The Seven Virgins

Palm Sunday/Passion SundayB, March 29, 2015 Sullivan Park Care Center by Annette Fricke

            In the Oxford Book of Carols, on p. 82, there is a song titled, “The Seven Virgins” that goes like this:

All under the leaves, the leaves of life, I met with virgins sev’n, And one of them was Mary mild, Our Lord’s mother from heav’n.

‘O what are you seeking, you seven fair maids, All under the leaves of life?  Come tell, come tell me what seek you All under the leaves of life.’

‘We’re seeking for no leaves, Thomas, But for a friend of thine; We’re seeking for sweet Jesus Christ, To be our guide and thine.’

‘Go you down, go you down to yonder town, And sit in the gallery; And there you’ll find sweet Jesus Christ, Nailed to a big yew-tree.’

So down they went to yonder town, As fast as foot could fall, And many a grievous bitter tear, From the virgins’ eyes did fall.

‘O peace, mother, O peace, mother, Your weeping doth me grieve; O I must suffer this,’ he said, ‘For Adam and for Eve.’

‘O how can I my weeping leave, Or my sorrows undergo, Whilst I do see my own Son die, When sons I have no mo’?’

‘Dear mother, dear mother, you must take John, All for to be your son, And he will comfort you sometimes, Mother, as I have done.’

‘O come, thou John Evangelist, Thou’rt welcome unto me, But more welcome my own dear son, That I nursed upon my knee.’

Then he laid his head on his right shoulder, Seeing death it struck him nigh: ‘The Holy Ghost be with your soul,---I die, mother dear, I die.’

Oh the rose, the rose, the gentle rose, And the fennel that grows so green!  God give us grace in every place, To pray for our king and queen.

Furthermore for our enemies all Our prayers they should be strong.  Amen, Good Lord! your charity Is the ending of my song.

            Who are the seven virgins?  Mary, the mother of God is the only one who is identified by name.  And if you look at the canon of scriptures, Mary was not a virgin with only one son.  Mark 3:31 states clearly that Mary had brothers and we also know that one of Jesus’ brothers later became a follower of Jesus’ teaching.  Later scholars also discovered that the translation in the book of Isaiah, commonly translated as the Messiah will be born of a virgin is not accurate.  The actual Hebrew word means young woman and could either be a virgin or married.  The sense of the song, regardless of whether or not Mary was a virgin also begs the question as to whether or not the others were virgins.  Maybe we need to put on glasses that are able to see a snippet of another culture.  We know that Paul thought that remaining celibate was a way to honor God in the body.  This, of course is a way of life that doesn’t pay attention to the particulars of what happened prior to that.  A person can be married, divorced, and then remain celibate either for the rest of that person’s life or until getting married again.  If you follow a strong Biblical teaching, one cannot marry again after a divorce.  If one were to judge from the frailty of life in the early years of the church and the short life expectancy, you can see how this biblical injunction would prove to be wise advice.  As we move further and further away from when Jesus walked this earth, we discover more and more that some of those things in the Bible thought to be absolute truths simply aren’t; for example, the whole practice and concept of slavery.  To go a step further, the relationship between husband and wife has also been brought into question. Most people no longer hold to St Paul’s concept of a man as the head of the household and see marriage more as a partnership of separate, but equal roles.

            So how do we make modern sense of the seven virgins, only one of whom is identified?  In the gospel according to Mark, we have identified 1) women looking on from a distance, 2) Mary Magdalene, 3) Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and 4) Salome.  I would have to conclude that the number seven is not to be taken literally, but is a representation.  In the book of Revelation, the number of churches is seven.  Seven, in this sense is a representation of the entire church since the actual number of churches in the province of Asia at the time was more than seven. If we go with this understanding, these women all together comprise the seven virgins. Women didn’t count in that culture, so nobody would have kept track of the exact number.  It was common to list the number of men, not including women and children.

            As for virgins, the term means far more than just a physical state.  It can mean innocence, modesty, and purity, not previously exploited, cultivated, tapped, or used.[1]  Considering what we know of the male followers of Jesus which is far more, I would suggest that this is a very accurate term to describe the women.  These followers who supported Jesus with their hospitality as opposed to some of the Pharisees who questioned Jesus’ every move were generally accepting.  They were accepting of Jesus because Jesus accepted and listened to them in a way that they probably never experienced before.  Jesus took the time to impress upon them that they also were viable human beings who mattered to him and to the world around them.

            Do the women of today feel the love of Jesus in a similar way?  And do they respond to Jesus in the same way as so many years ago all the way to the cross?  When I think about Mary in particular, she surely had a relationship with Jesus like no other.  She and she alone raised Jesus from birth after carrying him in her womb.  She probably had only a partial understanding as to the pain she would go through watching him die at such an early age.  Back then, the age of 30 was thought to be when a person reached maturity.  That means that Jesus died just three years after reaching maturity.  Yet she and many other women remained faithful to the very end.  They watched as Jesus hung on the cross, as he was taken down by Joseph of Arimathea and put in his own grave spot.  They were eye-witnesses and did what they could to show their undying respect for the one who cared for them so much.  They saw how Joseph wrapped up the body for burial.  More than anything, I am sure that the words of the centurion echoed in their minds for weeks and years afterwards, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”  And just as surely, their lives were changed forever by this one life and this one death.

---

[1] Dictionary.com

The Velveteen Rabbit Lives Again

5LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 22, 2015   by Annette Fricke

My favorite toy, as a child, was a sawdust stuffed dog.  I named the stuffed dog, Doggy Daddy not knowing till much later that it was also the name of a cartoon character.  I toted Doggy Daddy around with me around the house and my parents’ property, but nowhere else.  I was not allowed to take him in the car as is a more common practice today.  But like the Velveteen Rabbit, it did not have hind legs, only front ones. 

            The original Velveteen Rabbit was written in 1922 and has survived the test of time.  It is still available in the original version at the local library.  It is a story told from the perspective of the Velveteen Rabbit who is a Christmas present that originally sits on the shelf or the floor of the nursery and is not played with by the boy.  The feeling of aloneness of the rabbit, which doesn’t get playtime, is expressed by the rabbit. Finally, the boy’s favorite toy is nowhere to be found, and the Nanny replaces it with the Velveteen Rabbit. The rabbit sees himself and all of the toys as being similar to people, especially the Skin Horse who talks to him and says that he is real and that the rabbit can become real as well when loved by people.  The horse explains that the reason the horse looks so beat up and has most of his hair missing is because he was loved by the boy’s uncle.  When the nanny gives the rabbit to the boy, the boy loves the rabbit and takes him everywhere he goes.  When the boy gets sick, the rabbit is still there in the bed with the boy and stays the duration of his illness with Scarlet Fever.  The rabbit senses, from his conversation with the horse, that the way to become real is the goal and to become real is to receive and be loved. There is also a hint that perhaps the rabbit loves the boy, although it is quite clear that the boy is the initiator of love and the rabbit is dependent upon the boy.  The Velveteen Rabbit ends up on the burn pile because spending all that time with the boy meant that he was full of Scarlet Fever contagion.  Burning, as most of you know, was a common way to attempt to alleviate the spread of disease before vaccinations were developed.  If you don’t know the story, you will be thinking surely this is the end for the Velveteen Rabbit.  He will be burned up with the rest of the heap.  But that isn’t what happens.

