Tonight we celebrate the word made flesh! …the Word of God made incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the Word. Tonight we celebrate The Spirit of Truth inhabit the Material. It is a sign from God of our completeness, the gift of what true humanity looks like and what we are meant to grow into.


Tonight we receive the gift of God’s promise of Salvation - The Christ child: The angel of the Lord said to the shepherds: “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”


What a story! A story of completeness: to be utterly connected with God…
God showing up as one of us demonstrates for us the deep desire to be connected with us completely. To be in direct communication.


One of my favorite lines is from psalm 27:


When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”


The incarnation demonstrates that while we seek to know God, God seeks to be fully human. We are wrapped in a love affair: Wrapped up like swaddling clothes.


The shepherds see a great light and an angel of the Lord tells them"Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”


The bands of cloth Mary wrapped Jesus in create what we refer to as swaddling, and what other translations of this passage call “swaddling clothes.” The bands create an embrace, like being in the womb; a cocoon of comfort. Swaddling keeps an infant from flailing around; hurting themselves; scratching themselves with those tiny, sharp little fingernails.


God comes to us this way: needing swaddling, consolation and protection. In doing so, God says to us your human frailty, your vulnerability is God-given, loved, blessed, part of the divine nature!


And in mutuality it is God’s embrace that offers us consolation and keeps us from flailing about.
This tiny infant Jesus whom we welcome, grows up to embrace us in different ways with his healings and with his teachings, forever reminding us:




When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”


Throughout the scriptures, Jesus sees us often in our flailing about, and he blesses, heals and forgives. His swaddling embrace comes with teachings to try to keep us from hurting ourselves and one another. Jesus demonstrates for us the love of humanity while he directs us through so many parables to answer the question: What does it mean to seek God’s face?


Jesus sees God’s face in us…struggling to grow into our full humanity. Jesus sees every circumstance as a way to lead us into reconciling relationship: Incarnated Love.


“This Messiah is to bring great joy to all people (not just those who look like me, or think like me, or think like us). God so loved the World.”  (not specific politics, ideologies, colors, cultures, genders, or races) but flesh and blood: everlasting spirit and frail material united. We celebrate God breaking into history through the incarnation, into frail humanity to help us love our own incarnation: To be that connected. To teach us Peace.


God’s word is enfleshed in Jesus’ life. “The word became flesh and lived among us.” What we mean is that Jesus’ life is the teaching of God. That’s why we say, we follow in his footsteps and can say in certain circumstances: “What would Jesus do?”; “What would Love do?”


We don’t always do, nor want to do what Jesus demonstrated even when we desperately want to be like him, a loving healing presence.


As we celebrate the light of God entering the World, It is important to remember the story tells us Jesus was born in the midst of genocide. He lived during a time of tyranny and war. God sought us in that time. And still seeks our face, our humanity today. We have the hope and the light of Christ. And all shall be well in our lives in God. But on earth we have not yet learned to hammer our weapons into plough shares.


In 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr said “if we are to have peace on earth and goodwill toward men [it] is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God. And so when we say “Thou shalt not kill,” we’re really saying that human life is too sacred to be taken on the battlefields of the world. …Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such. Until men see this everywhere, until nations see this everywhere, we will be fighting wars. [He said] One day somebody should remind us that, even though there may be political and ideological differences between us, the Vietnamese are our brothers, the Russians are our brothers, the Chinese are our brothers; and one day we’ve got to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. Because in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither Communist nor capitalist. In Christ, somehow, there is neither bound nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus.”




This Christmas I turned to the voice of MLK, because he reminds us that Christ’s salvation comes whenever we look into one another’s face and seek the incarnation of God’s love. Peace comes when we work at home to seek God’s face.
And teach that lesson to our children.


When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”


Christ’s salvation comes when our manifest spirits reach out to one another to protect and console. It is that redemptive swaddle that is our gift and our salvation.


Every Christmas this tiny baby is our sign of God’s promise that can be ours now, and is everlasting: Salvation in the knowledge that we are flesh and blood and we are Spirit incarnate in a great love affair with God that is meant to be expressed with and for one another.


Martin Luther King went on to say:
“I still have a dream that with this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward men. It will be a glorious day, the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.”




Scripture is full of poetry because it gives us images that are beyond what we can see or speak in regular language, but we know in our hearts sing true:


“the morning stars will sing together, then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, *
And
“How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace.”


“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. “


May we feel his embrace this Christmas, and may we offer it to others.

Merry Christmas!




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Today we have a birth narrative from Matthew. There is a lot packed into a very short passage. Not all of the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ birth.


Mark starts his gospel at the Jordan River with John the Baptist.
John begins with the word: The word made flesh, the light of the World…and John the Baptist who came to testify to the light.
Luke also begins with the birth of John the Baptist but goes on to give us the lovely stories of the angel’s visits to Mary and Elizabeth and to Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah.


