The three atheists
Commentary
Object:
It seems that no classical music producer can go wrong nowadays by promoting anything
that is titled something like the "Three Tenors" or the "Four Sopranos" or the "Five
Oboists" or whatever -- you get the idea. While a few churches will find themselves once
again embroiled in the musical struggle over how soon they should sail into the singing
of Christmas carols in worship during Advent, for most the time of waiting is over. Most
of us will find that at least as December hits we will not be able to hold back on dreaming
about a "White Christmas" if not "O Little Town Of Bethlehem."
This year there seems to be another chorus that has chimed in: "The Three Atheists." While I doubt that many of their works will be found wrapped in bows and colored paper under the Christmas tree, their works have made their way onto the mainstream best- seller lists during the course of the past year: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens, and Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism by David Mills. In the circles that I have traveled, this is not the kind of thing you put on your coffee table, and if you felt the need to buy one, you felt embarrassed asking the bookstore clerk to get it from underneath the counter.
I suspect that advancement of such works up the best-seller list does not reflect any surprise breakthrough in the field of atheist studies, but rather old arguments have found themselves with a new hearing. The notes that have been sounded have been shaped by the tenor of our times. When living in the midst of moral atrocities, we do ponder what kind of God we can take seriously. When the trust level and emotional comfort zone has been dropped by so many institutions and individuals that have failed to respect our capacity for reason, we are suspicious of a God that seems to show no interest in being tamed by reason. When we are so plugged into Blackberries and iPhones to maintain our schedule and keep us on time and hopefully under budget, we have a hard time following a God who seems to make a fetish of being unpredictable and keeping us in the waiting room in the way that would put to shame any medical doctor who routinely triple books appointments.
To many of us, it seems quite off-key to have found this chorus reaching such a wide audience especially, judging by the number of religious works that still make the way onto the best-seller lists. However, judging by the issues that are taken up by the texts for the first Sunday of Advent these issues are not unique to our times. It does not seem realistic or reasonable to expect in the moment for the prophecy of Isaiah to come true. "In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it" (Isaiah 2:2). The claim, "Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers" (Romans 13:11), must seem strange to anyone who has just had their tour of duty in Iraq extended for six months, or for a Christian Palestinian family packing their bags to leave because they can't take it anymore, or an Inuit above the arctic circle pondering how their way of life is being torn apart by global warming. It is clear that we have come to the point where most of us are fairly well convinced that we do not know where things are headed. We are not certain that we "... must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (Matthew 24:44).
Now put this all together with the claim that this is resolved by the birth of a baby into a world that is already overloaded with too many babies and you can understand that many will find our Christmas carols striking a discordant note with the kind of lives that they must lead. Each of these texts for this Sunday in their own way invites us to join the chorus of those who have discovered the deeper harmonies of the universe.
Isaiah 2:1-5
Placing the Isaiah text as an introduction to Advent and expectant waiting seems very counterintuitive as the answer to the deepest human needs within us and before us. "He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). According to the season of the year the culmination of God's revelation begins with the gift of a child to new parents, who will soon find they are fleeing into exile as their only way of protecting themselves from a king who has made himself the sworn enemy of their child.
This hardly seems the work of a reasonable God. If anything the introduction of a child into a family has more to do with beating your brains out trying to figure out how to get some sleep or finding how to protect yourself and things from curious prying eyes and fingers, or finding a way to deal with every known childhood disease. This hardly seems to be the answer to the deepest human conundrums and, despite the prophet's prediction, it seems hardly an inducement to beat a path up the mountain of Zion that heretofore was a molehill that has grown to gigantic proportions to accommodate all the people of the world. This will be a steeper climb up the hill than just going to morning temple.
Advent ought to be the season of our preparation to say to one another, and to ourselves, that we will only learn the meaning of these texts when we have shared in this arduous journey. It can be quite a difficult journey to raise a child and one can be completely disarmed by the unreasonable nature of the journey. Children will learn to speak less through the superior intelligence of their parents than through loving parental hearts: a loving that is willing to make faces, play peek-a-boo, and talk baby talk so that they may do adult talk, play on the floor so that they may rise in wisdom and stature, and enter their world in order that they may go out into the world. The unreasonable God may be on to something here! The journey that begins in love ends in the right place. Come let us begin the journey that sees all children as our children. Let us begin the journey that sees the child that needs to play in all of us. Let us begin the journey that enters into each other's worlds that we may go out into the world in rejoicing.
