Seeing a Great Light

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A warm welcome to all of you.  This evening is a time of contrasts, a time for seeing a great light out of the darkness that envelops our world.  It is a time for the glory of the Lord to shine in all our hearts and actions.

As we heard from the Prophet Isaiah, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.”  Then, in the Gospel of Luke, “An angel of the Lord stood before the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them…. The angel said to them, …’I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.’”

How different was the time of Jesus’ birth from the time in which we are living.  An idyllic scene for us at this time of year is a family sitting in a living room before a beautiful fire in the fireplace with tree lights shining and carols being played or sung.   Wouldn’t it be nice to imagine Jesus being born into such a family with all the comforts of home, with brothers and sisters enjoying new gifts, and fragrant aromas wafting from the kitchen?

Now imagine a stable filled with straw on a little farm somewhere near Bethlehem.  The smells of animals and hay abound; goats and chickens are running about; the night is dark and cold.  Mary and Joseph are forced to find shelter in the stable because of their circumstances.  They were not wealthy; they had been traveling for several days from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the required registration.  Mary was pregnant and about to give birth.  Joseph must have been worried and anxious because they could not find a room in an inn.  All they had was bands of cloth to wrap around their newborn child and a manger in which to lay him.

Who comes to visit?  Family and friends are in Nazareth and there are no expected visitors to come and offer support or a hot meal.  Luke tells us about some surprising visitors: shepherds who were told by an angel that they would “find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”  Of even greater surprise there was “with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace.’”  Was it a chorus singing “Angels we have heard on high?”  How ironic or surprising can this be?  And, for Luke, it was God’s decision that he should enter human form in this way.  God’s story in the newly born life of Jesus is beginning, and what a story it is to be.

Nancy Rockwell, a Brown graduate and an ordained minister, writes about “the grace that sustains all living things.”  “This grace, this mystery, is not won by war or by anyone’s might, cannot bought by the rich nor withheld from the homeless, is not dependent on whether you are naughty or nice.  It is not just for Christians, but is equally there for Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and people of no faith at all.  Corporations can’t by it, market it, or exploit it.  It does not set limits on who can be loved, and by whom, and [for] how much [it can be bought].  It’s the hinge on which the world relies. “

As the Gospel of Luke unfolds, the story of Jesus’ life develops with events that are consistent with his birth.  Jesus is kind and compassionate, especially toward those on the margins of society.  Luke’s stories surprise us with unexpected behavior like that of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son, or the feeding of five thousand.  God acts through Jesus in ways that go beyond the boundaries of race, gender and class. 

The point is that God is in relationship with everyone, and the Bible tells us about many mysterious ways this is accomplished:  In the Old Testament Sarah conceives and gives birth when she is old; Moses, convinced he was not up to the task, is called to lead a people out of slavery and bondage to a land of freedom.  Then there is Mary, just an ordinary woman with no particular status, called to be the mother of the Savior, the holy mother of God.

“This story’s true value comes in its gritty reality, its affirmation of human experience, its narrative of God’s great love for us, known in Jesus of Nazareth.  God intends for love to grow us, change us, heal us, remake us – not merely to delight and comfort us. This story takes its true power, not from birth, but from resurrection, the continual rebirth of all that is good and true and beautiful, the conquering of the powers of darkness and death that are seen most visibly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.” The Rev. Kay Sylvester, Episcopal Priest

The question for us in this year of 2012 is whether we shall sit in darkness or whether we can see the great light of Jesus’ birth and what it means for our world.  In seeing the light we are brought to our feet in amazement and can only “sing to the Lord and bless his Name; [and] proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.”  May you enjoy a blessed, hopeful and peaceful Christmas.  Amen.

Mary's Song of Hope

The Song of Mary, known as the Magnificat, which we sang as a Canticle and then heard in the Gospel, is from the first chapter of Luke.  Luke is the only gospel that includes Mary's Song, and apart from the Gospel of John, Mary is barely mentioned in the Gospels of Mark or Matthew.  Mark does not include the birth story at all, and in Matthew Mary has nothing to say.  She is mentioned but does not speak.  Then, in the letters of Paul, God's Son is referred to as being "born of a woman," but her name is not mentioned.  So it is only in Luke that Mary has something to say, and what she says resonates in a glorious song.

