Christ Is Victorious

A Brief Meditation on The Other Lord's Prayer from John 17: A PCUSA Pastor-Theologian Reflects on The Unity and Disunity of the Church

 

I have been teaching class on Prayer at West Side Presbyterian Church here in Seattle and one of my invitations to pray has been a challenge for us to pray “The Other Lord’s Prayer” (John 17) with the same passion which we pray “The Lord’s Prayer…Our Father…” particularly In light of the issues confronting us personally, as local churches, as denomination (mine being the PCUSA) and as the global church. Let us face it---there is great chaos and conflict in the church which is probably reflective of how encultered we have become as a church since much of that chaos and conflict is openly on display in American culture---made clear in a presidential election year. I believe the need to pray and faithfully participate in the Prayer of Jesus in John 17 is critical for us in these times. 

Most are at least familiar with the prayer, but a quick synopsis is in order. The prayer that the Apostle John records for us in John 17 is the prayer Jesus prayed to The Father immediately after sharing The Passover Celebration with his Disciples. The evening had begun with Jesus washing his disciples’ feet; an incredible demonstration of his love toward and service to his disciples. Then Jesus spoke of his impending betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter, responded to by questions, accusations and protestations all around the room. Jesus then moved on to speak words of comfort by inviting them to trust in God and pronouncing that he alone is “The Way, The Truth and The Life” with Thomas and Philip having serious questions of what Jesus had just said. Then comes the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the gift of God the Father and the Son to the disciples and to the church as it abides and participates in the life of triune God. Jesus concluded with further words of comfort and peace with the triumphant declaration “I have overcome the world!” In the other Gospel accounts we are told that Jesus had ordained and celebrated Holy Communion with the disciples (why John leaves this out is a bit odd?) and after their celebrations, Jesus and the disciples (except Judas Iscariot) sang a hymn and headed for the Garden of Gethsemane/Mount of Olives.

It is in that place that the prayer of John 17 is placed even while in the other Gospel accounts, Jesus begs the disciples to stay awake and to pray with him, but they could not. We are also told that Jesus’ praying was intense (powerfully depicted at the beginning of the film The Passion of the Christ). What is revealed in the prayer is the very heart and soul of Jesus’ concern as he is heading to the cross and completing the work for which he was sent by the Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And what was the focus of that prayer Jesus prayed? The Glory of God shows up several times…that God would be glorified by the work of Jesus Christ and that God would be glorified through the witness of His followers. The Word of God as truth is a strong word throughout the prayer. Eternal Life is spoken of as being grounded in faith belief and obedience. So does God’s protection for all who would be disciples of Jesus Christ. So does a sense of divine holiness founded upon the truth of the Word of God. So does the mission of all disciples to be sent into the world just as Jesus was sent into the world by the Father. And oh yes, the joy of Christ would be evident in “full measure”.

The question is this: Is Jesus’ Prayer of John 17 being answered today? I know it is a provocative question. We all know it will ultimately be answered in the eternal Kingdom of the new heavens and the new earth, but what about here and now. Are we personally and communally living into this powerful prayer of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It humbles me greatly to ask that question. At the heart of my reflection is a further question "In the eyes of Jesus Christ who is Lord of all, Lord of the Church and my Lord, 'Am I/we, by my/our attitudes and actions contributing more to the unity or the disunity of the Church of Jesus Christ?'

I found it interesting and helpful to go back to two major movements in the church that sought to embody the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17, both grounded in a deep missional theology with a passion for a faithful witness to Jesus Christ, the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ and the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the world.

First, over 35 years ago, Billy Graham and John Stott brought together Christians from every part of the evangelical church in the world and formed what is now known as the Lausanne Movement, they expressed their deep commitment to a visible expression of the John 17 prayer of Jesus with these words:

We affirm that the Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose. Evangelism also summons us to unity, because our oneness strengthens our witness, just as our disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however, that organizational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be closely united in fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by a sinful individualism and needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the development of regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance of the Church's mission, for strategic planning, for mutual encouragement, and for the sharing of resources and experience. (John 17:21,23; Eph. 4:3,4; John 13:35; Phil. 1:27; John 17:11-23)

And at the first meeting of the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam in 1948 (which has now strayed far from its founding but there are some who continue to faithfully live into this) equally affirmed Jesus prayer from John 17 with these words:

The World Council of Churches is composed of churches which acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Savior. They find their unity in him. They do not have to create their unity; it is the gift of God. But they know that it is their duty to make common cause in the search for the expression of that unity in work and in life. The Council desires to serve the churches which are its constituent members as an instrument whereby they may bear witness together to their common allegiance to Jesus Christ, and cooperate in matters requiring united action…The purpose of the Council is to express its unity in another way. Unity arises out of the love of God in Jesus Christ, which, binding the constituent churches to him, binds them to one another. It is the earnest desire of the Council that the churches may be bound closer to Christ and therefore closer to one another. In the bond of his love, they will desire continually to pray for one another and to strengthen one another, in worship and in witness, bearing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

I find these words helpful to reflect upon and pray to God in these days. Could it be that oneof the primary reasons the church is for the most part "failing" in its call to be a missional witness to Jesus Christ is our failure to truly pursue a faithful embodiment of Christian Unity that would let the world know that Jesus is Lord. Even so, 'Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus Come.' I would value your thoughts, reflections, etc. Thanks.

 

 

 

 

The Sacred Wilderness of Pastoral Ministry: A Collegial Review of a PCUSA Pastor's Reflections on Preparing a People for The Presence of the Lord

  Upfront, I have to let it  be known that I have known Dave Rohrer for many years, so I am somewhat biased. We meet together regularly, serve in the same presbytery (Seattle) and work together in the Preparation of Students for Pastoral Ministry in the PCUSA (CPM). But I will also be honest in saying that I have other friends, who shall remain nameless and who have written books, which have challenged me to be polite while being encouraging out of fear of "speaking the truth in love"---that is not the case with this book. When Dave let me read his first draft, I called him and told him the book was "disturbingly honest" and that I was going to require it for my classes in pastoral/practical theology at Fuller Seminary and Regent College. Now publishers do not usually put such a response on its covers to sell books, but that is exactly what Pastor Dave Rohrer has done in his first book entitled THE SACRED WILDERNESS OF PASTORAL MINISTRY: Preparing a People for The Presence of the Lord (Inter-Varsity Press. 2012). While it may be too early to call Dave the next Eugene Peterson, it is on the same par as Peterson's pastoral/spiritual theology.

