I remember one of my first Thanksgivings with my in-laws. My father-in-law beckoned me over and said: “I want to show you something. You know Romans 14?” A he opened his Bible I couldn’t help but notice this grin trying to break through from the corners of his mouth. “Right here,” he said pointing  “Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.”

Perfect verse for your vegetarian daughter in law. I just laughed. My father in law loves to harass me about food. It’s like our own little inside joke. Every family gathering—“I saved a hot dog for you. I’m cooking up a big steak for you!” One year I may just have to get my revenge giving him a Tofurky or something similarly repulsive .

Me being a vegetarian and coming home to my meat and potatoes in-laws house wasn’t ever a big deal for real though. No one cared if I just stuck to the sides. I didn’t care if they dug into some Lexington style BBQ. Different strokes for different folks right?

Well that was not the case back in the day. In fact, as the Christian church was just starting to take root, food became a hot button issue fast. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, not a Christian. A Christian is what people called the disciples who followed the “way” or believed Jesus was the Christ. But like their leader, Jesus, those followers were still Jews. And Jews had very strict dietary laws. Certain foods were clean and others were unclean.

This goes way beyond canned gravy or homemade, jelly cranberry or stovetop cranberry sauce, dressing or stuffing, sweet potatoes or mashed.

This was about religious obedience, purity, doing the right thing that was ordained by God. Eating wasn’t just something you did but it was who you were. The dietary laws were part of their religious identity.

This wasn’t such a big deal at first because many of the first followers of Jesus were Jewish. Everyone was on the same page. When they sat down to eat together, no one was breaking out the pork BBQ. It didn’t get— complicated yet.

But remember how the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, all unpredictable and wild? Well good news travels fast and before long you had all the wrong sorts of people showing up at your dinner party. It may not have been vegans and vegetarians at Thanksgiving but almost as bad. What happens when God’s powerful, redemptive work expands to include people who aren’t like you? What happens when God invites the “other” to the table?

I think the natural and most human response is “make them like us.” Great, you got the invitation, we are so glad you can make it. If you’ll just step right over here we will give you the new Christian handbook complete with what to wear, how to talk and the right and wrong behaviors now that you are one of us. For those early days that meant an introduction to proper Judaism, just like Jesus lived, and that meant eating food that was deemed clean and also that little matter of circumcision.

For gentiles, those outside the Jewish faith becoming a Christian wasn’t just a religious conversion, it was a cultural conversion too. And the questions began, how much do gentiles need to conform to become Christians? For a while there, Christianity was a Jewish sect. But when Paul’s ministry to the gentiles grew, so did the looming questions of how can these newcomers fit in?

If people who used to be outside of the faith don’t change their ways, are they still welcome at the table? Even the heroes of the faith wrestled with this. Remember Peter? Peter was one of the first disciples Jesus called from the fishing business. Peter was the one who declared Jesus as the Christ, the messiah. Peter jumped out of the boat to walk on water like Jesus, Peter denied Jesus and then was restored by Jesus. Peter had a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus and was one of the pillars of the church.

But Peter struggled with who could be a part of what God was doing. Peter struggled to see gentiles—non Jews as part of the equation. Not only did Peter worry about how gentiles became Christians, he worried about even being seen with them because they were thought of as unclean. Paul actually called him out on this in Galatians. He said that Peter was being hypocritical because he used to eat with gentiles but when the good religious people came Peter withdrew from the gentiles because he was afraid.

Probably afraid of what others might think hanging out with ‘those people.’

Probably afraid of losing his respect and authority of friends and colleagues.

Probably afraid of being judged himself and ostracized and maybe even on the outs with his own tribe just because he hung out with those who were not yet fully welcomed.

Have you ever noticed that? Hanging out with the wrong people can paint a target on your back. Your loyalty is questioned. Your integrity is questioned. Even your faithfulness to God can be questioned. It’s a dangerous thing to eat with the wrong kind of people.

But something changed that for Peter.

Acts 10– Cornelius a centaurian who worships God but not a Jewish convert. He was a devout man who feared God as did his entire household, gave generously and prayed constantly to God. One afternoon he had a vision in which God told him to call for Peter. The next day Peter was traveling and arrived in a city and went to the roof to pray while people prepared a meal. While he was there he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opene and something like a large sheet coming down with all kinds of animals on it. He heared a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter was like no way! Some of those animals are unclean and profane. But a second time a voice told him “What God has made clean you must not call profane.” This happened three times.

Sometimes it takes God’s message a few times to get through to us doesn’t it? Especially when it goes against everything we’ve been taught, or teaches us a new way to see the world.

Peter was still a little puzzled by all of this when the messengers from Cornelius’ house show up. The Spirit told Peter to go with them. Peter arrives at this gentile’s house and says, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”

We are going to pause right there for a moment. Because this is really important. It took two visions by two different people, messengers, a command from the Lord repeated three times, and direction from the Spirit for this message to get through.

GOD HAS SHOWN ME THAT I SHOULD NOT CALL ANYONE PROFANE OR UNCLEAN.

The human race has spent thousands of years trying to annihilate one another from the face of this planet. At first it was tribal warfare. Next nations rose against nations. Races of people were deemed too numerous, too much of a threat and then objectified to justify the homicidal tendencies of a power group.