Elizabeth and Mary were filled with the Spirit of God as they anticipated the birth of children.  Mary expressed in song what she experienced in her own life and hoped for in the lives of others:  "God has scattered the proud in their conceit.  He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty."  This is a reversal of what had been taken for granted.  The accepted values and norms of the people were to be turned upside down, and a new day of justice, fairness and equality was coming.  It was what the ancient understanding of the Hebrew year of jubilee was all about.  It was "the promise God made to Abraham and his children for ever."

It was Mary’s faith in God that enabled her to sing her magnificent song “rejoicing in God her Savior.”  She trusted that nothing was impossible for God.  As Luke states, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”  The biblical scholar Walter Brueggmann reminds us,  “She sings about ‘the hungry,’ the ones cut out of the food chain and denied access to the world’s great granaries.  Mary knew what Israel always knew, and what the church knows in Advent.  The weak and vulnerable will be ‘lifted up.’  The poetry and the song invite us to move into a new,  different world.  We may, in anticipation, already act in and for that new age.  Already now in such anticipation folk in Bethlehem can lean back in confidence.  Folk around Mary can hope and sing.  And the rest of us, while we wait, may be alongside the hungry and lowly who will be honored by the new reality of the Christ-child.”

This great Song of Mary reminds all of us that we are interdependent beings.  We need places where friendship and companionship are a reality without regard to social status or economic standing.  The upside-down values of the Magnificat tell us that God's economy is different from ours, that people and relationships matter more than anything else, and that true fidelity to God and others demands a new attitude and a new understanding about human relationships and the purpose of life.

James Kay, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, has written, "Mary sings not just a solo aria about her own destiny, but a freedom song on behalf of all the faithful poor in the land.  She sings a song of freedom for all who, in their poverty and their wretchedness, still believe that God will make a way where there is no way."

"Can Mary’s God truly be our Lord and our God -- the God who overturns the way the world works, who elects the least and the last to bring in the kingdom, whose judgment in every sense will save the poor, the wronged and the oppressed? …. Can we really praise this God -- Mary’s God?”  (The Christian Century, 1997)

Today there is a real need to praise Mary’s God.  In the midst of all the controversies and devastation around us, including the deaths of innocent children, we need the presence of God in our lives and in the lives of all people.  God who is compassionate, life-giving, the God of peace and love is to come among us bringing into being a new reality of hope and joy for all people. 

As we enter the Christmas season, singing carols and songs of gladness and good will to all in celebrating the birth of Christ, it is a new time to bear witness to the church's ancient faith that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" in the lives of very ordinary people who found shelter in a stable.  The most difficult task for us is to be still, to ponder these events, to open our hands and hearts, and, as we prayed in today's Collect, to "purify our conscience." 

God's grace in our lives is a reconciling power.  As our Advent celebration anticipates God's victory and the restoration of Christ's gracious reign over his redeemed creation, tomorrow evening we shall hear the angel's song of praise for God's glory in the highest.  God's eternal plan for redemption will be made known to all creation.  It is a proclamation of hope for people of every race, class and culture.

And so, as we move toward the celebration of Jesus' birth, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a bed of straw in the stable of a shepherd, may we honor the God we praise who brings to birth our human quest for freedom, justice, peace and good will for everyone. Amen.

Rejoice in the Lord

Just prior to reading today’s gospel we sang the Advent hymn, “Rejoice! Rejoice, believers.”  The theme of rejoicing in the Lord is present in all of our readings.

The prophet Zephaniah proclaimed, “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all your heart…. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.”

God is in our midst, but God’s future has not yet been fully born.  Our world does not always encourage us to be aware of God’s presence in our midst.  Even the very idea of God seems at times to have lost its relevance for modern life.  We can be victimized by this attitude.  Our own daily experiences can lead us to believe that God is not as present to us now as in past generations.