The introduction asks "How do pastors remain faithful in the wilderness of denominational strife, rapid demographic change, falling numbers and a general malaise among church members?" His answer is a journey through the life and ministry of John the Baptist. While endorsements of the book come from the likes of Eugene Peterson, Stephen Hayner, Mark Labberton and Scott Cormode---Dave and I, among the endorsers and others, have been talking and struggling around this question for a long time and this book gives some great words of wisdom in the midst of that struggle.

Why John the Baptist? "Because John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, yet crowds journeyed to hear him...[He] affirmed what people already knew---that they were in desperate need of something more than the mundane practices of religion." "And pastors [of churches and leaders in any kind of Christian ministry] don't simply have an institution to create or maintain. They have a prophetic word to proclaim." After setting forth his introduction concerning the church seeking survival and the pastoral role of moving the church beyond survivalism and why John the Baptist, Rohrer walks through nine significant chapters engaging the issues of pastoral calling, identity, roles, responsibilities and privileges in light of the current landscape of the church.

Chapter One: Consolation: Making Ready a People vs. Being the Parson

Chapter Two: Call: Work vs. Our Vision

Chapter Three: Covenant: Proclaiming the Good News vs. Managing the Message

Chapter Four: Commission: Accepting our Office vs. Cultivating Loyalty

Chapter Five: Context: Inhabiting a Place vs. Propogating a Program

Chapter Six: Confrontation: Inviting Awareness vs> Administering Anesthesia

Chapter Seven: Conflict: Trusting Truth vs. Fearing Instability

Chapter Eight: Confusion: Risking Doubt vs. Denying Dissonance

Chapter Nine: Confidence: Receiving God's Blessing vs. Seeking Approval

Each chapter provokes and leads the reader to go further up and deeper in to the realities of being a minister of Jesus Christ. Each challenges the status quo and predominant expectations of pastoral ministry. He finishes with a Postscript entitled "It's Not About You...Or is It?" with these words: "The church in America is in an interesting place of transition right now. We (pastors/leaders) are not here to save the church. Our work is catalytic. Like a catalyst it has value in that it fosters reaction...If we don't take up the call that God places on our hearts to invite people to consider truth that is bigger than themselves, then we miss out. We miss out on the incredible blessing and affirmation of participating in what God is doing. It may not be about us. But God, in His mercy, invites us in to be a part of what He is doing. And there is nothing more affirming that this. We (pastors/leaders) get to be that burning shining lamp (see John 5:35-36) for a time. We get to engage the people who it in the pews of "stupid little churches" [you have to read Dave's reflections on this]. We get to invite them to be part of an adventure that is more magnificent than anything they could possibly plan for themselves. And we get to watch the transforming power of God usher them into their unique role in a story that only God could write."

This is not a book on pastoral and ministerial technique, but rather an invitation into the messy work that is the ministry. It is not neat and tidy. That is why this book is required reading, for the very reason that it is disturbingly honest and truthful about the realities of life and ministry today.

I think most of us are still unwilling to accept the fact that we are ministering among the people of God today who are in the midst of wilderness and exile. Many pastors/theologians/writers have been trying to convince us that we in the western church reside in the place of wilderness/exile and NOT the Promised Land. We are living in the transition between modernity and post-modernity---between Christendom and post-Christendom. Rohrer is yet one more voice reminding us, in very raw terms, that this is true.

I have to admit that much of what Dave writes resonates with me, in that it was from Karl Barth that I learned that our primary vocation, as followers of Jesus Christ and as the Body of Jesus Christ/the Church, is to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ. Barth had Matthias Grunewald's THE CRUCIFIXION (see the painting above) over his desk when he wrote his great works of theology or his most recent sermon. While Dave alludes to the portrait, Barth would have been another voice for him. Barth believed that in order to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ and The Gospel, we are called to be a people who point and say "There He is. There is the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins of the World. I must become less so that He can become greater." That is to say while we are called to be and become more like Jesus, perhaps a better understanding is to admit that we cannot be Jesus to anyone. We will always fail and fall way short, even though we are being (re)made into the very image of Christ. In the end, we can only point people to Jesus through our lives---through our words and deeds Only by adopting this position will we be kept from the sin of pride that seduces us to think more highly of ourselves, our ministries, our efforts, our churches, than we ought. Our calling is to point and say "There He is." But our calling is more than that...it is to proclaim and prepare people for the coming of the Lord Jesus into their lives and sometimes we are "voices crying in the wilderness"...a place and space I do not particular welcome but must embrace if I am to be a faithful witness to Jesus Christ and His coming.

So Dave...Thank you for writing a disturbingly, honest and truthful book about the realities of ministry today. The book made me laugh and made me cry. But most of all, rather than discouraging me, it "disturbingly" reminded me of why I am still a pastor after all these years. I remember Eugene Peterson saying to me once, after asking him why pastoral ministry was so much of a struggle and asking why it wasn't easier, "Bryan, when did you believe the lie that faithful pastoral ministry has ever been easy?" I have never forgot that wisdom and Dave you simply said it in a new way with a different language. For that I am grateful to you and I hope the book gets the audience it rightfully deserves.

 

Forget The Church-Follow Jesus: A PCUSA Pastor Responds to Cover Article of Newsweek

 This cover of Newsweek appeared during this past Easter/Holy Week. Pastor Rick Warren was quite critical about the cynical methods and messages of various media in relation to the Christian Holy Days of Christmas and Easter. I do not share his critique as I have found these issues to be a gateway to significant contributions with those inside and outside the Christian Faith and Church, often written by very insightful authors and journalists, albeit at times seeking to assert some sensationalist angle on faith. Therefore Andrew Sullivan's article "Forget The Church-Follow Jesus" is provocative to say the least. Quite frankly I am getting a bit tired of many who seem to argue that one can follow Jesus without being an active participant in a Christian Community, either of a more traditional or emergent type. However, when you open the magazine to the actual article, Sullivan takes things in a very different direction when he begins with "The Forgotten Jesus...Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests and get rich evangelists" and then states the main argument of his piece: "Ignore Them and Embrace Him."

