenant Church I have encountered Christ, that Jesus Christ is witnessed to, and yet I cannot say that the Covenant church is where Jesus Christ stays. In fact until preparing this sermon my own commitment to my denomination had hid this very question from me even though it articulates the very longing that lead me to help form a vision for an ecumenical congregation and help start it. All the longings the questions that lead me to embrace Tripp’s thoughts of an ecumenical congregation are summed up in this “Rabbi, Where are you staying.” I want to be in that place where Christ is, where Christ stays where Christ abides. As I probe and test my own denomination and other Protestant denominations I know that Christ does not stay in any of them. Our divisions obscure Christ’s habitation, and I find I am incapable of evaluating Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claims that Christ abides among them, that they are not just witnesses to Christ but are in fact the Body of Christ.
So where does that leave me? Where might that leave us? My hope is that our ecumenical vision, our coming together, are having been brought here by God and the spirit indicates that we are on that journey from the side of John the Baptist on the Jordan witnessing to the coming of Christ and the presence of Jesus Christ in the world and in our lives, following Andrew on our way to finding where Christ truly abides that we may know where Jesus Christ stays in this world that we can show people where Christ is staying. So that we may truly bring them to Jesus Christ, not to John the Baptist and the Jordan, not to my idea of Christ, but to the one who truly is my head my identity, that I may fully together with all the disciples, in continuity throughout history, be Christ in the world, Christ’s Body, and be able to say come and see, we know where the messiah lives and we live in him and he in us, because I can tell you for sure where the Church is and thus where Christ abides.
For now all I can say is let us journey together from the Jordan affirming the witness of John the Baptist, and seek out Christ and say together “Rabbi where are you staying.” We have met you we know you but we do not live where you live, and that is what we want, that is what every spiritual longing in us wants. We want to bring people to where you live, where they will know they can find you, not to the Jordan where they may get a glimpse of you and hear witnesses and rumors of your presence in the world. Perhaps I am alone in hearing in this the articulation of my deepest longings but I hope not, for to me that is ecumenism, it is all about being with Christ, about truly being his Body, about being able to say to people not journey with me to the Christ, but come and see, this is the fulfillment of all your longings here is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, he is in us we are in him because we abide where he abides. I am not there yet; I do not believe we are there yet. And it may be a long road to follow Andrew. Following Christ to where he stays may be longer road for us, but I believe this is the path we must go if we are going to be able to know where Christ stays and bring people to Jesus Christ and not just witness to others about Christ presence in the World. This is how I have come to see our vision, this is the adventure and journey I invite you all and any who may come to us as we live out our ecumenical call and vision together.
Saturday, January 19
Reconciler Update
Our Annual meeting is coming up and Lent closely follows upon our annual meeting. The beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday, is February 5th. Our Annual meeting is Sunday January 27th. The annual meeting of Reconciler is for any and all of us who attend Reconciler regularly and/or consider Reconciler to be one of your church homes. It is a time for us to gather and hear where we have come from in the past year and to make decisions of where we want to go and confirm together where the Spirit is leading us at this juncture. It is an important time for us as a worshiping community to reflect on who we are and see how we might continue to live into our call and vision as a congregation, for the coming year.
Lent also is a time for reflection and preparation. As we journey towards Holy Week and Easter we prepare for remembering the passion of Christ and his Resurrection. Part of this preparation or reflection is often to do some sort of fasting, either from food altogether on certain days during lent or from particular foods or activities for the entirety of Lent. Part of the point of fasting is to turn to God in prayer and meditation, and if one is fasting from a meal or meals on particular days to plan to give away the money one would have spent on that meal or activity or item of food during Lent. It is good to remember as we journey through Lent that this time of reflection is to be a time of renewal so that we may see and act more clearly with God in the world. Setting aside money to give away one would have spent on food or an activity one is fasting from can be a good reminder that our fasting meditation and prayer is to both transform us and the world. We stop and reflect because we can loose sight of why we do what we do, because we can get bogged down in the normal stresses of life and become absorbed in the small things that can consume our life. Thus lent is also a time of repentance and self-examination, where we are called to turn back from possible patterns of sin that may have crept into our lives over the past year.