The whole idea of losing in order to win, of dying in order to live, of sacrificing in order to save, runs counter to reasonable living.  It goes against the common sense of humankind’s basic instinct to survive.  It is nonsensical.  I am sure that many in the crowd that day walked away scratching their heads, confused and bewildered by the words they heard, disappointed in Jesus.  I am sure others in the crowd understood on some level what Jesus said and reckoned him a madman.  And a few, I am quite sure, of those who came to see Jesus were inspired, encouraged, and greatly challenged as they began to follow the teacher and his new teaching. It is my hope that these passages from the scriptures are always challenging despite their source from the scriptures. We can learn much, even from people very different from us. I also hope that you may find inspiration and encouragement to continue your journey with God.

            That is how it is when a teacher teaches.  Children as well as adults will come away with different things when someone teaches them.  They knew that Jesus was a fellow Jew and had been known to attend Temple like other religious Jews.  They also knew he was the son of Mary and Joseph and enough about him to consider that he had something a bit different in his teaching and therefore was worth a serious hearing.

            The Greeks mentioned in this gospel reading appear to be Gentiles.  They are trying to get to Jesus through Philip.  They say to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  These Greeks are not Jews, but they see something of value in Jesus, something they want.  The Velveteen Rabbit sees something in the Skin Horse that he wants, too.  He wants to be loved and accepted, not a discarded, forgotten toy.  He wants to become a real bunny.

            How can we see Jesus?  The Jews at both the juncture of the life of the prophet Jeremiah as well as the life of Jesus worshipped God in the Temple.  Both Jeremiah and Jesus suggest a different way to worship God.  God says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”  “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  Just as a wood carver goes deep into the wood carving with loving care the vines, fruits, animals and people desired for all to see; just as the crafters of the sawdust stuffed animals of times past; so also is God’s love except God’s love is even deeper. The law of love is the standard.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with your entire mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.  Just like the relationship between the Velveteen Rabbit and the little boy, so also and even more so, God has loved us in Jesus Christ, and so also are we to love God.  That love of God goes beyond this life.  It is not the end when we die, but a new beginning.  The Velveteen Rabbit begins a new life, transformed into a real bunny---the same, but qualitatively different.

            It is easy to sit around and complain about loss of hair, constipation, poor appetite, and feet that are painful and various other ailments of getting old.  But it happens to all of us, to one degree or another.  Sometimes we focus so much on ourselves that we forget that we are God’s creation, created to love as God loved us.

            “What is REAL?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day... "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand... once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”  ― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real

Believing Requires Action

4LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 15, 2015, by Annette Fricke

            How would you describe your life as a Christian?  I think this phrase sums it up pretty well. “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” ― Marcel Proust.  When a child is very young, everything is a new discovery.  This world is not the same as the world inside the womb of the child’s mother.  A child is fascinated with light switches and the opening and closing of the refrigerator door.  But amongst the discoveries are the pitfalls.  A common error is using crayons on something other than specific paper.  For example, crayons are not to be used on the wall or in books, especially a library book.  We need strong guidance as a child. As we get older, we no longer need instruction for how to use a crayon, but for other things, such as how to prepare a meal, behavior on a first date, how to create a budget, or how to interview for a job. We need life skills to live the life of an adult which often boil down to living life on the fly or by the seat of one’s pants.  There are those moments when we simply have to choose one way or another.   Am I a follower of Jesus, or not?  Does what I say and do really matter?

            Some would say that these are not the right questions at all.  Do I have a choice in being born into this world?  No.  Conception and growth in the womb or our mothers is a process by which all of us were not born by our desire.  The family we were born into also was not ours to choose. Those of us who were baptized as an infant did not have a say in that either.  Our lives as humans are marked by the need for guidance and instruction from the day we are born into this world. This is our world where the complexities of our choices can take us in a myriad of directions, where we frequently get caught up in the thought of, “Did I make the right choice given my circumstances?”  The common answer in therapy for past mistakes is, “You did what you did because at the time, it was the right decision to the best of your knowledge.”  Was it?  I understand the purpose of that phrase.  It is meant to keep a person from dwelling on something they still feel uneasy or guilty about.  Dwelling on the past continually can get in the way of living in the present.  A cruder way of saying it is, “Get over it.”  Sometimes that is the more effective way to say essentially the same thing.  But the work of therapy, to be the most effective, always asks the question, “What am I doing in the present that keeps me stuck, from moving forward with my life, and keeps me from being happy or fulfilled?”  “Why is satisfaction so elusive?

            Was it the best I could have done at the time or am I just trying to tell myself that it was?  Maybe I could have done better in that situation, maybe not.  There is no real way to know.  We are not always aware of the impact we have on other peoples’ lives.  And this, more than anything in my mind is the reason that we should confess all of our sins, not just the ones of which we are aware.  We impact people both positively and negatively all the time without even knowing it.  Some of us grew up in that world where it was not polite to tell people certain things, so we didn’t, some of which might make us feel good if we knew what it was and other things would be good to know for our own instruction in selfhood.  How is it that I can grow as a person if I am not given feedback and yet some feedback needs to be taken with a grain of salt?  Some feedback says more about the person giving it than the person it’s supposed to be about.

            What can we glean from the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus? For one, Nicodemus is interested in what Jesus has to say and listens carefully.  He wants to know what Jesus is talking about.  In exchange for Jesus’ recognition of Nicodemus under the tree as an upstanding teacher, Jesus describes his role and purpose in this world.  He is making an analogy to the bronze serpent Moses made in the Old Testament text for today.  That text is known as a “complaint” story in which the people complain to Moses, but this, which is that last murmuring, is a complaint against both God and Moses.  God has apparently lost patience with the tenth complaint already telling even Moses that he will not see the Promised Land.  The people are murmuring about something that seems legitimate: they are angry that the snakes are biting them and they are dying. They beg Moses to speak to God for them to take away the snakes. What kind of a God is this that brings death?  And yet the connection to the previous narrative in chapter three of John’s gospel does make sense.  In baptism, we die with Christ in order to be raised with him.  The difference now is that it’s not the people dying; a sacrifice in itself, but it is Jesus dying.  You see, despite what you may personally believe as to whether or not Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice that puts us right with God, this is what the text appears to be communicating.  Just as the people were instructed to look to the bronze snake on the pole, so also we are to look to Jesus who in his death is our source of life and salvation in God. 