Then Sullivan takes us to the National Museum of American History in Washington DC to a copy of Thomas Jefferson's BIBLE...the project of founding father Jefferson to edit the Bible to suit his deistic philosophy of religion by reducing "our volume [The Bible] to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words of Jesus" and "Setting out to remove what he felt were the misconceptions of Jesus' followers expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves." Jefferson went on to state that the difference between the real Jesus and the evangelists embellishments as "diamonds in a dunghill" glittering as the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man." As the one whose assertion of a strict wall of separation of church and state which continues to be a foundational principle in the USA to this day, although often transgressed and misunderstood by all sides, Jefferson could affirm that he was a Christian if it meant to live the actual words of Jesus, or as some in the emergent/emerging church say today "being a red letters Christian" (those who have Bibles that have both black and red print with the red print being the actual words of Jesus).

Sullivan then attacks an overly politicized Christian Faith, of all political parties and ideologies, as a distortion ot the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to which I can only say AMEN. He then speaks to "organized religion" in decline, whether Roman Catholic, Mainline Protestant or Evangelical, by referring to a newly published book that shows great promise for further conversation, namely Ross Douthat's BAD RELIGION: HOW WE BECAME A NATION OF HERETICS. The book articulates the reasons for decline in all brances of Christianity and makes a startling claim, that what people are rejecting is not Jesus or even the Christian Faith per se, but bad religion a faith not lived; A Lord and Savior not embodied by the people who are called by His Name. People are looking for something that demonstrates the life and teaching of Jesus faithfully lived. People are still asking the fundamental questions and find the church's response(s) wanting, namely "Why does the universe exist rather than nothing? How did humanity come to be on this remote blue-speck of planet? What happens to us after death.

Then comes Sullivan's main point: "Christianity itself is in crisis." in that many Christians embrace materialist self-help" rather than an ascetic self-denial Christian faith and the reality that many younger generation Christians embrace an atheistic faith or a faith which denies the centrality of the church ...turning towards spirituality rather than an evangelical, ecumenical, orthodox Christian faith. Sullivan suggest that the Church must go back to the start (Karl Barth said that we must always be willing to go back to the beginning...to the fundamentals..."Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.")...to Jesus and those who have been faithful to who Jesus is, what He taught and how he called those who would follow Him to live. Then Sullivan offers a deeply counter-cultural paradigm for radically living the life of Jesus in the world...St Francis of Assisi...a person who was not only counter-cultural in his own day but is equally if not more so a totally counter-cultural figure for contemporary Christianity in the 21st century. He concludes by calling for a "resurrection of Christianity" a Christianity that "seeks truth without the expectation of resolution, simply living each day doing what we can to fulfill God's will". For Sullivan, this may be "the only spiritual transformation that can in the end transcend the nagging emptiness of our late-capitalist lives, or the cult of distracting contemporaneity, or the threat of apocalyptic war where Jesus once walked...You see attempts to find this everywhere---from experimental spirituality to resurgent fundamentalism. Something inside is telling us we need radical spiritual change. BUt the essence of this change has been with us and defining our own civilization for two millennia. And one day soon, when politics and doctrine and pride recede, it will rise again."

So what do we make of Sullivan's challenge? It seems that we must embrace his critique of contemporary Christianity. But we must be willing to embrace an ancient-future faith which calls us to live out the politics of Jesus Christ informed by an evangelical, ecumenical, and orthodox Christian faith which insists upon a life of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior which invites all of God's People to live out and embody the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their everyday lives.

Bottom line: We are called to a Christian Faith that embraces WHO Jesus Christ is as well as WHAT Jesus Christ calls us to be and become as we faithfully and obediently live out that life in the world today. We cannot simply be content to be red letter Christians. It is silly to say that we are called to live out the words of Jesus apart from what we actually believe about Jesus. Not only is it silly but is a totally unfaithful position to take from a biblical or theological perspective. What we believe about who Jesus Christ is has everything to do with what we believe He has called us to be and become as His People. Jesus not only asks us to do what He says/commands but to believe in who He is. We cannot separate that which belongs together...Thus, back to Sullivan's challenge...One cannot follow Jesus without being an active participant in the Church of Jesus Christ....Belief in Jesus Christ (fully human and fully God) necessitates a commitment to the Body of Christ (the Church)...not only belief but a life of faithful obedience as a life that demonstrates true Christian Discipleship...to follow Jesus is to be part of the Body of Christ. Anything less is a life of faithlessness and disobedience to the call of Jesus Christ to follow Him, to be part of His new community the Church and to be active participants in His Mission in the world.

Practicing Resurrection: A PCUSA Pastor's Appreciation of Pope Benedict's Easter Sermon

 

As we celebrated this Holy Weekend in Seattle, it was a great joy to lead in the Tenebrae Worship Service on Maundy Thursday at West Side Presbyterian, to be led in worship on Good Friday at St James Roman Catholic Cathedral and again to lead in worship on Easter Sunday at West Side. I also had a great sense of grief for the vandalism that was done at St James and Mars Hill Church during this Holy Weekend. Our prayers and forgiveness go out to those who would engage in such a desecration on such a high holy day of the Christian faith. Yet, I again was so impressed by the Gospel Sermons that I heard this weekend from my colleague Dr. Paul Smith (West Side) and Father Michael Ryan (St James), as well as the Easter Sermon given by Pope Benedict XVI. I have the privilege of preaching over the next two Sundays and will be preaching on two post-resurrection encounters recorded in the Gospels---Jesus encounter with Thomas and Jesus encounter with Peter...looking at the reality of human doubt and human failure. As I said earlier, I was deeply impressed with Pope Benedict's Easter Homily and offer the text below for your reading and engagement. There is so much here for all of God's people to digest for their own journey of Christian faith, particularly in its invitation to worship the One who said "I am the Light of the World." and to be and become God's people who are called to be "The Light of the World".

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Easter is the feast of the new creation.  Jesus is risen and dies no more.  He has opened the door to a new life, one that no longer knows illness and death.  He has taken mankind up into God himself.  “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, as Saint Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians (15:50).  On the subject of Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection, the Church writer Tertullian in the third century was bold enough to write: “Rest assured, flesh and blood, through Christ you have gained your place in heaven and in the Kingdom of God”.  A new dimension has opened up for mankind.  Creation has become greater and broader.  Easter Day ushers in a new creation, but that is precisely why the Church starts the liturgy on this day with the old creation, so that we can learn to understand the new one aright.  At the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word on Easter night, then, comes the account of the creation of the world.  Two things are particularly important here in connection with this liturgy.  On the one hand, creation is presented as a whole that includes the phenomenon of time.  The seven days are an image of completeness, unfolding in time.  They are ordered towards the seventh day, the day of the freedom of all creatures for God and for one another.  Creation is therefore directed towards the coming together of God and his creatures; it exists so as to open up a space for the response to God’s great glory, an encounter between love and freedom.  On the other hand, what the Church hears on Easter night is above all the first element of the creation account: “God said, ‘let there be light!’” (Gen 1:3).  The creation account begins symbolically with the creation of light.  The sun and the moon are created only on the fourth day.  The creation account calls them lights, set by God in the firmament of heaven.  In this way he deliberately takes away the divine character that the great religions had assigned to them.  No, they are not gods.  They are shining bodies created by the one God.  But they are preceded by the light through which God’s glory is reflected in the essence of the created being.

