What is Worship?

This post is in response to Larry Belew's open forum at http://larrylines.blogspot.com/ and to help him with the book he is writing titled, "The Four Faces of Worship."

My heart feels like it is about to be ripped from my own chest because of the pain I feel over the subject of worship. It seems the Church today has defined worship so narrowly, we lost our imagination and creativity.

We often think worship is what we do when we show up to church. We sing some songs. We pray. We listen to a sermon. We get a nice benediction, shake hands, and go home.

But I have a dream... that worship is so much more than this. I have a vision for worship as much more than simply what we do but more about who we are and who we are becomming.

Because I do not want to just DO church. I want to BE the Church. I believe we are called to BE the Kingdom of God here and now to a suffering world.

Do I think music, prayer, sermons, shaking hands, and benedictions are a part of worship? Absolutely. Worship is about our Lord calling us to worship, bringing our needs before our Lord, and receiving and hearing the Word. Worship is a time where we are fed, where we are ministered to, where we bring our brokenness before a God who cares.

But I also think worship is about responding to and sharing the Word. Once we hear the Word of God and once we feel the love of God, we must share it. We must respond. God's very breath of love for us demands a response of love... or indifference.

I worship outside of the church building all the time. When I write out a card to a sick person, I am worshiping. When I touch someone who is deemed an "outcast," I am worshipping. When I sit over coffee and share in community, I am worshipping. When I am being who I am called to be, a follower of Jesus Christ- laying down my life in service and love for others, I am worshipping.

We cut ourselves short when we assume worship is merely about being fed by a sermon. We cut ourselves off when we assume worship is only about music. Because worship is also about extending our arms to feed others. Worship is about taking what we learned and sharing it. Worship is about recieving the Word and then giving the Word back out again.

Being fed is good but it is not the end. It is only the beginning.

We went to the zoo today and I watched my little 2 year old feeding the swans, ducks, fish, geese, and anything else around. I gave him little nuggets of food and he would chuck it into the water and watch with glee as the others ate it. The picture on the top of this blog post is of the little ducks my little boy fed today.

As I watched him, I could not help but think about the Church. I could see the people in the church through the actions of my little boy.

He was so excited to receive the nugget. It was a fun nugget. But if my little boy would have choosen to simply hold it in his hand, he would be robbed of a whole lot of joy. That little brown nugget is not much fun to hold onto by yourself. That little brown nugget would cause him to feel dry and lifeless after awhile if that is all he had. It is nice to receive the nugget but it is even better to throw it out to others and to watch them not go hungry anymore. It was way more exciting to watch these little ducks pictured here happy and full than it was to hold onto a brown chunk of food.

So what is worship? Worship is recieving nuggets and tossing them out to others.

And the reason my heart is breaking- is because I fear the Church will continue to go towards death if it refuses to let go of the nuggets. If we go to church to nurse, to eat, to feed only (and being satisfied with this understanding of worship), I am afraid we are going to suffer. And if we decide to respond to God's love (that we so graciously encounter during worship time, in a building) with indifference for the community, then I fear we cease to BE the Church of Jesus Christ.

For when we hang onto the nugget without giving it out, we feel dry. When we ask for sermons, music, and more "worship" time without preaching the Word in love to others, we continue to be hungry for more and more and more.


We do not even realize... it is the demands for more spiritual food in the church building's worship time causing us to be more hungry, causing us to need more.


I believe if responded to the time we do spend in worship (where the Lord calls us, we bring our needs before the Lord, and we receive and hear the Word of the Lord) BY GIVING OUT the nugget of love through personal interaction and love, we would get the spiritual lift we so desperately desire.


And so I am sad, because of the deep irnony. I am sad because what we want is also what we reject. We want to be fed but refuse to feed.


If we do not want to be so hungry, we must let go of the nugget.




Even scripture says something about this. Hebrews 5 says (NCV), "By now you should be teachers, but you need someone to teach you again the first lessons of God's message. You still need the teaching that is like milk. You are not ready for solid food. Anyone who lives on milk is still a baby and knows nothing about right teaching. But solid food is for those who are grown up."





The Church should be teachers, passing off the nuggets of milk to others. Instead we cry because we want more milk. We want to be fed. We want better sermons. We want more sermons. We want a better pastor.





As for this pastor, I want to be a teacher IN the building and OUTSIDE the building, affecting the world. I want to love my people in the building and spill out to the neighborhood. I want the community to look at the church building and say, "wow, look at how they love me."





But how will those in the commmunity outside our building ever, ever know we love them- if we stay inside our buildings hearing the first lessons of God's message again and again? If we cry for more milk instead of sharing the milk?





And so, because I believe defining worship as something we do IN a church building can be limiting, I am going to propose something radical for Larry Belew and his open forum. I think worship is all everyone says it is (that happens in a building) AND also getting out of the building to love people. Love the outcasts. Love the undesirables. Love the hungry. Love the poor. Love people.





Worship involves being loved and sharing love. Worship involves receiving the Word of God in sermons, prayer, music and whatever else and responding to the Word in acts of love that actually encounter people. Not just throwing money at people in an offering plate at church but to encounter the poor, sick, elderly, and the outcasts is an essential and necessary part of worship.

