Mary and Jesus With Diapers Drying on Bush Art

Sermons

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Sermon Preached by the Rev. Benjamin Shambaugh

St Luke's, Portland

December 23, 2018; Advent4C: Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

The past two weeks have been extremely full, with concerts, dinners, parties, funerals, and other church building-related events every single day.

One of the highlights, a calendar week and a half ago, was the Thursday dark ordination at St. Alban's of Holly Clark equally an Episcopal Priest. Holly is part of a whole cohort of new women priests, including our own Eleanor Prior, who are adding incredible life and energy to the diocese of Maine.

In that group, Holly's ministry is truly unique, divided between working with some of the most affluent of Mainers in Cape Elizabeth and some of the poorest of Mainers right here at St. Elizabeth'southward. Because of her work, hundreds of refugees who come through our doors are treated the way refugees should exist treated, treated as guests, as if they were members of the holy family unit who became refugees themselves.  Unlike Eleanor'southward September ordination in New York where lots of people were ordained at the same time, this service was focused on ane person.  The church was packed with people from all areas of Holly'south life and ministry. They came considering they knew that because of her work at St. Due east'southward, hundreds of immigrants from warm climates accept received winter coats and boots, babies have received diapers, and all have received hope. They came considering they knew that because of her work at St Albans, parishioners received pastoral intendance and their parish received new life. They came because they had seen the hope that happens when one young woman says yeah to God.

Today our readings focus on some other young woman who did simply that. When most people recollect nigh Mary around Christmas, they picture her wearing a bluish robe in a Christmas pageant. They miss the Mary of the Magnificat nosotros met this morning. This is Mary the revolutionary: Mary who proclaimed that God's values and man values are not the same; Mary who said that Christmas is non of the culture but counter to it; Mary who said that Jesus came to turn the world upside downwards.

Look at the words of the Magnificat in this morning time'south reading from Luke. Echoing the Song of Hannah in one Samuel 2:ane-10, Mary's song begins past proclaiming that God has rejoiced not in her successes but in her lowliness. In the words of the onetime Prayer Volume, Mary's God is a God who volition scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts, cast down the mighty from their seats, and lift up the lowly and meek.

This is non a God who sacrifices food stamps benefits for tax cuts. This is a God who sacrifices himself in order to make full the hungry with good things and ship the rich away empty, a God who sacrifices his son to ransom convict Israel so his children can come up dwelling house. These are non the words of an illiterate perhaps immaculately conceived peasant girl in a rural backwater of the Roman Empire. These are the words of the Theotokos, the Mother of God. This is the Mary that has inspired revolutions and led to theologies of liberation throughout the world. This Mary's "yeah" to God empowers those who have no vox to say yep to God as well, and know that information technology volition make a departure. As seen and then clearly in the carvings and painting of the Madonna right hither, this Mary inspired the building of this cathedral and the 150 years mission and ministry we celebrate on Christmas Mean solar day.

This final Friday, I striking an emotional wall. I had left a funeral with 600 people to watch family unit members stand up in ankle-deep icy h2o and mud in the rain to place roses on a casket in a flooded cemetery. I went from there to candlelight vigil for 36 people who died on the streets of Portland this twelvemonth where I was met past social workers with hugs and tears.

In between these two events, I returned drastic phone calls from people panicked by overwhelming needs – people getting evicted, people in demand of just the basics to survive, people whose mental disease reaches a crisis level as Christmas comes, people dealing with expiry and physical illness and aging. People out in that location are going through then much. People in here are are going through and so much.

As I got in my car to finally go abode that solstice dark, I was overwhelmed our need for that lite shining in the darkness, with our need for the hope and condolement of the beatitudes, and with our need for the magnificence of the Magnificat our service is focusing on today.

