Light Bulbs and Cigars

Jesus is often thought of as the Light of the World.  We celebrate the coming of that light at Christmas, and in a sense at Epiphany, which is just around the corner.  With that in mind, I want to tell you a story I ran across, and recently included in a sermon at Parkview Retirement Community.  The story is about a Christmas pageant, which, incidentally, is not my favorite thing.  I’m told the story is true; I hope so.

The parish of the story made an annual event of staging the pageant with the kids of the  parish.  Scenery consisted of well used flats which depicted a stable and was a staple of the pageants.  Not everyone had costumes so some resorted to wearing bathrobes of various colors and patterns with a towel tied around their heads as they try to look as near Eastern as possible.  Had it not been for the flip flops and tennis shoes the illusion would have been complete, but as it was, it was good enough.

Of course there was a little manger constructed out of wood and filled with hay.  In a stroke of genius, someone suggested that Baby Jesus be played by a small light bulb. The bulb couldn’t be seen from the congregation’s viewpoint, just the glow of the Light of the World.  Behind the stable on a short ladder stood an angel who also held a glowing star. Mary and Joseph had taken their places and in the semi-darkness of the chancel and nave, the light bulb washed their faces with a soft glow.  “Silent Night” played softly in the background as parents, grandparents and friends strained to see and hear everything on stage.

The time had come for the shepherds to make their entrance and, dressed in their bathrobes, they marched solemnly down the center aisle to join the others already gathered come to worship the newborn.  When they arrived near the altar, a precocious ten-year old shepherd, in a whisper much to loud for the occasion said, “Hey, Joe, when you gonna pass out the cigars?”

Caught completely off guard, Mary and Joseph burst into laughter, as do all the others who’ve gathered in the little stable.  The angel holding the star completely lost it and fell from her perch, taking the stable with her.  The congregation didn’t know if they should be horrified or not, but they couldn’t help bursting into laughter.  In a moment that would become legendary in that parish, complete chaos set in and the tender moment was irretrievably lost.

But you know what?  Throughout the chaos, the light bulb continued to shine in the darkness.  And so it is everywhere today.  Darkness still threatens us; turmoil seems to be everywhere; evil seems to be pervading so much of life, but as Christians we know the Light still shines.  We may need to look for it a bit harder sometimes than others, but it’s there because He’s here.

Merry Christmas!

Jerry

Witnessing?

Someone asked me Sunday if I was going to blog about the “Happy Holidays” versus “Merry Christmas” annual dust up.  I hadn’t planned to, but the more I thought about it, I decided to give my “for what it’s worth” opinion.  Here goes.

For a long time, many Christians have bemoaned the growing secularization of Christmas. Frustrated by this secularization, a slogan was developed by some crafty person that is rolled out each year about this time that pertains to remembering “the reason for the season.”  The purpose of repeating the slogan seems to be to remind one and all that the “reason” is the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

Certainly, persons of a certain age can remember when no one had to be reminded, but I think two things have happened since then. The first was the slow, but very real shift in the importance the populace places on church-going in particular and Christianity in general. The second is a cultural shift that is generally called “political correctness.”   Let me begin with a comment about the first one. In 2009, an American Religious Identification Survey was conducted by the Institue for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture.  According to that survey:

• Fifteen percent (15%) of Americans overall say they have no religion, up from 8% in 1990.
• Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans between the ages of 18-43 indicate they have no religion.
• Catholics, Baptists (the perennial powerhouse of growth in numbers) and other mainline Protestant groups all report large drops in membership in the last couple of decades.  At the same time Islam, Wicca and eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddism showed gains.
• The number of people who identify themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased four-fold from 1990 to 2009, from about one million to 3.6 million. [Contrast this with the number of Episcopalians in the US: 2,006,343 in 2009.]

Since many folks don’t really care if Jesus was born, wishing them Merry Christmas seems a little off the mark.  Happy Holidays is a much better fit, right?

And now a word about the second shift. Those same people of a certain age I mentioned earlier grew up at a time when no one had to be reminded of the reason for the season.  That’s not to say there was no secular element to the season.  Santa was the department stores and shopping still took a lot of time and money, if less than is devoted to it today. “The Bishop’s Wife” was a heart-warming movie that was only marginally a Christmas movie, but the bishop’s sermon with which the movie ends, certainly invokes the Christian message. We can contrast this to the much more popular “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph” which have nothing to do with the Christmas message. So though secularization was creeping in, those persons almost universally greeted each other with “Merry Christmas!” 

