Readings for December 27, 2015
First Sunday of Christmas

• 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 
• Psalm 148 
• Colossians 3:12-17 
• Luke 2:41-52

Sermon by The Reverend Kinsey: "Growing Up"
The early church father, Aelred, gave us this description of the boy Jesus – emphasizing his relationship to our faith: 
“The great God, while abiding in the divine nature, is born a child, according to the flesh, and grows for a certain space of time.  …This is so that, we who are children … may be spiritually reborn, and … may grow up …and advance in wisdom and grace.  Jesus’ bodily growth is our spiritual growth.  So let his [birth in the flesh], be our spiritual birth, that is, the beginning of our [transformation].  …Let his growing up in Nazareth, express our advancement in perfection.”
 
The 12 year old Jesus does not get lost in Jerusalem, or deliberately disobey his parents.  Nor do Mary and Joseph act poorly in their capacity as new parents, like you might be accused of today, if you lost your child at the grocery store or mega-mall.
 
Jesus is growing and learn-ed, he is faith-filled and single-mindedly focused.  In his youth, he is exactly like he will be, in his adult life and ministry.
 
The narrative of Mary giving birth to Jesus in the gospel of Luke, is not unlike the birth of Samuel to Hannah, in our First Reading.  There, Hannah gives up her first-born son, Samuel to God, who will become the next leader of Israel, a wise and just Judge, in the Temple at Shiloh.  It is a promise Hannah made to God, and to herself.  You see, Hannah, like Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, was thought to be barren, and endured shame, and even taunts from her family, for this lowly social status, in a culture – thankfully, very distant from 21st century America – that branded childlessness as a sin, and the absence of God’s favor – which stigmatized women who were barren, leaving them without a place in the community. 
 
But thankfully, in the darkest days, while Hannah was getting on in years, her plea to the priest Eli in the Temple, was finally granted: “Go in peace,” Eli told her, “the God of Israel grant the petition you have made.”  And like the convergence of human and divine in the birth story of Jesus, First Samuel tells of how Hannah’s husband, Elkanah wined and dined her, and when he “knows Hannah,” the LORD “remembers” her, and Hannah conceives, and in due time gives birth, and she names her son, Samuel, which means, “I have asked him of the LORD.”  Now her shame is lifted, and she doesn’t forget her promise either.  After three years, the time of weaning children in those days, Hannah presents Samuel in the temple to Eli.  And, as God remembers her, she doesn’t forget the vow, she made! 
 
Hannah loved her first born, but she loved her God all the more, who transformed her lowly status, and restored her to the community. 
 
And every year thereafter, Hannah made a new robe of linen, as our reading says, and with Elkanah, they took it to little Samuel at Passover, as he “continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people.”
 
Jesus too, is growing in divine and human favor, and at age 12, is discussing with the teacher’s in the Temple at Passover!  This is the only story of Jesus as a boy, in all the canonical gospels – until when his public ministry began, with his baptism by John, when he is believed to be about 30.  Jesus was 12, but it wasn’t until the age of thirteen, when a boy became an adult.  It was a strict understanding.  There were no such things as “teenagers” then.  You went from child to adult in a kind of pre-bar mitzvah recognition.  So, Jesus in the temple, able to listen and answer the teachers at age 12, shows his precociousness, his advanced knowledge. 
 
But, the crowning lesson of the story is in the contrast between Jesus and his parents.  First there was Mary’s astonishment and exasperation upon finally finding Jesus: “Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you.”  And then Jesus responds with a kind of wise, sage-like, calm, “Why were you looking for me?  Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” (The Message)  If you know me, and what I’m about, Jesus seems to be saying, then your expectations for me will follow.  
 
And Jesus went “down” from the Temple in Jerusalem with Mary and Joseph, says Luke, and went home to Nazareth, and Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and like Samuel, in divine and human favor.  The temple, of course, is on Mt Zion in Jerusalem, signifying a nearness to God, while home, is back down to the valley, where his work and ministry will be.  Jesus held his own with the teachers of Jerusalem – for now, he must continue to grow into full adulthood.  But he will be back, at another Passover, and will again confront the teachers, and transform, and form, many new followers.
 
