ps from ps… Last week: “Prepare the way! Someone greater is coming after me!” – John the baptizer in the desert. That was in Mark’s gospel.
Now this week: “Make straight the Way of the Lord!” – John the baptizer in the desert. That was in John’s gospel.
Two weeks in a row, two different gospels, two different accounts. One message: prepare and make straight the Way for the Lord.
As a parish pastor for most of my career and with all the cool stuff to focus on and reference in this season, I often ask: Two weeks of John the Baptist, eh? We really need to hear from him two weeks in a row in Adventy/Christmasy/December? You don’t want to feather in more Mary/Joseph stuff? Or some Gospel of Linus from the stage at the Christmas play?
I guess the reason for the John-Double-Header might just be: that we need to hear it. We need to hear it more than once. We need the more consistent voice inviting us into the gift of preparation.
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundr…twice!” says John.
It’s a repeating invitation, maybe…. so we allow it to sink in. Maybe, repeated so we we take action and actually do it.
This morning I give thanks for the consistent voice of John who repeatedly invites us into a better Way. I give thanks for the repetitions of grace that offer a new way of allowing the old Way of loving us to be more deeply experienced.
Have you had those voices in your life? Those consistent voices of people, family, teachers, coaches, prophets and the like that have spoken a word of grace to you somewhere between twice and a hundred times? Have you had that friend that called you out and guided you toward a better way? Has a voice, through some trusted person, invited you to prepare for God’s love and passed on the faith to you?
Maybe today is the day to thank them? Maybe today is the day to reach out to them and reconnect? Maybe today is the day to remember and honor their lives if they are no longer with us? And maybe today is the day for YOU to now be that consistent voice for someone else, sharing the faith, offering a different way and helping others get ready for grace?
You think we can do that? Don’t make me ask twice.
Lord, thank you for those consistent voices of love in our lives. Amen
ps from ps… “Prepare the way! Someone greater is coming after me!” – John the baptizer in the desert.
Preparing for what? Greater to do what? And when will it happen?
I just think a lot about the people that went out to see/hear John preach. He was “different.” Probably really different. Dressed weird. Eating strange food. Preaching from a bizarre place. Today we might label him “nut job” or mentally ill or crazy preacher man, slap a label on him and we probably would pay him no mind.
But back then, they still went. From Jerusalem and the Judean countryside. All the way out to the “wilderness” to hear something new. Something hopeful. Something intriguing. Something worth the trip and sorely needed. Something to help them figure out “when.”
They were exiles on many levels. They were separated from something important. They were waiting for someone, a Messiah….THE Messiah, to show up and fix everything that was out of whack. Out of sorts. Imperfect. And bring God’s reign. God’s perfection. God’s kingdom of heaven that breaks in and becomes/is that balm that they so badly needed. They had heard from so many others that it was going to happen at some point. Wouldn’t it be great if they could schedule it actually happening? Set their watches to it?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could?
I remember going to see Old Faithful as a kid on our family’s “National Lampoon’s Vacation” trip out west. Old Faithful: that geyser erupts 20 times a day and is only a max of a few minutes off schedule each time. That’s incredible! Predictable. On time. Expected. You can set your watch to it!
Was that what they went into the wilderness to find? Old Faithful? Were they finally going to get some answers from the crazy preacher with the weird clothes that ate weird things?
As John shared his words, I wonder if they were as amazed as I was as a little kid in front of that geyser? That every so often, something was going to “erupt.” Something incredible. Not of my making. Not of my scheduling. Not of my fully understanding of what was happening below the surface. But something “greater” was going on. One that was Greater. Right on (God’s) schedule!
And so they returned from the wilderness to their towns. Their villages. Their countrysides. Their jobs working. Their families doing. Their Thursdays unfolding. Their exiles ending. Their vaccine waiting. Their pandemic end hoping. Their lost loved ones grieving. Their racism end waiting. Their politics dividing. Their separated relationships yearning. Their watches still not setting. Their Advent….waiting.
And yet while they returned to all of that, they could still hear his voice, remember his look, feel his invitation and sense his truth: Prepare. A way. For THE Way. One is coming. Greater than I. Greater than THIS. Greater than. Right on (God’s) schedule.
ps from ps… “Each starting line doesn’t hold a guarantee, but instead a potential” – Coach on this morning’s run
Today, I am grateful for every terrible run I have!
(Whoa, Steve, get it together. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We’re looking for upbeat here. Got it? Carry on.)
Today, I am grateful for the arguments and struggles I have with my wife!
(Hang on dude. That’s the exact opposite of what I was talking about. Focus!!)
Today, I am grateful for financial problems I’ve encountered!
(Stephen!! – now you know I’m being serious because only your mom and your 4th grade math teacher called you that. Have you been drinking? It’s only 9:20am and there’s no Bills game so it can’t be that. What is with you???)
Today, I am grateful for the hard stuff. The starting lines that took me on the runs I didn’t expect, didn’t like and maybe struggled and suffered. Today, on this Thanksgiving Eve, I’m grateful for the hard stuff.