Grisham's "The Street Lawyer" Meets "The Irresistible Revolution"

I read two books at the same time, crazy enough. John Grisham's "The Street Lawyer" (published by Dell in 2003) and Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" (published by Zondervan in 2006).

One is a fiction story about a rich, white lawyer coming face-to-face with homeless people. The other is about how we are invited (dared even) to love so deeply we breathe life, hope, and imagination into the Church through the experience of "the outcasts and undesirables" (127).

The fiction story paints a picture of the pain and suffering of people who are homeless and the other composes a musical for living out passionate love. When read together, the painting and the symphony are composed into something beautiful, something exciting.

Grisham brings us alongside the life of Michael Brock, a wealthy lawyer who's marriage is falling apart about as quickly as his grasp on life. When a homeless man takes Michael and several of the lawyers in his firm hostage, it changes Michael's perspective on life.

From the homeless man's mouth we read these penetrating questions: "Have you ever been hungry?" and "Have you ever slept in the snow?" The homeless man adds: "You make a lot of money, yet you're too greedy to hand me some change on the sidewalk... you spend more on fancy coffee than I do on meals. Why can't you help the poor, the sick, the homeless? You have so much" (16).

And then Grisham paints a haunting picture for us. Through the mind of Michael, transformed by his experience of the homeless man, we see him walk into a shelter. Michael describes his experience like this: "I gawked in amazement at the sheer number of poor people stuffed into the basement. Some were lying on the floor, trying to sleep. Some were sitting in groups, talking in low tones. Some were eating at long tables and others in their folding chairs. Every square inch along the walls was covered with people sitting with their backs to the cinder blocks. Small children cried and played as their mothers tried to keep them close. Winos lay rigid, snoring through it all. Volunteers passed out blankets and walked among the throng, handing out apples" (75).

Grisham does a phenominal job of using words to place us into scenes where it hurts. It is even more effective when it enables us to see in our mind's eye the pain and suffering Claiborne dares us to touch.

When Michael is helping to feed a long line of hungry people he asks a lady who served for years, "Do you ever get used to seeing these people?" And she responds, "Never, honey... it still breaks my heart" (81).

Shane tells us love is hard. He quotes Mother Teresa saying, "Love until it hurts, and then love more" and adds with a quote from Dorothy Day that love is "the most difficult and the most beautiful thing in the world" (136).

With Michael, we get a glimpse into what it would look like if someone took the time and effort to learn the pain of loving people who suffer.

Before long Michael falls in love with a family, a mother with four children. He plays with the 4 year old and rocks a baby to sleep. He even goes and buys them diapers and other things, hoping to help them. Then something tragic happens to the family and Michael's world is turned upside down. Someone he loved was hurt.

Shane also talks about loving others and says, "we have family members who are starving and homeless, or dying of AIDS, or in the midst of war" (202). And this author pushes us to see beyond ourselves, see beyond our own genetic or national family to see our family is "without border" and is "both local and global" (200). Our family is "extended across the planet" (202).

With Michael, the rich lawyer... we see ourselves. We see someone just like us who learns to love the crying baby and the hyper four year old. We see Michael glimpse into the life of the homeless and then do something about it!

Michael's family and friends think he's gone crazy. He gave up a nice home, lexus, and a job that paid tremendously well, for a tiny little office without matching chairs. He gave up "stuff" for a job from which he could only hope to receive a paycheck.

One friend tells Micahel "it's obvious you've lost your mind" (154). And I hear Shane Claiborne's words ringing out, "what do we do when we are the ones who have gone sane in a crazy world" (21)? For who is really crazy? Michael, the one who loves enough to be amongst the homeless or those who think he's crazy for giving up so much money?

However, if I am honest, there is at least one stark contrast between the books. Grisham speaks of the lawyer as the voice for the voiceless. Someone tells Michael, "the homeless have no voice. No one listens, no one cares, and they expect no one to help them" (104). I am afraid that sentence would cause Shane to have a heart attack from the pain in his chest.

Shane says, "Everyone has a voice" and suggests we are "too quick to assume folks cannot speak for themselves" (128). Shane goes the extra mile on this one. He goes as far as to say, "It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project but become geniune friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle" (128).

Wow. No longer are the homeless and poor simply "weak" to us. They become family, someone we love like a brother or sister. Someone we would never claim to be voiceless.

What a challenge. What a dare to join the adventure; to join the irresistible revolution... as a friend, as family... to the homeless.

One thing I love to read are Shane's words about how no one is beyond redemption. He says, "We are made of the same dust. We cry the same tears" (266). No one is so evil that we should consider them beyond love, beyond grace, and beyond transformation. Shane says, "how easily we objectify and demonize others" (265) and dares us to imagine another way to view even the people we would deem most evil. He encourages us to "have new eyes" so we might "look into the eyes of those we don't even like and see the One we love. We can see God's image in everyone we encounter" (266).

In Grisham's book, in the last several pages, we see redemption play out in a seemingly impossible way. Love, peace, and hope transform even the wildest of beasts in the end. Grisham could have easily let his book end without a redemptive quality and let the sinners burn for all eternity... but does not.

