Last Sunday before Advent

Christ the King Sunday B, Sullivan Park Care Center, November 25, 2012 by Annette Fricke

When looking up resources for this particular Sunday, which goes by the names of Christ the King, the Reign of Christ, and the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, a number of images as well as thoughts pop into my mind.  I picked up the old Service Book and Hymnal of my childhood which I stole from my sister’s house to see what the Introit, Collect, and lessons might have been.  I soon discovered that it really had no title then.  It was simply the Last Sunday after the Trinity: still another way in which to designate the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent.  When looking on the computer for a take on this feast, one preacher actually decided to go with the Thanksgiving texts and preach on Thanksgiving instead.  Liturgically speaking, the term ‘King of the Universe’ comes from the Jewish prayer: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, for in your wisdom you have formed us. The ancient liturgy provides a rich array of concepts that are based on scriptures and actual liturgical practice. More fully, in the Evening Prayer liturgy, we read or sing, “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who led your people Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night: Enlighten our darkness by the light of our Christ; may your Word be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; for you are merciful, and you love your whole creation, and we, your creatures glorify you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Another rich resource that goes back several centuries is from the so-called Church Fathers. From Tractates on the Gospel by St Augustine: Come to the kingdom that is not of this world. Do not be enraged by fear, but come by faith…. What in fact is Christ’s kingdom? It is simply those who believe in him…. Indeed, his kingdom is here until the end of time–and until the harvest, it will contain weeds.

My mind also goes back to Thanksgiving.  We sit around at the table to give thanks to God, one of the most intentional places we do that as a family gathering outside of church. And then, many of our country participate the very next day in what is termed “Black Friday.”  On Black Friday, an activity that I also participated in once a few years ago, I experienced the aggressiveness that sometimes becomes quite physically violent as people paw over each other to get that last item left on the shelf they desire for a loved one, that you would think it was a matter of life and death.  How quickly thankfulness for what we have turns into the coveting of what we think we need.  I like a good bargain like anyone else: I just can’t see how participating in the frenzy of fanatically going after dazzling deals in the marketplace can be at all healthy.  I could be wrong.  Maybe someday in the distant future, the virtues of such hunting for and obtaining treasures for Christmas in such a manner will be revealed.  In the meantime, I remain unconvinced.

The passage we are given in II Samuel is King David’s final speech.  It tells us what the king of the universe is as well as what the king of the universe is not.  The king of the universe is “One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.” II Samuel paints a picture for us the ideal image of a king as well as the realities of all earthly kings missing the mark.  For all his greatness, King David also fails miserably.  He has another king killed by sending him to the front lines of battle, in order to sleep with his wife, gets her pregnant, and has a son. It displeases God and the son dies.

And now back to our day and time when we hear about former president Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern and General Petraeus and his relationship with his biographer.  “Television evangelist and ultraconservative Pat Robertson doesn't think General David Petraeus should be condemned for his affair with writer Paula Broadwell. After all, she is "an extremely good looking woman" and "he's a man."  Most people of conscience would see both of these as an extreme lapse of conscience and morals as well as the Bathsheba and David coupling. As much as we might like to see the divine in the human, we are often disappointed in our leaders.  Perhaps, before Jesus, God also had that vision, that kingly rule by the best of the people would actually work to govern the peoples of the earth.  God saw the constant wavering of the people of Israel, but mostly their unfaithfulness and going after other gods.  People seem to be much the same as in the days of King David, perhaps a bit less violent and a bit less into an outright monarchical type of government.

But God’s covenant with the people, who are God’s, is an everlasting covenant.  Even David, despite his life of murder, adultery, and a divided house realizes this.  Despite David’s faults, he had a vision of the peacefulness that his house should be and God promises David an eternal throne.  As it says in Psalm 132, the appointed Psalm beginning at verse 11 for today, “The Lord has sworn an oath to David; in truth, he will not break it: A son, the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne. If your children keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their children will sit upon your throne forevermore.”

And so Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  And we also, when we are unfaithful, ask the same question.  Have we also behaved as those people in the past with their indiscretions and going after other gods?  Is it just the people at the top, so the rest of us have an easy target?  Do we behave in certain ways just to fit in, to live under the radar, so to speak?  What are our motives and our reasons for doing what we do?  Does it matter what we do?  Do we allow the Word of God to transform our lives or simply live day to day, the same routine, as always?  A resident recently confessed to me that she used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, but she stopped once she started living there, because she didn’t fit in.  Saying the word that contradicts or challenges does not make us popular and indeed, there are times when we may, in fact, be walking on thin ice.

