Christmas Day, 2022

 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

Is that the way you would have done it? If you had been in God’s shoes, would you have surrendered your status as God in order to become human and enter the world you had created?

God was attempting to fix the brokenness of the world He had created. God had not created it in its broken state. What God had created was good, very good (Genesis 1:26). That good creation, however, had become twisted, corrupt, broken. The humans God had created in the divine likeness, with the capacity for God’s life, with the ability to use power as God does – humans who were the crowning piece of creation had corrupted creation through rebellious defiance (Genesis 6:5, 11-12). Their disobedience had created alienation and division in every possible relationship. Following their own wisdom, humans had filled the world with violence – using power in the exact opposite way God uses power. The world was broken because humans, acting out of willful defiance, had filled the world with violence.  

If you were God, how would you have dealt with human defiance and rebellion? How would you have gone about fixing the broken world? Would you have destroyed it and started over? The story of the flood indicates that’s what God did, but it didn’t work. Judgment did not change the human heart. The human heart was the same after the flood as it was before (Genesis 6:5 and 8:21). (Personally, I believe the story of the flood presented that option because that’s the way we humans generally operate, not because it is what God did. The story of the flood is an epic story communicating theological truth, not actual history.)

Would you have just given up on it and thrown it away? Again, we humans are inclined to give up on and abandon seemingly hopeless projects. Again, that’s not God’s way.

God’s way is to love.

God acted in harmony with the divine nature, living out of the divine character of self-giving love. In the face of human’s rebellious defiance and disobedience, God’s love never wavered. In the face of the world’s brokenness, God never gave up on or abandoned the world he had created. Rather, God loved because that’s what God does.

How far would God’s love go? How far would it take Him?

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

To heal the brokenness, to overcome the alienation and division, to bring reconciliation to broken relationships, to address the rebellion and defiance, God set aside the rights and privileges of being God in order to take on human flesh. God robed the divine self in the vulnerability and total dependency of a new born infant. In Jesus of Nazareth, God lived among us and with us, showing us what God is like and teaching us God’s ways – the ways for which we were created. In Jesus’s death and resurrection, God restored what we, in our stubborn willfulness, destroyed. By taking on our humanness, God addressed what was in the human heart, cleansing it and transforming it. God’s giving did not stop with the incarnation. Following Jesus’s resurrection, God gave the Spirit to be the continuing incarnation. Through the work of the Spirit, God is recreating us in the divine likeness once again. God, living out of steadfast, faithful love, will not stop working until our transformation is complete and the brokenness of creation is healed.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That is how far self-giving love will go. 

Love - the 4th Sunday of Advent, 2022

The traditional theme for this third Sunday of Advent is love.

When we talk about love, we are talking about God – about who God is (God’s character, God’s nature), about how God relates to us.

The Hebrew scriptures use the term chesed to speak of how God relates to us. Chesed is the defining characteristic of God’s nature. It governs how God relates to us. Chesed carries the idea of steadfast love – a love that never wavers or falters. It carries the idea of faithful love – a love that never gives up on us or abandons us. This kind of love is unconditional. It is not dependent on who we are or what we do. It is an expression of the heart (nature/character) of God. The apostle Paul used the term grace to refer to this love. The Johannian community used the term agape. Relating to us out of this love, God accepts us unconditionally, freely forgiving us. The Hebrew scriptures say God abounds in such love and gives freely and lavishly out of it.

The incarnation – the Word made flesh in Jesus - was the logical expression of this love. Jesus, in turn, was the embodiment of this love. We see it in how Jesus accepted every person unconditionally, valuing each as a beloved child of God, freely forgiving without condition.

To talk about love is to talk about how power is used. Love always uses power on behalf of the other, at great cost to the one who is loving. That’s why the incarnation is the logical expression of this love. Jesus used the term servant to speak of this love.

To say that God loves us is to say that God accepts us unconditionally, just as we are, as a beloved child. It is to say that God freely forgives us, refusing to give up on us or abandon us. It is to say that God, through the Spirit, addresses our need in order to move us beyond it. The Spirit teaches us the ways of God, moving us beyond old ways of thinking and living. The Spirit addresses old emotional wounds, healing us and setting us free from old, life-depleting patterns. The Spirit matures us, moving us beyond spiritual immaturity and stagnation. Ultimately, God’s love transforms us so that we love as God loves.

The theme of this fourth Sunday of Advent is love – the love that is the very nature of God, the love out of which God relates to us, the love that is expressed in the incarnation – the Word made flesh, the love that accepts us unconditionally and freely forgives us, the love that addresses our every need, the love that transforms us so that we love as God loves.