Jesus’ bodily growth, is our spiritual growth, as Aelred once said, his birth in the flesh, our spiritual birth, the beginning of our transformation. 
 
In what ways have we learned from the traditions of our faith?  What friends along the way have mentored your spiritual birth?  When have you felt the need to leave childhood ideas and ask hard faith questions?  Was there an anxiety, or fear you had, that troubled you, until it was resolved, until you found what your heart was looking for?  And what is the transformation that took place for you?  How is the spiritual learning embodied in you, born anew, for all to see? 
 
Mary and Joseph did not understand what Jesus told them about having to be in his Father’s house, at the time.  But back home, Mary treasured in her heart, all the things the 12 year old Jesus told her.  She kept them close, trusting in God that they must have a meaning for her.  She stayed open, to the spiritual and divine possibilities, that confronted her, even as she remembered her anger and confusion back in Jerusalem. 
 
Jesus is a unique combination of, human and divine, a mixture we experience in our own lives, a mysterious and sometimes confusing gift, we don’t always want to unwrap, but that we can continue to treasure in our hearts, as it works on us, on our psyche and conscience and whole lives, until suddenly, it is ready to be born in us, so that we are once again, restored to wholeness in the community, in new and wonderful ways. 
 
Jesus shows us the way to God.  The way to God, is the journey of faith, always to some extent, a new beginning, like we’re 12 years old again, and still have so much to learn.  We’re advancing toward perfection, as Aelred said, but the road is long and winding, and often feels far from perfect.  But faith is a journey built on trust: the blind may see first, the lame may find the surest footing, the speechless proclaim the good news, the naked are clothed!
 
So let us put on our linen robes, the gift we have received from parent, or sponsor, the robes of baptism, white robes that signify the purity of new life, the robe like Samuel received from Hannah, the robe of scholars at graduations, the prayer shawl of 13 year olds, and dress or suit of confirmands, that signifies the beginning of adulthood in the faith. 
 
As the boy Jesus “grew in wisdom, in divine and human favor,” we too grow in the faith, a mysterious mixture of humanity and divinity, empowering us to see our brothers and sisters as equals, and also as unique gifts, on our way to perfection – not because we can be made perfect in our human selves, but because Jesus shows us the way.  And we are followers. 

Readings for December 20, 2015
Advent 4C

• Micah 5:2-5a 
• Luke 1:46b-55
• Hebrews 10:5-10  
• Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Improvising, by Pastor Kinsey
Four more shopping days till Christmas; Nervousness in public places after Paris and San Bernardino; Candidates for president pandering for our vote next November, in debates that started – when was it, last summer?; The Chicago Police Chief is fired after a video of Laquan McDonald’s shooting can no longer be kept from the public eye, revealing how the official interpretation for 13 months is inaccurate in practically every important detail; Climate change talks in Paris reach surprising agreement, presumably having nothing to do with Chicago December temperatures that feel more like September; Children reminding parents and grandparents what’s on their Santa list.
 
What’s on your mind that makes you nervous, even fearful, of what’s next, as we prepare and anticipate what the future holds, in the waning days of this Advent season?  In the pre-Christmas scramble, are we prepared to improvise, to get everything ready?
 
In the 7th C. BC, the prophet Micah took a stab at what the future might look like for the once mighty people of Israel.  Under King David of old, from ancient days, they had ruled all the kingdoms, but now were weak, having lost every conquered territory, and even half of Israel, to the Assyrians.  What does Micah say?  If you guessed that he prophesied doom and gloom, you’d be, mostly right.  For most of his short seven chapter book, Micah predicts destruction for Israel due to the failure of its religious and government leaders to uphold the covenant and do justice.  But that’s not the chapters we read from today.  Today, only days from Christmas, our lectionary gratefully picks a passage from the hopeful fifth chapter of his book, where the prophet reserves a strong word of grace for God’s people, despite their failed past.  A shepherd-like ruler from the littlest tribe, of the littlest town, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, shall be born to Israel and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord once again – a clear reference to a David-like king, who also came from Bethlehem.  Micah prophesied the raising up of another mighty king who would not only restore Israel, but conquer all the kingdoms once again to the ends of the earth; and somehow at the same time – in the doublespeak of generals everywhere – “he shall be the one of peace.” 
 