Of course, this journey will be arduous and a long climb. It will take beating our swords into plowshares that can prepare the earth for growth and harvesting. Easier said than done -- this is going to require some endurance and persistence to make the journey up the mountain to raise up children. There will be quite a view from the top for you will see yourself in a new way. You will see that it does take a village, and a great deal of beating back some natural feeling of frustration and a great deal of differed gratification. The journey does not always involve all of us in parenthood but it, like the journey with children, invites us to identity our capacity to grow in love.
My hunch is that journey has not begun when pregnant Palestinian women are delayed at Israeli checkpoints. The journey has not begun when children the age of fourteen are taught war and enlisted in the armies of the world. The journey has not begun when children watch such television programs as 24 that give an imprimatur to torture.
Many chime in with the chorus of how unreasonable our God is. Others prepare for a pilgrimage that can include all people. Considering what shape the world is in, who does not need to hear the invitation, "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord"? (Isaiah 2:5).
Romans 13:11-14
No doubt, for many, the biggest obstacle to belief in the God that Jesus worshiped and embodied is a universe that is seemingly out of moral control. As Winston Churchill put it "Humankind has improved every way but morally." We live in a universe where the have-nots have less and the haves have more opportunity to get more. Still, for the most part, where you finish in life is preeminently the result of where you began in life. War still makes a mockery of most religious traditions that, all claims to the contrary, make room for the killing of their fellow human beings on a fairly regular basis. Often, in the life of the church, the youngest and most vulnerable among us have been the victims of abuse and then been revictimized by the cover-up of that abuse. No wonder some have come to the conclusion that if God is good then he cannot be the creator of such a universe, or if this is the way that God has created things then God cannot be good.
One can understand why some will only believe on the day that this all gets straightened out. That will be the day when they put aside "the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." That will be when they live honorably "as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy." When God is ready to live honorably and come across with a good explanation for cancer, the holocaust, and the inquisition then they will be able, like Thomas, to say, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). Until then they can make out a pretty good case for living in debauchery and licentiousness with the kind of quarreling and one-upmanship that it takes to get ahead in the morally goofy world that God has left us.
Paul writes to the Romans to say it isn't so. Perhaps that we don't want it to be so is a sign that there is more to the story. We find that we are none too comfortable with this notion, and we do not rest easy with its consequences the universe is morally capricious and the one thing that we were sent here to do was to make that observation.
Behind Paul's notion of living honorably is the idea of living according to the scheme of things, which is certainly not the attitude that comes from certitude balancing the moral equation of the universe but from knowing that the balance is tipped in favor of some surprising events opening some surprising things in us. If the moral failings of the universe are beyond explaining, equally the gifts that arise in the universe are beyond explanation. Living according to the scheme of things means that evil does not have the last word, that the Herods of the world do not win in the end, that wise men do get home by going a different route, and that the shepherds minding their business are suddenly confronted by the mind of God. It means that a young girl who says, "Let it be to me according to God," finds that she gives birth to more than she ever dreamed and that a young man about to become a father gives up his rightful claims for the sake of the claims of an angel and finds out what being a father is all about.
The one thing that we can just about count on is that those who walk according to this scheme of things find themselves coming out at a place where they do not have to numb themselves out. They can open themselves up. They come out at a place where they define themselves less by what they can hold on to than what they can hand out. They find the stones too heavy for them to move are rolled away in the morning and that God has more in store.
God comes as a child in order that we may grow up. In the scheme of things, God is love, which is the only answer for the moral chaos of the universe. Maybe this is not the day everything gets straightened out, but it is the day we can "prepare the ways of the Lord and make his paths straight" (Isaiah 40:3 cf). If we have been paying attention, it is truer for us than when we first began.
Matthew 24:36-44
When was the last time you saw a burning bush, waters part, or plagues happen on cue? Many can chime in with the usual Christmas carols without much difficulty, but who can deny themselves, whether they believe or not, a good Handel's Messiah sing- along, or the pleasure of a good round of wassailing? You don't have to be a card- carrying believer to join in the joy of the holiday season.