However, I will not share how this happens! You'll have to read the book to see it for yourself.

"Who's My Family?" Galatians 4:4-7

This is the sermon for Trinity Church of the Nazarene on December 28, 2008 using the book by Shane Claiborne, "Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical," (published by Zondervan, 2006).

When I was growing up, there was a TV sitcom called “Family Matters.” Does anyone remember this show? It was part of “TGIF” on Friday nights and one of the only shows I was allowed to watch.

It was a show about the Winslow family and their annoying neighbor… Steve Urkel .

Steve had a high-pitched voice, snorted when he laughed, broke everything he touched, and always said the same line, “Did I do that?” Which of course, he did. He broke lamps, shattered windows, burned down buildings, and invented disasters.

Carl, the Winslow family’s father would scream out, “GO HOME STEVE” and Steve would respond, “I don’t have to take this, I’m going home.”

And although the Winslow family is completely annoyed with their crazy kid neighbor…Steve ends up becoming a member of the Winslow family.

They take Steve into that house they asked him to leave… when his parents go away (forever).

Steve was even quoted to have told Eddie and Laura, Carl Winslow’s kids, “I’d give anything to have a brother or sister… or parents who call.”

Steve is left orphaned.

And the Winslow family takes him in, in spite of how annoying, pathetic, aggravating, irritating, or infuriating he is.

And by the final seasons, when Steve is lost in outer space… he returns to the Winslow house to hear these words, “Welcome home Steve”

…“Go home,” to “Welcome Home.” That’s quite a shift.

Even annoying neighbors can become family.

Our passage of scripture today is about family, our family in Christ, from Galations 4:4-7.

That first phrase in verse four is best translated from the original Greek, “In the fullness of time” (NRSV). Because to translate it “in the fullness of time” captures the author’s intent to speak of an ongoing work of redemption; the ongoing work of God to redeem all of creation.

“In the fullness of time” captures God’s purpose to continue working on us, to continue creating us, to continue transforming us into who we were meant to be.

If we read this verse, “In the fullness of time God sent a Son,” we understand in the fullness of time, God sends a Son… after reaching out to the people of Israel again and again.

Israel is the annoying neighbor, Steve Urkel, who breaks up everything. The people of Israel are the infuriating group of people who mess up relationships and destroy who they were meant to be in the fullness of creation.

And in the fullness of time, God sends a son to this annoying, infuriating group of people.

We just celebrated the birth of this Son of God, Jesus Christ, this week. We lit our white pillar candle in the Advent Wreath. We put Jesus in the manger scene. Jesus Christ, God’s son is born!

We celebrated this “fullness of time” and continue to celebrate it today.

We celebrate that this Son, shakes everything up we think we understand.

We rejoice in the fact this Son, changes all of creation.

This Son, quakes our very being.

Because this Son, is divine. This Son is completely God. This Son, is heir to the Almighty, Most Holy One.

This son… is the child of God. This Son is connected in his very breath to God.

And we, the neighbors of Jesus, are like Steve Urkel.

We break stuff. We tear apart relationships. We destroy homes. We devastate others.

We are the annoying neighbor who damages everything.

And yet, through Jesus, our brother in humanity, we are adopted into this divine family.

Through Jesus, we are grafted into the family of God.

Through Jesus, we become members of Gods’ family.

Through Jesus, we are adopted as heirs.

One of the most beautiful Christmas songs we love to sing is “Oh Holy Night” and the last verse of this beautiful Christmas song says, “The slave is our brother.”

Wow. The slave is our brother. That’s a packed phrase.

Even though we are the annoying neighbor, the one who does not belong to the family… the slave is our brother.
The slave, the one who REALLY does not belong to the family… is OUR brother

… which means if we are brothers with Jesus… we are IN the family.

That Christmas song continues… “The slave is our brother and in his name, all oppression shall cease.”

Wow. More amazing language.

Because we are all family. Because we are all brothers and sister. Because we are ALL family; adopted into the family of God through our brother Jesus Christ… ALL oppression shall cease.

All pain and suffering shall cease, finish, come to an end—when we realize and act on the fact we are all family.

All oppression and coercion and domination ceases, finishes, comes to an end… when we realize we are all family. We are all brothers and sisters.


So the question becomes… who is my family?

Is the annoying relative who shows up during the holidays my family?

Is the disastrous mess of a person we try to forget is in my family… really family?

Are the people who live next door to me family?

Are the people in the Nazarene churches far out in Western Kansas my family?

Are the Nazarene Churches in California my family?

Are the people in the Methodist church my family?

Are the people in the Baptist church my family? The people in the Pentecostal church? The Episcopalian church?

Are the people who sell me food at the farmers market my family?

Are the people who bag my groceries family? What about the people who made the wheat that goes in the bread I eat?

Are the people who drive by in cars next to me family?

Are people at the airport my family? What about ships and boats?

Are the people in Europe my family? France? Egypt? Israel? Palestine?

Are the people in the Middle East my family?

Are the people covered in dirt to dig in diamond mines in Africa my family? Or working in factories my family?

