Rejoice: Luke 18:1-8

Luke 18:1-8 (NRSV)

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Among other things, we can rejoice because we have a God who just might get tired of our constant nagging! :-)

OK, that's a little harsh. There are real issues in the world that we pray for. Issues that we should pray always for in fact, as Jesus points out.

And yet, how often do we get tired of waiting to see the results of our prayers?

How often to we wonder if God is listening?

How often to we look around and bemoan that things just aren't right.

Make no bones about it. In those times, we are praying.

And we are being heard.

This time of year it is easy to perhaps confuse God with Santa Clause, and see our prayers as Santa's list.

Yet justice is the primary gift that God offers us this season.

Justice and Mercy.

Justice and Mercy and Salvation.

Justice and Mercy and Salvation.

And Love.

And as we pray constantly for those things ourselves, we are swept up in God's grand plan for the world. We become part of God's Kin-dom on earth.

If a dishonest judge eventually caves because of nagging, how much more will the Ground of All Being reach out and give us reason to rejoice for being part of the great plan of love for this world?

How much more will God give us cause to rejoice?

Lord let me lips and my heart be in constant prayer. Amen.

Rejoice: Philippians 4:4-5

Philippians 4:4-5 (NRSV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

We're at the homestretch of Advent.

And so rejoice.

The Lord is near.

Do you ever think about that?

About the Lord being near?

And that being a cause to rejoice?

As Advent draws toward its closing, and we have both "watched" and "prepared," it is now time to rejoice.

It's what you do when you feel in the air that good news is coming!

When change - needed change - is coming.

Rejoice in the Lord always seems perhaps sometimes hard to do. There are times, perhaps, when it feels too dark to do so.

Times when it seems like terror is winning.

Crime is succeeding.

Violence is having its way.

And yet still that is what our Lord desires from us.

Rejoicing.

And perhaps when we do, we will see the truth that is fully holding sway. 

I rejoice in you Oh Lord! Remind me always - even in fear - that you have the eternal reign over this world. Amen

Prepare: Luke 1:8-17

Luke 1:8-17 (NRSV)

Once when (Zechariah) was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

The beginning of the story of John the Baptist - he who comes to prepare - begins before his birth. Even before John was a twinkle in his father's eye, the world was being made ready.

First to be made ready is his father Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest, and in his old age. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had no children, so life was most likely fairly regulated for him. He knew when his priestly duties were, and he knew how to do them. 

He wasn't prepared himself then for what would happen next and fear took hold of him.

And so how does the angel begin to prepare him?

"Do not be afraid" is the most common admonition of messengers of God. 

And always - ALWAYS - following "Do not be afraid" is a charge to do something. Do not be afraid is the way to be prepared for everything that God will send next.

In this season of Advent, "do not be afraid" seems to be more appropriate as a word of preparation than ever. Fear seems to be prevailing wherever we turn.

Fear of refugees fleeing torment and persecution and death.

Fear of a whole religious group.

Fear that makes us cling to weapons and see violence as a viable alternative.

Fear that makes us see our neighbor as an enemy.

But our God says to us just as the angel says to Zechariah: "Do not fear."

To prepare for our God we are charged to live in faith and love and courage.

Not fear.

Not violence.

Not separation.

Fear takes an awful lot of space in the heart. Instead, says the angel, hearts will be turned. Rended and torn in two so that they can make room for the Lord. 

What fears are taking up space in your heart this season for you? Time to sweep them aside so that love can come.

Love come and banish fear away. Amen.

Prepare: Joel 2:12-13

Joel 2:12-13(NRSV)

Yet even now, says the Lord,
    return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
    rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
    and relents from punishing.

To rend something is to tear or rip it apart in two. Often, in mourning, Hebrew people would tear their garments in two in their grief.

So to prepare for our coming Lord, rather than tearing apart our clothing, God seeks our hearts to be torn in two.

To be opened up.

Ripped apart from those things that keep us from God.

Do you remember what it is like to have your heart broken? It isn't normally something we seek or long for to happen.

