NOTE: 01/01/2011 ~ Holy Name of Jesus ~ (Mary, Mother of God); Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 8; Galatians 4:4-7 or Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21.
01/01/2011 ~ New Year’s Day ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; Psalm 8; Revelation 21:1-6a; Matthew 25:31-46.
The Christ, The Word, The Messiah
We find these words in Ephesians: “Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and our Savior Jesus, the Christ” (Ephesians 1:2). these words in the Gospel known as John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
I have, a number of times, mentioned my admiration for the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and I have mentioned the fact that I’ve met him. Which is not to say we were or are bosom buddies. It is to say I’ve had an opportunity to interacted with him.
One of those times was in a traditional classroom setting. Offered as a course on theater, New York University once had a series of lectures given by theater professionals. Enrollment limited to 40. I was lucky enough to be admitted. Sondheim was among those who offered insights that semester.
At one point in this small group setting, he expounded on how works of art become known. He used West Side Story, for which he had provided the lyrics, as an example.
The show opened in 1957. Critics called the show adventuresome, talked about how violent the story was and praised the great choreography which tried to interpret that story.
The music and lyrics were mentioned only as serving the production well. To be clear, that kind of criticism in a newspaper review is often quite disastrous because it damns with faint praise. The initial production ran for just two years. With that length of a run, the show was certainly not a flop, but neither was it a run-away hit.
Now, this was still the era when popular recordings were made of songs from Broadway shows, singles as they were called back then. But in the time between the Broadway opening and the release of the film version of West Side Story in 1961, just two songs from the show were recorded— Maria by Johnny Mathis. The other was Tonight by Dinah Shore.
But, Sondheim explained, when the movie was about to be released, United Artists, got behind the project with their multi-million dollar advertising budget. Much to his surprise, he suddenly found out that Leonard Bernstein, the composer, and he, the lyricist, had written a classic Broadway score. Or at least that’s what the advertising claimed.
In that aforementioned class, Sondheim said he disagreed with the critics. He thought the score he and Lenny wrote was really good. But he admitted it was only when the word spread that the score was good that this possibility was confirmed by others.
All of which begs two questions: how does word spread and, perhaps more importantly, what is the content of that word? After all, given that the initial opinion of the critics, it seems those who spread information about content are capable of poor judgment at best, misinterpretation at worst. (Slight pause.)
And this is found in the work known as Ephesians: “Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and our Savior Jesus, the Christ.” (Slight pause.)
Here are several questions: who is Jesus? Who is God? For that matter, who is the Holy Spirit? How do we know about or, indeed, what do we know about God, whom Christians describe as Triune? (Slight pause.)
Clearly, the words the writer of Ephesians uses make a distinction between Jesus and God. And yet, the poetry of John seems to blur that distinction. (Quote): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Slight pause.)
Indeed, a clear reason Christians have described God as Triune is the evidence recorded in the New Testament. It presents us with obvious paradoxes and ambiguities. Hence, One God, Three Persons— a paradox, an ambiguity— becomes the way the church explains God, a God in relationship to God’s own self and yet a God in relationship to us. (Slight pause.)
It is my guess many Christians, while having heard the term Trinity, probably do not realize it stems, in part, from these obvious ambiguities in Scripture. Indeed, it is my guess, not many Christians are comfortable with ambiguity and paradox, even though that is both our history and what the evidence in Scripture presents. Despite the history, despite the evidence, the tendency of many is to ignore or to deny the ambiguity, the paradox, the evidence, perhaps even ignore the Trinity.
To draw a parallel for you, every year some seek to stir up anger by uncovering plots about some kind of ‘war on Christmas’ because people say “Happy Holidays.” But, as social scientist Olivier Roy points out, this ‘war on Christmas’ stuff is nothing more than ignorance of the truly holy.
Why? Those defending the way Christmas is celebrated today are not being true to church traditions, church history and church teachings. The Christ they seem to want in Christmas is a product of Madison Avenue not Nazareth. They, thereby, only prop up the secular.
There is no clear indication in the Bible as to when the birth of Christ happened. That’s the reason our Puritans ancestors did not celebrate Christmas. They were trying to be faithful to Scripture.
Unquestionably Yuletide celebrations today owe more to Charles Dickens than to the church history. Hence, Roy calls the current celebration of a solstice holiday a “cultural construct.” In fact, that this is a cultural construct goes a long way toward explaining why in December Muslims buy halal turkeys and Hanukkah has been transformed into a gift-giving occasion— social constructs.
