The Blessed Event

We mark the blessed event of EMMANUEL in 2020.

We remember God being born in human likeness.  We have a very serene picture of this event in our minds and our homes, as we have been fed images of it for generations.  We ignore the fact of the scandal of an unwed mother and father, too poor to bribe an innkeeper, must give birth in a barn and lay their newborn babe, Son of God, in a feeding trough for animals.  We certainly do not mention that this God incarnate is born as we are born, "between feces and urine, in blood."  We don't like to mention such things.

But isn't that exactly the point, that God comes to us to identify with us as WE experience life, and not like royalty, but as one of the lowliest in the world?  It was night shift shepherds who were heralded as they do their menial, dirty and dangerous job in the dark and cold of night.

And Jesus' dedication, full with sacrifice, not of a lamb as people with means do, but with two turtledoves - the sacrifice of the poor.

And Jesus' flight from a country of political oppression of him, and life as a refugee, a resident alien in a foreign land.  Funded by the gifts of the magi who adored him and worshiped him - foreigners who recognized this Son of God as his own King was trying to find and kill him.  

This was for a people who had "walked in darkness" to see light.  It was for a people who "sat in a land of deep darkness" to have light shine.  They had been occupied and oppressed by the Roman Empire for generations.  They had everything taken away from them to feed the insatiable appetites of empire.  They were demoralized, marginalized in their own country, disenfranchised within their own nation, brutalized by a police state, incarcerated, executed and shamefully treated.  And the religious leaders of their time were corrupted by the wealth, power and status of empire, and in collusion with it, just as was the king and prophets of their time.  It was truly a dark place.  They were sitting in it for a long time.  But the prophet's promise of a son who would come and set things right was being fulfilled!  
God is with us!  And not out of the palace or the temple, but among the poorest and most vulnerable!

That was Good News for the people!

It still is Good News for those who are marginalized, disenfranchised, downtrodden and oppressed.  It still is Good News for those who have been held down, back and out by the purveyors of empire.  It is still bad news for those in power, with the wealth and status in the land, who occupy and oppress them.  God identifies with the lowest, with those oppressed.  God takes sides, and is on the side, not of the powerful and wealthy who have status in the world, but on the side of those who have been victimized by them for generations under empire.

To kill the Son of God who has come to "the least of these" today, American Christians have re-invented Jesus and the message of the Gospel.  They have co-opted the story and have made it in the image of empire instead of God and Kingdom of God.  They have replaced the truly morbid with a false serenity and glamour.  They have replaced God's identification with the lowest with a false belief that God honors the wealthy and powerful.  They have replaced the scandal and humility of God in human form and frailty with bold, royal divinity.  We have all been subject to that for years.

But the message of the Gospel is clear:

God is with those who are homeless, cold and hungry.

God is with those who are resident aliens, forced as refugees from their violent homes.

God is with children in cages and their parents who are not allowed to be with them.

God is with those who resist, protesting the injustices imposed upon them and others.

God is with the menial laborers whose toil rewards the wealthy with more than they need.

God is with those who are forced to beg, because all means of living have been taken from them.

God is with those who are sick and dying because only those with means can get healing.

God is with those who are victims of empire and its values.

God is with those who suffer under the inequities and false inequality of empire.

God is with those who resist empire and live the values of the Kingdom of God.

God is with those who refuse to give their devotion to the gods of empire.

God is with those who suffer - the dirty, cold, hungry, afraid and morbid.

God is with us, not in the Palace or Temple, but on the street, in the field.

God is with us and will address those abuses of power, wealth and status with the Good News.

God is with us and will deliver us from the evils of empire in the world.

God is with us, identifies with our frailty, even pain and eventually with our death.

God is with us and will suffer the injustices suffered by so many at the hands of empire.

God is with us to usher in the Kingdom of God in the face of empire, to destroy it.

God is with us to lift up the lowly and bring down the mighty in empire.

When we "clean up the story," we throw out the message of the Good News.  We must look at this narrative in its historic, cultural contexts and understand why it was such Good News to those who first heard it read to them.  We must not clean it up, but understand how it speaks to empire here and now, still an evil of the world that occupies, oppresses and victimizes millions, even billions of people.  We must not clean it up, but look honestly at how the Good News condemns empire and its values, while lifting up the lowest among us according to Kingdom of God values.  We must not clean it up, but rather apply it to how we live in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now - politically, economically, socially and ecclesiastically.  For when we "clean up the story," we render it irrelevant to our lives with God today.  When we look at the Good News honestly and apply Jesus' Way of being children of God to our lives, we live the Good News in the world, and are thus faithful to God.

