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A sermon preached by Bob Keller on December 28, 2008 based on Luke 2: 22 – 40.

If you listen, and you don’t have to be listening that carefully, you’ll hear it.  FWUMP! That’s the sound of the big after Christmas letdown.  We’ve all seen it and maybe some of us have felt it.  All the anticipation that builds and builds through the days and weeks of preparation and then, then it’s all over.

Anticipation?  Christmas is something that the retail industry tells us that we should start preparing for before Halloween is in full swing.  The common refrain is, “It seems to start earlier every year!”  And what happens to all that anticipation?  It’s over in a day or two?  Or maybe you have a week of celebration with family and friends?  Then that inevitable FWUMP comes!  And trust me, that FWUMP may come even sooner if Christmas wishes were not fulfilled exactly as anticipated.

What of the anticipation of the two characters we met in the scriptures that David read for us this morning?  This reading is sandwiched in between Luke’s very familiar story of the birth of Christ and picks up again when Jesus is 12 years old’

First we learn that Mary and Joseph were followers of the Law.  They went to the temple in Jerusalem, a journey of about five miles from their temporary home in Bethlehem, for Mary’s purification after childbirth and to consecrate their first-born son to the Lord.

 So Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus are in the temple courts and we meet Simeon.  This is the only place in the Bible where Simeon is mentioned.  However, he must have been someone special.  In the reading we learned that the Holy Spirit was upon him, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that he would not die before seeing the Lord’s Christ, and the Holy Spirit moved him to go in to the temple courts.  There Simeon saw the parents bring in the child.

Now I wonder what Simeon may have been anticipating.  We have no idea how old Simeon was, nor do we know how long he had the promise from God that he would not die before seeing the Christ.  Some scholars suggest that he must have been an old man.  But what was he expecting?  A king?  A warrior?  A liberator that would free his people from Roman rule?  Surely this new leader of the nations would not be a mere baby!

But remember, Simeon was a man full of, and led by, the Holy Spirit.  He went right to the baby and took him in his arms and he praised God for fulfilling His promise of salvation in sight of all people for both revelation to the Gentiles and the children of Israel.  In other words, to everyone.

Mary and Joseph marveled at what was said about their son.  Then Simeon blessed them both, but spoke to Mary.  He gave Mary a warning that her son would cause rising and falling in Israel.  If you think of Jesus as a rock, he can be the rock on which you build your life or he can be the rock that you stumble over.

Now something else that Simeon said while praising God deserves separate attention.  Simeon says “dismiss your servant in peace.”  In other words – “Lord I can die now – I’ve seen your promise fulfilled.  I’ve held the Messiah in my arms.”    Wow!  What more of a thrill could a human ask for?

This time of year – this upcoming FWUMP time – is a time when depression and suicides typically rise.  It’s because what was anticipated wasn’t fulfilled.  There is an emptiness, but note that Simeon is ready “to go” because all HAS been fulfilled.  He is full of hope and joy at knowing that God’s promise has been fulfilled.  He has seen and held the Christ.

Now we meet Anna, a prophetess.  Anna was an 84 year old widowed woman.  She had been married for seven years, but since losing her husband, she’s dedicated herself to living in the temple, worshipping night and day, praying and fasting.  The assumption is made that Anna, too, was anticipating the Christ child.  At the moment she saw the holy family, she came up to them, gave thanks to God, and then spoke of the child to everyone that was anticipating the redemption of Jerusalem.  Was Anna expecting the Redeemer to be a baby?

Simeon and Anna are seldom seen as characters in Christmas plays.  Never seen on Christmas cards, nor are there any carols about Simeon and Anna.  But let me suggest to you that these two are just important to the Christmas story as the shepherds or the wise men.  Why, because of their anticipation.  They were relying on God’s promise that his Christ would come.  They were waiting.  They may not have known what to expect, but they knew Him when they saw Him.  Their anticipations were met.

Anticipation can lead to two things – and these are the words I’d like you to take with you today – FRUSTRATION or FASCINATION.

