Sermon Noters, First After Christmas (with Baptism) (Year A)

Dreams that redirect
• Country directions (Pelly)
• Map reading
• GPS (finding cathedral)

Need to have some form of direction to get us to where we’re going to.

What happens when we detour?
Roadblocks – wrong turns – unexpected one way streets – disturbed timelines.
We re-calculate.

So what happens when God takes us off course?
Realistically: God doesn’t.
God brings us on the course we’re meant to be following.
In the timeline God needs.

Joseph: dreams – vision – brought him on the course with Mary
Census – brought him to the land where he needed to be

Magi – start at their own locations, with own intentions, get re-directed.
Connected, united; brought to the child to worship – and teach us the blessing of praise.

Again. – Joseph – prophetic dream: don’t go home.
Instead, the path is taken guides in an unexpected way
Which hindsight shows to be the right way.

Invitation to listen to where God is guiding us
Sometimes we’re on the right path
Sometimes we get to explore a different path

Faith is our guidance system:
It’s why we benefit from faith community – together, discerning, directing
Faith leads us where God wants us.
Not always perfect journey – but God blesses us along the way.
Always a way to explore, serve, pray, and praise.

Today as we celebrate baptism, we celebrate the journey
The knowns, the unknowns, the unimagineables:
For [NAME] this journey continues –
As the dream and hopes of family are helping to guide and influence throughout life
As the prayer of our whole Christian community gathers to uplift and support his journey

As we all connect: the family of God – serving the people of God – wherever we are on our own pathway to God.

Sermon Notes, Christmas Eve

FAMILY SERVICE (Lk 2.1-14)

Stories – favourite stories (Grinch, Night before Xmas. Etc.)
Favourites not just because of words, but of traditions
Memories tie in to the stories
Tradition and Emotion mean that each telling is a new telling
Gifted to us; received as blessing; a gift we give as we share it on
Story of the nativity – greatest story ever told – carries the joy and bliss beyond time, location, etc.
May the story of Christmas give us the joy that carries us into the season and beyond.


CHRISTMAS EVE 730 (Lk 2.8-20)
What if the glory of the Lord never left?
Shepherds – chatting among the glory
Journeying to Bethlehem

The glory is there – always there.
Because the Lord is there.
The light is there:
A guiding light;
Comforting light
Peace-inducing light

The light that would continue to influence their lives forever.

And not just theirs: for to the shepherds the message was clear – the light is for ALL people.
The light of Christ –
Light, like the candles tonight, that cannot be extinguished.
Even when it appears small, it is always growing…
For us.
In us.
The glory of the Lord continues to shine in the world:
When we bear the light that has been given us.

Let us embrace the light – and together shine it in the darkness of the world
Knowing that the love of God – so freely given – flows through us as well.

Let us return to the world, - changed - glorifying and praising God for all WE have heard and seen, as it had been told to us.

Sermon, Advent 4 (Year A)

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is such a blessing in the lectionary, as we get to celebrate Mary.
The young (VERY young) woman who uses her agency to say yes to God:

Except, as this account from Matthew reminds us, pregnancy is never a one-person thing.
Matthew gives us a LOT of details… but not about Mary - she gets one sentence: "Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with a child by the Holy Spirit."
Joseph, however, gets the spotlight today.
And: rightly so. Let’s consider this man!
"Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”

There’s a LOT happening in that one sentence.

Firstly, we hear that Joseph is already Mary's husband. Their engagement legally bound them; while biblical custom celebrated a blessing of the marriage when they began living together. Today we celebrate the legal and blessing of marriage at one time, after the engagement.
So Mary and Joseph are married, but have never lived together – they’ve probably never even been alone together.
The marriage has not been consummated, and yet Mary reveals that she is with child.
Awkward, to say the least.
And Joseph now has to choose how to respond.
And Joseph wants to do things the right way - following God's law and societal custom.

With a basic understanding of how pregnancy happens, Joseph knows that he has grounds for a divorce.
But – what is the right way to go about this?

By social custom, he’s within his bounds to publicly shame her, announcing that she is pregnant and not by him.
But this has ramifications – and they’re harsh.

Mary’s father will be shamed; he will be shunned in the community. He could be fired for being dishonest, seen as “unemployable;” he won't be allowed to buy things at market, he may be refused at worship. The whole family will suffer. At best, they will have to move away, in shame.

Mary herself – well, the letter of the law could have her stoned to death, or physically disowned and cast out (and at best turned to a life of prostitution).

This is NOT what Joseph, a caring man, wants to do; even though it lies within his rights.
So he decides to do the compassionate thing: to dismiss her quietly.

