Monday, December 31, 2012

The Longing to Worship


When I walk in the hills around my house every evening, I am moved to an ever deeper awareness of the beauty of the relationships that make our world function.  The glaciers melt and provide the water for the river in the valley. The salmon spawn in the rivers, providing food for bears and Eagles, which leave the uneaten parts in the forests to decay and fertilize the soil.  The plants flourish in amazing abundance, nourished by the soil as well as the fungi and other micro-organisms that are necessary to upload nutrients for the benefit of the plants.  The humans in this region have set aside this land as a state park, where only certain areas are to be used for human habitation and the rest is a nature preserve.  All of it is about relationships, in which what one creature does affects all others, resulting in a complex, and marvelous ecosystem.

The amazingly relational nature of God's creation offers a window on the nature of Christ's birth, as well.  As we come to the manger at Christmas, we are called to come with eyes of faith, recognizing that in this tiny babe “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19).  This is an important statement, because one of the faith aspects in approaching the manger is one of awe and worship.  For a person of faith it is not enough to approach the manger only interested in “the story” that has been passed on.  Wise stories are valuable, to be sure, but worship results in the realization that something more than a well-constructed human story is at work here.  Worship recognizes that God is present among us by choice, choosing to exist and respond in relationship with (and among the relationships of) all creation.  We approach the manger with wonder and awe, because the manger cradles a baby, and that baby is a sue sign that it is God's choice to be personally involved in the "real life" of God's creation.

Quite honestly, though, I need to state this awareness more personally.  Because I believe God’s advent in the child, Jesus, is a sign of God’s choice to be in relationship with creation I am drawn also to believe that God must be aware of individual persons, and specific moments.  That is, the appearance of God in the birth of a specific child helps me to understand why it is that I believe God loves me…and you, and each creature God created.  It is in God’s nature to create the whole universe, yet to love personally.  

Note that I am simply trying to describe what I believe.  It is not a belief I have manufactured.  It is a belief I have that I am trying to describe.  It is as if the belief were born in me and resides in the manger of my heart, whether I wanted it or not.  My work, then, is to try to learn from it, describe it, and live it...and, in those inevitable periods of doubt, to wrestle with it until God clarifies more clearly why it is that this faith persists beyond the doubt.

So, as always, I am asking myself what my response should be…as I approach the manger at Christmas, what should my acts of worship be?  I am asking myself questions like these:

·      How does my life reflect the God who created me and loves me?
·      How well do make sure I am truly present in own relationships, as God was in Jesus and continues to be in the Spirit?  
·      How do I show or communicate what an honor it is to be in this amazing relationship with God?
·      How well do I somehow show or communicate what an honor it is to participate in these amazing relationships among the people and the creatures that God loves?
·      How well do I join with and support others as they, also, respond to God?

Colossians 1:15-17
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Approaching the Manger

 

For Christians the Christmas season traditionally runs all the way through the celebration of the arrival of the magi on January 6.  I have been using these days since Christmas to reflect more on Jesus and what his birth has meant for humanity and for all creation. 

As this Christmas week has passed I have collected an amazing mixture of impressions.  I have enjoyed family gatherings, I have listened to the ongoing news of political brinksmanship, I have walked in these December evenings and marveled at their beauty, and I have learned of people struggling with things like the after-effects of storms and the grief and fear of the Newtown shootings. Through all of this I have wondered about the import of Jesus, born among us on that first Christmas.  I have been thinking about how to understand the difference it makes in our day-to-day lives that Jesus was born.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a well-known 20th century theologian, pointed out that we approach the manger, hearing of Jesus’ birth, in one of two ways: either we approach out of faith, or out of habit.  According to Bonhoeffer, people of faith approach the cradle recognizing that in this baby, somehow God has come among us to judge creation and to redeem it.  Bonhoeffer then goes on to ask this:

What does that mean? Isn’t all of this just a way of speaking? Isn’t it just pastoral exaggeration of a pretty and pious legend? What does it mean that such things are said about the Christ child? Those who want to take it as a way of speaking will do so and continue to celebrate Advent and Christmas as before, with pagan indifference. For us it is not just a way of speaking. For that’s just it: it is God himself, the Lord and Creator of all things, who is so small here, who is hidden here in the corner, who enters into the plainness of the world, who meets us in the helplessness and defenselessness of a child, and wants to be with us. And he does this not out of playfulness or sport, because we find that so touching, but in order to show us where he is and who he is, and in order from this place to judge and devalue and dethrone all human ambition. The throne of God in the world is not on human thrones, but in human depths, in the manger. Standing around his throne there are no flattering vassals but dark, unknown, questionable figures who cannot get their fill of this miracle and want to live entirely by the mercy of God.