What is the creation account saying here?  Light makes life possible.  It makes encounter possible.  It makes communication possible.  It makes knowledge, access to reality and to truth, possible.  And insofar as it makes knowledge possible, it makes freedom and progress possible.  Evil hides.  Light, then, is also an expression of the good that both is and creates brightness.  It is daylight, which makes it possible for us to act.  To say that God created light means that God created the world as a space for knowledge and truth, as a space for encounter and freedom, as a space for good and for love.  Matter is fundamentally good, being itself is good.  And evil does not come from God-made being, rather, it comes into existence only through denial.  It is a “no”.

At Easter, on the morning of the first day of the week, God said once again: “Let there be light”.  The night on the Mount of Olives, the solar eclipse of Jesus’ passion and death, the night of the grave had all passed.  Now it is the first day once again – creation is beginning anew.  “Let there be light”, says God, “and there was light”: Jesus rises from the grave.  Life is stronger than death.  Good is stronger than evil.  Love is stronger than hate.  Truth is stronger than lies.  The darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus rises from the grave and himself becomes God’s pure light.  But this applies not only to him, not only to the darkness of those days.  With the resurrection of Jesus, light itself is created anew.  He draws all of us after him into the new light of the resurrection and he conquers all darkness.  He is God’s new day, new for all of us.

But how is this to come about?  How does all this affect us so that instead of remaining word it becomes a reality that draws us in?  Through the sacrament of baptism and the profession of faith, the Lord has built a bridge across to us, through which the new day reaches us.  The Lord says to the newly-baptized: Fiat lux – let there be light. God’s new day – the day of indestructible life, comes also to us.  Christ takes you by the hand.  From now on you are held by him and walk with him into the light, into real life.  For this reason the early Church called baptism photismos – illumination.

Why was this?  The darkness that poses a real threat to mankind, after all, is the fact that he can see and investigate tangible material things, but cannot see where the world is going or whence it comes, where our own life is going, what is good and what is evil.  The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general.  If God and moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other “lights”, that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk.  Today we can illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer visible.  Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of enlightenment?  With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the question of good, we can no longer identify.  Faith, then, which reveals God’s light to us, is the true enlightenment, enabling God’s light to break into our world, opening our eyes to the true light.

Dear friends, as I conclude, I would like to add one more thought about light and illumination.  On Easter night, the night of the new creation, the Church presents the mystery of light using a unique and very humble symbol: the Paschal candle.  This is a light that lives from sacrifice.  The candle shines inasmuch as it is burnt up.  It gives light, inasmuch as it gives itself.  Thus the Church presents most beautifully the paschal mystery of Christ, who gives himself and so bestows the great light.  Secondly, we should remember that the light of the candle is a fire.  Fire is the power that shapes the world, the force of transformation.  And fire gives warmth.  Here too the mystery of Christ is made newly visible.  Christ, the light, is fire, flame, burning up evil and so reshaping both the world and ourselves.  “Whoever is close to me is close to the fire,” as Jesus is reported by Origen to have said.  And this fire is both heat and light: not a cold light, but one through which God’s warmth and goodness reach down to us.

The great hymn of the Exsultet, which the deacon sings at the beginning of the Easter liturgy, points us quite gently towards a further aspect.  It reminds us that this object, the candle, has its origin in the work of bees.  So the whole of creation plays its part.  In the candle, creation becomes a bearer of light.  But in the mind of the Fathers, the candle also in some sense contains a silent reference to the Church,.  The cooperation of the living community of believers in the Church in some way resembles the activity of bees.  It builds up the community of light.  So the candle serves as a summons to us to become involved in the community of the Church, whose raison d’être is to let the light of Christ shine upon the world.

Let us pray to the Lord at this time that he may grant us to experience the joy of his light; let us pray that we ourselves may become bearers of his light, and that through the Church, Christ’s radiant face may enter our world. Amen.

Practicing Lent on The Road to Emmaus: A PCUSA Pastor's Holy Week Reflection (Lent #5)

Every year, sometime during Holy Week, I go back and read in one sitting, Henri Nouwen’s With Burning Hearts, which is a series of reflections on the Gospel Story of the resurrected Jesus encountering two of his disciples on their journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus (see Luke 24:13-35). Every year I find Nouwen’s reflections so helpful in guiding me into the story anew and in so doing being transformed by a fresh encounter with the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

First the story…Luke tells of two disciples who are making the seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We are not sure if they live in Emmaus or just visiting. While they are walking, they are deeply engaged in a conversation with one another about what had just happened in Jerusalem when Jesus himself, albeit unrecognizable to them, joins in the journey and begins by asking a quite simple unassuming question, “What are you talking about as you walk?” To which one of the disciples named Cleopas responds with quite a condescending question in light of who is talking to, namely “Are you the only one who does not know the things that have happened in Jerusalem?” to which Jesus asks a further question “What things?” (as if he did not know...what grace to let them tell hims the story from their limited and despairing perspective).The disciples then give a lengthy and faithful discourse of what had happened to Jesus of Nazareth ending with the report that the tomb of Jesus was empty and that Jesus was resurrected and alive. The still unrecognized Jesus then responds quite abruptly with “How foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets had spoken” referring to the fact by asking another question, namely “Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” From that point Jesus begins to teach the Scriptures all the way to Emmaus where the disciples offer hospitality to this stranger by asking him to stay with them. As they then sat down to eat their evening meal, the still unrecognized Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and begins to give it to them. It is only at this point that they recognized it is Jesus and at the moment, Jesus disappears.

Their response? It was two-fold. First, they ask one another “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us and taught the Scriptures to us?” and second, they immediately take action and immediately go back to the other disciples in Jerusalem and tell the story of their encounter with the crucified and risen and very much alive Jesus Christ. 

