Luke 2:1-18
Friends,
Thank you for joining us here on this Christmas Vigil. We honor this day not because it is precisely the date of Jesus’ Birth in the historical sense, but rather it that we have chosen a day within the context of telling the story of the coming of Jesus Christ to earth and through that life proclaim a message of Good News!
Interestingly enough, the phrase Good News is used by Luke in a unique and particular way. Rather than limiting the phrase in describing a literary church genre, Luke uses it in this passage in its original manner and intent (more on that later). It’s an announcement, a calling out, or better yet, a public sharing of the gift of God to all people.
So that’s what we are here for in the sharing of the gift. That is why we will conclude with Lord’s Table, for throughout Jesus’ life, even in his birth, it was all about God imparting great gifts of friendship, justice, peace and love. In that same spirit we share what Jesus shared with us.
You have heard this passage read publicly time after time. I don’t know about you, but for me there is something that mystifies me about it; particularly that there is always some different aspect of this account that grabs me by the throat. Yet all the while it is connected to memories of Christmases past. I still remember the Charlie Brown Christmas special when Linus recites this passage in their pageant rehearsal with a spotlight placed on him centre stage. Let me share with you what’s been taking my attention about the birth of Christ this year.
First there this simple historical setting the Luke gives us. He starts by naming the ruler of the known worlds of his day, then the regional context and finally zeroing in on Bethlehem, the city of the house of bread. Through layers of concentric circles as if we were landing on planet earth and looking for a particular landing point we go from a view of the globe, to a small town, and finally a feeding trough in a stable behind a crowded inn.
Without any reason Jesus is born and comes to us anonymously, in the most inconspicuous way, right under our noses. The rulers that Luke mentions have no clue that Jesus was born or that there was even a Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, descendent of the Royal house of David. These rulers didn’t even care!
Yet in sharp contrast the people who found out about the Jesus’ birth were men of livestock, rustic, sheep-stinching men who were just minding their business while they were working the nightshift. It’s as if there were these guys working at a bakery, a factory, security guards, bus drivers, any of these in the middle of the night and some strange cat appears out of nowhere to give them an announcement. Just imagine an angel delivering you some Western Union or UPS parcel that says on the cover of the box Good News- for your eyes only!!!
The angelic vision that these shepherds experienced was in the form typical of the News couriers in Roman times, particularly when public reports of a battle front were delivered out loud. These couriers were called Heralds, and whenever the news came he would identify the ruler who sanctioned that message and share his ‘good news’. Whenever it came from the Emperor himself it was announced that it came from the people’s Lord and Savior, the Emperor. Notice how Luke turned the language of ‘good news’ on its head. By the way it is Luke the first to identify Jesus as Savior connecting his hebrew name to the redemptive work of Jesus. Jesus is described as of the House of David, Savior, Messiah (annointed one) and Lord. All of these are attributes the person of Jesus Christ.
What is different from the angelic herald’s announcement from an imperial herald is the fact that there is no news from a battlefield but rather there is a choir singing a song of peace. “Peace on earth,” we hear from the choir, the other part of the song have some translation problems. For the most part it is a hymn of peace is translated for all humanity, to whom God offers good will. In a way it is a similar good favor as it was in Mary’s call. Rather than a message of conquest it is a message to usher in an age where peace is the prime directive for humanity. Not peace through war, not war to preserve peace, and neither it is preserving the peace by aggressively preempting our foes. It is a song of peace for humanity but that God is the center and the author of that peace. Divine peace is imparted to us in the temporal realm in places where we cannot understand.
Meanwhile, back to the shepherds. So we have an awe inspiring episode that they experienced, one that was originally intended to be reserved for the knowledgeable and powerful, is now offered to the humble and meek. Jesus’ birth is already turning the tables on social status by sharing the excitement of his birth with people who possibly were not power-brokers, or agents of the government. The coming of Christ is for simple, weak, sick, lame, broken people; those who are incapable of fully participating in the cultic life os Israel are made a new Israel by the power of God, in the plane of a new social order.
So this tells us, friends, that as we wait on the coming of the Lord to us we should not receive God’s message in a position of privilege, but in places that perhaps we can deem as crucified and poor. This message of one who takes the language and status of Empire, undermines it, and converts it into a message of peace to create something that never existed before: a new social order, forged and shared for/by people of everyday life so that history can be transformed.
