This is a special musical performance of O Holy Night performed by Lindsay Snyder at the 10pm Christmas Eve service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This is a special musical performance of O Holy Night performed by Chris & Paige Lewis at the 4pm Christmas Eve service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This year, Ken and I were gifted with two new grandbabies. And, next year, another grandbaby will make his or her appearance in our lives. I must say, there is nothing like the joy of seeing each of these babies for the first time. I think many of us can relate to that feeling and experience. Seeing and holding a new baby is a precious, holy experience, and I do believe it changes us. Seeing the beauty of a baby’s face and recognizing in that face the miracle and gift of life that has been born into this world is an experience treasured by almost everyone. And, on this night, we come to this place wanting to catch a glimpse of a baby. We come to get a glimpse of the Christ child who has been born among us, born to us and born for us.
The Christmas season gets so very busy and many of us find our lives filled up with all kinds of time-consuming details – schedules to keep, presents to buy and wrap, parties and concerts to attend, rooms to clean, decorations to put up and get in place, food to prepare. The list seems rather endless. But, on this night of nights, all of that busyness is to be laid aside. On this night of nights, all our striving, our actions and our efforts are to be put aside, because this night is all about gift. On this night of nights, as we come hoping to catch a glimpse of the baby that has been born, I invite you to let go of your adult issues, let go of your worries and let go of all the noise that challenges your minds. I invite you to enter into the mystery and wonder that God holds before us, because this is a night that is all about the gift of God’s love for the cosmos.
Quite honestly, the story of this night must be told to us again and again because we are hardheaded, heartless and greedy. So, at least once a year, we need to proclaim and hear the story about a vulnerable, precious baby that brings change to the world. We need to celebrate the incarnation and be reminded that the God of creation came in the flesh as one who bears our nature in order that we might be healed. We need to hear the news that the God of the cosmos pitched a tent among us and took an address in our neighborhood by taking on human flesh and blood. You see, the incarnation is all about the fleshing out of the grace of God – God’s descent into this broken world so that God might raise us up. And, as Presbyterian theologian, Frederick Buechner, once said, “What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive year after year in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the child who was born that day may yet be born again even in us.”
The birth of this child is not just a one-time event that took place a long time ago in a lonely, wretched stable. No, it is a birth that happens throughout our lives and our faith journey as God continues to become incarnate in us. As Thomas Merton once said:
Christ is born in us today
In order that he may appear
To the whole world through us.
You see, the beauty of this night is that we again rejoice in God’s coming anew, not as a newborn Babe, but as the hidden presence of God born within each one of us and among us. The beauty of this night is that, to our great astonishment, we have now become God’s dwelling place as God is at work being born through us. I find 13th century German mystic, Meister Eckart’s words, helpful on this night. He wrote, “We, each one of us, are called to be mothers of God – for God is always waiting to be born.” We become like Mary and we are now God’s Bethlehem. When talking about Mary and how we become like her, listen to what theologian, Barbara Brown Taylor, writes in her book, Mixed Blessings:
On the one hand [Mary] was just a girl, an immature and frightened girl who had the good sense to believe what an angel told her in what seemed like a dream. On the other hand, she was the mother of the Son of God, with faith enough to move mountains, to sing about the victories of her son as if he were already at the right hand of his father instead of a dollop of cells in her womb. … When we allow God to be born in us, there is no telling, no telling at all, what will come out.
Friends, this Child is as close to us as our very soul. Yes, often hidden away under doubts and denials in our lives, but deep within us waiting to be born anew. The question is not where will we find the Child, for the Child is everywhere. The question is whether we will bow to the Child. The question is whether we will serve the preciousness, the sacredness, and the healing energies of God that have been planted deep within this Child. The question is whether we will live our lives in such a way that the love of the Christ child shows through us.