What an incredible story! Incredible for them and Incredible to us. Henri Nouwen skillfully articulates five stages of the journey in Luke 24 which have great relevance and significance for us on our own Christian journey. They are:

Stage 1: Mourning our Loss

Stage 2: Discerning God’s Presence

Stage 3: Inviting the Stranger

Stage 4: Entering into the Communion and the Community

Stage 5: Going on a Mission

Taking Nouwen's insights as a beginning, I would offer the following:

1. This story serves reminds us again that the Christian Life is a journey with many twists and turns and that the journey of the Christian life is made up of many journeys. It is about moving from place to place, from time to time, with many different people, with many different thoughts and emotions.

2. This story reminds us about the many different ways Jesus encounters us in the midst of our journey(s), namely that at times we are not able to recognize His presence with us for many different reasons, while at other times it is so easy to recognize Him with us and among us. Yet, He faithfully remains  Emmanuel (God with us) when we can as well as when we cannot recognize and acknowledge His presence in our lives. And when He does encounter us and we recognize Him in our midst he transforms our despair into hope, our faithlessness into faith, our self pity and doubt into agape love.

3. This story reminds us that we most readily acknowledge the presence of Jesus when we encounter Him in community with one another, in His Word and in His Sacrament, specifically in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus enters our communities and relationships as the mediator of all relationships (see Dietrich Bonhoeffer) and comes bringing His Word, inviting us to His Table and calling us to graciously love others with the love we have received from Christ himself. The Christian Life/Journey is not a solo pursuit nor an individual effort. It is a journey best traveled with God and others at our side.

4. This story reminds of how important hospitality is for those who seek to follow Christ. What if these two had not offered hospitality to this “stranger”? It may be hard for us to acknowledge but sometimes we have a sense that God is "a stranger" among us and with us and that even we must continually be willing to invite Jesus to join our journey(s), to be part of our conversations, to be willing to be challenged in our thoughts and emotions about faith and life, to be willing to spend the time together in His Presence. And we must be willing to invite the strangers of our lives to be part of the journey of faith with us.

5. This story reminds us of the need to speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ to one another as those Emmaus disciples did by going back and sharing their encounter with the crucified and risen Jesus with those who were also trying to discern what was going on and what it meant for them. But we must also be willing to speak the Gospel to a world that is looking for Hope in the midst of despair and disappointment; looking for a reason to have Faith in anything; looking for Love in the midst of self-centeredness and narcissism.

As Karl Barth famously said, “In Jesus Christ we come to know that the goal of human life is not death but resurrection.” Have a blessed Easter. May we all be encouraged by the presence of Christ on our Christian Journey, no matter where it may be leading us in the days ahead. Yet we know that the journey ends in the eternal Kingdom. "Come Lord Jesus Come."

Practicing Lent with Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball (New CD Deluxe Edition with two bonus tracks) Lent #3

 What a nice surprise this Lenten Season to have Bruce Springsteen release his newest and I believe one of his best cds. Many are big fans of early Springsteen, others are big fans of acoustic Bruce, but I have become a BIG FAN of The Boss' recordings beginning with THE RISING and nothing alters that opinion after several listens of his newest WRECKING BALL. I do not seem to be alone in that opinion. As a Christian, a theologian, a pastor and a human being I so value Springsteen's ability to tell the truth about real life with a sense of vibrant faith, hope and love which seems to be deeply shaped and formed by the biblical narrative and results in what I believe is a tour de force from start to finish! Perhaps only Bob Dylan is capable of doing the same.

Track One: "We Take Care of Our Own" (the first single released from the cd) speaks of the massive disappointment and despair for many living in the USA today. He sings "I been knocking on the door that holds the throne. I been looking for the map that leads me home. I been stumbling on good hearts turned to stone. The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone...He then asks "Where're the eyes with the will to see? Where're the hearts that run over with mercy? Where's the love that has not forsaken me? Where's the work that'll set my hands, my soul free? Where's the Spirit that'll reign over me? Where's the Promise..."

Tracks Two and Three: "Easy Money" and "Shackled and Drawn"both articulate the disparity between rich and poor through the powerful images of looking for 'easy money' and the disappointments of being un/under employed as being "shackled and chained" yet both leave with a sound of hope as Shackled and Drawn finishes with "Pick up the rock son, carry it on. What's a poor boy to do but keep singing his song."

Track Four: "Jack of all Trades"continues with the same desperation of an un/underemployed person who is willing to do anything to work while expressing the hope that everything will be all right and that "it feels like the world's gonna change and we'll start caring for each other like Jesus said we might...we stood the drought, now we'll stand the flood, there's a new world coming, I can see the light and we'll be all right."

Track FIve: "Death to My Hometown"is just a statement of the reality of smalltown America. Having just returned from visiting my family in rural Wisconsin "death" was everywhere from what it once was. Springsteen articulates this reality very well with a raw-ness which shocks you as you listen and there is no real hope expressed.

Track Six: "This Depression" takes on a double meaning as and expression of both the economic and psychological depression which goes hand in hand. Yet, this song rises above the depression when it says "I've been down, but never this down. I've been lost but never this lost...I've been low but never this low. I've had my faith shaken but never hopeless...I haven't always been strong but never felt so weak. All of my prayers, gone for nothing. I've bee without love but never been forsaken. Now the morning sun is breaking. This is my confession. I need your heart. In this depression I need your heart." 

Track Seven: "Wrecking Ball"(the title track) has a defiance with the words "When your best hopes and desires are scattered to the wind and the hard times come and go and here they come again, Bring on your wrecking ball. C'Mon and take your best shot . Let me see what you got. Bring on your wrecking ball." (This seems so close to Bob Dylan's Everything is Broken from his Oh Mercy cd)

Track Eight: "You've Got It"Is a love song about a woman who has "it" (perhaps his wife Patti) but the "it" is described this way..."No one ever found it. Ain't no school ever taught it. No one ever made it. Ain't no one ever bought it...no one can break it. no one can steal it. no one can fake it. You can't read it in a book. you can't even dream it. it ain't got a name...Well listen up my reckless love. It's precious so don't waste it. Can't tell you what God made it of. But you've got it. You got it in your bones and blood and you're realer than real ever was."