Announcements:
Our Annual meeting is on Sunday January 27th beginning at 2 PM with a potluck in the 'Nidge, the at 3PM in Immanuel's parish hall we will begin our meeting. We will have our worship service at the normal time of 5PM following the meeting.
On January 27th we have the Rev. Doug Harris one of the pastors at North Shore Baptist Church ,presiding at communion.
This Sunday the Rev. Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson the Associate Superintendent of the Central Conference of the ECC will be worshiping with us.
In an effort to coordinating the care of the space Immanuel shares with us we are looking for people to coordinate with Immanuel's alter guild and Properties committee to help maintain this space and Immanuel's property. A couple of you have responded but if others are also interested please talk to Larry or Laura.
Immanuel is looking for members of Reconciler who would be willing to serve as ushers and greeters at our joint services on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Services. Talk to Larry if you would like to serve in this way at any of the above mentioned services.
Ash Wednesday February 6th we will be having a joint service with Immanuel and St Elias of the imposition of Ashes at 7 PM in the Sanctuary.
In Christ,
Larry
Lent also is a time for reflection and preparation. As we journey towards Holy Week and Easter we prepare for remembering the passion of Christ and his Resurrection. Part of this preparation or reflection is often to do some sort of fasting, either from food altogether on certain days during lent or from particular foods or activities for the entirety of Lent. Part of the point of fasting is to turn to God in prayer and meditation, and if one is fasting from a meal or meals on particular days to plan to give away the money one would have spent on that meal or activity or item of food during Lent. It is good to remember as we journey through Lent that this time of reflection is to be a time of renewal so that we may see and act more clearly with God in the world. Setting aside money to give away one would have spent on food or an activity one is fasting from can be a good reminder that our fasting meditation and prayer is to both transform us and the world. We stop and reflect because we can loose sight of why we do what we do, because we can get bogged down in the normal stresses of life and become absorbed in the small things that can consume our life. Thus lent is also a time of repentance and self-examination, where we are called to turn back from possible patterns of sin that may have crept into our lives over the past year.
Announcements:
Our Annual meeting is on Sunday January 27th beginning at 2 PM with a potluck in the 'Nidge, the at 3PM in Immanuel's parish hall we will begin our meeting. We will have our worship service at the normal time of 5PM following the meeting.
On January 27th we have the Rev. Doug Harris one of the pastors at North Shore Baptist Church ,presiding at communion.
This Sunday the Rev. Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson the Associate Superintendent of the Central Conference of the ECC will be worshiping with us.
In an effort to coordinating the care of the space Immanuel shares with us we are looking for people to coordinate with Immanuel's alter guild and Properties committee to help maintain this space and Immanuel's property. A couple of you have responded but if others are also interested please talk to Larry or Laura.
Immanuel is looking for members of Reconciler who would be willing to serve as ushers and greeters at our joint services on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Services. Talk to Larry if you would like to serve in this way at any of the above mentioned services.
Ash Wednesday February 6th we will be having a joint service with Immanuel and St Elias of the imposition of Ashes at 7 PM in the Sanctuary.
In Christ,
Larry
Saturday, January 12
Reconciler Update 1/12/08
Reflection
Last Sunday was the Feast of the Epiphany, which in Western churches often focuses on the journey of the magi, sometimes known as the "three kings" -- though there's no hard evidence the magi were kings. More likely they were astronomer-priests from the Parthian empire. The visit of the magi was hugely important -- no matter their status in society or their line of work -- because they were the first Gentiles to see Jesus. They are the first of many signs that in Christ, God came for all people, not just some. There are no outsiders, no outcasts in the kingdom of God.
