god's love pierces hearts: christmas 1

the holy gospel according to luke (2:22-40)

²²When the time came for their purification

       according to the law of Moses,

              they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

                     ²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord,

                            “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),

              ²⁴and they offered a sacrifice

                     according to what is stated in the law of the Lord,

                            “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon;

       this man was righteous and devout,

              looking forward to the consolation of Israel,

                     and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

       ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit

              that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

²⁷Guided by the Spirit,

       Simeon came into the temple;

       and when the parents brought in the child Jesus,

              to do for him what was customary under the law,

              ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God,

                     saying, ²⁹“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,

                            according to your word;

                            ³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,

                                   ³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

                                   ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles

                                   and for glory to your people Israel.”

³³And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.

³⁴Then Simeon blessed them

       and said to his mother Mary,

              “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel,

                     and to be a sign that will be opposed

                            ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—

                                   and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

³⁶There was also a prophet,

       Anna the daughter of Phanuel,

              of the tribe of Asher.

       She was of a great age,

              having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,

                     ³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.

       She never left the temple

              but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.

³⁸At that moment she came,

       and began to praise God

       and to speak about the child to all

              who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord,

       they returned to Galilee,

              to their own town of Nazareth.

⁴⁰The child grew and became strong,

       filled with wisdom;

              and the favor of God was upon him.

the gospel of the lord.

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born under the law, luke assures us that mary and joseph are faithful followers of the law, coming to the temple for mary’s purification and, just as hannah dedicated her longed-for child, samuel, to god’s work and a life in the temple, mary and joseph dedicate jesus to god.  following the law laid out for them, they encounter the holy spirit, stirring things up again.

in case the angels and visit from the shepherds weren’t enough, simeon and anna, faithful elders with prophetic wisdom and vision encounter jesus and his parents in the temple and proclaim god’s work of redemption in these unlikely bodies.  anna, whose words we don’t have praises god and announces the redemption of jerusalem—god will bail out jerusalem, saving it from the occupation, doing a new thing.

simeon’s words are to the point, jesus will be god’s salvation, yet more to the point even than that, jesus will not be uncontroversial.  simeon tells mary, “this child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”  as new testament scholar, stephen hultgren, points out, jesus “will be both the stone upon which some stumble and the stone of salvation.”  jesus will redeem the world, but we know that the way our redemption comes will not be the way many suspect or hope. 

in fact, jesus, who is born under the law, will redeem the world through a curse under the law, as galatians 3 states, “christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.””  jesus, being hung on a tree, embodies the curse of the law, so that all may embody the life that he brings.  jesus will not be an easy one to follow and mary will learn this perhaps more deeply than any other.

mary, who will watch as her child grow and become strong, filled with wisdom.  mary who will witness as her son comes into his own, will walk with him through childhood into adulthood, will ponder all that she experiences in her heart.  mary who will worry and fret as jesus’ public ministry unfolds and who will watch her son as he is tortured and killed by the authorities.  mary will indeed feel a sword pierce her own soul.  today, as we continue to rejoice at the incarnation—god coming into the world as the baby jesus—we catch a glimpse of what is to come.  in his joy, even simeon cannot help but mention the pain and sorrow that will also come as jesus grows up.

mary will know the pain no parent should ever know, but we don’t have to wait until the crucifixion to face the injustice and pain of parents who must bury their children.  today we also commemorate the slaughter of the holy innocents, the unwilling martyrs.  in other years we will hear in matthew of the holy family’s flight as refugees to egypt and king herod’s fear at the birth of the child jesus and abuse of power as he orders all the children in bethlehem two years old and younger to be killed.  killed because of a paranoid ruler—afraid of a threat to his throne; afraid of the power of god’s love incarnate in the world.

[pause]

i feel for herod, though.  he is right, after all, to be afraid.  as we heard last week in mary’s song, the magnificat, and this week in simeon’s song, god’s presence and love in this world is a threatening thing for the powerful and power-hungry, because god’s love is not just for the upper crust of society, god’s love is for everybody and when people start living that out, when people follow jesus, the world changes.  

 as we experienced in advent with the sunday school raising money for elca world hunger, when we follow jesus, the hungry are fed.  those in need receive shelter and clothing, even as jesus comes into the world homeless and leaves naked.  that is the power of our god: the power of love to change things.  god’s love changes who we are and how we are in the world.  god’s love feeds the hungry, prays for strangers and “enemies.”

there is a hebrew phrase, “tikun olam” which can be translated as “to heal, fix, establish, or restore the world, or eternity.”  that is the work of god.  that is what god’s love does in the world.  god’s love comes into this world, which has been, especially in this last year, drowning in pain and violence, and god’s love breaks into it with the cry of a baby that captures our hearts—the cry of love, of god with us.