So how important is it now?  Well, the move away from this clearly religious greeting was fueled largely by the need to not offend those who don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holy day--as we’ve seen, a growing number.  It fits right into the growing political correctness in which we mustn’t do anything that might offend another or cause them discomfort. Perhaps as Christians, we need to give up our need to remind people of the reason for the season and go with the jolly and well-intended “Happy Holidays.”  No downside risk and everybody feels good about December.

Or perhaps not.  Here's my plan; feel free to adopt or discard it as you wish. You greet me with Happy Holidays and I’ll reply with Merry Christmas.  If you say nothing to me, I’ll still say Merry Christmas.  Why?  Because like it or not, this season is about Jesus, not Frosty, not Rudolph, and not Santa and I feel some obligation to be a witness to that, especially in an increasely secular world.  I really do regret any offense you might take from my greeting, but tens of thousands of Christians have died because they proclaimed their witness.  Since we’ve all been called to be witnesses, even to death, I think I can handle it if I get a little scowl from you.  After all witnessing can be a b..uh, hard to do, but if I don’t do it, who will?

Merry Christmas! Jerry

Gaudete In Domino Semper

The third candle of Advent is pink.  Know why?  

If our service was in Latin, the first word you would have heard Sunday in the traditional mass would have been from the Introit and it would have “Gaudete” which is Latin for “rejoice.”  The traditional introit or entrance hymn begins with, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice,” from Philippians.  And it is echoed in the epistle reading of the day of I Thessalonians which begins, “Rejoice always” as well as the Isaiah reading.

While in recent times the season of Advent has emphasized expectation, historically it has been a penitential season.  The idea of penitence during the season is tied to expectation in that we want to be prepared spiritually for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.  More than that, it includes the idea of being ready for the anticipated return of Christ, usually referred to as the Second Coming. 

Perhaps you’ve noticed, the readings for Advent tend toward a somber tone, especially the first Sunday. The typical purple vestments and purple candles in the Advent wreath call Lent to mind, the major penitential season of the year.  But on this Sunday, now at the half-way point of Advent, the mood lightens a little and the pink or rose candle is a reminder of that.  We are encouraged to continue our spiritual preparation, especially through prayer and fasting, but done in a spirit of joyful anticipation.

Oddly, it seems the way modern Christmas is prepared in the States is with the emphasis on rushing and hurrying as we try to beat mailing deadlines and miss black out dates with our air miles, which means we are more likely to be unhappy rather than joyful.  Our shopping for gifts is too often frenzied either with trying to get the “perfect” gift, the “hot” item for the year, or just trying to get a gift for all on our list. The lines at the mall and post office are longer and the clerks may not be as cheerful as we’d like. Websites crash as we try to make a purchase on line forcing us to start over again. A common result is we approach Christmas Day harried, near exhaustion, and in a bad mood rather than with a sense of joy.

But this third week in Advent can be our time of relief.  All we have to do is shift the focus back to the real purpose of Advent and spirit of Christmas, at least for a bit.  “Rejoice in the Lord” is the message.  The introit doesn’t end there. The wonderful message that is ours for this week and for the season continues with, “...the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything...”  

Joyfully, Jerry

Anniversaries And Opportunities

Anniversaries seem always to command our attention.  We remember the anniversaries of our birth and the birth of those we love. We remember the anniversary of our wedding day, maybe even the anniversary of our engagement.  We remember the anniversary of the founding of things, such as, when we established our home or our church or our business.  Some of these anniversaries are deemed more significant than others, especially those that end in a zero or a five.  At each of those the clock seems to make a more important tick than at other times.

Certainly the anniversary of the birth of Jesus is one such remembrance, even those we don’t know exactly when he was born.  Added to that, prior to the 4^th or 5^th century, Christians seemed not to make much, if anything, of the day set aside to remember his birth.  After that, it took on more importance, so much so that the season called Advent began to come into existence across Christendom.  If we’re paying attention, we’ll have many reminders to think about and remember his birthday in the coming days.

But, as I write this, there is another anniversary that is commanding my attention.  Today is 7 December, a day declared to be “a date that will live in infamy.” As indeed it has.  Additionally, today is one of those special years, the 70^th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the event that resulted in the U.S. entering what would come to be known as World War II.

As I thought there would be, there was an article on the front page of my morning paper about that day.  It was a relatively small article and it focused primarly on the wish of men who were aboard the Utah and the Arizona who survived.  Recently two had died as old men and a dying wish was that they be interred in the ruins of their sunken ships along with their shipmates who didn’t live 70 years more.  I also expected a lot of television programming about it, but outside a special tonight, there didn’t seem to be much. I’m a little surprised.