On this night of nights as we contemplate the love of Christ shining through our lives, I share with you more words from author and retired Presbyterian minister, Frederick Buechner. I have shared this story with you before, but it is worth sharing again. Buechner writes:
A minister friend told of a Christmas pageant in which he once participated when he was the rector of an Episcopal church. The manger was down in front at the chancel steps where it always is. Mary was there in a blue mantle and Joseph in a cotton beard. The wise men were there with a handful of shepherds and of course, in the midst of them all, the Christ child was there, lying in the straw. The nativity story was read aloud by Buechner’s friend. And, carols were sung at the appropriate places. All went like clockwork until it came time for the arrival of the angels of the heavenly host as represented by the children of the congregation, who were robed in white and scattered throughout the pews with their parents. At the right moment they were supposed to come forward and gather around the manger saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men," and that is just what they did except there were so many of them that there was a fair amount of crowding and jockeying for position, with the result that one particular angel, a girl about nine years old who was smaller than most of them, ended up so far out on the fringes of things that not even by craning her neck and standing on tiptoe could she see what was going on. "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will among men," they all sang on cue, and then in the momentary pause that followed, the small girl electrified the entire church by crying out in a voice shrill with irritation and frustration and enormous sadness at having her view blocked, “Let Jesus show!”
There was a lot of the service still left to go, but the rector said that one of the best things he ever did in his life was to end everything precisely there. “Let Jesus show!” the child cried out, and while the congregation was still sitting in stunned silence, he pronounced the benediction, and everybody filed out of the church with those unforgettable words ringing in their ears.
So, on this night of nights, come. Come bring your heart as an offering to this baby. Come, see and worship the Christ Child because it is Love that is born tonight! Receive it. Live in light of it. And, let Jesus show and shine through you every day of your life!
Let us pray,
Gracious and loving God, you who are the God of millions of faces, yet whom nothing and no one can reveal completely except the face of the child of Bethlehem, we pray to you. Continue in our lives the mystery of Christmas. Let your Son become flesh in us so that we may be for all others the revelation of your love. Amen.
This is a special musical performance from the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan of Holy is His Name with Linda Hirt and Gwynne Kadrofske accompanying on Flute.
Come and experience the 2018 Christmas Pageant with youth from Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan
This was a special performance from the Flutes of Faith at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. The Flutes of Faith presented a number of songs including: Carol of the Bells, Hallelujah Chorus and others.
This is a special musical presentation of Away in a Manger by the Faith Bells of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan
Narrator: In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
Commentator: Nazareth? God sent an angel to the podunk, insignificant, nothing of a town called Nazareth?
Narrator: Yes, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said,
Angel: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Narrator: But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Commentator: What kind of greeting is that Mary? Had you ever been called favored before? Mary. They are all called Mary aren’t they? Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary from Magdala, That other Mary and Mary the mother of Jesus. So common a name. Almost as though when the writers couldn’t remember a woman’s name they just automatically called her Mary. Like Jane Doe- it’s just this side of forgettable Mary. So common but yet now angelically deemed “favored one”. What kind of perplexing greeting is this calling a common Mary “favored one”. Did you look behind you to see if someone else named Mary was standing behind you? Mary; common and favored.
Narrator: The angel said to her,
Angel: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."
Commentator: You found favor with God? Like you were looking for favor everywhere until bang! You find it with God? Or was it more like it is with God that you are the favored one though not so much favored elsewhere. We aren’t given a litany of all the things you did and personality traits you inhabited that made you favor-able. Perhaps it is the fact that you are chosen by God that makes you favored not that your favorableness made you chooseable.
Angel: "And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Commentator: Mary, you are a marginalized young Jewish girl living in the midst of an occupied land. But, you now hear these words “throne …reign … kingdom.” This is nothing less than cultural, political, religious and spiritual insurrection for the common to be favored and the favored to be common.
Narrator: Mary said to the angel,
Mary: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
Narrator: The angel said to her,
Angel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Commentator: Elizabeth – barren and pregnant. One of God’s favorite ways to prove that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God’s ways are not our ways…continually challenging and even violating our polite family values. Elizabeth – barren and pregnant. Mary - common and favored. This is the invasive fruitfulness of God. Willing life where there is no life. Making a way where there is no way. Messing with all of us in the way that only true mercy can do.
Narrator: Then Mary said,
Mary: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Narrator: Then the angel departed from her.
Commentator: Here I am you say …just like Isaiah after the coal touched his mouth. Here I am you say. Send me. Did it burn you too, like Isaiah’s own lips? Let it be with me according to your word you said. “Here I am, the Servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word”. So beautiful. We try and domesticate you Mary like a trinket of docile, submissive womanhood but you are bolder than that, more defiant almost. Some try to hide from their calling (Moses, Jonah, Elisha) but you said “Here I am. Sign me up.” Did you know what this word was going to mean for you?