Some churches, including the Episcopal Church, celebrate an entire season of Epiphany. I like this season (have you noticed that I like all liturgical seasons?) because it's about light -- the light that enlightens the nations, Christ. Epiphany is about how Christmas goes beyond the birth of Christ, and God in man becomes manifest to the world. On a more individual level, it's about how that light comes to live in our own hearts, how Christmas becomes a part of us. We don't have to be someone special -- a king or an astonomer-priest -- to have our own epiphanies, our own experiences of coming to know the Christ child.
The earliest recorded celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany took place in Egypt at the end of the second century. It commemorated three things: 1) The Visit of the Magi to the stable in Bethlehem, 2) Jesus’ baptism as an adult in the Jordan River and 3) the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine. These three events from Scripture were all celebrated on the Feast of Epiphany, because they were all understood as signs that God had appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
This Sunday at Reconciler we celebrate Jesus' baptism. We will start our worship at the font, recalling the life-giving nature of water and its role in our faith tradition, and offering special prayers.
It's good for us to reclaim the primary nature of Epiphany, and not think of it as just the period after Christmas. The Christ child would be real whether anyone outside his family or tribe saw him, but it is the manifestation to the wise men and all who subsequently have come to know him, that has changed and continues to change the world.
See you Sunday!
In Christ's love,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements
Professor Douglas Sharp of Northern Baptist Seminary will be our Baptist guest preacher on Sunday January 13th.
The Rev. Doug Harris of North Shore Baptist Church will be presiding at communion on Sunday January 27th.
The Rev. Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson, Associate Superintendent of the Central 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!!
On February 2nd, a new Episcopal bishop will be consecrated for the Diocese of Chicago. The Rev. Jeffrey Lee will officially become our new bishop. The consecration will take place at the House of Hope Arena in Chicago’s Pullman district (Far South Side). The original time of 11 am has been changed to 1 pm. If you would like to attend the consecration, please talk with Laura.
Last Sunday was the Feast of the Epiphany, which in Western churches often focuses on the journey of the magi, sometimes known as the "three kings" -- though there's no hard evidence the magi were kings. More likely they were astronomer-priests from the Parthian empire. The visit of the magi was hugely important -- no matter their status in society or their line of work -- because they were the first Gentiles to see Jesus. They are the first of many signs that in Christ, God came for all people, not just some. There are no outsiders, no outcasts in the kingdom of God.
Some churches, including the Episcopal Church, celebrate an entire season of Epiphany. I like this season (have you noticed that I like all liturgical seasons?) because it's about light -- the light that enlightens the nations, Christ. Epiphany is about how Christmas goes beyond the birth of Christ, and God in man becomes manifest to the world. On a more individual level, it's about how that light comes to live in our own hearts, how Christmas becomes a part of us. We don't have to be someone special -- a king or an astonomer-priest -- to have our own epiphanies, our own experiences of coming to know the Christ child.
The earliest recorded celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany took place in Egypt at the end of the second century. It commemorated three things: 1) The Visit of the Magi to the stable in Bethlehem, 2) Jesus’ baptism as an adult in the Jordan River and 3) the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine. These three events from Scripture were all celebrated on the Feast of Epiphany, because they were all understood as signs that God had appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
This Sunday at Reconciler we celebrate Jesus' baptism. We will start our worship at the font, recalling the life-giving nature of water and its role in our faith tradition, and offering special prayers.
It's good for us to reclaim the primary nature of Epiphany, and not think of it as just the period after Christmas. The Christ child would be real whether anyone outside his family or tribe saw him, but it is the manifestation to the wise men and all who subsequently have come to know him, that has changed and continues to change the world.
See you Sunday!
In Christ's love,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements
Professor Douglas Sharp of Northern Baptist Seminary will be our Baptist guest preacher on Sunday January 13th.
The Rev. Doug Harris of North Shore Baptist Church will be presiding at communion on Sunday January 27th.