I was barely a year old when the attack happened.  Within a year or two, my two older brothers were in the Army, one fighting in Europe.  That one, Roy, was a model airplane builder and before he left, he finished a large model of an older fighter aircraft which he left behind for me.  On the side of it was a decal that said, “Remember Pearl Harbor.”  It was several years before I really understood the significance of that command--a command which became the rallying cry for a nation. 

Over the intervening years, the meaning of that national motto changed for me.  Early on, like many others I hated the Japanese and felt as if the fire bombings and the atomic bombs were only “what they had coming.”  As time passed and I understood more the dynamics of the time internationally and nationally, my loathing disappeared to be replaced by great sadness at our ability as humans to do so much harm to each other. 

There was a national sense at the end of the war that WWII would be what WWI hoped to be--the War To End All Wars.  Learning how to harm so many so quickly would surely turn us all from war.  It did not, as you know only too well.  What will it take? Jesus’ birth seems to have been seen by him as a mandate to proclaim a message that was primarily about something called the Kingdom of Heaven, or to put it differently and more aptly, the Reign of God.  That reign is to be here on earth. And we are to be subjects of that King.  

Speaking for myself, I have to admit I’m not the best subject God could have and absolutely am not doing all I can to bring in the Kingdom. Advent is the time for reflection and preparation for that Kingdom.  Perhaps this special year will be an unusually good time for me to reassess what it means to be God’s subject, in particular what it requires of me and each of us as we live in this complex and increasingly dangerous world we’ve developed.  I plan to use the time doing that. You might want to consider doing it as well.

Peace, Jerry

Sleepwalking

In the Gospel reading for last Sunday, Advent 1, Jesus warns his hearers about the future.  The short version of what is says is, “Wake up! There is going to be a catastrophic event some day.  Don’t be caught off guard!”  Jesus seems to be making the point that we are spiritual sleepwalkers and need to wake up.

What is spiritual sleepwalking?  Perhaps it means we have become so accustomed to hearing about murder and other acts of violence in our community that we are become desensitized to the horror.  At worst we don’t notice; at best we shake our heads and say, “What’s the world coming to.”  But are we truly outraged--outraged enough to try to change the systems that foster such violence?  If we’re sleepwalking, the answer is probably “No. Not really.”  Jesus says, “Wake up!”

Sleepwalking can cause us to allow our purpose in life to shrink to the mundane without even noticing.  Once we may have believed we were called to something noble in life or that we could somehow make a difference.  But over time, we may lose our passion and sense of mission.  I know in my own case, the idealism of my twenties has suffered from my nodding off from time to time.  It takes my spiritual chin hitting my chest to rouse me to the creeping cynicism that has set in.  “Wake up,” Jesus says. 

Sleepwalking results from a slow mist gathering over our spiritual eyes that allows us to miss that our moral compasses is swinging away from true north.  In light of the number of local public officials that have been found to be less than fiscally trustworthy in the last several years, I’ve asked myself how this happened.  I suspect the first time they stuck their hands in the cookie jar, it was with some trepidation, guilt, perhaps even fear.  When they got away with it, the second time was easier.  Eventually, it was the new normal as the mist slowly but certainly clouded over their eyes.  While none of us is likely to have this level of sleepwalking, we might look to the “smaller” ways in which we have done the same: the fudging on income tax deductions, the unreported income, the pens and paper clips that have come home from work with us, the sick days when we weren’t sick at all.  Jesus says, “Wake up!”

One more example of sleepwalking will be enough.  Human life is fragile.  The end often happens well before we’re ready.  We’ve all heard stories of the people who quarrelled just before one left for a journey.  Maybe their last words were, “Go to hell!”  And then one of them dies in a wreck or from a heart attack.  We end up wishing our last words were, “I love you,” but it’s too late.  Again, in my own case, I’ve procrastinated making a phone call to a friend for no good reason at all only to learn my friend has succumbed to cancer or organ failure.  We need to be awake to the transience of life rather than sleepwalking.  If we were, we would find many more opportunities to be compassionate, supportive, or just plain nice to others.  “Wake up!” Jesus says.

Advent is a time of expectation.  A time when we prepare ourselves to see the wonder of Jesus’ first and second coming with new eyes, to re-appreciate what it means for us.  Jesus says, to do that well, “Wake up!”

Peace

Jerry

Teaching Thankfulness

This being the week in which Thanksgiving falls, it seems likely you’d expect a Thanksgiving musing from me.  While I considered going countercultural and not blogging about it, I finally folded. What prompted it was an article a friend sent me written by an economists Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein.