Joy - 3rd Sunday of Advent, 2022

 Joy is a characteristic of the people of God, of the followers of Jesus.

Joy is an inner disposition, an attitude out of which we live. It is a gladness of heart. It is a heart filled with a sense of delight, a sense of being blessed. Joy is not a head experience. It is a heart experience. Thinking is put on hold as delight fills the heart and mind and body. Joy makes the heart open and receptive, moving it beyond fear and fear’s self-protective inclinations.

Joy comes from God and is tied to God. The apostle Paul identified joy as one of the nine traits of the fruit of the Spirit. He called the Philippians to “Rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 3:1, 4:4). Because joy comes from God and is tied to God, it is not dependent upon circumstances. We can experience joy in the midst of what is.

Joy is rooted in who God is and in God’s faithful love. It is tied to how God works to transform, bringing life out of death, good out of evil, wholeness out of brokenness.

Joy is something we choose. It is an attitude, an inner disposition we choose because of who God is and how God works. Choosing to live out of a spirit of joy is an act of faith, proclaiming that the present reality is not the final reality. It is an expression of hope, anticipating what will be. It bears witness to a quiet confidence, a settled assurance in God’s faithful love, in God’s transforming work.

Choosing joy allows us to rise about the challenges we face. Joy proclaims God, God’s grace is greater than whatever it is we are experiencing at the moment. Joy is living in eager anticipation of what will be because of God’s faithful love. We choose joy as an act of faith, as an expression of our hope.

In the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), joy is linked with peace. Joy grows out of peace. Joy and peace are the inner disposition the Spirit cultivates within us as the followers of Jesus. In the midst of what is, we choose to rest in God’s faithful love. As we rest in God’s grace, we experience the Spirit’s gift of deep inner peace. That peace allows joy to flow from deep within. Peace releases joy. This inner disposition of joy and peace frees us to love. Joy and peace give birth to patience, kindness, faithfulness, generosity, and gentleness.

Joy is an attitude, an inner disposition, a gladness of heart out of which we live. It is an attitude we choose because of the faithful love of God. It is an act of faith, an expression of hope.

As we journey through this holy Advent season, may we once again choose joy.

The Lion and the Lamb - 2nd Sunday of Advent, 2022

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the kid,
The calf and the lion and the fatling together (Isaiah 11:6).

It’s one of my favorite Advent images – the lion and the lamb (the fatling) lying down together. The image comes out of Isaiah’s vision of a world, shaped by the ways of God, that no longer uses power to attack or destroy another. It is a world of peace, at peace, filled with peace – a peace that permeates even the animal kingdom.

The Isaiah text is a traditional text used to develop the theme of peace on this 2nd Sunday of Advent. The text presents a vision of what scholars call “the peaceable kingdom.” This kingdom of peace, at peace is tied to the reign of the messiah who reigns with righteousness and justice – the traditional language used in the Hebrew scriptures in reference to the ways of God. Thus, the text offers us more than an image of peace that permeates the world. It also identifies the way to such peace.

The image presented in the vision of a world of peace, at peace is often dismissed as unrealistic, as nothing more than idealistic dreaming or wishful thinking. Such reactions to the vision generally overlook what the vision says about the way to such peace.

The way to such peace is clearly stated, so why do we fail to recognize it?

A world of peace, at peace is what occurs when we embrace and live the ways of God – the ways of righteousness and justice. These two familiar terms are covenant terms. They describe how we live in relationship with one another in the covenant community.

Righteousness is more than a moral or religious concept. It refers to living in right relationship with others in the covenant community. The meaning of righteousness - to live in right relationship within the covenant community - is clarified by the term with which righteousness is consistently paired in the Hebrew scriptures: justice. Justice, again, is more than a legal term. It is a covenant term describing how we live in relationship with one another within the covenant community. Justice refers to how we use power within those relationships. To practice justice is to use power on behalf of those who have little or no power – the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the resident alien (Isaiah 1:17). We do justice whenever we embrace, advocate for, and provide for these who live in vulnerable circumstances. We do justice whenever we use our power to empower the powerless. Using our power on behalf of the powerless is what it means to live in right relationship with our neighbor, i.e., righteously.

Justice was the idea Jesus taught when he spoke of living as a servant – using our power to seek the good and wellbeing of another (Mark 9:35; 10:42-45). Righteousness is living out of a servant spirit. In the mind of Jesus, the term servant captured the ideas of righteousness and justice.