The Rev. Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson, Associate Superintendent of the Central 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!!
On February 2nd, a new Episcopal bishop will be consecrated for the Diocese of Chicago. The Rev. Jeffrey Lee will officially become our new bishop. The consecration will take place at the House of Hope Arena in Chicago’s Pullman district (Far South Side). The original time of 11 am has been changed to 1 pm. If you would like to attend the consecration, please talk with Laura.
Friday, January 4
Weekly Update
Sunday is the Feast of Epiphany. We commemorate the coming of the Wise Men from the east to worship the Christ child. The following Sunday is the Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord, where we commemorate Christs Baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. the season after Epiphany concludes with Transfiguration Sunday the commemoration of Christs transfiguration on Mt Tabor where Elijah and Moses visit with him, witnessed by Peter James and John.
Liturgically we move from the celebration of the Birth of Christ to the meaning of the baby born in the manger and are lead to see that this child is the Word made flesh, God in human form. This is first witnessed to in that the Magi come and worship the Christ child.
This all reminds us that the celebration and joy of Christmas is not just about the coming of a baby, but that this baby was the gift of God with us, that this infant was born for us and to suffer with us. Thus we are already on our way to Lent and Holy Week. but we don't need to rush ahead, but to keep in mind the unity of the seasons of the Church year. They flow one into another, lifting up for a time different stories and themes of the Gospel, that we may ever continually enter more deeply into the mystery of God's saving Work and the coming Kingdom. As we celebrate Epiphany and the manifestation of Christ in the world, take time to reflect on Christ our light and life and how God is manifest in your life and those around you.
Announcements:
Professor Douglas Sharp of Northern Baptist Seminary will be our Baptist supply preacher on Sunday January 13th
The Rev. Doug Harris of North Shore Baptist Church, will be presiding at communion on Sunday January 27th.
The Rev. Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson, Associate Superintendent of the Central 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.
In Christ,
Larry
Liturgically we move from the celebration of the Birth of Christ to the meaning of the baby born in the manger and are lead to see that this child is the Word made flesh, God in human form. This is first witnessed to in that the Magi come and worship the Christ child.
This all reminds us that the celebration and joy of Christmas is not just about the coming of a baby, but that this baby was the gift of God with us, that this infant was born for us and to suffer with us. Thus we are already on our way to Lent and Holy Week. but we don't need to rush ahead, but to keep in mind the unity of the seasons of the Church year. They flow one into another, lifting up for a time different stories and themes of the Gospel, that we may ever continually enter more deeply into the mystery of God's saving Work and the coming Kingdom. As we celebrate Epiphany and the manifestation of Christ in the world, take time to reflect on Christ our light and life and how God is manifest in your life and those around you.
Announcements:
Professor Douglas Sharp of Northern Baptist Seminary will be our Baptist supply preacher on Sunday January 13th
The Rev. Doug Harris of North Shore Baptist Church, will be presiding at communion on Sunday January 27th.
The Rev. Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson, Associate Superintendent of the Central 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.
In Christ,
Larry
ON NAMINGS AND NEW YEARS (December 30, 2007)
Paul E. Koptak, Paul and Bernice Brandel Professor of Communication and Biblical Interpretation, North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago Illinois.
January 1 is traditionally a day for sleeping late and lounging around the house, watching football or movies. Some put away their Christmas decorations. Every year as I put the new calendar on the wall, I always have the sense that I am saying goodbye to the joys of the Christmas season and looking ahead to the long grind of winter. I have to confess a certain letdown, so I enjoy taking a look back over Advent and Christmas.
Each December, one of the most memorable experiences is participating in a “Do-It-Yourself Messiah.” My first was here in Chicago over ten years ago. People bring their own copies of the score and fill Orchestra Hall just for the chance to be on the inside of this classic work. Tickets were free but hard to come by, so I was grateful when a friend had some extras to share.