 
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich , God Is In the Manger (Kindle Location 768). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition (emphasis mine).

Over the next few days I want to lift up Bonhoeffer’s suggestion that God came among us in Jesus Christ in order to show who he and where he is, and in order from this palce to judge and devalue and throne all human ambition.  I think Bonhoeffer is right that people come to Christmas either through faith or through habit or civic tradition.  I would like to think more about what it entails to approach the manger out of faith.

And surely it begins by recognizing the mystery that God has, indeed, come among us.  I am one of many who have marveled that the creator of this universe has taken on flesh among us.  When I walk in the evenings and think about the mind-boggling vastness of the universe, in which our solar system is but a speck, and our planet is but a speck within a speck, and baby Jesus was but half-a-speck within a speck within a speck…how is it possible that the Creator of all of this is somehow fully among us in that baby?  And how is the majesty of God, the Creator of all, shown to us in the defenselessness of that child?

I look forward to sharing more on this over the next few days.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Why Christmas Joy?

                                          But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
                                          I wait for God my Savior;
                                          my God will hear me.                                  Micah 7:7

I always love the season of Advent and Christmas.  Advent is a season of reminding us that God acts in concrete ways that really make a difference, and that we should always be waiting, with great expectation, for those tipping-point moments when unusual things can happen. 

People of faith have always waited with that kind of expectation.  According the Bible, the people of old suffered and waited for God to send the Messiah to restore the people, and all creation to God (see Isaiah 11, one of my favorites for this).  Over the years the expectation of a coming Messiah grew so much that many wondered if John the Baptizer might be the Messiah (Luke 3:15).  Indeed, because of this growing expectation, when Jesus appeared, some were ready.  There were a few who were ready to follow him, learn from him, and to be a part of that amazing moment of history when Jesus, the Messiah, would act to bring salvation to the world.  Christmas celebrates that amazing moment in history, when Jesus, the Messiah, was born.  It was a long-expected and long-awaited moment in history:  the moment for the birth of a baby was also the moment for the coming of the Savior.

We are at a different moment in history now.  People are worried about many things, and some still know that watching for signs of God’s actions in the world is the answer.  But for some reason many seem to believe that converting Christmas into a consumerist holiday marks a better spirituality than waiting with expectation.  We live in a world with such overwhelming needs, how did Christmas change from a time of watching for God to a time of self-indulgence?

One of the reasons I so love the Christmas worship services is that it stands in such marked contrast to the emptiness of a consumerist Christmas.  Christmas worship speaks of great mystery.  In the infant, Jesus, the fullness of God entered the world, and entered human society as one of us.  The birth of Jesus was the birth of a real person in history.  By celebrating Christmas we remember what God has done already, AND we also remind ourselves of that God is still active in the world.  In celebrating Christmas, Christians recognize that

·      God really is in relationship with us,
·      God really has a purpose for history
·      God really does take action in history, and among us
·      And God really does call people to become disciples, which means to live with and for God’s purpose right now.

Christmas services of worship, and all Christian services of worship, point people to God by standing in contrast to some of the empty ideas that tend to gain traction among us.  We worship a Savior who came among us in self-sacrificing love, not in self-indulgence.  We worship a Savior who cared about those who suffered from sin and from injustice and from those powers that would bring them down.  Jesus came for the poor, the lost and the downtrodden, and calls us to join him in that ongoing ministry.

I intend to celebrate this Christmas with great joy.  Unto us a Savior is born!  Jesus is not a theological idea, but a real person.  And God is not a convenient idea, but the One who is moving all history toward completion.  And we are not empty vessels with no purpose in the world, but Christ’s followers and imitators, God’s agents, God’s amazingly empowered faith community, participating in God’s work to redeem the world. 

Christmas is a time for worship, because God is at work setting things straight.  In worship we remember that, and we hear the call, once again, to know who we are: God’s chosen!  And then to take action ourselves and join-in on what God is doing in the world.