A Little More About Joseph

Advent IV – Fear and Grace

Matthew 1:18-25

This next Sunday – the last Advent Sunday for the year – allows us to hear a little more about Joseph.  We hear/read way too little about this man!  Everything we know, however, helps us to believe he is righteous, honorable and compassionate.  The woman he loved is pregnant – and the child is not his.  Rather than being angry he struggles over what he should do for and with her.  He is afraid of what will happen to her if the secret becomes known.  She will be ostracized and perhaps injured or killed for her sinfulness.

 

It is only through grace that his fear is relieved and a plan is offered to him that will allow both of them to live well.

 

How many times in our lives do we struggle to do the right thing?  Fear fills us, lives beside us, and often forces us to make decisions that are not life-giving.  Letting go of that fear, however, may open our eyes, hearts and lives to gifts we (and the world) need to receive.

 

 

LOOKING FOR JOY

Advent III – Blossoming Wilderness

Psalm 146:5-10

Isaiah 35:1-10

 

We scoff at the ridiculous.  Deserts are dry, non-descript lands of emptiness.  To think of them as anything else is totally absurd.  Yet, miracles happen!  Deserts do bloom – overnight.  And the beauty and color of a blooming desert are magnificent, especially in light of the absurdity.

 

Strength in the wake of feebleness, speech for the speechless, sight for the blind and hearing for the deaf  …all absurd to hope for …and all miracles when fulfilled.

 

Faith is the realization of all that is absurd.  Faith is believing that our human condition is not nearly as restrictive as we are led to understand.  Faith is allowing the Other to touch us and to link us to the whole created universe which cannot be solely rationalized.

 

Faith is the blossoming of the wilderness of our lives.

 

Advent I

November 28 – Advent I – Let’s Go!

This next Sunday will be Advent – already!  The scriptures we will consider are:

Isaiah 2:1-5 and Psalm 122

 

Both scriptures for today sing anticipation.  Both demonstrate journey.  Both are filled with hope based on experience of past satisfaction.

 

As we begin the season (and new Christian year) anticipation is the theme. Songs of faith are hopeful because those who believe have already experienced promise in some way.  Isaiah’s prophecy has an interesting introduction – the prophet claims he saw the word of promise.  So it is not only that we have heard, experienced, tasted what promises to be …but the prophet claims we have seen it as well.  How do we see the word?  How do we visualize the promise of God?  How is the visibility of God’s message so clear that we will be able to identify with it?

 

This season of anticipation has to be rich enough with memory and hope that we will continue to be the carriers of the message.  Believing that there can be and will be a time when swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks is that on which we depend.  That message pushes us to continue.  The ministry of Jesus Christ into which we have been called continues to be the urgent mantle of our lives.

 

It is time – there is no need to wait – let’s go!

Seeds and Orders

Trying to find the link between the mustard seed story and the slave obeying orders is a bit of a stretch.  Yet, both rely on Jesus’ admonition that faith is not something we create for ourselves.  It is not something WE even grow.  It is a gift.  Our task is truly to get out of the way of God’s hopes that are ready to dwell and zoom within us.  We can impede those hopes or we can offer space and receptivity for that growth.

This Sunday we will begin our stewardship campaign: Investment in Hope.  The Luke scripture lends itself to the possibility of how faith does and will grow within us miraculously – if we so allow.

The questions I am considering include:

-how do we prepare ourselves to nurture God’s faith and hope within us?

-how does our congregation do that?

-how does our servanthood facilitate that nurturing of hope?

-how do we rid ourselves of the natural tendency to fear the future?.