Jesus’ challenge for us is to live into that kingdom, the everlasting covenant with God.  Jesus says in this gospel text that he came to testify to the truth.  It is more than a simple assent that what Jesus tells us is the truth.  It is something that is done.  We must seek to know God and live as active witnesses on this journey into God.  Jesus’ life and mission is a model of this for us.  In Jesus, we learn that truth is a stimulant for faithful living and witness, rather than only a matter for contemplation.  It is something we do.  We are not called to imitate the culture around us.  We are not called to fit in.  We are to not only accept responsibility for the world around us, but seek to be a part of God’s transformation of the world.

And so we read in Revelation: “to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”  You are free to serve and honor the Lord. Go in that peace.  Amen.

Let no one Lead you Astray

25PentecostProper28B, Sullivan Park Care Center, November 18, 2012 by Annette Fricke

            I have been watching a bush that is just a few feet outside my living room window.  Every winter, it returns to a dormant state and looks as though it has died.  But, every spring and summer, it comes alive again and blooms with fresh flowers.  The changing of the seasons is evident within one bush.  You don’t need a whole floral garden to notice how bushes and trees change with the season.  Even the pine trees, so called evergreens, change.  Some of the needles turn brown from lack of moisture and become covered with the snow. Hannah lived at a time and place where she likely observed the years also as they went by, and was probably depressed when thinking about her barrenness and yet, we are told, she held onto her hope.  We know about her prayer in the temple, but I would bet that she prayed continually, everywhere she went. She was determined that God would hear her prayer. I am not saying that her hope may not have wavered.  I am sure that just like any human, her hope wavered.  A preacher in my past once told me that the grace of God is most profoundly in our struggles.

            Hannah is a woman who lived a very long time ago, and just like the bush I observe year after year, I am sure she also observed the changing of the seasons as seen along and beside the pathways she trod on a daily basis.  And even though our text does not tell us this, I bet she noticed those changes and wondered why it did not work that way for her body.  Although treated well by her husband, she was taunted by other women. We are never told if she ever got upset with or mad at God. Even the priest, Eli made mockery of her, thinking she was drunk as she was praying. She bore the shame of a woman amongst a people who valued women in their ability to bear and raise children, but especially male children.  There is a parallel here with the story of Ruth and Naomi.  Do I abandon this faith I was taught from an early age or do I continue to be faithful, in spite of the hopelessness of my years of barrenness?  This is a passage about hope in the face of despair.  It is, more than anything else, a text about spirituality.  How can I be faithful to God when all I see about me speaks of barrenness, death, and decay?  How can a womb that has been infertile year after year, ever produce a child, just one child, just one male child heir?  Is that at all possible? Then I think of Job, a story in which all of his children are taken away.  At one point, Job cries to God that it may have been better if he had never been born.  Again, we are talking about a religion for which this life is all there is.  This Jewish community does not believe in a resurrection.  Life is here and now.  Krister Stendahl, once bishop of the Church of Sweden said about American Christianity in general that too much emphasis is placed on eternal life.  We too, ought to live our lives to the fullest in the here and now.  If your thoughts are too much about the future, how is it that you can live your life to its fullest in the here and now?  There is much we can learn from Jewish faithfulness to God.  We can dismiss this guy’s remarks by noting that he was an Old Testament scholar; but can we?  Where in the New Testament does it say that we should only think about eternal life with God in heaven and that nothing else matters?  Eternal life begins in the here and now.  Hannah understands that her relationship with God is in the here and now.  That is how we should understand it.  Our gospel text states emphatically, “Do not let anyone lead you astray.”  Life is filled with many temptations to be unfaithful to God on both a personal level and in observation of all that may be around us. 

            Hurricane Sandy was quite vicious in its devastating hurl onto the east coast and then another storm came on its heels.  People lost their lives.  It seems that no matter how much know-how and technology we possess, we are never quite prepared for disasters brought about in the natural occurrences in our world.  The tsunami of Japan is still washing up various items onto the Pacific Ocean beaches. Katrina, in another part of the US also destroyed many homes, property and businesses.  The American Red Cross always is in need of volunteers for local and across the country needs from wind, fire, flooding.  We don’t have to go far to see nature getting out of control.  There has been several times when I have watched the local news of the Spokane area and learned that yet another family has been displaced by a fire.  In the face of all this, some people respond that there is no God.  If there was a God, why would a just and good God allow this to happen?  And many of our questions, as when the book of Job was written, are good questions, but we don’t have the answers.  We come up short.