Matthew is the only Gospel to focus on the angel’s visit to Joseph.


Joseph is the star of this Gospel passage. And there is a lot going on in Joseph’s story.
Joseph’s story begins with this dream of an Angel’s visitation. And Joseph has many dreams that follow.


Matthew’s Gospel approaches the birth of Jesus from the sure perspective that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. We are given this mysterious dream of the angel who tells Joseph that the child conceived in Mary’s womb is from the Holy Spirit. But just before this story, in our opening passage, is the genealogy of Jesus which reads as a list of names from Joseph going all the way back to Abraham and importantly going through the House of David.


According to the prophets, the messiah is to come from the House of David. And this genealogy makes that very clear. It is important that Joseph is the father of this child to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah has foretold. It is also important that this child be from a young woman to fulfill the words the Lord spoke through the same prophet.


The Lord gave Isaiah two realities. And we embrace these two realities as the Son of god and the Son of man. We say Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. The prophet says he is to be named Emmanuel which means “God with us.”


Some say no one was caught more unaware by this mystery than Mary and Joseph themselves! But what they did with their mysterious circumstance is what helped bring love into the world. Mary said yes to this baby. And Joseph said yes to this baby against all odds. The angel told Joseph to name the child Jesus. Which means “God is your salvation.”So we also have two meanings in the names given to the Son of Man and the Son of God. God is among us, and very importantly God is a loving healing and saving God. (In case you have any doubts about what it will be like to have God with you.) You shall call him Jesus.


Joseph goes on to have more dreams. Listening to God and his heart, I’m sure the resonance there, he plans for this child. After the Magi visit, Joseph is interrupted by yet another dream: “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” (Matthew 2:13). And Joseph does so.


But again after settling in Egypt with Mary and Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to him again and instructed him to go back to the Land of Israel. Since Herod was dead, Joseph planned to go back to Judea; but just when they were about to reach the southern kingdom, learning that it was Herod’s son upon the throne, he had another dream and the Angel told Joseph to head north instead into Galilee.



God chose to come into the world as a child. Not a powerful King equal to Herod… but as a vulnerable child who first needs our protection. Joseph goes to great lengths to protect his family.


There is a famous quote I love by Meister Eckhart, “We are all meant to be mothers of God, because God is always needing to be born.” And the story of Joseph reminds us that “We are all meant to be father’s of God, because God is always needing to be raised up in this world.” Before he was raised up to God, Jesus needed to be nurtured and raised up on this Earth.


When we think of immigrants, migrants and refugees it would be helpful to remember Joseph and Mary were refugees; loving parents traveling great lengths and against all odds to raise up Jesus. They were like many of the people who are trying to cross our southern border fleeing persecution, gang violence, communities with astounding murder rates and natural disasters.


When we think of God among us: Emmanuel, it may be helpful to remember that Jesus does not provide an easy road, but requires us to take risks with a love like Joseph’s that will empower us.


When we think of our own decisions, nudges or even dreams about what God is doing in our lives, it may be helpful to remember that unexpected challenges and turns in the road, may be God leading us in ways we cannot anticipate.


God among us is only comforting because the reality of that concept wakes us up to the people around us. To the people we love and to the strangers we meet. When we think how difficult this all may be, it is helpful to remember that as as the body of Christ, we are doing this together. We represent God with us to our community.


Jesus, “God with us” came to show us how to access the divinity within us (which is always to tap into that foundational love). It is our calling to be those mothers and fathers for others on this earthly journey.


Matthew gives us the story of Joseph: A “righteous” man (as he’s named). In this story, he is a man who accepts this most incredible idea that the Holy Spirit has delivered to us a gift in the form of the son of man - who will show us what it means to follow in the steps of the Son of God. Who will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit.


God is with us from the beginning until the end of time. Matthew gives us a child in swaddling clothes.


Each birth is miraculous. Even when a pregnancy is planned, I’d say many parents-to-be still marvel at how this really has come to be? New life. A whole new person for us to cherish and teach and lead in loving ways!


We as the body of Christ are to continually raise up this divinity in each new child, through love, and in confidence.


Matthew wants us to be fully confident in this message.
For in the last line of this Gospel Jesus tells us
 “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Amen.

Our Advent candle today traditionally represents Joy.


The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.


We are awaiting this rich renewal. I love the passages that make the earth alive using human signs we can relate to: Mountains that skip, deserts that rejoice, flowers that sing, trees that clap their hands! This Advent we are awaiting with great expectation the signs of God’s presence.


We are always seeking it… but Advent marks this renewal specifically. We are awaiting new birth. We are awaiting the signs of God breaking into the world…


And today the Gospel raises the question for us:
Will we recognize the signs?