Track Nine: "Rocky Ground" is one of the best tracks on the cd acknowledging that "we've been traveling over rocky ground" but then comes the biblical and theological foundation for "traveling over rocky ground in rocky times". Listen to these lyrics: "Rise up Shepherd,your flock has roamed far from the hill, the stars have faded, the sky is still, the angels are shouting 'Glory Hallelujah'...Forty Days and Nights of rain washed this land. Jesus said the money changers in this temple will not stand. Oh Shepherd find your flock and get them to higher ground. The floodwater's rising and We're Canaan bound. Tend to your flock or they will stray. We'll be called for our service come judgment day. Before we cross that river wide, the blood on our hands will come back on us twice. Rise up Shepherd, your flock has roamed far from the hill. The stars have faded . The sky is still. The Son's in the Heavens and a New Day is rising...You use your muscle and your mind and you pray your best that your best is good enough. The Lord will do the rest. Your raise your children and you teach them to walk straight and sure. You pray that hard times come no more. You try to sleep and toss and turn the bottom's dropping out. Where you once had faith now there's only doubt. You pray for guidance only. Silence now meets your prayers. The Morning breaks. You awake, but no one is there. But There's a new day coming."

Track Ten: "Land of Hope and Dreams"is my favorite on the cd and is very reminiscent of WoodY Guthrie's "This Train is Bound for Glory" and Bob Dylan's "Slow Train Coming" as Springsteen invites people to "grab their ticket and their suitcase" and "thunder's rolling down this track " heading for "The Land of Hope and Dreams". Then Springsteen tells us who is on the train..."This train carries saints and sinners; losers and winners; whores and gamblers; lost souls; the broken hearted; thieves and the sweet souls of the faithfully departed; fools and kings...Yes, on this train dreams will not be thwarted, faith will be rewarded and the bells of true freedom will ring...ALL ABOARD!"

Track Eleven: "We are Alive" (another one of my favorites on the cd) is a death and resurrection song which begins "There's a cross up yonder on Calvary Hill and There's a Graveyard down below where the dead will come to life. And this is the they'll sing: 'We are alive and though our bodies lie alone here in the dark our spirits rise to carry the fire and light the spark to stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart...Let your mind rest easy. sleep well my friend. It's only our bodies that betray us in the end...' Then Springsteen inserts himself into his lyric "I awoke last night in the dark and dreamy deep, from head to my feet my body's gone stone cold. there were worms crawling all around me. my fingers scratching at an earth black and six foot low. Alone in the blackness of my grace. alone I'd been left to die. Then I heard voices calling all around me and the earth rose above me and my eyes filled with sky. We are alive and though our bodies lie alone here in the dark our souls and spirits rise to carry the fire and light the spark. Thank God we are alive." What a great song celebrating the communion of saints, as well as death and resurrection.

Bonus Tracks: BUY THE DELUXE EDITION to get these two great songs

Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale) is a masterful parable based on Jonah which begins "I fell asleep on a dark and starlit sea with nothin but the cloak of God's mercy over me. I come upon strange earth and a great black cave. I dreamt I awoke as if buried in my grave...We've been swallowed up, disappeared from this world...we've trusted our skills and our good sails and our faith that with God, the righteous in this world prevail. But we've been swallowed up and disappeared from this world."

American Land has shown up in Springsteen's work such as The Dublin Sessions but really is the proper close to this cd (again reminiscent of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land") as it binds together the hopes and dreams of so many and voices hope even in the midst of grave socio-economic and political difficulties which has created a culture of fear and despair.

I can only say once again, thank you Bruce for giving voice to the human condition and to the hope that invites all to ride the train to the land of hope and dreams (the kingdom of God). I will be listening often during this Lenten Season as a practice of repentance, a call to alms giving, and an invitation to prayer that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the true Hope for all.

Practicing Lent as a Protestant with a Great Word from Pope Benedict XVI (Lent #1)

 Well Lent begins on Wednesday February 22 and I am so looking forward to going to the Ash Wednesday Service at St James Cathedral here in Seattle (http://www.stjames-cathedral.org). While in the previous congregations I served as senior pastor had several Ash Wednesday Services, the congregation where I am currently serving as an interim associate pastor does not have an Ash Wednesday service. So I look forward to being able to begin the Lenten Journey again this year at St James. Again, Father Michael Ryan is one of the finest priests I have known and he preaches the Gospel with such clarity and especially in Lent articulates such a powerful vision of the Cross of Jesus Christ for which I am so grateful. Also during this season I am teaching a class at WestSide Presbyterian Church on "Why Jesus? A Reaffirmation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ through the Barment Declaration" and am looking forward to how we will engage this incredible witness of Christ and its continuing meaning for us today.

So as we enter this season again, no matter what Christian tradition, other faith tradition or no-faith tradition you may be, may I invite you to explore the question "Who is Jesus Christ for me today?" I would also love to hear how you are celebrating Lent this year...(please post or email me)

And finally a word of invitation to celebrate Lent 2012 from Pope Benedict XVI:

“To stir a response in love and good works”: these words of the Letter to the Hebrews urge us to reflect on the universal call to holiness, the continuing journey of the spiritual life as we aspire to the greater spiritual gifts and to an ever more sublime and fruitful charity. Being concerned for one another should spur us to an increasingly effective love which, “like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day,” makes us live each day as an anticipation of the eternal day awaiting us in God. The time granted us in this life is precious for discerning and performing good works in the love of God...Sadly, there is always the temptation to become lukewarm, to quench the Spirit, to refuse to invest the talents we have received, for our own good and for the good of others. All of us have received spiritual or material riches meant to be used for the fulfillment of God’s plan, for the good of the Church and for our personal salvation. The spiritual masters remind us that in the life of faith those who do not advance inevitably regress.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the invitation, today as timely as ever, to aim for the “high standard of ordinary Christian living”… In a world which demands of Christians a renewed witness of love and fidelity to the Lord, may all of us feel the urgent need to anticipate one another in charity, service and good works.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Lent 2012

PCUSA Evangelical Identity: Yesterday and Today Guided by JI Packer and NT Wright

 In light of all that is going on in the denomination of which I am ordained, the PCUSA, I sat down and read with great interest ANGLICAN EVANGELICAL IDENTITY: Yesterday and Today by JI Packer and NT Wright. My reason for engaging this text was to ask the question as whether there significance as to how the Evangelical Anglicans within the worldwide Anglican Communion and Evangelical Presbyterians within the PCUSA and the worldwide Presbyterian Church addressed their future. The book says that it seeks to ask: "What does it mean to be an Anglican? And Evangelical? Can these two identities be held together with integrity? Where the church seems to be fragmenting, how should we relate to the rest of the Anglican Church?" I and many others are asking the same questions in relationship to the PCUSA, especially after the gathering in Orlando last week and with so many seeking to discern what this relationship will look like in the near and long-term future.

