Christ Makes Illegal Immigrants - and Us - Mary

Sermon on Luke 1:26-38

St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA

Sunday, December 21, 2008,

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B

(word count: 783)

Christ Makes Illegal Immigrants - and Us - Mary

Mary was a low-income, unwed teenager from a hick-town with one traffic light. God dedicates her by making her pregnant with Jesus, the Messiah. Imagine. The angel Gabriel sings, “The Lord is with you! The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Your child will be the Son of God.” Mary responds, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” God calls upon her to be the mother of God, and she replies, “I'm ready.”

How about you and me? “The Lord is with you!” “And also with you!” Christ was born to die and rise. Now we, the baptized, have eternal life for free. Christ has yanked us out of Satan's rotting mouth. Christ will return to finish salvation. Christ comes to us right this moment. The Church is Christ's body. Where two or three gather in his name, Christ is present. Christ comes to us through Bible and sermon. Christ feeds us his real presence, his body and blood, through holy communion. Christ declares in Matthew 28, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” “The Lord is with you!”

Do you believe that? Do you believe that the Lord is with you, closer to you than you are to yourself? When we declare, “The Lord be with you,” we are saying, “The Lord is with you, so act like you believe that.” Act like you believe that the Lord is with you. Right here. Do you live like the Lord is with you? Do I? Does St. James. Every day, we are holy, the saint-community. We are bearers of Christ, like Mary. The Lord is with us.

No matter how little money you have; no matter how sick you are; no matter how many dirty dishes you have in the sink; no matter how low your self-image is, Christ is with you.

Imagine the angel Gabriel standing before you, blazing, fierce eyes unblinking, smelling like spring air. With a voice like a trombone, he says, “The Lord is with you! Do not be afraid, for God has shown you favor through Jesus Christ.” You can feel God's love impregnating you with holy power. You are one of God's glowing, sacred children, baptized, full of Messiah-muscle. The Lord is with you.

Since the Lord has filled you, you have the faith to see that the Lord has filled others, too. Look around. Relatives, friends, acquaintances, strangers, enemies – the Lord is with all Christians. The Lord is with people you dislike – people who talk too much, brag, lie, gossip. The Lord never says, “I am with you, unless you have flaws.” Otherwise, Peter would be out. James and John would be out. Thomas, out. But thanks be to God that you do not have to be perfect for the Lord to be with you. Christ is with us because he loves us, not because we deserve his presence. So then, the Lord Christ is with all of us in the Church, even with those who annoy, upset or offend us. Jesus does not say, “I am with you always, unless you sin.” He says, “I am with you always, period.”

The Lord is also with people who are different from us. The Lord is with Pedro, who attends church every Sunday with his wife and two daughters, ages seven and five. Such cute girls. The one is shy, the other talks too loudly. Pedro thanks God for the infant Jesus, thanks God for Christ dying on the cross. Pedro is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He is breaking the law. He is far from perfect, he is a sinner, but he is still a member of the Church. The Lord is with Pedro, and because the Lord is with you, you have the faith to see that the Lord is with Pedro, is with all in the Church.

As we ride into the twelve-day season of Christmas, let us remember that we are Mary, we are the ones God has dedicated through Christ. Even with our flaws, we are still Christ-bearers for a barren world. Remember that as the chatter and lights of Christmas swirl around you. The Lord is with you. On Christmas Day, take a moment to be still. Picture yourself. You are in the stable, beside the manger, holding the baby. Look down at the infant Christ [cradle crucifix?]. His round, dark face, his blue eyes, his black hair. He stares at you, and you say in a soft, low voice, “Here am I, Mary, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”

Pink River of Rejoice Always

Sermon on Rejoicing,

with Isaiah 61:10, the Magnificat, and 1 Thessalonians 5:16

St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA

Sunday, December 14, 2008,

Third Sunday of Advent, Year B

(word count: 995)

Pink River of Rejoice Always

One of the themes of Advent is rejoicing. As we said last Sunday, part of preparing for the comings of Christ is repenting. Another component of preparing for Christ is rejoicing, and certainly we rejoice once Christ arrives.

Our readings repeatedly mention rejoicing. Our first passage, which Diane just read, says in verse ten, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD.” In our psalmody, Luke 1:46-55, pregnant Mary declares, “My spirit rejoices in God my savior.” In our second reading, in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Paul even goes so far as to exhort us to “Rejoice always.”