However, despite this kindness, Joseph will now need to provide some other explanation about the dismissal… and hope that no one discovers the truth - or else he will be shunned, rejected by the community, publicly mocked. Business would be slow, friends would be few. He'd probably have to move.

Joseph finds himself stuck, between a rock and a hard place.
He is brooding over this decision.
And while he doesn’t quite believe Mary; he chooses compassion.

…and immediately he has a dream.
Not an overnight weird braindump; because Joseph didn't go to sleep.
What Joseph experienced, the Greek tells us, was actually a vision, or a trance.
It's a state of being, not something that comes out of the subconscious. It's the same type of 'dream' that we hear about all through the scriptures when we hear that the Lord is coming in a dream.

Because when the Lord has something to say to us, we're going to hear it. One way or another, we're going to hear it. And if we completely refuse to hear it when we're alert and going about our daily work and prayer, then God will send a messenger to us in a dream. There's a long history of this in the Bible.

And today, God has something to say to Joseph. And it starts with that classic introductory line from the messenger: "Do Not Be Afraid" - words that always seem to precede some seriously challenging message. It's not so much a "do not be afraid that I'm here" as a "when things get really crazy, just remember that this is part of God's plan, and try not to be too afraid to continue in your ministry."

It's here that Joseph gets clear direction to take Mary as his wife.
To celebrate the union with family and friends; to make a home with her. Celebrate a life with her. Show her the ultimate in compassion and kindness.
And to love that child, teach him all you know, let him learn from your compassionate self how to best be in this world.
Also, congratulations, it's a boy! By the way, name him Jesus, for he will save people from their sins.

Now, for those of us with the luxury of hearing this message after the fact, it sounds pretty good. Nice. Pleasant almost. But for Joseph, this is shocking. Life-changing. Because for Joseph, this leads him to a spiritual awakening.

Joseph is a man who knows his scriptures. So he recognises the weight of these words from the messenger.

Conceived a son by the Holy Spirit - that meant no other man. Which means his lovely Mary has not been unfaithful to him - rather she has been so faithful to God that she is now the theotokos - the God-bearer - a woman of such hope and conviction that she would be willing to risk her life, her status, her family - for the love of God.

The naming of the child – the name wasn’t entirely unusual, but to be told by a messenger of God about your child - before it was born - this was unusual. And also comes from a long scriptural tradition - like Samson and John, for example. The foretelling of men who had great ministries to fulfill.

And, the promise of salvation - fulfilling the scriptures, putting into action the prophesy of Isaiah, the hope beyond hope that had been promised for generations. This was too good to be true; how on earth could Joseph - this God-fearing and righteous man - refuse to be part of this, especially when God is calling him so directly.

Thus, Joseph wakes up. Not from his comfy bed - from his comfy complacence.
This is a spiritual awakening! God has spoken to HIM! calling him to a very specific ministry, a very specific task. Joseph’s life will never be the same.

A spiritual awakening is becoming aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives in such a way that EVERYTHING looks different. Everything IS different. Because our eyes have been opened, our sleep has been cast off, and our actions will reflect that.
When we have been awakened to our ministry, we will not be able to ignore it. When we have opened ourselves to the living Spirit of God in and around us, we will never be satisfied with "the status quo" anymore.

And this is what we celebrate in Advent, these last days before Christmas.
The opening up of ordinary people to do extraordinary things, by the grace of God.
God chose Mary, and as difficult as it was, Mary awoke to her role in God's world, bearing the Son of Man. And thank God for that.
God chose Joseph, and as awkward as that was, Joseph awoke to his role as earthly father to Jesus, teaching him the compassionate way to be human in God's world. And thank God for that.
And God chooses US. As inconvenient as that may be sometimes, we are called to discern how we are being called to continue the story of God's grace and love, active and alive, in and amongst us all.

So my prayer for us this week is that we may all WAKE UP to the reality that we are being involved in God's world, to engage with God's world, to minister in God's world. May we be spiritually awakened, may we be not afraid, may we delight that things can never be the same, once we have accepted Emmanuel - God IS with us - now and forevermore.

Sermon, Advent 2 (Year A)

This morning our scriptures seem to be showing us a lot of contrast.
God’s message to us is intended to remind us of peace and abundance, against the sometimes harsh realities of our daily lives. It’s the promise of grace and hope, against the earthly struggles being felt. It was – and IS – good news.

