|
"Holy and Beloved"
I really like old movies. You know the black and white ones from the ‘30’s and 40’s. Most every Christmas, and this year was no exception, I watch one of those movies by the name of The Bishop’s Wife. It first came out in 1947 and stars Loretta Young, David Niven, Cary Grant and Monty Wooly – just a bit of trivia for those of you who relate to this kind of thing or even know who these folks were.
In sum, the film is about an Episcopal bishop, his wife and an angel. It’s about how muddled life can become when we get off track. Specifically, the film is about this bishop named Henry who rose from a poor parish to become bishop, but somewhere along the way lost track of what’s important. He lost his compassion, his joy and his love for both the church and for his family. Henry became obsessed with the plans for a grand, new cathedral in the diocese, plans, which aren’t going all that well as the movie begins. So the film opens with a stressed and frustrated Henry turning to God for guidance. You know the phrase – be careful what you pray for. Guidance, for Harry, came in the form of a good-natured, yet meddling angel played by Cary Grant. The angel does his work, and, as with most movies of this era, the ending is happy. Priorities are set straight, joy and compassion are restored and relationships are mended. In the final scene, the bishop begins a Christmas Eve sermon at his former parish – a sermon penned by the angel: Tonight I want to tell you a story about an empty stocking. Once
upon a midnight clear there was a child's cry. A blazing star hung
over a stable and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't
forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on
Christmas trees and the cry of bells and gifts - but especially with
gifts. You give me a book. I give you a tie. Aunt Martha always wanted
an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe. Oh, we
forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled. All that
is, except one. We have even forgotten to hang it up. A stocking for
the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we're celebrating. Don’t
let us ever forget that. Let's ask ourselves what He would wish for
most. And then let each put in his or her share - loving kindness -
warm hearts - and the stretched out hand of tolerance - all the
shining gifts that make peace on earth. Good movie that encourages us to ask a good question. What would he, the child born in a manger, wish for most? What does Jesus want from us? A good question to ask on this first Sunday of Christmas, a good question on this eve of new calendar year, a good question just days before the wise men follow the star to present their gifts to this child. It’s a good question for us to ask ourselves as individuals, an essential question for us to ask ourselves as his church not just now, on this Sunday, but at other times and often throughout the year. What is it that Jesus would wish for most? Again, an important question and a question that brings us to this morning’s reading from Colossians for an answer, an answer that has several parts. The first part of the answer is the most important part of the answer. In the very first verse today, Jesus wants most for us to know that we are "God’s chosen, holy and beloved." Jesus wants most for us to know that we are God’s own and that God values and loves us. In essence, the first thing that Jesus wants most is to give us the gift of God’s love. What a gift! The creator of the sun and the moon and all the stars, the creator of heaven and earth, loves us. We are God’s chosen, God’s holy and beloved. As an aside so that we get off on to the right start in understanding the rest of the answer, however, we need to be clear that being chosen, being holy and beloved in no way means that we are better than anyone else or that we’re more righteous than anyone else or that God’s love is reserved only for us. To put this in scriptural context, the first chapter of Colossians, which we didn’t read, reminds us that in Christ "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven . . . (Col. 1:19)." Given that aside and in the context of hearing that God values and loves us, we are more able to appreciate what Jesus wants next. As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, [we are to] clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. [We are to] bear with one another . . . forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven us, so you also we must forgive. Above all, [we are to] clothe ourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (3:12-14). Nice words, wonderful ideals – compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love – a stocking for the Christ child filled with loving kindness, warm hearts, out-stretched hands. Yet, are these just the ideals for sentimental movies? You can imagine, of course, that my answer is "no." These are ideals, yes, yet they are the very real promises of the hope and joy that come because we have done what Jesus wants most – to accept God’s enormous, life changing love that was given to us through that baby in a manger. That love can and does change our lives so that we become the human beings that God wants us to be. We don’t, however grow into the se wonderful ideals, these clothes of compassion, kindness, etc. overnight and we don’t do it by ourselves. Remember, the boy Samuel in our first reading this morning. Imagine, again, like I did with the children. Imagine those robes hanging side by side getting a little bigger each year. Just like Samuel, we don’t grow into the clothes Jesus wants us to wear overnight. And, like Samuel, we don’t do it on our own. We don’t experience the life changing love God shows us in Christ on our own. We learn about this love together. We begin to believe it together. We mature into its meaning for our lives together. And, we call that togetherness the church. It is together that we learn, as today’s scripture goes on to say, to "[l]et the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly." It is together that we "teach and admonish one another in [God’s] wisdom." It is together, "with gratitude in [our] hearts, that we "sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God" (Col 3:26). And, finally, it is only together that we have a prayer of being able, in the last words of our reading, "in word or deed, [to] do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." On this first Sunday of Christmas, this eve before a new year, this Sunday before the magi present their gifts, we can commit ourselves, together, as God’s holy and beloved, as Christ’s church, to staying on track. We can commit to asking ourselves over and over as we give of our time and money, as make decisions about our programs and facilities - what would Jesus want most? An empty stocking to be filled with loving kindness, warm hearts, tolerance – a new life in Christ clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Will we be the same people, the same church, the same world when Christmas 2007 or the next or the next Christmas rolls by? I think that Jesus wants the answer to be no and wants to hear the answer loud and clear in a thankful chorus from his chosen, his holy and beloved. Christ’s church can answer no – things won’t be the same because we commit to being the place where, above all else, the love of God unites our togetherness, where the love of Jesus dwells deeply in us and where the word of love is taught in everything, in all we say and do. God came as that little baby in the manager so that we, as God’s holy and beloved, could lead the way showing the world that it can change, that it is possible to live from love and not fear.[1] We can lead the way to becoming the human beings God wants most for us to be. We can lead the way when together we begin to take very seriously that we are holy and beloved, that God values and loves us more than we can imagine, and when we begin to let that love dwell richly in us influencing everything we do. All glory and thanks be to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit now and forevermore. _________________ |
Darla
Blatnik