Narrator: And Mary said,
(Magnificat is sung as psalm chant by Mary)
My soul proclaims the greatness of | the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in | God my Savior,
for you, Lord, have looked with favor on your | lowly servant.
From this day all generations will | call me blessed;
Commentator: Is that what being blessed looks like? We usually use that word a bit differently. You know, like, “You’re so blessed to have that new boat.” So, Mary, how exactly are you using that word? Did you feel blessed as your unwed belly grew under the gaze of disapproving others? Did you feel blessed when laboring and giving birth amongst sheep and straw? Mary, common and favored…Did you feel blessed when your heart dropped realizing you left your 12 year old son in Jerusalem? At his arrest did you feel blessed seeing rope dig into the wrists of both God made flesh and the flesh of your flesh? Did you feel blessed when they lifted him up on a cross? No one else was his mother. Just you. Blessed are you among women. Common and favored. And blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. God and Man. “We hail Mary, Queen of Heaven,” proclaims Martin Luther, “because in her we come to know that ours is the God who comes nearest to us in our brokenness.”
(Mary continues psalm chant)
you, the Almighty, have done great | things for me,
and holy | is your name.
You have mercy on | those who fear you,
from generation to | generation.
You have shown strength | with your arm;
and scattered the proud in | their conceit,
casting down the mighty | from their thrones
and lifting | up the lowly.
You have filled the hungry | with good things,
and sent the rich | away empty.
You have come to the aid of your | servant Israel,
to remember the prom- | ise of mercy,
the promise made | to our forebears,
to Abraham and his chil- | dren forever.
Commentator: There’s nothing like a song about upturning the whole social order to warm the heart. That or scare the be-jesus out of you. …………. Hmmm….. So maybe that’s what God is up to here. Transgressing the boundaries of human society. The podunk town of Nazareth becomes a Jerusalem. The favored become common and the common become favored. The barren are pregnant. The hungry filled. The rich, hungry. The proud leveled and the downtrodden lifted up until it’s all blurred past distinction. The prophet Mary sings in the new inverted reality of God’s kingdom on earth and this is it’s fight song. It’s your song, all of you. A song of this God who entered so fully into this muck of human existence and upturned our expectations and religiosity and self loathing and self satisfaction enough to usher in a new reality. And this reality is that God became one of us so that we might become children of God. Gregory of Nyssa writes, “What was achieved in the body of Mary will happen in the soul of everyone who receives the Word.” You, all of you, each and every one of you, are blessed and full of grace. So, may the God through whom nothing is impossible help you to be Marys….carrying the gospel into this hurt and broken and beautiful world. May it be with you all according to God’s Word.
This is a special musical presentation by the Faith Lutheran Joyful Noise Handbell Choir and flute soloist Gwenn Kadrofske.
This is a special musical presentation of Who Would Send a Baby by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir.
I love the gospel of Luke! One of the reasons I like this book is because the writer of Luke’s gospel is such a good storyteller. And, I do believe that, if he was writing today, he would use multimedia to tell his story. I think he would have used tools like satellite images, Google Earth and video to help communicate his message. Just think about the way today’s gospel reading begins. The imagery that comes to my mind at the beginning of this reading is one of seeing the world from the perspective of outer space. Then, as the reading progresses it draws us down into a geographical location. I can imagine the writer of Luke’s gospel using resources like Google Earth to gradually zoom in on the Mediterranean, then the Middle East, then the country of Israel, and finally the wilderness area by the Jordan River.
While the writer of Luke had no access to imagery of this sort, he is doing something very similar with words as he introduces the story of John the Baptist. Placing the focus of action within a definite historical and political framework, Luke begins by naming the Roman Emperor. He begins with the big wig ruler of the empire and gradually zooms in on a specific, historical point in time by continuing to list the powerful, regional rulers, the local politicians, and finally the Jewish religious leaders. The writer of Luke’s gospel wants to make sure his readers understand that what he is telling them did actually happen at a given point in time and history. And, he also wants his readers to understand it took place in a precise location as he finally places the story in the barrenness of the wilderness.