John the Baptist is the focus of two of our Gospels for Advent. Last week he was offering forgiveness and prophesying the coming of the Messiah. People were flocking to John  - and to the Jordan River.


"Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”


All of Judea! This is a large population recognizing that forgiveness was essential to their identity, to their wholeness and to their relationship with God. To be forgiven of sins; to know we are okay. Truly.
They needed this! What a gift! It was a sign.


This is pretty bold of John on two levels. The tradition held that the community paid for forgiveness by purchasing animals for temple sacrifice. Not everyone of course could afford to do this. John is offering them free forgiveness. Remember how the religious authorities also told Jesus he was blasphemous for doing so “for only God can forgive sins.”


Second, John is proclaiming that he heralds the coming of the Messiah. And this work of forgiveness is part of the plan for the coming of the Lord.


John the Baptist had a huge following. He was raging against the machine. He was dressed in animal fur and living off of locusts and wild honey. He was living an extreme ascetical lifestyle to make the extreme point that society and the powers of the world were out of communion with God.
John knew he was not the messiah… he was proclaiming  the coming of another…baptizing people in the same river in which the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus…
And the crowds were flocking to him to the dismay of the “powers that be.” Even that “brood of vipers” (as he called them) came to see what the stir was about…


How halting: Forgiveness is disruptive to the status quo!…Forgiveness heralds the healing of so many places in ourselves and people in our lives.


I have spoken of forgiveness in other sermons. Here it is at the very beginning of our Christian story. With the one who heralds the coming of the messiah. Our story does not only culminate with Jesus’ forgiveness on the cross. Our story begins with forgiveness.
It’s a circle.
And on the spiritual path we encounter stages of development. Practicing Forgiveness is essential to our identity as Christians. It is essential for hope, and it is foundational for recognizing the signs of God’s redeeming work breaking into the World.
John has been imprisoned for his disruptive prophesying. Perhaps he is frightened. Perhaps he is unsure. He expected the messiah to be powerful. John was full of righteous judgment. That’s what animated his followers.


He hears what Jesus is doing and sends word to him essentially asking "are you the one?”
Jesus responds by saying, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”


This is the powerful work of the redeemer that is built on a foundation of forgiveness… Indeed John, you have paved the way.
Jesus sends good news to John. Hopeful news: Yes, indeed all of the things Isaiah prophesied and our psalmist sings:


 Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! *
whose hope is in the Lord their God;..
6 Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *
and food to those who hunger.
7 The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind; *
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;…
the Lord cares for the stranger; *
he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.




This is the dream for John in captivity. Here are the signs! Who knows what stories John is hearing in prison. Perhaps he wonders about a personal sign from Jesus. We all may wonder about this. John gives us the permission to doubt… and yet Jesus still praises John saying “among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.”


In this doubting, the question arises: what are the signs of the Good News?
And
Are we looking for them?


Recently I was speaking with someone who is very goal oriented in his spiritual life, well in his whole life. When he reviewed his goals for this year, he had achieved a lot of them, but while he could’ve broken out a glass of champagne to celebrate, instead he was overcome by the “when" and “where” God really showed up for him. This year he said God showed up in his relationships where unexpected holy moments had emerged.


Working on relationships hadn’t been a particular goal for him. It was God’s hidden work showing up in unanticipated ways. “Goals or no goals” God was present. In his efforts to seek out God, he was “heralding in, paving the way.” Reflecting on these experiences freed him.


What does freedom look like for you?
What parts of you are imprisoned? Would forgiving yourself or someone else set you free?
What is the hope of God that we ask for this Advent?


Certainly many of us doubt like John the Baptist when we struggle with our lives, our bodies, and what is going on around us. We have been waiting for the great disruption of the World as we know it. For peace for and love to prevail.


In the Epistle this morning, James asks us to be patient, but more so, James’ patience can be translated as endurance. He speaks to us of waiting, but not simply waiting. His description of farming evokes work and persistence. James’ message follows suit with our Advent readings thus far, that have asked us to get ready, sows the seeds, be prepared, and then keep awake to the signs in this world of God’s love and renewal.


Jesus shows up to show us the nature of God is Love. Interestingly he says, “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
The world was scandalized by Jesus. How can one who shows up to heal be the one we’ve been waiting for? We want a great and mighty leader.


And still today the world seems to want a great and mighty leader. Most people continue to be scandalized by a God that would come to identify with our suffering rather than magically end all suffering. How many times have you heard, “If there really was a God why is the world this way.”


God’s love unites us in our suffering, strengthens us in that communion, and leads us into wisdom and truth.
To me, the faces in this sanctuary are signs. Our work is to be patient with one another and ourselves. To forgive one another and our selves. To bring healing love into the world.