            We struggle as a nation to make things right for people in the workplace and surrounding the issues of delivering healthcare.  Many of your may remember the poor farm.  Often the poorhouse was situated on the grounds of a poor farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work; such farms were common in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries; it could even be part of the same economic complex as a prison farm and other penal or charitable public institutions. Poor farms were county or town-run residences where paupers (mainly elderly and disabled people) were supported at public expense. They were common in the United States beginning in the middle of the 19th century and declined in use after the Social Security Act took effect in 1935 with most disappearing completely by about 1950. In a book written about a resident in my care, there was apparently one of these in the Spangle area. From the book, “Palouse Pilot,” we read, “As Jake drove the family car past the Poor Farm, (and this was in 1945) Pauline told Scotty that there was talk of it being disbanded and put up for sale.  Social Security had come in with the New Deal, and Old Age Pensions would enable the old folks to make do without ending up in such a place.  Yes, there were changes in the air.  A lot could happen to a society in the two and a half years he had been away to war.” (p.350)

            Do not let anyone lead you astray.  “Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.  When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.  This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

            We can wait on the Lord and be faithful servants.  We can pray for ourselves and for others.  We can trust that God will see us through our darkest hours.  As in the Hebrews text, “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  The early church was deeply confused as to when Jesus would come again and various Christian groups have made predictions throughout the years.  We still do not know.  The best advice I can give you is the same as Luther’s, “Live your life as though this is the last one.” None of us really knows as to when the second coming will be or even the end of our own lives.

            The stories of Job, Ruth and Naomi, and Hannah all remind us of the fragility of our lives here on earth.  No one escapes a hard life, especially if they are determined to remain faithful to God. Live your life as though this is the last one.  Amen.

War and Widowhood

24PentecostProper27, Sullivan Park Care Center, November 11, 2012 by Annette Fricke

Friday's numerical date, two years ago was written out as 11/11/11. And for some people, that number sequence was more than a coincidence or inevitability — it was a spiritual signal linked to 2012 Mayan prophecies of both doom and spiritual renewal.

Nov. 11, 2011 mythologies were pervasive on New Age corners of the internet, with believers suggesting that 11/11 numerical sequences were signals from angels or numbers with hidden meanings. Even people who think little of numerology were finding meaning in the day: The Orlando Sentinel reported that Walt Disney World was to host 11 weddings on 11/11/11.

But perhaps the most intriguing 11/11/11 mythology to pop up was the number's link with the supposed 2012 Mayan Apocalypse. The ancient Mayan long-count calendar ended on Dec. 21, 2012, and some people believed that this date would usher in a new spiritual era, or even doomsday. Nov. 11, 2011 most likely became linked with Dec. 21, 2012 when believers noticed that the U.S. Naval Observatory had set the exact time of the 2012 winter solstice for 11:11 Universal Time on Dec. 21, according to John Hoopes, a scholar of Maya history at the University of Kansas. According to Hoopes, "It's essentially based on the notion of synchronicities."  Does it have any significance because of the numbers?  Probably not and it certainly did not have the significance yet that was predicted unless in retrospect, we see the ushering in of a doomsday or a new era of spiritual renewal when December 21of this year arrives.

So what else is November 11^th?  Well, it is the day that Martin Luther was baptized and the day after his birth.  He was baptized on St. Martin of Tours day and given the baptismal name of Martin.  But you say you don’t know who St Martin of Tours was?  Most people don’t.  I didn’t until I looked it up in a liturgical calendar book I have at home.  Martin of Tours was a bishop who died in the year 397 of natural causes on November 8, but was buried on the 11^th in Tours, France in the Cemetery of the Poor.  He was born about the year of 316.  We don’t even know for sure when his birthday was.  We know that his father was a Roman legionary. And with me, you are probably saying to yourselves, what is a Roman legionary?  The Roman legionary was a professional soldier of the Roman army.  Legionaries had to be Roman citizens under the age of 45. They enlisted in a legion for twenty-five years of service, a change from the early practice of enlisting only for a campaign. The last five years were on veteran lighter duties.  But Martin, his son, decided on his own at the age of ten to become a catechumen.  That meant that he decided on his own to receive instruction in the Christian faith.  But at the age of fifteen, because he was the son of a soldier, he was drafted to serve in the army. He was apparently a good soldier and was popular with his fellow soldier buddies.