            Our covenant with God remains.  Our journey is our spiritual pathway in which we try to live our lives within that covenant without straying so far that we lose our salvation in the present.  We also are to inherit that Promised Land, but in a different sense than the Promised Land of the Jews.  Our Promised Land is what follows our life here on earth.  Our baptismal covenant is our living in and struggling with remaining faithful to God and God’s expectations of us.  God accepts us just the way we are.  The Ten Commandments or teachings remain as the measurement of how to live a life that is pleasing to God.  It does not apply only to the Jewish people, but Christians as well.  Yet despite our continued failure to live by its teachings, God is always there to take us back.  God’s love never fails.  But maybe there’s another way to look at it.  The interpretation of these commandments in Jesus’ day was troubling to him.  Jesus regularly healed people on the Sabbath.  That was clearly against the law.  He was called on it several times by the Pharisees.  Jesus was thought to be the fulfillment of the law, but if even he was found guilty of keeping it, how are we able to do that?  Perhaps there is something to keeping not to the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law.  Maybe there is another way in which we can show love for God and our neighbor since the Ten Commandments or teachings really were tied not only to the prevailing culture of the time, but also to specific interpretation.  Maybe we should listen to our hearts and assess what is it that my neighbor needs and what am I able to supply?  How can I help supply what my neighbor is requesting?  What are the qualities in me, the caring, compassion, and concern that will help my neighbor feel cared for and loved and in turn feel loved by God?  I may not be the friend or relative that my neighbor misses due to loss by death or lives far away, but I may have some of those same qualities.  I may be the one who fills the need of being like a mother or daughter.  You may be the one who fills the need of someone who longs to have a relationship with the mother or grandmother this person never had.  Sometimes death brings with it new beginnings.  It opens opportunities for new relationships.  Believing requires action.

The Ten Teachings

3LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 8, 2015 by Annette Fricke

            My summer as a camp counselor came much later than for most.  I was already fifty years old.  I was the oldest on staff.  The year previous had been spent at the Catholic seminary learning about the origins of the liturgy.  I dreamed of the use of liturgy at camp, my own camping experience didn’t have it.  Well, it probably did, but it was so long ago, I don’t remember it.  Of all we sang and did at camp this time, this is the phrase that I recall the most.  “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  We all tried to modernize the words or melody to no avail.  I think it still stands this way.

            “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” is found at Psalm 119:105.  It is the phrase sung just prior to the reading of the Gospel for every Sunday service at Camp Mowana in Ohio.  It is a reminder that God’s Word is like a light source that shows us the way through our journey in life.  More specifically, this was part of the service attended only by the counselors.  It was a reminder that the Word of God was to guide all of our decisions as counselors as we sought to teach and model the words of Jesus for the children in our charge.  Counselors need guidance and instruction in the course of their work to bring structure and order to the children in the absence of their parents. That is the way of the camp and that is why at least one branch of the Lutheran Church prefers that their future pastors prepare for their ministry by participating as summer camp counselors at one of their church camps.  Summer church camp is a solid basic foundation in Christian teaching.  And for those of us unfamiliar with such things as tornados and bad thunderstorms, it teaches us how to cope with and respond to such weather aberrations and how to comfort the children when they become frightened.

            Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.  You and I are in a covenantal relationship with God.  As Christians, we have inherited that covenant from Abraham and Sarah.  For many years, Sarah has wrongly been ignored in the church’s song and liturgy but she should not have been.  Sarah is equally important as a mother of the church just as Abraham is a father of the church.  Faith in God began with this couple.  Although this phrase probably originated after their death, it rings true as something they believed and practiced.  If we are to take the season of Lent seriously, it will also be descriptive of our own lives.

            Although these words are powerful, short, and to the point; you might ask about specifics.  Specifically speaking, the covenant we have with God is further elucidated when Moses brings the Ten Commandments down from God’s presence on Mt. Sinai.  There are a few different explanations in the Bible, one which is in the Old Testament text for today, but most Christian denominations agree on the content of the Ten Commandments, even though they may be numbered differently. 

A Jewish point of view, however, states that our stress towards seeing the Ten Commandments as law is not accurate and is actually a mis-translation.  Our concept that leans towards seeing the Ten Commandments as a hammer over our head is not the thrust or intention of them.  They are meant to be instruction, to become our way of life.  In Jewish parlance, this ought to be translated the “Ten Teachings” instead.  This designation takes on more of the intent of the purpose of God’s giving them to us.  We should also be aware that these teachings have been in existence for a very long time, originally as oral tradition before being written down.  These are what God expected of the people of Israel and what God continues to expect of us.  It is not something that God beats into us, but is to be our guide along the journey of life.

It is no longer God saying, “Do this, or I will destroy you.”  It is more like “I will always be in covenant with you.”  God is the giver of the covenant who will always be faithful, no matter how many times we stray this way or that.  No matter how many times we break this or that commandment, God remains God.  God remains the faithful one who responds with the grace of God in Christ Jesus. 

This rendering of the Ten Commandments gives us some context to explain the reasoning for these particular commandments.  In the first one we hear the frequently repeated word of the Old Testament, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…”  First and foremost, God is reminding us of our slavery.  Even though originally this bondage was in reference to the Egyptians many years ago and subsequently by other nations, for us and for modern Jews, it is a slavery to sin.  It is God’s way of freeing us from that sin to follow God in a way of life that is befitting as the people of God.  It is also a connection with our ancestors because we share God in common with Abraham and Sarah.

Speaking of Abraham and Sarah, the fourth/fifth commandment states, “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”  Luther explains this as, “We should fear and love God, and so we should not despise our parents and superiors, nor provoke them to anger, but honor, serve, obey, love, and esteem them.”  However, this sounds as though it is addressed to children and it is because this is part of the catechism, the teachings agreed to for full membership in the church.  Originally, according to Jewish tradition, this was given to the adults.  It actually is meant as a protection to the community to pass on the traditions of the faith from generation to generation.  It keeps the status of men and women on the same plane, side by side and one of equality before God and neighbor.  Each generation still seems to struggle with this one.

Lastly, since I don’t have time to go through the intent of all the commandments or teachings, number two, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”  We live in a world where some have many possessions and the acquisition of these is a constant preoccupation.  We are constantly bombarded with the “need” to buy them.  We see them on TV read them in the newspaper and hear them on the radio.  They range from diet pills to fast food sales, and jewelry. A word to the wise: you don’t need those things; your life is complete when you live it in God’s grace that always welcomes you, always receives you back in loving embrace.  God’s love will never die.  Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Amen.   

The Mark of Discipleship

2LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 1, 2015 by Annette Fricke

            It all began at creation, that’s for sure but since we don’t really have a physical description of creation, that’s all we know about that subject.  Creation seems to somehow have failed by way of the description that we are given as to what transpired in the Garden of Eden.  All was as it should be with God until people decided to follow what they wanted rather than what God wanted.  They tried to second guess God.  I suppose that is what really happens when people decide against God even to this day.  We pretty much know what happens in this life when people turn away from God: to put it simply, they become selfish.  They seek their own will while blinding themselves to the needs of those around them.  Instead of following God, they seek to follow their desires for fame and fortune to become well known and admired and amass all they can before leaving this world for the world beyond.  They seek to please the people around them or to be in competition for recognition, sometimes the recognition is accomplished by doing something clever, but evil.  We hear every day about a shooting here or there, a war being waged halfway around the world.  Violence is what makes the headlines.  People complain and argue about what it means to have a separation between church and state.  The words of the pledge of allegiance or where it should be recited are more and more debated.  The children seem to be undisciplined and uninterested in getting an education beyond high school.  Rules are no longer to be followed blindly, but challenged on several levels.  Morality in a work setting has many facets.  Some people no longer accept the authority of employers and certainly do not trust the big corporations or the people involved in trading on the stock market.  Other people frequently question with suspicion, whose needs are being met.  Just how do we serve God and our neighbor in such a world as this?

