Thin Places

Meditation Christmas Eve 2017

Thin Places

Tonight as we enter into the holy night of the birth of our Savior I am thinking about thin places. a thin place is a term used for millennia to describe a place in time where the space between heaven and earth grows thin and the Sacred and the secular seem to meet. 

That night so long ago was one of those thin places moments. 

We all come to the dim lights of Christmas Eve, the candle glow, and the softness of the sounds around us. 

We all come to hushed tones of the evening seeking, searching, hoping, for a glimpse into the holy. We come to encounter the thin place where God reaches down and touches us. We come with expectation of the birth, to witness the manger once again, to be lifted up into the glorious song of angels. 

We want to be with the shepherds as they grab their gear and run to Bethlehem. 

We want a sense of that hurried anticipation of the power of the presence of God in our life.

Yes, a thin place. 

A place in time where heaven and earth grow daringly thin so that God may enter in. 

And yet, it is on this night that we discover the mystery of God’s bursting forth into real time and real space. To claim us for his own. The Incarnation happened then and happens now-be born in us today, we sing.

No matter who we are or how we are God moves through this evening with the mystery that captured that first clash of heaven to earth.

We can learn to Trust it.

Be in love with it.

And we come to discover that this mystery, this miracle, is what carries us through all the Christmas Eves to come.

Allow God to show us the holy, the thin place and space that will warm our hearts and shape our lives.

And so I invite you to remember that Christmas Comes (Ann Weams)

Christmas comes every time we see God in other persons. 

The human and the holy meet in Bethlehem-or in Times Square,

For Christmas comes like a golden storm on its way to Jerusalem—

Determinedly, inevitably…

now it comes

In the face of hatred and warring----

No atrocity too terrible to stop it. 

No Herod strong enough, 

No hurt deep enough, 

No curse shocking enough, 

No disaster shattering enough-----

For someone on earth will see the star, 

someone will hear the angel voices, 

someone will run to Bethlehem, 

someone will know peace and goodwill: 

The Christ will be born! 

Christ is born this night. 

Christ is our light.

  Blessings to you this Christmas in whatever state God finds you. 

Know you are loved and love wraps around you. 

Amen.   

Light of Love

Sermon Luke 1:26-38 December 24, 2017 Advent 4

Light of Love

Last Sunday we spent our worship experience focused on the story of the birth of Jesus through the Christmas program. The children and the choir shared the news words and music. Our hope was renewed as we witnessed our children participating in the promise of God. It was truly a light of joy.

Today on the fourth Sunday of Advent we spend time reflecting on the words of Mary as she encounters the angel Gabriel. I find myself pondering on the moment of discovery for Mary.

What is it like for us in those moments of surprise?

When the unexpected comes to us?

When the derailment of our plans and our dreams occurs, what is our response?

When we are left vulnerable to our family’s opinions, cultural expectations, and the views of the world, how do we react?

Are we aware of the presence of holiness when it appears?

There is quite a lot for us to ponder on this fourth Sunday of Advent.

God does enter into ordinary lives in ordinary ways. The angel called Mary highly favored. There was nothing in Mary’s life that would have been considered as something to be highly favored. She was poor. She lived in a town that people said nothing good comes from Nazareth. She was engaged to be married to a carpenter not a statesman or a wealthy, famous person.

God does enter into a real place in time and space. 

God breaks from heaven and begins dwelling among us in the most vulnerable way. 

Life and death hang in the balance for many a mother and child. 

Pregnancy and child birth are still to this day challenging. To conceive for some is without a thought and for others a time of great disappointment, despair, and grief. 

There are so many women who have suffered in silence as one pregnancy after another is lost and the hoped for infant returns to heaven. 

Women in childbirth are still at risk even with the best doctors and equipment available. There were safer ways for God to come to us to be among us than through this risky means.

And yet, in a little town, in a little house, with a young girl, we witness something new, something that changes our lives forever.

Mary heard the words of the angel and knew that God had come to her. Holiness had invaded her space. Holiness had come.

She asked the angel Gabriel, “How can this be?” We don’t have the opportunity for tone or inflection so we have to guess. We wonder if she is afraid, or if she was incensed, or confused, or just pondering the logic of what the angel is telling her. 

She talks with the messenger of God! She is not a silent bystander. She gets involved with the work of God within her. She becomes a partner with God in this process of redemption.

 Her response to the angel is so amazing. “May it be as you say, here am I the servant of the Lord,” is not a passive resignation for God or anyone else to do what they want with us. But, it is a response of commitment and participation with the work of God in this world.

Imagine if we too heard the word of God through the angels who visit us. Imagine if we too took a stand with God and said, “May it be as you say, here am I”.

Mary as we read further in Scripture sang a song which we now call the Magnificat. 

It was a song of liberation, a song of reversals, a song of resistance and even rebellion. 

Mary took her role as the mother of God in strength and in resilience. 

She had the resolve to follow through with whatever was to come. She had the ability to stand with a task that was contrary to the current culture. She stood firm in her faith as she faced the possibility of death. She stood firm in her faith when her son grew and took the risk of death upon himself. She stood firm in her faith as she sat at the foot of the cross and watched her son die. She stood firm in her faith even as she was cared for by others in her old age.

It is so hard for us as people of faith to figure out what God is calling us to do. 

We agonize over the call God has placed on us. We wonder if we are really doing what God has asked us to do. We agonize wondering if God really loves us. Are we worthy?

 Are we doing the right thing?

And then once again the story of Mary reminds us that God has not abandoned us. 

God chose to enter the human race by means of the human race. 

God’s creation so destroyed and distorted by acts of violence upon the earth, the creatures and each other could have been destroyed in the same breath by which it was created. But, somehow God looked upon everything there and burst forth in love. 

The Light of Love chose to push through all the depravity, sin, corruption, and discord to wash it all pure again beginning with waters of the womb. Our being drawn to the Light of Love is a rebirth in the same way.

God has sent angel messengers to us to announce that we too have received the power of God through his son born to us today. Let us say yes, let it be as you say, here am I your servant. Amen.