Nevertheless, as the prophet Zephaniah proclaimed, God is in our midst.  Many years later, Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, adds to this by announcing the Lord is near.  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone.  The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

These statements of rejoicing and singing remind us that God is not absent.  God is in our midst.  God comes to us in the birth of Jesus.  God’s love is always present.  It is not lessened by hurricane, earthquake, fire, plague or famine.  God is present in human suffering, and I am sure God is present with the students and staff who were killed on Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  Even in the midst of horrific tragedy God’s purpose for the world is not diminished.  God’s presence is real, and the fact that God’s peace is beyond our human understanding is an affirmation of a more authentic presence than one that is directly obvious. 

God’s presence is in the manner of love rather than in a manner of absolute power over human freedom.

God is in relationship with us and with all creation.

What this means is that the choices we make belong to us.  God’s power is in and through the way of love.  It is up to us to know and accept that.  And it is up to us to live in such a way that it makes a difference in our lives, in whom we are, and in all that we do. 

God’s presence is a disarming and a surprising presence; it is a love that appears in a fragile and vulnerable way; in the birth of a baby; in the death of a child, and in the grief and mourning of parents and loved ones.  This love is the source of hope for all humanity and it obliges us to love one another.  God’s presence, God’s power, is the power of love and hope.  God is in our midst, with us and with all people everywhere, working in and through human lives every day.  So, “Rejoice! Rejoice believers, and let your lights appear.”

John the Baptist announced God’s presence and spoke to people who were so filled with hope and expectation that they questioned whether he might be the Messiah.  “John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’”

John proclaimed the good news of God’s coming.  He responded to questions from the crowd, to tax collectors who came to be baptized, and to soldiers who asked what they should do.  John responded and called upon his followers to repent, to make a profound change in the direction of their lives.  This repentance was to be the beginning of a new moral integrity and a physical simplicity.  If you have two coats, share one of them with someone who needs one.  If you collect taxes, collect no more than is required.  If you are a soldier don’t extort money but be content with your wages.   What John said was contrary to what was being practiced.

John proclaimed one of the most profound religious insights: The presence of the holy in the midst of human life requires a fundamental change in the chemistry of the human condition.  The slow-moving, heavy burdens of our lives brought on by a culture of consumerism and moral indifference is incompatible with the holy.  God is holy.  God is in our midst, and the excesses of our lives, the chaff that must be separated from the wheat, will be burned.  The fire will be so intense it cannot be extinguished.

The traditional scenes of Advent require new images of hope and power for our time.  In a world threatened by fear, by climate change and global warming, by civil strife and untamed violence, a new commitment is required to make life on earth possible for future generations.  What we need today, perhaps more than ever before, are the images of hope and anticipation for peace and justice, both here in the United States and for international collaboration that respects the dignity of every human being and nation.

“Rejoice, rejoice believers… Our hope and expectation, O Jesus now appear.”  This is our song of exultation and rededication.  The celebration of the birth of a child in Bethlehem, the Incarnation of God in human form, and what we do in response is our commitment to the enduring power of hope, peace and love.

“Our hope and expectation, O Jesus now appear; arise thou Sun so longed for, above this darkened

    sphere! 

With hearts and hands uplifted, we plead, o Lord, to see the day of earth’s redemption, and ever be

    with thee.”

So, good friends, “Rejoice and exult with all your heart.”  May God’s peace “which surpasses all understanding guard all our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  Amen.

Songs of Hope and Joy

Throughout human history prophets of every age have proclaimed a vision of justice and peace, and a period of repentance for forgiveness of all that is wrong in our world.  In our Christian tradition the whole purpose of prophetic proclamation is to enable us to greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.  As in the past, so today a new day is about to arrive; it is a day of gladness and a time for songs of hope and joy.

Our reading from the writing of Baruch sets the stage for putting on “forever the beauty of the glory from God.”  Baruch was a friend of Jeremiah’s and his secretary.  He wrote about the return of the Israelites from their exile in Babylon.

Baruch echoed the words of Isaiah in saying, “God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.”  Trees will spring up in the desert and “every fragrant tree will shade Israel at God’s command.”  The result will be joy “in the light of God’s glory, with mercy and righteousness.”

This is Israel’s story.  It is a story of how a community of God’s people can be led from exile, from separation and alienation from God, to a land and time of promise and hope.  It is truly cause for singing a song of hope and joy.