We are to take the political language and convert it to God-language, to convert the language of war and divisiveness to one of peace where all can share but to bring that new language and order to the places where the privileged few are least expecting. Who would have thought about that? So we shouldn’t be haunted with fear, but with awesome thanksgiving to look at the age of peace that God wants you and me to usher in.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Joyful Harmony
Psalm 133
Friends,
The Lord be with you!
I am honored to be here with you on this occasion though I must confess my apprehension when I was approached by the Moderator. I say this for obvious reasons. Coming to Presbytery is not a joyous occasion. We are deeply divided along issues that have for long not been tended to, and now have festered. Our meetings are too long, with procedural motions after procedural motions slowing down even impeding the business that we are here for. Meeting after meeting we witness the classic clash between priests and prophets (I would say we oscillate between these two roles given the circumstances). Allow me to be blunt for a minute; coming to Presbytery meetings lately has been a humungous waste of precious time. I am quite certain that I am not in the minority on this issue.
Now given this context I was handed the task to preach about joy. Imagine that! The theme of our worship service today, joy, is the one action that our body has been avoiding all this time. It was quite a challenge to find a passage for this occasion. Something that will lead us to ponder about joy in such a difficult and challenging time. Once I ran into the 133rd Psalm on the first gloss, it looked rather corny (especially the part about oil running down Aaron’s beard- what a slob!). Yet even though the metaphor of Aaron’s beard seemed rather odd, I kept reading and re-reading it and decided to take a closer look at it. The more I read it the more appropriate it felt for today’s gathering. For the purpose of this occasion I would like for us to consider the notion of joy not so much as an end in itself, but rather as a means to an end, and in this case it would be love and justice as our end.
How good and how beautiful...
The passage In Hebrew tells us that this is a “song of ascent by David.” Ascent Psalms were intended to be sung as the company of pilgrims approached Mt. Zion to usher their sacrifices during the festivals of Yahweh. By their very nature these songs are joyful and celebratory. The phrase good and pleasant is a reaction of joy to when not only family can share property, but likewise when the covenant community can come together to worship their God. The purpose of our worship is good and its delightful, pleasant, beautiful. Such beauty brings joy to our lives and in a way we come to worship to seek a special form of joy that we find nowhere else in our lives. Gathering this Presbytery together is good and beautiful.
Dwelling together in unity (harmony)
Yet their is a caviat...
It is good and beautiful when we gather together in unity. Separation disrupts the beauty and it disrupts the joy... That is the same kind of grief, loss and sadness we experience at the death of a loved one because ultimately death brings separation from the people we love dearly.
In the popular Spanish edition of the Bible, and in some older translations in English you will find the word “harmony.” It’s an interesting translation for such a word. The idea behind it that such “unity,” is not intended to be a monolith, but that it was supposed to be a composite, and complex form of unity. I like that word harmony, partly because I am an amateur musician and so it kind of makes me consider a “musical hermeneutic” of sorts when considering this translation.
If we define harmony in musical terms it sheds light to this composite unity that we should be aiming towards. The music dictionary tells us that harmony is the “art and science of reconciling simultaneous dissonant and consonant sounds.” If our harmony relies exclusively on consonance we are restricting ourselves to dullness, lack of innovation, cowardice before new ideas. Constant consonant sounds is the equivalent of a “Kum bah yah” theology of Christian fellowship. “Let’s just hold hands and love the Lord together.” It ignores real problems and crisis and at best is nothing else but an opium to escape the world of pain and the site of crucifixion that we face in this world.
Yet constant dissonance is not such a sexy alternative either. Yes it is bold, in-your-face, honest, blunt, and takes no prisoners. It brings spice to the music that would otherwise be dull and boring. Too many times people use dissonance as a blunt instrument to exercise power over weaker people. It’s the “This-is-what-I-am-take-it-or-leave-it” attitude. I think this is what characterizes us as New Yorkers. The problem is that if all we have is dissonance there can be no community and an overall sense of unity.
What distinguishes the great composers in Western Music (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.) is that they have a keen insight into the mastery of harmony. They know when to be dissonant and when to be consonant. They understand the joy of mastering tension and release. Yes, it’s beautiful to see how people come together of different ways of understanding the world, of different ways of being, but understand the importance to come together to give witness to the God whom we call Our Saviour. We know the deal breakers but we must search for the common threads and themes and our common humanity.
