Part of the magic of Christmas morning when you are young is the not knowing what to expect.  There is great anticipation for the surprise of the presents under the tree.  What will be inside the wrapping paper you’re just dying to rip off?  The world is a very large place at that age, and Christmas confirms that there is something bigger than yourself in the world that is wonderful and exciting. 

One of the gifts of this season, for the rest of us who are past the childhood stage of Christmas, is the gift of the end of the Iraq war and return of its soldiers.  Though such a controversial war is hard to celebrate, still it is a relief to see families reunited, joined to one another in hugs and kisses, and tears of joy.  Let’s hope the gifts they unwrap this year will be surprisingly wonderful and full of life.  For some, of course, there are certain to be difficulties down the road.  Re-integrating into civilian life will include a wide range of successes and failures. 

A soldier from the war that NPR has followed for some years, Josh Apsey, who at 19 was still a teenager when he enlisted, is now home from Afghanistan once again.  He said he was very idealistic when he first went, excited to be part of something bigger than himself, and, to face the evil that brought down the twin towers.  But by his second tour of duty, he lost that romanticism, and his major motivation became survival.  Between those two tours, he was promoted and put in charge of other Marines, and that responsibility also weighed on him, and he became attuned to the dangers that threatened all their lives.  And then, getting married state-side, he began to appreciate that this was a job that could bring home a paycheck. 

And so when that 2nd tour finished, everyone noticed, Josh was a changed person when he came back – his wife, his parents, and even himself.  Josh feels lucky that since he returned, he’s working at Quantico, Virginia, training other Marines.  And, he bought a house in the country where he lives with his wife and two dogs.  But he’s not the same.  "Sometimes I just feel like I'm a robot,” Josh told NPR.  “I'm just going through all the motions but I'm not mentally and emotionally there,” he confessed.  And Josh says he’s noticed that he's lost the ability to care.  I don’t feel like I’m part of anything bigger than myself.  I used to feel like I made a difference. 

After worship last night I visited briefly with the Hamen’s about their Christmas plans for today.  Their two grandsons from Madison were coming for a traditional Christmas at grandma and grandpa’s house, and I teased them a bit about not spoiling them.  But the fact is, there’s something wonderful about experiencing Christmas through the wide-eyed excitement of children. 

For those of us still seeking the wonder and joy of Christmas, even though we’re past that wide-eyed excitement of childhood, where do we turn?  Well, today we turn the page from Luke’s gospel to John.  We move on from the innocence of Luke’s story of the child born in a manger, surrounded by Shepherds and angels, cattle and donkeys, and we read this morning from John chapter 1, the Prologue of his gospel.  And unwrapping John is a surprise and a delight in another way.  Inside is the gift of the incarnation again, but packaged now as a more complex and rich gift for adults, a theological and poetic masterpiece. 

Like re-opening the book of Genesis, and starting all over again in the creation story, we discover that Jesus was with God “in the beginning,” and indeed without Jesus nothing could have been created.  Jesus the human, is divine too, and “not one thing came into being” without him.  Jesus is the Logos, the Word.  Just as when God spoke and things came into being each of the six days of creation, so Jesus is the word God speaks when life is created out of nothing – light from darkness, land from water, plants and animals, and so on.  And the “life” that Jesus brings, is “the light of all people.”  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  And so, Jesus is our sun and moon, a bright shining star, that leads the way! 

Instead of little Jesus in the manger, his humble parents Mary and Joseph, the cloistered and somewhat chaotic chorus of the animals and angels, John’s Prologue waxes boldly of a universe spoken into existence by Jesus, the Word of God, created for us “who received him.”  And believing, having faith in him, he gives to us the gift of life, new and abundant life, a gift we are still unwrapping and newly delighted with.  Now we too are the chosen people. 

This is a gift for your “second tour of duty,” in this life.  One to help you see and believe that there truly is something bigger than yourself, something to enable you to care again, to hope and love again.  Here is a God that gifts us, with a surprise that we can’t wait to rip the wrapping paper off! 

