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SUNDAY 11.30.08  |  Scripture Readings: Isaiah 63:16-64:8; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9  |   Casey Thornburgh

Things are not as they should be.  This is the battle cry of the prophet Isaiah.  He had known and spoken of God’s promises, God’s covenant to be with the children of Abraham and Jacob his whole life.  He had promised his friends and family that God indeed heard their cries and would soon come in power and glory to lead them home to Jerusalem and out of exile.  Salvation was near!  All would be well.

But things never go quite as we plan.  It turned out that Jerusalem was far from the place of splendor that it had been in the days of King David and Solomon.  The city, God’s treasure and Israel’s symbol of strength, was now in ruins on account of Israel’s enemies.  In the midst of the darkness and hopelessness of this predicament, the Israelites lost faith in the One True God, Yahweh.  Trying to cope, they turned to other idols and gods for comfort.

Isaiah wonders, “Has God the Father forgotten us?  Has he turned his face from us?  How long will he leave us to our own devices?”

But I wonder instead, “Have we forgotten God?  Have we turned our faces from our Redeemer?  Have we put our trust in our own devices?”

Oh, how much we would rather save ourselves from ourselves (our worries, anxieties, fears, doubts, insecurities) by ourselves.

We would rather not be the clay.  We would rather not be shaped beyond our control.  We would rather not be malleable.  We would rather not be at the mercy of God the Potter.  We would rather not trust in the Divine.

You know what the miracle of Christmas is? 

For a season, God the Potter, God Divine, the mighty one who could shake mountains with His voice, burst from the heavens and put an end to our earthly endeavors, came into creation in solidarity with us.

God did not burst down from on high.  He emerged from among us, making Himself humble, being found in the likeness of a baby.  Jesus had to be cleaned, changed, fed, sheltered by the ones whom He created.  Jesus was at the mercy of the ones whom He knew all too well would turn from His mercy again and again.  Jesus was put in their, in our, care.  God the Father trusted the ones whom did not trust Him.  How awesome, strange, and unpredictable is our God?

Mysterious God, confounding our expectations, meeting us where we least expect to find you, STAY WITH US NOW

Child of the manger, healing our pain, sharing our weakness, STAY WITH US NOW

Source of life, birth of God within our own experience, STAY WITH US NOW

Stay with us in our frailty, stay with us on our journey, WALK BESIDE US, LIVE WITHIN US

LEAD US TO GLORY, LEAD US HOME. Amen.

(A Christmas Prayer from the Iona Community)

MONDAY 12.01.08  |  Scripture Readings: Isaiah 63:16-64:8; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9   |  Tim Huizenga

Zechariah was a dolt — don’t you think?  An angel appears with some good news and he responds with doubt and sarcasm.  For a priestly guy, he sure did not respond very well to divine directives.  What was he thinking?      But there may be an explanation.  Perhaps Zechariah did not perceive the messenger to be an angel.  Luke tells that the angel appeared to Zechariah in the temple by the altar while the people were waiting outside and that Zechariah was alarmed and afraid.  It could be that he was not alarmed to be in the presence of an angel, but was afraid that this interloper was a crazy person or religious fanatic who had intruded into a place that was off limits.  Zechariah may have feared bodily harm, or at least a profane verbal assault in God’s holy temple.  It is likely that Judea was full of rabbis, prophets, gurus, and zealots who wandered around with messianic messages and divine edicts. He may have been intrigued by the stranger’s detailed promises, but wary that he was just a well spoken charlatan. 

We like to think that if God spoke to us directly, via angelic messenger, that we would be full of faith and leap to obey every word.  Maintaining that belief is quite simple since we do not really expect an angel to appear to us.  Our mistake may be in failing to recognize the ordinary “angels” we encounter regularly. 

We have receive messages from God all our lives.  They may have come from parents or grandparents or teachers or friends.  They certainly have come from the pulpit and from reading scripture.  Did we value those messages and leap to obey?  Granted, the news we receive from our human “angels” is not as earthshaking as that delivered to Zechariah.  Yet, if we were convinced that ordinary people could be God’s agents for extraordinary purposes, then our faith would be strengthened and our passion for service would be intensified.