This Advent let us embrace the joy of renewal. Here as a community together let us rejoice and sing. And let’s also think about what kind of renewal our neighbors need and their children seek?


How can we, like John, make holy disruption in the lives of our community?
​…How can we be a sign of hope for them?
Do our friends and neighbors understand that forgiveness, healing and love are at the core of our identity?
Ask them?
Ask them what signs they seek?
And let’s ask ourselves how we can help pave the way…for Emmanuel breaking through:
God Among us!

This Sunday is the first day of Advent and the first day of our calendar year. We are awaiting two things: the birth of the incarnate God. And we are awaiting the Second coming of Christ!


The readings this week share imagery of light and the prophecy of Peace. Isaiah famously tells us that in the days to come God will be the great arbiter between nations:


they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.


Isaiah’s final words to us are “Come let us walk in the light of the Lord.”


And in the reading from Romans Paul encourages us to put on our armor of light: wake from sleep; wake from darkness. He says:
“let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.”


That sounds fairly doable, and yet we find ourselves struggling with quarreling - or battling feelings of jealousy. And certainly a war-torn world.
So, How do we follow such instruction?


The Gospel of Matthew goes on to get very personal with this teaching, by suggesting that "being awake to the light" is an internal activity.
The story is puzzling. It tells us “Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”


In our theology we believe in the first coming of Christ as the human Jesus walking among us. The second coming is when God and the earth are completely united. Although it is heralded by calamity, the Second Coming is anticipated with great expectation. Jesus asks us to practice keeping awake to the unity of God and earth made manifest: “when nation shall not lift up sword against nation.”


In the Gospel, essentially, two people may appear from the outside as if they are engaged in identical tasks, yet in Jesus’ metaphor “one is awake” and “one is asleep” so to speak. Keeping awake as Jesus asks, will help us to know who we are and where we are.


We do this in the context of our faith. We believe in a salvific reign of God. Meaning we believe in restoration of our world and of ourselves in the body of Christ. Jesus’ message to “Keep awake" is within the context of this greater vision: The Second Coming.
What am I doing in this moment and how does that connect with my greater identity as God’s beloved? My life here-and -now, and the extension of that reality into the greater realm of God?


“Keep awake” is a term Jesus uses several times. It also coincides with his instruction: “abide in me.”


Keeping awake is a matter of presence. Practicing presence in our lives with our loved ones, with our chores etc., with other people in the workplace, and in daily errands, sheds light on God invisibly moving in our everyday activities.


Whether it's washing our hands, or setting our phones down and looking at the face of our partner or child, practicing presence makes us more deeply connected to the revelation of life: we are here. We are incarnate, and made in God’s image!


This is the Good News of the Gospel. Two things that we are celebrating in Advent: We are made in the image of God like Jesus…and made for a peaceable Kingdom: A kingdom of light that overcomes darkness. Tapping into this light makes us available to others: more compassionate, more discerning, more at Peace! When we are at peace with ourselves, it begins to extend to others.


Throughout this chapter, Jesus goes on with more parables about being ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Readiness for God is not a quick fix prescribed by Jesus when we see or experience signs of upheaval. Instead readiness is training for this life. It is about seeing Christ in all that we do.


We have a theology of the “already - not yet” Kingdom. We believe the realm of God is already here and yet unfolding. It exists as our foundation; we recognize that we are saved in Christ; and yet we suffer with the knowledge that it has not been fully realized in the World. We still have war. We still have quarrels. We still have violence. The second coming we are preparing for is God’s Peace in the World.


All of Matthew’s parables that follow are about readiness in this "already not yet” reality we reside in. It culminates in the story of the “Coming of the King, The Son of Man.”
At the end of this chapter Jesus explains what it will be like and why he is talking about separation of one woman from another and one man from another. I’m going to read it to you in its entirety because it help explain our passage this morning.


“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,g you did it to me.’


Jesus is telling us that Christ’s presence is here with us where we do not expect it, and when we do not expect it… in the poor, in the stranger, and in one another.


Even while we experience the calamity of quarreling and jealousy, so much war, and so much violence, mass shootings, poverty and natural disasters; the church faithfully continues working through all of it, making Christ known in the World through loving, nurturing, outreach ministries and fellowship.


It is within the calamity that we see the work of Christ in one another and for others. And we do this as individuals who make up the body of Christ. Peace begins at home with waking up to our families, to our neighbors, to strangers; tuning life into a stream of prayer, and faithful activity.


This Advent, we are practicing wakefulness. I would ask you (if you don’t already) to say a prayer before you leave the house. Abide in Christ for just a moment. And when you leave the house you will leave wearing the armor of light. And it will touch others, as Jesus touched us, to help us usher in the Peaceable Kingdom.


As Paul says,
You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. 
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