Month: December 2023

December 24, 2023, First Congregational Church UCC, Auburn MA

Luke 2: 1-14      In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room. 

Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”^,*

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in  your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen. 

Down my way, we’ve had a month filled with turmoil, what with the closing of I-195 west, and that truly nasty storm early this past week.  Things are going well for us now – the adjustments to 195 east created additional west-bound lanes, we’ve all got our power back, and all the trash blown around town in the storm has been picked up.  195 won’t be fully open until Easter, as repairs commence on the bridge, but except for rush hour, things are really good.

And that seems to be a problem.  My community FB group is filled with criticism of the State Road folks, our Mayor, the police department, and what all else…. Because, it seems, things can’t possibly be good.  

The bridge was inspected in July and was safe.  The damage is representative of a sudden failure = steel bars are snapped, for instance.  All the evidence points to an abrupt failure, possibly caused by, say, an overloaded truck.  When the signs of failure were seen, they were promptly reported, evaluated, and bridge closed.  Most importantly, the bridge didn’t collapse.  And yet, people continue to think the whole thing is the result of mismanagement.  Likewise, the increase in traffic is the fault of the mayor, or a plot he engineered to raise his popularity.

Now think about the kind of mindset that always wants to pull defeat out of victory, that expects that everything is a deliberate attempt to hurt others, and listen to these words from Jesus:

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

That’s Jesus, the same baby whose birth we’re celebrating.  And it is the truth that he teaches that sets us free.  That’s why we celebrate – this baby grew up to change our world.  And today, this baby continues to offer us a way of life that leads to freedom.

There’s a reason this service is always held after dark, a reason beyond the practical.  This service is at night to help us see and make the connection, that Jesus is a light in the darkness, a guiding star in the murk of everyday life.  When all else is muffled, Jesus can make things clear.

We all have expectations and understandings that help us make order out of chaos, help us make sense of a world which often isn’t fair, that’s filled with threat, pain, and death.  Jesus has brought us a way to live that not only makes sense, it makes joy, it makes happiness; it sets us free.

It’s not necessarily easy, though.  Jesus’ way is one of constant standing up to the day-to-day push to put off being good until tomorrow, or until whenever.  It means standing up to expectation that we’ll go along to get along.  It means standing up to our own tendency to take the easy path.

The first thing most of us do when things go wrong is look for someone to blame, as so many of us did in East Providence.  Jesus doesn’t blind us to the bad, but he does teach us to look for the good and build on that.

The next thing that many of us do when things go wrong is to get angry.  Anger is our first way of dealing with pain.  Jesus doesn’t pretend the pain isn’t there, but he teaches us to respond in ways that name the pain, rather than hiding it with anger.

So much of our world is built on the assumption that since everyone’s out to get us, we might as well get ours first.  Jesus teaches us that the only time we should “get ours first” is when we’re putting on an emergency air mask on an airplane, and then it’s because going first allows us to save others.

This Jesus, this baby, born so long ago, on a cold night, in a stable, this son of God, has taught us that we can make our lives worth living.  He has taught us that we need not be wealthy, educated, good-looking, leaders of the community, to do good, to be good people.  Loving others is within our grasp.  Any one of us, and hopefully all of us, can do it.

There are those in the world who would like us to think that we need to be wealthy to matter.  Jesus says they are wrong.  

There are those in our world who would like us to think that we need to be mean, need to lie, cheat and steal to matter.  But Jesus says they are wrong.

Jesus brings good news to all the people:

We are loved.
We matter.
We can make a difference.

Know that truth, and let it make you free.

Amen.

© 2023, Virginia H. Child

First Congregational Church UCC, December 17, 2023

Luke 1:39ff – In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴ For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 

And Mary said,  “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.  Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name;  indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly;  he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.  He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”  And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Why did Jesus come?  Why do we rejoice?

There’s no doubt that, by his coming, he has made a way out of no way, made a way for us to be in right relationship with God and our world, made it possible for us to understand ourselves as saved.  We learn that, not only by hearing and reading the stories, but in our Christmas carols… in the words, for instance, of O Little Town of Bethlehem, when we sing 

. . . so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven. . . .

or think of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’s lines, 

Mild he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth.

