The final day of Christmas, and we must move on. The Magi at Epiphany beckon us forward. They represent that part of us that yearns for understanding, for confidence and hope, for life as we sense it was meant to be.  They are willing to take some risk, to stretch their horizons, to take the next step of faith even though they are not given a clear-cut plan.

The Magi looked to a new horizon and eventually they found horizons that were not merely physical or geographical.  Their journey did not end with the experience of finding the child born a king but continued long after. T.S. Eliot captures this thought with the Magi reflecting, “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation.”

As we journey into the year 2012 may our steps lead us to encounter the mystery of Christ in the ordinary and unlikely places of our lives.  Like the Magi, we can move beyond the well trodden paths of the ordinary and choose to pay attention to the sacred dimension of the world around us, to the hope that stirs within our own hearts, to the joy of making a small difference in the lives of others.

Ruth Haley Barton features this lovely poem on her website today.  It captures Epiphany with eloquence.

Beckoning God—
who called the rich to travel toward poverty,
the wise to embrace your folly,
and the powerful to know their own frailty;
who gave strangers
a sense of homecoming in an alien land
and to stargazers
true light and vision as they bowed to earth—
we lay ourselves open to your signs for us…

Rise within us, like a star,
And make us restless
Till we journey forth
To seek our rest in you.

Kate Compston, Bread of Tomorrow

Good is the flesh that the Word has become,
good is the birthing, the milk in the breast,
good is the feeding, caressing and rest,
good is the body for knowing the world,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the body for knowing the world,
sensing the sunlight, the tug of the ground,
feeling, perceiving, within and around,
good is the body, from cradle to grave,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the body, from cradle to grave,
growing and aging, arousing, impaired,
happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,
good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

© Brian Wren, as quoted in An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (Harper One).

The fourth week of Advent (this year a full seven days, thank God), promises to be active with preparations, last minute purchases, and social engagements. In my parish office, we are busy getting ready for the Festival of the Nativity and the many guests we expect on Christmas Eve.

Spiritually, the goal is the same: getting ready. We must try to find a way to turn activity inward as we approach the last few days before Christmas and become centered, open to the tremendous mystery at hand. Our model is Mary. Despite what must have been a stressful late-pregnancy, rough travel, and the uncertainty of where she would actually deliver, she is ready. Since that surprising day when her cousin Elizabeth told here she was blessed in her believing, Mary has been waiting expectantly. For us too, the time draws close. We believe and wait for the fulfillment of God’s promise.

I think of my own daughter Rebecca, in her late pregnancy, and her unborn child expected in late December or early January. The waiting is nearly over for her and her husband Nate. Beyond the labor there will be fullness of joy, though perhaps initially, joyful exhaustion!

It’s important to realize as we turn toward Christmas, that joy runs deeper than happiness, which is so often predicated on favorable life circumstances. Joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God’s love and presence at work within us–no matter the challenges that life presents. Coupled with this conviction, I find the practice of gratitude helps to re-direct negative cycles of thinking toward positive things, especially in times of adversity. There must have been times in Mary’s life when her circumstances left her feeling discouraged and unhappy. Yet there can be no doubt of her deep joy and assurance whenever we hear or sing her wonderful Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).

This distinction between happy circumstances and confident joy can help us enter into the mystery of Christmas as we are and where we are, without trying to achieve our own or someone else’s expectations. We cherish the story of Christmas precisely because it is such a human story and because in that story, we find inspiration and hope for our own lives and for the world. May the story of God’s coming as a child of blessing and peace find a home in all of us once again.

]]> http://www.ricklord.org/archives/3542/feed 0 http://www.ricklord.org/archives/3520 http://www.ricklord.org/archives/3520#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:51:00 +0000 Rick Lord http://www.ricklord.org/?p=3520

Photo by Sarah Bartenstein

At the Ordination of Priests for the Diocese of Virginia on Saturday, those gathered witnessed an extraordinary sermon by The Rev. Dr. Roger Ferlo of Virginia Theological Seminary.

Dr. Ferlo reminded us that,

“Jesus dwells among us in what Scripture and our Eucharistic Prayer describe as ‘these last days,’ the ‘meantime,’ the time between Christ’s first coming and his second coming in fulfillment of God’s dream for the world. These are also ‘mean times,’ a time when fear and violence are rampant across the globe, a time when rhetoric is hot and hatreds are worn on the sleeve, a time shadowed by war and by sin, by environmental degradation, by racial intolerance by fanaticism and sheer terror. These ten ordinands are being ordained to serve Christ in these mean times.”

