February 18, 2007 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

1 Samuel 26:2, -9,12-13,22-23 + Psalm 103 + 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49 + Luke 6:27-38

This Gospel will thin the ranks of disciples. It goes against common sense.

Doing good to those who hate you is codependency at its best. It is masochism at worst. Giving to everyone who begs will eventually means that you’ll be begging and find out that most people don’t give to those who beg. In the end, you begin to wonder if Jesus skipped Playground 101? What happened to that God who was going to make my enemies my foot stool? Where is the God of Moses and Elijah who slaughtered enemies? What we are hearing today is a parody on that saying: “Do unto others before they do unto you.”

Jesus has seen the never-ending nature of violence and the never-ending nature of God. The two are incompatible. Our relationship to that God of love must be stronger than our relationship to anything else, and eventually we will have to make a choice. They are incompatible.

In other words: circumstances do not control us. Enemies, persecutors, haters do not make us into themselves infecting us with their toxicity, but that is always their power. They make returning evil seem necessary, a matter of survival. In that thinking, we decide that we didn’t start it, but we can end it…………. No, we can’t. It has never been so.

We always have the option to choose between a reaction and a response. The difference between the two is only a matter of a pause. There is no pause before a reaction. It is simply knee-jerk and mindless. After a pause however, there can be a response that is mindful and more in touch with who we really are. In the choice between reaction and response lies growth and happiness. Our ability to take that pause – to stand in the space of time is the measure of our spiritual development.

We make a choice in that space between slavery to compulsive reaction or liberation from reactivity.

The truth here is simple: our personal actions create the world in which we live. When we get bone-dead honest with ourselves, we know the connection between how we act toward others and our own destiny.

If we are judgmental and condemning of others, we end up swallowed in negative fury. When we are fiercely righteous, we never see it, but our own inner state of self-condemnation targets others while it really brings us to judgment. What we think is harmful to others is really harmful to us.

It also works in reverse. The way of forgiveness in Jesus may first seem to benefit others, but it is ultimately our way to fulfillment and freedom. The generosity we bestow on others always overflows into our lives. We find ourselves, so often the recipient of our own generosity. How we treat others becomes how we are treated.

This truth is not put before us as an article of belief. We are not asked today to say “Yes” because this is the inspired word of God, but because if we look deeply enough what is revealed here is human experience illuminated by the Word of God. It takes a little practice, but in time we realize that what Jesus proposes is really the truth, and as Flannery O’Connor said: “The truth will make us odd.”

It takes a little practice to enjoy that pause and be comfortable in choosing a response rooted in our true identity rather than be trapped in one reaction after another.

February 11, 2007 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Jeremiah 17: 5-8  + Psalm 1 + 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20 + Luke 6:20-26

There is a great risk of “spiritualizing” these words of Jesus that is often a way of insulating ourselves from their literal meaning. To get the message here, we must pay attention to both. That “the poor” exist as a social class, marginalized and powerless is itself part of the message. It should not be so. They should not be poor. Their very existence is an indictment those who leave them poor. Those allow the poverty to continue will not enjoy the consolation of the Kingdom. If there are hungry people, there is something wrong with the well fed. If someone is weeping, there is something wrong with those who gave them reason to weep. If someone is hated, this Gospel suggests that there is something wrong with the one who does the hating.

The wealth of this world and its pleasures are not the blessings we might think they are. In truth, the wealth we enjoy and its pleasures are a challenge, a burden, and a responsibility. Provoking our reflection is the purpose of the paradox Luke puts before us today.

There is a popular television preacher these days who proclaims that God wants us to be rich. This preacher says “NO” to that. God wants us to be Holy, and the only rich holy people (Saints) I know of became holy because they cared more about injustice than about their wealth.

This Gospel cannot be spiritualized into silence. Luke, whose community historically must have embraced many wealthy people in its time, speaks to the rich the good news that their salvation lies in concern for the poor and in using their goods for others. This message in our day carries not only to individuals, but to corporations as well, since the whole idea of a “corporation” implies the collective people who give the system identity and power.

Jesus has been up on the mountain alone with God. There in prayer, he must have attuned himself to the mind or will of God. Coming down from there into our midst, he reveals God’s vision for human life in contrast to the way humans are really living it. It is this discrepancy that drives the blessings and woes. Out of sync with God, this world’s judgments are off the mark. Success or failure, happiness or despair as this world sees it is not normative nor lasting, because it is too far from the Will of God. “Real Life” is constructed upon the rock of spiritual truth, and it takes seriously the Word of God as normative for how we live now and every day.