Over the past few years, a number of theories have been offered about the rise of fundamentalism. This same social scientist, Roy, proposes fundamentalism is simply a symptom of, rather than a reaction against, the increasing secularization of society.
How so? Fundamentalism does not seem to be about restoring a more authentic and deeply spiritual religious experience. Instead, it seems be cut adrift from its theological roots more honoring the modern era than the true history of the church or the history found in the Bible.
All this is not to say Christmas and the message of Christmas— that God lives among us— is unimportant. It is vitally important. The message of Christmas is vitally important.
It is to say church purposefully assigns readings not just about the Nativity event but also readings which reflect the Trinity in the Christmas Season. The church does this because of our history, because of our tradition which proclaims the Trinity. And it is also to say secularism has trivialized the message of God who is Trinity. (Slight pause.)
Did Bernstein and Sondheim write a good score? While one might relegate such judgment to the realm of opinion, certainly that is now the consensus. But very few knew it until the word spread.
Which brings us back to a basic Christmas message: that of the Triune God described in Scripture. If we see this message only in the context of its secular trappings, are we missing the point made by Scripture? And if the message is really about this complex, ambiguous Triune God, rather than the cultural trappings which now attend it, how might that message be spread? (Slight pause.)
I want to suggest the message of who God is needs to be spread not as much by word of mouth as by how we live our lives. Hence, it is not spread by what we say, especially what we might say in a given moment. It is spread by what we do over a lifetime.
And indeed, one of the clear messages in Scripture about God is that God is experienced over time and through time, not in single incidents. In short, we need to view our relationship with God as one which happens over the course of a lifetime.
You see, over the course of a lifetime, we experience a lot of paradox and ambiguity. Therefore, if we view God through the lens of a lifetime, the paradox and the ambiguity we might find in a Triune God is much easier to comprehend, easier to understand.
Now, what I just said may seem a little obscure to you. (What I just said seems a little obscure to me!) So perhaps the best way to explain it is with the poetry we find in Scripture. So, I’ll end these comments with a reading from Ecclesiastes and Tom Rasely will respond with more poetry, a familiar piece based in those words. Hear now this reading. [2]
[1] For everything there is a season,
a time for everything,
a season, a time for every matter,
every purpose under heaven:
[2] a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up,
to harvest what is planted;
[3] a time to hurt, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build up;
[4] a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
[5] a time to throw away stones,
to scatter stones,
and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, to hold close,
and a time to hold back,
to refrain from embracing;
[6] a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
[7] a time to tear, and a time to mend, to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
[8] a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
[9] What gain have the workers from their toil? [10] I have reflected on this while learning about all the kinds of work God has given to humanity. [11] God has made everything suitable for its time, in harmony with the divine; moreover God has put a sense of past and future into our minds, has imbued eternity into our souls, yet we are unable to grasp the totality of the Work of God from beginning to end.
[12] What I do know is there is nothing better for us than to be happy and enjoy life as long as we live; [13] moreover, it is the gift of God to us to eat and drink and find fulfillment in all our work. [14] I understand that whatever God does will endure for eternity; nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken from it. God makes it this way to keep reverence for the sacred alive in us.
[15] That which is,
has always been;
that which is to be,
has already been;
God seeks out
and calls it back into existence.
Amen.
Turn, Turn, Turn
by Pete Seeger
Tom Rasely, Guitar
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
(Chorus)
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
(Chorus)
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing
(Chorus)
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late
(Chorus)
01/02/2011
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “We use so many metaphors to describe God— Light, Rock, Love, Song. Why do we use metaphors? Go ahead— I dare you— describe God. Take a crack at it. Metaphors work.”
BLESSING: We are all children of God in Christ. Let us live in the light God offers. Let us testify to that light. And may the peace of Christ, which is beyond our understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit and enveloped by the love of God this day and forever more. Amen.
[1] NY Times ~ 12/24/2010 ~ Faith and Modernity ~ by Alan Wolfe
Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways ~ By Olivier Roy ~ Translated by Ros Schwartz. 259 pp. Columbia University Press. $27.50
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/books/review/Wolfe-t.html?scp=1&sq=HOLY IGNORANCE&st=cse
[2] Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (ILV)
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