Like oil, like dew
This brief psalm gives us two metaphors that explains this composite unity, this harmony that we so desperately need...
First their is the imagery of oil poured on one’s head. It is a symbol of generosity and hospitality when a guest is received in a home and used as a balm to clean, heal, and bless. Such unity produces health and well being, but above all it is to be the kind of hospitality that reflects the consecration of the high-priests of the Aaronic tradition. And not just any oil, it is “precious oil.” It is not cheap and measured but expensive and generous. What kind of hospitality are we producing in these gatherings? Are we cheap or are we generous wishing God’s blessing on the priestly people?
The second image is one of fertility. I believe that this one would resonate more in a country surrounded by desserts, because water is a symbol of life to such people. The dew on Mt. Hermon descends and floods streams and sources of water to the people surrounding Mt. Zion. In high places God was encountered and were the loci of great theophanies and fantastic manifestations of God’s power. In this particular high place from Jerusalem you can see the snow capped peaks of Mt. Hermon and as long this continued to be there would be water for the people. Our composite unity and complex harmony is good and beautiful not only as we share generously and hospitably but also because it gives hope to a lifeless world. Unity is as much a life-giving force as it is a source of joy.
A promise...
I mentioned earlier that joy can be a means to an end. It could be so if we are faithful and committed to being a generous, hospitable, and life-giving people that we are called to be. Friends, this is a life and death issue for us if we fail to take this into account. Our lives are at stake...
We have people here who do not attend church regularly yet come to our gatherings to vent out complaints and peeves about the weekness of their respective congregations and all they do is fight without being factfully insightful. We have others who do not care for the integrity of the process and submit one procedural motion after another with the notion of “be dammed with the other affairs of the presbytery.” To all of you, I beg for the sake of all of us to put down your arms, and call a moratorium on such behaviors.
If this idea of harmony is an art and science, then we must pursue our oneness as God’s people in New York City with insight and knowledge. For ignorant sentimentality produces vulnerable victims who hold long grudges on one hand and condescending people of privilege on the other. However, if we chose to seek our unity artfully and scientifically we will be given the gift of eternal life. Our salvation depends on it. For if we do it right it will be good and beautiful in the end, as we sing in joyful harmony along the way to God’s Holy City.
In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Friends,
The Lord be with you!
I am honored to be here with you on this occasion though I must confess my apprehension when I was approached by the Moderator. I say this for obvious reasons. Coming to Presbytery is not a joyous occasion. We are deeply divided along issues that have for long not been tended to, and now have festered. Our meetings are too long, with procedural motions after procedural motions slowing down even impeding the business that we are here for. Meeting after meeting we witness the classic clash between priests and prophets (I would say we oscillate between these two roles given the circumstances). Allow me to be blunt for a minute; coming to Presbytery meetings lately has been a humungous waste of precious time. I am quite certain that I am not in the minority on this issue.
Now given this context I was handed the task to preach about joy. Imagine that! The theme of our worship service today, joy, is the one action that our body has been avoiding all this time. It was quite a challenge to find a passage for this occasion. Something that will lead us to ponder about joy in such a difficult and challenging time. Once I ran into the 133rd Psalm on the first gloss, it looked rather corny (especially the part about oil running down Aaron’s beard- what a slob!). Yet even though the metaphor of Aaron’s beard seemed rather odd, I kept reading and re-reading it and decided to take a closer look at it. The more I read it the more appropriate it felt for today’s gathering. For the purpose of this occasion I would like for us to consider the notion of joy not so much as an end in itself, but rather as a means to an end, and in this case it would be love and justice as our end.
How good and how beautiful...
The passage In Hebrew tells us that this is a “song of ascent by David.” Ascent Psalms were intended to be sung as the company of pilgrims approached Mt. Zion to usher their sacrifices during the festivals of Yahweh. By their very nature these songs are joyful and celebratory. The phrase good and pleasant is a reaction of joy to when not only family can share property, but likewise when the covenant community can come together to worship their God. The purpose of our worship is good and its delightful, pleasant, beautiful. Such beauty brings joy to our lives and in a way we come to worship to seek a special form of joy that we find nowhere else in our lives. Gathering this Presbytery together is good and beautiful.