Timothy in his Epistle spells it out best of all.

“For those who in the present age are rich, command t hem not be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”

February 4, 2007 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Isaiah 6:1-8 + Psalm 138 + 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 + Luke 5:1-11

There is a wonderful sense of movement in today’s Gospel; and the movement carries the message. Pay attention to the boat which starts at the shore, then “puts out a little.” Finally, it goes to the deep water. There in deep water things happen which eventually lead Peter and the others back to shore. Two different groups of people receive the Word of God:

the crowd and the disciples; those who stay on the shore, and those who get into the deep water. The contrast and the point which Luke makes with these details is very important.

Those who go out, who are willing to leave the shore, those who will go into deep water experience what they have heard. Those who stay on the shore only stand and listen. The disciples in the boat follow the instruction of Jesus, and the consequence of doing so is a blessing of abundance. This experience does not happen for those who stay in the shallows or choose the security of the shore. What we see happening is that those in the boat realize a life-changing, life transforming experience. They have done more than just listen to the Word spoken to them. They have let go of the shallows of life for the sake of the deep.

Isaiah, Paul, and Disciples are in today’s readings all called by God. But these calls are not calls to faith, they are calls to ministry. We are not called simply to life of personal holiness however important that may be.

We are, at least those who get in the boat and push away from the shore, called by God to be sent into this world. In the Gospel, Simon Peter is sent to “catch”. Now think of that image for a moment. “Catch” in the sense of fishing means to snatch up. In the sense of the Gospel, it means to snatch up from death. We must catch the fallen, hold up the stumbling. In more practical ways in this day and time, it means we might insist on fair practices at work, weed out prejudice and violence so that a new a just world may can be fashioned. In other words, we are told by Jesus to “catch” those who are falling through the net of life, those who are struck down by prejudice and injustice.

There is here a challenge to the shallowness of too many who call themselves Christians but stand on the shore. There is an opportunity, a call to put out into the deep, to risk such a change in life that we might get out into the open water. It seems to be the only place where fullness and abundance are found. Once that risk is taken, once that fullness is found, leaving everything is easy, and putting one’s feet on the path with Christ Jesus is the only way to go in this life.

So many times, in life we think and say: “I can’t do it.” and just as many times in Scripture God’s response is: “Of course you can’t. Nobody can, but I can.” The disproportion between our abilities and what we are asked to accomplish in our roles is far greater even that the disproportion between Peter’s ability as a fisherman and the catch he finally makes. What God asks of us is that we put out from the shore. What God asks of us is openness to truth, a willingness to learn, readiness to grow, a sense of responsibility and a generous spirit.

They caught nothing after a long night of fishing for themselves. In the company of Jesus, they do it again, and this time it’s more than they bargained for. Suddenly it’s the fishermen who get caught; caught by Jesus, caught and called from fear to humility, to trust, and to service. It won’t happen on the shore however; you have to get out into the deep.

January 28, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Jeremiah 1:2-5, 17-19 + Psalm 71 + 1 Corinthians 12: 31-13:13 + Luke 4:21-30

We heard the first half of this Lukan story last week, and from the way things were going, it’s hard to imagine why they turned out so badly. Or is it? For all of us, this story, and the experience it narrates are all too familiar. Parents know this experience. You give your children all they ask for and more. They are cheerful and full of joy. Then they want more, but you want their room cleaned up. The door slams and the pout begins.

This Jesus of Luke’s Gospel in just four chapters has been through a lot, and he’s learned a lot. He’s been out to the desert after sensing or hearing his call. Out there, he has refused the temptation to use his call, his place, his gifts for himself. He would not make bread out of rocks. He would not take risks to enjoy God’s rescue. He would not use his gifts for his own popularity and enjoy the perks the tempter wanted him to think he had coming. Fresh from that desert and that growing self-understanding, he comes home to Nazareth, to the synagogue as was his custom, and he confronts the community with the same temptation.

They are the people of God. They like that. They like the notion of being chosen. It’s good for their ego, especially when they are an occupied nation. They like this man with his talk of divine favor and human liberation. They speak favorably of him. Their sense of privilege is growing, and he confronts it head-on. He thinks, if he is not exempt for duty and sacrifice, service and love, why not them? So, he reminds them of an unpopular strand of their tradition. They were not chosen by God to form a closed society and become the sole beneficiaries of divine blessings and abundance. They were chosen to bring the benefits of that God to all people. The focus is not on them, but on what they can do for others.

