Symbols of Christmas

Christmas Eve

Luke 2.1-20

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 27:50)

 

Symbols are important to us humans. They help shape and provide meaning in our lives. A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a video on the internet that left me in absolute disbelief. A video that illustrates the importance of symbols, how they can be misunderstood, and how incredibly important they can be. Particularly during challenging times. It was the story of a dispute between a couple in Raleigh, North Carolina, and their homeowners’ association. The couple placed a six-foot wooden cross on their lawn for Christmas. They had originally put up the cross for Easter. People in the neighborhood really liked it because they saw it as a symbol of hope. So, the couple decided to put it back up for Christmas. As the couple noted, for them, the cross stands for the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So why not put it up at Christmas?

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Where God Chooses to Dwell

Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year B)

2 Samuel 7.1-11, 16; Luke 1.26-38

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:15)

 

Here on the fourth Sunday of Advent, we take up the subject of God’s choice of dwelling places. We start with our Old Testament reading from Second Samuel, in which the prophet Nathan delivers a message from God to King David. David has ascended to the throne, succeeded in uniting the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and established Jerusalem as the capital of the United Monarchy. David reasons that since he now has a nice palace built of cedar, it is not right that God should still be living in a tent. You see, during the time the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, there was a designated tent, the tent of the meeting, where the Ark of the Covenant containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments was kept. The tent of the meeting was essentially the place of worship during the 40-year wilderness journey. As such, this tent was thought to be the place where God lived. Some 200 years later, since arriving in the Promised Land, God continued to live in the tent. David figured it was now time to build God a proper home.

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Bearing Witness in Word and Action

Third Sunday of Advent (Year B)

Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11; John 1.6-8, 19-28

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 14:00)

 

Déjà vu all over again! Didn’t we just hear this Gospel reading last week? Well yes, yes we did. Sort of. Last week we heard Mark’s version of the same event: the religious authorities and others going out to see John the Baptist at the River Jordan. Although, today’s version from the Gospel according to John is more detailed. Of course, the question could be raised—and I’m sure some of you are thinking it—why didn’t the framers of our lectionary pick one or the other? Why have two versions of the same story taking up valuable scriptural real estate in Advent where we only have four Sundays to begin with? That’s a good question. And I wish I had a good answer. But I don’t. So, this is where we are. This is what we have to work with. And work with it we shall. While we may not be able to explain why we have essentially the same story two weeks running, we can look at this second go-round and see what more we can glean from our friend John the Baptist.

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The Beginning of the Good News. Just the Beginning.

Second Sunday of Advent (Year B)

Isaiah 40.1-11; Mark 1.1-8

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 12:45)

 

Like many ancient writings, the Gospel According to Mark starts off with a prologue—the first 13 verses—which, typically introduced the main characters and provided the basic knowledge needed for the hearer to follow the ensuing story. The prologue often gave a bit of a summary so that there were no surprises. The ancients did not like suspense, believing it caused the mind to wander. To prevent this from happening and to keep the audience engaged, the author needed to provide clues as to where the story was going.[i]

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Keep Alert, Now More Than Ever

First Sunday of Advent (Year B)

Isaiah 64.1-9; 1 Corinthians 1.3-9; Mark 13.24-37

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:00)

 

The season of Advent is all about anticipation, expectation, and preparation for Jesus Christ coming into our midst. Being the four weeks before Christmas, we tend to focus on this time being about anticipation, expectation, and preparation for the birth of our Messiah at Christmas. But this is only one of the “comings” that Advent anticipates. The first coming of Jesus at his birth in Bethlehem. But, as we see in today’s readings, Advent is also about anticipation, expectation, and preparation for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the ages.

 

In this strange year that is 2020, anticipation, expectation, and preparation have a different focus than our usual Advent. For us, anticipation is about the anticipation that this pandemic will one day come to end, and we will be able to return to life as normal. Anticipation of an effective vaccine. For us, expectation is about the expectation of increased cases, increased death, increased restrictions and lockdowns. For us, preparation is sort of an impossible dream right now. How do you prepare for the future when things seem more uncertain than usual? Particularly this year when we thought that nothing else could possibly happen. And then something else did happen. In this year that has seen a global pandemic, social dis-ease, racial unrest, protests, looting, more wildfires than normal, more hurricanes than normal, and then an election that saw more divisiveness than any other in our history. What more could possibly happen? Don’t ask because there is still a whole month to go in 2020.