However, the holidays do raise a sour note for many when we crossover from holiday to holy day. It is not just that the story is told in the wrapping of mythology and metaphor. They can understand how such extraordinary claims must go beyond the confines of routine language usage. What leaves them cold is not the wrapping but what is actually in the box, however it is wrapped. Many cannot bring themselves to believe that God acted by coming into the world as a baby. A God that goes beyond being the "ground of being" is a bit much. For many, Christmas turns them off. A tale of the divine taking on human form and coming into the course of history is beyond the pale. Getting in tune with this God who comes as a burning bush, a pillar of fire, or speaks to selected individuals, is hard to swallow if it has not been part of your experience. Attempts to cover the gap through either philosophy or linguistic analysis often comes across as one more burden to bear -- if you only understood enough, you would get it. It also seems somewhat unfair to be one of those who are left behind because you fell asleep in class that day, did not keep up with the latest theological twist and turns, or missed the movie and the book series on which it was based. Enough is enough, just get me to the wassail bowl and get me safely home from the office party.
For the vast majority of Christmas Christians, and probably a preponderance of regulars, nothing seems to depend on the impending. This can certainly slow the preacher down to the more predictable measure of the familiar harmonies of wishing a joyous holiday and hoping for the best. Preachers, acting out of their frustrations, might attribute this reality to all sorts of causes including the failures of modern life. However, the Matthew text recalls that this living with nothing, depending on the impending, is traceable to the days of Noah. "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37- 39). Nothing is attributable to moral perfidy here, just that folks did not live depending on scanning the skies for the impending.
Where can we point to a place where human experience connects to the idea of the apocalyptic? Must we water it down, which for many really means flushing it down the disposal? The text does present us with something that does come into our lives and that we need to be watching for. Jesus comes as either Lord or as thief. Sometimes we are ready to proclaim him as Lord; at others we experience him as one who invades our well- constructed houses. I know of a clergy person who complained of the interruptions in his ministry schedule until he realized that the interruptions were his ministry. His was not the only plan at work in his life. In an episode from NBC's The Office, the much-maligned and needy boss is robbed of his moment at his birthday party when it is found that one of coworkers is waiting to find out if he will be diagnosed with skin cancer. Of course, the boss has barely enough emotional reserve to switch gears and allow the attention to refocus so that he might have better focus to his life.
Watch and wait, he will come as either thief or Lord. He will come as the one who is Lord who will rob you of your certainties when a congregation that was heretofore deadly dull suddenly gets fired up by the Holy Sprit. He will come as thief and Lord: one who robs you of serenity that comes from life as usual and as Lord who gives us peace in the eye of the storm. Much will depend on how well prepared we are for the impending.
Application
Attention clergy: Danger ahead. Please test your brakes and make sure that you have adequate supplies for your trip into this wilderness. This is an inhabited area filled with expectations for the next four Sundays. Where are you as you enter into these weeks? Some of us will find ourselves shoved aside by pageants and cantatas that are better deemed to evoke the heartwarming feelings that are expected to be a part of this time of year. Others will find that the pressure is on as we are expected to bear the weight of those who are tired of waiting in their longing to hear some good words that can transform their lives. Some bring a refreshing unfamiliarity with the story; others know exactly the groove down which to go in the expectation that all the characters should arrive in the manger scene on time, undamaged by the latest theological insights. Others of us will be walking with those who are facing their first Christmas without a loved one, job, or bright prospects.
Yes, it is time to keep awake, "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (Matthew 24:37-42). Between now and the grand finale of this story, some will be taken to places of insight and growth. Others will have to wait a bit longer for their spiritual high. Others, particularly clergy, will find that there are too few takers willing to take up this story in their lives. Many will be taking a walk down the highway in the desert where they feel very low and deserted.
All we can say is that the one we have waited for will wait for us to respond. The one who is born longs for us to give birth to new life. The one who is sent into exile will send the wise home by a different way.
Attention clergy: Beginning with where you are will help lead the congregation to where they need to be.
Alternative Application
Romans 13:11-14. The most fun I had on Christmas day was going through my Christmas stocking, for it was always filled with odd bits and pieces of goodness that came in a variety of shapes and forms. In some ways these three texts are like that stocking. They are filled with bits and pieces that require some pondering.
"Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." What does it mean to be ready for the one whose coming we are certain of but whose timing remains unclear? As one looks at the texts, they suggest a variety of ways our readiness is increased. The journey up Mount Zion is done together as a group event. Those who are rewarded with instruction from the Lord make the journey with people of other nations. If we are not ready to cross boundaries, we are not well prepared for the journey. Romans suggests that we should keep awake. The temptation is to allow ourselves to fall into patterns where we are asleep at the switch. Those who come to this season spiritually worn and weary may not have the reserves they need to make the journey that requires vigilance. They may find that they are expecting too much from the season. Many of us come expecting a safe and familiar reengagement of holiday traditions. Holy days and salvation come in the unexpected. The texts force us to ask what we are counting on to be in our Christmas stocking.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 122
In this day of turmoil and violence in the Middle East, a call to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem," is a poignant one indeed. Originally said by pilgrims coming from across Israel to Jerusalem, this psalm today holds a broader and deeper significance.
As body counts rise and anger increases, it is a prayer worth repeating. May "peace be within your walls, and security within your towers." Certainly the Middle East is convulsing with violence, even as these words are written. But the peace of Jerusalem is also the peace of the world. This psalm resonates with voices that pray for peace throughout our world. Across the globe today there are wars virtually everywhere. Indeed, in the United States, the expenditure on arms is in the trillions of dollars. It is hard to have "security within our towers" when all the resources of the nation are squandered on military adventures. It is difficult to have peace within our own walls when we ourselves are not agents of peace.
By all means, let the people pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But the children's hymn of old comes back in haunting echoes. "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." Let there be peace on earth and let us call our own nation to account in its military spending and pre-emptive wars. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with a nation who offers food, healing, and medicine rather than trade in arms and munitions. Let there be peace on earth, and let the voices of our citizens call for diplomacy and cooperation rather than threats and confrontation.
"For the sake of our friends and relatives," and for the sake of our sisters and brothers around the world, let this be the moment that people of faith commit to working for justice and for peace. Let this be the moment that prayers for peace become holy actions for peace. And, as the final words of this psalm indicate, let us seek the good of all, for the sake of the house of our God. For the sake of the planet created by God, for the sake of the many wonderful lands and cultures, let us look beyond ourselves and dedicate our lives to seeking the good of all.
As we prepare to welcome the Prince of Peace, can there be any other prayer? Any other focus for our lives?
This year there seems to be another chorus that has chimed in: "The Three Atheists." While I doubt that many of their works will be found wrapped in bows and colored paper under the Christmas tree, their works have made their way onto the mainstream best- seller lists during the course of the past year: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens, and Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism by David Mills. In the circles that I have traveled, this is not the kind of thing you put on your coffee table, and if you felt the need to buy one, you felt embarrassed asking the bookstore clerk to get it from underneath the counter.
I suspect that advancement of such works up the best-seller list does not reflect any surprise breakthrough in the field of atheist studies, but rather old arguments have found themselves with a new hearing. The notes that have been sounded have been shaped by the tenor of our times. When living in the midst of moral atrocities, we do ponder what kind of God we can take seriously. When the trust level and emotional comfort zone has been dropped by so many institutions and individuals that have failed to respect our capacity for reason, we are suspicious of a God that seems to show no interest in being tamed by reason. When we are so plugged into Blackberries and iPhones to maintain our schedule and keep us on time and hopefully under budget, we have a hard time following a God who seems to make a fetish of being unpredictable and keeping us in the waiting room in the way that would put to shame any medical doctor who routinely triple books appointments.
To many of us, it seems quite off-key to have found this chorus reaching such a wide audience especially, judging by the number of religious works that still make the way onto the best-seller lists. However, judging by the issues that are taken up by the texts for the first Sunday of Advent these issues are not unique to our times. It does not seem realistic or reasonable to expect in the moment for the prophecy of Isaiah to come true. "In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it" (Isaiah 2:2). The claim, "Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers" (Romans 13:11), must seem strange to anyone who has just had their tour of duty in Iraq extended for six months, or for a Christian Palestinian family packing their bags to leave because they can't take it anymore, or an Inuit above the arctic circle pondering how their way of life is being torn apart by global warming. It is clear that we have come to the point where most of us are fairly well convinced that we do not know where things are headed. We are not certain that we "... must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (Matthew 24:44).