Thirty years ago two influential Anglican thinkers, J.I. Packer and N.T. Wright, addressed these questions in short and provocative Latimer Studies. Their work remains stimulating and important, and is republished here for a new generation, with fresh prefaces from each author reflecting on recent developments. "The Evangelical Anglican Identity Problem" (Packer, 1978) addressed Anglican evangelicals who were unsure whether it was warrantable to continue as Anglicans. "Evangelical Anglican Identity: The Connection Between Bible, Gospel & Church"(Wright, 1980) builds upon Packer's study, addressing Evangelical attitudes to the church. "A Kind of Noah's Ark?" (Packer, 1981) had in view clergy and laity who were baffled and discouraged by the continually broadening spectrum of tolerated unorthodoxies within the Church of England, and in particular the hesitations felt by young men called to be pastors who were unsure whether it made sense to pursue their vocation as Anglicans. All three pieces were thus tracts for the times, but are astonishingly relevant today. J. I. Packer is Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is one of the most important evangelical theologians of the last fifty years. N. T. Wright was the Bishop of Durham and now professor at St Andrews University in Scotland, and a highly respected New Testament scholar, publishing at both academic and popular levels.

While it must be admitted that there are obvious differences between the Anglican and Presbyterian situations, the book raises some excellent points for discussion and further engagements. From the outset, the more recent reflections by Packer and Wright have great import for us as Presbyterians. Packer argues that the two main issues which have brought us to this point in our respective histories seem to be around the issues of sexuality and the convergence/plurality/relativism of all religions. For him, the future lies in "thinking globally rather than domestically" and secondly in "thinking of the future rather than the past" and thirdly in "thinking theocentrically/christocentrically rather than institutionally." Wright takes a totally different approach and suggests that Evangelical Anglicans and other Evangelicals within mainline churches should first appreciate their "membership in a worldwide fellowship"; secondly, that there is a need to understand that the issues evangelicals face have shifted and particularly around the issues of theology and ethics; thirdly, that the unifying factors of evangelicals in the mainlines that once kept us together have eroded and disappeared, particularly around the styles and modes of public worship; fourthly, that there has been a significant shift away from how leadership has been viewed in Anglicanism (the role of bishops) and Presbyterianism (whether representative (presbyterian) or populist (congregational) democracy centered upon elders/presbyters). Wright concludes that "we need to pray and seek an Evangelical Anglicanism/Presbyterianism Identity that is "rethought once more around the Bible, the Gospel and the Church, always rooted in prayer, and always should be. God is God. Jesus is Lord. The Holy Spirit is powerful and unpredictable" and that "the only identity that really matters is that of the humble Christian holding the world and the church before God in earnest and fervent prayer and ready then to work when, where, how and with whom God directs."

Packer and Wright then go on to explore THE EVANGELICAL IDENTITY PROBLEM. First, Packer's perspective. He calls evangelicals to take seriously its attitudes towards doctrine and the church by reminding us that we need to have a deep commitment to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the Church of Jesus Christ. Secondly, that we are committed to a practical, pure, unifying and rational witness which reflects our fundamental convictions of the supremacy of Holy Scripture, the majesty of Jesus Christ, the Lordship of the Holy Spirit, the necessity of conversion, the priority of evangelism and the importance of true Christian fellowship centered upon the triune God.

Then Wright speaks of "the connection between Bible, Gospel and Church in relationship to the problem of evangelical identity" within the mainline church. He speaks of a tale of two circles as to how evangelicals within the mainline churches perceive themselves. First, is that of Dogmatic Exclusivistswho see themselves as separate entities in relationship to the denominations to which they 'belong'. Second, is that of Establishment Inclusivists who see themselves as one party within the denomination. Third, is that of Idealistic Constitutionalists who see themselves (in the case of Presbyterianism contra Anglicanism) as Presbyterian Evangelicals rather than Evangelical Presbyterians. Fourth and lastly, is that of Contemporary Realists who see themselves as being "in the denomination but not of the denomination".

After engaging several issues between evangelicals and their place in the mainline, Wright returns to ask the question "Evangelical, Anglican/Presbyterian...and Confused?"Wright says that it is absolutely necessary for evangelicals to engage in the issue of how "the Biblical Gospel is to be rethought creatively by every generation of Christians, not to undercut what we already know but to develop and mature our understanding of it [and that] our aim will be to encourage our fellow [Presbyterians] to join us in a continual reformation so as to grow into the full truth of Bible, Gospel and Church in such a way that the [Presbyterian] circle may be enlarged and re-centered."

Packer concludes the book with the question "A Kind of Noah's Ark?: A Commitment to Comprehensiveness" which I found to be fascinating if not at times troubling as to the future of being an evangelical within the PCUSA, where he seeks to define Evangelical Identity within the category of Anglican/Presbyterian Comprehensiveness and in terms of "Virtue or Vice? A Likely Story? and The Hard Made Decision." Here Packer says that evangelicals should "see themselves as holding in trust for the rest of the church a heritage of truth and insight, perceptions of reality and duty, and traditions of stockpiled wisdom and spiritual experience which form part of the wealth laid up in Jesus Christ for all."

Packer saying that the fundamental truths to which evangelicals are identified and defined are:

1.) The Supremacy of Scripture. 2.) The Majesty of Jesus Christ. 3.) The Lordship of the Holy Spirit. 4.) The Necessity of Conversion. 5.) The Priority of Evangelism and Mission. 6.) The Fellowship of Faithful Believers.

He then asks whether or not evangelicals should pursue  an "unlimited comprehensiveness" within the mainline (Can we just not all get along?) or a "withdrawal" (come out from them and be separate). To answer this within the Anglicanism he looks to Charles Simeon (1759-1836) and JC Ryle (1816-1900) both of whom valued the evangelical witness within mainline Anglicanism.