            But let’s back up for a moment.  What story comes after the story of creation and Adam and Eve?  Cain and Abel were born, but Cain killed Abel, so Adam and Eve had Seth.  In comes a whole lot of genealogy and then Noah is born.  Things just seem to be off track big time, so the flood comes and God saves only Noah and his family and some animals.  God sets a bow in the clouds and promises that he will never again flood the earth to destroy all flesh.  Then we see more genealogy.  We then go to the building of the tower of Babel whose purpose was thwarted by God because the reason it was built was for the builders to make a name for themselves.  Then we have more genealogy and Abram is born.  Abram and his wife Sarai settle in a spot called Haran.  In chapter 12 of Genesis, we get the nice, succinct description of God’s covenant with Abram: I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In other words, God will take care of anyone who stands in the way of Abram and Sarai.  She is part of this deal as well by the time we make it five chapters down the road and into the land of Canaan.  He journeyed into Egypt, then back out.  He separated himself from his brother’s son Lot.  Lot went to Sodom and Abram to Hebron.  God’s promise was good.  Lot was rescued by Abram.  God blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”  And God once again comes to Abram, promising a great reward and to be Abram’s shield.  But Abram wants offspring, which God also promises.  God tells him to look to heaven and count the stars.  His descendants will be that many.  Abram believed that God would deliver.  After God delivers the bad news that Abram’s offspring will be enslaved for four hundred years, he is told specifically the land that God’s giving him.  Only after Abram has a son with his Egyptian slave-girl Hagar does he finally have a son with his wife Sarai. Today’s narrative begins with “When Abram was ninety-nine years old” God appeared to Abram saying “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.”  We aren’t given any details other than we know that at this time, circumcision was not part of the Jewish ritual as the covenant people.  God makes the covenant first by way of the changing of names to Abraham and Sarah.  This covenant now bears the distinction of an everlasting covenant, a covenant that extends to Abraham, Sarah, and their offspring.  To these people, God will give land, the land of Canaan perpetually and will be their God. It is at this point that all males will be circumcised as part of the covenant with God.  As at creation itself, God once again creates something out of nothing.  Abraham is very old and Sarah, prior to this is barren, unable to conceive.  Separate story lines in the book of Genesis tell us that Abraham laughed and Sarah laughed.  God has kept what was promised so far, but this seems utterly ridiculous.  How is it possible that a very old man and an old woman past child-bearing age can conceive and bear a child?  Apparently, by this time in history, humanity has figured out the relative ages at which women and men are able to make a child.  They are probably saying to themselves that God has suddenly gone mad---either that or God really is the ruler of heaven and earth and all that exists.

            Spring ahead to that baby born at Bethlehem to a very young female, perhaps just old enough to conceive.  It is an opposite situation in many ways and yet just as unlikely.  God is still seeking the welfare of the people of the everlasting covenant.  God still seeks to gift them with what they need to be the people of God, a blessing to all nations.  God tells Abraham and Sarah to walk before God and be blameless.  Here is where I think we can meaningfully connect the instruction given to Abraham and Sarah with us, as Christians.  In our gospel text for today, Jesus tells his disciples and the crowd that gathers, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

            It means this: anyone can be a follower of Jesus.  The everlasting covenant of God is no longer limited to the physically circumcised Jewish people.  God has opened the kingdom of heaven to everyone.  However, part of discipleship means the denying of oneself.  We are called to always be of service to one another, just as Abraham looked after the welfare of his nephew Lot and made sure that Lot was safe from harm.  But we are to go beyond taking care of blood relation, beyond those who believe as we do, beyond our own community or own neighborhood.  Our reach and concern for others is to be global.  That’s what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus.  When we help the sick and the suffering, we are serving God and we are practicing our discipleship. But it is not us who act, it is God who acts through us.  To God be all the glory. Amen.

God Never Fails Us

3EpiphanyB, Sullivan Park Care Center, January 25, 2015 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                The end of a poem titled, “I’ll be happy in the future” goes like this: What if I could be happy, right here, right now, even though my life isn’t perfect and never will be? What if I could be happy with my aches and irritations and concerns and duties? I am happy just to breathe. I am alive. I am happy just to have food, water, shelter, clothing and love. I am grateful. I am happy just to hug and play with my beautiful little girl. I am happy just to be her mama. I am happy just to trust and respect my partner. I am loved and loving. I am happy like the songbirds, even when it’s raining. I am happy like the lilies in bloom, even knowing I will wither and pass away sooner or later. I am happiest when I am like water, when I let go and go with the flow. When will you be happy?

What’s stopping you from being happy, just where you are, right now, today?[1]

The lives of the disciples of Jesus have at least one thing in common with us: They were not perfect.  Despite our wanting to call some people saints, designating their superiority to us, even the most ardent and faithful among us have their ups and downs.  There are times when we also fail miserably.  The pattern is unmistakable: we are all excited and gung-ho, then we realize just how difficult it is to remain that way.  It doesn’t mean that we have in any way fallen out of favor with God, it just means that without God, we are truly weak.  We can clearly walk away from God, yet God is always there to reel us in, like catching a big fish that swallowed us whole and getting it to spew us back out.  We think we should go one way, only to discover it was a bad decision. We are children of God.  We don’t belong imprisoned in a fish, thinking that we have somehow escaped and don’t need to deal with God.  But that’s not where we belong. We belong to God who made the heavens and the earth and gave us a commission to go out into the world and be the love of God to all people and our environment.  Some have explained it like this, when we are young, we are very accepting and trusting of others but when we get older, we start becoming distrustful and judgmental. We become alienated from each other.  We sense that others are not following the same rules as we are and we begin to second guess what we should be doing.  We become seekers of our own self-interest and become selfish.  We become trapped in our own pity system, unable to get out without outside help.  Our self-sufficiency is our downfall. It is our place of unhappiness because we are never truly happy until we rest in God’s gracious love. In Psalm 62, from our psalm for the day, also a passage that inspired St Augustine, “For God alone, my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.” St Augustine said it more like this, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”  If we look closely to the words of Psalm 62, over and over, the psalmist affirms that trusting in God is our only hope.

That is clearly one of the major points of the story of Jonah.  God alone is our rock and our salvation, our fortress; we shall not be shaken. But, we can decide to walk away from God and God’s call to us, to be tossed about by the seas of chance and our own decisions.  We can choose to merely float along or be subject to the wind that pushes us further and further away from God and God’s desire for us.  To be close to God’s bosom is not restrictive or weakness as we might imagine at times, but is actually our security and strength.  It doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen to us, but it does mean that God will give us the strength to endure.  We may become depressed, angry and bitter, but God will always be there to help us.  On God rests our deliverance and our honor; our mighty rock, our refuge is in God.  In the words of the popular hymn, “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”  Though we may fail God many times over, God never fails us.