Dr. Ferlo then offered this poignant observation:

“In this liturgy we pray, ‘Let you priests be clothed with righteousness and let your people sing with joy’. But I wonder if our prayer this morning should really be, ‘Give these ten poor fools the wit to duck for cover.’ It’s not just these ordinands who need to duck for cover, for we are all in this together.”

We are now deep into the season of Advent.  On the Third Sunday of Advent we are simply told that “there was a man sent from God whose name was John.”  I wonder if that also true of each of one us?  There is about the life of each and everyone of us a reality of being “sent,” of having a certain purpose and meaning for existence. As we reflect on the path our lives have taken and what has happened to us so far, we can see a thread of meaning weaving through our lives like rhyme.  Noticing that unfolding pattern of meaning and direction gives us an inkling of what it means to be sent by God.  The good news I hear in the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent is that each of us is truly meant to be here.

Like John the Baptist, we have an alternative story for these “mean times,” one in which every human life matters, and is created for loving relationship with the source of all life. In this story your worth is given, not earned.  In this alternative story, we are offered forgiveness for our faults and errors, for the harm we’ve done to others and this earth, and so are freed to forgive others and break the cycle of harm and retribution. In this story we learn that we are claimed by a love and power beyond our own. We have good news to share.

As we approach the final rush to Christmas, don’t forget what it means to be living in these “mean times.” In simple, loving, and yet prophetic ways, be a witness to the light of Jesus the Christ.

My sermon for Advent III can be found here.

On the Feast of St. Francis, it is good to remember his love of the created world. For Francis, the world was an alternative Prayer Book where the Vestigia Dei, the footprints of God, could be found everywhere. Ian Cron’s wonderful book, Chasing Francis, quotes this passage from The Second Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by Thomas of Celano:

“In every work of the artist he praised the Artist; whatever he found in things made he referred to the Maker.  He rejoiced in all the works of the hands of the lord and saw behing things pleasant to behold their life-giving reason and cause.  In beautiful things he saw Beauty itself; all things were to him good.  ”He who made us is the best” they cried out to him.”

He walked reverently upon stones, because of him who is called the Rock . . . He forbade the brothers to cut down the whole tree when they cut wood, so that it might have hope of sprouting again.  He commanded the gardener to leave the border around the garden undug, so that in their proper times the greenness of the grass and the beauty of flowers might announce the beauty of the Father in all things.”

Every year at this time, I like take a few moments to look back on the formative story of this “artistic” saint.  Francis had the gift of of helping people see in creation what had been there  from the beginning but had gone unnoticed in their humdrum everyday experience. This is why we need the sensitivity of creative artists in our midst. Like Francis, they help bring the created world into the light, so that we notice things as if for the first time. In that sense, Francis is clearly a saint that can speak to our post-modern age!

I was privileged last Sunday to worship with the community who call Liverpool Cathedral their spiritual home. The magnificence of the Cathedral, completed just 30 years ago, gives your spirit wings simply by the beauty of the holiness that surrounds you on every side. Or is it the holiness of beauty?

Whether in a towering cathedral or a simple hut made of earth and wood, the people of God deserve nothing less than worship that takes us to the threshold of heaven, and if this is not our experience at least some of the time, something is seriously amiss, and we will need to start again.

At Holy Comforter, we work hard each week to get worship as right and as true as is humanly possible, not because we want a moving liturgical experience merely for our own benefit, but because we know that worship can be a pathway for many to find meaning, community, and joy. Many can trace back their spiritual journey to a liturgy where they awakened to a deep awareness of God’s transforming love for the first time. Worship changes us, forms us, and ignites our passion for making a difference where we work and live.

This weekend, we gather once again around the bread and wine to retell the story of God’s relationship with the world, this time through Isaiah’s powerful and emotional image of a landowner’s disappointment that his carefully tended “vineyard,” in which he has provided all the conditions for a rich harvest, has not lived up to his expectations. Jesus will offer the religious leaders of his day a parable based on Isaiah’s story that carries an urgent message. If they fail to care for what the landowner loves, they will lose the vineyard and it will be given to a people who produce the fruits of faithful living.