The Magnificat is sung every Evensong but the words are and so cached in beautiful Anglican chant that we miss their meaning. Remember that Mary said these words when she plant out she was meaning as an unwed teen-aged girl. Things were bad. Joseph – or her family — could take "put her abroad quietly." Instead, she was sent "away" to her cousin Elizabeth'south dwelling house in the hillside and then her pregnancy could be hidded from public view.

Through the Magnificat Mary is telling united states that it is when life is at its hardest that God is with us the well-nigh, when the nighttime is the darkest that the light shatters it the most, and that when information technology looks like things are hopeless that hope comes and God begins everything over once again. The Magnificat is about the great reversal of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom that began when a manger became a throne.

As we heard in our reading from Hebrews, "Jesus abolishes the first in order to institute the 2d." What is old must dice must laissez passer away and what is new will come up from unexpected places like Bethlehem – which equally nosotros heard in Micah was considered the to the lowest degree of the clans of Judah.

What is the modern equivalent of Bethlehem? Biddeford? Redbank? Somewhere in Syria or Afghanistan? What would Jesus await similar if he was born in those places? Would that Jesus, the Jesus proclaimed in the Magnificat exist welcomed or fifty-fifty recognized if he came here today?

With today's readings before us, Christmas takes on a dissimilar flavor than we are used to. The Song of Mary has petty to do with sentimental Christmas carols, and fifty-fifty less to do with presents under a tree. The Vocal of Mary tells us that because of Christmas the world will exist turned upside down. The final volition be first. The powerful will exist brought down from their thrones and the lowly will be lifted up.

All information technology took was one young woman saying yes to God for this all to begin.

Imagine what would happen – what Christmas would look similar – if we did the aforementioned.
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Sermon Preached by the Rev. Benjamin Shambaugh

St. Luke'southward, Portland

December 16, 2018; Appearance 3C:  Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:four-7; Luke three:7-18

It's the three^rdSunday of Advent. We are nigh ready for Christmas. But why Christmas? Why did Jesus come? Perhaps the most traditional answer to these questions is that Jesus came and so that our sins might be forgiven and that we would be reconciled with God. Taken to its simplest form, this perspective says that Jesus was born in society to die.

Forget black Friday as a preparation for Christmas. We are talking about Christmas equally a training for a Friday then black we telephone call it Expert.

Placed by humans at the time of the solstice, this is a celebration of how the God of calorie-free took on darkness of the universe and won past sacrificing himself. While it sounds a scrap harsh to our modernistic ears, what is chosen the amende is a common theme of our aboriginal liturgies and hymns.

Accept you ever noticed, for example, that the creed skips directly from Jesus' nativity to his death? The atonement is even the theme of the Christmas story.

Call up for a moment most shepherds watching their sheep in those fields outside Bethlehem. To empathize what they were doing, you need to know that King Herod (also of pageant fame) had sought to curry favor with the local people by rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, the foundations of which exist to this very day.  Herod non but made the temple a wonder of the ancient world, he collaborated with the Pharisees to create a massive temple industrial complex. The shepherds weren't following the case of the fishermen or the swineherds on shores of the Sea of Galilee who were raising nutrient for the Roman army. The shepherds were raising lambs for sacrifice in the temple. These tenders of sheep were not country bumpkins. They were cogs in a very sophisticated political  machine which used fright continue pious people placated and loyal to those in power.

The Good News the angel brought to the shepherds is that their collusion would no longer be required, that the baby born in the manger was the Lamb of God who would utilise dearest and light to take away the sins of the earth forever.

If this sounds far-fetched, look at some other item from the Christmas story. After Jesus was built-in, Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger. Sounds familiar, right? What, however, are swaddling clothes? They're not diapers! Do you retrieve One-time Testament instructions for offerings that called for a lamb to be "without blotch"? Swaddling clothes were wrappings that shepherds put on lambs so they wouldn't accept whatever bruises or cuts or other imperfections. They were put on lambs to prepare them for sacrifice.