The beautiful ending to the story of Zechariah is that he survived his momentary doubt and emerged with a fuller understanding of the Kingdom of God.  The Holy Spirit enlightened him with the message that a Savior would come to forgive our sins and “guide our steps into the path of peace.”  (Luke 1: 79).  God’s extraordinary message of the coming of his Kingdom through his Son Jesus is delivered by the ordinary man Zechariah.  In this Advent season, may the very ordinary people of this church open ourselves to God’s Spirit so that we might deliver that same message of forgiveness and peace to each other and the whole world.

TUESDAY 12.02.08  |  Scripture Readings: Matthew 4:1-6, 28:18-20  | Jeremiah Martin

Being God's body in the world is an extraordinary calling. Together we physical people are a living, spiritual Temple for the living, loving God. This isn't an extraordinary calling in the sense that it's unusual; it's reiterated to us daily in every word that the Scripture and the Spirit bring to us. This calling is extraordinary because it invests all the ordinary movements of our lives with the significance of the sacred, and because such an investiture can only be made by someone with the most extraordinary authority.

For Jesus to issue that calling, to redraw the boundaries of God's people to include all who turn to him, and then to rebuild the ancient Temple with those very people as its living stones, and himself as the cornerstone -- for these tasks, no ordinary authority would have been enough. Ordinary authority may be able to control, but it cannot bring create; it cannot make the ordinary things sacred, and it cannot make an ordinary person like you and me live.

At the beginning of his public ministry, during his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus soundly refused to grasp such anemic, worldly authority that could not do extraordinary things. Turning stones to bread or calling on heaven's angels would surely have been impressive, but it would only have been more of the same. By being just another – albeit better – Caesar or Nebuchadnezzar or Hammurabi, Jesus would have diminished, and we would have been left forever as shadows of ourselves.

But by shouldering the weight of our collective sin and temptation from the beginning of his ministry, and walking through both life and death unbowed by them, Jesus emerges as one with authority of a completely different order. In him is the power to bring life. In him is the power to heal and renew the ordinary. In him is the extraordinary power to send us to do likewise.

WEDNESDAY 12.03.08  |  Scripture Readings: Matthew 3:1-12 | Kathy Neely

Is there a stench worse than that of a camel? Yes, I assure you, there is: that of a wet camel.

I know, because that very stench engulfed me, as the Baptizer’s beefy hands came around the back of my head, clutching me to him as we both went down under the waters.

“You brood of vipers!” he had roared with delight as our religious leaders’ delegation stood there on the riverbank, with what we hoped passed for sufficient piety. “Who warned you to escape the coming wrath, eh?”

He was on to us, of course. We were there not as penitents. We did intend to score points with our constituency – the peasants – by demonstrating our most humble interest in the mission of one more of their  - ahem - prophets. And, more importantly: to keep an eye on him. The Baptizer had already irritated Herod. We did not want any trouble. 

“But, come now, gentlemen! If you’ve really repented, show me some fruit!” he’d goaded us. “God’s ax is tickling the root of your tree, ready to whack; you of all people should know that every tree that does not produce good fruit will be struck down, and tossed into the fire.”

Standing there on the riverbank, I sighed. Yes, I knew all too intimately the graze of God’s threatening ax. No matter how strenuously I fasted, how fastidiously I tithed, how piously I prayed, oh, yes, I knew the dread of God’s wrath.

And I had repented, and repented again. And again. God’s wrath remained, and it was inescapable.

Did the Baptizer see my sigh? He hauled me into the water, and pushed me under. A very long time.  When he let me surface, I fell limply into his arms, gasping. He held me close and whispered fiercely, “Shh! Listen! Forget about me – but look for this guy who’s coming after me. He’s got real power! Oh, yeah, sure, I baptize. No big deal! All I’ve got is water. But him, well, he’ll baptize you - if you let him- with the Holy Spirit! Not with water - but with fire! He’s cleared his granary for the pleasure of harvesting your wheat. And for the pleasure of burning your chaff?  I promise you, if you let him - your chaff  he’ll burn it with unquenchable fire!”

THURSDAY 12.04.08  |  Scripture Readings: Isaiah 62 | Bill Clapp

Isaiah 62:  Zion's New Name

1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet,
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.

2 The nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.

3 You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah, [a]
and your land Beulah [b] ;
for the LORD will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.

