When you were growing up did your parents ever scold you with the phrase, “You are old enough to know better than that!” We hold children to different standards depending on their age. We expect from them what is age appropriate. So, too, in the above passage, Jesus indicates that God understands that not everyone is given the same, but those who receive rich blessings are responsible to use them to the fullest. This is not to turn faith into a rewards program where we earn God’s favor by doing certain things. What it does do is challenge us to take seriously what we have been given and understand that we are given it to use for God’s purposes and not merely our own desires. Is there anyone reading this who does not consider themselves greatly blessed? We have an abundance of material goods. We’ve been given bodies that are miraculous. We have churches and bibles and companions in faith. Not everyone in the world has these things. Maybe this would be a good week to assess what we’ve been given and how faithfully we are using it the way we think God would have us use it.

Don

John 15:12, 13- This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. (The Message Bible)

The phrase above, “put your life on the line for your friends,” has also been rendered “greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.” You might remember that there are a couple of words that come from ancient Greek into English that we translate as life. There is bios from which we get the word biology and zoe from which we get the word zoology. The word for life here is neither of these but psyche from which we get the word psychology. We certainly admire and respect people who lay their physical lives on the line for the good of others. Jesus, too, gave his physical life on the cross. But he is talking about something even broader and deeper here. He is saying that, in Jesus, God was giving the very essence of himself to us and for us and that we also should do the same to and for others. This is the basis for community, putting aside our own wants and desires for the good of others; changing the very character and course of our lives so that others will benefit. One modern example of this is Dr. Martin Luther King. Will another modern example be you?

Don

Each year in the church calendar we look at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. For many in the early church the relationship between Jesus and John seemed important, not just because they were cousins, but because they both had a message that attracted and challenged great crowds of people. In the above verse Paul has encountered a group that had been baptized according to John’s way of things. It was a baptism that indicated a person was getting their life together so that they would be ready for the one to come. Paul told them that the one to come was here, Jesus, and that they were ready now to embrace him. Many of us feel like we need to get our lives together. Particularly this time of year, we make resolutions that focus on us being better in the future. We will get in shape, or loose weight, or save money so that our lives will be better by springtime. Paul reminds these folks that life isn’t primarily about getting our act together for a day down the road, but opening our hearts to God here and now. Jesus was baptized so that we might know that God meets us where we are, as we are. It is God who comes to us, we simply respond to God. Ready for the real thing? Thanks to the gift of Jesus, life with God begins today.

Don

Matthew 2:1, 2- After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.” (The message bible)

This is how the story of the wise men begins. Can you imagine these foreigners walking around the city (Philadelphia?) stopping people and asking about the birth of the baby who would become king? I’m thinking they got a lot of blank stares and “get lost” responses. What if you or I were approached by someone asking us where to find God or where to look for what God is doing in our time. What would you tell them? There are those who seek after God. Sometimes they do not even realize it is God they are seeking (what kind of baby did the wise men think they would find?) but when they look for meaning in life, or love that is truly committed, or peace for their hearts or this broken world, they, and we, are seeking God. Is there anyone who didn’t observe Christmas in some way during the past few weeks? Could we direct others to the Christ of Christmas? If not, why not? Maybe a good New Year’s resolution would be to become a person who could point the way to God. Maybe we could help each other become that kind of person.

Have a joyous 2012!

Don

After the star has set and the angels have gone back into heaven and the shepherds have returned home, the day after Christmas, you are still in a barn with an aching body and a crying baby. In modern day life that often means that the house is a wreck, we are exhausted, hung over, have indigestion (or all three) and fearing the credit card bills that will be coming soon. We gave Jesus his due by going to church Christmas Eve but now he is forgotten, lost in the pile of used wrapping paper. But there is the Mary option. We can stop for a while, even today, and ponder the Jesus whose birth we celebrated (it was his birth we celebrated, right?). There are 4 weeks in Advent and 12 days from Christmas to Epiphany. Christmas isn’t over. It has only just begun. May it be a blessed season for you.