The conductor blew in like a whirlwind and told us not to worry about mistakes, but to sing joyfully. Her enthusiasm was contagious. We sat to listen to the instrumental and solo parts and stood to sing. I was surprised at how well I could keep up, even though I sang softly.
The music is beautiful of course, but I was every bit as moved by the words, which we know are taken entirely from Scripture- eighty percent from the Old Testament. The words of Isaiah rang throughout, “Comfort, comfort ye my people,” Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us,” and “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.”
If you know the music, you know that when you sing “born” there is a long series of rapid notes that you are supposed to do in one breath. The sixteenth notes look like someone took a mouse, dipped its feet in ink and let it run over the page. I sang very softly here, but when it cam to “And the government shall be upon his shoulders,” I was following a little better. When we came to “And his name shall be called” I was ready and waiting…Just three notes, all the same for the basses: “Wonderful! Counselor!” And we were off: “The mighty God, the everlasting Father…The Prince of Peace!”
It was a glorious experience of singing praises to the name of Jesus with thousands of other voices. So I’ve been trying to do it every year since. And when the calendar on the wall tells me to look ahead, I also look back to that time of singing praise to the Name.
The Church calendar tells us do the same; we remain in Christmastide until January 6, when Epiphany, which marks the revelation of light to the nations, begins. On January 1 many liturgical calendars call us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name. The text for the day is Luke 2:21, just one verse:
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Pretty tame compared to the firefall of glory the shepherds saw/heard, or the glorious prophetic words of Simeon and Anna that come after!
The child is circumcised and given a name, just like every Jewish boy who came before and after. Nothing special, it happens everyday.
A letdown, like New Year’s Day? What happened to the glorious names we heard sung in the Messiah? Are they put away like the bright lights and rich green wreaths?
No, Luke adds more: there is circumcision, there is the name, and there is the reminder that the angel gave the child’s name before he had been conceived. Luke adds the element of promise, and here is the good news…That God promises what God will do and does what is promised.
The text invites us to look back to the beginning of the gospel and the beginning of the rite of circumcision in Genesis
When we do, we see that the same angel that appeared to Mary came first to Zechariah, an old man, and told him that his wife would have a son whom they would name John. Zechariah was skeptical: “In case you hadn’t noticed, the alarm on Elizabeth’s biological clock rang years ago.” So the angel told Zechariah that he would not speak again until his words came true. Sure enough, after he named the child John at the circumcision, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the praises of God. Naming and circumcision confirmed the angel’s word
We can go back even farther. The same three elements of prediction, naming and circumcision are in the story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, for it is here that the custom of circumcision begins. God made Abraham a threefold promise of offspring, land, and the presence/blessing of God (Gen 17:1-8). God told Abram that this promise was God’s covenant, and as a sign of that covenant, every male would be circumcised, newborns at eight days old (Gen 17:9-14).
What’s important is that circumcision is a sign of loyalty and faithfulness to the God who is loyal and faithful. There is prediction: God told Abraham that he and Sarah would be father and mother of many peoples; Abraham fell on his face and laughed. Will a song be born to a man who is a hundred and a woman who is ninety? Abraham, like Zechariah, did not believe. There is a name: Yes, God said, you will have a son and you will name him Isaac, “he laughs”. And so the son was born and circumcised on the eighth day (Gen 17:19; Gen 21:1-3). Prediction, circumcision and name go together.
Who but God names a child before it is even expected? Note the pattern: God does great things by promising and naming babies. God did it in Isaiah’s time also. The prophet told King Ahaz to ask for a sign that besieged Jerusalem would be delivered. The king refused, and Isaiah told him that a sign would come anyway:
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
We think of God’s mighty acts and think of creation, of seas splitting, of fire from heaven, but God shows divine power even in the naming of babies. Every time a Jewish baby was circumcised, the rite said: this is God- who makes promises and keeps them. Circumcision and naming was anything but commonplace.