Let me illustrate by telling you a story that appeared in “Bit & Pieces” magazine.  The author is Rob Gilbert who is editor of that magazine.

Last spring I was walking in a park. A short distance ahead of me was a Mom and her three-year-old daughter. The little girl was holding on to a string that was attached to a beautiful heart shaped balloon.

All of a sudden, a sharp gust of wind took the balloon from the little girl. I braced myself for some screaming and crying. But, no! As the little girl turned to watch her balloon go skyward, she gleefully shouted out,

“Wow!” as it played with the (unseen) winds and bounced its way into the clouds. (And I’m positive that she made sure that her mother saw it, too.  I can see the little girl tugging on her mother’s hand and then pointing to the ever smaller dancing balloon.  She wasn’t unhappy about losing her balloon – she was happy that it was going someplace.  Then saying, Wow!)

I didn’t realize it at that moment, but that little girl taught me something.

Later that day, I received a phone call from a person with news of an unexpected problem. I felt like responding with

“Oh no, that is terrible.” But remembering that little girl, I found myself saying,

“Wow, that is interesting! How can I help?”

One thing is for sure – life’s always going to keep us off balance with its unexpected problems. That’s a given. What’s not preordained is our response. We can choose to be frustrated or fascinated.

No matter what the situation, a fascinated “Wow!” will always beat a frustrated “Oh, no.”

I’m sure that both Simeon and Anna were frustrated.  After all, they had been waiting for quite some time for God the Father to fulfill his promise of delivering his Christ.  But then they saw Him.  Simeon actually held him.  I’m sure that, if in the first century when Luke wrote his Gospel, if the word “Wow” existed, that would have been the first word out of the mouths of both Simeon and Anna.  The word “Wow” not at their disposal, they praised God and gave thanks.

Now to our anticipation.  We know that inevitable “FWUMP” is coming.  It’s not one of life’s unexpected problems.  How do we deal with it?  Are we frustrated or fascinated?  Let me suggest the latter, and here’s why:  God gave the gift of his only son some two thousand years ago.  He gave that gift to everyone.  Remember, just as Simeon said, For my eyes have seen your salvation,
    which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

He gave His Son that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

And he still gives His Son today.  Through this Christmas season we were reminded of that most precious gift that we received 2,000 years ago, but it’s a gift that we can still receive today.  When that FWUMP hits, don’t be frustrated.  Remember God’s gift.  Remember that anticipation and be fascinated by it!

And be moved by it.  Remember that Joseph moved.  Mary moved.  The shepherds and the angels moved.  Even the wise men moved.  And lastly Simeon was moved, moved by the Spirit.  Trust your fascination at God’s gift to move you past the FWUMP and into a closer walk with Jesus.  It will be a fascinating journey.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>Please pray with me>>>>>>>>>>

Heavenly Father, we confess our frailties.  We set our expectations so high and then try to reach them ourselves only to allow the same inevitable “let downs” into our lives.  Help us to be tired of hearing the “FWUMPS”

Please teach us that all we need comes from you and comes abundantly from you.  Help us to learn to be fascinated by the wonderful things you have provided for us, most of all, that precious gift of your son, Jesus Christ.  Amen

A sermon preached on December 14^th, 2008 based upon Isaiah 61:1 – 4, 8 – 11 and John 1:6 – 8, and 19 – 28, entitled “Doing Christmas right.”

Two weeks ago I mentioned in my sermon that I was hopeful regarding being able to do Christmas right this year, because of the fact that my family and I had managed to “pull off” Thanksgiving unusually well; the five of us all home together visiting the grandparents, keeping the darkness at bay and holding out room for the light.

So I wanted to continue today with that theme of “what does it mean to do Christmas right?”

If I had the talents of Martha Stewart, I might give you advice on the proper way to hang garlands, decorate trees, wrap presents, and bake cookies. I’m not very good at that sort of thing, so my sermon on the subject on how to do Christmas right will necessarily go in another direction, and I will leave others better equipped than myself to give that sort of advice.