And receiving it, we know we can make a difference again – make a difference here in this world, which we see through our all too old eyes that have experienced – the loss of loved ones, the disappointment of separations, the hurt of addictions, the insensitivity and hate of discrimination and injustice, wars, poverty and natural disasters.  Yet it is here, it is precisely here, that Jesus empowers us to be agents of grace and truth.  God is an incarnational God, and God can work in and through us, even though we don’t feel up to, or feel worthy, of it.  Something bigger than us has come very close to us, has shown us favor and loves us, and gives us permission to “make a difference in the world”. 

Where will you make a difference in the world in the coming year?  Do you know that experience in your life?  Or are you still seeking that deeper, richer meaning?  Where will we, as Unity Lutheran Church, make a difference in the world this coming year? 

Some of us have done tours of duty beyond what we ever imagined, and we might like to hang it up!  But the one who is bigger than ourselves does not let us go.  The little new born child in Bethlehem, is also the Logos, the Word who is with God, and who is God, and who has chosen us.  Jesus lights up our lives whenever we open our eyes to this miracle. 

As John’s Prologue says: “And we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  

The angels announce the joy and peace of a new born king, a savior, who is coming to occupy his rightful place in the world.  It took place in Israel, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, under Emperor Augustus.  Only- the emperor has no clue it’s taking place right under his nose!  How is it, if it is true, that the 1% can be so impotent to the blessings born into the world of the 99%? 

“This will be a sign for you,” the angel tells the frightened shepherds.  “You will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in [a feeding trough, called,] a manger.” 

Out in the shepherd’s fields the angel is suddenly joined by a heavenly host of angels, and, beaming down in the wilderness, the glory of the Lord shone around them.  In that enlightened moment, the Shepherds, and even the sheep, are more aware of God’s presence – and present to the world – than Augustus is!  Jesus will occupy the whole world, animal kingdom and all, everyone and everything. 

For Jesus is not king like the rulers in Rome.  Jesus will rescue even one sheep who strays away from the 99, so that none are lost.  Jesus is born with the 99%.  Why would… Emperor Augustus, or Governor Quirinius, be aware of a child born in a manger in Bethlehem?  Who cares? 

The handlers, and campaign managers, the Vice-Presidents of Development and Public Relations, working day and night to keep Augustus, or, Wall Street for that matter, happy and in power, were not looking in backwaters like Bethlehem for the next contender or politico, the next protestor or prophet.  The shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night” weren’t on their list of contributors that they kept in their breast-pocket, just on their list of outcasts: poor, unwashed, dreamers. 

So, feathering their own nests and hob-knobbing with the rich and famous, they missed the chorus: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among people of divine favor.”  Dreamers!  Likely story!  Yet Jesus was born, occupying his rightful place in the world – a manger. 

Occupy Wall Street came into our lives this Fall.  Born of some illegitimate step parent, occupying a city park that turned out to be private property.  And yet, in the beginning, no one noticed as they slept there.  Banging their drums by daylight, the 1% barely batted an eye.  Unwashed, unemployed, dreamers!  But quickly the slogan, ‘we are the 99%,’ began to catch on, all across the country.  People recognized that something had been born into our world: a hope, an answered prayer, an understanding that things have gotten enough out of control, and needed to be put right again.  A gift had been unwrapped, beyond politics, and certainly beyond politicians.  There is a 1% that’s taken control of more and more of democracy’s decisions, and they don’t seem to care who we are, or what our lives are like. 

It may be hard for anyone, including us Christmas worshipers, to love the shepherds.  But their message, when it comes from a heavenly host, cannot be denied: after seeing the child lying in the manger, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God” and “they made known what had been told them” and what they saw with their own eyes, “about this child.” 

It’s the message, not the messenger!  Jesus came as an outcast, born of a virgin, an unwed mother, born in a feeding trough, a manger, surrounded by an entourage of lowly shepherds.  Jesus remained poor, unwelcome by those learned scholars he regularly outwitted, and the priests he eagerly spoke the truth to about their hypocrisy.  Jesus was called a friend of sinners and tax collectors.  He was a stumbling block to insiders, the stone the builders rejected. 