When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to be dedicated, they recalled God’s work on behalf of Abraham and Sarah, they remembered God’s prediction through the angel, and they trusted in God’s promise for the future.
They believed! Abraham didn’t believe,
Neither did Ahaz or Zecharaiah,
But Mary believed and Joseph believed with her.
What are we to learn? These stories of Genesis and Luke are about believing this God who named Isaac and Jesus into being, who declares plans for good, God’s future- through names. The feast of the name is a celebration of the promises of God, recorded throughout Scripture from beginning to end.
So we are invited to trust God’s promises for our future, because we know that God has kept them in the past.
What has God promised to do? The promises are many, but two are especially important at the start of a new year.
1. God will conform us to the image of his Son Jesus (Rom 8:29)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
This means that in God’s eyes we are more like Jesus at the start of this new year than we were the year before. Now this is not to say that we don’t have any responsibility to work toward Christ-likeness, we do. But we can get so discouraged that we forget that it is God who is making us into the image of Christ, not we ourselves.
I need to hear this because sometimes I’m not so sure that I am growing. When I look back over earlier years I spent in campus ministry, I see that I was to model disciplines of prayer, Scripture study, sharing the faith and working for peace and justice. Now that I work as a seminary professor, these disciplines are not part of the job description, they are assumed. Now my job is preparing lectures, grading papers, counseling students and going to meetings. The shift leaves me wondering if I am really attending to my own life in Christ. It is easy for me to get distracted.
You too may wonder if things are moving ahead, going backward or staying the same. Perhaps you are unsure if you are growing or just settling into dull routine. Know this: God has promised to mold your character into one like Jesus.
God uses the events of life in ways we cannot always see or understand, even a hardship or an area of struggle--try to imagine what God might be doing in and through it. Not that God sends trouble for our growth--remember that Joseph said to his brothers, “You meant evil, but God meant good.” God has promised to complete the good work God began in you (Phil 1:6 and 2:16). God has not stopped working just because we cannot see it.
2. God will bring the kingdom of shalom (peace) when Jesus comes again (Rev 21:1-4)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
If we can get discouraged about ourselves, we can also become discouraged about the direction our world is heading.
We may long for that day when there will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain- but we know it will be on TV at 5:30 and 10:00. We may be hearing it in our communities, even our homes.
We may not want to look ahead to another year because we are afraid of what it will bring. Is there something you don’t want to face this year? What brings a tear to your eye? Can you picture the day when God will wipe every tear, when God will say, “Don’t be afraid,” for the very last time?
Until then, know that even though the kingdom isn’t here in full, God is wiping tears. God is with you now even as you cry them. God has not left you alone to wait. God gets next to you and says, “I know, I cried too- but this is not forever. I’ll wait with you until the new day comes.”
God says, “I will not fail to deliver on what I’ve promised.”
Hallelujah chorus- so stirring that we sang it again as encore
Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of his Christ:
And He shall reign for ever and ever
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah! (Rev 19:6, 16; 11:15)
God is not only in the miraculous events, with angels singing and skies opening. God is at work in the everyday events of life, some good, some painful. But God is always working out God’s purposes in ways we don’t always see.
I often wonder if the man who did the circumcision knew what he was doing when he asked, “What is the child’s name,” and the parents answered, “His name is Jesus.” He probably didn’t know he was fulfilling the prediction of an angel, or for that matter, the promise of the whole Hebrew Bible.
But he did know that he was remembering the God who promises, who says what he will do and does what he has said, for Abraham, Sarah, all Israel, and yes, even the whole world.
January 1 is traditionally a day for sleeping late and lounging around the house, watching football or movies. Some put away their Christmas decorations. Every year as I put the new calendar on the wall, I always have the sense that I am saying goodbye to the joys of the Christmas season and looking ahead to the long grind of winter. I have to confess a certain letdown, so I enjoy taking a look back over Advent and Christmas.
