Year A - Christmas Eve

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Trinity Episcopal Church 
Towson, MD
December 24, 2016

Year A - Christmas

Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14(15-20)
Psalm 96

We have just heard an amazing story… An amazing story of a miraculous birth… A wonderful story of a child that was born who was called Jesus (God Saves)… Emmanuel (God With Us). A child who, before he grew up, was referred to as Lord and King.

           

The lesson that was just read from the 2^nd chapter of the Gospel of Luke is probably one of the most well know chapters in all of holy scripture. Folks who consider themselves Christian, who have heard the story before, but probably couldn’t tell you what chapter or book it’s from, could probably recite a few verses of Luke 2 from memory. That’s how well known it is... A story this deep and this meaningful goes deep into your soul and gets into your DNA… It becomes part of you.

Can you remember the first time you remember hearing the story? It could have been when you were very young, or it could have been just last year, or last week, or even 3 minutes ago. Remember? Remember how it made you feel deep down inside? Remember the simplicity, the mystery, the magnificence, and the harshness… all rolled into one tight-knit, complex story.

Most of you know that I have been working on my Christmas sermon for a little over a month now, amid all the other complexities of my life. Kelly is not home this Christmas, she continues to improve, but will not be discharged from the hospital until Tuesday. So, it is through this lens that I am thinking about the story… the story that is deeply part of who we are. I decided to have you think back a bit because that is what I have been doing these past few weeks…

I can remember when my sister and I were little… I’m talking little-little…  too little to go to “late church” on Christmas Eve. My parents would go to midnight mass and we would stay with my Grandparents who had come to spend the Holidays with us.

But before my sister and I went off to bed, we would always be allowed to open one Christmas gift from under the tree. I was ALWAYS a new pair of pajamas. See, my dad was a photographer, so the Christmas morning outfit had to be just right for pictures!

After we opened the gift, my sister and I would crawl up in my father’s lap on the couch in the living room, and he would open up the Bible to Luke, chapter 2. He would open it up and start reading, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed…

And with the poetry and rhythm of the Victorian English in the King James version, the story was shared. Shared… shared outside of the church, shared in the comfort of a living room in a father’s lap… shared while surrounded by family. Shared within a family by a family.

My family wasn’t uber-religious. They were just simple believers with a deep and profound faith. A deep faith that was developed, sustained and nurtured by practice. We went to church and practiced our faith. Practiced, because proper preparation takes practice. So, we showed up and participated… I would like to think it played a part in my continuing faith formation. I think that it has helped me become the person of faith that I am today…

There is another tradition in our home around Christmas time. It is watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas Special.” Some of you may have seen it. It has run every year since December 1965. 51 years of Charlie Brown and Linus and the Peanuts gang, the poor raggedy excuse of a tree, and of course, snoopy and his overly decorated dog house…

The part of that animated special that always sticks out for me was the part during the preparations for the Christmas play at their school, directed by Charlie Brown, of course, Good Ole Charlie Brown asks the question, “does anyone know what Christmas is all about?”

And then you could have heard a pin drop when Linus perks up and takes center stage and the spotlight goes on him and he starts reciting a portion of Luke 2 that we just heard read…

“And there were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, 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, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

And then simply turns back to Charlie Brown and says, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

I must have seen that show 40 or 50 times. I know that I’m only 49 years old, but some years I watched it twice! It wasn’t till this year when I read something that was written about the creation of the famous Christmas animation. Then I watched it again, and understood that Charles Shultz, with the wonderful characters and animation, gave us a message within the Christmas story. Gave us a message that we would only notice if we were paying careful attention to what was going on in the action of the scene.

The character of Linus, who was Lucy’s brother, was an intelligent, yet insecure and somewhat immature young man who carried a security blanket and sucked his thumb right up into elementary school. This character, Linus, who needed to hold onto his blanket to feel safe to feel secure in this cruel and broken world…

When he gets to the part where he says that the angel said, “FEAR NOT,” he drops his blanket and continues to tell the story.