Yet, we love this story!  We welcome the message of Jesus love, and ponder it in our hearts!  Jesus came to occupy the whole world, not by force, as kings do to countries, not by the nepotism of religious privilege as priests do, or by the economic exclusion of financial systems as the 1% have.  Jesus came to occupy a manger as an innocent baby, to be baptized in a river by John and anointed with the Holy Spirit, to be led out into the desert, standing up for us to the forces of evil, to heal and make whole the lowly, the 99, and to be lifted triumphantly on the cross for our salvation, obedient to God, who lifted him up from the grave. 

Jesus’ occupation has many Titles: Savior, Prince of Peace, Healer, Wonderful Counselor, Deliverer, the Bread of Life, Redeemer, the King of kings.  He comes to occupy his rightful place in our world – to occupy our lives and our spirits with his Holy Spirit. 

We love this story!  And with the outcast shepherds, and all the 99%, God sends us out again to live our lives as a people, occupied by the Messiah, the Lord, with joy and thanksgiving.  

The days were short and overcast; the nights long and dark.  The long awaited savior-king was hidden in plain sight, tucked safely away, far from royal palaces and jealous emperors.  The world hoped for deliverance from the darkening days of December, daring to anticipate new life, and perhaps even a rescue for an occupied people.  God had promised.  And now faith hoped for the unseen to appear. 

The plan was basically to turn the world upside down with a little innocent baby.  Luke’s picture of God begins by lifting up the lowly, choosing a maiden as mother of our LORD, naming her, ‘most highly favored lady.’  She was engaged to a great guy, they hadn’t even lived together yet, and still she was to give birth, because the “Most High” God would provide the seed.  It was to happen quietly, in the little town of Bethlehem, the city of David, in the shadows of Jerusalem.  The royal greeting party would be poor disdainful shepherds, not princes, but perhaps ancestors of David, who himself had roamed those same Shepherds Field’s centuries earlier.  The holy couple barely made it in time, traveling a long distance from Nazareth – there should have been a sign there, “Emergency Parking Only,” for the last available spot the pulled into.  Mary would lay the new-born king in a manger, a rough hewn feeding trough for barnyard animals, so that, in addition to the coarse and cursing shepherds, even the donkeys, camels and sheep would testify to creations’ redemption by the Prince of Peace. 

This, is the gospel good news – and, a story no publisher would touch for decades!  This was a crazy mixed-up, upside-down story!  It took a community of faith, not the usual chosen ones, to get it. 

Mary herself was unconvinced at first, confused really, since she was a virgin.  The why, the how, the where and when, none of it, could really be explained.  But then neither could the pregnancy of cousin Elizabeth, who, well past menopause now, was 6 months pregnant.  And the angel Gabriel would only tell Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy, he will be called Son of God.  …For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

So why did God choose to come into the world in this way?  Was God some kind of rabble rouser?  Did God want to change things up just for the sake of change?  Why not come as a real King, like Emperor Augustus?  Or be born in the Temple or in Rome, instead of in a manger, surrounded by the livestock of poor laborers?  Why come to a virgin not yet married, and to her guy no one knew, living far from the house of David, who himself was trying to make it as a carpenter?  Why?

Last week, as I passed by the “Our Lady of the Underpass” shrine driving home in the steady rain, I could see a woman kissing the concrete wall.  Her two teenaged sons stood on either side of her.  She must have been very devout, or perhaps there was a service of some kind?  I haven’t seen that many flowers in a while!  Maybe there had been a Los Posadas gathering?  I go by from time to time, but not usually so late, or after dark.  But the lights, twinkling from many Guadalupe candles that grey December evening, were attractive and warmed the spot of much devotion amidst the cold concrete of its surroundings. 

The apparition of Mary first appeared in 2005 at this Fullerton Avenue underpass of the Kennedy expressway, a perfect image of the praying icon of the Mother of Our Lord!  Though others saw the Virgin of Guadalupe, or thought it was connected with the election of the new pope at that time.  A sign next to the image reads: “Emergency Parking Only!”  It’s a site reserved for crash investigations – and, now also for appearances of the holy family!  Except for those bouquets of flowers and twinkling lights, it is not a pretty place, by any standard.  It’s also a regular corner for panhandlers, as cars coming off the freeway wait forever for the stop light to change.  And homeless beds, made of sleeping bags or blankets, regularly come and go. 