mr. rogers has a quote that periodically makes its way around facebook.  it is, “when i was a boy and i would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘look for the helpers.  you will always find people who are helping.’  to this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ i remember my mother’s words and i am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

it is almost the opposite of simeon’s proclamation.  simeon rejoices at the messiah and yet recalls the pain and political unrest to come.  mr. rogers reminds us in the midst of crises—in the midst of the pain and violence—that that is not all there is.  love is there as well.  god is present with and in those who are suffering.  it is in those moments of pain and suffering that mr. rogers reminds us to look up.  to be on the look out for god’s love changing things.

god’s love is in the people who run into, not out of, burning buildings; the ones who show up in response to our 9-1-1 calls—who intervene during a domestic dispute, who investigate a robbery; the ones who show up when there is flood, avalanche, disaster.  they show up and they put their lives on the line.  it’s in the folks who didn’t get a day off this week for christmas because they were caring for those who were hospitalized and keeping the rest of us safe.  god’s love is in the prayers you all wrote over the last month, prayers for strangers.  in the animals we purchased, in malaria nets for health and protection.

and maybe in those moments where all hope feels lost, as we look up and look around, we will see the helpers and god’s love will pierce our own hearts.  our hearts, pierced again and again by the pain of the world, instead filled and overflowing with the love that heals wounds.  the love that sends a sheep, a pig, bees, a goat, and malaria nets to those in need.  the love that laughs in the face of stress.  the love that embraces our tears, embodies our pain, and frees our souls.  

the love that comes to us in the waters of baptism, in the bread and wine of communion.  it is god’s love in jesus, who captures our attention as the baby born to mary; that embodies god’s love.  it is through the unlikely bodies of anna and simeon that god’s love is proclaimed—love that feeds us, love that holds us—love for everybody.

thanks be to god.

god comes into our dirt and grime: christmas eve

i also reference isaiah 9:2-7

the holy gospel according to luke (2:1-20)

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus

       that all the world should be registered.

              ²This was the first registration

              and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

                     ³All went to their own towns to be registered.

       ⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea,

              to the city of David called Bethlehem,

                     because he was descended from the house and family of David. 

       ⁵He went to be registered with Mary,

              to whom he was engaged

              and who was expecting a child.

              ⁶While they were there,

                     the time came for her to deliver her child.

                            ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son

                            and wrapped him in bands of cloth,

                            and laid him in a manger,

                                   because there was no place for them in the inn.

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields,

       keeping watch over their flock by night.

       ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them,

       and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

       and they were terrified.

              ¹⁰But the angel said to them,

                     “Do not be afraid; for see—

                            I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:

                                   ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,

                                          who is the Messiah, the Lord.

                                   ¹²This will be a sign for you:

                                          you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth

                                          and lying in a manger.”

              ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,

                     praising God and saying,

                            ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

                                   and on earth peace among those whom God favors!”

       ¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven,

              the shepherds said to one another,

                     “Let us go now to Bethlehem

                     and see this thing that has taken place,

                            which the Lord has made known to us.”

              ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph,

                     and the child lying in the manger.

              ¹⁷When they saw this,

                     they made known what had been told them about this child;

                     ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words

       and pondered them in her heart.

²⁰The shepherds returned,

       glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen,

              as it had been told them.

the gospel of the lord.

tonight is the night we celebrate god coming into our world.  god coming to our ordinary, sometimes quite messy lives and captivating us.  the songs of christmas are songs that captivate us more, perhaps, than any others in the church year—why else would there be so much controversy around when we are and are not allowed to sing them?  from hendel’s messiah, announcing, in isaiah, the birth of a baby to end all war who shall be called the prince of peace, to the carols we have sung and will sing tonight of an angel interrupting the ordinary dirt and grime of lowly shepherds with news of the birth of a baby, in its own dirt and grime of a manger—a barn, to hold all the smelly animals.

today and tomorrow, like the shepherds, we interrupt our day-to-day lives to welcome the christ-child among us.  we have been waiting these last four weeks of advent, anticipating sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently the coming of christ.  the halls are decked, the figgy pudding is made, and the baby comes.  now he’s here in our messy midst!

i can’t imagine this night being, for mary, quite so calm, clean, and comfortable as it is right now for us.  last sunday we heard mary’s magnificat, her decision to join god in this plan of salvation for all the world—an end to oppression, upending of injustice: lifting up the lowly and casting down the powerful, filling the hungry and leaving the rich to hunger. 

