Already There
A sermon by Ted Virts
December 8, 2013
Sonoma Ca
Theme:
Spring by Jim Harrison
Something new in the air today, perhaps the struggle of the bud
to become a leaf.
Nearly two weeks late it invaded the air but
then what is two weeks to life herself?
On a cool night there is
a break from the struggle of becoming. I suppose that's why
we
sleep. In a childhood story they spoke of the “land of enchantment." We crawl to
it, we short-lived mammals, not realizing that
we are already there. To the gods the
moon is the entire moon
but to us it changes second by second because we are
always fish
in the belly of the whale of earth. We are encased and can't stray
from
the house of our bodies. I could say that we are released,
but I don't know, in our
private night when our souls explode
into a billion fragments then calmly regather
in a black pool in
the forest, far from the cage of flesh, the unremitting "I." This
was
a dream and in dreams we are forever alone walking the ghost
road beyond
our lives. Of late I see waking as another chance at
spring.
Scripture:
Romans 15:4-13
whatever was written in formerdays was written …so that…we might have hope.
MMay the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may
abound in hope… Romans 15
My wife Charlie can see things. I mean that literally. If she is weaving, or looking at
a piece someone else wove, she can see a missed stitch. If we are scuba diving, she
can see an octopus, often before the dive guide notices.
She tries to let me in on what she sees. We’ve been kayaking in the Cascade Lakes in
Oregon a lot over the last few summers. And it never fails that she will spot a hawk
in a tree and try to show me. Up there, see it? Then she’ll try to describe the
location. See that mountain where the snow line is? See the bent over tree to the
left? It is not unusual that I don’t really see what she is talking about – my powers of
observation are at fault, not her powers of description. But I keep looking. I don’t
doubt that the bird is there. And sometimes, if I wait and look enough, eventually I
do see what she is pointing toward. I expect it to be there, I just can’t see it.
I think that is what Advent is about. We are familiar with some of it, of course, just
as I’ve seen birds in trees, and I keep looking, and hoping that I’ll see. And the
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church and the tradition keep using a lot of images and pictures to help. Expectation
with out seeing. Yet.
This morning I want to have a conversation with you about Christmas and you and
me and the tradition.
Let me start with a couple of questions:
Big question first: Do you Like Christmas? Not like Christmas? Unsure/ or mixed?
What do you like? Not like?
What is the Christmas season like for you?
(stressful, busy, joyful, worrisome…)
When you think of Christmas what are you –you- waiting for/ looking forward to?
St. Paul writes about hope in his letter to the Romans. Seems to me that one way of
looking at your feelings about the christmas season is that at this point – A couple of
weeks before Christmas Day – your feelings involve some aspect of hope: Stress is
hope that things will come out OK, or good, Busy is getting ready in hopes that
everything will come together. Sadness may be loss of what was, or fear that what
was won’t come again. Hope is expecting something, but not quite seeing it yet, or
living it yet.
The Christmas season in our day and age is the time leading up to Christmas. In the
church though it is the two weeks after Christmas, and in some ways even Epiphany
time of the weeks leading up to Lent.
And our marking of Christmas has become quite a jumble. The earliest writers of
Christian scripture aren’t interested in Christmas. Mark doesn’t even mention it.
Paul says Jesus was born of a woman. Luke and Matthew’s versions cannot be
reconciled. For Luke, Mary and Joseph travel to fulfill a census command and Jesus
is a born in a stable, and visited by shepherds who were watching their flocks by
night (which they don’t do in winter, by the way) and angels. In Matthew Jesus is
born at home and is visited there sometime before he is 2 by Magi/astrologers from
the east who are following star patterns, give him symbolic gifts.
And the point? For Luke, Jesus comes to bring good news for the poor. For Matthew
Jesus is royalty.
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And just to make things a little more interesting, a couple of doctrines have emerged
having some loose connection with scripture. Incarnation – Jesus is God in the
Flesh; and Jesus had a miraculous birth.
Of course in the world of Jesus day, a true leader was a Son of God, and part of his
“street cred” was that once he had proven himself, the biographies always included
the victor’s divine nature, and super-normal birth. If Jesus was to have status in the
ancient world, these stories would emerge, as they did.
I suspect that this is not surprising to most of you. It has been the theme of our
Christmas pageant over the last few years.
And I hope that it doesn’t diminish the joy of the Christmas season either. The
memories and expectations that you expressed earlier are genuine and valuable.
Another Question: How would you describe Christmas these days: What happens?
What is essential? What do you notice? What do you like? What do you wish for?
The truth is that Christmas Season in the 21st Century after Jesus has become a bit of
a jumble:
Santa Claus, tree decorating, shopping, gift exchanging, big family and friends
gatherings and dinners, Silent night, carols of various traditions, angels and kings
kneeling before a relaxed and well groomed Mary in a blue veil, looked over by a
silent man who is always in the background and seems to dress like a franciscan.
And we love it because it is deep in our heritage. We know the words, we sing the
songs. We feel the warmth in winter and love the chance to be generous (most of
us).
I think there may be a bit of overlap between our secular celebration of Christmas
and God’s work in Jesus. But much of what we express at Christmas isn’t really
dependent upon Christ. People have gathered in the dark of winter for millennia
before Christ. We have shared food since we became a species, we have seen signs
and wonders, we have offered kindnesses, we have told stories about exemplary
people.
It is again a question of what you are looking for or waiting for. I enjoy much of the
Christmas season, and look forward to the softening of human hearts at this season
of kindness. I think this is really how we humans are at our core. When we behave
otherwise we have left our true selves.
Incarnation is the teaching that God is in the flesh. A very physical God is with us.
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And actually I believe that this is the part of Christianity that fills our churches on
Christmas. God is with us, is one of us. We may not know what a God is, but we
know what a human is. We know what birth is about. We experience life as real,
and complex. We understand fatigue, struggle. We get it about pain. We
understand joy and beauty.
Christianity says God understands that too. And we know that in Jesus.
The revelation is both that God is with us, and that we are with God. And when we
understand that truth, we don’t need more.
Once I’ve seen the bird that Charlie has tried to show me, then I can enjoy the
scenery a little differently, but the descriptions become nice, but redundant.
It is as our worship theme declared: …They spoke of the land of enchantment. We
crawl to it, we short-lived mammals, not realizing that we are already there.
One of the videos in the Saving Jesus series includes this in the notes:
“There is an old saying “Where Love is, There is God also” What we do for better or
for worse is the meassure of the incarnation in the world. The incarnation is finally
not just about Jesus alone, but about us. Wherever we find ourselves, the Mystery of
Life dwells within us, not linited to a tine or place, but a part of every aspect of our
lives. And wherever love is, ther is God also.”
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