In our recalling this story of redemption we join in singing the Song of Zechariah:  “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free….  Free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life…. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

 Zechariah was the husband of Elizabeth and father of John who traveled around the region of the Jordan and “proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  In this way John was “preparing the way of the Lord.”  As we heard, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

This, like the prophecy of Baruch, is another chapter in Israel’s story.  But it is more than Israel’s story; it is our story too.  In our present-day isolation as Christians, separated from so much of our world by strife, poverty and violence, it calls us to singing a song of hope and joy.  It is a reason for singing the hymns we use every Sunday in our worship.  And so, along with other Advent hymns, we sang the Song of Zechariah:  “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to give his people knowledge of salvation… and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

All of this is part of our history as the people of God.  Our story, however, as followers and disciples of Jesus has only begun.  Paul, in writing to the Christians at Philippi, thanked God and prayed with joy for all of them, “because of [their] sharing in the gospel.”  He prayed that their “love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help [them] determine what is best…having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”  In our prayers are we thanking God and praying that love may overflow with the knowledge that comes through Jesus for God’s glory and praise?

Our story has just begun.  How are we telling our story?  Last Monday, John Stewart on “The Daily Show” spoke about the so-called “War on Christmas.”  He noted that Christmas used to be celebrated like any birthday on a single day, December 25^th.  Then it got stretched out to “twelve days of Christmas” all the way to Epiphany with “turtle doves and partridges in pear trees,” and a lot

more. After that, it expanded to take over Thanksgiving with “black Friday” then moving to Thanksgiving evening with “black Thursday.”  Soon, he suggested, it will gobble up Halloween. 

According to the theologian, Walter Brueggemann, the church in our culture has been compromised.  All of us are aware of this.  Gospel identity, our identity through our story, has been diluted.  There is, to quote Brueggemann, “an excessive accommodation to consumerism, a tacit embrace of military imperialism, a cynical acceptance of social violence, [and] a casual indifference to the suffering of the poor.”  Our faith has been reduced to a consumerist level that cannot receive the Christmas gift of new life and hope for peace as we should.   

John the baptizer issued a wake-up call to Christians to return, to get back to the depths of our faith.  Today a wake-up call is urgently needed again.  We are to heed

the call to repentance, a turning into a new direction, a change of heart and mind, and an attitude of hope for our common future.  It is “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’”

Yes, our story has just begun.  You and I are going to tell it to one another, to our children and grandchildren, and we are going to sing songs of hope and joy to the glory and praise of God.  Amen.

The Making of Meaning

In his compelling and most interesting book, The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes:  Religion is “the constant making and remaking of meaning, by the stories we tell, the rituals we perform and the prayers we say.  The stories are sacred, the rituals divine commands, and prayer a genuine dialogue with the divine.  Religion is an authentic response to a real Presence, but it is also a way of making that presence real by constantly living in response to it.  It is truth translated into deed.”

I have found no better definition for what we do as a people of God who gather for worship.  We tell the stories of our faith, our identity as Christians, in the lessons we read and the sermons we hear.  We respond in thanksgiving and in giving glory and praise to God as we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.  Our prayers during worship, in our families, and in private are the conversations we have as a community and as individuals with God. 

It is in our religious life and in the faith we profess that we come to terms with the meaning and purpose of life.  We remake that meaning throughout the ages and with everything we create in developing our quality of life through our knowledge of history, science and technology.

Themes of Advent

The first Sunday of Advent begins a time of hope and anticipation, a time for reflection about themes of darkness and light, suffering, the division between the sacred and the secular, and judgment, hope, and love.  

Advent is a season of many themes.  These are recounted in our scripture readings and include justice and righteousness; love for one another; holiness in our hearts; redemption from whatever separates us from God; anticipation and alertness for God’s kingdom; and prayer for strength for whatever may come.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us that Israel was captured and held in exile.  This Advent many people around the world are in exile and sit in lonely places.  Many are refugees, fearful of violence, war, hunger, and vengeance.  They wait as Jeremiah said, for justice and righteousness.  They wait in hopeful anticipation for a future of peace and fulfillment.