The passage from Isaiah would have been heard by people living in fear; in a walled city surrounded by the enemy waiting to siege and enslave them. It was a dark time. And the poetry brings comfort and genuine hope.
The new life springing up from a stump – something that is dead – producing a new shoot – the promise and potential! And roots – those unseen yet SO essential connectors that provide stability and nourishment to sustain that growth. The rootedness in faith is inspiring, bolstering the confidence that nothing in this world can uproot those who believe.
That animals – predators and prey – are living in peaceful coexistence is truly shocking. It speaks to our emotions and draws us into that place where we imagine that what seems so unlikely may just be possible…
And thus we dare to dream of rulers who would strive for justice and peace, wisdom, and care for the vulnerable - the way the poem suggests. To conceive of a ruler who would protect the rights not only of the elite, but of the entire community. And then to normalise this ideal in such a way that to reject it would be ridiculous.
The poetry of the prophet truly shows a contrast between what IS and what COULD be - as we are reminded that God’s peace transcends anything and everything in this world.

The part of Paul’s letter that we read today doesn’t seem, at first glance, to have much contrast. It feels comforting and … nice! It is, of course, the happy and hope-filled conclusion of a letter that Paul is sending to a community, reminding them of the need and aspiration to have harmonious relationships among themselves as followers of Jesus.
These are quite important priorities for these folks, who don’t always get along. They are a diverse group of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds – who, to further complicate things, are living under Roman rule where their faith is illegal… Their challenges are quite substantial.
Paul names the challenge of achieving and maintaining harmonious living, and recognises this requires both divine resources and new human patterns of life.
Paul is inviting the Roman Christians to discern what they are called to: how they are called to come together in prayer and praise, how they are meant to engage with their broader community, how they are to exercise ministry and hospitality. They are invited to consider what is, and what is not, central to the reign of God and promoting God’s kin-dom.
It is within that context, with that stretch again between what is and what may be, that we see God’s words bringing comfort and connection; where harmony among God’s beloved shows God’s purpose both for today and every tomorrow.
Pauls’ letter shows us all how God’s faithfulness bridges the gaps that the world would use to divide; inviting us to cultivate human patterns of holy hospitality.

In the Gospel we have oodles of contrasts.
John – a rather intense and unlikely man, to say the least! Not theologically trained, not from a rich family, not supported by powerful friends.
Yet prophetic – and popular – though only with the unpopular of Judean society.
Coming, from the wilderness, with two very different messages.
To the crowds – basically anyone who would listen, he evoked the memory of Elijah from his appearance – the camel hair and leather belt. And he invited them to repent, to reflect and turn away from anything that would draw them away from God – and to open their hearts and eyes for signs of the coming of God’s kin-dom. There were times of communal gathering, of confessions and baptisms, of general spiritual growth and renewal.
To the Pharisees and Sadducees – the educated and elite – he was neither subtle nor gentle. He proclaimed a message of judgement - for these folks had a practice of exclusion and discrimination; it was a time of corruption.
So John names them vipers.
Vipers are fascinating creatures; these snakes aren’t hatched from eggs but are born live – and therefore are born ready to strike. They also have the longest fangs of all the snakes, gang up in groups and ambush their prey, usually at night when they can’t be seen. The ancient world knew that vipers were serious business – a deadly reality to be avoided.
And yet John calls the religious leaders of the time a Brood of Vipers – basically saying they were a generation of sneaky, slithery, deceptive, life-destroyers, who disappear at the first sense of danger, who avoid interaction unless they’re being violent.
This was not a compliment – and not the pastoral John that the rest of Jerusalem had grown to love.
Yet again – despite the contrast, we see that John does not reject them.
John instead invites them to be intentional if they continue in their journey for baptism. Because the baptism they seek will change them: their ancestry or status will not make them immune to the power of God.
This baptism will change them in ways they cannot anticipate, in ways they cannot snake their way out of. In ways that are holy, and life-giving, and community-building. In ways that promote unity and peace, not judgement and division.
For John promises the coming together of God’s people through the power of God’s promises: in the coming of Jesus, the Christ.

So we journey to the next lesson, the one beyond today’s scriptures: the lesson of our own lives. The invitation that God is always giving us to show the world who we are, and whose we are.
We’re being reminded, in this Advent journey, of what it means to be people in the world, but not OF the world.
And: we know that’s not easy!
It’s the season of contrasts: lights and trees and gifts and baking and presents and parties and… lists. This is the worldly reality of getting ready for Christmas. And I promise you – there is nothing wrong with it!

Our life as Christians, during this holy season of Advent, is not about ignoring the Christmas preparations we have.
It's about not being consumed by them, such that we miss God's hope. God’s peace. God’s love.

And God’s call: to share the grace. To extend the peace. To live the Good News.
As we get ready for Christmas, we also get ready for Christ.
To be living in contrast with the secular notion of the season, as we live our faith –authentically, lovingly, boldly – into the world.
We will, with the world, celebrate Christmas in a few weeks’ time.
And we will, with God and one another, celebrate Christ: our whole lives long.

Sermon Notes, Pente +17 (Year C)