Don

This is Mary’s response to the angel after being told that she was to have a baby without benefit of husband, a baby that would be the son of God. Pretty heady stuff! We will never know what would have happened if she resisted (could she have said “no way?”). She didn’t just resign herself to her fate but was “ready to serve,” as Peterson puts it. God says “yes” to us, coming as the baby we celebrate at Christmas so that we might say “yes” to God, servants “ready to serve.” After the gifts are unwrapped and, perhaps returned; after the Christmas dinner has become leftovers; after we have headed home or the company has departed there remains the baby who is Christ the Lord, the one who has full claim on our lives. Will we be ready to serve?

Merry Christmas!

Don

We have a food pantry at Logan. On Sunday morning 16 people came to the church to get a bag of groceries and a $15 Acme card with which to buy perishables. Only once or twice in my 10 years here has any of the people stayed for worship or had any other connection with the church. They are almost always pleasant and friendly (one brought me a Christmas present yesterday) though given the chance they often share stories from their lives that are heartbreaking. What is the good news that God is proclaiming to these poor? Given the range of poverty in the world these folks aren’t at the bottom of the scale. They have homes and access to cars and phones while many in the third world will not survive the year. But they are poor for our society and none of us would trade places with them. All this is to raise the issue of what the birth of Jesus means to the world of the poor. As the song asks, “do they know its Christmas time at all?” As followers of the savior born in Bethlehem at Christmas, what is the good news of God we have to proclaim to the poor?

Don

This is part of what the angel told Mary about the baby she was to bear. Yesterday we had our Longest Night Service. It is a time to remember the loved ones lost to us here on earth and also to remember the hope of the above statement. Just recently in both the Logan and Bethany congregations we have mourned the passing of wonderful women that have meant so much to so many. It is particularly hard at the holiday season to feel the empty space left behind.  But isn’t this the real meaning of Christmas, this understanding that there is a forever and that the baby we celebrate is God’s way of connecting us with that forever? It is not life that is temporary but the loss of the loved one in Christ that is temporary. We celebrate God coming to us at Christmas. He is not coming for a brief visit and neither are we. The manger in Bethlehem holds the gateway to eternity for all who believe in him. May this be our source of peace this Advent season.

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

Kids all over are busy making out Christmas lists, all the stuff they want under the tree this Christmas. When they go to sit on Santa’s lap to share their requests what does he ask them? “Have you been good this year?” Goodness is, well, good. We ought to be good. We want our kids and other people to be good. But it is important to remember that God isn’t Santa; God is our Father. God doesn’t hold out his love to blackmail us into doing any particular thing. He doesn’t threaten us so that we will do what he wants us to do. The message of Christmas (and Advent) is one of grace. We miss the whole point if we think we deserve God’s favor, if we are good enough or at least better than some others. Quite frankly, this passage indicates that by God’s standards of goodness we are utter failures, we stink. But where our goodness fails God’s love prevails. To whatever extent we are good it is in grateful response to God’s love and not as a way to earn it. Love that is earned isn’t love, it is payment. When we are willing to accept that all our good deeds are like dirty rags then we are closer to living in the merciful love of God.

Don

This past weekend I was blessed to officiate at a wedding and then, the next day, attend the wedding of my niece. Both were lovely, joyful affairs. Today I am part of a funeral for one of the beloved woman of the Logan congregation even as we await word on funeral services for one of the beloved saints of the Bethany congregation. The above verse is part of a story Jesus told to encourage people to see their lives in a different light. At the weddings this weekend, the couples pledged to be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives. At the funerals this week we will honor those who lived in faithfulness to God. On Thursday we will give thanks for all the ways God has displayed his loving faithfulness to us. It is in living faithful lives that we come to share the “master’s happiness.” We can only be faithful because God has already been faithful to us. As we share in Thanksgiving this week may our gratitude lead us to be faithful with the “few things” of this life that have been entrusted to us.