“Rejoice always”? What does it mean to rejoice always? “Rejoice always” does NOT mean that we have to act happy all the time. Jesus isn't happy all the time. He weeps, he yells. His sweat falls like great drops of blood because he is so full of anxiety. We can express other emotions besides joy.

“Rejoice always” does not mean that we cannot grieve. Have you ever been at a funeral, and a well-meaning person says, “We shouldn't be sad. We should be happy because the person is in heaven”? It is true that the person is in heaven. It is also true that we may be sad because we will miss that person. If Jesus can weep at Lazarus' funeral, then we can weep at funerals, too.

So then, what does it mean to rejoice always? I'm not sure. Perhaps it means that, even when we are angry, sad, scared, bored, or frustrated, we still have flowing through us a steady river of rejoicing. Even when we are furious with each other, Kim and I still love each other, thanks be to God. In sickness and in health we always have flowing in our relationship love for each other. Likewise, maybe “rejoice always” means we are always to have flowing through us a pink river of rejoicing, even when we are full of grief, fury, loneliness, or disease.

What keeps it going? What is the source of this pink river of rejoicing that is to flow within us?

For help with the answer, listen again to Isaiah 61:10. The prophet trumpets, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD [ . . . ] for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation [ . . . ]” Similarly, Mary makes it clear that she is rejoicing because God has blessed her by making her the mother of the one who will flip the world upsidedown with the power of salvation.

We Christians are to rejoice always because Christ has come, will come, and is here to give us salvation. God has clothed us with the garments of salvation.

Paul sings both in 1 Thessalonias 5 and Philippians 4 that we are to rejoice always. Why? Paul's letters reveal that the love God shows us through Christ's sacrifice is the source of our being and power. Remove that love and we are dried-up river beds, or, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, we are nothing but noise. The love of God through Christ is the source of the river of Rejoice Always.

How's your river? Look inside you. Do you have flowing within you the pink river of rejoicing always in response to Christ's comings to save us? Even when sick, in pain, worried, tired, or hungry, do you still have flowing inside you the pink river of Rejoice Always? Do I? Does Saint James? Many congregations boast that they are friendly. Can we boast that we are a rejoicing congregation? Maybe.

Do you rejoice over the comings of Christ, past, future and present? Do you take the time to rejoice? We humans do a great deal of complaining and lamenting, and God is open to our complaints and laments. How much rejoicing do we declare as we anticipate and celebrate Christ's comings?

Not allowing the pink river of Rejoice Always to dry up can be difficult. When we lose our job, when we are worn-out, when we keep bouncing checks, when people we love keep hurting themselves with cigarettes, alcohol, bad relationships, or drugs, it is easy to allow the pink river of Rejoice Always to dry up. Satan builds dams in our river to stop the flow.

Part of the Good News, though, is that God remains the river's source. The Holy Spirit keeps feeding the river through Christ coming to us in Scripture and sermon. God continues to feed the river through Christ coming to us in the form of people helping us and in the form of us helping others. God keeps feeding the river through Christ healing us by answering our prayers.

Has Satan dammed your river? Let us know. Christ has sent us, your fellow Christians, to help.

Many of us have an especially difficult time preserving our river this time of year. As we hiss and scratch to get ready for Christmas, we often find ourselves not in the Christmas spirit. Do you have trouble summoning the Christmas spirit? Are you having difficulty preparing spiritually for the celebration of Christ's birth? How's your river?

Here is something to try. This can be done in as little as five minutes. Play your favorite sacred Christmas music. [“Mary, did you know?”] Light a candle [Walk to pink candle.]. Focus on the candle, listen to the music. Picture your pink river flowing out of the candle, from God and into you. See it flowing, pink, serene, the river of Rejoice Always, flowing no matter what.

Your river flows from God and into your heart. Now start rejoicing: I rejoice, Christ, for you came to die for us. I rejoice, Christ, for you will return to fix all problems. I rejoice, Christ, for you come to us now through worship, Scripture and sermon, people we help. We rejoice for you coming to baptize through us NAME. We rejoice over the ways you clothe us in the garments of salvation. Thank you. Thank you. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. [Stare at pink candle.]