I want to acknowledge that there are a lot of you out there who really enjoy that aspect of Christmas, and I want to honor that. I realize that it is in such things as putting up decorations, wrapping presents with an eye for beauty, and baking delicious cookies that many people do indeed express the giving and the delight that is such an important part of Christmas.

As a preacher, I am responsible for reflecting upon what clues the Bible might provide in regard to how to do Christmas right, and so I was led to ponder the experience of the persons who first experienced the mystery and miracle that is at the heart of Christmas. What would it take for us to stand in a similar place to the one they stood?

Reading over the Christmas stories, this is what I came up with:

Live in a time of great economic and political uncertainty, under an oppressive government that arbitrarily makes decrees and practice random acts of wholesale violence.

Become a local scandal — the object of scorn. Be one of the outcasts of your society.

Be homeless, far from what you once called “home,” without any family or friends at hand.

I am being facetious here, of course, but the point I want to make here is that Christmas is about a light breaking into a deep darkness. The very first people to experience the joy and the love of Christmas were a homeless couple having a baby out of wedlock, a bunch of poor shepherds who would have been unwelcome in polite society, a couple of aliens from a far country worn out by their long, hard journey and unfamiliar with the local customs, and that all of these people lived in the context of the violence and oppression of Rome and King Herod.

The first Christmas wasn’t experienced by people cozy, rich and comfortable, but by people living on the edge who saw little reason to hope.

A light shines in a deep darkness, and perhaps the wonder of the light can’t be fully appreciated unless you are first acquainted with the deep darkness.

The Old Testament lesson David read for us from the prophet Isaiah would later be read by Jesus himself as he began his work, and serve as a kind of mission statement for his ministry.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners… comfort for all who mourn, a garment of praise for those with a spirit of despair.”

Indeed it was the poor, the brokenhearted, the imprisoned, those who mourned and those who were in despair, who responded most readily to the grace present in his ministry.

The passage read for us by Bob from the Gospel of John isn’t a “Christmas story” per se, but the words spoken by John the Baptist give us a lot of direction in regards to how to approach Christmas.

John makes it quite clear that this isn’t about him.

“I am not the messiah.”

Are you Elijah?

“I am not.”

How about a prophet?

“Nope.”

What are you then?

“I’m just a voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.”

As the Gospel writer declares: “He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light… (the true light that gives light to every person, coming right now into the world.)”

In the end, Christmas isn’t about something we do; it’s about something God has done and continues to do. God comes to be with us. In a certain sense, we can’t do Christmas at all. Ours is simply to ponder what God has done.

I went on the internet looking for statistics about all the people who have a hard time with Christmas with depression and such, and what I found was, actually most people enjoy Christmas. The one thing that did seem clear about this time of year is that emotions are intensified. The highs are higher, but the lows are lower.

There are some of us who know how to do Christmas right in the sense of letting it be primarily a thing of joy, but I do think there are many of us who, even though we may experience a fair amount of joy, also experience feelings of inadequacy at this time of year:

We look at our family connections and perhaps it seems dysfunctional in contrast to images of truly happy, loving families. Our families can seem terribly flawed.

The gifts we may give may sometimes seem inadequate, poorly chosen, or too cheap, or, on the other hand, we may feel badly that we couldn’t budget ourselves better, realizing we spent way too much money. We may find ourselves feeling irritable, or worse, downright hostile, in relation to not only strangers who steal our parking spot, but family members as well, aware of the fact that we are supposed to be feeling full of love.

In various ways, we may feel simply inadequate — “not good enough.”

So once more, hear what John the Baptist says. “After me comes one the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

It makes a big difference, I think, how you hear these words of John. “I am not worthy.”

Perhaps we imagine him saying this with a load of self-contempt and self-loathing. But I think this is inaccurate. I think John said these words in a matter of fact sort of way. In other words, my worthiness isn’t the issue here. I never could “make myself worthy”. I’d be a fool to try. This isn’t about me.