Because God never fails us, we should trust in him at all times.  We should pour out our hearts before him.  God seeks an intimate relationship with us through prayer.  God alone is worth our trust.  That does not mean that we cannot trust other people, just that God is to be most trusted and is to be trusted above everything and everyone else, even our best friends.  Even our best friends are capable of becoming disloyal and deceptive. When our experiences of the world are ever spinning in different directions, God is the one who always stands waiting for us.  God wants to give us peace and can give us peace like no one on earth.  God’s peace has more power and hope than all of our lifetime troubles and distresses combined. God’s persistence in bringing us that hope will never end, no matter how much or how often we chase after vain desires.  It doesn’t matter if we are wealthy or poor; we are always a child of God.  It is God’s nature to seek us out and to seek our welfare.  It is God’s nature to show mercy.  It is God’s nature to love all of us, even those of us we find to be difficult or unreasonable.  We may be just as unreasonable or difficult in their eyes.

Our greatest sin can be summarized in this: we choose to follow our own thoughts and feelings rather than putting our trust in God.  That is it in a nutshell and we find so many different ways throughout our lives to go away from God and God’s way.  From a lecture on the book of Isaiah, “The uterus and womb of God is the divine Word, by which we are fashioned and borne, as Paul says to the Galatians, ‘My little children, with whom I am again in childbirth until Christ be formed in you!’…It is an outstanding and very firm comfort for the godly that God cares for us.  Therefore we must strive with a single heart that we abide in the Word.  The Lord will reject no one, however weak, if only we cling to the Word, the womb of God.  Thus then, who will care for us with supreme devotion and will never reject us… [?]  These are supreme consolations.  They should be written in golden letters.  Let us just cling to the Word alone, and we shall have God as a mother who feeds us and carries us and frees us from all evils.[2]

And may we, like the people of Ninevah, repent. From John Wesley, “Forgive them all, O Lord: our sins of omission and our sins of commission; the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years; the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies; our secret and our more open sins; our sins of ignorance and surprise, and our more deliberate and presumptuous sins; the sins we have done to please ourselves and the sins we have done to please others; the sins we know and remember, and the sins we have forgotten; the sins we have striven to hide from others and the sins by which we have made others offend; forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for his sake, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, and now stands at thy right hand to make intercession for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

---

[1] Michelle Margaret Fajkus

[2] Martin Luther, Lectures on Isaiah

Child of God

SecondSundayAftertheEpiphanyB, Sullivan Park Care Center, January 18, 2015 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            You are a child of God created in God’s image.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your entire mind, all your soul, and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.  This is the basic formula.  Follow this, and you will have life.  The reason is simple: God created you and all that exists.  God gave you a brain, legs, arms, hands and muscles.  God gave you resources in your physical environment as well as in other people.  God gave you what you need to learn to love as God has loved you.  You can be more and do more, even to the end of your lives when you realize how profoundly God loves you.  Some of the sweetest words of encouragement have come from those no longer able to move on their own.  I remember so clearly the poetry recited from memory of a 103 year old.

Consider God to be likened to a baker. Your average baker will likely use the same recipe multiple times because it almost guarantees good results each time it is made.  The baker will measure out each item in the recipe accurately, being careful to follow the instructions printed below the ingredients.  The baker will not follow advice that is out of context from another recipe such as, “to make really good, moist banana bread, add an extra banana from what the recipe calls for…”  Likewise, think of God as one who wishes to crochet an afghan: it is wise to follow carefully, even the minutest instructions to assure that the afghan will turn out as planned and that it will indeed resemble that which was intended.  This method is basic and is predictive of success for both baking and making specific items.  If you have ever watched the Chef Ramsay shows for cooking, you know that if you don’t follow a recipe, there are still standards for a proper product. A rejected product would be bland or undercooked, for example. God has made each of us with specificity in mind and yet also with variations.  All of it is good and we all have the potential to discover and use the gifts God has given each one of us.

            The Jewish laws according to the book of Leviticus are similar to this.  They are an attempt to answer the age-old question of how to live out what it means to be a child of God. They were focused on what actions are to be performed in order to be made right with God.  This had to be followed precisely.  For example, Leviticus, chapter 23 states, “The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.  He shall raise the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall raise it.”  The Israelites of old were a worshipping community who lived in covenant with God.  Part of that covenant-keeping was to observe all that God or God’s agents commanded.  In this case, Moses was acting on behalf of God. And as close as Moses was to God, even Moses was not to see God’s face.  Attempts to get close to God involved building altars, sacrificing, and going to the mountaintops. 

Today, we try to reach God by meditation or prayer.  People talk of going on a retreat in which great focus is placed on listening for God’s presence, God’s voice. People continue to seek those mountaintop experiences.  The one thing that distinguishes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who is the God of the Jews as well as Christians is this: God is both transcendent as well as intimate.  You can’t get any more intimate than becoming human and living with us, dying our death.

God has shown us the way to be intimate with others in Jesus.  The story about Nathaniel is a great example of God’s knowledge of us and for some confirms that Jesus must be God.  Our psalm for today is another description of how well God knows us inside and out, yet many of us hesitate to share our lives with others.  My co-worker gives the excuse that her generation does not talk to other generations like its some rule set in stone.  Another co-worker of mine, when asked a personal question would make something up. Sometimes it is because we have something to hide or what we say might be misconstrued or misinterpreted.  Sometimes we simply do not want to feel vulnerable with others or we fear their judgment. I recently had a job interview in which I was asked to share some personal information about my hobbies and what I do to reduce stress in my life.  This is typical of a mental health job interview, but I fail to see the relevance, so I shared little.  These are people I will probably never see again.  I know there is no weight to these answers, but it doesn’t make it any easier to just tell the whole of my life before other people.  It is a normal human defense to want to protect ourselves emotionally.

At the same time, we long to connect with others, to share our lives.  We long to have others know us and to be known by them.  We seek to understand and to be understood.  We also become confused as to where God begins and ends because everything we describe about us is inextricably tied up in our identity as God’s children, made in God’s image.  However, that is the very point of this portion of Psalm 139.  God is without beginning or ending and God is so intimately involved with us that making distinctions is not something we should engage ourselves in.  Does it really matter deciding what is human and what is divine?  Maybe it really is as Thomas Aquinas suggests: God is like a stained glass window and we are the shattered pieces of God.  God may be more like us than we can conceive or imagine, even though God is in the expansiveness of the entire universe and beyond.

Remember this, you are a child of God and so is your neighbor.  In the words of Frederick Buechner, “WHEN YOU REMEMBER me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it's your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.

If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget me, part of who I am will be gone.”

As the thief beside Jesus hanging on the cross uttered those poignant words, we also should be pleading, “Jesus, remember me.”  Remember me now and when I come into your kingdom.