Sermon on Mark 1:1-8

St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA

Sunday, December 7, 2008,

Second Sunday of Advent, Year B

(word count: 1000)

The Word “Preach"

Much of the time, when we use the word “preach” in casual conversation, we use the word negatively. For instance, your friend lights a cigarette. You say, “Those things are going to kill you. You shouldn't smoke,” and your friend snaps, “I already know that. Quite preaching to me.” When we use the word “preach,” we often mean by it a finger-wagging talk in which one person tells another that they better shape up. In casual conversation, “to preach” usually means “to scold.”

There is some biblical basis for this meaning of the word “preach.” For example, in today's gospel, Mark 1:1-8, John the Baptist is preaching in a scolding, get-it-together kind of way. The passage tells us that John proclaims, or preaches, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance. Shape up. Confess your sins. Get it together.

However, John's message is not only – or even primarily – about repentance, about getting it together. Why does John urge people to repent? Mark tells us in verses two and three when he quotes Isaiah, saying, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord [ . . . ]” Why do the people in John's day need to repent? Because repenting is how you get ready for the coming of Jesus.

At our house, when we have guests coming, we vacuum. Kim dusts everything. She scrubs the sinks and the showers. I change the cat litter and empty the garbage. The kids clean their rooms. When we have guests coming, we get ready, we prepare, by cleaning up.

According to John the Baptist, we prepare for the coming of Jesus by cleaning our lives up. We repent, meaning that we say we are sorry for our sins and that we make changes so that we do not commit those sins again. That's what John urged the people to do a long time ago at the first coming, the first advent, of Christ; repenting is part of how we keep awake for the second coming, the second advent; and repenting is an essential part of preparing ourselves for Jesus coming to us today.

Don't you want your inner house to be clean for the arrival of Jesus? Don't you want to show him your best? This is God who is coming into your life, the one who died for our sins and loves us more than anyone. Let's clean the inner house so that everything is right for Christ's coming.

Preaching can help us to get ready by reminding us that we need to repent and by helping us to see what we do wrong. It is essential for preaching to include a call for us, the baptized, to repent.

However, if all we do with preaching is speak a word of repentance, a word of “get it together,” then we miss the most important part of the Good News, which is the joy of the coming of Jesus Christ. Do you understand? The repentance, the get-it-together message, is just part of the Good News. The main part of the Good News is that Christ has come, will come, is here. Just as John's central mission was to get people ready for Christ's coming, the central mission of our preaching is to proclaim Christ's coming. Repentance is a part of the message, but it is not the main message. For John, repentance is a means to an end. The main message, the point, is the Good News of Christ's coming, past, future, now.

So then, when we use the word “preach” to mean “scolding, urging people to shape up, get it together,” then we are misusing the word “preach.” “You should quit smoking.” “Aw, stop preaching to me.” The word “preach” means far more than scolding; it means proclaiming the Good News that God has shown us the love supreme through the triple-coming of Christ. When we in the Church fixate on scolding people, wagging our fingers, and griping about what's wrong with the world, we miss the most important part of the message: God saves us with love through Christ's coming.

When you listen to a sermon, either here, at another congregation, or while watching TV, ask yourself, “Does this sermon proclaim the Good News of Christ?” Many sermons spend a great deal of time on scolding or on self-help, which is similar to scolding, but these sermons spend relatively little time on the Good News of Christ coming into our lives to save us, heal us, transform us, today.

Given how much scolding goes on in preaching, it is not surprising that, in casual conversation, the word “preach” often means “to scold.” Scolding has its place, but what if the word “preach” had a more positive meaning in our conversations? What if the word “preach” meant, not “to scold,” but “to help people see Christ's loving presence in their lives”? In our conversations, instead of the word “preach” meaning “Tell people what they do wrong,” what if the word “preach” meant instead, “Tell people what God does right”? Think about it.

Your friend never did quit smoking. Now she's in the hospital, dying from lung cancer. Her room is full of cards, flowers, balloons, and stuffed animals. Her family has flown in to be with her. The pastor has been in to give her holy communion, the real presence of Christ.

When the two of you are alone, your friend says, “All these people have been so nice. I feel loved.”

Then, you open your mouth, and you say, “One of the ways Jesus comes to us is through other people. All these people caring for you is one of the ways God comes to you and says, 'I love you.'”

And your friend squeezes your hand and says, “That was a good sermon. Thanks for saying that to me. Thanks for preaching to me.”