and now the time has come.  mary and joseph find themselves in the dirt and grime of a barn—a manger—with no room at the inn, they are left to the dirt that comes with inadequate shelter.  mary, in a strange land, obeying the dictates of emperor augustus, feels the beginning of a pain that will come to fruition and reach her heart in 33 years.

at the same time, messengers of god come into the ordinary dirt of these shepherds’ lives to tell of god come to them.  as any of us might, their first reaction is terror.  an authentic response, not only to the sudden appearance of a messenger of god with the glory of the lord shining all around, but the news of god’s presence with us is also a scary thing.

in isaiah god’s presence and favor is not good news for those with authority, because authority rests upon the shoulders of this child born to us.  god’s presence, without a doubt, upsets the status quo.  even for shepherds who were pretty low down as far as status went back in those days, a change in the status quo was dangerous.  they were barely getting by and big changes could mean loss of livelihood and starvation.

lucky for them, fear also usually comes with a bit of paralysis, so before they can collect their wits and take off running, the angel has time to tell them that there is good news of great joy.  even as their heartbeats begin to drop back down, close to normal, the shepherds are still pretty terrified, but now also intrigued.

they listen to the angel and take the risk of traveling in the middle of the night to check out this baby.  and            it            is            worth it.  they see the savior!  the baby king!  and it did rock their world.  they return back to the dark and uncertainty of the night and their lives, but they return “glorifying and praising god for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”  their hope still shining in their dark night.

they may have gone to bethlehem and then returned back to their ordinary lives, but they returned            different.  they went a bit afraid—maybe a little anxious or nervous, perhaps a familiar feeling for those of us who have ever gone to a new church or back to church after some time away, wondering what we will find.  how will people treat us?  will mary and joseph know who we are?  will this christ-child be worth the trip?  will jesus be there? 

the shepherds go to bethlehem as a mixed bag of emotions.  and they find jesus.  they find a baby and a family exhausted from the birth of a child, and not just any child, but the very son of god.

and when the shepherds leave, they don’t simply go back to their ordinary lives, commenting on the cool show they just saw.  they go back to lives of anxiety and insecurity, but they go back as new people.  they have seen christ, the prince of peace.  god has come to us and it’s not a new emperor, or caesar, or president.  god has come to us through the young, unwed couple, without housing or a bed to sleep on.  god has come to us in a baby born in a barn.  god’s glory, god’s power is in the weak and the lowly and that is who those shepherds are. 

those shepherds return glorifying and praising god because in jesus, they finally get that they too can bear the image of god.  in this christ-child they see the god who is love.  they see a poor and lonely family, in the dirt and grime of the barn, in whom god’s love and life is made manifest.  the shepherds see this baby, who is the prince of peace and know that god comes to us in the lowly of society.  they know that the presence of god in their lowly lives means that everyone can truly bear the image of god in our own selves, our own lives, even in our own anxieties and insecurities.  

and so we come with our dirt and grime, runny noses, sugar-filled bellies, trying to ride out the tension that can accompany large family gatherings.  and as we encounter christ here in this place, in the bread broken and wine poured out for us all, we too leave different.  we leave glorifying and praising god, and encountering christ, as he comes to us, in those we meet in the dirt and grime of life, and in each other.

thanks be to god.

god moves with you: advent 4

i also reference the first reading and the psalm:

the first reading is 2 samuel 7:1-11, 16

the psalm is mary's magnificat in luke 1:46b-55

the holy gospel according to luke (1:26-38)

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God

       to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

              ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph,

                     of the house of David.

                            The virgin’s name was Mary.

²⁸And he came to her and said,

       “Greetings, favored one!

              The Lord is with you.”

²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words

       and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

³⁰The angel said to her,

       “Do not be afraid, Mary,

              for you have found favor with God.

              ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

                     and you will name him Jesus.

                            ³²He will be great,

                                   and will be called the Son of the Most High,

                                   and the Lord God will give to him 

                                          the throne of his ancestor David.

                            ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,

                                   and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴Mary said to the angel,

       “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel said to her,

       “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

              and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

                     therefore the child to be born will be holy;

                            he will be called Son of God.

       ³⁶And now,

              your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son;

                     and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.

                            ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.”

³⁸Then Mary said,

       “Here am I,

              the servant of the Lord;

                     let it be with me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.

The gospel of the lord.