Their sense of privilege suddenly is challenged with a sense of duty. Their blessings now come with expectations of generosity. Their freedom now has some responsibility. They can’t keep what they have. They can’t use it all for themselves. They can’t claim any right to more. And they suddenly get the point, and they don’t like it.

We are, in a sense, sitting in the synagogue again, as is our custom. He is still among us, and he has taken up the scroll of the Prophet. He looks us square in the eye and raises the question us he raised once before.

It’s a simple one, but it’s a tough one. Can you and will you do good things when you don’t get anything out of it? Only those who have faced the responsibility and truth of what it means to be chosen can say “Yes” to this question. Only those who look at everything they have and realize that it’s not about them nor do they have it all because of anything they have done can say “Yes.”

These are people who feel no resentment when others get ahead. These are people who are willing to stand back and let someone else go first.

These are people who realize that being number one is not as good as being best. So, he holds up Naaman a Syran and a widow at Zarephath is Sidon, and wonders can we rejoice that these people who have no privilege like us, who have no “rights” to these opportunities get ahead?

If we can rejoice in the well-being and progress of those judged as undeserving, then the Good News and the Promise of this Gospel is being fulfilled in our own hearing.  The message here is: this stuff we have is not for us or because we deserve it, but because God expects us to do something with it for someone else.

January 21, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Nehemiah 8:2-10 + Psalm 19 + 1 Corinthians 12: 12-30 + Luke 1:1-21

The Jesus of Luke’s Gospel who emerges from the shadows of his youth is a man of purpose and direction. He knows who he is. He knows what his life is for and what he should do with his gifts. He is focused, consistent and clear about his life. We never get a sense in Luke’s Gospel that he was self-conscious, doubted what God asked of him, or what direction to take with the choices he faced.

These are not divine qualities, and they ought not be dismissed by some silly Christology that suggests that his Divine Nature made life easy for him. These are human qualities that Luke proposes should be found in those who would be his disciples and follow him. Now Luke does not just suggest that we must be like Jesus as his disciples. He shows us how to become like Jesus. He proposes where these qualities are developed and how to nurture them. This is part of the purpose for this Gospel event today. Jesus of Nazareth defined himself, set his goals, and found his courage to be faithful to his mission he believed God had called him to from his faithful observance of his traditions in the synagogue and his knowledge of the Word of God.

How could it possibly be different for us? We see people all the time, and everyone of us knows someone who just does not seem to “get it”; who simply can’t seem to figure out who they are, where they are going in life, or what to do with their gifts, and many of them are richly blessed. Some of them think they’re here to look good, be attractive be successful in business, yet all the while they are empty and there is a nagging sense that all is not really right. They go around in shallow circles, lonely and uncomfortable with themselves, lonely and fearful that this might be all there is to life.

This cannot so with disciples of Jesus Christ. They know who they are. They know where they are headed. They know what to do with their lives, their gifts, the opportunities that God’s providence supplies. They find things where Jesus found them: in the faithful observance of their religious tradition. They are in church. They are part of that church’s life so much so that they might be called upon to do something as Jesus was called upon to read that day. He was no stranger there. He was not passing through. Most of all, he knew the scriptures. He didn’t just play scriptural roulette and let the scroll fall open. He knew exactly where to find the prophet, and he knew a passage that focused his life and expressed God’s will for him.

I want you to leave here today thinking about that scene with yourself in it. If I walked down into this assembly and handed anyone of you these scriptures, could you find a passage that is for you an expression of God’s will, and a passage that gives your life purpose, meaning, and direction?

If not? Why not? The desire to imitate Jesus is not just a moral imperative

that concerns doing good and showing mercy. It is must also include imitating the whole of his life which also was about fidelity to religious tradition and a firm knowledge of the Word of God. This behavior on his part was the source of his goodness as a human being. It has been so for me, and I hope it shall be so for all of you, especially the young among us who still are discovering who they are and what they shall become.

January 20, 2008 At Saint Mark in Norman, OK

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 + Psalm 40 + 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 + John 1:29-34

“I did not know him.” John says twice today. “I did not know him.”

As I was sitting with this Gospel text this past week, I remembered those words of Peter in the courtyard of the High Priest. “I do not know him.” Peter said three times that day. That man, Peter will emerge in next Sunday’s Gospel. The two of them will lead us this year toward Lent soon to begin. John and Peter: one who saw the spirit, and one who received the spirit. Both of them by the power of that Spirit become the ultimate model of “Witness”.