Of course, in Luke, as well as in the writings of the other three gospels, they saw Jesus as this majestic little One.  The one born in Bethlehem; and a king, as the inscription on his cross read.  This is the One we celebrate, born humble in a manger, a little one, whose origin is from ancient days, who was to become a great shepherd of a great flock, but with one change, as a symbol of peace, Jesus introduced a model of self-sacrificial giving, instead of Rome’s, and our own, ‘War is Peace.’ 
 
And now, today, in these last days of Advent, on the verge of our Savior being born, we discover to our great surprise the consistent way that the holy scriptures continue to improvise, like great jazz performers, on old and ancient themes, the mysterious ways that God is born into our lives.  For example, in the hay of a stables’ manger, no crib for his bed; born too, in the faith of the blind and the lame, born in those hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
 
The word “improvise” comes from the Latin for “not foreseen.” Surely Mary did not foresee, that one day, while she was home, calmly practicing her piano scales, an angel would show up, announcing that the teenaged Mary is pregnant, with a baby whose father is God, and who will be the savior of the world.  But Mary is ready for her solo, and sings the Magnificat proudly, improvising on Hannah’s song of old – her Magnificat of thanks, for a son to be born.
 
One of the hallmarks of jazz – whether it’s big band, bebop or cool jazz, whether its trumpet or trombone, piano or saxophone – is, improvisation.  A musician takes what they know of scales, and modes, and the melodic theme, and creates something new. 
 
That New Orleans native, turned New York star, Wynton Marsalis, gave us one of the oddest, but most entertaining examples of improvisation back in 2001.  Playing a touching rendition of, “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You,” a very intimate song, in a small venue, suddenly someone’s cell phone starting ringing, blaring a rapid singsong melody of electronic notes!  It kind of killed the moment – at first.  But after some nervous laughter, and after the person went out of the room to take their call, Winton continued by playing back the ringtone perfectly, note for note, on his trumpet, and began to improvise, turning the silly ringtone into a beautiful song, which he resolved, by changing keys, and easing the tempo, until magically, the audience came to recognize the love song he was playing, before he was so rudely interrupted!  Winton had brought it home – and by the end, the audience was on its feet in applause. (cf. David Hajdu, Atlantic Monthly, cf. http://bertgary.blogspot.com/2015/11/improvisational-grace-or-gospel.html)
 
The story of Mary’s visit to her kinswoman, Elizabeth, is a truly divine love story, ‘improvised’ in real time, in a tiny town in the hill country of Judea, which turned the story of hopelessness and oppression into, salvation for the Gentiles – all the nations of the world.
 
It was not unusual that Mary would go to Elizabeth, to share her good news with her relative, in a culture, that by convention, separated men and women in public.  But it is highly unusual that a story would be written about, what two women were doing, and cast them as the central characters, recipients of God’s favor, and especially featuring the young unknown, and unwed Mary, as the God-bearer!  ‘History is written by the winners,’ as they say, and until the Gospels, young unwed mothers, and older women past their child-bearing years, were not the winners, or at least, not able to call the shots, or occupy positions of power.
 
At her home, Elizabeth hasn’t yet heard what Mary has come to tell her, just a short greeting, which makes John the Baptist leap for joy in Elizabeth’s womb.  But Elizabeth takes on John’s prophetic role, at least for the moment, and blesses Mary, and predicts without a word from Mary, who her child is.  She says: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” how lucky I am that “the mother of my Lord comes to me!”  Elizabeth feels blessed, and she blesses Mary for her faith, in believing – which is, if you think about it, a kind of backhanded compliment, in light of the faith-less-ness of her husband Zechariah, who doubted the angel’s news about Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John!  How appropriate! The exchange of these two women, feels so real in its improvisation!
 