At the words, “Fear not,” he releases everything in this world that he holds onto to feel safe and trades it for the peace of this newborn hope...

Fear not, when we would be otherwise be terrified and riddled with fear cowering in a corner In a puddle of our own tears…

Fear not, of the evils of this world of the destruction and danger and death around the block, down the street, and over the seas…

Fear not, of the powers and regimes, of kingdoms and presidents and governments and economies and other principalities and prisons, both physical and psychological.

“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Brothers and sisters, this is the day where we start anew. Start anew with a fresh hope that God is indeed with us… Immanuel

A fresh hope that comes to use amid the terror, death and destruction that we bring upon our selves…

A fresh hope, born in a stable in Bethlehem of Judea those many years ago.

I asked you to stop for a minute to remember. Remember the ancient story and how it was revealed to you. How you came to know the story. It could have been through a parent a father or mother, or another relative. Or it could have been a friend, or a pastor, or teacher. Or possibly you could have heard it the first time when watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Or you could have possibly heard it for the first time tonight.

Regardless of how or where, you’re here tonight because this story means something to you.

It hopefully means that you haven’t given up in your quest for understanding…

It means that regardless of how bad things are or how bad they may get, you know that your real security… your real faith is based on things that can’t always be explained…

It means that we trust in a truth revealed to us by fulfilled prophecy…

It means that we believe in a story that brings hope, love, and peace in the midst of despair…

A holy story about a holy child who is God with us…

A holy child, Jesus, who is God saving us…

“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Hearing the story again, what does it mean to you? Is it a part of you, part of your DNA that you will share with others? How will you let it change your life? How will you let it change the world?

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace!                

Year C - 3 Lent - February 28, 2016

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Church - Towson, MD

Year C - 3 Lent - February 28, 2016

Exodus 3:1-15

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

Psalm 63:1-8

I was immediately caught by the phrase in today’s collect… “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” As much as we think that we have it all figured out and that we have it all together, we don’t! Not without the help of something else… Not without the help of someone else.

I can remember as a young child, full of ambition and pride, knowing and feeling like I could actually accomplish something on my own. You can probably remember a time like that too… Pick the task… Maybe tying your shoes, dressing yourself, or riding a bike. We can sometimes remember when we first did things by ourselves.

I can remember the time when my mom and dad thought I was old enough to order my own meal at the local Carroll’s drive in. (was Carroll’s a thing in Baltimore?) I’m now showing my age… Anyway, I can remember taking the change and walking up to the counter at Carroll’s (Because they were both eat in and dive in) and ordering my first meal… I was so proud of myself…

But our collective prayer that was written in the year 590 says, “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” The church has been praying this for over 1425 years, and yet we still think we can do it all by ourselves…

Moses didn’t think he could do the tremendous task of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt by himself… That’s not the example that we get from Exodus. When given the great task by the mighty voice coming to him out of a bush he says, “who am I that I should go to Pharaoh” as if to say… I’m not able, I can’t do this by myself… And the voice then assures Moses… “I will be with you!”

Let’s think back again on those tasks that we remember… That we think we did all by ourselves, like Tying your shoes, dressing yourself, or riding a bike. I can assure you that when it came time for you to learn to tie your shoes someone taught you! For me, it was my grandfather… and he didn’t only teach me how to tie my shoes, he taught my kids how to tie their shoes… So, tying my shoes is not something I did by myself. And neither was dressing myself, or riding a bike…

If you can ride a 2-wheel bike, you can probably remember someone helping you, coaching you… maybe holding the back of the seat and giving you a gentle push. We all had help in one way or another.

In our baptismal vows, we ascribe to the covenant and promises … with God’s help…  I will, with God’s help. We say it allowed “I WILL, WITH GOD’s HELP!” We are not expected nor or we encouraged to do it any other way…  And we are definitely not encouraged to live the Christian life alone.