“Our Lady of the Underpass” describes both a well revered shrine for the ardent faithful, and a tongue-in-cheek moniker for a pointless dripping on a public industrial wall, created, most likely, by an abundant use of salt one snowy winter.  Perhaps just another reminder of the polarized society we live in? 

Yet, like the church itself, it’s not the permanent shrine that we worship.  The church is the gathered assembly of the people who understand that God can and does take human form, and by the Spirit, calls us to common purpose.  God lives and breathes through faithful believers.  It is the people who are the church, the shrines come and go. 

Why would God choose to come into the world in this way?  Why would God send an angel to announce the birth of the Messiah to Mary, or draw a salty image of her on the Fullerton underpass?  Why would God choose a virgin, an unwed mother, in an out the way village, to be the God-bearer?  And why would God choose to appear in a dirty, noisy accident investigation site with the panhandlers and homeless, next to a sign, “Emergency Parking Only?” 

Perhaps there is a little bit of the rabble rouser in God!  Not to promote change just for the sake of change, of course, but in order to announce restoration to the poor, to bring healing to the sick, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and lift up the lowly and disdained.  To make ordinary and lowly people into favored and royal people, and to empower us to be God’s hands and feet, and souls, in the world. 

The urge to build shrines goes at least as far back as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who built altars to the living sovereign God upon first entering the Holy Land at Shechem, Hebron, Jerusalem and many other locations still revered today.  Who knows how long “Our Lady of the Underpass” will endure, but it is not surprising that God would choose to appear there or that thousands would flock there to pray, give thanks, and hope for God to act in their own lives, to be lifted up and raised to new life.   

I suppose in a way that is our prayer in Advent, that God would come and rescue us – our lives, our lost society, our greed and entitlement, our sorrows which seem out of control and un-listened too – that our prayer is that sign, Come into our world and into our lives, Lord Jesus, right here next to us!  Here, we have put up a sign, “Emergency Parking Only” reserved for you, the God for whom “nothing is impossible.”  

_Out of all the candidates in all the debates, after every pundit had written him off, John the Baptist, had suddenly surged, and was leading the polls in the race for Messiah.  Most of the candidates had taken turns leading the pack at one time or another, while the man from Galilee stayed steady, waiting.  They didn’t know yet that John had made a backroom deal with cousin Jesus, to become the Anointed One, and that John would soon throw all his weight behind him. 

 

So John called a press conference on his home turf, the banks of the River Jordan.  It was down near the wilderness where the Israelites first entered the Promised Land.  Moses had passed the torch there to his protégé Joshua.  All John’s followers gathered, along with the Press Corp and the lawyers of every candidate, of the priests and Levites.  John felt more like Moses than Joshua, understanding at last that his ministry of baptism was preparing the way for the Anointed One.  So John, “a man sent from God” all agreed, to be as clear as possible, called a press conference, as the national campaign for new leadership was in full swing.  And so the writers and reporters from Jerusalem trudged all the way down from the capital, over to John’s open air headquarters on the Jordan River.  And he was a good speaker.  Electric!  He could draw a crowd.  John had modified his stump speech.  He was “a witness to the light.”  “He himself was not the light,” but “he came to speak about” that one, and point to him. 

 

This was an audience that could help get the message out, he felt, and help him clearly point to his successor.  There is one “who is much greater than I, who is coming.”  It’s not about me, John told them, but “so that [you] all might believe”. 

 

But the very first question was, “Who are you?”  You’re the One, aren’t you!  John took a deep breathe, realizing this was not going to go well.  I know what you’re trying to ask, you want to know if I’m the Messiah, the anointed one.  So let me say this as clearly as I can, “I am not the Messiah.”  I am here to baptize with water, to cleanse people in preparation for the Messiah to come.  Think of this river as one big giant Mikvah, like the purifying baths you use in Jerusalem in preparation for going to Temple, except this is a font for the whole people of Israel, to get ready together.  I’m preparing the way, that’s all, for a new recreated Israel, a new Temple, a new Joshua, Jesus of Nazareth!  He will lead you on the right path. 

