Sermon Dec. 24 2017 (Christmas Eve)-Father Cunningham

           There is always a question I have when we read the Christmas narrative from Luke and that question is: Who was keeping watch over the flocks by night when the shepherds decided to go to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place?  Maybe there was a shepherd apprentice who they left to take care of things, with a cute non-threatening name like Tommy.  You could almost making a catchy novelty Christmas song out of it like Tommy the Apprentice Shepherd.  The only issue is that there are very few things that rhyme with shepherd.  The only words I could come up with were leopard, peppered and former House majority leader Dick Gephardt.  So I think I will have to keep my day job.  But back to the shepherds.  The most likely thing that happened is that the Shepherds just left and had no contingency plan.  The birth of the Messiah was, in the words of our president, so “huge” that it overwhelmed everything else.  They forgot about their livelihood and rushed to see the birth of the Messiah without regard for anything else in their lives.  And I think on some level we can understand this.  We have probably dropped everything at some point, but generally speaking it is usually for something negative.  At least for me it is.  The last time I can remember dropping everything was when the planes hit the World Trade Centers in 2001. Sadly it seems that if something horrible has happened we will forget everything else and run and see it, but not always when something wonderful has happened.  But just listen to some of the ways that Isaiah describes what is happening tonight:

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.

For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace

for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it

with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.

And so the question for us this night, this night on which the shepherds rushed towards Bethlehem is: Can we get this excited about something wonderful?  Can we drop everything to rush to something that is pure and beautiful or will we be too consumed by the mundane, the routine and those things that offer us distorted images of the divine?  In a world that is so consumed with acrimony and anger can we rush to the light to this thing that must be seen? 

         Before I go into the next section I need to issue a disclaimer and say that I tend to limit my knowledge of what celebrities are doing to the checkout line of the grocery store, but I happened upon a very curious celebrity spat the other day.  It seems that Taylor Swift, who is a singer of some sort, went on the Twitter and announced in a greeting for her birthday that she could not have asked for a better year.  Which to me seemed innocent enough and even kind of nice, but I guess it was not.  She was immediately attacked for her tone deafness for not realizing just how horrible of a year it was.  I did not read enough to see what her detractors were demanding she put on sackcloth and ashes about, but it appears in some people’s mind there can be no light to shine in the darkness.  And what a strange world we live in where there is an incessant desire to rush to the awful and claim it as a full representation of reality.  And just in case you do not believe my theory, let me give you another data point.  On a different other day I was waiting for an oil change and as I sat in the lounge I picked up a copy of the magazine GQ.  I had not looked through this magazine in years but as I recall it used to give you tips on new pants for spring and the best exfoliating products to give your skin a radiant glow.  Anyway it now appears that they have decided that well groomed men have important views too.  And so the magazine was filled with sophomoric political observations. But the point is in looking at the deep thoughts of GQ, I read in one of their rather glib articles that 2017 was the worst year in recorded history.  Yes, that is right, it would have been better for you to have experienced year zero in Pol Pot’s Cambodia or have had your village sacked by Attila the Hun than it was to have experienced the blood dimmed tide that was loosed upon suburban Milwaukee in the year of the beast that that was 2017.  And anyway in thinking about GQ and Taylor Swift, which I honestly try not to do very frequently, but in thinking about these incidences I have to wonder when did we decide to be such a bunch of sad sacks?  Has the whole world turned into that kid in college in your dorm who would not go out to a party because there is just so much pain in the world?    

         But tonight is Christmas Eve - a perfect night to proclaim that all is not lost in the year 2017.  For tonight is the night when God burst into the world and we were brought good news of great joy.  God has come and declared to us that we are worth saving.  No matter how many stupid things we do or bad things happen to us, we worship a God who came into human history and declared that humanity was capable of being in communion with the creator and sustainer of the universe.  Because in the incarnation human and divine lived together in the one body of Jesus Christ.  I really don’t know where 2017 lies on the list of worst years because I don’t have an electrified bad year measurer, but I do know because of the Incarnation (and resurrection but we will have to wait until Easter for that), but because of the Incarnation nothing can ever be that bad.  And the reason it cannot be that bad is because God has not only declared it as such, but has demonstrated this fact on this night in Bethlehem of Judea were unto to us a savior was born. 