The people asked Jesus this very same question… except it was phrased slightly different. They asked, “Who is my neighbor?” And what did Jesus say?

He told them a story… about a man who was left for dead on the Jericho road. Lots of people passed by him; even a priest. The one person who stopped to help this dying man was a Samaritan; the filthiest, least-liked person around those days. Samaritans were half-breeds of Jews; they were only half Jew and thus, worthless.

And by using such a radical story Jesus shouts out in response to “who is my neighbor?” EVERYONE is your neighbor.

And so… when we ask, “Who is my family?”

We shout out with Jesus, “EVERYONE is your family.”

Wow. Everyone, seriously? Cause I’m not a fan of that. There’s a lot of people who I do NOT want to count as family members.


There is a man named Shane Claiborne who never ceases to make me want to be a better person. When I watch him, I see who I was meant to be in creation’s purposes.

When I see his life, I see who I can be.

When Shane was in college, he says God transformed his life. He says that he “used to be cool” and then he met Jesus and “he wrecked” his life (41). He says Jesus took everything he thought was good and turned it around. Jesus took everything he thought had value and flipped it upside down.

He went from Homecoming King to sleeping on the streets… for Jesus.

Shane says that most of us become Christians and wonder if there’s more to life than simply laying your “life and sins at the foot of the cross” (38). We get that we’re forgiven but we want to know what we do, now that we are forgiven.

Shane currently lives in the poorest section of Philadelphia, by choice.

He spends his life, literally working to create another world… to actually BE the Kingdom of God here and now. To be who we were meant to be in creation’s purposes.

Shane and his friends have a house where many people live together. They hang out with kids and help them with their homework. People are allowed to drop in their living room at any time and find a place to get water, cry, or even get warm with a blanket. The run art camps and share food… but most significantly, they live amongst the outcasts and the undesirables.

Shane wrote several books, including one I read this week called “Irresistible Revolution” where he talks about the family of God.

In this book Shane says Jesus “had a new definition of family, rooted in the idea we are adopted as orphans into the family of God and that this rebirth creates a new kinship that runs deeper than biology or geography or nationality” for we are a family “without borders,” a family that is “local and global” (200). We are a family that transcends “biology, tribe, or nationality” (200).

We are a “kin-dom” (201).

Shane says we have “family members who are starving and homeless, or dying of AIDS, or in the midst of war” (202).

And Shane treats everyone on the streets, everyone he passes, all the outcasts and all the undesirables… as if they are family. They are not even undesirable to him. They are his family. And he treats them as such.

I don’t know about you but I can see where I fall short of such a beautiful vision for all of creation. I can see where my life does not treat people like they are family.

I can see who I was meant to be and where I choose myself over community.

I can see where I treat my dog better than I do the homeless.

I can see where I treat my actual biological sister better than I do victims.

I can see where I treat my son better than I do the dying and undesirable.

But in the fullness of time, God sent a son. God sent a Son to shake up our world. To wreck our lives.

To ask us to love the Steve Urkels in our life so much, they become our family.

To ask us to treat the Steve Urkels who break our coffee table, who blow up houses with horrid inventions, who destroy everything we hold dear… to take them in and love them as family.

God came in the fullness of time, born of a woman, in order to redeem us and adopt us in as family, as children of God.

And so tonight, in our evening service… we’re going to start doing something radical.

I preached during Advent about being the Kingdom of God and challenged you to love people in nursing homes and even to shop wisely with love for those who made the things we buy.

But now, now that Christmas is here… we are going to act.

I want to encourage you this afternoon to pray and search for phone numbers. I want us to find numbers of soup kitchens in town, find numbers of nursing homes in town, and find out what is already happening in this town to treat the outcasts and undesirables with love and compassion as if they were family.

See here’s the thing eating away at me.

We are quick to throw money. We are quick to compile Crisis Care Kits (WHICH IS A VERY GOOD THING). We are quick to give money in that red pot for the Salvation Army. We are quick to write our checks.

BUT… do we know any of those people personally?

We don’t know the people who will receive our Crisis Care Kits. We don’t know who is receiving our money from the Evangelism Fund. We don’t know who is eating because of our check. And they are our family!

*

Don't get me wrong. Giving money to support people who live and love amongst the poor is a VERY GOOD thing. But I want more. I'm thirsty to be who I was created to be-- loving all people in the family of God. I'm hungry to truly be in community with people who are different from me.

*

Many of us don’t know the hungry baby with a wet diaper. Many of us don’t know the homeless man. Many of us don’t know the crack addict. Many of us don’t know the lonely woman lying in the bed day after day.

Many of us don’t know them. We are so far removed.

We “applaud” Christ for ministering to the poor but we forget to “care about the same things” (113).

We “adore” Christ’s cross “without taking up ours” (113).

And I have a gut feeling… we will learn more about God in the tears of others than I could ever preach to you. Something tells me in my gut, God will speak louder to us through those who suffer and whom we know personally than my 8 years of education and text-book reading could ever teach.


I want to be able to say with Shane, “It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle” (128).

So tonight, come with ideas. Come with phone numbers. Pray about where we might discover ourselves laughing, crying, dreaming, and struggling with the outcasts and undesirables.