Why did Jesus come? This simple mention of swaddling clothes gives the answer that Jesus was built-in in lodge to die, that Christmas came so Good Friday could take place.

On the other hand, one could as well argue that Christmas was fulfilled not on the cross but in the empty tomb, that Christmas came for Easter, and that Jesus was born to live, to teach us how to live, and to give u.s. life. This perspective argues that Jesus is Emmanuel — God with u.s.a. – and that Christmas is most the Incarnation, the Discussion becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

This is certainly the theme of the readings for today.

The prophet Zephaniah and the apostle Paul are talking nigh things that tin can happen now.  Though John the Baptist warned about time to come consequences of our actions, he was concerned virtually our current conduct. For him it is very simple. "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." "Practise not extort money from anyone by threats or false allegation, and exist satisfied with your wages."

Want to put the Christ in Christmas? Live out your faith. Do what Jesus would do. Brand Christmas real by showing people the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Make Christmas real past playing the role of Jesus – non the babe in the manger but the xxx year one-time who came, that we others might take life.

Some of what John the Baptist says that Jesus would do does sounds not very Christmassy at all.

In the wake of the California fires, baptism with fire sounds similar anything but skilful news. These metaphors, yet, are not as bad as they seem.

Consider for example the process of winnowing. Winnowing began with an ox or other animal that would walk on the grain to suspension open up the seeds. A farmer would then apply a winnowing fork or fan to throw information technology up in the air. The wind would blow away the lighter husks and the heavier grain — the practiced stuff — would autumn to the ground where the farmer would collect information technology. Through God's winnowing, all of the stuff that separates us from God are taken abroad and the good stuff inside is saved.  The baptism of burn down is the aforementioned.

Do you remember the words from Handel's Messiah: "For he is like a refiner'south burn, and he shall purify the sons of Levi"?

The burn down John is talking about has to do with purification, not punishment or retribution. Information technology is a burn down that melts out all of the impurities in our lives, leaving the gilded that is in each of us behind. John the Baptist's repentance is about the same thing. Information technology is about immigration away of all the junk that clutters our lives from the core of goodness that is inside each of united states and a reconciling of our true inner selves with God.

Repentance is not about punishment. Repentance is most change – change that leads to new life and hope, right here and right now.

So why Christmas? Did Jesus come up to die… or did Jesus come up to alive? Equally with then many questions, the answer is both.

The more important question is what we practice next.

When information technology comes to religious and to religious holidays, many of u.s.a. rely on – even relish – our traditions. The Pharisees idea that considering their status, they had a "get out of jail costless carte du jour" that would absolve them from their collusion with the Romans. On this point John was clear: "Do non begin to say to yourselves, "Nosotros have Abraham every bit our father, for I tell y'all, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham."

We tin't residue on the laurels of the past. Bringing and being the Christ of Christmas is our own responsibility. John the Baptist came to tell u.s.a. that nosotros could do that… not only so people could experience him in the time to come, just also today.  Appearance is our opportunity. Behave fruits that befit repentance.  The time to practise this is now.
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Sermon Preached by the Rev. Benjamin Shambaugh

St. Luke'south, Portland

Dec nine, 2018: Advent 2C: Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians ane:3-11; Luke three:1-6

It is a trivial more than a month since my friend Marker Edington was elected the bishop of Europe. Equally the vote was rather decisively non in my favor, I asked for feedback.  I was told that in the panel discussions and presentations I had been then glued to my notes that no one could see who I really was. This feedback stung because it was true. I know what I should have done – I had been coached by practiced friends to allow go of my notes, to talk conversationally, and be myself. I didn't. I wrote very careful (and lengthy) responses and read them. I was agape that if I talked without my text, I would make mistakes. I was afraid simply being myself wasn't good enough, so I hid backside my script. The problem was that they weren't looking for someone with all the answers. They were looking for someone they could have a relationship with. If I had shown them my existent self, we might accept connected on a deeper level. That feedback made me wonder how often I have put barriers up between me and other people…. and how I have washed the same affair with God.