It’s about Jesus.

Jesus is a gift, that comes to all us poor slobs.

Contrary to the well known song, what we are waiting for doesn’t depend upon whether we’ve been naughty or nice.

So we can relax. We can let go.

 So my most practical piece of advice in regard to how to do Christmas right is this: First, give up any notion of doing it “right.”

Second, be gentle with yourself and with others. This is indeed a peculiar time of year. The highs are higher, but the lows are lower.

Don’t get thrown by the yucky stuff that inevitably shows up in your heart, or in the hearts of those with whom you live closest. You have not been banished from the manger just because you feel irritable, or angry, or jealous, or lonely, or depressed. Hardly. Indeed, in a certain sense these things make you all the more welcome. It is to the brokenhearted, the grief stricken, the despairing that Jesus comes.

Perhaps the best Christmas t.v. special of all time is Charlie Brown’s Christmas. I’m sure you’ve seen it. Charlie Brown find’s himself in charge of the Christmas pageant, and he tries so hard to Christmas right, but all his effort just seems to make him more and more miserable.

Finally he cries out, “Isn’t there anybody who can tell me what Christmas is all about?”

Linus, security blanket in hand, replies, “Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” He walks calmly to the center of the stage. “Lights please,” he requests. And then this, and only this: (In the actual sermon, I played a tape of Linus speaking.) That’s it, Charlie Brown. That’s what Christmas is about.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

As the years passed without Jesus returning, naturally it was harder to maintain that sense of urgency. The passage we read from Mark’s Gospel — the first of the four Gospel, written perhaps forty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection — can be heard as a pep talk to try and inspire Christians to hold onto that sense of expectancy.  Mark’s reader is reminded that Jesus said he would return before the present generation passed away.When Matthew and Luke wrote their Gospels twenty years later, although it is still assumed that one day Jesus will return in power and glory, the notion that he will return within immediately is no longer present. You get a sense of a community settling in for the long haul.

John’s Gospel may have been written another twenty years later. His Gospel no longer looks forward to the future at all. Jesus is the resurrection and the life right now; what he came to offer can be experienced in the present moment for those who believe.

Over the years, there have been numerous times when Christians have predicted certain dates when they were convinced that Jesus would finally return, and for a time some believers would succeed in restoring that heightened sense of expectation. But the dates came and passed, and still no return of Jesus in the sense in which he had been anticipated.

And so we find ourselves nearly two thousand years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and most of us find it hard to get caught up in that kind of expectation anymore. What, then, might we ask are we to make of the words we heard attributed to Jesus in our Gospel lesson?

There is a sense in which the call us to live with a keen sense of expectancy have always been absolutely on the mark. The time that each one of us has on this earth is quite limited, though a part of us denies this truth. Each one of us is going to die. It may be fifty years from now, or it could be 50 minutes from now, and no one knows for sure. This could be our last day on earth.

The stories we read over the past three weeks from the 25^th chapter of Matthew were unifying in hammering this theme. There were the foolish maiden who weren’t ready with oil for their lamps when the bridesgroom finally does come to call them to the party, with a door closing marking the end of their time. There were the three servants given talents of varying sizes to take care of while the master is away; one day the master does return, and there is an accounting of what each has done with what they were given. The story of the sheep and the goats reminds us that a day is coming when our lives will be over and there will be an accounting of what we have done with our lives on earth in terms of living out compassion.

All three drive home the point that time doesn’t going on forever. There will be an end, and we need to live conscious of this fact. Fools live as though their lives go on forever.

This morning we hear Jesus say in Mark’s Gospel say,

“It’s like a man who takes a trip, leaving home and putting his servants in charge, each assigned a task.” He sums up his story by saying, “So, stay at your post, watching.” (paraphrasing by Peterson in The Message) The passage seems to be saying, knowing that our lives will come to an end at an unexpected moment, it is important to consider whether we have been faithful at our own particular post, carrying out our uniquely assigned tasks.

