A Christmas Prayer

This prayer came to us from the Rev. Canon Ralph Frye of the Reformed Episcopal Church. May you and your families celbrate a holy and blessed Christmas together!


God, we are as confounded as Joseph and Mary,
as busy as the innkeepers,
as lonely as the shepherds,
as frightened as Herod,
as wayfaring as the Magi.
Turn us again to the place where,
with quietness,
you wrap up your truth and promise,
your love and salvation in the Child born in a crude barn.
We ponder these things as the noise and clamor of the world
are stilled for a time,
and there is a peace that settles deep within us.
Bring us to Bethlehem,
to the place where Jesus was homeless
but where we are truly at home.
Amen.

The Risk of Love

Note: This entry comes from an Advent reflection I wrote for a friend's church in Florida. It is for the lighting of the candle representing Love.

Love is not really a difficult thing to think about this time of year for most of us, is it? Most of us are preparing to spend time with friends and relatives, people we generally feel comfortable with and who are accepting of us. We are bombarded with warm and fuzzy images from Hallmark and sentimental songs about snuggling in the snow (a pretty good trick in Florida). People talk about this period before Christmas as a season of love, and we find ourselves reaching into our pockets at the sound of Salvation Army bells.

But the Christian conception of love is not all hugs and good cheer. For us love is more than just emotional, it is active and tactile. Because it is, by definition, the giving of one’s self for the benefit of others, it is often painful and always fraught with risk. What if we are surrounded this season not just by friends but enemies as well? What if we find ourselves amidst those who do not accept us, who cannot or will not love us back? Christians know the tough answer: love anyway.

This is the lesson of the stories that surround the birth of Jesus. Mary’s love for God has resulted in the strange and difficult gift of a virgin pregnancy. Joseph’s love for Mary has resulted in the dilemma of accepting her in this most questionable of circumstances. The wise men’s loving devotion to the foretold King is rewarded with a death plot from a jealous rival named Herod. It seems like everyone who loves gets into some sort of trouble. Is anyone who loves safe?

Let’s not forget about God. His love has gotten him into more trouble than anyone. His passion for Israel has led him to make promises to them that will cost him dearly. They are about to get a sign from him that they weren’t even asking for: the birth of God himself among them. Jesus’ nickname is Immanuel, a Hebrew way of saying “God is with us”. He is with us even in a manger. Even in a ministry marked by rejection. Even on a cross. His love has brought him down. Down to us. We have found that this act of God in love for Israel was also a sign of his love for the whole world. He came down to raise up us all.

So, saints, let us love not only the Hallmark way but the Christ way. Let us act boldly and at great risk to give ourselves in loving service to one another. Let us be inconvenienced, like Mary and her husband, so that others may be loved as extravagantly as we have been.

Collars in Pieces

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3026245.ece

In protest against the cruel dictatorship of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, has publicly cut into pieces his clerical collar, refusing to wear it again until the tyrant is deposed. His reasoning: Mugabe, with his murderous policies has cut the identity of his people into pieces; because a clergyman's identity is symbolized by his collar, the Archbishop will not wear one until the crisis ends. This action on the part of the Archbishop, placing himself in solidarity with the oppressed people of Zimbabwe, is far more than political. It is prophetic. It is indicative of the sort of call to justice and freedom the world should expect from the followers of Jesus.

During Advent in particular we recognize that the world is shrouded in darkness, that the Light of Christ has not yet dispelled the shadow of death. We who have received that light are to revile the darkness, announcing that its sway is indeed temporary, will be subject at last to the dawning Light. Christ has come, you see, and Christ is coming again. In the meantime we are called to prophetic protest against the forces of spiritual wickedness still in operation around us. We are to take on the breastplate of righteousness and belt of truth (Isaiah 11, Ephesians 6) on behalf of those who are victims of wickedness or held in the grip of deceit. We are not to vaunt ourselves as superior to those who are perpetrators of sin, but to humble ourselves in identification with those who are its victims. Is this not the posture taught us in the example of our Lord?

We are not all of us Archbishops, able to take international stands against the most powerful of the world's perpetrators, are we? But we are all of us players within certain spheres of influence. We are all of us members of families, employees, friends, citizens. How is Christ calling us to witness to the temporary nature of the surrounding darkness in prophetic hope of the Kingdom to come? How are we called to respond to the tyranny of evil present in the lives of those around us? How are we to identify with the oppressed?

One important step in becoming disciples is to recognize the extent to which we all have given ourselves over to the lies of the enemy as they have been presented to us in the events of our lives, the culture in which we have been raised, in the sinful patterns of our lives in resistance to Christ. Recognition of these lies is a gift of God's grace that happens by the help of the Holy Spirit. As we reject the lies we have held to, the Spirit is able to present the truth that is in Jesus. We are able to live out of the truth rather than in response to the lies. Christians are not sanctified by their efforts to change their lifestyles; this is a crucial point to grasp if we are to avoid arrogance and self-righteousness in the Church. Christians become able to live holy lives because they are being set free from the tyranny of selfishness and sin and deceit. They live out truth because their hearts are experiencing ahead of time the Christian hope for all the world: Christ reigns over everything, deposing every dictator in order to establish righteousness, freedom, and peace. Whether the dictators of darkness are set over nations or over individual hearts, the people of God must testify to the coming Kingdom of Jesus to liberate, to save.

The Archbishop of York has cut up his collar. To what gestures of prophetic protest are WE being called?

Happy New Year?

For much of the Christian world, which marks time differently than the secular world, the new year begins with Advent, a period marked by the four Sundays prior to Christmas. For us, you see, Christmas will not be the year's last hurrah, but the year's first great celebration, and in anticipation of that celebration we do some important preparation. Not the kind that involves buying and wrapping and baking, but the kind that involves reflection, reorientation, and proclamation.

We reflect on the world in which we live, its beauty as belonging to God, but as well its "fallenness", its need for redemption and re-creation after the pattern of God's original purpose. We reorient our lives and perspectives to that coming redemption, the fullness of God's Kingdom with us and for us. We proclaim that Christ is coming as our Savior and King. "Let ev'ry heart prepare him room; let heav'n and nature sing!"

The best way we know to do this, because we are disciples of Jesus, following the patterns of his coming, life, death, and resurrection, is to put ourselves into the story of his first Coming (that's what "Advent" means). We are Israel, weary of bondage and oppression. We are the prophets of old, looking for the day of consolation. We are John the Baptist "preparing the way of the Lord" and calling the world with us to repentance. We know that soon a Light will dawn, that Zion will rejoice at the coming of her King, that the whole earth will be filled with his glory.

Not jumping headlong into holiday cheer like our market-driven heathen surroundings, we pause to feel the longing of the earth for God to come. We push away the plate a bit to underscore the fact that the feast that will satisfy is the Christ-mass to come. We pay attention to the cries of the world around us that often go unnoticed. We repent. We intercede. We wait.

Then while the world is playing with all of its new toys we will receive a greater gift. We receive anew the Christ child, the Redeemer of all things! As their year ends with empty bank accounts, ours begins with full hearts. Let us then, as Advent begins, make good preparation reflecting on the need of the world, reorienting for the world that is to come, and proclaming the good news of Him who is coming. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.