I do non say these things to wait for sympathy or affirmation. I tell them so y'all tin can connect your story with my own, and with the stories nosotros heard in scripture this morning. Last week someone asked me if I was going to get political in this week's sermon. That's a hard question because the readings for Appearance and Christmas are profoundly political. Don't believe me? Try reading Mary'southward Magnificat, spoken when she found she was pregnant with Jesus, and think how you lot might utilize her words to today. In today's offset reading, Baruch was not writing to individuals most their private spiritual lives. He was writing to them as a nation. The Song of Zechariah is not directed to a person simply to a people. So, past the manner, are the writings of Paul. His "you" is in our second reading is plural. Paul is speaking to the Philippians – the people of the church of Philippi. Similar and so much of the Bible, these scriptures call for moral action on a public, not personal, level.

Of course, as was and so articulate in all of the events this week surrounding President Bush's funeral one follows the other. Though John the Baptist perceived every bit a threat to the ability structure, his message was focused closer to dwelling house. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins on an private. You need to understand that for John the Baptist – and the Bible in general – sin isn't nigh everything nosotros have done wrong since we were piddling kids. Sin is anything that gets in the mode of our connection with God and prevents us from being who we were created to exist. John the Baptist's message was to get ready for Christmas by about getting rid of the mountains and valleys which block our relationships with others and get in the style of our relationship with God.  John did have a vision of God's kingdom, but  he asked us to look in before nosotros await outward —  to look forrad to Christ's coming by taking a good look at ourselves first.

Over the past few weeks, Christmas messages have started actualization in the mail. Though with social media the sending of Christmas cards seems to be fading in popularity, some of the ones that take come in are classic. You know what I am talking about: stunning photographs of beautiful children and grandchildren, accompanied by a letter of the alphabet listing how these overachievers take saved the world, discovered the cure for cancer, and managed to go along exotic vacations at the same time…. all wrapped upwards with some sort of uber religious sentimental statement nearly blessings and peace and joy.  While I don't begrudge their success – and confess to writing like letters myself – I wonder what it would exist similar if the letters were a bit less braggy and a flake more honest and existent, if they carried the authenticity that comes from struggles with adversity, and if their faith they professed was a little less filled with quotes from a family unit Hallmark special and more than with feelings formed in the crucible of daily life. I wonder what would happen if they – and if nosotros – could let people beyond our defensive walls and beyond our defensive moats. I wonder what would happen if we did the same thing with God.

This week'southward events reminded us that character is contagious. Today'south scriptures tell us that the same is true for actuality. If we lower our defenses and raise our standards, other people will as well. If we share ourselves with them, they will share themselves with us. If nosotros become real to God, God will become real to usa.  This is what God wants most of all. To use the words of John the Baptist, the purpose of Christ's coming is that is that all flesh – all people, including you — will run into salvation of God. In today's readings, both John the Baptist and Baruch both build off of the words of Isaiah immortalized in Handel's Messiah: Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low."  Notice, however, who is doing the work. We are to prepare the mode simply the work of filling the valleys, taking down the mountains, and smoothing the rough places is something God does.  Information technology is something God wants to do for y'all.  Christmas is almost God beingness with us, offering forgiveness, reconciliation with others, and a fresh start and new life. All these things tin exist yours, if you tin prepare the way and let him in.

God had someone else in mind for that position in Europe. Perhaps God had me get through that process to learn to stop hiding behind my notes, to dare to lower my defenses, and, after doing those things, to prepare to meet Jesus — and Jesus' people – in a whole new way. Perhaps he wants yous to do the aforementioned thing. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be manner depression, and the crooked means made straight and the rough places smooth. This is the work of Appearance. This is what information technology means to ready for the Christ of Christmas to come.
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Year C; Advent 1; 12.ii.2018

Jeremiah 33:fourteen-16

Take you always grabbed a piece of fruit and took a seize with teeth out of it only to discover that it was not nonetheless ripe? What does that taste like?

