What DID I expect?

If you read the blog right before this one, you get an idea of where the sermon was supposed to go yesterday, and that was all part of a set of larger expectations for Sunday that included our congregation's annual Christmas dinner and pageant.
But then the weather forecast was just scary enough that we did not know what kind of weather to expect on Sunday evening. So, we postponed the pageant to next Sunday morning and the dinner for after church. Messed up a lot of plans, including my own.
Then, during the second service our organist, Janet, collapsed in the middle of my sermon (I think it was a coincidence). She sits behind me and I didn't understand what was happening until I saw the medical professionals in the congregation leaping out of their seats and running forward.  Everything stopped while several choir members and ushers literally carried Janet out of the sanctuary. I led the congregation in prayer for her and then tried to pick up the sermon where I left off. A few minutes later, a retired physician came back in and gave us a two-thumbs up sign that Janet was OK. So OK, in fact, that I learned later she tried to talk people into letting her finish the service. She went to the hospital ER instead.
So, what did we do without an organist? It turned out the choral offertory was already planned with recorded accompaniment - what I call "Karoke", but I was glad for it yesterday. The physician is also a wonderful pianist and he played the last two hymns on the piano.
And the Lord, not trusting the preacher, decided to make the point that we need to give up our expectations and receive the gifts God has for us.
Janet, by the way, is doing fine, but she was in the hospital overnight and, as our Children's Ministries Director pointed out to me, if we had held the pageant we would have been in trouble because Janet was the accompanist.

What do you expect?

 “We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us" - Joseph Campbell

I’ve been pondering those words as I’m reading, once again, Matthew 11. The followers of John the Baptist come to Jesus and ask:

“Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?” Matt. 11:3

John the Baptist spent his life preparing the way for The-One-Who-Is-To-Come, the Messiah (in Hebrew) the Christ (in Greek).

However, if you read Matthew 3, you will see that John’s Messiah brings a winnowing fork to separate the wheat from the chaff – the good from the bad – and Jesus made friends with sinners. John’s Messiah was to baptize people with a burning fire, and Jesus came healing the sick. John’s Messiah was to rule the world, and Jesus was a poor carpenter whose name would have meant nothing to Caesar.

If Jesus is The-One-Who-Is-To-Come, then everything John expected and everything he stood for is wrong, almost.

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is anyone who does not take offense at me.” (Matt. 11: 4-6).

Well, that was what John the Baptist’s hero, Isaiah, said would eventually happen after The-One-Who-Is-To-Come had sorted things out by judging “not by what his eyes see or his ears hear” but who comes as the Equalizer who takes the side of the poor against their oppressors.

Suppose, however, that The-One-Who-Is-To-Come decided to skip the judgment part? After all, who are the poor? The ones who don’t have any money? Or the ones who sold their souls? The widow who only had two pennies to put in the offering plate? Or Zacchaeus who owned half of Jericho? Suppose that The-One-Who-Is-To-Come decided to just come and seek and save the lost without making judgments about who “deserved” to be saved and who didn’t? Suppose that every blind person who came got to see? Suppose that every lame person got to walk?

Go and tell John what you hear and see . . .

Jesus is hoping that John gets it – that John will see that his life was not lived in vain. He is hoping that John will let go of what he always thought, what he always believed and what he always preached in order to receive the gift of knowing that, in fact, he did prepare the way of The-One-Who-Is-To-Come. It’s just that The-One-Who-Is-To-Come wasn’t who John expected.

What do you expect? What does your life stand for? What are your deepest beliefs? What if they are wrong? What if God has something better in mind for you than  you expect? Would you give up what you think your life stands for? Would  you give up what you had worked for all your life? Would you receive the gift of what you didn’t expect, but what you have always wanted?

Something Important for Parents to Remember

Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist who specializes in helping people resolve difficult childhood issues observed in a recent newsletter that more of his patients are entering this holiday season under stress than at any time in his memory. The economic downturn means that a lot of people are facing a more meager Christmas this year.

He advises people to be honest about the stress and to find less expensive ways to celebrate Christmas. He concluded with these words:

Finally, for all the parents out there, consider this:  In my sixteen years practicing psychiatry, not one person has judged his or her parents based on their economic resources.  Ever.  They are always remembered for the quality of their love and the gifts of time and attention they give. 

Welcome!

Yes, Welcome! 
It's not just the word I want to say to you who have come to the new Electric Circuit Rider. It's also part of the spiritual discipline of Advent.

When Jesus came into the world, "there was no room in the house" so his first crib was a animal feed box. We make room for Jesus by making room for each other.

I used to visit a man who only had one chair in his apartment - and he sat in it while I stood.  I was his only visitor and I have to admit that I did not find the time to visit often nor to stay very long. He talked and I listened. Mostly he complained that he was lonely!

I knew another man who lived alone in a very similar small apartment, but he had two chairs and when I came to visit him he always graciously met me at the door and offered me a chair. He asked how I was and wanted to hear about my family. I visited him often and so did other people in the church.

Picture your heart. Does it have one chair or two? I know there are many days when I only have one chair and I'm sitting in it. I'm so wrapped up in myself and my issues that I don't give anyone else room to be themselves in my presence.

On the Second Sunday in Advent this year we read: "Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ as welcomed you, for the glory of God." (Romans 15:7)

In other words, pull up a chair!