It is Packer's challenge in the last paragraph of the book that is most telling..after speaking of being an "Anglican by choice" and recognizing the "ongoing doctrinal conflict" and a deep "sense of proportion" and perspective ("By God's mercy the Church though disorderly is far from dead and there is no solid reason to suppose that those who contend for the historic Gospel are fighting a losing battle.")...he concluded that "The argument that I have been using to justify the hard-made decision of allegiance is one of principle, namely that the way in which tolerance obliges you to cope with the doctrinal disorder is, though taxing, the best way both for you and the Church as a whole; and this argument does not draw any of its forces from rosy hopes for the future...particularly on the the doctrinal/ethical front I do in fact entertain rosy hopes [for] all 'reduced Christianities' will no doubt always be with us and it is not my though that a good heave now would rid us of them for all time. I simply urge that the way of dealing with them which has been described will continue to be the right and proper/faithful way, however angry and upset their existence makes you feel and whether the Church seems for the moment to be gaining doctrinal/ethical purity or losing it. The motto of Oak Hill Theological College [in England where Packer once taught] is "Be Right and Persist" and that is the practical summons to which, as it seems to me, is the right one."

Much to think and pray about. Again I am grateful for those who have fought the good fight and sought to live out a Christian Faith seeking Understanding and being faithful to the evangelical, ecumenical and orthodox faith of Christianity in its Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant forms. Would value your insights either from within or outside Presbyterianism.

 

A Prayer for The New Year 2012

As we head into a New Year, I was grateful to receive the following prayer from Leighton Ford. I wanted to share it:

Lord, give me I pray:
A remembering heart for the things that have happened
An attentive heart to what I have learned
A forgiving heart for what has hurt
A grateful heart for what has blessed
A brave heart for what may be required
An open heart to all that may come
A trusting heart to go forth with You
A loving heart for You and all your creation
A longing heart for the reconciliation of all things.
A willing heart to say “Yes” to what You will.
Leighton Ford

A Presbyterian Appreciation for Pope Benedict XVI Christmas Homily

 

 

After offering several reflections during Advent and the sermon I preached on Christmas Eve at WestSide Presbyterian Church here in Seattle, I was deeply appreciative of the homily Pope Benedict XVI offered as well. The text I offer here for your encouragement and benefit, as it spoke deeply to me as well this Advent Christmas time.

Dear Brothers and Sisters! The reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to Titus that we have just heard begins solemnly with the word “apparuit,” which then comes back again in the reading at the Dawn Mass: apparuit--“there has appeared.” This is a programmatic word, by which the Church seeks to express synthetically the essence of Christmas. Formerly, people had spoken of God and formed human images of him in all sorts of different ways. God himself had spoken in many and various ways to mankind (cf. Heb 1:1 – Mass during the Day). But now something new has happened: he has appeared. He has revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessible light in which he dwells. He himself has come into our midst. This was the great joy of Christmas for the early Church: God has appeared. No longer is he merely an idea, no longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words. He has “appeared”. But now we ask: how has he appeared? Who is he in reality? The reading at the Dawn Mass goes on to say: “the kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed” (Tit 3:4). For the people of pre-Christian times, whose response to the terrors and contradictions of the world was to fear that God himself might not be good either, that he too might well be cruel and arbitrary, this was a real “epiphany”, the great light that has appeared to us: God is pure goodness.

Today too, people who are no longer able to recognize God through faith are asking whether the ultimate power that underpins and sustains the world is truly good, or whether evil is just as powerful and primordial as the good and the beautiful which we encounter in radiant moments in our world. “The kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed”: this is the new, consoling certainty that is granted to us at Christmas.

In all three Christmas Masses, the liturgy quotes a passage from the Prophet Isaiah, which describes the epiphany that took place at Christmas in greater detail: “A child is born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace. Wide is his dominion in a peace that has no end” (Is 9:5f.). Whether the prophet had a particular child in mind, born during his own period of history, we do not know. But it seems impossible. This is the only text in the Old Testament in which it is said of a child, of a human being: his name will be Mighty-God, Eternal-Father. We are presented with a vision that extends far beyond the historical moment into the mysterious, into the future. A child, in all its weakness, is Mighty God. A child, in all its neediness and dependence, is Eternal Father. And his peace “has no end”. The prophet had previously described the child as “a great light” and had said of the peace he would usher in that the rod of the oppressor, the footgear of battle, every cloak rolled in blood would be burned (Is 9:1, 3-4).

God has appeared--as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace. At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors’ rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you. We love your childish estate, your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors’ rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours.

Christmas is an epiphany--the appearing of God and of his great light in a child that is born for us. Born in a stable in Bethlehem, not in the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas in Greccio with an ox and an ass and a manger full of hay, a new dimension of the mystery of Christmas came to light. Saint Francis of Assisi called Christmas “the feast of feasts”--above all other feasts--and he celebrated it with “unutterable devotion”. He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion and he stammered tender words such as children say. For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the Resurrection Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing had radically changed the world: he had made a place for man in God himself. Now, Francis neither changed nor intended to change this objective order of precedence among the feasts, the inner structure of the faith centred on the Paschal Mystery. And yet through him and the character of his faith, something new took place: Francis discovered Jesus’ humanity in an entirely new depth. This human existence of God became most visible to him at the moment when God’s Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God’s Son to take the form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. “The kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed” – this phrase of Saint Paul now acquired an entirely new depth. In the child born in the stable at Bethlehem, we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart.

This has nothing to do with sentimentality. It is right here, in this new experience of the reality of Jesus’ humanity that the great mystery of faith is revealed. Francis loved the child Jesus, because for him it was in this childish estate that God’s humility shone forth. God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love, he put himself in the position of asking for human love – our love. Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light.

Francis arranged for Mass to be celebrated on the manger that stood between the ox and the ass. Later, an altar was built over this manger, so that where animals had once fed on hay, men could now receive the flesh of the spotless lamb Jesus Christ, for the salvation of soul and body, as Thomas of Celano tells us. Francis himself, as a deacon, had sung the Christmas Gospel on the holy night in Greccio with resounding voice. Through the friars’ radiant Christmas singing, the whole celebration seemed to be a great outburst of joy. It was the encounter with God’s humility that caused this joy – his goodness creates the true feast.

Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half metres high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half metres has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with better protection from attack, but above all to prevent people from entering God’s house on horseback. Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus’ birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our “enlightened” reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God’s closeness. We must follow the interior path of Saint Francis--the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions--the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart. And let us also pray especially at this hour for all who have to celebrate Christmas in poverty, in suffering, as migrants, that a ray of God’s kindness may shine upon them, that they – and we – may be touched by the kindness that God chose to bring into the world through the birth of his Son in a stable. Amen.