The way to peace outlined in Isaiah’s vision also highlights why we do not experience peace. Our world is filled with brokenness, alienation, and division because of how we use power in relationship to one another. Jesus used the language of “lord it over” and “tyrants” to describe how power is used in the world (Mark 10:42-45). We use power over, down against others for our own personal benefit. This use of power is always at the expense of the other.

This way of using power is the way of domination. In order to protect our interests and maintain our advantage, we use power against the one we view as “other.” We use power to dominate and control, keeping the other “in their place.” If need be, we attack and destroy them. In other words, we use power violently. The degree of violence varies, but any use of power against another is a violent use of power.

The violent use of power stands in opposition to how God uses power. The creation story (Genesis 1) teaches us that God uses power to call life into being and then to nurture that life into maturity. The way God uses power is always life-giving and life-enriching. In the words of Jesus, it is the way of the servant. Having been created in the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), we were created to use power the way God does – in life-giving, life-enriching ways – as a servant.

Sadly, we have denied the likeness of God within us, choosing instead to use power to look-out-for-ole-#1. Our use of power is driven by self-interest and fear. We are afraid there is not enough to go around – scarcity thinking. Thus, we want to make sure we get our share – and more! We want to make sure we don’t miss out. We are afraid of those who are different – the other. We are afraid they we take what is ours. Our fear leads us to compete, using our power to win. If necessary, we use our power to eliminate the competition. It’s the story of Cain and Abel lived out over and over and over again.

(Aside: this unrecognized, fear-based way of thinking is celebrated in the way we worship athletic competition in its various forms. But that’s a blog for another time.)

This issue of how power is used is the driving theme of the story of the flood. That ancient story identifies violence as the reason God chose to destroy the earth (Genesis 6:11-13). Yet, in destroying the earth, God used power violently. God used power violently in an effort to get rid of violence. We often miss the end of the story and its message. After the flood, the LORD said, “Well, that didn’t work. I’ll never do that again” (Genesis 8:21-21). Destroying the earth did not fix the problem. It did not change what was in the human heart (Genesis 8:21). Using power violently does not solve the problem of violence. It’s a truth we don’t want to acknowledge, much less put into practice.

How to create a world of peace, at peace is the unrecognized story in the Christmas story told in the gospel of Luke. The world into which Jesus was born lived under pax Roma – Roman peace. Roman peace was a peace created by using power to demand conformity to Roman rule. It came through Rome’s use of power down, against those under her rule. It came through domination. Roman peace was not actually peace. It was, at best, stability – stability that benefited those in power at the expense of those whom they ruled. Into this world, Jesus was born, offering a different way to peace. It was not the way of domination (power over), but the way of self-giving love – the way of the servant. In Jesus, God took on human flesh in order to address the human condition. At his birth, the angels sang “Peace on earth!” (Luke 2:14). All of heaven recognized that the servant use of power was the way to real peace. The reality played out in heaven at his birth was not duplicated on earth. At the end of his ministry, Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they did not recognize “the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42). It seems Jesus understood the way that leads to peace proclaimed in Isaiah’s vision.

If we want a world of peace, at peace, we must change the way we use our power (in its many forms). We must address the underlying, fear-based thinking that drives us to use power against others, i.e., violently. We must address the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that fills our hearts. We must move beyond our fear of those who are different from us so that we no longer view them as “the other,” seeing them instead as beloved children of God. We must surrender our scarcity thinking. We must embrace the ways of God as our own.

While such sounds impossible – more wishful thinking and idealistic dreaming - it is actually very possible. This kind of inner transformation of heart and mind is exactly what God is using his power to make happen. It is story we celebrate these Advent and Christmas seasons. In Jesus and then in the Spirit, God comes to us as a servant. Having created us, God has claimed us in Christ Jesus as beloved children. God now works to bring us his children to Christ-like spiritual maturity through the work of the Spirit. The Spirit, in teaching us the ways of the kingdom, is transforming our hearts and minds, empowering us to live as servants, here, now.

Isaiah’s vision of a world of peace, at peace is neither wishful thinking or idealistic dreaming. It is a glimpse of what will be because of the self-giving, servant love of God. It is a world that God will bring into reality as God works in and through us as his Spirit-empowered children.

Isaiah’s vision of a world at peace, of peace is a reminder of what will be because of God’s righteousness and justice. It is also a call for us to partner with God in bringing this world of peace, at peace into being by embracing and living the servant-ways God in every aspect of our lives.

Isaiah’s vision reminds us that the way that leads to peace is God’s way of using power in life-giving, life-enriching ways. The way of the servant is the way that leads to peace.

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).