Hello deer

There's a big deer statue overlooking the Scioto River here in Columbus. It's pretty cool but kind of freaks me out.  I think its because it reminds me of that creepy Minotour thing that Sean Connery fights in Time Bandits.

Christmas Eve Sermon - Mysterous Good News

Christmas Eve 2015 - Luke 2;1-20 - Mysterious Good News

Tonight we come to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We hear that familiar reading from Luke 2…the same old story that we hear every year.  But wrapped inside this familiar story is a great mystery. An incredible truth that confounds the most educated people in the world...yet is something that even little children can comprehend.  A kindergartener can tell you that Jesus was born in a manger and can believe that Christ is savior of the world.

            On the very first Christmas, Almighty God, maker of Heaven and Earth, revealed himself in the newborn flesh of the Christ Child.  You want to know God? You think he’s too mysterious or distant or beyond your understanding? Well, then, look at the manger.  Look at the Christ Child.  Here, the mystery of God is revealed. 

            Scripture often speaks of light coming to dark places. This is precisely how God reveals his greatest mystery, the one that was hidden from the foundation of the world…He sheds some light on the subject.  Consider that evening in the countryside of Judea so many years ago. The shepherds were out in the fields.  Not much to do but sit under the stars and keep an eye out for straying sheep. Lots of silence and solitude.  And darkness.

            Then, like someone flashing a camera bulb, or flicking on a light switch in a pitch black room…there was a brilliant light.  An angel appeared, the glory of the Lord lit up the sky, and the hills, and the trees, and the sheep, and the grass, the shepherds’ awestruck faces.

            This intense light was also how God appeared to his people Israel in the Old Testament – as a pillar of fire in the night sky, or his glory filling the temple.   Yet the mysterious glory of the Lord that the shepherds saw was a sign that God was physically present in a different way…

            The shepherds are terrified; paralyzed with trembling and fear…as the angel delivers his message. A message that’s good news, of great joy for all the people - “Unto you is born today in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

            It’s all too much to take in. A Savior! The long awaited Christ, the Messiah has come! The Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel himself, is present..not in a pillar of fire…or in a temple, but in the flesh and blood of a tiny baby, lying a wooden manger where the animals feed. 

            But the greatest mystery of all is this: The angel said, “unto you” a savior is born. This is a sign for you.  Why would the Lord of heaven and earth care to reveal himself to poor shepherds?

            But before there’s even a moment to consider all this incredible news, suddenly “a multitude of the heavenly host appears.”  Meaning a battalion of angelic soldiers arrives on the scene.  The night sky is not filled with fat floating babies with wings.  No, God has called in Supernatural Special Forces of the Heavens for this job.

And they all speak in union, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth, peace to those with whom he is pleased.”  Then as suddenly as they appeared, they’re gone.  Darkness and silence once again.

           

-2000 years ago, God revealed his good news to lowly shepherds.  Today God still reveals that good news of great joy which is for you.  Promising peace among those with whom he is pleased.

            Well, that makes you think.  What causes God to be pleased…with YOU? What do you do to deserve his love? You and I don’t even talk to God all that much.  If we stood before God and he examined our calendars and our pocketbooks, He wouldn’t find evidence that He’s much a priority in our lives.  When your angry thoughts and hateful words and spiteful actions are all piled up, what is there that God sees that makes him love you? 

            Is it because you’re basically a good person?  Not according to God’s standard. His law says that if you even have a single hateful thought toward another person , you’re in danger of hell. 

            Not one of us can honestly say that we have no sin to repent of or that there’s nothing that we need to change.  God’s light shines on the dark places of your life.  The places that no one else can see.  When His light shines on us and our sin, it’s terrifying.  But as the angel said to the shepherds.  “Don’t be afraid.”

God has a message for you - good news of great joy for all people. A child has been born. God is pleased with you and he loves you because of His Son Jesus Christ. 

In Christ, the mystery is revealed: God became man.  For you.  God, who is so righteous and powerful that it boggles the mind, has taken on human flesh for you.  To save you.  The Father loved you so much that he sent his Son to be born, to live and die for you, to forgive you of all your sins…as He bears their penalty on the cross.  He’s your Savior.  Christ the Lord.  Christmas is all about the birth of Christ. And the birth of Christ is really the story of God’s grace for you.

            The all-powerful, all-knowing God spent 9 months in a womb. Any time you’ve changed a baby’s diapers, given them a bath, rocked them to sleep, remember… that’s what Mary did to God Almighty.  God humbled himself in this way because he loves you that much.  He endured all the struggles and temptations we experience, he was like us in every way -  even as a baby – to bring us salvation.

            On Christmas we don’t simply hear “the same old story,”…like it’s a piece of trivia or a dusty fact long forgotten. The Message of Christmas is an experience of God’s grace.  But it’s an experience that’s leaves us with more than just a warm, fuzzy feeling.  The incarnation of Christ is an actual Historical event, something that really happened in space and time that brings life to you every day.  Right now, you are forgiven!  You are changed by the Word of Christ.

            Notice how Christ affected the Shepherds,  They went to Bethlehem and it was just as the angel had said.  There was Jesus lying in a manger.  The Shepherds encountered Christ, the savior of the World, and then they responded by going and spreading the word,

            But notice what else it says about the shepherds: “They went back to work.”  They heard this amazing message…and they went…back to being shepherds.  Of course!  They’ve got work to do!  But…they went back to work changed.  They returned to their work praising and glorifying God for what they had seen and heard.

You too have encountered Christ, the savior of the World….Through his Word…Through his presence his sacraments.  YOU have been changed.  YOU been given the same amazing message of God’s forgiveness to take with you…to your job…to your family…to your friends.

When you have good news - any good news…an engagement, a birth - you tell people about it. You just can’t keep it in.   Brothers and Sisters, you’ve been given THE greatest news.  And it’s my prayer for you this evening, that the Lord makes this mysterious gift of Christmas fresh in your hearts each and every day.  That Christ’s love may be at work in your lives, as you return to your vocations praising and glorifying God…and sharing His amazing grace to others.

And you want to see even more evidence of God’s amazing grace?  More proof of His undeserved love that is for all people? Then, just look at the folks sitting around you right now.  He chose us to be his people through the waters of baptism. God could have spread His Gospel message any way he wanted to but He chose to use ordinary, lowly, shepherds.  Today he chooses to use you and I, as ordinary and lowly as we may be.  

            What did we do to deserve such a role in God’s salvation story?  Absolutely nothing.  That’s God’s grace.  It’s impossible to explain.  It’s simply a gift to be received. 

-Like the presence of God in a tiny baby in a wooden manger in Bethlehem. Like the presence of God here among us today.  Christ’s body and blood in, with and under the bread and the wine for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.  His Christmas gift for you.  “O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray//  Cast out our sin and enter in.  Be born in us today. Amen.

My School Was In A Field

I think I wrote this sometime last year.

My School Was In A Field

I wonder what it would be like to ride a bus to class,

green seats,

gum stuck underneath

or walk, 

each dark new day,

backpack clad 

beside streets.

My school was in a field.

A Dodge Caravan carried me there.

Twelve years old I would have preferred camels,

shoes with bells, 

traversing moor and mountain,

rather than passing

blurry rows of corn.

Now I sit and stare at blades of grass growing between cobblestones half-covered with asphalt

waiting for the next icy afternoon.