         In a world where everyone seems in a rush to out misery one another maybe it might just be time for some joy.  Sure there are things that are wrong with the world and certainly there are things yet unimagined that will go wrong with the world.  But tonight the shepherds, who had one of the worst jobs around and were living in a country occupied by Roman oppressors, literally dropped everything they had and rushed to see this momentous and joyful thing that had taken place.  For those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them a light has shined.  Tonight is a night of unmitigated joy, a night where wonder and beauty are so overwhelming that they consume everything else. 

         And since as best I know none of us have flocks in the fields that we are watching over, I would ask of you what is there that you should leave so that you may experience the fullness of joy that tonight is all about.  What needs to be left behind so that all of us may see the incarnation in all of its wonderful and strange beauty?  We should rush to a manger in Bethlehem on this evening so that we may see the glory of God as revealed in his son, Christ the Lord, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.

Sermon Dec. 24 2017-Father Cunningham

         Sometimes we get readings from the lectionary where the sole purpose of that reading is really just to get to one particular sentence, even though the actual reading may be many verses.  Today’s lesson from 2nd Samuel is just such a reading.  We go through the whole thing just to get to the money line which is when God says of David, “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”  That is, of course, a big deal today on Advent IV because we are about to get to the Christmas story where we will learn among other things that Joseph was from the line of David and if Jesus will reign forever we have the promise of that eternal reign right here in 2nd Samuel.  The previous 11 about the cedar houses and all that seem to be there to give the lector something to do or perhaps give some context, but I thought since no one was really going to be here anyway that we would focus on these seemingly superfluous lines. 

         In case you were not listening the first time let’s review what the reading from 2nd Samuel was all about.  David is taking stock of his life and realizes that he has accomplished much – he has stabilized Israel and now peace reigns.  He even now has a pretty nice house, made of cedar no less.  And so he has a thought, which seems rather altruistic – he wants to build a nice place for the Ark of the Covenant to reside.  On the surface it would seem to be one of David’s more beneficent acts, at least when compared to the whole Bathsheba fiasco.  Nathan, who was David’s go to guy for spiritual matters concurs and tells David to go and launch this building project.  But then something rather strange happens.  The word of the Lord comes to Nathan and he is basically told to tell David that he has no need of a house and so thanks, but no thanks.  The story then ends with the promise that God will build David a house and that David’s throne will last forever. 

         And so the question is why did God shoot down David’s idea?  What was so wrong with building a nice place for the Ark of the Covenant?  Well, I think the rather obvious answer is that God did not ask for a house.  And honestly, that is about all we can answer from the text.  God does not explain his decision but simply let’s David know that he is not interested.  And while that is sort of interesting it all of this points to an issue that we can have as well.  And that is the fact that even with the most altruistic sounding of things may not be that altruistic at all and may actually be us asserting our will over another person.  In this case, David is telling God what he needs and what it will be like.  In our case, we may give gifts or do things that are not what the other person desires but are rather something that we desire.  In David’s case he thinks that he has a nice house and so God must want one too.  But I think there is a larger lesson in all of this, not just in terms of gifts.  And that lesson has to do with submitting our wills to God’s perfect will.  And believe it or not there is actually a take home from this that relates to Advent IV – or at least I hope there is.  So first let’s start by talking about our will.

