"God is with us"-Sermon for Advent 4, Lessons and Carols:
Beginning literally at the beginning of the bible, with the Book of Genesis, in our Lessons and Carols service we hear readings from a wide, wide breadth of authors writing over many thousands of years. And, in fact, at St. Julian’s we hear only 6 lessons today that are pulled from a much larger list of suggested readings for various arrangements of this ancient service. Meaning we could potentially hear from an even larger list of Old Testament prophets who lived at various points in Israel’s history…if time allowed. And, though these biblical authors lived in very different times than our own, with different geopolitical challenges, different economic and governing systems, different religious and cultural practices, I imagine that they actually share much in common with people just like us, living in the 21st century and on the other side of the globe.
That is, like us, I imagine they lived lives full of uncertainty and wonder, fear and hope, loss and gain. I imagine they lived full lives that included work and relationships that brought to them deep joy and meaning, and I imagine they faced great challenges at home, work and in the broader world that brought chaos and real suffering. I have mentioned before the acronym VUCA that futurists and those in the leadership business use to describe the world we live in. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. And, though that resonates to some degree with my lived experience, I also think that there is much beauty, kindness, hope and purpose to be found in this world and the lives we live in it. Thus, I believe that both the biblical authors and we live lives that contain all of the above. Which is all to say we, indeed, navigate through a complicated and convoluted world, with highs and lows, that at times is de-centering, hard to keep our balance in. Sometimes we keep it all together and sometimes we just fall apart, which I hope you hear me say is entirely normal and human. In fact, I think keeping all the balls we are juggling in the air for just some of time…is a win!
And, Christmas, as we experience it culturally and religiously is a good example of the undeniable complexity that we constantly live with. It is, on the one hand, a time of tremendous busyness, over consumption, credit card debt, and it is full of interpersonal landmines…de-centering…indeed While, on the other hand, Christmas is an angelic, clarion call to re-center our lives around what matter most in life…undistracted time with those we love, celebrating the good things in life, giving gifts that express our profound appreciation for others and, most of all, a call to return to the Babe…the Babe of Bethlehem…a call to remember through prayer, worship and loving acts that at the center of this season is the story of God’s love birthed into the very midst of our lives and world. For the love birthed at Christmas is our center. It is where we find purpose for a life well-lived. It is where we find meaning and direction. It is where we find shelter from life’s storms. God becoming flesh and blood is intended to remind us that our own flesh and blood is good and capable of so very much…for God choose to be one of us. And, Christmas promises that Jesus was not born once some two thousand years ago…but that Jesus’ loving Spirit is born in us at all times and all places. And, in finding that love, believing in that love, adoring that love, rooting in that love, being filled with love…we find our center.
I was able to spend some time recently with my Godmother. She has had some significant health challenges over the past two years. She has literally struggled with her balance. She has had quite a few falls and her heart is weak. And, she recently visited a new doctor who spent time looking at these health challenges from a macro view. He did not know her or her story well…but after looking at all the medical records of everything she has gone through in the past two years physically…he pushed back the various medial documents, looked at her with kind eyes and asked, “What happened to you two years ago?” She knew what he meant immediately…though the answer wouldn’t be found in the medical records that sat between them. So, for her what felt very vulnerable to disclose, she told him exactly what had happened two years ago. She said, “Two years ago my mother who lived with me and with whom I was very close died, and then within months my husband also died suddenly and unexpectedly.” And, then the two of them knew exactly what had happened to her. Her life had become uncentered. After losing those two great loving anchors in her life, she entirely lost her balance, and her heart grew weak and she emotionally and literally began to fall…and fall often.
And, she told me she now knows what she needs to begin to do. She acknowledged it will not be easy…being vulnerable and asking for help does not come easy to her like it doesn’t for many of us…but she knows she has more life to live, more love to share, more work to accomplish, more joy to experience with those, like me, she loves, so it is time to find her center again. Time to grieve, really grieve by telling her story and finding hope with others, in order to, learn to live with and love her mother and husband in a new way. And, she named that she needs to find, once again, God’s love in the center of her life for, from there, she knows she will find the strength to heal her heart, body and soul…to find her center, her balance to live fully alive in the next season of her one wild and precious life.
Lessons and Carols, the songs and the scriptures, the prophesies and the prayers we experience and hear today and, in the days, still ahead…all point us in the same direction. They are pointing us to the Babe…the Babe of Bethlehem…who is our center. These stories written by different people in different times and different places point us to the timeless and universal truth that they needed and that we need…all people need, whenever or wherever we live. And that timeless truth is that our center is discovered in the love that comes at Christmas…first in that precious child, who we worship and adore…and…and each day as that very same love is birthed in us anew…if we will but center ourselves in it. Such eternal and forever love, the love of God that comes to us in Jesus, brings healing, brings peace, brings direction, brings purpose, brings balance, steadies us, centers us…so that we can stand upright and strong…that we might be whole and help others be whole…as we live fully alive…in the next season of our one wild and precious life. Amen.