I bought these pears yesterday at Hannaford. They are, pretty aren't they? I'm tempted right at present to grab ane and seize with teeth into information technology. But it's not ripe. Information technology's notwithstanding dark-green. If I bit into it, I'd find that it would probably be hard and tasteless. I'll put it back in the bowl and await until information technology is ripe.

I bought these pears to talk most waiting. Today is the First Sun of Advent. The discussion "Appearance" does not mean "look" surprisingly. The word "Advent" comes from the Latin word "adventus" which is a root of the word, "to come." In Advent we "look" for the coming of God in Christ, when in 22 days nosotros celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ – "God with united states."

Every twelvemonth, equally Christians, we live in a strange in-betwixt Appearance time. We marking the time in Advent with weekly candles and daily calendars. But we also alive in a earth that celebrates the commercial enterprise of Christmas that begins earlier and earlier every year.

Ane of the skillful things of acknowledging Christmas in Advent is the St. Paul's Christmas Fair. Aye, we just concluded one of the about successful community Christmas fairs of Brunswick – yep 22 days before Christmas. The Slap-up Hall is decked with lots of Christmas decorations. And who DIDN'T store yesterday for Christmas gifts?!

But and so, we come in hither to the Nave and the décor is relatively austere with plain evergreen and our blueish hangings to correspond Christ'due south royal lineage and his Mother Mary. There are the Advent candles to help us count the weeks until the coming of Christ. But there really is nothing in here that looks like Christmas.

Christians are chosen to wait faithfully and expectantly in these few days. We are to delay gratification as best we tin in this consumer time of year. Nosotros will wait for the coming of Christ like I'll look for this fruit to ripen in lodge to get the best, sweetest, softest, ripest taste. I must not grab ane and bite into it. I must set up it aside and wait for its total, sugariness ripe sense of taste to sally. The fulfillment of its purpose.

The Prophet Jeremiah knew what information technology was like to wait expectantly for the promise of God's goodness when he wrote in the reading this morning, "The days are surely coming…when I will fulfill the promise I fabricated to the business firm of State of israel and the house of Judah….the promise of justice and righteousness." God's promises are what the people of faith wait for. They are what people of faith promise for, even in times of doubt and loss.

In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, after Jerusalem fell and the people were deported to alive in what is known as the Babylonian Captivity, for lxx years all seemed to be lost. Could the people have any hope in God's promise for so many years in captivity? You tin hear the plaintive, hopeless cry of the people in the familiar Dry Bones passage from Ezekiel. The people lamented, "…'Our bones are stale, and our promise is lost…'" A despairing complaining if I ever heard one.

But, thanks be to God, the bones did live. God fulfilled God's promises to breathe new life in those dry out basic. The passage is one of the about hopeful in Scripture. It echoes those familiar words that we hear in Handel'south "Messiah," "Every valley shall be exalted…and the rough places made plain." God promises to heighten the everyman points and make polish all that is coarse and jagged. And it happens in God'due south time…while the people of faith wait.

This weekend I dug out the Advent daily reader called, "God is in the Manger." Each day offers an extract from ane of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings. He was an constant observer of Advent. The pick for 24-hour interval 1 of Advent, today, is from a alphabetic character he wrote from prison to his fiancée. Information technology introduces the theology and discipline of waiting and the difficulty of practicing waiting when all effectually him people were grabbing ungratefully for immediate satisfaction in the days of Nazi Federal republic of germany. Bonhoeffer wrote,

"Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an fine art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot…whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting – that is, of hopefully doing without – volition never feel the fulfillment."

"For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world, nosotros must wait. It happens non hither in a storm but co-ordinate to the divine laws of sprouting, growing, and becoming."  ("God is in the Manger" Advent Daily reader).