         You have probably heard my theory that I have on my more cynical days which is that people do not actually grow up they just get better at masking their selfish motivations.  So if a child eats the last cookie they will tell you they did so because they wanted the last cookie, whereas an adult will tell you that they didn’t realize you wanted the last cookie or they were trying to help you with your diet or they had not realized that you had any claim on this particular cookie and so on.  This same sort of masking of motivation is also ever present in the church.  In fact, it is often worse in the church because people get to mix God in with things.  Let me see if I can explain.  At my last Parish on one Labor Day, we sang the hymn, “Come labor On.”  I thought it seemed appropriate it being Labor Day and all that.  Anyway after the service a woman came up to me and told me that by selecting this hymn I had completely destroyed her Sunday worship experience – the show had simply not been to her liking.  Now do you see the subtle thing that she did?  She did not say, “I hate that hymn and I would not like it sung again.”  Rather by my selecting the hymn I had destroyed her ability to draw closer to God.  I was now personally responsible for putting her soul in peril.  She did not need to figure out a way to survive a hymn she did not like.  Rather, it was all up to me.  If I was really going to be a shepherd of souls then I needed to make sure that I only chose hymns that accorded with her personal taste.  For by describing it as such it was not her will, but God’s will that I was thwarting, because as we all know God wants us to draw closer to him and by my callous hymn selection I had thwarted God’s will.  At least that is how she saw it. 

         Now let’s bring all of this back to Advent IV.  As you are probably sick of hearing me say, Advent is a season of preparation.  A season where we take time to reflect and see what in us is not living in accordance with God’s will.  This morning David had a great idea about building a house for the Lord, but he soon discovered that his will was not the will of God and so he shifted his plan.  His plan even sounded fairly reasonable, but it turned out that his desires and God’s will were not in sync.  And so he changed things.  And the question for us, as we search our actions and motivations is how do we know if we are doing the will of God?  Not all of us have Nathan like David did who could come in and tell him that what he was thinking was not what God was thinking.  But most of us have friends and hopefully we have friends that will be honest with us.  The other thing, though, is that we have to be honest with ourselves.  We have to reflect and see what are the real motivations for our actions and ask if we are we trying to dress up selfish motivations in altruistic clothing.  Searching ourselves and our motivations can be a very hard thing to do, because it may reveal some parts to our personality that are not terribly impressive.  We may find things in ourselves that need to change.  And as we all know change can be rather hard. 

         Certainly, we all know the basics of what God wants us to do.  If you don’t let me just give you the big one that Jesus offers in both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospel.  It states, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”  When we interact with others or with God we need to ask if what we are doing is loving towards the other person or is it just something we really feel like doing.  The more pure and Godlike our motivations the more we will be prepared to welcome Jesus as he comes into the world.  Advent wraps up here very shortly and we move into Christmas Eve and so it may be time to cram for the final examination so that our hearts and minds are truly ready to welcome the Messiah when he comes so that we may be his both now and forevermore.

Sermon Dec. 17 2017-Father Cunningham

          There is an old saying that communists are people who love the masses, one million at a time.  What this saying points to is that communists tend to be interested in big programs for big groups, but not terribly interested in individuals and the unique problems that they have.  And as much as I like to make fun of communists, it is not just them that suffer from this temptation.  I think that there is a desire in all of us to want to solve the problems of the world with a more magical wand approach – we want to believe the politicians who promise that the fix to every problem is just a government program away.  It is so tempting because that way we don’t have to individually deal with those actual people whose problems we want to fix.  We identify a problem, tell someone else to fix it, and then we are morally off the hook.

         In a similar way we want God to fix big things; like restoring civility or establishing peace on earth, but we forget that such things are made up hundreds of millions of decisions by hundreds of millions of individuals, who all need to be dealt with individually.  World peace or the restoration of civility are not a divine nob turn away, but rather require a change in the actions and thought processes of millions of people.  Yes God could turn us all into a cyborg army whose will he could control, but he loves us too much for that, and has given us free will.  And as a result of giving us free will, God has to deal with us not with a magic wand or the flipping of a switch, but on a personal level.  And because of this on Christmas Day we will see God coming in a very personal and individual way.  There will be no magic wand, only individual relationships and the changing of hearts and minds. 