Because we are going to make calls tonight.

We are going to pick Sunday nights where we go meet people, where we get to know people, where we treat the undesirables as family.

Where they shift from a "they" and become an "us."

Let’s pray:

Dear Lord God,

We come before you with this radical message of love and ask you to transform us. Transform our idea of family. Transform our hearts that we might open them up with compassion for the undesirables. Transform our minds to find room to love those we currently deem unwanted and unworthy.

God, we want to be who you created us to be. But we are so weak. We are so feeble and so needy. We want huge things and do not know how to open our lives, hearts, and minds.

So use the message today and our plans for loving others to make us into who we were meant to be.

As we get to know people in our community who are currently deemed undesirable, poor, lonely, and annoying, change us.

Make us all your family.

Bless us in ways we cannot even imagine or dream up yet.

Make us one in you, one with each other, and one with people who are currently invisible and unwanted to us.

We love you, Lord. Amen.

Pastoral Prayers During Advent

I published a pastoral prayer (on Nov 30) and lamented about how hard it is to hit that "publish post" button for prayers. But since that post, I received more (personal) feedback on that prayer than almost any other post. It seems, my vulnerability to allow my written prayers to be read by others made a huge difference.

Some of you even prayed these words to God yourself. And if I can help you discover a voice and find words to speak to God, than who am I to hold back these prayers?

And so (again) because I care more about God's plan for redemption than I do my desire to keep my prayers to myself, here are the two other pastoral prayers I prayed during the Advent season. The picture you see above is from "scripturepics.org," a great resource for pastors and church ministry leaders.

Pastoral Prayer for December 21, 2008 (4th Sunday of Advent, LOVE):

Lord God, the one who graciously extends mercy and love when you call, create, and redeem us.

Thank you for being a God who continuously reaches out for us, no matter what we do- or who we are.

Thank you for continuing to call us no matter how insignificant we feel.

We come before you in love and adoration for who you are and thus, who you are making us... people who respond to your gracious action with passion, creativity, and imagination to BE your Kingdom- to BE your body to the world, who so desperately needs you.

We lift up the needs of this body to you. * Prayers for my People*

Lord God, take all of who we are- all of who we really are (the lowly and insignificant) and make us into more than we could ever imagine or dream for ourselves.

Take our hearts on this 4th Sunday of Advent and set them on fire with hope, peace, love, and joy. May all we say and do in worship help form us into people who become a part of what you are doing to redeem all of creation.

We want to be a part of what you are doing- it's exciting. It's thrilling.

Thank you for calling us insignificant people to take part in your significant plans for all of creation.

We love you Lord, Amen.

Pastoral Prayer, December 7, 2008 (2nd Sunday of Advent, PEACE):

Lord God of all comfort and peace, draw us near to you even now.

On this day, this second Sunday of Advent- where we focus on the power of your peace, transform the ways we think about peace.

Show us the places and spaces where we looked for ways to replace your peace- the ways we tried to make ourselves safe without any regard to your peace.

And please, dear Lord, forgive us. Your peace changes everything-- even our need to feel secure.

Your plan for creation, your plan for peace, is so much greater than our plans.

Forgive us for loving our plans so much more than your beautiful plans. Forgive us for loving what we want more than what you ask of us.

We submit to you and your plan to redeem all of creation-- in your idea of peace; not our own.

We trade what we want for what you want.

And Lord, bring your peace deep into the suffering of this congregation. *Prayers for my People*

Lord God, be near to those in the places around the world where peace seems impossible. Be with those suffering so imensly around the globe, their very life may end even today... because of a lack of your peace.

Hold them close. It's not fair they suffer so much. It's not fair they die.

With your eyes, we see them.

With your heart, we love them.

With your compassion, we suffer knowing they suffer.

Please dear God, hold the dying, oppressed, and suffering so close to you- they feel your heartbeat and breath. And show us, your Church, how to breathe your peace all around the world... where peace seems beyond our reach.

Remind us nothing is impossible with you.

We love you Lord, set our hearts on fire- even now. To become the kinds of people who love your peace- and have a vision for how your peace can change even the most chaotic places around the globe.

Calm the chaotic waters in our hearts that we might help calm the chaotic waters of those whom you love; even if they are, at this moment, completely invisible to us.

We love you Lord, Amen.

Blessed Among Women, Luke 1:26-38

This is the sermon for Sunday, December 21, 2008 at Trinity Church of the Nazarene. The picture is from "Art in the Christian Tradition" from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. I choose this picture because it reveals the redemptive work God is doing (with the hint towards Adam and Eve in the corner). There are many, many more beautiful depictions of the annunciation. You should really check them out at http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-search.pl (and type in annunciation).

Have you heard any jokes with the intent of making fun of blonds or brunettes lately?

I saw one recently that caused me to laugh out loud.

Apparently during Thanksgiving a Mom wanted to play a joke on her blonde daughter and decided to send her to the store for some last minute Thanksgiving items. Before she returned, she pulled her blonde daughter’s turkey out of the oven, pulled out the stuffing, and replaced it with a Cornish hen. When the daughter returned she took the turkey out of the oven, placed it on the table for serving, and was mortified. She thought she cooked a pregnant turkey.