Now put this all together with the claim that this is resolved by the birth of a baby into a world that is already overloaded with too many babies and you can understand that many will find our Christmas carols striking a discordant note with the kind of lives that they must lead. Each of these texts for this Sunday in their own way invites us to join the chorus of those who have discovered the deeper harmonies of the universe.
Isaiah 2:1-5
Placing the Isaiah text as an introduction to Advent and expectant waiting seems very counterintuitive as the answer to the deepest human needs within us and before us. "He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). According to the season of the year the culmination of God's revelation begins with the gift of a child to new parents, who will soon find they are fleeing into exile as their only way of protecting themselves from a king who has made himself the sworn enemy of their child.
This hardly seems the work of a reasonable God. If anything the introduction of a child into a family has more to do with beating your brains out trying to figure out how to get some sleep or finding how to protect yourself and things from curious prying eyes and fingers, or finding a way to deal with every known childhood disease. This hardly seems to be the answer to the deepest human conundrums and, despite the prophet's prediction, it seems hardly an inducement to beat a path up the mountain of Zion that heretofore was a molehill that has grown to gigantic proportions to accommodate all the people of the world. This will be a steeper climb up the hill than just going to morning temple.
Advent ought to be the season of our preparation to say to one another, and to ourselves, that we will only learn the meaning of these texts when we have shared in this arduous journey. It can be quite a difficult journey to raise a child and one can be completely disarmed by the unreasonable nature of the journey. Children will learn to speak less through the superior intelligence of their parents than through loving parental hearts: a loving that is willing to make faces, play peek-a-boo, and talk baby talk so that they may do adult talk, play on the floor so that they may rise in wisdom and stature, and enter their world in order that they may go out into the world. The unreasonable God may be on to something here! The journey that begins in love ends in the right place. Come let us begin the journey that sees all children as our children. Let us begin the journey that sees the child that needs to play in all of us. Let us begin the journey that enters into each other's worlds that we may go out into the world in rejoicing.
Of course, this journey will be arduous and a long climb. It will take beating our swords into plowshares that can prepare the earth for growth and harvesting. Easier said than done -- this is going to require some endurance and persistence to make the journey up the mountain to raise up children. There will be quite a view from the top for you will see yourself in a new way. You will see that it does take a village, and a great deal of beating back some natural feeling of frustration and a great deal of differed gratification. The journey does not always involve all of us in parenthood but it, like the journey with children, invites us to identity our capacity to grow in love.
My hunch is that journey has not begun when pregnant Palestinian women are delayed at Israeli checkpoints. The journey has not begun when children the age of fourteen are taught war and enlisted in the armies of the world. The journey has not begun when children watch such television programs as 24 that give an imprimatur to torture.
Many chime in with the chorus of how unreasonable our God is. Others prepare for a pilgrimage that can include all people. Considering what shape the world is in, who does not need to hear the invitation, "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord"? (Isaiah 2:5).
Romans 13:11-14
No doubt, for many, the biggest obstacle to belief in the God that Jesus worshiped and embodied is a universe that is seemingly out of moral control. As Winston Churchill put it "Humankind has improved every way but morally." We live in a universe where the have-nots have less and the haves have more opportunity to get more. Still, for the most part, where you finish in life is preeminently the result of where you began in life. War still makes a mockery of most religious traditions that, all claims to the contrary, make room for the killing of their fellow human beings on a fairly regular basis. Often, in the life of the church, the youngest and most vulnerable among us have been the victims of abuse and then been revictimized by the cover-up of that abuse. No wonder some have come to the conclusion that if God is good then he cannot be the creator of such a universe, or if this is the way that God has created things then God cannot be good.
One can understand why some will only believe on the day that this all gets straightened out. That will be the day when they put aside "the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." That will be when they live honorably "as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy." When God is ready to live honorably and come across with a good explanation for cancer, the holocaust, and the inquisition then they will be able, like Thomas, to say, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). Until then they can make out a pretty good case for living in debauchery and licentiousness with the kind of quarreling and one-upmanship that it takes to get ahead in the morally goofy world that God has left us.