One of the major themes of John’s Gospel is that of a “trial”. Jesus is in a literary sense always on trial in John’s Gospel, and this culminates in the long trail narrative before Pilat which is the heart of John’s Gospel. The witnesses come and go. Some lie and some bear witness to the truth. In John’s Gospel, sin is a power arrayed against Jesus, and “world” is often used negatively to depict the organized power of evil. A contemporary parallel would be structural or social sin.

Notice that in the testimony of John, Jesus came to take away sin: Singular, not plural. John’s testimony is that Jesus came to take away the power of sin, to take away this “system” which John calls “the world.” Followers of Jesus should take courage and find confidence because this one we come to know because of John, Peter, and other witnesses will conquer the world.

This Gospel today is both a preview of the theology of John’s Gospel and a summons to faithful witness. True witness is not a matter of pointing out someone’s faults, but a practice of virtue openly, clearly, obviously. Faith without witness is empty and hypocritical.

This world is full of that; full of people who cover their tracks by pointing out the shortcomings and sins of others. This world is full of simple piety that mistakes timid religiosity for fidelity and real virtue They would silence the voices of true witnesses complaining and objecting that religion has no place confronting systems of social sin in this world.

Whatever is in conflict to the teaching of Christ must be confronted with and by the power of the Spirit that has come upon us all. That Spirit is not a “come and go” relationship. If you will allow the expression: “It was not a fly-by” over Jesus or over His Assembled Apostolic Church on Pentecost. What we hear John say today is that the spirit “REMAINED” upon him………… exactly as it does upon Peter and those who are church gathered together in faith.

The Spirit is upon us. It remains upon us so that we may bear witness to the truth. We cannot say: “I did not know him.” any longer. Our witness if it is truly prophetic will not simply be voices raised in judgment of evil, which by itself does no good: but rather voices raised, example given in clear affirmation and practice of good. We must do good, not just be good. Being good is only half a life Doing good is the rest – the fullness of life: the life of the Spirit, the life of those who can and do bear witness by the power of a Spirit-filled life. This is the Life and the Spirit into which we too have been Baptized.

January 1, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Numbers 6: 22-27 + Psalm 8 + Galatians 4:4-7 + Luke 2: 15-21

So often the Motherhood of Mary gets lost in all the other dogmas and theological issues rooted in our Christian tradition of Mariology. Annunciations, Assumptions, Coronations, Conceptions all center around one essential reality, motherhood. Even in Koran Islam recognizes this motherhood. Mary is mentioned there by name more often than in the New Testament. I suppose it’s because it seems so common and ordinary

that the great minds of the church find it more challenging to explore all those other things. Personally, the older I get, and the more wisdom I gain from life and relationships leads me to think this is the premier feast of Mary.

Recent theology entertains the idea that Mary is the ideal disciple of Jesus as one who hears God’s word and acts upon it while treasuring God’s mysteries in her heart. But that recent theology also ought to entertain the idea that before she became the ideal disciple of Jesus, he learned from her. She nurtured and taught him the traditions of his people and guided him through childhood to maturity. She presented him to the Lord in fulfillment of the Law. She took him to the temple where he is first revealed as “Teacher”. As such, she stands in our tradition first as Mother and model of that exalted vocation: “Motherhood.” It’s not then about car seats, diapers, baby food, and soccer. Motherhood is about leading, teaching, and planting seeds of faith.

For us all, men and women, she becomes the inspiration of contemplation and reflection. She inspires us to consider deeply the significance of events rather than live a bland and shallow life. What Luke suggests is that she stood before life as a participant, not a victim.

When things happened, she did not understand, she could never have stood back and shook her head and wondered, “Why?”. She would have looked at things and wondered, “What does it mean?” and then “What am I going to become because of it.” This is the way people formed in the deepest tradition of our faith stand before tragedy and pain. They see violence but do not become violent. They experience loss and tragedy but do not become bitter and angry, because they ponder these things in their hearts asking the right questions: “What does this mean?” and “What shall I become because of it?” A life by this model is not shallow or easily upset.

Mary inspires us to constant reflection on the truths of our faith, which continue to be made real in life’s experience. She inspires us to fidelity in practicing our faith, practices that are disciplines of soul that lead a community to a clear focus on the presence of God in human affairs.

And so, on this first day of the new calendar year, we can hardly do better than gather in this holy place and invoke the memory of one whose life in human history ushered in a new age. The message of the Church this day is that new beginnings are always possible. We are never condemned to repeat over and over again our past failures or past weaknesses. This is the hope that faith stirs in us for the days to come, and in that hope our Joy is sustained.