The Gospel is a call to revolution.  It is about the living of revolutionary Agape Love, applying it as the Word of the Word Made Flesh to the world.  It is about revolting against the greed, lust for power and desire for status that are empire values, which have held God's children down, back and out for generations.  The people have walked in darkness and sat in deep darkness long enough. 

EMMANUEL!

Pastor Jamie

   

The Advent of Love

 As you know, I believe that the active living of Agape Love in the world IS the call of all who would follow Jesus, and THE mission of the church that bears the name of the Christ.  It is the central message in the Good News of Jesus.

It is a revolutionary act.  It is a radical thing to do.  Tragic as it is, this is revolutionary and radical because we have come so far away from making the values of the Kingdom our normative values in this part of the Kingdom, here and now.  It is so revolutionary and radical because our descent into the living of empire values has brought us to a very low point in our life with God, as it has in the past.  We have aligned ourselves with empire instead of God.  We have made normative the values of empire: Greed, lust for Power, Hatred and desire for Status.  This has divided us and has destroyed the lives of many of God's children.  We have given lip service to God while giving our devotion to the god of self by living empire values.  That is our idolatry.  It is our sin.  As a nation, as the church in this nation, we have buried the Good News of Jesus under the evils of empire in our hearts, have created new theologies and ideologies to justify it in our minds and have thus killed our souls and the soul of our nation.

The Good News is that not all have walked that path.  There are prophets and teachers who have not given themselves over to empire and its values, but have remained faithful to Jesus and what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us as God's Will.  They have striven to live the Agape Love and Grace that Jesus represents for a world weary of its oppression.  They have done the revolutionary and radical thing in the face of empire - they have actively committed on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy, and especially the most vulnerable among us.  They have consistently and constantly given the alternative message of the Gospel in a world saturated by the bad news of empire.  Some of the them have been ignored and some silenced, but their message of revolutionary love has been received by many, and is now kindling a fire of radical love across or nation and the world once again.

In the midst of the darkness of injustice, inequities and oppression, the Good News of Agape Love shines, exposes the darkness for what it is and enlightens a different path of truth and life.  It drives those in politics and economics, those in their communities, families and society to work toward the Shalom (completeness, wholeness, well-being) of all around them.  It draws people who are weary of oppression to stand in solidarity with those who have most been hurt by empire's predatory practices.  It guides people to a different, better, more sustainable way of living in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now.  It gathers people as advocates for those who have been held down, back and out for so long because of empire's ways.  It leads us to the living of God's Will as we follow in Jesus' Way of Agape Love and Grace.

We are in the Advent of Love.  We have seen it shine in the darkness of occupied streets, in the dark corridors of legislative corruption and in the dark voids of economic injustice.  People are saying, "NO!" to empire and "YES!" to the living of Agape Love for one another.  

In one of the darkest periods of our nation's life, certainly in our lifetimes, at the darkest time of the year, the light is shining so that the high places (and people) will be brought down as those in low places are raised up, the crooked will be straightened out and the rough and violent places smoothed out in justice, equity and peace.  

Join the movement.  Be a part of this revolution.  Do the radical thing.  Live Agape Love and Grace, and work for the Shalom of all around you.  If we want to be followers of Jesus, we must go where Jesus went.  It is OUR call and OUR mission as children of God and followers of Jesus, in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now!

This is OUR ADVENT OF LOVE.

Pastor Jamie

What I love about Hanukkah - JOY

 It was not after victory that they rededicated the 2nd Temple.

It was in the middle of the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE).

It was during their effort to resist the Seleucid occupation of their faith and culture.

Like Jeremiah buying a piece of property after announcing that they would be going into exile, it was a symbol of hope and a celebration of life in that hope.

The miracle was that.  Oh, having a day's worth of oil last for eight days is not insignificant, to be sure, but it is in the hope of God's continued presence, power and provision that the miracle took place.

Resistance to Occupation and Oppression.

Light in Darkness.

Hope in Uncertainty and perhaps Despair.

Living Life, even celebrating it, even in desperate circumstances.