Paul writes to the Romans to say it isn't so. Perhaps that we don't want it to be so is a sign that there is more to the story. We find that we are none too comfortable with this notion, and we do not rest easy with its consequences the universe is morally capricious and the one thing that we were sent here to do was to make that observation.
Behind Paul's notion of living honorably is the idea of living according to the scheme of things, which is certainly not the attitude that comes from certitude balancing the moral equation of the universe but from knowing that the balance is tipped in favor of some surprising events opening some surprising things in us. If the moral failings of the universe are beyond explaining, equally the gifts that arise in the universe are beyond explanation. Living according to the scheme of things means that evil does not have the last word, that the Herods of the world do not win in the end, that wise men do get home by going a different route, and that the shepherds minding their business are suddenly confronted by the mind of God. It means that a young girl who says, "Let it be to me according to God," finds that she gives birth to more than she ever dreamed and that a young man about to become a father gives up his rightful claims for the sake of the claims of an angel and finds out what being a father is all about.
The one thing that we can just about count on is that those who walk according to this scheme of things find themselves coming out at a place where they do not have to numb themselves out. They can open themselves up. They come out at a place where they define themselves less by what they can hold on to than what they can hand out. They find the stones too heavy for them to move are rolled away in the morning and that God has more in store.
God comes as a child in order that we may grow up. In the scheme of things, God is love, which is the only answer for the moral chaos of the universe. Maybe this is not the day everything gets straightened out, but it is the day we can "prepare the ways of the Lord and make his paths straight" (Isaiah 40:3 cf). If we have been paying attention, it is truer for us than when we first began.
Matthew 24:36-44
When was the last time you saw a burning bush, waters part, or plagues happen on cue? Many can chime in with the usual Christmas carols without much difficulty, but who can deny themselves, whether they believe or not, a good Handel's Messiah sing- along, or the pleasure of a good round of wassailing? You don't have to be a card- carrying believer to join in the joy of the holiday season.
However, the holidays do raise a sour note for many when we crossover from holiday to holy day. It is not just that the story is told in the wrapping of mythology and metaphor. They can understand how such extraordinary claims must go beyond the confines of routine language usage. What leaves them cold is not the wrapping but what is actually in the box, however it is wrapped. Many cannot bring themselves to believe that God acted by coming into the world as a baby. A God that goes beyond being the "ground of being" is a bit much. For many, Christmas turns them off. A tale of the divine taking on human form and coming into the course of history is beyond the pale. Getting in tune with this God who comes as a burning bush, a pillar of fire, or speaks to selected individuals, is hard to swallow if it has not been part of your experience. Attempts to cover the gap through either philosophy or linguistic analysis often comes across as one more burden to bear -- if you only understood enough, you would get it. It also seems somewhat unfair to be one of those who are left behind because you fell asleep in class that day, did not keep up with the latest theological twist and turns, or missed the movie and the book series on which it was based. Enough is enough, just get me to the wassail bowl and get me safely home from the office party.
For the vast majority of Christmas Christians, and probably a preponderance of regulars, nothing seems to depend on the impending. This can certainly slow the preacher down to the more predictable measure of the familiar harmonies of wishing a joyous holiday and hoping for the best. Preachers, acting out of their frustrations, might attribute this reality to all sorts of causes including the failures of modern life. However, the Matthew text recalls that this living with nothing, depending on the impending, is traceable to the days of Noah. "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37- 39). Nothing is attributable to moral perfidy here, just that folks did not live depending on scanning the skies for the impending.
Where can we point to a place where human experience connects to the idea of the apocalyptic? Must we water it down, which for many really means flushing it down the disposal? The text does present us with something that does come into our lives and that we need to be watching for. Jesus comes as either Lord or as thief. Sometimes we are ready to proclaim him as Lord; at others we experience him as one who invades our well- constructed houses. I know of a clergy person who complained of the interruptions in his ministry schedule until he realized that the interruptions were his ministry. His was not the only plan at work in his life. In an episode from NBC's The Office, the much-maligned and needy boss is robbed of his moment at his birthday party when it is found that one of coworkers is waiting to find out if he will be diagnosed with skin cancer. Of course, the boss has barely enough emotional reserve to switch gears and allow the attention to refocus so that he might have better focus to his life.