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today in 2 samuel we hear of a god who will not be boxed in.  david is king, with a palace of his own and he’s ready to build god a house—a temple—a sturdy and permanent place to stay always.

but god does not work that way.  our god is a god who moves with us.  a week and a half ago during our soup supper we learned about a faith journey of finding christians and places of worship in all of the many places that the sharer lived.  we at christ the king have traveled quite a bit in our own short time as a congregation from a movie theater, to the old place down the road, to here, in this place.  and who knows where we might end up next, but what we do know is that we’ve got a god that’ll keep going with us. 

god’s message for david is “⁶i have not lived in a house since the day i brought up the people of israel from egypt to this day, but i have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. ⁹and i have been with you wherever you went.”  god has been with the israelites since long before they had a king.  as we heard in mary’s magnificat, god was with sarah and abraham.  god was with the israelites in the wilderness and will be with them when they are forcibly removed from their land into exile.  god will not be put in a box, in a building, in a temple.

instead god chooses to make god’s home among us and in us.  god chooses to come to us in a young, teenage girl named mary.  the angel gabriel comes to mary with the proposal and mary, caught up in understandable fear and confusion asks the angel, “how can this be?”

how can this be?  how can god be doing this new thing?  i am hardly more than a child, weak and lowly, yet you look with love on me.  the angel comes to mary and names mary.  the angel comes and calls her favored.  the angel proclaims the good news and mary rejoices at the god who lifts up the lowly, who fills the hungry, and who overturns the mighty with justice and love that are strong.  the angel comes to mary where she’s at, to call her by name.

the angel comes to mary, claims her as favored and mary responds to the angel.  mary chooses to join god in this new thing.  mary says yes to god and then begins the adventure to come, with hallelujahs and heartbreak as only a mother could know.

and yet god doesn’t just come to this young, unwed teenager.  in her old age, elizabeth, whose name means “promise of god” is also invited to participate in this new and longed-for thing god is doing.  for her whole life, elizabeth has lived in a culture where, as a woman, her worth was defined by her ability to give birth, to be a mother, and so she had been considered a failure—barren. 

fertility issues are not uncommon nowadays and they certainly happened back then with the added hardship that if a woman could not have children, it was attributed to her being sinful and could lead to economic hardship later in life.

yet god’s promise, god’s blessing is with elizabeth.  she is no failure, but not for the reason you might expect.  yes she becomes pregnant, but more importantly, both she and her soon-to-be-born child point to and encourage the coming savior.  as we’ve been hearing the last few weeks, john will prepare the way for jesus and will baptize him, kicking off jesus’ ministry with a bang, a tearing open of the heavens.

elizabeth, too, provides encouragement and pronounces the coming of christ.  upon hearing elizabeth’s news from the angel gabriel, mary goes to visit her.  elizabeth hears her greeting, is filled with the holy spirit, and proclaims blessings on mary, the mother of her lord, who is then moved to her own proclamation: the magnificat, which we heard as our psalm today.

together these two women who have no business bearing the good news—proclaiming god’s favor—take up the challenge, saying yes to god’s invitation to participate in this new thing.  pregnant with children, they are also pregnant with hope and with passion for the new thing that god is bringing forth in and through them. 

mary herself may have been visited by an angel, but the angel is long gone and in the months to come, she’ll be needing support as people find out that she is pregnant and not yet married.  elizabeth becomes that support for mary and in turn mary encourages and supports elizabeth.  they become each other’s angels.  they come to be together, to call each other by name, to call each other favored; to tell each other god is with them.

god comes to mary and elizabeth, and then in the resulting confusion, excitement, and anxiety, god remains with them in each other.  today is the day in our church year that our god who will not be boxed in, who will not remain inside one building, so permanent and at times so far away.  today is the day that god comes to mary, to elizabeth, and to us. 

the angel of god calls you favored.  the angel announces god’s presence with you and invites you into this new thing.  in a few short days, we will find jesus with us in a barn and in our lives, and today god leaves the boxes and buildings to be with us, to remain with us.  in the ups and downs and struggles, god sends angels—maybe named gabriel, or taylor, or barbara, mat or stuart.  god sends angels to be with us and to help us know that not only are they with us, but god is with us as well.  moving with us as we move, sitting together with us in the sorrow and in the quiet, claiming us always for god’s own.

thanks be to god.

god meets you in the wilderness and exile: advent 2

other readings for the second sunday of advent were: isaiah 40:1-11 and 2 peter 3:8-15a

the holy gospel according to mark. (1:1-8)

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,

       the Son of God.

²As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

       “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
              who will prepare your way;

       ³the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

              ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

                     make straight the paths of our God,’”

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,

       proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

       ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside

       and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him,

              and were baptized by him in the river Jordan,

                     confessing their sins.

⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair,

       with a leather belt around his waist,

              and he ate locusts and wild honey.