Whether or not Mary gets the joke, she responds with the ‘Magnificat,’ confirming her faith: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for the LORD has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. …God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” 
 
Mary improvises on Hannah’s song from of old, the story every woman in Israel knows by heart, “according to the promise God made to our ancestors,” sings Mary, “to Abraham and Sarah and to his descendants forever.” 
 
As Princeton Seminary’s Mary Steward so aptly has put it: “The irony of Advent is that this season of preparation anticipates a hopeful expectation of that which is unexpected.  Those who have heard these Scriptures so many times, year after year of Advent celebration, may have trouble fully appreciating their startling logic. Yet perhaps we need look no further than our own lives” – how we have improvised and been creative with our faith under the guidance of the Spirit, to compose our own song, that leads us back to God, though we are unknowns, and full of flaws, like Mary and Elizabeth, like Zechariah and John. 
 
“The prophet Micah’s oracle serves as a reminder that the promise of God’s covenant is certain [for us], yet the expression of its fulfillment is not always predictable.”  Improvising in the faith, is a composition we learn from God, to use in real time, through every interruption, trusting that our Bethlehem Good Shepherd and Jazz Band Improviser, will lead us, and guide us home.  

Readings for December 6, 2015
Second Sunday of Advent

• Malachi 3:1-4 
• Luke 1:68-79  
• Philippians 1:3-11 
• Luke 3:1-6

Packing and Preparing, Pastor Fred Kinsey
First of all, thank you for providing for my vacation: for encouraging me to go and take time away for rest and renewal, and for welcoming me back.
 
As you know, one of the great things about vacation, is sleep!  Kim and I set no alarm for the first couple of days, and I think we slept 10 hours, straight through!  What a wonderful feeling that is, after a busy schedule and sleeping 6-7 hours per night.  It was a true luxury! 
 
But then, two or three days into vacation, we noticed that we were sort of holding back Kim’s sister Pam, and her husband Jeff, who we were vacationing with. They were going to bed an hour or more earlier, and getting up and hour or two earlier.  And that made us just that much behind in our combined important quest, the excitement of searching out the best and brightest corals and sea creatures, there were to offer, snorkeling the waters around St John’s Island!  There, in the summer-like Caribbean paradise of 85 degree days, with its natural cooling tropical breeze, it was still, like here, the shortest daylight time of the year, and maximizing those daylight hours became all important! 
 
So we starting going to bed right after Pam and Jeff did!  And so it was that the goal of preparing for, and seeking the best snorkeling, set the calendar and agenda for us. 
 
We still slept great, but we made sure we also had the proper time to prepare.  I was the coffee maker, and so I made sure the beans were ground and ready to perk even before going to bed, and whoever got up first could just flick on the switch on the coffee maker.  And because we were – as one of the local beers there was called, “Pale Tourist’s” – we had to make time to apply a liberal dose of sunscreen.  To prepare for the beach, sandwiches were made, and with them, drinks put into the cooler, and the snorkels and masks, wet suits and fins, the towels and beach chairs – and of course, for me, a book to read – were all packed into the Jeep! 
 
Preparing for the day was involved, you might say, but not rushed; meticulously planned and anticipated, but not excessive or a burden.  We continued to prepare by reading up, and talking with local people, to find out where the best dives were, which was all part of the fun. 
 
And the payoff was amazing!  We saw stag-horn coral – brain, finger, elkhorn and golfball corals!  And the fish were swimming around and with us, of every size and color: pork fish and sergeant majors; blue tangs and bluehead wrasse; Queen and Blue Angelfish; Princess and stripped Parrotfish; sharks, barracuda, turtles, and much more.  Visions and wonders, that were always worth the preparation and planning.
 
In the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius’ reign, …the word of God came to John …in the wilderness.  He was something like the prophet Isaiah before him, preparing the way of the Lord, in this case, for Jesus, who was to come after him, and also crying out in the desert, like him, “make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.”  Preparations were made by John for the one who was greater than he.
 