Yet the breaking of our hearts makes us softer and more vulnerable. 

It creates space for something new to happen inside of us.

Through us.

To us.

What is it that breaks your heart today?

Whatever it is, can that breaking apart lead to a breaking in by God?

Create in me a new heart, Oh God! One that is ripe for your arrival! Amen 

Prepare: Micah 6:6-8

Micah 6:6-8(NRSV)

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Think back to the biggest dinner party you ever hosted. Or maybe the time you had a very special guest.

You wanted everything to be perfect probably, am I right?

You cleaned. You cooked. You decorated. 

And if you are like me, your house looked like it never, ever does the rest of the time!

For some people, the word "preparation" conjures up a level of stress that involves twisting ourselves into knots to make everything just so.

So the idea of our God coming???

Well, you don't get a bigger or more important guest than that.

The Hebrew people, like many of us, wanted to make sure they had everything just so when they were in the Lord's presence. 

Things just had to be perfect.

And yet, what is it that the Holy One wanted?

Not the best offerings.

Not our firstborn.

Not even the best china or finest wine or cleanest house.

Instead our God wanted us to turn to our neighbor with kindness and seek justice for them.

And then turn back to God to walk alongside that same God in humility.

That's it.

Love God. 

Love neighbor.

As we prepare for the coming of this same God in the most humble way possible, can our hearts burn with justice, kindness, and humility so that we can be ready for the Kingdom to come on earth?

Prepare my heart Lord, not for my idea of perfection, but instead for your idea of perfect love. Amen

Prepare: Isaiah 40:2-4

Isaiah 40:1-4(NRSV)

Comfort, O comfort my people,

    says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and cry to her
that she has served her term,
    that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.

No image is more indelible to the season of Advent than John the Baptist. The prophet is heralded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke by words from the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah: words that are as familiar as John himself.

For the Hebrew people, the passage from Isaiah spoke of hope and promise. After all they have been through - all they have lost - God promises them comfort and a new life.

So as John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, how much a reminder must it have been that God was active in the world, seeking to comfort and heal and make new.

This Advent season, perhaps more than others in my near memory, the need for God to come into our midst is palpable. The news has been rife with violence - mass shootings, acts of terror, people forced to flee from their homes - and with division, both political and religious.

Yet in the midst of our wilderness, we are called to prepare for God's coming. We are called to prepare despite how dark things may seem.

We are called to prepare because of how dark things may seem.

Violence, anger, division will have their time, but they will not have their way in finality. 

Instead both the prophets Isaiah and John tell us that the Lord is going to be doing something new.

So get ready!

Lord, in the midst of this season of darkness, prepare my heart for your coming. Amen.

Watch: Mark 12:1-12

Mark 12:1-1 (NRSV)

Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is amazing in our eyes’?”

When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.

Here's the thing about waiting. And watching.

Sometimes, what we think we are waiting for isn't what we are going to get.

And sometimes when what we are waiting for comes - even right under our noses - we miss it completely and even reject it.

Each Christmas for most of our lives, we have been conditioned to wait for the Christmas story to unfold as it always has. The baby in the manger.

The Shepherds. The Three Kings. The mother and father praying over their child.

Yet our story - the one we are so familiar with - was shockingly unexpected, and different, than what our creches and Christmas pageants portray.

The parents were poor and lowly.

The stable likely a cave.

The Shepherds, outcasts.

The Kings, not kings at all, and likely not three. Instead magicians or astrologers.

The season not a white winter.

Our God is a God of the unexpected. The expected Messiah was not coming in strength or might.  But as a small, vulnerable baby.  Born in a cave rather than a palace.

And when he came, there were many who missed him altogether. Saw him as someone in the way of how they expected their lives to be and so got rid of him.

So as we wait and watch, and especially as your expected Christmas traditions play out, look for the unexpected. 

Seek the unusual.

Partner with the lowly and the outcast.

And see what comes next!

God of surprise, open me to the possibility of the unexpected this Advent season that I might embrace it and cling to it with hope. Amen