Watch and wait, he will come as either thief or Lord. He will come as the one who is Lord who will rob you of your certainties when a congregation that was heretofore deadly dull suddenly gets fired up by the Holy Sprit. He will come as thief and Lord: one who robs you of serenity that comes from life as usual and as Lord who gives us peace in the eye of the storm. Much will depend on how well prepared we are for the impending.
Application
Attention clergy: Danger ahead. Please test your brakes and make sure that you have adequate supplies for your trip into this wilderness. This is an inhabited area filled with expectations for the next four Sundays. Where are you as you enter into these weeks? Some of us will find ourselves shoved aside by pageants and cantatas that are better deemed to evoke the heartwarming feelings that are expected to be a part of this time of year. Others will find that the pressure is on as we are expected to bear the weight of those who are tired of waiting in their longing to hear some good words that can transform their lives. Some bring a refreshing unfamiliarity with the story; others know exactly the groove down which to go in the expectation that all the characters should arrive in the manger scene on time, undamaged by the latest theological insights. Others of us will be walking with those who are facing their first Christmas without a loved one, job, or bright prospects.
Yes, it is time to keep awake, "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (Matthew 24:37-42). Between now and the grand finale of this story, some will be taken to places of insight and growth. Others will have to wait a bit longer for their spiritual high. Others, particularly clergy, will find that there are too few takers willing to take up this story in their lives. Many will be taking a walk down the highway in the desert where they feel very low and deserted.
All we can say is that the one we have waited for will wait for us to respond. The one who is born longs for us to give birth to new life. The one who is sent into exile will send the wise home by a different way.
Attention clergy: Beginning with where you are will help lead the congregation to where they need to be.
Alternative Application
Romans 13:11-14. The most fun I had on Christmas day was going through my Christmas stocking, for it was always filled with odd bits and pieces of goodness that came in a variety of shapes and forms. In some ways these three texts are like that stocking. They are filled with bits and pieces that require some pondering.
"Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." What does it mean to be ready for the one whose coming we are certain of but whose timing remains unclear? As one looks at the texts, they suggest a variety of ways our readiness is increased. The journey up Mount Zion is done together as a group event. Those who are rewarded with instruction from the Lord make the journey with people of other nations. If we are not ready to cross boundaries, we are not well prepared for the journey. Romans suggests that we should keep awake. The temptation is to allow ourselves to fall into patterns where we are asleep at the switch. Those who come to this season spiritually worn and weary may not have the reserves they need to make the journey that requires vigilance. They may find that they are expecting too much from the season. Many of us come expecting a safe and familiar reengagement of holiday traditions. Holy days and salvation come in the unexpected. The texts force us to ask what we are counting on to be in our Christmas stocking.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 122
In this day of turmoil and violence in the Middle East, a call to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem," is a poignant one indeed. Originally said by pilgrims coming from across Israel to Jerusalem, this psalm today holds a broader and deeper significance.
As body counts rise and anger increases, it is a prayer worth repeating. May "peace be within your walls, and security within your towers." Certainly the Middle East is convulsing with violence, even as these words are written. But the peace of Jerusalem is also the peace of the world. This psalm resonates with voices that pray for peace throughout our world. Across the globe today there are wars virtually everywhere. Indeed, in the United States, the expenditure on arms is in the trillions of dollars. It is hard to have "security within our towers" when all the resources of the nation are squandered on military adventures. It is difficult to have peace within our own walls when we ourselves are not agents of peace.
By all means, let the people pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But the children's hymn of old comes back in haunting echoes. "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." Let there be peace on earth and let us call our own nation to account in its military spending and pre-emptive wars. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with a nation who offers food, healing, and medicine rather than trade in arms and munitions. Let there be peace on earth, and let the voices of our citizens call for diplomacy and cooperation rather than threats and confrontation.
"For the sake of our friends and relatives," and for the sake of our sisters and brothers around the world, let this be the moment that people of faith commit to working for justice and for peace. Let this be the moment that prayers for peace become holy actions for peace. And, as the final words of this psalm indicate, let us seek the good of all, for the sake of the house of our God. For the sake of the planet created by God, for the sake of the many wonderful lands and cultures, let us look beyond ourselves and dedicate our lives to seeking the good of all.
As we prepare to welcome the Prince of Peace, can there be any other prayer? Any other focus for our lives?