The Dove of Peace

BaptismoftheLordB, January 11, 2015, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr. Annette Fricke, OP

            Prepare, all of you, the way of the Lord.  That is what baptism is all about.  It is about preparing each day and each time we gather for worship.  What is the way of the Lord and how am I to follow Jesus?  Luther’s defense, whenever he felt the wiles of the devil nipping at his heels, was simply this, “I am baptized.”  What does your baptism mean to you?  Do you know on what day you were baptized?  If so, do you celebrate it?  How do you celebrate it or does the meaning of your baptism escape you?

            I must say that I find it very odd that the gospel text assigned for today has a lot more to say about John the Baptist than Jesus.  The Gospel of Mark goes on and on about the attire and diet of John and what he says about Jesus, but little about Jesus.  Jesus is from Nazareth of Galilee.  It’s as though those sorts of details about Jesus are not important.  The focus is on John, although John appears to be keenly aware of Jesus being greater than he is.  He proclaims that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Wow!  The New Testament goes on to further explain that some were baptized with John’s baptism, but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Acts indicates that the Holy Spirit was received by those baptized in the name of Jesus when Paul laid his hands on them.  This is one of the earliest practices of laying on of hands associated with such rites as Confirmation or Baptism or even just a blessing not associated with rites or sacraments.  Baptism with the Holy Spirit was very important for the early Christians because without it, one could not participate fully as a member of the Christian community.  It was considered to be central to Christian discipleship.  Thought to be passed on from the original disciples of Jesus himself, baptism was of supreme importance.

            Baptism is not a onetime thing.  It is not something that happened one day a long time ago.  It is God’s way of reclaiming us as God’s own.  It is our anchor in life.  Baptism is of God and comes from God for our benefit. Luther saw it as a ship, that if we fall off, we must swim back to it, clinging onto it until we are strong enough to get back on deck.  With it, we are enabled to sail forward, where we should be: close to God.  Luther goes on to say that baptism “defeats and puts away sin, daily strengthens the new person in us, keeps functioning, remains with us until we leave our present troubles to enter glory everlasting.”[1]

            Jesus is our model throughout our lives.  He is the one toward which John points.  Even when we look back at the Old Testament’s strong figures in the faith, we see through the eyes of our baptismal understanding who God is and what God expects of us.  Tevye, in “Fiddler on the Roof” said it quite well.  Our identity is with God. The material representations and physical ceremonies of the Jewish faith are also to remind them of their commitment to God.  Circumcision, like baptism takes place only once, but both remain a reminder of our relationship to and covenant with God. God invites us into fellowship with God and others.

            But there is a surprise to Jesus’ baptism; something I bet didn't happen at yours.  “…he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.”  This is something more than just different.  When I think of that image, I see a purposeful action of God.  It is like the description of creation when there is only darkness and a formless void.  Then, suddenly God chooses to create light, making possible a cycle of days defined by light and dark. The contrast is unmistakable and immediate. I have childhood memories of going to the fabric store with my mom and older sister.  I remember watching as the clerk snipped, and then suddenly ripping the fabric at or near the exact measurement of our order.  It’s quite frightening when you are not expecting it and you see and hear it for the first time.

            Baptism, for us, is like adding light to a dark world.  It is common in baptismal liturgies to give either the baptized or the baptized sponsors a lit candle.  The lit candle is given with the admonition to, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  It is a celebration of your connection with God and God’s connection with you, but it’s also a commitment to live into God’s grace as you go about living your life.  It means being a humble servant before God and others.  It means taking care of the earth, a living resource that sustains us in our physical needs.

            Jesus is the one who made all of this possible.  Jesus opened the door of salvation for all.  There are no more barriers between God and us because of God’s saving grace in Jesus.  God broke through the heavens and came to us in Jesus, a form difficult for us to comprehend.  How can Jesus be both human and divine?  How is that possible?  To this day, it stands as an article of faith and a mystery.

            And Jesus saw the Spirit descending like a dove.  It is important to know that this is an accurate translation of the Greek text.  It is like a dove, not a dove.  If you look at the symbolism of the dove in the Old Testament, the dove is a bird of salvation (as in sacrifice); a bird of hope (as in the story of Noah) and a bird of mourning (due to its mournful call - in psalms and prophets. If you recall, the dove was used as a proper sacrifice to God for poor people.  The dove was sent out to tell Noah whether or not there was dry land, an indication that the water was receding.  A mourning dove is symbolic of what we naturally do when someone we know and love dies.  Lament serves an important function in that respect.  The whole book of Lamentations is about the Lord remaining absent and silent throughout, with no suggestion of the restoration of Jerusalem or its Temple.  God is with us in times of sacrifice, when times are tough for us financially or emotionally.  God is also the bringer of hope despite our ups and downs in life.  God, in many times can seem quite distant from us.  Sometimes we can see that God has been with us only in retrospect.  We are not told what this “like a dove” is representing, but my notion is that it is a dove of peace.  It seems to represent the peace between God and humanity.  God restores the peace that was meant to be from the beginning, the same peace of the Spirit of God passing over the waters just before creating the light of day.  We can see it as the person of Jesus who came to us, disobedient children that we are, in order to make things right once again for us each and every day.  Though we stumble and fall many times, may we always allow God to pick us back up, embracing us with loving arms and say, “Welcome home, good and faithful servant.”

---

[1] For All the Saints, Vol. 1, pp. 217-218.

What is the Point?

2ChristmasB, January 4, 2015, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                The view from the dining room where I currently work is quite different from that here.  Your view from this dining room is that of a patio where flowers and plants are tended and grow.  My view is that of another building—or I should say a building in progress.  There is a man on our floor who holds onto the hope that when that building is finished, he will take his place a couple of floors up in it, the fifth floor.  Despite the fact that he knows his life is hanging on a thin thread due to his earlier brush with asbestos to his lungs, this is the dream that keeps him alive.  There are other indicators that the correct placement for him is our floor in assisted living, but his hopes help keep him optimistic.  After all, he could have died like many others, of Mesothelioma, that disease that is advertised frequently in the wee hours of the night to offer settlement.  What is it that keeps hope alive?  That sense that there has to be more and that hope alone is a superior motivator. We may not know the details of what it is we hope for, but we will be confident and steadfast that what we are hoping for is more than just an illusion. I still hold out hope that I will someday return to a better job, something that I actually studied for, hoping to help people with the knowledge and skill from actually practicing in the field. Here, you may hope that the next meal is better than the last one or that your loved ones will bring in a treat that tastes better because it is from someone with whom you have a loving connection.  You may also hope, along with other Christians, that Christmas is real, that Jesus really was born into this world and really does make it possible to leave this world in the hope of resurrection for all.