So often we sit around our Thanksgiving tables and share the happy-happy-joy-joy stuff. And that’s good, it really is. Maybe this year is will happen on Zoom Thanksgiving Tables instead? Celebrate those things. They are good for sure.
But this morning, I was reflecting on the upcoming text from Mark 13. Pastor Jeremiah shares a message on a text that sounds downright scary with the sun and moon darkened and clouds of thunder. Yikes! And yet we are supposed to be ushering in Advent. Sweet gentle happy-happy-joy-joy Advent that ushers in even sweeter Christmas!
But today I’m grateful for this text. Because underneath the “sci-fi” sounding images is a returning God to complete what was started – “a revolution of love,” Pastor Jeremiah will call it. A revolution of love. The same love God has been bringing again and again from the start of it all. And yet it’s sometimes not an easy path to experience that love. To feel it. To trust it. And yet it’s coming. Again. And more.
Every starting line doesn’t hold a guarantee, but instead a potential.
Some of the runs we go on will be hard. Some of the arguments will be rough. Some of the pandemics will be tradition changing and even life taking. Some of the health changes will be challenging.
But on each of these “runs” we have the potential to move through them and reflect on them with a faith in God and God of faith that isn’t just about the happy-happy-joy-joy, but instead about the potential. Our potential. And God’s potential to love us through it.
Through the struggles. Through the financial issues. Through the relationship challenges. Through, yes, even death itself.
So today, I’m grateful. For the hard moments. The hard runs. That reminded me I made. I got through it. That God was with me. That God sometimes pushed me through, directed my ways and even at times carried me.
May this Thanksgiving, a different one for sure, be filled with gratitude. For the good. For the hard. And for God’s presence on, in and throughout every part of it.
(Ah. I got now. I see where you’re going. Carry on.)
ps from ps… God has work. We have hands. And legs. And presence. And hearts. And talents.
So let’s use them!
And the Bible is full of stories of these intersection of work and hands. God inspiring, asking and sending regular ol’ folk to do the incredible work of building the kingdom of God here on earth.
We refer to them as “call stories.” These are the stories when the disciples, Jeremiah, Paul, Stephen, Moses…..and the list goes on and on…are “called” by God to do something. Something specific that uses the gifts of said person. Something specific that uses said person’s gifts and talents to do something specific in the world: lead people to the promised land, bring a certain message to people who have become distracted, start churches all over the world, etc.
Now those are some pretty big tasks for sure. But sometimes the call is much more basic: to stand with the outcast, to share your wealth, to feed hungry people, to change your patterns of how you recognize God. (These are just a few “calls” Jesus puts out there in about two chapters of one gospel…so there’s lots more there!)
This weekend in worship, Pastor Jeremiah, Pastor Julius and I will share a bit of our own call stories. None of us were asked to do anything too overwhelming. But all of us were asked to do some of those things that Jesus spoke of.
And when I say “all of us,” I don’t just mean three pastors. I mean ALL OF US.
That call comes to all of us through our baptisms, through our relationships with our churches, and through our service in the community. God continues to say to us: “Hey you! I’ve got some work. You got some hands?”
What work does God have in store for you today? A fire/ems call? Outreach to an elderly person? Sharing food with the pantry? Calling to check on someone grieving? And in each of these cases, someone reading this has the right hands to use.
May we all hear today’s call and have hands ready to go.
ps from ps… And the colors are changing again. And I don’t mean the leaves on the trees.
Erie County in NY has moved to “yellow” on the way to “orange” and unfortunately “red” as we look to continue battling the spread of Covid-19. We like these colors when we drive around to look at the leaves or rake them on the ground, but not necessarily in our health plan. And so we will be asked to scale back, scale down and go to battle again against this spread, probably until a vaccine is ready to roll.
And yet, God’s abundance hasn’t stopped pouring over us for one minute!
Our gospel lesson coming up this weekend is a story from Matthew that you can read here. It’s about a master that shared talents with his slaves and then went on a journey. Long story short, when he arrives back he praises the slaves that invested the talents and produced more of them. He tells the slave that didn’t do anything with them that he missed the point.
Now I don’t think this is Jesus’ story about how we can make big bucks or that we should put all our resources in the stock market. I think it’s a reminder that God is a god of abundance, pouring out blessings for us to live into. The those blessings will continue to flow. Continue to overflow. Continue to be given to us. Continue to increase when we share and invest them into the world.
So what does this mean as the “colors” change? As we pull back again, it will be very easy to, like the slave that missed the point, stop investing those blessings. But our God of Abundance still says invest away. Share your blessings and more will come. Share your time, talents and treasure. Share your love, grace and forgiveness. Share your energy, gifts and passions.
Will it be easy? Probably not. Our normal patterns of sharing are about to be disrupted again. But just like we emphasize that Covid doesn’t “close” churches, Covid doesn’t get to close God’s blessings and our chances to share them. In fact, with a little thought, prayer and creativity, there are probably more ways to invest now than ever before.
So invest your talents in new and creative ways. God’s promise is to surround us with abundance of love and grace as we do.
Lord, keep us healthy and help in these colorful times to invest the blessings you give us. Amen
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