…. Even though turkeys lay eggs.

Or what about the joke that tells about two brunettes going sky diving? The instructor told these two find brunettes to pull their parachute when they reach the point they can recognize people on the ground. After thinking about it for a moment, one of them quietly asks, “But what if there’s no one I know down there?”

Oh, that one’s bad. But the point is we have fun making fun of people, do we not? Some of us are anti-blonde and some of us are anti-brunette. It is a horrible tragedy in the world. There’s poverty, world hunger... and then there's blonde jokes.

But even a far greater tragedy than this anti-blonde or brunette behavior is the anti-Mary behavior some of us have in the Protestant Church. We almost ignore this person who was the mother of our Lord.

We (good protestants) try very hard to make sure we do not accidently start worshipping her.

It's fairly ridiculous, really. The Bible says Mary is to be blessed among all women. “Blessed among all women,” we fail at this one.

Mary’s song, in Luke chapter 2, says, “Surely from now on all generations will call” Mary “blessed” (NRSV).

But (as Kaza Fraley says) we “treat” Mary “almost like a footnote in the Christmas story; push her to the side. She is an unwanted ugly stepsister, who sits in the corner waiting to be noticed.”

And so today, with this sermon, we are going to honor Mary, the mother of our Lord.
We are going to bless her today, among all women. We are going to honor scripture by honoring Mary.

Today we are focusing on the scripture passage where Mary is called to bear the Christ child from Luke 1:26-38.

Mary is a beautiful part of our Nativity Christmas story. She should be “blessed among all women,” as scripture says.

Mary’s response to the call of God on her life absolutely fascinates me. And it should fascinate all of us.

God calls her to bear the Christ child, calls her to do something completely radical, and border line crazy… and she responds just as she should.

She says, “How can this be?”

In other words, “Why in the WORLD would you pick me?” “Of all people, why me?”

She gives a list of reasons why it does not make sense.

She asks questions.

And what she means is… “I’m nothing God, why me? Why in the world would you call little old me, to do something so fantastic and great for your redemptive purposes? WHY me? Why pick ME to bear the Messiah?”

I don't know about you, but this has happened to me before.

Here recently, I began to really understand how poor Mary must have felt.

God asked me to do something really, really radical in November.

I was in the bathroom at Barnes and Noble after writing Advent devotions with Pastor Kaza(from Mulvane) for our congregations.

I was in the bathroom and my life changed forever.

And yes, I feel the need to pause here. Because it just sounds way too cool to move on with the sermon. … I went to the bathroom and my life changed forever.

Anyway, I looked in the mirror and God asked me to do something crazy. And what do you think my response was?

… “How can this be?” “Why in the world would you pick me?” “Of all people why me?”

When God called me to do something radical, I responded just like Mary.

The craziest thing about being called by God is we realize how insignificant we are.

It happened to Mary. “Why me, God, I’m so insignificant.”

It happened to me in the bathroom of Barnes and Noble, “God, why me? I’m so pathetic?”

And… Like Mary, when God calls us we realize we are completely unable to create ourselves. We realize we are completely unable to call ourselves. We are completely unable to redeem ourselves.

God must do the action for us.

We are simply passive recipients of this gracious act of God to call our name to do something radical.

God graciously acts to create, call, and redeem us. And we say, “How in the world can this be?!”

See the truth is: salvation—being saved—is nothing more than little people getting caught up in God’s big plans.

Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon say (in “Lord Teach Us”), “Salvation is the delightful surprise of having your little life caught up in the purposes of God for the whole world” (21).

We are nothing. It is true. We are fairly insignificant. We are just human. We are nothing more than “little lives.”

And so Mary’s response is right on target for normal human response to God's call: "How can this be?"

My response was right, “Why in the world would you pick ME to do that radical thing, God?”

BUT-

When Mary is called… she finds her little servant self caught up in God’s plan to redeem all of creation through bearing the Christ child.

This is salvation.

This is being saved.

This is Mary becoming a co-creator alongside of the Divine Creator. Allowing her body to become the body that bears the Christ child.

And what does Mary say AFTER her questions concerning her insignificance?

Mary says, “I am a servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!” (NCV).

And, just like Mary, when God called me to do something really radical in November, I said something super intelligent like, “Uh huh. Okay God.”

Just like our precious mother of our Lord, I said, “Okay, God. Okay.”

After lots of questions and pointing out our insignificance to the divine, in our best moments… we say, “Okay God.”

We respond to the Great and Holy One, in spite of our insignificance, in spite of our “little selves” and we say, “Okay God.”

And as Mary realizes in spite of her lowliness, in spite of her slave status, in spite of any difficulties there may be because of who she is… she breaks out in song.

She finds great joy and her heart is thrilled, excited to take part in what God is doing.

And just like Mary… when God called me to do something radical in November (after my long list of why I was not good enough to be called to do something so big), I wanted to break out into song too.

I wanted to sing too.

In spite of who I really am (at my worst), God picked me to take part of the redemption of all of creation- in a big way.