            But far from being a source of hope, many other residents see the new building as an eye sore.  When the man across the hall died, the man on the other side of the hall immediately asked to move into his room.  Who wants to watch all that construction going on for at least two years?  The view is gone and residents, like him, remember what it looked like before with its resident parking garages, the employee parking lot, and the so-called cottages as they line the area making a small, but significant village of people.  Construction and destruction amongst both buildings and people are a constant.  Buildings have their life span, acted upon both from within and without and so do people.  Both people and buildings go through expansion and contraction, soaring to success and coming down in defeat and all the regular ups and downs of life.  Every so often, we are reminded of the tendency of the elevators to quit working.  Most of us know someone who has gotten stuck in an elevator.  It’s something we can laugh about, but at the time, it’s anything but funny.  Just the irregular sounds the elevator makes creates a not too small bit of terror in those who have firsthand experience in an elevator that won’t move.

            Our culture tells us that despite the continued sales on everything imaginable, Christmas is over--- at least until about October.  But Christmas is not over.  The twelve days of Christmas just aren't celebrated as they once were.  If you asked people on the street, “When is the Feast of Stephen?” and sing the song about a king helping a poor man directly with his page, few would actually know what you are talking about.  I listen to the song sung during an advertisement for abandoned and abused animals and note that only the first, rather sad verse is sung.  They don’t sing the hopeful verse.  They don’t sing the verse that goes like this, “Our God, heaven cannot hold him,  nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign: in the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed the Lord God incarnate, Jesus Christ.”  They only sing about the cold and the snow on snow in the deep mid-winter.  Of course they are banking on your not knowing the rest of the song because they are only interested in placement for these animals.  In the Sound of Music, they also do not finish with the rest of the verse.  The nun says to the von Trapp family, “I lift my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help.”  The impression is that the help comes from the hills and that the von Trapp family should head for the hills to escape.  Bravo!  But that is not what the actual scripture says or means. “I lift my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help?  My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.”  The hills are the immediate hope for escape from the Nazis, but our true help comes from God.

            Lest we forget or somehow misconstrue, in the beginning was God.  God did not begin with the birth of Jesus Christ, but Jesus was there with God from the beginning.  This is an important distinction from the other gospel writers.  John’s gospel begins not with Jesus’ birth, but with Jesus’ identity as God.  Jesus was there before being born on earth, being born of a woman.  There is no more appropriate scripture to study during the season of Christmas than this gospel which makes a valiant effort at trying to explain how God can be both divine and human at the same time.

            During this week in my reading and my watching of PBS, people have done more research into the historicity of what the Bible says about Jesus.  A friend of mine sent a model of the nativity scene, pointing out that a lot of it probably never happened or happened at a different timing that what the nativity scene implies.  For example, the kings are probably not kings and probably did not come to see Jesus until a couple years after his birth.  Not to mention that the “visiting Magi” are not even found in the Bible.  Another discovery is that Jesus was probably an urban dweller and well-educated, knowing Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, not a country bumpkin and son of a carpenter.  To this entire sort of thing, one of my friends writes, “Sigh. I always find things like this disheartening. The nativity scene is an image that offers one opportunity to ponder the Incarnation. It's not any different than other religious images that give one a like opportunity to reflect on faith in God. Our postmodern fascination with debunking -- deflate, quash, discredit, disprove, contradict, controvert, invalidate, negate; challenge, call into question, poke holes in, etc. -- all things religious rips from each of us the great mystery of our faith. I'll gladly put out my nativity scene each and every year accepting that it isn't a factual representation of Holy Scripture. It is for me, however, an image that offers opportunity to joyfully celebrate the Incarnation and the astounding love of God for me, a sinner.” 

            It doesn't matter—any of those things that point to Jesus as God made man.  None of it matters.  What really matters is God’s love for us in Jesus.  That is the point, the whole point, and nothing but the point.  God loves us.

The Coming

1AdventB/StAndrew’s, Sullivan Park Care Center, November 30, 2014, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                Today is the first Sunday of the new church year, the season of Advent.  When the first Sunday of Advent occurs is determined by the feast of St Andrew.  The first Sunday of Advent is the one closest to St Andrew’s Feast.  St Andrew was a very ordinary disciple, much like you and me.  He was overshadowed by the much more prominent brother, Simon Peter.  Advent is from the Latin meaning “coming” but has come to mean both a joyful and penitential waiting for the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.  Watchfulness is an important aspect of that waiting.

Beware and keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come, St Mark’s gospel tells us.  Advent is a time of active anticipation.  We wait, especially when we are spiritually dry and do not sense God’s presence.

It has been a rather harried and tiring week for many.  The full impact of darker and darker days as well as the shorter and shorter days is being felt by many.  There is much rushing around.  Thanksgiving Day with all the trimmings and tone of giving thanks for what we have is completely overthrown by the mad rush to get to the stores to find and purchase that perfect gift for that special someone---something they just have to have.  The retailers have done it again rather successfully.  They have tugged at the heartstrings of unsuspecting, usually calm rational people and turned them into aggressive shopping robotic machines.  You might pinpoint the beginning of all this retail madness to that story and sweet innocent sounding song about Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, written to increase profit. 

Robert L. May created Rudolph in 1939 as an assignment for Chicago based Montgomery Ward. The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money. May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story of Rudolph into a song.[1]

For those of you who have noted that the retailers are targeting young children in their advertisements these days, you have likely forgotten that this began several years ago.  Pulling on the emotions and longings of the kids of this country has been going on since before the economy picked up after the Great Depression.

The Gospel text in Mark actually uses imagery borrowed from the book of Daniel, yet interprets it in light of the then current happenings of Mark’s time and culture.  Also for us, what Mark has to say to his generation equally applies to us.  When we read the thirteenth chapter of Mark, we will soon notice that it appears to be confusing and disjointed.  It is difficult to follow with our linear-thinking minds.  What the world teaches us in our culture is much different that perceived reality for other cultures.  The Jewish people noted long ago the almost repetitious cycle of things being the same, yet not the same.  With every cycle of events, what we actually see is a bit different.  Everyone handles that information differently.  One person complains about having to turn the lights on more because even during the day, there is sunlight filtered by fog and clouds or simply just not as bright as in the other months.  Another person doesn’t see the point of talking about it at all because it is nothing new; this happens every winter.  Still others mention it on the ride up the elevator that snow is in the forecast.  And then there are those who point out the extremes in weather and wars and rumors of wars trying to find answers to their cosmic questions.  Despite all our preoccupations with the world about us, our best answers still lie not outside of us, but with what the common threads of the Bible tell us.  We should be looking beyond the retail madness that has us by the tail and swings us to and fro.  We should be going beyond the signs above and below.  Whatever it is that threatens to overwhelm us and seeks to tear us away from focusing on God, we need to listen and listen carefully to what God has to teach us.  According to Mark, God has just two words for us and they are, “Keep Awake.”

Once again, Mark tells us a parable.  This time, the master of the house goes on a long journey, leaving his slaves and a doorkeeper in charge.  Jesus has returned to the heavenly abode and left us the responsibility of caretakers.  We are to take care of what God has given us on a day to day basis, ever faithful, never wavering in that duty.  God has given us all things, so therefore we are to give God our thanks and praise.  Therefore we are to keep alert to the deceptions and evil that corrupts our thinking and behavior, sometimes unknowingly.  We are urged by God to watch out for others and to contribute to their welfare and their well-being.  We are invited to become Christ’s body in the world, doing as he did to bring justice and healing to a broken world.  We are to be alert as we watch for Christ to be born anew in each of us as we once again contemplate his birth and what he accomplished here on earth.