The gospel of Luke has already told us, back when John was just a gleam in his parents’ eyes, that he was to be a prophet, and that even his father Zechariah, should but pay close attention.  And in case we missed it too, or weren’t really sure it was all that important, Luke tells us again here, the word of God came to John, and this is even before it came to Jesus, before he was baptized by John. 
 
There’s stuff that John has to do, to get ready for the coming of his cousin Jesus – to get us ready – ready and prepared.  This is not a vacation time, but the time, says Luke, when rulers everybody knows – Emperor Tiberius, the Governor Pilate, the two King’s, Herod and Philip, and the High Priest Caiaphas – were all in power, in Israel, in the Roman Empire.  Prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah and others, had all been announced like this before: at the right time, when they received the word of God, naming who the parents were, where they lived and worked, and finally, who the kings, or other players at the time were.
 
And so, Luke tells us, John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who went all around the region of the Jordan wilderness, to proclaim a baptism of repentance.  While his parents lived and worked in the Temple in Jerusalem, John, in order to prepare for Jesus, was called to the Jordan, to the margins of society, to the region of a symbolic transitional place for Israel, where the people’s journey from enslavement, had crossed over into freedom.  John prepared and paved the way for the Messiah and Anointed One to re-enter the religious world in a new way, without breaking from the past, but fulfilling the moment, in the time of Emperor Tiberius, et al, to create a new way, for us, to see the salvation of God. 
 
This gives us great perspective today.  God comes to us in the past, in the history of Israel and the incarnation of Jesus.  God comes to us in the present, in the word and sacrament of each Sunday.  And God comes to us in the future, at the end of all things.  For “all shall see the salvation of God.”  John prepares us for this, and is a role model for the church.
 
Just a couple days ago, preparing for our last snorkel on St John’s, Kim said that, you know, the one thing we haven’t seen yet is the spotted eagle ray – which is the grandest of stingray fish – and wouldn’t that be a good way to go out, she said!  That was a good goal, something to shoot for, I suppose.  But how in the world can you plan for something like that?  In all the vast waters, just around tiny St John Island, you never know what you’re going to see.  All we could do is plan like every other day. 
 
We had coffee and breakfast, we put on the precautionary sunscreen, we packed up the snorkeling gear, and the lunch in our cooler, but this time we headed out to Leinster Bay, on the margins of a very remote spot that few go to.  Swimming out was just average, fish and coral nice, but not the best we had seen.  At the end of the bay we hit rolling waves, 5 or 10 foot swells, and I kept my head down, swimming hard and trying not to be deterred.  Below the surface the coral and rocks opened up into huge canyons of beauty on either side of us.  Large Queen Angel fish, schools of sergeant majors, and then suddenly Pam called: eagle ray, eagle ray!  And we all swam over next to her and just below us, there it was!  It was huge, and the spots on its back were stunning, like a leopard-skin coat.  So majestic, it swam with big graceful sweeping motions, and was well named we discovered, because it looked exactly like an eagle soaring in the sky! 
 
Back on the beach we felt like we had really reached paradise and seen it all, and that every preparation had been worth it! 
 
John calls us to prepare for Jesus the Lord, and it’s worth it!  Make his paths straight, …make the rough ways smooth. 
 
What can we do to prepare?  How can we take the birth of the Messiah seriously?  What preparations are needed?  What is required of us?  What must we pack?  When is the time of his arrival?  Are we getting enough sleep?  Do we need to change something in our regular patterns?  Do we know where to find such a king?  Who are the rivals and political players of the Messiah that are now demanding our attention, and are they helping or distracting us from discovering who the ruler Jesus is? 
 
Advent is not just the four Sundays before December 25, and Christmas.  Advent is the preparations we decide are needed, day-in and day-out, to get ready for the best swim of our lives, a paradisiacal snorkel, we don’t want to miss.  When we get this excited to see the new born savior, our Messiah, our flesh shall see the salvation of God.  
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