And suddenly I understood “The Magnificent,” Mary’s song, in a new way. My soul wanted to magnify the Lord, my spirit wanted to rejoice in God my Savior. Because God looked at someone as lowly as me and chose me to do something big, something amazing—to take part in the ongoing work to redeem and draw all of creation towards God.

Because when God called Mary and when God called me, our hearts break out in song. We are filled with joy- that God would pick someone as lowly as us to take part in what God is doing for all of creation.

No longer are we passive recipients of this grace of God. No longer do we sit and just receive the gracious action of God on our behalf.

We get to jump up with creativity and imagination to be dynamic. To be active. To create alongside of the Holy One.

We are called, just like Mary- to have Christ born in us.

We are called, just like Mary- to deliver Christ to the world.

God chose each of us, each of us lowly little people- unworthy to be called. God picked us in spite of any questions we have, in spite of any objections on how we are not good enough—God picked us.

God selected us and called us to take part in what God is doing to redeem all of creation.

We are all called, alongside of Mary to bear the Christ child.

We will not be carrying around Christ in our womb. Only one woman was blessed among all women to do this.

But she was an example for us. She was a model.

Mary was a beautiful example for how we should accept the call of God in our life to become active participants in what God is doing to redeem all of creation.


The question now is: How are you called to deliver the Christ child to the world?

How is Christ being born in YOU this advent season?

How do you bear the Christ child in your body?

I am sure all of you are wondering what God called me to in November, at Barnes and Noble. I am sure all of you are wondering what radical thing God asked me to do… what crazy thing caused me to hold my breathe and say, “Me, really, God? Seriously?”

Well my call continues like this…

While I was in the bathroom at Barnes and Noble, I looked in the mirror. And I heard God say, “Do you remember what you wanted to be in the 5th grade?”

Of course I remembered. I wanted to be a writer.

God said, “Go. Write. Be who I created you to be.”

And my jaw dropped.

That night I sat down at my computer with 1000 questions for God from “What in the world do you want me to write?” to “What if no one wants to read this?!”

And God said again. “Let me take care of all the details. Just write. Be who I made you to be.”

And I said, “Okay, God.”

And so I started to write. I wrote every single night… after working all day as pastor, making dinner, taking care of my 2 1/2 year old, and trying really hard to potty train… I would stay up until almost 1:00am writing, writing, and writing some more.

Before long God spoke to me again. It was around chapter 5.

God said, “I am calling you to create a fiction novel that brings theology to life with characters my people can fall in love with and from whom they can learn.”

And yet again, my jaw hung open.

And I said, “Okay, Lord. Let’s do this.”

I began November 12 and I finished December 12.

That is FOUR WEEKS.

After that radical call of God… and after my humble acceptance of that crazy call… I wrote 29 chapters of a theological fiction novel. At night, when everyone else was asleep.

It is 29 chapters of discovering who we are in God’s plan to redeem all of creation. It is 29 chapters of characters becoming who they were meant to be even when they encounter death and suffering. It is 29 chapters far better than anything little Pastor Christy could have come up with on her own.

It was God’s call on my life. It was God’s choosing me, in spite of who I know I really am, and equipping me for a huge task.

God asked me to deliver the Christ child through a theological ficiton book.

And so I turn the questioning on you again.

How are you called to deliver the Christ child to the world?

How is Christ being born in YOU this advent season?

How do you bear the Christ child in your body?

Mine was in a novel. A novel, that believe it or not has already been reviewed by an editor and the manuscript is set to be bound this week for further editing to prepare for publisher proposals. 5 1/2 weeks now, after God called.

And an artist already created drafts for a book cover, 5 1/2 weeks now, after God asked me to do something radical, something I didn't think I was equipped to do. Something crazy, like Mary, to bear the Christ child through my life.

What are you called to do, to deliver Christ to a world in need of redemption and love?

What is God calling you to do?

And do you have the guts to respond like Mary?

..."I am a servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say."

Coming of our Lord Advent Devotions, WEEK FIVE

Week Five: Ready for the Lord to Come; December 21 through Dec 27. Written by: Rev. Kazimiera I.H. Fraley and Rev. Christy Gunter-Leppert. Since these devotions are for the week of Christmas, we planned only two devotions.

Meditation One: Isaiah 9:2-7

Read Isaiah 9:2-7

As we read through these verses the strong chords of Handel’s masterpiece ring through our heads proclaiming the eternal reign of the Messiah. Isaiah gives a litany of adjectives explaining what kind of ruler the Christ is expected to be. As we look at this list we must always remember we are called to be reflections of Christ to this world.

In this passage we have a description of who Christ is in all his glory. When we encounter the holiness of the Christ who has come, we find ourselves unable to do anything but join Handel’s angelic throngs, fall on our faces and sing, “And He shall reign forever and ever. . .”

Reflection for the Day:
Take time today to meditate on the glory and holiness of God.

Daily Prayer:
Lord God, you are the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
And we come before you this Christmas week proclaiming your authority.
You are the child born us.
Change us as we encounter you in all your glory.

Weekly Action:
Find a copy of Handel’s Messiah and listen to it sometime this week.