Against this backdrop of important, high and mighty, historical, flesh-and-blood political and religious leaders, Luke zeros in upon the wilderness and this very unusual, eccentric, peculiar guy named John. In the wilderness, a seemingly godforsaken, wordless, often scary and confusing place, the Word of God came to this nothing son of a nobody named John.
Now, while the wilderness was often scary and confusing, it was also the location where God had spoken to God’s people. It was the place where God had led God’s very own people to a new and promised life. The wilderness was the place where Israel was tested and the place where the covenant was given. The wilderness could be a place of renewal and transformation. So, into this seemingly barren, wordless wilderness, God speaks. And, God chooses John. God chooses this nothing son of a nobody, a man whom the world sees as insignificant, and works through him to do something marvelous – John becomes God’s spokesperson and messenger. Like the prophets of old, and steeped in hundreds of years of prophetic tradition, John receives a Word from God and then begins proclaiming a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
John is a man on a mission from God as he calls the people to return to faithfulness. He calls them to alter the direction of their lives, to turn around, to reorient themselves, to turn from sin and turn to God. He calls them to respond to the grace of God and he calls them to prepare, to prepare and get ready for the coming of God’s salvation.
We live in a culture that is so very broken, a culture that I find increasingly seems to look and feel like a wilderness. The economic divide continues to grow. The poor go hungry as big wig policy makers argue about budgets and cut funding that will help the poor while trying to fund their pet projects and pockets. Violence and acts of hatred are increasingly becoming commonplace. And quite frankly, I find that our inability to address and curb these issues speaks volumes about the void and emptiness in our lives if not in our very souls. Over and over again, we seem to experience the barrenness, the seemingly godforsaken, wordless, scary and confusing place that has become our wilderness. However, we will never find the salvation we desperately seek unless we face our wilderness of despair. The wholeness and salvation we long for is only found when we face the wilderness and hear and respond to that call to repentance. This call meets us, not in the empire of the high and mighty and the powerful of the world, but in the depth of the wilderness of our lives. And, that call to repentance takes us to a different world, one that can literally transform both us and the empire.
Repentance is always about turning around, about changing direction. Repentance is always about living into the forgiveness and grace of God. The call to repentance that John, this nothing son of a nobody, was preaching is a Word from God for us. My dear friends in Faith, I have some earth-shattering news for you. In the eighteenth year of the twenty-first century, when Donald Trump was President of the United States, when Rick Snyder was governor of Michigan, when Ronald J. Styka was supervisor of Meridian Township, when Elizabeth Eaton was presiding bishop of the ELCA and Craig Satterlee was bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod, the word of the Lord came to the members of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan! And that word, my friends, is a call to turn around because salvation is coming. We are being called to turn around, so we can be taken to the true king, the Lord Jesus, the seemingly helpless baby who will be found lying in a dirty cattle stall. It is there, in that wretched place, where we will find the salvation, the wholeness, the grace and the love we so desperately seek.
And, what kind of change will this baby, this bearer of salvation, bring? Well, this true king, this true ruler, is bringing justice and mercy and leveling the playing fields of the high and mighty, the big wigs in this world. This infant king is bringing a regime change so powerful and radical that the mountains will be flattened, and the valleys will be raised. The powerful will be brought down from their thrones and the lowly will be lifted up.
We will never find salvation in any emperor or ruler or political big wig. Salvation will not come through any president, governor, local politician or even a religious leader - not any of these seemingly important people. No. We will only find salvation, wholeness and healing in the one who comes as a baby in a dirty cattle stall of a manger, the one who comes as Immanuel, God with us, God incarnate, God in flesh. We find salvation in this One who comes in flesh and does not even save himself or his own flesh from death on a cross. And, in that cross, all flesh, the entire world, shall see the salvation of God! The Word of God that came to a nothing son of a nobody in a godforsaken wilderness along the river Jordan is the same Word of God that comes into the void and emptiness of the godforsaken wilderness in the little town of Okemos, Michigan in the United States of America. That Word is a Word of healing, hope, love and salvation. And that salvation being proclaimed, was not just for Israel or for any one group or people, but for the entire world! So, get ready and prepare my friends, because we are being called to live and proclaim that good news!