Advent, regardless of the conditions in our world, presents us with the knowledge of a compassionate God that arises from the dark night of the soul and the anguish of real events.  It is an anguish brought about by diseases, disasters and terrible suffering.  Advent is more than our preparation for the Christmas holiday season; it is more than making our lists of things to do and shopping for presents.  It is a reminder that God is the God of history, and the events that happen whether internationally, nationally, or locally, concern God as much as what goes on in your life and mine.  Advent announces that God is coming with power that can shake the foundations of the earth.  It is a power of judgment and hope for peace, justice and new life.

The challenge that Advent presents to Christians is to tear down all that separates the sacred from the secular.  Our places of employment, schools, government, social communities, and neighborhoods are all perceived as secular environments.  Science and climate change are also understood as secular.  But Advent says these are all part of God's creation and we should treat them as sacred relationships.  

The work and ministry of compassion and justice is universal.  Sacred spaces are for the purpose of renewing our spirits and giving us strength to go out and repair all of creation to the glory of God.  We are to pray with open eyes so we may see the complexities of institutions, societies and the world, and then pray and work for justice and peace among all people.

An example of praying and working for justice is told by the Jesuit Priest, Walter Burghardt.  He wrote this story several years ago:  "The cab driver in New York was in his 30s and had shoulder-length hair tied in a ponytail.  He had 'prayed to God for guidance on how to help the forgotten people of the streets who exist in life's shadows.'  He recalled that God replied, "Make eight pounds of spaghetti, throw it in a pot, give it out on 103^rd Street and Broadway with no conditions, and people will come.'  He did, they came, and now he goes from door to door giving people food to eat.  The cab driver prayed to God who was there; he listened; he gave the simple gift God asked of him; he gave "with no conditions"; and people responded.  Here is our Advent:  Make the Christ who comes among us a reality, a living light, in your life and in some other life.  Give of yourself…to one dark soul…with no conditions."  (From "Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus," in An Advent Sourcebook, ed., Thomas J. O'Gorman, p.9) 

In the midst of all the hunger, destruction and death throughout the world, Advent is a wake-up call to hope.  Paul states this well in his letter to the Thessalonians:  "May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.  And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints."  What more could one ask for?  It is hope arising from the depths of human suffering that leads the way to God and gives energy, patience, persistence, and courage for living through whatever happens.

Advent is also about love and the glory of God's goodness.  Jesus said, "there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.  People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory…. When you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near."

Our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori issued a statement for this year’s Advent season:  She offers two questions for prayer and reflection: “What is it that you are most waiting for?  And, how are you going to wait this year?”  Then she writes, “I’m struck this particular season by the waiting of several women in Christian history.  Mary obviously, waiting for the birth of the Promised One in her part of the world, a child born for the whole world. 

“Also Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptizer, who comes before Jesus.  Elizabeth has been promised a child in her old age, these are both very unexpected births, they are waiting.

“And I’m struck particularly this year by Elizabeth of Hungary, a saint of the Church who lived in the thirteenth century, who was betrothed as a child herself, married at 14, a mother of three by the time her husband died when she was 20.  She spent her life giving it away, giving it away both physically through her means and through her presence and her healing.  She was an icon of generosity.

“What is it you wait for this year?  Is it an opportunity to meet the surprising around you? Is it an opportunity to reflect on what is most needed in your heart and in the world around you?  How are you going to wait for that gift?  Are you going to wait actively?  Engaged?  Honing your desire? Stoking the passion within you for that dream?  Are you going to wait for a dream that will bless the whole world? 

“That’s what Christians wait for in the season of Advent -- the coming of the Prince of Peace, the one who will reign with justice over this world.  I believe that’s what the world most needs, this year and every year. 

“May your season of waiting be fruitful and blessed.  May it be filled with surprise and a willingness to engage that surprise.” 

And so, good friends, may all the themes of Advent help us to watch and wait with anticipation and great hope for the coming of the Prince of Peace, the Holy Child of God.  Amen.

Parishioners of All Saints' collaborated with the City Meal Site and gathered several bags of clothing to distribute to those in need.  There was a long line at the door yesterday afternoon as men, women and children came into the parish hall to look over the coats, scarfs, shoes, socks, shirts, skirts and sweaters to choose items they need.  It was a bitter-sweet moment: a joy to see the appreciative expressions on faces as people came and went; but a sadness to experience the lack of support and opportunity for so many of our fellow citizens.