And if that were all Christ did by becoming human, being born as a baby, weak and powerless, poor and despised, it would be wonderful.  But we are blessed to know that Jesus’ gift to us is more than that.

Or maybe it would be more accurate to understand that the gift of Jesus in our world, in our lives, is much more, much better than just something for each one of us individually.

Because Jesus creates community.  Jesus gives us a world where people help one another.  Think about it.  If all Jesus were about were our individual destinies, life would be a lonely affair, with each one of us mostly just concerned about ourselves.  But we are not left there, maybe surrounded by all the best stuff, but with no one to be with.

No, Christ saves us, for sure, but saves  us for a purpose, for the building up of the world.  There is no where in the Bible that states this more clearly than in today’s Gospel reading, Mary’s song, the Magnificat.

When Mary and Gabriel spoke together, as Luke tells the story, Gabriel tells her she will bear a son who will rule over the world.  And then when Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Mary tells us the rest of the story.  Ruling the world is not about political power or wealth, it is about the power to change the world, to transform a world of greed and self-protection into a community where all are important.  Mary says that Jesus is about feeding the hungry, about throwing down those who seek to make the world all about them.

Being saved by Jesus is only the beginning of our lives as Christians – Mary tells us the rest of the story.  We are saved to be actors in creating this new world, this great community.  One of our favorite carols, O Holy Night, tells us the story this way:  

Truly Jesus taught us to love one another:
His law is love and his gospel is peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name, all oppression shall cease.

The carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear also names this call, in a verse which is omitted from our hymnal:

And you, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way, with painful steps and slow;
Look how, for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing,
O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.

Christmas Joy is so much more than candy canes and family dinners.  It is the gift of a life which has meaning and purpose, even if we ourselves are poor, or struggling, or insignificant.  Because we follow Jesus, we know how to help create goodness wherever we are.

Now, some folks have worldly power and use their faith in wider corridors.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of RI, who attends Central Congregational Church in Providence, is working to fight climate change, to nurture and sustain a livable world in our future.  

Before I went to seminary, I worked for US Senator Robert Stafford of Vermont; a faithful member of Grace UCC in Rutland, Vermont.  Senator Stafford changed the lives of millions when he created the Stafford grants for higher education.  

And in that same church there was a woman who was a checker at a local grocery store.  She used her gift of friendliness to speak a word with every person who came through her line because, she knew, some of those folks spoke to no other person the whole week long.  You don’t have to walk in the halls of power to change the world for one person.

While I will always say that one part of this is practicing simple kindness – holding doors open, taking turns, letting a parent with a toddler go ahead of you at the grocery store – what Jesus calls to is neither simple nor easy.  It means we have to look at our world, look closely and carefully to see the places where justice and community are missing, opportunities for us to practice our faith.  It means spending time to identify the skills and gifts we have to offer.  It’s not just about finding out what a neighboring church is doing well and then copying it.  

Imagine that you know that children in your town do not have food when school’s not in session.  What could the church do?  In one town, they worked with the school to come up with a plan that could work, and began to put together weekend backpacks, filled easy-to-prepare food for kids.  

Another church I worked with looked around and realized that many children in a neighboring city, had no books.  They put together a project to provide a new book for every first grader, just in time for spring break.  That worked for them because they had connections with the school and adults who knew what books to purchase.  

Another church took on two responsibilities at their local elementary school:  they provided a continuous supply of mittens and hats and also a supply of snacks –in recognition that some of the kids did not have mittens, hats or much food  – and in recognition that the church had a busy group of knitters who were looking for a good place to give away their products.

What do people need?  What skills, gifts might we have to help with that need?  That’s the more challenging edge to the call of Jesus to live out our salvation.  It’s filled with promise, with goodness and mercy, running over with the satisfaction of helping God to create a world filled with good.

This is what Jesus calls us to do in response to his great love for us.  We are saved, and saved to be people of love, people of community, people who serve their world and help it to be better, stronger.  If Jesus gives us salvation, we give him in return, the service of our lives.  And the goal of our service is to create communities of love, justice and acceptance.

That is the true gift and purpose of Christmas.  Let us, then, share Christmas Joy with all, this year and always.

Amen.

© 2023, Virginia H. Child