 All of us have been given a trust from God to care for something that God owns, loves, and cherishes. We have been entrusted with a vineyard planted by God. It includes our life, our families, the wider human family, our career, our church. That is what stewardship is all about. It is about knowing in a deep place, that everything we have has its origin in God and God wants us to take faithful care of it all. Good worship has the power to move that knowing from the mind to the heart, and from the heart, to the fruit of grateful and generous living.

“We do not merely want to see beauty, though God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”

— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Cabernet Savignon

“All things in moderation, with a few glorious exceptions.”

- Robert Mondavi

During my summer sabbatical, I have been exploring the relationship between the creative arts and the soul’s search for God.

By “creative arts” I mean at least music, poetry, visual arts, architecture–the culinary and viticultural arts as well. Last week, Debbie and I traveled to Nappa Valley to take in the wonder and beauty of this small particle of God’s good creation and we were not disappointed. This world famous wine region is home to more than 250 wineries making it one of the most densely concentrated winery locations in the world. Today the Valley’s culinary reputation is also attracting visitors from around the world with cooking schools and exceptional restaurants – part of the reason more than 5 million people visit the Valley every year.

Robert Mondavi Winery

One of the immediate impressions that struck me from the beginning of our time in Napa, was the intentional integration of wine, food, and art at the wineries we visited.

The Robert Mondavi Winery proved to be a wonderful example of this integration.  As soon as you approach the winery, you are confronted by the fascinating sculpture of St. Francis by Beniamino Bufano (a similar sculpture exists at the west entrance of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco). We also found exceptional art collections at the Hess and the Clos Pegase wineries. With so much to do and explore you could spend weeks in Napa and just scratch the surface. But even a scratch of Napa is like a foretaste of the great eschatological banquet–beautiful vistas, cabernets and chardonnays at the peak of their perfection, and culinary creations that cause you to break out your camera in astonishment before you take the first glorious bite.

It’s interesting to me that there are many references to wine in the Bible and that most of them are quite positive. I’ve heard the arguments that what Bible talks about is not really wine, but some form of grape juice. It makes you wonder if such folks have forgotten basic science. Grape juice, left for any amount of time in a non refrigerated space will automatically turn to wine. What the people of the Bible did not have was the technology to prevent grape juice from turning into wine. At any rate, what the Bible does proscribe is drunkenness and like anything we put into our bodies, moderation is an essential practice.  Falling into a “chardonnay coma” is not exactly the way to savor and relax over a good meal with friends. The disease of alcoholism is rampant in our culture today and we need to be careful with our own vulnerabilities and those of others. The Psalmist captures a more appreciative way:

“You cause grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for people to use.
You allow them to produce food from the earth—
wine to make them glad,
olive oil to soothe their skin,
and bread to give them strength” (Psalm 104:14-15, NLT).

Grilled pork chop, creamy polenta, and honey lavender jus!

The integration of fine wine (in moderation), nutritional food, and the creative arts, provides an intentional way of helping us live more deeply into the goodness and wonder of being alive in God’s full world.  Wise is the community of faith that incorporates them in distinctive and faithful ways offering “the gifts of God, for the people of God.”

“A Poet, a Painter, a Musician, an Architect: the Man or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.”  William Blake

What do you think Blake is trying to say?

I was saddened to learn today of the death of the Rev. Dr. John R.W. Stott, an Anglican priest, Biblical scholar, and a living example of generous-spirited evangelical Christianity whose ministry will have a lasting impact upon my life, and that of my family for years to come.

In the nascent years of an adult awakening to the reality of Christian discipleship, Stott’s book, “Basic Christianity” provided me with a solid framework for the development of a clear understanding of the power of the Gospel to transform human life radically for the better.

Over the years I have respected Stott’s emphatic concern for evangelicalism to reclaim its heritage of engagement with the social issues of the day. Post modern evangelicals like Jim Wallis, Shane Claiborne, and Brian McLaren, stand on the shoulders of this wise and tested pastor and theologian.

I have fond memories of my father, The Rev. Canon David Lord, reading Stott’s The Cross of Christ, what many consider to be Stott’s magnum opus, a summing up of the Anglican evangelical tradition seasoned by the mature characteristics of a “generous orthodoxy.”

John Stott leaves a remarkable legacy for those who seek to follow God in the way of Christ today.  May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

The John R.W. Stott Memorial web site can be found here.