A prayer from our Book of Common Prayer is for the Poor and the Neglected:
Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, and all who have none to care for them.  Help us to heal those who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow into joy.  Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

God's Eternal Reign

This final Sunday in the Christian year, also known as Christ the King, invites us to reflect on the amazing character of Christ’s kingly rule. When Pilate asked if Jesus was the king of the Jews, he replied, “My kingdom is not from this world.” Today we explore what this has meant for the people of Israel, for the earliest Christians, and for Christians everywhere in the 21st Century.

A problem for us who live in the United States is that obedience and fidelity to a king or a monarch of any kind is unheard of. Our ideal is one of liberty, freedom and equality for all people. We fought for independence in 1776, and although freedom, liberty and equality remain allusive for those on the margins of society, we do not live in a country with a king or a monarch. The stage is set for us by our readings about the true ruler of the world. Throughout the history of Israel there were good kings and bad kings, rulers who were just and those who were unjust.

In our reading from the Book of Samuel we are told about the last words of David. David was a king who embodied the hopes of Israel. He had been anointed by Samuel; he had slain Goliath; and he befriended Jonathan. The people sang his praises because he fought for justice and against evil. He was a king with hope and dreams for the future. However, by the end of his reign David was king of a divided and disorganized realm.

As stated by a commentator, “His reign was a series of tragedies: David’s sin with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, the rape of his daughter Tamar by his son Amnon, the rebellion and murder of Absalom, continuous fighting between the tribes of Israel, and wars with the Philistines. Finally David was judged too old to go into battle. … The shining moments are brief. The glimpses of glory fade. The kingdoms of this world are destined for collapse.”

In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus entered this historical stage and said with true biblical authority that his kingdom is not from this world. His kingdom belongs to God. Had it belonged to this world his followers would fight to keep him from being handed over to Pilate and the Jewish authorities who were charged with following the Emperor’s rule. Instead he came into the world to testify to the truth. One belongs to the truth by being in relationship with God: by loving God with heart, mind and soul; and by loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus appeared before Pilate defenseless and vulnerable. He was a poor, tired rabbi, and his friends had all but deserted him. He had asked the disciples to watch while he prayed, but they fell asleep instead. Peter even denied knowing him.

Following Jesus, the first century Christians lived with violence, persecution, and fear for their lives. Their world was out of control, not unlike the present-day situation for many people in our world today. The early Christians faced hardship, poverty, hunger, persecution and the threat of death because they were followers of Christ. In first-century Rome the state ruled over the temple authorities and set the values for all to live by. The concept of a Christian government did not exist. Followers of Jesus had no choice but to submit to the authority of the Roman emperor. If they confessed the lordship or kingship of Jesus they were persecuted. Jesus was executed as an enemy of the state to show that the emperor was the real divine ruler. For Christians however, the God of scripture was the true ruler and the subject of loyalty. Jesus alone is king, sovereign of all creation, and he reigned over all kings.

Then, a visionary named John, writing to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, proclaimed “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” John went on to say, “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen.”

Now, today, as we bring this Christian year to a close we focus our attention on all that Christ means to us in his life and ministry, and through his death and resurrection. It is a time for reflecting on the divine power and reign of God that draws all faithful people to a life of worship, fellowship and service. We have come full circle and next week we shall begin a new Christian year with the season of Advent.

Where is God to be found in our lives? God is present not only in the gathered community of those who come to worship, but God is present beyond these walls in the lives of those who work tirelessly to serve him. Those who provide food for the hungry, who visit the sick and shut-ins, who minister in prisons and hospitals, who stand alongside the poor and those who live in the shadow of the cross. The good news is that Christ does not bring us God’s kingly reign just once each year, but God’s reign is eternal, today and every day and in every place. Let us always remember this and give thanks for the hope we have received in ministering to those in need as well as in our hope for a better future for all people. Amen.

Welcome to our new blog

All Saints' Memorial Church has just set up a new blog to keep you informed about all that is happening here.  We invite you to check back for information, including weekly sermons and stories about our life together in this great church community.