Wesbury and Stein begin their article by writing, “Thanksgiving is about the bounty of this great land, and the plenty that ingenious and hard-working people have been able to create.”   I’d say it differently.  I’d say, “Thanksgiving is about being thankful for the resources God has made available and for the gift of creativity and perseverance given to us that allow us to translate those resources into bounty.”  While no one would suggest that bounty is equally distributed in our country, most of those with bounty have historically been concerned about those without.  We are a giving nation, even in hard economic times.  Additionally, Americans have been in the forefront of those who “invented medicines, technology and production techniques tht have lifted standards massively,” say Wesbury and Stein.  No argument here.

But the authors go on to be shocked by the answers when a Pew Research survey basically asked those polled if they thought our country was a very good place to live as compared to other countries.  In the 18-29 year old age range, only 27% agreed while in the over 65 group, 60% agreed.

How to account for the big difference?  The authors write, “[That the younger group would feel this way] is understandable because many of them have been sheltered in a subsidized world that keeps them from pondering where the things they enjoy ultimately come from.”  Wesbury and Stein go on to suggest that maybe this age group will eventually understand “that there is no endless money tree somewhere that provides food, clothing and shelter, let alone iPhones, televisions and transportation.”  Maybe too, they muse, one day this group will realize that with all it’s faults and inequities, the U.S. Is doing pretty well in terms of standard of living.

They take one final swipe by suggesting that they “suspect that maybe older and middle-aged Americans have simply failed to properly convey their appreciation for America [to the younger generation].  It seems many forget why we’re giving thanks.”

I think they have a point.  Perhaps my generation hasn’t done a good job in instilling appreciation for who we are and what we feel blessed to have for the younger generation.  I know this: at the opening of the new season for the Memphis Symphony it is traditional to begin with our National Anthem and the 30-something couple in front of us didn’t stand for the music.  Do we have our faults as a nation? Without question we do.  But, at the same time, we’ve done much right and we’ve done it through hard work and determination.  As an ancient Jewish prayer at meal time says, “Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation.  Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made.” 

So, how about we feel thankful for what God has provided and the gifts given us to be co-creators in translating those gifts into the bread on our table and the iPhone at our ear?  And equally important, let’s work harder to help the coming generations develop the same spirit of thankfulness.

Peace, Jerry

A New Standard for Measuring Time

By now you know a celebrity famous for being famous was married for 72 days before filing for divorce. Kim's 72 days has become a new way to measure the length of marriages according to Joel Stein, satirist of Time magazine. A Kardashian is 5.07th of a year. So someone married 10 years can be said to have been married 50.7 Kardashians. Could turn into a new standard for measuring the length of marriages, don't you think?

This celebrity engagement and marriage was watched breathlessly both in the print and electronic tabloids as well as on mainstream TV, like the Today show. Her engagement ring has been valued at $2M; the wedding band at $200K. The wedding was the subject of reality shows and was widely reported to have cost mega millions. For example, the flowers alone were $2M! clearly at lot of time, money, and effort went into the wedding. Apparently nothing went into the marriage.

While the scale of this wedding is off the charts and well beyond what ordinary folks can expect to spend, there is a tragic commonality. Almost all couples in the US do exactly what Kim and her beau did: focus all their energy planning the wedding and little or no energy planning the marriage.

When I was in private practice, now and then a couple would come for pre marriage counseling. Usually they were referred by the officiating pastor who had detected problems while do the required preparation for them.  While at Church of the Holy Communion, I spent at least two hours with every couple who married there, somewhere between 12 and 20 couples a year. As a general rule, these couples had given little or no thought to what the marriage was going to be like.  Kids? How many? When?  Hadn’t talked about it.  Budgets? Division of labor? Hadn’t talked about it.  Spiritual and religious life now and after marriage?  Nope—hadn’t talked about it.  Handling the inevitable disagreements that come up in marriage?  We never argue!

The CHC couples were required to attend a one day workshop led by married couples in which the realities of married life were discussed.  They had to meet with me for at least two hours.  And the officiating clergy met with them as little or as much as he/she wished.  By comparison to most people getting married today, this was a lot of work on the marriage.  But the reality is, it was an token amount compared to what was needed.  But practically, it was all we could get.

The Church has declared that marriage is sacred and should last a lifetime.  Yet many churches require less preparation for marriage than is required for getting a driver’s license or a handgun permit.  And the state doesn’t require any preparation!  Just get the marriage license and a judge will perform the ceremony.  Clearly the Church and our society is not dealing well with this issue.  If we are going to bemoan the fact that somewhere between 40% and 50% of people who marry will divorce and the number is even higher for couples marrying for the second or third time, we need to address this serious matter seriously.