According to popular legend, while stationed at Amiens, Martin saw a vision of Christ after giving half of his army issued cloak, sliced in half by his own sword, to a poor old beggar to wrap him in and protect him from the cold of a particular winter night.  In that vision of Christ, he heard, “Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with his cloak.”  If you know this story from another source, there is more and varied detail, one of the details that the cloak reappeared onto Martin and the next day Martin was baptized and thereby became a Christian.

But regardless of the timeline as to just when Martin was baptized, as a result of the vision, Martin became a conscientious objector and asked to leave the army.  I would like to add a little context here.  In the early days of Christianity, Christians could not be soldiers along with other occupations; which, of course, leads to that concept of conscience.  Martin was faced with the question of, “Can I, in good conscience, one who is studying to join the Christian faith, continue to be a soldier?”  It is a question that some ponder today as well. Like many of his modern counterparts, this fourth century conscientious objector had difficulty proving that he was not a coward, but finally was released, now about twenty years old.  Martin became a hermit, staying in a hut for about ten years until being joined by others and formed what was probably the first French monastery.  He was a source of inspiration and help to many people who came from the surrounding countryside.  In the year 371, the people around him pleaded that he would become their bishop.  He finally agreed, but continued to live a life unlike most bishops of the time. He travelled all over the diocese, preaching and teaching the gospel to the peasants and tribes people, fighting against paganism, and setting up centers of Christian life and faith.  He was a strong opponent of the mixture of Church and state and thought that Christians ought to discipline their own, not the state.  The state, in fact, at that time executed Priscillian, a bishop who was charged with practicing magic and six of his companions. Pricillian was among the first to be executed for heresy.

I am sure that it is purely coincidental that Martin’s death and burial happened at the same time of the month as the remembrance for veterans.  People who do chose to be conscientious objectors in this day and age are probably not very numerous and have taken a not so popular attitude and way of life. 

The same may be said for Ruth and Naomi.  They followed their own hearts, probably what we would see today as the Holy Spirit.  They did not take the usual path of being female for that time period.  Yet, some of the Jewish community thought well enough of this story to include it in the books of what we, as Christians, call the Old Testament.

It is a story also of death and loss which is what Veteran’s Day is partially about.  The flip side of honoring the service of the soldier, whether living or killed in a war or conflict is that of the widows and widowers, girlfriends and boyfriends, children and various other friends and relatives.  The flip side is those who are left behind, grieving, wondering how to continue their lives without their loved ones. The ravages of war are bittersweet. Although there may be a feeling of triumph in squelching the so called enemy, there is also the cost.  Every US president in office must ponder before declaring war, “At what cost?”

Naomi and Ruth are widows.  There is no family to care for them.  Naomi loses her husband as well as her two sons.  Ruth is a daughter-in-law who does not share her mother-in-law’s faith.  Naomi is Jewish, but Ruth is not.  Naomi urges Ruth to go back to her kin, but she refuses and clings to Naomi.  She says some of the most beautiful words in the Bible: “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!  Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  Where you die, I will die---there will I be buried.  May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”  And then Naomi has an idea.  She had kin on her husband’s side of the family: a man named Boaz.  She is blessed by Boaz for taking care of Naomi.  She is to watch over the other women in the field also.  Ruth is thankful for the blessing and the comfort that Boaz brings, even though she is a stranger and foreigner, a non-Jew.  He provides food for her. Then Naomi tells Ruth how to connect with Boaz.  And this is where the lesson I read today begins.  Ruth wins security by seeking out Boaz to be her husband.  Ruth took her chances by turning away from her gods to become a follower of the God of Israel.  Hospitality is central to this story.  It permeates the story for stranger, guest, and host.  This story is really about God and how God operates in the world.  God is the stranger—the one who is different from us, God is our guest when we take a stranger in, and God is the host.  God is the presider at every encounter we have with God and in each worship setting.  God blesses us to be a blessing to others, to all others.  We are to bless everyone, even those who aren’t Christians or don’t act the way we think a Christian should. If we were to display a bumper sticker on our wheelchairs, walkers, or cars, it should say something like, “Christianity welcomes you.” Amen.