I believe that nosotros are governed by those divine laws of sprouting, growing, and becoming…as nosotros wait, we are condign the people God calls us into being…becoming the people who are the righteous ones.

In just 22 days we volition assemble here with family, friends, neighbors, and guests on probably what will be a cold, dark winter'south nighttime to celebrate "God in the Manger" on Christmas Eve. And nosotros will wait for his coming over again with power and great glory – another act of faithful waiting. In the concurrently of this waiting, we mark each day with an Advent calendar or nosotros lite the candle and say a prayer. These acts of faith help us mark the fourth dimension.

I found this uncomplicated Advent Calendar that I want to share with yous. It's called the "Appearance of Kindness" Calendar. I made a re-create for each of us. It started yesterday, Dec 1 with this deed of kindness, "Give someone a hug or a compliment." That was easy to exercise yesterday at our Christmas Fair. It was peculiarly piece of cake to give compliments because and so many people worked hard, made wonderful things to sell and shared so generously of their time, money and free energy.

For today, December 2, the act of kindness is "Let someone in front of you in line." Hm, "Let someone in front of yous in line." Now that one is harder for me, and it surprises me that it is hard for me. It's hard for me I think because of my competitive streak. God is definitely calling me to be less competitive and more generous this season of Appearance!

I hope you will have this daily calendar and spread God'south kindness in the world. And as we expect and watch during this season of Advent, who knows, maybe our acts of kindness could very well reveal a glimpse of God'southward promise of hope in this suffering, 'stormy' world.
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Christ the King Sunday Year B

John 18:33-37

Nov 25, 2018

     In the name of God—the I who created the states, the Ane who forgives us, and the One who remains with u.s.a. always.  Amen.  This forenoon nosotros celebrate Christ the King Sunday—the terminal Lord's day of the Church year. In a way, information technology's New year's Eve for the Church building—things are coming to an terminate, before the new church building yr begins next Sunday with Advent.  Of all of the holidays, secular and religious, I have to acknowledge that New year's day'southward Eve is my to the lowest degree favorite—but it hasn't e'er that mode. As a child growing up in Virginia, New Year's Eve was pretty amazing—my mother would melt for days—it was a great feast—fit for a king—of southern cooking—turkey, ham, roast beef (three meats, of form, not only i), appetizers of sausage balls and shrimp dip, and desserts of lemon cake and chocolate pie and marble brownies.  And it meant I could stay upward until midnight—a real treat for the boy who had a bedtime of ix o'clock until he went to college.  My parents would invite friends and family unit and neighbors "to stop on by," they would say, "no demand to dress upwards or bring anything," they would add together. Merely as a snarky teenager, things seemed to change for me—the celebration seemed to me a rag tag grouping of people who really didn't accept any other place to be—I fifty-fifty nicknamed the evening, "A Misfits New year's."  As an adult, New year's day'due south Eve, despite fancy blackness tie parties and adult beverages, never quite captured the feeling that my parents had originally created.  Instead, it became, for me, a time of over-indulgent cocky-reflection.  Honestly, on December 31^styou are most likely to find me at dwelling thinking most the past year—what I should have done—or what I could have done better—or what I regret having washed at all.  It'south tempting, for many of us, every bit things draw to a close—or as things change in our lives—to spend our time and energy wishing things could be dissimilar—but that, I think, is just our human nature.

     I find it interesting, and somewhat odd, that we celebrate Christ the Male monarch Sunday on the last Sunday of the Church building yr.  Until recently, I didn't know the history of how this came to be.  Christ the King Sunday is the newest feast twenty-four hour period in the liturgical yr of the Western Church.  It was added, less than 100 years ago, past the Roman Catholic Church building in response to increasing secularization movements worldwide, but in particular to the plight of Christians in Mexico who were being told that just the Mexican government was due their ultimate fidelity.  But Mexican Christians remained faithful to their Church and held public parades in the streets proclaiming, "Christo Rey! Christ is Male monarch!" Pope Pius Eleven made the declaration in 1925 that a Holy Mean solar day exist observed honoring "Christ the King of the Universe" on the last Sun of October earlier All Saint's Day. And after Vatican 2, the observance of this feast day was moved to this last Sunday of Pentecost—where we observe information technology today.