Part of our formation…  part of our learning is our dependence on being taught… it’s our willingness to engage… Our willingness to reach out for help and encouragement. In my opinion, It’s part of why we have many of the issues that we have today with narcissism and self centeredness…  

It all part of the stresses of life that have been wrapped around us by a society that expects everyone to have it all figured out… all figured out – all the time – all by ourselves. So we drive ourselves crazy as we puff out our chest and go in to tackle it… and not ask for help or input, because society thinks that asking for help is somehow considered a weakness.

The 1400 year old collective prayer says, “Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.”

The fig tree is not producing fruit… It’s not producing bad fruit, it’s not producing good fruit… It’s not producing ANY fruit… And somehow, the owner of the vineyard thinks it’s the tree’s fault. Obviously he’s forgotten that it’s just a tree… and like any part of God’s creation, it needs to be cared for… None the less, the owner wants the gardener to cut it down. He says, “Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”

The gardener pleads with the owner to give him another year… to nurture and fertilize the tree… to give the tree a chance...

We are all given a chance, a chance to learn… a chance to ask for help…  Help from God - the only One who can help us. A chance to relinquish some of our worldly control and stubbornness, and let go of our need to do it all by ourselves.

A chance to realize that we are not just a waste of soil, but we are held fast by the right hand of God like the Psalmist says. A chance to be nourished and given the opportunity to bare the good fruit.

But to also remember, when we do bare the good fruit, and if we follow and trust in God to do so… When we do, it was only done by the grace of God… And we didn’t do it ourselves…

Year C - Christmas 2 - January 3, 2016

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, MD

Year C - Christmas 2 - January 3, 2016

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a

Matthew 2:1-12

Psalm 84 or 84:1-8

#magionthemove picture shared from the Rev. Jenny Cooper Gettys

Here we are, it’s the 10^th day of Christmas and we pick up the story of the nativity of Jesus this morning with a visit from eastern strangers. The reading calls them “wise men.” Some translations call them Magi – from which we get the word Magic. They are speculated to be from as far east - as far as the orient, or from as near east as near as Persia (which is modern day Iran). We don’t exactly know how wise they were, but we do know that they knew something that the rest of the world hadn’t figured out yet. They were scholars who studied the stars in the western sky and decided to take a chance that one particular star they saw might lead them to something significant.

The Jewish world at the time was looking for and waiting for a messiah (a savior). The special “anointed one” of God that was promised by the prophets to come and heal and restore Israel…

Promise made, much like the ones we heard from Jeremiah, about a scattered and forgotten people being gathered together - the blind and lame being healed and led back to right relationship with God. Led back to a rejoicing community that will sing praises of joy and gladness because they were redeemed and delivered from the hands of their oppressors.

The people of Israel knew what they were looking for, they knew what they were praying for and they got it, but they didn’t even realize it.

What is significant to the story is that these different people com from a different land, a foreign land, and even though they were not Jews, they knew who this special child was and they came to pay their respects and worship him.

When Herod the Great heard about the strangers and what they were doing, he was terrified - afraid that his political life was over, and that he and the Herodian Kingdom would be overthrown. Afraid that somehow the Davidic Kingdom was being restored. We know that Herod didn’t want to worship Jesus. Herod wanted to kill him and selfishly protect his own power.

We can only imagine how everyone in the house felt when those eastern strangers showed up knocking on doors. Strangers asking questions, wondering where the baby was who was born to be “King of the Jews.” They finally find Jesus in a house in Bethlehem, and they knelt down and worshipped him. These strangers from a strange land. And these wise eastern strangers, these men brought with them gifts to present to the child… Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

There’s an old joke going around, we know that these were wise MEN, because if they were wise WOMEN, they would have brought more practical gifts.

However, there are some interesting things about this story that we probably need to pay some closer attention to…

The first thing is not readily noticed. Probably because the song has more lore in it than scriptural fact. It is the number of these strangers. The scripture doesn’t say how many there were. We know that there was more than one, and that in itself is significant. This wasn’t a random act of one confused traveler. This was an intentional journey. For these strangers, this journey was a pilgrimage of discovery and hope. Hope in a restored Israel with a righteous King, and hope in a renewed and restored world.