What can you do?  Make sure your kids get prepared.  Counsel friends to spend more time talking about their future together than what china pattern they’ll have.  Encourage formation programs to include workshops for engaged couples.  These are just a few things that are possible so a Kardashian doesn’t become the new standard for measuring the length of marriages.

Peace, Jerry

BTW, it should be easier to leave comments.  Just go to the comment box and start typing.  No more logging in.

One of Our Vows

 Most of us are convinced that our kids need to attend Sunday School, or more recently Christian formation.  After all we went when we we kids.  Some of us attended with our parents, while others were dropped off by parents who cared about us learning Bible stories. And most of us really enjoyed the experience.

Now here's the interesting part: most of us adults are apparently convinced we learned every thing we needed to know about our faith as kids. I say that based on the very small percentage of parishioners who actually attend adult formation programs. It's not just a St. Mary's matter, it's commonplace in Christianity. Even those Christian groups who are highest in percentage of attendance, such as Baptists, also have a relatively small percentage of members who are involved, though higher than the more "liberal" groups.

Let me suggest that perhaps we need to rethink this practice of education avoidance for several reasons. First, surveys indicate Christians are woefully unknowledgeable about the book that informs us about our faith, the Bible. Evidence? When was the Old Testament written? Thirty-nine percent thought it was after Jesus was born. Who was Joan of Arc? Why Noah's wife, of course.  Only 45% could name the Gospels in order. 

More evidence? The widespread reaction to Dan Brown’s book The DaVinci Code was for Christians to be unsettled about his “facts.”  These “facts,” such as Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene and fathering a child, the Emperor Constantine deciding what books would be in the Bible, and the divinity of Jesus being decided by a majority vote a the Council of Nicea, are all historically unfounded.  But people couldn’t’ refute what they were reading because they had no historical or Biblical background to do so.  That, plus they forgot Dan was writing a NOVEL, and not history.

My second reason has to do with vows we take. Our Baptismal Covenant contains this question: “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.”  We, of course, say we will One may easily understand that “continue in the apostles’ teaching,” basically means “continue to learn all I can of God in Christ.”  Following the actual baptism itself, the people all respond by saying, “We receive you into the household of God.  Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.”  Now, I’m going to admit, the interpretation that follows is a little bit of a stretch.  But to effectively do these things, to be “priests,” we need to be knowledgeable about the faith.  And you don’t get that from sermons or prayer, as useful as they are.  It comes through study.

So, we’ve made a vow or two that seem to point toward diligence in learning more about our faith.  Christian formation is the place that happens.  Think it over and consider trying to be there just an hour earlier each Sunday to learn and grow.  You may be very surprised by what you learn and how much you come to enjoy that hour.

Peace, Jerry

The Main Thing

I recently heard a workshop leader say something with which I resonate. She said "Let's not confuse God and the Church." I've been saying something like that for years. What we both mean is that God and the Church or God and religion are not the same things. The Church and religion are human enterprises while God is--well, God. The Church and religion are our inventions and God transcends them both. At their very best, the are designed to help us understand God's nature and to worship God. At their worse, they impede both of those things.

Billy Graham once wrote, "The Church is not a museum for saints; it's a hospital for sinners." What he's pointing to is that the Church is not made up of perfect people; it's made up of people who are flawed to one degree or another. While we all like to believe that we are good people, that doesn’t stop us from either sinning or making bad decisions.  It is people who decide the content of religion, that is, the structure of the liturgy, the statements of the catechism, the policies of the national and local governing bodies, and the like.  And while we always pray God’s Spirit is leading those decisions, the reality may be entirely different.

The bottom line is that the Church and each local parish or congregation is populated by people who continue to stand in the need of spiritual growth. This shouldn't surprise us. Remember St. Paul? Arguably one of the stars of the faith, eventually martyred for his witness, but very flawed. Late in his life after years of traveling and proclaiming the Gospel, he mused: "I do the very things I should not do and leave undone the very thing I should do."

Paul was pointing out his continued need for opening himself to the power and direction of the Spirit. He recognized that left to his own devices, he tended to be selfish, more concerned about his own interests than those of others. I can identify. I can easily get caught up in things of no real consequence and miss what really matters.  This is something I struggle against.  As a secretary of mine once said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”  Couldn’t be truer.  And in this case, the main thing is to keep our focus on God’s love for us and our response to that love, trying to assure in all we do that we are responding in love.

Peace, Jerry