     Some of us might not be especially comfortable with the images and language of Christ the Male monarch Sunday.  Many of u.s.a. may find the thought of kings and royalty antiquated, and even oppressive.  There continues to be a growing distrust, even boldness, of authority—in our governments, our workplaces, even our churches.  Individualism has grown to such an farthermost that, for some, the only authority is the private self.

     Our Gospel lesson today from John tells a portion of the story of Jesus' trial before Pilate.  It's full of accusations by Pilate, "Are you Male monarch of the Jews?" "Your own nation and principal priests have handed you lot over to me.  What have you lot done?"  And full of answers from Jesus, "My kingdom is not from this world." "You lot say that I am a rex.  For this I was built-in, and for this I came into the world, to prove to the truth."

     Although some of us may struggle with the title of king for Christ, we are reminded that Jesus offered a radical new manner of thinking and living– "a kingdom not from this world" where the king is no longer just a figurehead of absolute authority and oppression only one who rules in humility and service.  Jesus exercised his power on behalf of God'south people—rather than confronting them.  He showed us that a male monarch is not someone who saves Himself—but who saves others.  The reign of Christ the king is one of sacrifice and mercy and peace. The power of Christ is not 1 demonstrated by control or domination only through care and love.  The truth of Christ is not just radical—it is eternal—the Lord God who is and was and who is to come teaches united states of america and reminds us and shows us "the way of love."  Our own presiding Bishop Curry has outlined this way of dearest.   The Way of Beloved:

-where we seek love-to know God's love, to dearest and to exist loved by others, and to love ourselves

-where we seek liberty-from the many forces—sin, fear, oppression, and division that pull united states from living as God created u.s. to be:  dignified, whole, and free

-where we seek arable life—flood with joy, peace, generosity, and delight-where there is enough for all, because nosotros all share with carelessness; a life of meaning given dorsum to God and lived for others

-and where we seek Jesus—the Way of Jesus is the Mode of Love, and that style has the power to changes lives and to alter the world.

     I came across the post-obit lines published in the 1940s in a mag in the 1940s that were found on the torso of a fallen Us soldier during World State of war II.  Listen to the words:

Those who are called by an earthly king

And are bidden to meet with the great,

Who are asked to dine at the Royal Courtroom

In earthly splendor and state,

They come from his presence with confront alight,

With a proud and lifted head,

They are eager to tell what they saw and heard

And repeat what the nifty 1 said.

But we who accept supped with the Male monarch of kings

And take eaten the heavenly bread,

Are we eager to say what nosotros saw and heard

And tell what the Rex hath said?

Are nosotros proud that the King has called us "Friends"

And bidden us seek His Face?

Do we tell the earth of His matchless beloved?

Do we speak of His wondrous grace?

      Some other year in the Church calendar is ending.  And endings and beginnings tin be stressful—full of uncertainty–merely also promise and hope.  On this New year's day's Eve for the church, we gather around the table to celebrate Holy Eucharist.  We may consider ourselves misfits with no place we feel needed or wanted, we may exist lost in our contemplation of past regrets or hereafter worries, we may be struggling with our religion in our selves or others or the church. Yet, this Sun and every Sunday, in this identify–and at this tabular array–all are welcome at the feast.  As we move into Advent we are reminded, once more, that God lovingly intervened in human life.  Jesus said, "You say that I am a king.  For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth."  Christo Rey! Christ is Rex!  This is our truth.  This is our style of life.  Jesus Christ the King is the Way of Love.  Amen.
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Source: https://stlukesportland.org/category/sermon/page/28/

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