* * * * * *


Meditation Two: Titus 2:11-14

Read Titus 2:11-14

Our Hearts are full of anticipation as we know Christmas is all but here. We know the presents will soon be in our laps and our children will be listening for reindeer hoofs on the roof top. We hold our breath in excitement. We sang all the carols and wrapped all the gifts. The tree is glittering in all its glory; all things are ready. The time has come for us to celebrate the coming Messiah.

As we are preparing hearts and our homes for this occasion, we also must be ready for God to make all things complete in us. Our anticipation for the coming Christ should transform us and shape us to be the people we are created to be; reflections of God’s love revealed in Christ.

Reflection for the Day:
How does Christmas renew in us an idea of who God has called us to be?

Daily Prayer:
We anticipate your coming with great excitement.
As we look forward to you, change our lives now, here, in the present.
Make us who you want us to be.

Weekly Action:
Find a copy of Handel’s Messiah and listen to it sometime this week.

Coming of Our Lord Advent Devotions, WEEK FOUR

Week Four: Being Ready for the Lord to Come, December 14th - December 20th.

Written by: Rev. Kazimiera I.H. Fraley and Rev. Christy Gunter-Leppert.

Meditation One: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Read 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Did you ever know someone who had to do everything? For whatever reason, they seem to think if anything is going to get done with any amount of accuracy, they have to do it all; and they have to do it all by themselves. They want to be in control so badly, they convinced themselves no one else can do what needs to be done acceptably. And although everything gets done and everything turns out perfectly, the other people in their lives miss our on the blessings one gets when a person gives of themselves to make something happen. Sometimes we, like David, are called to step back and allow others to work alongside of us as we all work together to accomplish the task at hand.

Reflection for the Day:
Is there anything you feel you absolutely must have control of, in order for it to turn out right? In what ways would it be a blessing to someone else to allow them to work with you to get that one thing done?

Daily Prayer:
Lord God, teach us how to give up control this Christmas so we might allow others to be blessed by working towards the task at hand. Show us how to give up our desire to be the doer and instead let someone else take over that role.

Weekly Action:
Create one new tradition for your family that will help you get ready for the coming of Christ.

* * * * *

Meditation Two: Psalm 89:1-4, 18-26

Read Psalm 89:1-4, 18-26

The people of Israel, even in their unfaithfulness, looked to God expecting faithfulness in the promise of a Davidic King. We know this promise was fulfilled in the coming of the Christ child. Think how those who waited and looked forward to the promised Messiah must have felt as they seemed God’s promise was taking too long. They knew God was faithful and yet so much time passed. It must have been hard for them to truly believe and hope in such a promise.

We too wait for the Messiah to come, and as we look at the world in chaos all around us, it is hard to believe God’s promised Messiah will ever come again. In this Advent season, we must allow our faith and hope to be renewed so we can trust, as the people of Israel did, that God is faithful in all things and God will do what was promised.

Reflection for the Day:
What things in this world cause us to doubt God’s promises? How can you allow God to renew your faith this season?

Daily Prayer:
Lord God, our promised Messiah. Help us to believe in your faithfulness even when horrible things happen around us. We want to trust in your faithfulness, but we often lose heart.
As we get ready for you to come, renew our faith. Give us hope.
Transform our hearts.

Weekly Action:
Create one new tradition for your family that will help you get ready for the coming of Christ.

* * * * *

Meditation Three: Romans 16:25-27

Read Romans 16:25-27

During the weeks leading up to Christmas, we proclaim the good news of the coming Christ and the impact this event brings. At first this event seems small and insignificant, a baby in a humble barn, but in reality this story changes everything.

The truth of a God found in a manger is at the heart of the gospel message Paul speaks about in this passage. We see glimpses of Christ in the Old Testament passages we studied the past few weeks. And because we know Christ has come, we see how Christ was revealed in these Old Testament prophesies and we see how God fulfills these promises to inspire our faith; as we are making ourselves ready for the coming of our Lord.

Reflection for the Day:
In what ways does the Old Testament point forward towards the Messiah who will soon come? How does the fulfilling of these promises strengthen your faith that Christ will come again?

Daily Prayer:
Lord, impact our lives with the shocking encounter of who you are. We see you about to be born into the filth of this earth. We see you coming in the most common way. But you are anything but common- you are the one prophesied in ages past, the one who fulfills the promise, and the one for whom we still hope.

Weekly Action:
Create one new tradition for your family that will help you get ready for the coming of Christ.

* * * * *

Meditation Four: Luke 1:25-38

Read Luke 1:25-38

Just as Mary was pregnant with the coming of our Lord, we too are pregnant with the callings which God has placed on our lives. As we ponder the words God spoke to us throughout this Advent season, let us not be afraid. Although, it may seem what God is calling us to do is too great of a task to carry, let us respond to God in faith, as Mary did, “I am the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.”

Reflection for the Day:
What seeming great thing is God asking you to do?

Daily Prayer:
Lord God, here I am. Let whatever you want for me,
be according to your word
I am your servant, ready to answer your great call.

Weekly Action:
Create one new tradition for your family that will help you get ready for the coming of Christ.

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