 

Okay, let’s try another question.  You there from the Jerusalem Times, go ahead.  “Mr. Baptizer, if you’re not the Messiah, are you Elijah?”  Okay, listen, “I am not Elijah,” John said.  You know very well that Elijah’s return would be the same as admitting I was the Messiah.  I am not! 

 

But the whole press corps was in an uproar, “Well then, who are you?  What’re we going to tell everyone back at the Capital?”  Tell us something about yourself we can print, preferably something juicy! 

 

Okay, write this down, said John, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”   The press corps was atwitter now: isn’t that a direct quote from “the prophet Isaiah”?    I thought he said he wasn’t a prophet?  But we could definitely spin a story with that. 

 

Today, there are many Biblical Scholars who think John was, at one time, every bit the ‘player’ Jesus was.  He probably had Messianic pretensions of his own.  He had a large following.  His ministry of baptism was his signature, his campaign platform.  But after being arrested, and shortly thereafter beheaded in prison, is likely when he was written into the story of Jesus who had an even greater following.  John’s execution came to foreshadow Jesus’ own, but the postscript and heavenly crowning, which confirmed Jesus’ anointing as Messiah, was totally unlike John, or any other candidate, in that time, or since, a resurrection as the first-fruits of the dead, bringing light and life to all.  John’s ministry of baptism prepared the way, and pointed to the true Light, “the light shining in the darkness,” the “Light of the world.” 

 

‘Listen,’ said John, if you guys don’t want to get baptized, that’s up to you.  But I can tell this, “among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”  Believe me, you’re going to be doing a lot more interviews with him, in Galilee and Jerusalem! 

 

At the Nazareth Lutheran Church in St. John, V.I., where I was last Sunday, Pastor Carlyle Sampson entered the ambo, to preach from Mark’s gospel about John the Baptist.  His modest open air church a block from the banks of Cruz Bay was full.  The people, rich and poor, native born, tourists and other resident main-landers, listened with rapt attention.  Now, I have to tell you, Kim and I heard him preach last year when we were there, and we introduced ourselves as fellow pastors in the Lutheran Church.  So when he called us this past winter from the Lutheran Center here in Chicago, we were happy to join him for dinner and get to know him and his ministry a little better.  Speaking from first hand knowledge, I can tell you Carlyle Sampson is nothing if not a fiercely simple and upright man, a model of humbleness.  And so when Pastor Sampson described the straight forward and humble ways of John the Baptist last Sunday, how he lived in the desert and single-mindedly was preparing the way for Jesus, I felt he could have been describing himself, and that he knew of what he spoke.  Pastor Sampson wants nothing more than to point to the true light, the one who is coming, the one we all want to meet, who we all crave to know, and have found in some way to be the answer to our deepest questions, and who is the salvation and healing for all our longings in this life, for he is the anointed king, the one who’s the redeemer of our lives. 

 

“I baptize you with water,” said John to the Press Corps, as you wait with anticipation for the Messiah.  But do you know he is “standing among you” already!  Why are you coming here to listen to me if you’re not going to get baptized?  If you will not be baptized with water, surely you won’t be able to be baptized with the Holy Spirit! 

 

Who am I, is not the right question, says John.  Who is the Son of God, where is he, and what is he up to now?  That’s what you should be asking.  “He was sent to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…,” a jubilee year, as the prophet Isaiah said!  

 

Like John, our mission is to be voices and pointers to the anointed Messiah too.  We point to the Jesus born in a manger to undocumented, unwed parents, as the savior king.  We point to Jesus, friend of tax collectors and sinners, healer of the outcast, the marginalized and scapegoat-ed.  When we are pointers and voices to the gospel, we are re-created and chosen to be a community and support each other in this ministry.  We don’t have to be the Savior, but we are ‘elected’ none-the-less, to be witnesses, who point to him. 

 

Call a press conference; alert the media, for, He is coming soon!  Christ the new born king is coming soon.