In the midst of it, folk still celebrate with the Hallel prayers and blessings, singing the Ma'oz Tzor, eating the Fried Foods (Latkes), playing the Dreidel games and giving gifts (Gelt).  For eight days, they celebrate, give and live, letting their light shine in the darkness, the light of God in a dark world.

We need that spirit now, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.  As numbers of those who have died rise and tensions mount, even with hope of (but not completion of) vaccination is seen, we light the candles or lamps, sing, dance, eat, recite prayers and blessings, play games and give gifts - we live.  We must, as an act of faith and hope.  We must live love and in joy.  It is a revolutionary act.

We don't just celebrate victories as people of faith, we anticipate them in hope and faith.  We celebrate life right here and now, in the midst of the struggle.  We face adversity by living and celebrating life, even in it.

And we do it for those we've lost in it.  We make it a remembrance of them - different this year, than when they were with us in it.  We honor them, and memorialize them.  It becomes a part of how we celebrate life in faith and hope.

For the eight days of Hanukkah, for the 12 days of Christmas, for the 7 days of Kwanzaa, for the 12 days of Epiphany... we will celebrate light in darkness, hope, joy, love, peace, and principles of community living.  I hope you will also.

Have a Safe and Happy Hanukkah, everyone!

Advent of Peace

"I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play, and mild and sweet their songs repeat of peace on earth, good will to all." 

As you know, I believe that until all have Shalom, none truly have it.

Shalom, beyond just peace, is the completeness, wholeness and well-being in one's life that come from the "things that make for peace" - justice, equality, equity and the living of Agape Love with one another.  If we do not have the conditions that make for Shalom in the world, we cannot and will not have peace in the world.

As the prophet Jeremiah lamented, "For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.  They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.  They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush."  (6:13-15; 8:11-12)

It is inequity that has caused for many in the world to have a lack of Shalom.  Some glut themselves with abundance as others starve to death, die of thirst and suffer from curable diseases.  Some have an abundance and hoard more than they will ever need for themselves, as others go without the basic needs to sustain their lives.  Some believe themselves superior to others and thus entitled to more than others have, though the only truly exceptional quality they possess is their ruthlessness, lived out in greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for status.  

It is inequality that has caused many in the world to have a lack of Shalom.  Some believe themselves to be superior and thus entitled to respect, also to have the privilege of disrespecting others in the world around them.  They often actively strive to hold others down, back and out from having what they need, just to prove their superiority.  What they prove is their lack of humanity.  What they prove is that their souls are dead or dying.  There is tension, conflict and even war because others will not be treated shamefully without there being a reaction, resistance and even revolution, as our own history has shown.

It is injustice that has caused many in the world to have a lack of Shalom.  Some have more and gain more because of the unjust economic systems designed for them to gain more at the expense of others.  Some seem to be above the law and others have their lives destroyed by it because the unjust legal system is designed to benefit some and actively hurt others.  Social norms and mores are built on some being pitted against others, which further creates tension, conflict and violence within society, because our unjust political system benefits those already in power who use hatred as the tool by which to keep it.

"And in despair I bowed my head. 'There is no peace on earth," I said.  For hate is strong and mocks the song of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all."

This Advent, perhaps we can look to the Prophets of old who railed against injustice, and to Jesus and the Gospels as an alternative and resistance to empire, so that all may have Shalom and that we may all have peace.  

This Advent, perhaps we can look to the unjust economic, justice and political systems in our nation that benefit the few at the expense of the many, and strive to live in alignment with Jesus' fulfillment of the Law and Prophets in the Good News of social justice in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now.

This Advent, perhaps we can commit ourselves to welcome Jesus by opening our hearts and minds to those who Jesus loves, the downtrodden, marginalized, disenfranchised and most vulnerable.  Perhaps we can even strive toward the living of Jesus' commanded Agape Love.  Perhaps we can even strive toward making the things that make for Shalom our new norms and social mores, and thus be faithful to God in Christ Jesus.  Perhaps we can get beyond vague concepts and theories, warm thoughts and good prayers to practice - the practice of living Agape Love - committed action on behalf of the other toward their Shalom (completeness, wholeness, well-being) in life.

Perhaps this Advent...

"Then rang the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead, nor does God sleep.  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail with Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all."

Perhaps this Advent...

Pastor Jamie