5 As a young man marries a maiden,
so will your sons [c] marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.

FOOTNOTES:  Isaiah 62:4 Hephzibah means my delight is in her. |  Isaiah 62:4 Beulah means married.  |  Isaiah 62:5 Or Builder

We all are aware that we are deeply flawed. Much of this is our doing, yet much is somehow not – we can’t control all our imperfection. In these verses, the prophet cannot contain himself – he must speak this Good News - we, the ordinary, flawed citizens of Jerusalem are to be a part of something extraordinary – just as God gave the conniving Jacob (supplanter, cheater) a new and glorious name – Israel (one who struggles with God and men and perseveres) – he will give us and our city a new name. There will be a New Jerusalem and we will be the worthy citizens of this glorious place. Like prisoners being made newly aware of release, everything is now different. We are given a powerful vision – a new hope. We can now begin living with joy, because we and our city will be changed - made glorious. And the Lord will do this thing because He loves us beyond our wildest imagination.

FRIDAY 12.05.08  |  Scripture Readings: I John 1: 6-34 | Pam Mayer-Caes

John the Baptist has always struck me as a strange and lonely character. He is a desert hermit - out in the wilderness feasting on grasshoppers and robbing honey from the bees. Everyone thinks he is half mad with visions and loneliness. He listens to whispers from God and gathers a band of of rag tag followers. He bathes them in muddy water and God's promises. He makes predictions about a future that hardly anyone believes, but a few still hope are true.

John the Baptist is the street corner preacher, crying out to the busy crowds as they hurry by. He shouts his message but few are listening. He is bumped and jostled by the shoppers on their rush to the next big pre-Christmas sale. He stands on his corner holding a single candle against the glare of holiday glitz. His voice is nearly drowned out by hymns to Rudolph and Santa. "Listen to me! Listen" he cries. "I have seen him - the one - from God...and it changes everything! He is the one we've all been waiting for...Stop - Stop what you are doing and listen to me!"

Now and then, he catches someone's eye. And they look at him and wonder....Who is this man, back lit by blinking lights, filthy from head to toe, still and resolute against the noise? His face transformed ....by what? And for just a moment - they listen. "I have seen him - the one we've all been waiting for - he has what we need!" he says. And they look in his eyes, and just for a moment they see it. They can hardly dare to believe, but they hope it might be true.

And John the Baptist is that voice in our heads, in our loneliest most discouraged moments. His words barely audible against the raging noise of fear and despair. "I have seen him." he whispers. He is the one. He has what you need. He is here - don't be afraid."

Oh, we want to believe, but we can hardly dare to believe - so we hope.

SATURDAY 12.06.08  |  Scripture Readings: Mark 1:1-8  | Karl Lauger

Camel hair. How ordinary. How plain. Rough, unadorned, scratchy, yet also exotic and extraordinary. I've never seen or felt a camel-hair shirt. Never touched a camel. Odd animals they are, though really as ordinary there as a horse is here. Where is there, exactly? Where was John and his camel hair shirt? A young man, over here, an artisan selling his wares, says he is from Israel. An American shopper eyeing the wares says, Oh, really, have you ever been to the Holy Land?

John and his story are, by now, ordinary, common, familiar beyond belief. Have we not heard it so many, many times that by now Over There itself is worn down to a nub? A dry, dusty desert. A river. Locusts swarming and honey dripping here there and everywhere and crazy-man John roaming about, shouting at people and inventing baptism. Wherever did he get that idea? "Repent, you bad boys and girls. Repent and get down in the water and we'll wash your sins all the way down to the Dead Sea." Fitting isn't it? The sins of humankind washed away to the lowest spot on earth, as close to hell as you can get, if hell is down.

Get down in that water, oh man. Oh sister, be ye washed in the water. Same water where Elisha made an ax head float and Naman washed away his leprosy. You cannot step twice into the same river, said a Greek who lived, say, halfway between Elisha and John - timewise, I mean. Yet Elisha, Naman, John and his converts all did indeed step in the same river and all did indeed herald the One who was and is to come, the One who in the beginning - before the river ever was - Was the Word and Was With God and Was God, the One who baptized with a fire that still burns hot and bright, the One whose sandals not a one of us is worthy to untie, the One who made us all worthy before almighty God. The same river still flows today, the locusts still swarm, the honey still drips and the camels still wander in a dry and dusty land somewhere between Israel and the Holy Land. Extraordinary, really.