How can it be?

 

“How can this be?” Mary asks.  (Luke 1:26-38)

Mary has been asked to do the seemingly impossible:  Become pregnant, suffer rebuke from her family and have the Messiah in her womb!

The angel gives her two things to equip her to move forward.  First a friendship with Elizabeth. Second, the word promise that nothing will be impossible with God. 

As we say to ourselves “how can this be?”, when asked to do the seemingly impossible, the angel of God points us to friends in faith, and offers us the same word of promise

The artwork is by African-American artist Henry Tanner, 1898.

Love has Come, but must Return!

The Prophet Isaiah has a vision (2:1-5) that is compelling millennia later - humanity streaming to the house of God, where they learn and are transformed into agents of peace.

This vision is so compelling that it brings into immediate contrast the world in which we live, where there is a constant stream of violence.  What do we make of this disparity, this chasm between vision and reality?

Some Christians develop a way of understanding where Jesus becomes much like an alien who takes us away from the bad place of earth and puts us in the good place of heaven.  But this vision from Isaiah suggests that God isn't in the business of getting people out of earth, but renewing it through Jesus, in the power of the Spirit.  As Christians, we celebrate that love has come in Jesus, but we acknowledge that love must return to finish the work.

A reflection on how the Bible points toward the renewal of all things instead of the escape of people...and what this might mean for us this Advent, as we prepare for the coming of Christ.

Christ the King?

We praise Christ as King today.   Should we?  This is rather strange for us as Americans, who typically don’t like kings.  The pilgrims, in fact, were fleeing England because they were upset with the king's interference in religion.

Turns out the rest of the Bible also has some pretty negative things to say about human kings too.

So why do we praise Jesus Christ as King?  It turns out that Jesus is not like other kings.  The way in which he revealed to us his kingship on the cross casts judgment on all other kings and teaches all of us something about power. 

The kings of this world use their power to create their own paradise, come what may for others.  Jesus uses his power to create a paradise for others, come at the cost of his own life.   And the power he uses to create that paradise, as it turns out, is mercy.  And for this mercy, we can give thanks!

Art credit, Wikipedia, The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, an 1857 portrait by Robert Walter Weir now housed at Brooklyn Museum

By Your Endurance

 

What events in your life made you say: The world as I knew it has ended!

For Pastor Rob, one of these events was the fall of the Berlin Wall; the other was when his sick grandmother moved into their home.

Jesus today readily admits that the world we live in has many cataclysmic events and challenges that make us say, my world has ended!  Yet life moves on.  Jesus reminds us that the Christian life requires endurance.

For many of us, the way that we endure tough situations is to hunker down and put on the emotional armor.  Yet Jesus calls us to a non-defensive endurance, one in which we are open to his provision, including his provision through other people.

An Empty Box, a Call and a Can

 

Our church hosts the community food bank.  This week, the bins were empty because so many people have needed food these past few weeks.

We hear a story in the Bible of God responding to great human need by sending Moses.  As we consider the suffering of those around us, are we also called into action?

When Moses hears the call, he protests, thinking that he is not enough.  Like Moses, we may feel that the problem is too big and too complicated for us to address. Yet God has called us, with others, to give what we can; which, in this case might literally be a can a can of food. 

Pastor Rob offers us that the "Holy Ground" is the place where we recognize our "empty", where we experience God's fullness as something greater than our sin, and where this resolves itself in a "I can."

What Matters: Humility and Mercy

 

When in your life have you experienced mercy?

Today we heard a story of two people who came to the temple (Luke 18:9-14).   One boasted of his own righteousness; the other prayed for mercy.  Jesus says the one who is humble is the one who received mercy.

As we continue in our What Matter series, we reflect on how Mercy matters.  This is always fitting for us as Christians, especially Lutheran Christians, but certainly on Reformation Day.  For the heart of the reformation is God's mercy, poured out in Jesus Christ.

The particular story from Luke's Gospel reveals not only the importance of mercy in righteousness, but the connection between mercy and humility.

The art is by Wayne Pascall.

What Matters: Prayer, Jacob and Wrestling

We all have a "River Jabbok" in our lives, a place where the past, present and future collide with a whirlpool of anxiety and anticipation.  Today we heard the story of Jacob coming to the river Jabbok, where he must comes to terms with the demons of his past, navigate the present and look forward to the future (Genesis 32:22-31)

Here Jacob wrestles with someone else, but it is not clear who it is.  Often in life, when we are wrestling at the banks of the River Jabbok, we struggle even to figure out against whom we are wrestling, but we definitely know we are wrestling. 

Ultimately, it is revealed that Jacob was wrestling with God.  A reflection on what prayer looks like in the midst of this kind of wrestling.

The artwork comes from artist Chris Cook. who tells the story of his art.