         But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Today we are talking about John the Baptist, who in many ways foreshadows the ministry of Jesus.  And interestingly, while the priests and Levites often get some bad press in the New Testament, today, I think that they get things exactly right.  They understand the individual nature of the coming Messiah. And why I say that is because of what confuses them about John the Baptist.  After they ask and John states that he is neither the Messiah, nor a prophet nor Elijah they ask, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”  It is interesting that the action that makes them suspect that John the Baptist may be the Messiah or at least one of the prophets is the action of baptism.  And while there are some historical things that may have made the priests and Levites focus on baptism as being an indicator of Messiah-ship, what I really want to focus on is the individual nature of it.  John was not reigning down thunder from the sky or anything terribly grandiose but rather he was baptizing people, one person at a time.  Which probably sounds a little obvious, but in such an action he was required to deal with people on an individual basis.  He did not line up two thousand people in the Jordan and ask them to baptize themselves, but rather he touched and baptized each person individually.

         Much of my thought as of late has been occupied by the division and distrust in our country, how it has happened and by how we can fix it.  I recently read a former Facebook executive say that social media has, “created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”  Adding that with social media there is, “no civil discourse, no cooperation; [only] misinformation, mistruth.”  I think that he is on to something because in many ways social media allows us to deal with individuals in the million person chunks that the Communists so like.  And while it would suit me just fine to lay all the blame of our current acrimony on the doorstep of social media, I don’t think it is quite that simple.  If we woke up in the morning and found that there was no Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, we would still try and avoid dealing with people in the way that John the Baptist does today, that is one on one.  For we tend not to like doing what John is doing today because it is really not safe – people do not always act the way we want them to.  When we can deal with people from a distance we are not as vulnerable and open to hurt and disappointment.

         I remember years ago when Amy and I were first married the church we were attending did one of those Christmas outreach programs to some underprivileged families.  What this meant was that a group of people at the church purchased a number of presents and food items to take to a family just before Christmas.  In this outreach Amy and I got the job of delivering the presents.  In the car ride over to do this, I was full of Christmas cheer.  My head was filled with visions of how things were going to take place.  I expected to blush slightly when this grateful family told me that I must be an angel sent from heaven – I mean that’s what they always do on TV and TV can never be wrong.  Well, that didn’t happen, it was in fact one of the most disappointing events of my life.  The house were they lived was dirty and unkempt and smelled of something I could not quite identify.  When we brought the presents they were not carefully placed under a tree instead the children greedily ripped them open and then asked if there were anymore.  When this happened I looked pleadingly at the mother hoping she would give me some backup, but she repeated the question.  When we told them there was not anything else, they signaled that they were through with us and we were shown the door.  Now I am not saying that all people act like this, but some do.  Some of humanity will not be appreciative or polite and will only care about us only for as long as we are giving them free stuff.  And I have struggled over the years with what this experience was to teach me.  And I think the best I can up with relates to what Jesus said in Luke 14 where he stated, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”  We take care of the ungrateful because it is the right thing to do and because it allows us to act like God acts towards us.  For in our ungratefulness, God still loves us and waits patiently for us to return to him.

         What we see in the life of John the Baptist and in the life of Jesus – they dealt with us.  We don’t have a record of how the people that John baptized behaved, but I am guessing that some were real jerks.  I mean we know that Jesus got yelled at for healing people, so why would we expect any different.  And here is the thing for us, if John the Baptist and Jesus dealt with us and God continues to deal with us on an individual basis, who are we to opt out of that model.  Certainly there will be times were interacting with others will be incredibly disappointing.  There will be times where we are mistreated but restoration of our relationships with our fellow man will not happen without such interaction.

         So here is my rather simple lesson for Advent 3 let’s try and go a week where we follow Jesus’ command to love one another.  This means even the people who we don’t like and those people who are annoying.  Yes this is not easy and much in us may fight against it, but most things in life that are worthwhile are not easy.  If God deals with us and all of our issues, we need to do the same for others, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.