Long ago Saint Ambrose stood in the Cathedral of Milan and said this to the assembly: “Let Mary’s soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith.” My dear friends, one week ago at this hour, the Christmas Feast was still being celebrated in the day. Today we may pray in gratitude for God-bearing women, and we reflect that they, too, have conceived Christ in their hearts and are called to bring him forth to a suffering world longing for peace.

December 31, 2006The Holy Family
December 31, 2006
1 Samuel 1:1-28 + Colossians 3:12-21 + Luke 2:41-52

She was desperate. Her self esteem was lower than low. She was ridiculed by others. She looked so bad in her sadness that some thought she was a drunk. She had everything a young woman could dream of. She was cherished by a loving husband who treated her like a queen. Yet she was still miserable. Ungodly people prospered and gloated over their prosperity. While she who was faithful to her God struggled against adversity and disappointments that made her feel like a failure. For years she has tried everything, including prayer with no results. This woman, thought by others to be a failure and useless, near the end of her hope, had said every prayer in the book. Not until all her efforts failed does she come to God without words, simply with her heart. Finally, the book says; ”She prayed with her heart”, and God who knows what is in our hearts hears and responds. She is a woman of prayer,
of faithfulness, of dignity, and perseverance. She is generous with God because she knows God has been generous with her. Her name is Hannah, and her story opens our liturgy today where she shines in the Bible’s galaxy of saints.

Hannah is not just a model for women, wives, and mothers. Her story speaks to everyone who knows anxiety and depression, disappointment and failure. The effectiveness of her prayer is not found in using the right words, but in having the right heart.
She has a heart of faith and a heart of trust. Because of that faith and courage the unfolding of salvation history is possible.
She does not keep for herself what God gives her. Struck by the goodness and generosity of God toward her;she returns to God what was given by God; and she gets more in return. She wanted a son desperately. When God finally granted her faithful and patient prayer, she returned that son, Samuel, to the Lord. He was a child of destiny who as chief priest and prophet would bridge the era between Judges and Kings It is Samuel who heard the call of God and spent his life communicating the Word of God to the people.
He is the one who chose David, the least likely son of another family to anoint as King, Prophet, Leader, and Teacher.

Even children of destiny have parents,
and Hannah’s story even while set in a cultic and archaic culture
foreign to us is fresh and new and real.
Unable to help herself, she came to God with a faithful heart.
Generous with the God who was generous to her,
she was even more blessed,
for after giving her son to the temple and God,
it is recorded that she gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

This is the story the church puts before us on the Sunday after Christmas.
To a people who have more than they need
yet still feel uneasy; comes Hannah’s story.
To a people who feel like failure,
who wait and long for the one gift
that will give life meaning and purpose, comes Hannah’s story.
On the eve of a New Year, Hannah lifts our spirits
with hope and promise, and confirms what we believe.
While some who turn from God to goods seem to prosper;
those who wait, who hope, who trust, and who pray with a sincere heart
are never abandoned by God.
And what’s more, those who are generous with God
receive more than they ask for.

December 31, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman

1 Samuel 1:1-28 + Colossians 3:12-21 + Luke 2:41-52

She was desperate. Her self-esteem was lower than low. She was ridiculed by others. She looked so bad in her sadness that some thought she was a drunk. She had everything a young woman could dream of. She was cherished by a loving husband who treated her like a queen. Yet she was still miserable. Ungodly people prospered and gloated over their prosperity. While she who was faithful to her God struggled against adversity and disappointments that made her feel like a failure. For years she has tried everything, including prayer with no results. This woman, thought by others to be a failure and useless, near the end of her hope, had said every prayer in the book. Not until all her efforts failed does she come to God without words simply with her heart. Finally, the book says; ”She prayed with her heart”, and God who knows what is in our hearts hears and responds She is a woman of prayer, of faithfulness, of dignity, and perseverance. She is generous with God because she knows God has been generous with her. Her name is Hannah, and her story opens our liturgy today where she shines in the Bible’s galaxy of saints.