Dwelling together in unity (harmony)
Yet their is a caviat...
It is good and beautiful when we gather together in unity. Separation disrupts the beauty and it disrupts the joy... That is the same kind of grief, loss and sadness we experience at the death of a loved one because ultimately death brings separation from the people we love dearly.
In the popular Spanish edition of the Bible, and in some older translations in English you will find the word “harmony.” It’s an interesting translation for such a word. The idea behind it that such “unity,” is not intended to be a monolith, but that it was supposed to be a composite, and complex form of unity. I like that word harmony, partly because I am an amateur musician and so it kind of makes me consider a “musical hermeneutic” of sorts when considering this translation.
If we define harmony in musical terms it sheds light to this composite unity that we should be aiming towards. The music dictionary tells us that harmony is the “art and science of reconciling simultaneous dissonant and consonant sounds.” If our harmony relies exclusively on consonance we are restricting ourselves to dullness, lack of innovation, cowardice before new ideas. Constant consonant sounds is the equivalent of a “Kum bah yah” theology of Christian fellowship. “Let’s just hold hands and love the Lord together.” It ignores real problems and crisis and at best is nothing else but an opium to escape the world of pain and the site of crucifixion that we face in this world.
Yet constant dissonance is not such a sexy alternative either. Yes it is bold, in-your-face, honest, blunt, and takes no prisoners. It brings spice to the music that would otherwise be dull and boring. Too many times people use dissonance as a blunt instrument to exercise power over weaker people. It’s the “This-is-what-I-am-take-it-or-leave-it” attitude. I think this is what characterizes us as New Yorkers. The problem is that if all we have is dissonance there can be no community and an overall sense of unity.
What distinguishes the great composers in Western Music (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.) is that they have a keen insight into the mastery of harmony. They know when to be dissonant and when to be consonant. They understand the joy of mastering tension and release. Yes, it’s beautiful to see how people come together of different ways of understanding the world, of different ways of being, but understand the importance to come together to give witness to the God whom we call Our Saviour. We know the deal breakers but we must search for the common threads and themes and our common humanity.
Like oil, like dew
This brief psalm gives us two metaphors that explains this composite unity, this harmony that we so desperately need...
First their is the imagery of oil poured on one’s head. It is a symbol of generosity and hospitality when a guest is received in a home and used as a balm to clean, heal, and bless. Such unity produces health and well being, but above all it is to be the kind of hospitality that reflects the consecration of the high-priests of the Aaronic tradition. And not just any oil, it is “precious oil.” It is not cheap and measured but expensive and generous. What kind of hospitality are we producing in these gatherings? Are we cheap or are we generous wishing God’s blessing on the priestly people?
The second image is one of fertility. I believe that this one would resonate more in a country surrounded by desserts, because water is a symbol of life to such people. The dew on Mt. Hermon descends and floods streams and sources of water to the people surrounding Mt. Zion. In high places God was encountered and were the loci of great theophanies and fantastic manifestations of God’s power. In this particular high place from Jerusalem you can see the snow capped peaks of Mt. Hermon and as long this continued to be there would be water for the people. Our composite unity and complex harmony is good and beautiful not only as we share generously and hospitably but also because it gives hope to a lifeless world. Unity is as much a life-giving force as it is a source of joy.
A promise...
I mentioned earlier that joy can be a means to an end. It could be so if we are faithful and committed to being a generous, hospitable, and life-giving people that we are called to be. Friends, this is a life and death issue for us if we fail to take this into account. Our lives are at stake...
We have people here who do not attend church regularly yet come to our gatherings to vent out complaints and peeves about the weekness of their respective congregations and all they do is fight without being factfully insightful. We have others who do not care for the integrity of the process and submit one procedural motion after another with the notion of “be dammed with the other affairs of the presbytery.” To all of you, I beg for the sake of all of us to put down your arms, and call a moratorium on such behaviors.
If this idea of harmony is an art and science, then we must pursue our oneness as God’s people in New York City with insight and knowledge. For ignorant sentimentality produces vulnerable victims who hold long grudges on one hand and condescending people of privilege on the other. However, if we chose to seek our unity artfully and scientifically we will be given the gift of eternal life. Our salvation depends on it. For if we do it right it will be good and beautiful in the end, as we sing in joyful harmony along the way to God’s Holy City.
In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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