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Serving Christ the King

Christ the King (Year A)

Matthew 25.31-46

St. Gregory's, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 18:30)

 

Even though we live in a non-monarchical society, we are certainly accustomed to hearing of Jesus Christ referred to in royal language. We hear him referred to as “Lord” on numerous occasions in Scripture. Shortly after his birth, the Magi referred to Jesus as “King of the Jews.” This same title was used mockingly at his crucifixion. We often refer to him as the Prince of Peace, particularly around Christmas time—a reference to a description by the Prophet Isaiah of a future messianic king.  And we sometimes refer to Jesus as the “King of Kings.” But emphasis on this royal imagery—and certainly devoting a whole day to the image of Christ as King—is actually a fairly recent occurrence. It all started in 1922 when Pope Pius XI, in his first encyclical, laments that while the hostilities of World War I had ceased, there was no true peace. Pope Pius expressed his concern over the rise of class division along with exploitative consumerism, as well as increased secularism and the rise of nationalism. Considering these developments, the Pope held that true peace could only be found under the Kingship of Christ as the Prince of Peace. As the Pope stated in his encyclical, “For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example.”[i]

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Keeping Our Lamp Burning

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 27 (Year A)

Joshua 24.1-3a, 14-25; 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18; Matthew 25.1-13

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 14:15)

 

The readings appointed for the Sundays in November deal with “endings”—as we move toward the conclusion of the liturgical year and prepare for the season of Advent in just a few weeks.

 

The Old Testament reading from Book of Joshua is part of Joshua’s farewell address to the people of Israel. Moses had led the Israelites through the wilderness to the Promise Land. He was not, however, the one to lead them into the Promised Land. That job fell to Joshua. It was Joshua who oversaw their efforts to take control of the land, as promised by God. Now someone else needs to lead them as they settle in and establish a new life for themselves. As he prepares for his own death, Joshua addresses the people, reminding them of what God has done for them over the last 40 plus years. Reminding them of their covenant with God. Reminding them that they need to keep going. Reminding them that to do that, they must continue to obey God.

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Following in the Path of the Saints

All Saints’ Day (Year A)

Matthew 5.1-12

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 15:00)

 

There is something about All Saints’ Day and our Gospel reading of the Beatitudes coming just two days before Election Day—particularly Election Day 2020—that is a bit ironic? Paradoxical? No, poetic. What we see going on in the Gospel account of the Sermon on the Mount has some parallels to what is happening on the campaign trail. But also, some very stark differences. Parallels in that Jesus, like candidates for political office, is traveling around the countryside delivering his message, trying to get people to follow him, to buy into his vision of what things can and should be like. The differences are in how we get to that envisioned future.

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Love God. Love Others. Everything Else Takes Care of Itself.

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 25 (Year A)

Matthew 22.34-46

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:15)

 

The temple authorities are at it again. Setting up yet another test for Jesus. Another hoop for him to jump through in their attempt to prove that he is a heretic. In today’s Gospel we hear the third and final in a series of such tests. The first, which we heard last week, was devised by the Pharisees in league with the Herodians: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (Mt 22.17). Then, in a section that our lectionary skips over, the Sadducees, who don’t believe in resurrection, ask Jesus a ridiculous question about marriage in the afterlife—the one about one bride for seven brothers. And then today, the Pharisees are back with “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Mt 22.36).

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Whose Image?

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 24 (Year A)

Matthew 22.15-22

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:20)

 

Today’s Gospel reading finds Jesus between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Now, he’s been in sticky situations before. In fact, this whole section of Matthew’s Gospel finds Jesus in one sticky situation after another in his dealings with the temple authorities. Just to set the stage, at this point in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus is in Jerusalem mere days before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. He had his triumphal entry just the day before and immediately went to the temple, where he proceeded to disrupt things by overturning the tables of the money changers and driving out those selling their goods in the temple complex. The next day, he returns to the temple to get into, or rather cause, what the late John Lewis called “Good Trouble.” He confronts the temple authorities and tells one parable after another that are clearly meant to condemn said authorities. The Pharisees are fed up, so they “went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said” (Mt 22.15). Only this time, they bring in reinforcements: the Herodians.

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