Hannah is not just a model for women, wives, and mothers. Her story speaks to everyone who knows anxiety and depression, disappointment and failure. The effectiveness of her prayer is not found in using the right words, but in having the right heart. She has a heart of faith and a heart of trust. Because of that faith and courage, the unfolding of salvation history is possible. She does not keep for herself what God gives her. Struck by the goodness and generosity of God toward her; she returns to God what was given by God; and she gets more in return. She wanted a son desperately. When God finally granted her faithful and patient prayer, she returned that son, Samuel, to the Lord. He was a child of destiny who as chief priest and prophet would bridge the era between Judges and Kings It is Samuel who heard the call of God and spent his life communicating the Word of God to the people. He is the one who chose David, the least likely son of another family to anoint as King, Prophet, Leader, and Teacher.

Even children of destiny have parents, and Hannah’s story even while set in a cultic and archaic culture foreign to us is fresh and new and real. Unable to help herself, she came to God with a faithful heart. Generous with the God who was generous to her, she was even more blessed, for after giving her son to the temple and God, it is recorded that she gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

This is the story the church puts before us on the Sunday after Christmas. To a people who have more than they need yet still feel uneasy; comes Hannah’s story. To a people who feel like failure, who wait and long for the one gift that will give life meaning and purpose, comes Hannah’s story. On the eve of a New Year, Hannah lifts our spirits with hope and promise and confirms what we believe. While some who turn from God to goods seem to prosper; those who wait, who hope, who trust, and who pray with a sincere heart are never abandoned by God. And what’s more, those who are generous with God receive more than they ask for.

December 25, 2006

Isaiah 9: 1-6 + Titus 2:11-4 + Luke 2: 1-14

In the lean and simple language of Luke,

we take delight again in the ageless story which begins

in the most humble setting, with the least likely people.

The story of tells of boundaries broken and creation restored.

It proclaims as John’s Gospel puts it, that the Word is Made Flesh.

In English, five words so powerful and significant

That today when we proclaim them in the Creed, we are instructed

by the ritual to put our knee on the floor: to genuflect.

Already in Luke’s telling of this new Genesis,

two figures have emerged

who tell us what happens when the Word takes flesh.

Elizabeth and Mary are the first to experience this new creation,

but they are not the last.

Elizabeth the barren, and Mary the Virgin have both had an encounter with the creative power of God’s Word.

She who was counted as nothing, discarded as useless and old

without even an identity in Israel because she could not bear a son

to continue the race is suddenly redeemed and made whole by this wonder.

And a young girl from no-where, out of the main stream of life,

from out in the hill country is called highly favored and chosen.

The boundaries are broken.

Heaven and earth get mixed up together.

The Divine and the Human mingle in flesh and blood

breath and spirit, dream and hope, and the future becomes the present.

Words have the power to change the course of human events.

“Be it done to me according to your word.” said Mary.

Because of that willingness to say “Yes” to the Word, the course of human events changed forever. And it still does.

“Is it your with that we Baptize this child?” parents are asked at that font.

They say: “Yes.” and that child is changed forever.

“Will you marry me?” one says to another, and those people are changed forever.

“Will you love and honor each other for the rest of your lives?” the priest or deacon asks, and nothing is ever the same.

There is such power in Words.

They can sting and kill, and they can give life and joy, peace and hope.

Words of kindness to a stranger can bring joy.

Words of comfort can bring hope.

Words of forgiveness can bring peace between enemies.

We assemble here because a Word has been spoken.

So once again we retell the story of the Word

which when spoken in Genesis made all things good.

Once again we retell the story of the Word

which when spoken restores that good creation

with its promise that human life and God have once and for all

been bound together as they were meant to be from the beginning.

It means that our future and our growth are in God’s own hands.

We need not wonder where our life is taking us.

The peace, the joy, the satisfaction of Isaiah’s vision is what lies ahead.

Whatever burdens we may bear now,

whatever we may have suffered in the past,

whatever we may have yet to endure,

is really not important.

Whatever our burdens may be, they are uncomfortable and inconvenient, but that is all they are.

They do not last, and they do not keep us from the promise.

What happened to Elizabeth and to Mary

is happening to everyone who will listen and say, “yes.”

This world is now a holy place, a sacred place because what we proclaim today is that God has come to dwell here,

and so we are a holy people living in a sacred world.

The only evil here is a refusal to honor and recognize that holiness.

This is not a birthday party. It is an invasion. It is an interruption of a “business as usual” world by the divine insistence

that we live up to what we were made and called to be.

Why? Because God loves us.

This no sentimental love that fits into a thirty-minute TV special,

but a terrifying divine love that is literally ready to turn the world inside out to rescue and restore us. We are not spectators in this divine plan.

This is not just about the birth of Christ.

It is about our birth into life everlasting