Each December, one of the most memorable experiences is participating in a “Do-It-Yourself Messiah.” My first was here in Chicago over ten years ago. People bring their own copies of the score and fill Orchestra Hall just for the chance to be on the inside of this classic work. Tickets were free but hard to come by, so I was grateful when a friend had some extras to share.
The conductor blew in like a whirlwind and told us not to worry about mistakes, but to sing joyfully. Her enthusiasm was contagious. We sat to listen to the instrumental and solo parts and stood to sing. I was surprised at how well I could keep up, even though I sang softly.
The music is beautiful of course, but I was every bit as moved by the words, which we know are taken entirely from Scripture- eighty percent from the Old Testament. The words of Isaiah rang throughout, “Comfort, comfort ye my people,” Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us,” and “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.”
If you know the music, you know that when you sing “born” there is a long series of rapid notes that you are supposed to do in one breath. The sixteenth notes look like someone took a mouse, dipped its feet in ink and let it run over the page. I sang very softly here, but when it cam to “And the government shall be upon his shoulders,” I was following a little better. When we came to “And his name shall be called” I was ready and waiting…Just three notes, all the same for the basses: “Wonderful! Counselor!” And we were off: “The mighty God, the everlasting Father…The Prince of Peace!”
It was a glorious experience of singing praises to the name of Jesus with thousands of other voices. So I’ve been trying to do it every year since. And when the calendar on the wall tells me to look ahead, I also look back to that time of singing praise to the Name.
The Church calendar tells us do the same; we remain in Christmastide until January 6, when Epiphany, which marks the revelation of light to the nations, begins. On January 1 many liturgical calendars call us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name. The text for the day is Luke 2:21, just one verse:
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Pretty tame compared to the firefall of glory the shepherds saw/heard, or the glorious prophetic words of Simeon and Anna that come after!
The child is circumcised and given a name, just like every Jewish boy who came before and after. Nothing special, it happens everyday.
A letdown, like New Year’s Day? What happened to the glorious names we heard sung in the Messiah? Are they put away like the bright lights and rich green wreaths?
No, Luke adds more: there is circumcision, there is the name, and there is the reminder that the angel gave the child’s name before he had been conceived. Luke adds the element of promise, and here is the good news…That God promises what God will do and does what is promised.
The text invites us to look back to the beginning of the gospel and the beginning of the rite of circumcision in Genesis
When we do, we see that the same angel that appeared to Mary came first to Zechariah, an old man, and told him that his wife would have a son whom they would name John. Zechariah was skeptical: “In case you hadn’t noticed, the alarm on Elizabeth’s biological clock rang years ago.” So the angel told Zechariah that he would not speak again until his words came true. Sure enough, after he named the child John at the circumcision, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the praises of God. Naming and circumcision confirmed the angel’s word
We can go back even farther. The same three elements of prediction, naming and circumcision are in the story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, for it is here that the custom of circumcision begins. God made Abraham a threefold promise of offspring, land, and the presence/blessing of God (Gen 17:1-8). God told Abram that this promise was God’s covenant, and as a sign of that covenant, every male would be circumcised, newborns at eight days old (Gen 17:9-14).
What’s important is that circumcision is a sign of loyalty and faithfulness to the God who is loyal and faithful. There is prediction: God told Abraham that he and Sarah would be father and mother of many peoples; Abraham fell on his face and laughed. Will a song be born to a man who is a hundred and a woman who is ninety? Abraham, like Zechariah, did not believe. There is a name: Yes, God said, you will have a son and you will name him Isaac, “he laughs”. And so the son was born and circumcised on the eighth day (Gen 17:19; Gen 21:1-3). Prediction, circumcision and name go together.