Mark reminds us that there is hope.  There is more to come.  Jesus will gather us all to himself and our joy will truly be complete as we live into eternity, an eternity of everlasting peace.  What is it that you wait for in this advent season?  Is it your desire to be united with Jesus in everlasting life?  Do you long for a closer relationship with Jesus?  Do you ever wonder what eternity will be like?  I imagine it is similar to an inmate who is in prison who thinks about what it will be like when he is finally released from prison.  The world outside changes a lot as the years go by.  Many people are shocked when they see how much it has changed since they were free prior to imprisonment.  Although I am in agreement with Mark, that we ought to focus more on the present than the future, with Mark, I believe that we also should think about what is to come.  What lies in the future can be a motivation to take responsibility in the present.  It can help us in the transformation process to take our covenant with God seriously.  Advent can be a time to renew our commitment as disciples.  We don’t know much about Andrew, the average disciple, but we do know that he invited others to follow Jesus.  Even if that small thing is all that we do, that one small invitation can do much.  Andrew recruited one of the most effective apostles of early Christianity.  By doing a small thing, he did a great thing.  Not only is it a gift to be a good and effective disciple, it is also a gift to recognize those qualities in others.  Therefore, keep awake---for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.  What I say to you, I say to all: Keep awake.  Do not be deceived and do not let your guard down.  Live your lives knowing that Jesus will return and live them knowing that return can be at any time.  Amen.

---

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer

Gone our Own Way

ChristtheKingSundayA, Sullivan Park Care Center, November23, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            The texts for today are a reminder that despite the injustices of the world, God seeks complete and abiding peace for all.  God always seeks to correct that which is out of sync with God’s will.  That correctness is what we find in the work that God has done in Jesus Christ which makes us right with God, righteous in God’s sight.  Like sheep, we are dependent on God, our shepherd, to steer us in the way we should go: to help us find green pasture, to seek us out when we have gone astray away from God, when we are simply lost, when we have been injured in any way, when we have become weak.  Most of all, God promises to feed us with justice.

            When I was a young student in seminary and it was our team’s turn to lead for the weekly Wednesday chapel, I volunteered to read the gospel lesson.  The gospel lesson was this, “…yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”  I looked at the notation at the bottom of the page in my Bible and saw that the parallel was in I Kings.  I Kings Chapter 10 explains what exactly Solomon and his glory were all about.  One of my professors piped up with the technical term for that type of pairing of the texts which instantly went over my head.  It seemed to me a more logical text to be matched with the gospel than the one appointed by a committee of the Church’s clergy on the textual committee, only a couple of whom I’d even met.  And here I come to that juncture again.  Why not pair this particular text with Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep and how the shepherd leaves the 99 to search for the 1 lost sheep?  It seems to me that it would more clearly make the point as to how the sheep story in Ezekiel, a book in the Old Testament is sharply contrasted with the New Testament version.  The Ezekiel passage is one of exclusivity, the New Testament is one of inclusivity.  In Ezekiel, God will do away with the fat and the strong.  Who are the fat and the strong?  If we look at this from the perspective of attitudes and behaviors as in last Sunday’s gospel, the fat and the strong could be the bullies of our society.  Recent history has identified even children who display this type of behavior and attitude.  There are children who identify and pick on people who are weaker than themselves.  They make it their mission to seek them out, to intimidate them and overpower them with their remarks and threats of violence.  Other times it does become an actual fist fight.  It can escalate even further, getting teachers, school counselors, and parents involved.  Later in life, these bullies, without proper and strong intervention, can become those who bend and break the rules of society simply to be on top of companies and organizations or scheming professional crooks.  They think about themselves first, at the expense of others.  The Ezekiel text paints us a picture that is the exact opposite.  In this text, God the shepherd rescues the weak, the injured, the strayed, and the lost.  This is God’s way of doing justice in the world.  One more thing: if you read the uncut version, reinserting the verses of chapter 34 that are missing from our reading, you will see a very violent image of what God will do to the bullies of the world.  It seems that the reason those verses were taken out of today’s reading is because with Jesus’ interpretation of what God wants, this is not what God actually does because it is not inclusive of God’s love for God’s people, it is exclusive.  God’s nature is not to destroy, but to show mercy.  And that is why I’d rather see a pairing with the gospel about the search of the shepherd for the 1 sheep that is lost.  The function of the priests and prophets of Israel was not solely to predict and deliver judgment as we may sometimes imagine.  It was to guide and nourish the people in the way of God.  God’s way is mercy; therefore God’s people also are to show mercy.  The problem comes when the definition of God’s people becomes more and more narrowed to become exclusive and God’s chosen people are the ones who follow this particular set of rules that seek to help you follow God’s law.  Whenever someone tells you that you must do this or you must believe that, consider carefully what that person is saying to you. It could be that that person has a personal agenda because God clearly loves all people, even those we perceive to be our enemies.

            The end will come for all of us, so we need to pay attention to ensure that we are not led astray or become lost.  We can be tested every day to go another direction.  We can choose to give up.  There are many references in the gospel according to Matthew about the lost sheep of Israel.  We are all capable of becoming lost and going astray and we pray that God will always be able to find us and rescue us from going so far down the road that we ignore God’s presence and readiness to help us along our life’s journey. 

            A shepherd is a common image used in the Bible to describe the function of a community leader.  A community leader is to seek out even the lowliest person.  There is a difference between God and humans although we are called to imitate God.  In the parable about the lost sheep, one of ninety-nine would be rare though because most of the other sheep tend to follow the one who goes through the fence first.  Because the parable speaks about one sheep, it should be interpreted to mean that God actually loves us so much that God will seek after every single person who wanders away from the flock.  We need reminders time and time again that God is not like us.  God does not hold grudges, have favorites, or prejudices because we are all part of God’s family.  We are God’s sheep and God is our shepherd.  Psalm 100 points out that God made us, we are his, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture therefore we should enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.  We should do these things because the Lord is good his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

            This is our heritage as Christians who adopted aspects of the Jewish faith and chose to follow the teachings of one of their prophets, Jesus. God always seeks to correct that which is out of sync with God’s will.  That correctness is what we find in the work that God has done in Jesus Christ which makes us right with God, righteous in God’s sight.  As Isaiah 53:6 states, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way.”  Because of this, it was necessary to find a way for God to bring us all back into the flock, Jews and Gentiles together in one big family as well as all the peoples of the earth. Like sheep, we are dependent on God, our shepherd, to steer us in the way we should go: to help us find green pasture, to seek us out when we have gone astray away from God, when we are simply lost, when we have been injured in any way, when we have become weak.  God promises justice for all people, but especially the weak and vulnerable of our society.  God created us and will make all things right.  God will restore all people and all of the created order to the way it was always intended from the beginning.  To God be the glory as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.