We do know that these strangers brought 3 gifts with them. Maybe that’s where they got the three from. Because it wouldn’t be hospitable to show up empty handed.

Over the years, theologians and scholars have thought that these gifts were significant to who these eastern strangers thought Jesus was.

They say that Gold is important because it was associated with Kings. Herod certainly had his share of Gold. It would be only natural for someone regarded as a king to be presented with Gold.

Frankincense is the incense used in worship. Incense that is still used in worship. Originally, we can imagine it was used to ward off the stench of the carcasses of dead animals that were sacrificed and possibly the bodily odors of others. But it’s so much more than that. Burning incense symbolizes our prayers and offerings as the smoke rises to the heavens… We know and are reminded that God is there to hear us and receive our prayers and show us grace and favor. So it would be natural to give incense to someone who was thought to be righteous and faithful.

Myrrh is a precious perfumed oil that is used to anoint a dead body. Care for the deceased is a sacred act in most every culture. Scholars speculate that the gift of Myrrh is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ tragic death.

We don’t know what the reason for the gifts, we just know what they are. We can only speculate why these eastern strangers brought them and presented them to Jesus. These eastern strangers…  the magi… the wise men, who may have been wiser than we realize.

Wise enough to look for God and follow the signs that they recognized in order to find the perfect manifestation of God’s self the person of Jesus the Anointed one – the Christ.

Wise enough to seek God out amid struggles and stresses of the journey of life. They didn’t come because it was convenient. They came from far away and made a difficult long journey just to have an opportunity to kneel for a minute and worship this newborn righteous King.

Wise enough to honor God with gifts of wealth and symbols of worship and honor and respect… Representations of human livelihood and vitality.

We don’t know who these Eastern Strangers were. The scriptures leaves it very vague. Their only appearance is in the Gospel according to Matthew, and it is still somewhat a mystery.

A mystery which shows us that the reign of the living God is much bigger than just the nation of Israel…

A mystery that shows us that strangers… those that don’t look like us or act like us, sometimes know more about what’s going on than we do…

A mystery which allows us to have hope, have hope and rejoice in the possibility of a renewed and restored world.

It’s amazing how a simple story of 12 sentences can reveal to us a God who not only loves us but will make everything right that we have made wrong. It’s the part of the Christmas story that the modern church has lumped in with the Shepherds and the stable, instead of it owning its own respected place as it relates to the mystery of the incarnation.

I have a friend from seminary that is on social media. I remember her as super creative, and I loved what she has been doing recently with her posts, so I thought I would share it with you. It’s called “magi on the move.” Since Christmas, she has been posting a group of figurines representing the magi, much like the figures we have here in our crèche.

The fun part is that there isn’t just 3 of them nor are any of them the same. In one picture there has got to be 10 or 14 big and tall, short and small. And, much like the flat Jesus photos that we took over the summer, these magi figures can be seen at different places on their journey… even at a visitor’s center asking for directions…  searching for the one who was to be the ruler and shepherd of God’s people. Probably much like we know that those wise men did so long ago in search of a child that they knew would deliver Israel and restore the world.

My friend and colleague was pretty wise herself. And, in this fun expressive way, came up with a method to remind us what we all seem to have forgotten.

That like those eastern strangers of old, we need to be wise again.

We have forgotten how to search for God. We need to be wise enough to keep seeking and searching for God. And then we need to let God show up in those unexpected places.

We need to wise enough let God into this dysfunctional world and let God restore it with equity, truth, and peace.

We need to be wise enough to give of our resources in order to help continue the mission of restoration, so that not only us, but future generations will benefit from knowing God’s love.

We are called to be wise ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, bringing about restoration in our own lives… but not just our own lives, we need to be about the loving work God has given us to do and help restore the lives of others.

So that the WHOLE human race will be restored and will know the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.