So let’s spend a little time thinking about our particular posts, our uniquely assigned tasks.

One thing we can say for sure is that being faithful at our particular posts means loving the people with whom God has placed us in life: our family and the particular group of friends and associates God has placed in our path. We are compelled by this scripture reading to ask ourselves, Have I loved these people well?

The question opens up lost of questions that are beyond our capacity to answer this morning regarding what does it mean to love. For instance, when does love involve “taking care of someone,” and when does it involve “letting go of someone?” These can be tough things to sort out.

Many of us look back over our lives and feel some sense of failure in regard to the love we have expressed to those with whom we are most intimately connected. Here is where the emphasis Jesus gave to forgiveness becomes so crucial. Given that every relationship includes some degree of failure (no one has loved perfectly) to find peace in the relationships through forgiveness while we still have time becomes crucially important. Henri Nouwen described how when he was hit by a car and nearly died, he felt this great impulse to call to his bedside all the people in his life with whom there was some sense of estrangement, that he might ask their forgiveness, and give his forgiveness, before he passed from this life.

The love that we were placed on this earth to embody isn’t limited to those closest at hand. The coming of Jesus into the world — the light of the world — involves witness to a love that goes beyond the “tribe mentality.” It is a love that includes the stranger — even the enemy. So the question becomes, in our little corner of the universe, our own particular station or post, how have we witnessed to this greater love?

I read a story about couple named John and Dottie Peckham who back in 1979 on a cruise from Mexico to Hawaii, put a note in a wine bottle they had just finished and tossed it into the Pacific Ocean.

Three years and nine thousand miles later, Vietnamese refugee Nguyen Van Hoa leaned down from a tiny, crowded boat and plucked the bottle from the South China Sea–amazed to fine a name and address, a dollar for postage and the promise of a reward. “It gave me hope,” said Hoa who had escaped from a prison camp in Vietnam. Safe in a UN refugee camp in Thailand, Hoa wrote the surprised Peckhams. For two years they corresponded: Hoa married and had a son. In 1985, the Peckham’s agreed to sponsor the emigration of Hoa, now thirty one, and his family. In April of that year, they arrived for an emotional meeting with the Peckhams–and a new life from an old bottle.

Who knows what opportunities to witness to this greater love are presented to us, and we miss them. A major them of Advent is that when Jesus first came into this world, he was missed by most, for he came as a baby born to poor, homeless refugees.

In considering the contours of the particular post at which each of us has been placed, attention must be given to our unique sense of giftedness. We are not all the same. Our gifts vary.

Now gifts are both a blessing and a responsibility. To hide a light under a bushel is to fail to live up to the responsibility of that gift. And so we must ask ourselves, have I used my particular gifts?

In my early fifties, the thought has occurred to be a lot lately that the retirement from my work that always seemed impossibly far off in the distance, isn’t so far off at all. Who knows, maybe I have another 15 years of work as a pastor left within me? When I reached that last Sunday, how will I feel about the work I’ve done, and whether I’ve exercised my gifts in this work.

I have a gift for theater and for the capacity to invite unique perspectives on life through my wacky imagination. As many of you know, I’ve been putting a lot of time in lately on a play I’ve written for the youth which will be produced in late April. Part of what motivated me to do this was the realization that I have this gift and I better put it to use before its too late.

Money itself is an aspect of our particular post where we are called to keep watch. The money we have been given is given to us for more than mere self-indulgence; it is given to us to assist us in the unique service we are called to give. Jesus tells the story of the rich farmer who fills his big barn with all the grain he needs. He asks himself, “What shall I do now?” His conclusion is to build bigger barns, so that he can hold onto his grain. Jesus concludes the little parable by having God break in: “Fool, this night you will die, and what good will the grain stored up in your big barns do you then?”

Your money is given to you by God to care for your daily needs, and for the daily needs of your loved ones. But it is also given that you may bless the world, and witness to the light that has come into the world — that greater love — in Jesus Christ.