Who but God names a child before it is even expected? Note the pattern: God does great things by promising and naming babies. God did it in Isaiah’s time also. The prophet told King Ahaz to ask for a sign that besieged Jerusalem would be delivered. The king refused, and Isaiah told him that a sign would come anyway:
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
We think of God’s mighty acts and think of creation, of seas splitting, of fire from heaven, but God shows divine power even in the naming of babies. Every time a Jewish baby was circumcised, the rite said: this is God- who makes promises and keeps them. Circumcision and naming was anything but commonplace.
When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to be dedicated, they recalled God’s work on behalf of Abraham and Sarah, they remembered God’s prediction through the angel, and they trusted in God’s promise for the future.
They believed! Abraham didn’t believe,
Neither did Ahaz or Zecharaiah,
But Mary believed and Joseph believed with her.
What are we to learn? These stories of Genesis and Luke are about believing this God who named Isaac and Jesus into being, who declares plans for good, God’s future- through names. The feast of the name is a celebration of the promises of God, recorded throughout Scripture from beginning to end.
So we are invited to trust God’s promises for our future, because we know that God has kept them in the past.
What has God promised to do? The promises are many, but two are especially important at the start of a new year.
1. God will conform us to the image of his Son Jesus (Rom 8:29)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
This means that in God’s eyes we are more like Jesus at the start of this new year than we were the year before. Now this is not to say that we don’t have any responsibility to work toward Christ-likeness, we do. But we can get so discouraged that we forget that it is God who is making us into the image of Christ, not we ourselves.
I need to hear this because sometimes I’m not so sure that I am growing. When I look back over earlier years I spent in campus ministry, I see that I was to model disciplines of prayer, Scripture study, sharing the faith and working for peace and justice. Now that I work as a seminary professor, these disciplines are not part of the job description, they are assumed. Now my job is preparing lectures, grading papers, counseling students and going to meetings. The shift leaves me wondering if I am really attending to my own life in Christ. It is easy for me to get distracted.
You too may wonder if things are moving ahead, going backward or staying the same. Perhaps you are unsure if you are growing or just settling into dull routine. Know this: God has promised to mold your character into one like Jesus.
God uses the events of life in ways we cannot always see or understand, even a hardship or an area of struggle--try to imagine what God might be doing in and through it. Not that God sends trouble for our growth--remember that Joseph said to his brothers, “You meant evil, but God meant good.” God has promised to complete the good work God began in you (Phil 1:6 and 2:16). God has not stopped working just because we cannot see it.
2. God will bring the kingdom of shalom (peace) when Jesus comes again (Rev 21:1-4)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
If we can get discouraged about ourselves, we can also become discouraged about the direction our world is heading.
We may long for that day when there will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain- but we know it will be on TV at 5:30 and 10:00. We may be hearing it in our communities, even our homes.
We may not want to look ahead to another year because we are afraid of what it will bring. Is there something you don’t want to face this year? What brings a tear to your eye? Can you picture the day when God will wipe every tear, when God will say, “Don’t be afraid,” for the very last time?
Until then, know that even though the kingdom isn’t here in full, God is wiping tears. God is with you now even as you cry them. God has not left you alone to wait. God gets next to you and says, “I know, I cried too- but this is not forever. I’ll wait with you until the new day comes.”
God says, “I will not fail to deliver on what I’ve promised.”
Hallelujah chorus- so stirring that we sang it again as encore
Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of his Christ:
And He shall reign for ever and ever
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah! (Rev 19:6, 16; 11:15)
God is not only in the miraculous events, with angels singing and skies opening. God is at work in the everyday events of life, some good, some painful. But God is always working out God’s purposes in ways we don’t always see.
I often wonder if the man who did the circumcision knew what he was doing when he asked, “What is the child’s name,” and the parents answered, “His name is Jesus.” He probably didn’t know he was fulfilling the prediction of an angel, or for that matter, the promise of the whole Hebrew Bible.
But he did know that he was remembering the God who promises, who says what he will do and does what he has said, for Abraham, Sarah, all Israel, and yes, even the whole world.
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