       ⁷He proclaimed,

              “After me one who is more powerful than I is coming,

                     the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

              ⁸I have baptized you with water;

                     but the one who is coming will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

the gospel of the lord.

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extra! extra!  read all about it!

mark tells us the news of the day!  the good news of jesus the christ—the anointed one, the son of god!  this is the beginning!  the beginning of return.  isaiah proclaims a return from exile for the israelites.  a return so bold and quick that the scary, wandering wilderness will be like i-15 without any traffic.  the israelites will cruise back from this exile at top speed with no accidents or construction to slow them down.  the israelites are heading home, heading to god.

or at least, they are heading back to where they understand god to be.  …but neither isaiah nor mark, quoting isaiah, says “prepare the way to the lord, make a direct path to god.” instead they say, “make a path for god.”  god is coming, in fact, god is already here, and as with the israelites, god will begin with us in exile, in the wilderness.  “⁸the grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our god will stand forever.”  the voices crying out for god, for rescue, are clear: people are grass, fading like a flower.  the only constant is god.  god will make real heavens and earth “where righteousness is at home” and it begins here—now.  right where you are.

god begins the journey, and the good news of jesus christ, the son of god, begins not in the big city, the palaces, or the places of comfort.  it all begins in exile, in the wilderness, in a barn.  god comes to us and begins this walk from the places of neglect and pain in the world and in our lives.

god comes to our wilderness—our exile.  during advent, as the days draw shorter and the shopping ads grow ever more numerous in our mail, on tv, in our emails, it’s easy to be lost in the midst of this wilderness.  to see ad after ad urging you to buy the newest, best, biggest toy or tool.  that this next purchase will fill the hunger in your heart, will make you young again, will give you confidence, will keep your loneliness at bay.

the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the lord blows upon it.

it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the busy-ness of this season.  lost in the neverending shopping lines and wishlists, so busy doing that we forget to stop and breathe, to see the gifts of friends, family, and community that already surround us.   

without going into a cave in the mountains by yourself, it’s not possible to really get out of this wilderness anytime soon.  we are caught up in it well into the new year.  the busy-ness just never seems to end.  at best you steal a moment here or there—and that is what it feels like, with the guilt you feel for not being “in the christmas spirit” 24/7, for wanting it all to stop and go away, for wanting a moment for yourself, the guilt of stealing yourself back from busy-ness.

⁸the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the lord blows upon it.

maybe instead you’re lost in the noise that never seems to reach you.  perhaps the noise just reminds you of how alone you are.  the people bustling everywhere just increase your anxiety and alone-ness as you realize you are not them.  you don’t have the same people in your life or the same busy-ness to distract you.  nothing distracts from this pain and anxiety.   

maybe your missing loved one, no longer around the table, is just too hard this time of year.  the long nights and clouds and pollution keep the hope that sunlight brings from reaching you.  the stars don’t shine as brightly.  those moments before you fall asleep haunt you with doubts, loneliness, and depression.

⁸the grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our god will stand forever.

the word of our god will stand forever.

god comes to us in our wilderness, in our exile, in our waiting.  in those midnight moments when we are at our lowest, our most anxious, our most alone and vulnerable, god comes to be with us and to deliver us.  it may not be as loud or as obvious as the announcements today in isaiah of “here is your god!” or even the announcement in mark, as of a newspaper seller with a special report.   

oftentimes we don’t even recognize or notice god until we take the time to look back.  it’s like the story of the footprints in the sand.  it’s not until the person looks back on their life that they realize that in those deepest, hardest moments, it was then that god carried them.

our incarnate god becomes flesh in us and with us, coming into the wilderness to lead us out.  to lead us to help, to support, and to companionship.  god brings us to doctors and therapists, to friends and family, and here, to christ the king—to a community who misses you when you’re not here, who prays for you, who hurts with you and cries with you. 

god feeds god’s flock, gathering the lambs and guiding the sheep.  god comes patiently            to wait            and walk            with us.  god’s bosom carries us in our sobs, at the doctor’s appointments, in the crowds.  god can certainly be found on the high mountains and in the jubilee, but god is known deeply and profoundly in those moments when all is lost, when our façade crumbles and we are left with our brokenness. 

then god begins as a dull glow, growing in brightness that is made visible through our cracks and brokenness.  the stars: those beautiful, brilliant pinpricks in the night sky, opening us to a world outside of ourselves.  the stars only shine            out in the midnight of a wilderness night.  the preparation has been made.  john has come, we are being called to repentance and god is in this wilderness.  god is here with us and god will guide us forward, carrying us if need be.

thanks be to god.