December 2, 2008 -- First Sunday in Advent

How comfortable are we when we travel far from home? For the six years we lived in Mauritius, we had more than enough opportunities to see tourists behavior in a foreign land. We observed South Africans, French, Germans, Chinese from Hong Kong, Japanese, and even a few Americans. To offer to big a stereotype of tourists would be unfair, but I did observe more than one time how people visiting foreign lands never leave home. It comes in the forms of comparisons. Too often I heard comments about how Mauritius was not like their home country. This was done most often in the negative, "How can they eat a baguette with flies on them?" or "They seem too slow to get anything done!"

Traveling into a foreign land is a bit disconcerting and will keep us off balance. Advent is a bit like leaving home if we take it at its face value. Advent asks us to be patient, expectant, look to the unknown for hope. The readings form the Old Testament ask us to think about a peaceable kingdom and a Prince of Peace. We hear this in a time of open warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Hidden war with the terrorists.

It is the Messiah that will come, unbidden, into our age and travel with us in this foreign land of waiting upon God's promise to be fulfilled before our eyes.

November 25, 2007 -- Christ the King

SOME THOUGHTS ON CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY

Jeremiah 23:1-6;
Colossians 1:11-20;
Luke 23:33-43

Christ the King is a "hinge Sunday." It stands as the hinge between the long series of Sundays from Pentecost to the end of the Christian year, and is the Sunday that "swings" us to the new season -- the season of Advent -- the season of the Incarnation.

Each of the three texts for this Sunday gives the Christ followers an elevated picture of the the rabbi, teacher, healer who walked from Galilee to Jerusalem and, the "babe" to be born in a Bethlehem stable yard. These texts show us the importance of a just and merciful King that will not reign from a throne of gold and precious stones, but will reign from a rough hewed cross stained with blood.

This Christ reigning from the cross rules with forgiveness. From Christ's vantage point, he speaks these words which are heavy for us to hear, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing." Do these words bring us to shame? No. They bring us to humility and grace. They are not meant to weigh us down but to lift us up.

This Christ reigning from the cross rules with hope. The good thief, Dismis (a name found in some non canonical books), makes a plea to the Christ who reigns from the cross, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Dismis wants the future to be a new reality. He calls it "Jesus' kingdom." The kingdom is the promise of hope. With no future there is no hope. With no future today disappears into the black hole of timeless misery. Dismis knows where the Christ on the cross is going and he is willing (and able) to go with the Christ.

Our faithful and good shepherd (contra the shepherds in Jer 23) does not scatter the sheepfold to fend for themselves. No, this good Shepherd/King rules with forgiveness and hope for the redemption of all -- the believer and the unbeliever.

(I do hold out hope for the "bitter thief" that he too would find himself, not along side Christ on the hill called "the Skull", but embraced through graciousness.)