These groups use names to objectify others to make killing them easier. Words like: cockroach, savages, parasites. Unclean or dangerous animals. That contaminate our communities and need to be exterminated. That need to be cleansed. And we know that those types of words and way of viewing other people can easily lead down the slippery slope of genocide.

The only cleansing we need is the cleansing power of Jesus Christ who cleanses us from the chains of slavery to sin and death and grants salvation for all people. Not only this group or that group.

The Church, the body of Christ has been opened to people of all ages, nations and races.

GOD HAS SHOWN ME THAT I SHOULD NOT CALL ANYONE PROFANE OR UNCLEAN.

I believe that most people want to do the right thing. Most people want what is good in this world. But sometimes in our attempts to be good, and be right, and be ‘faithful’ we end up keeping others out. Unintentionally. But we start seeing people as others, as objects, as something not good and something unclean. Things to talk about and not talk to. Things to dismiss and avoid.

But that is not the way of God. That is not the way of Christ.

It took prayer, a vision, a command, and a couple people guiding him for Peter to make it over to a household he once thought of as unclean. But because he did—because Peter started seeing people differently, Peter was able to go to their homes and share the gospel message.

Acts 10:44-48

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues^[a] and praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”⁴⁸ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

God has shown me not to call anyone unlawful or unclean: not liberals not conservatives, not natives not immigrants, not protestants not Catholics, not southerners not northerners, not gay not straight, not those inside the church or outside of the church, not addicts, not inmates, not poor, not sick— God has shown me not to call anyone unlawful or unclean.

Because— There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I had five minutes. I dashed (more like waddled) into the closet and snatched the onesie from the hanger and threw it into a small suitcase lying open on the bed. The contractions weren’t slowing. My only motivator was an unscheduled doctor’s visit now scheduled within the hour to check and see if things were okay.

It had been over eighteen hours of contractions. They typically started in the afternoon or evening, Braxton hicks, but weren’t a huge deal. I was used to them. I remember them being quite strong with my middle child, having to literally support myself on kitchen counters and breathe through those ‘false labor pains.’ They might last a couple hours or so but would always abate. Not this time.

I had been up all night and at this point couldn’t think much beyond getting out the door. This was not on my calendar for the day. I mean, the kids had dental appointments that morning, and school. I had a list ten miles long of work-related tasks—meetings, a sermon to finish, preparation for our kids club the following week. In fact, I had a lot of things for which I needed to prepare, but now found myself frantically preparing for that which I was unprepared.

You would think, being a pastor, being in Advent (a season that stresses preparation and expectation), a season that actually relates to a holiday celebrating the birth of a child, I would have that theme on my mind a little more. And, to be honest, I did. We were prepared with Advent readers for the month, services lined up, Christmas eve service scheduled. I was looking at all the typical religious places, just not down at the reality of this giant baby belly growing daily. There may be only two and half weeks until Christmas, but there was the quickly approaching deadline of under five weeks for a due date of my own. Hmmm. Somehow I compartmentalized that one all too well.

In my list of to do items, a baby’s arrival comes sequentially. After Charge Conference. After clergy assessments. After clergy/church profiles. AFTER ADVENT. AFTER CHRISTMAS! But here I was, with the dawning realization that in a season of preparation I was grossly unprepared for the reality of an unexpected arrival of my own.

Socks.

We didn’t have socks. Well, we did. But no socks for the baby. I mean, I’m sure there were some somewhere, but they, like the sleep sacks, and various other baby items were packed away in a basement box and not available for my supermarket sweep version of packing a potentially needed hospital bag. That’s okay. We can deal with that later. That’s what blankets are for right?

        

24 HOURS LATER

 

“I think you may have a budding meteorologist on your hands.”

I was on the phone with my mom as snow fell thick from heavy-laden clouds. Fortunately, we were in the comfort of our own home. After thirty hours of contractions they finally eased up late Thursday night. The sock issue was a non-issue. Thankfully. The called for possible ‘dusting’ of snow had turned into a major snow event. Apparently I wasn’t the only one caught unprepared this week. Maybe Baby Quatro was just sounding the alarms for our incoming snowstorm. Whatever the case, we got off the hook.

Very cute God. I hear you. Advent, Latin for “coming.” Prepare.

As the snow grew from a mere couple inches to close to a dozen, our Saturday plans were put on halt. A mandatory Sabbath from our family’s often inane schedule. The Sabbath snow gave us just a wee bit of time to begin some preparations of our own, and allow Advent to teach us some critical lessons.

Advent has included several themes of preparation:

• The coming of the Messiah to the Jews.
• The coming of Jesus into the world at Bethlehem.
• The second coming of Jesus in final victory.
• The continual coming of Jesus into the hearts and lives of believers.

(Understanding Advent Music Musing #130 by Dean McIntyre)[1]

Preparation and expectation go hand in hand. You prepare for that which you are expecting. Rarely do we prepare for that which we are not expecting. And even when we expect something to happen, expect an event to occur, or are literally expecting new life (ahem, um, baby…), preparation can occasionally fall by the wayside when we find ourselves busy, distracted, or expecting things to go along our own, limited timeline.

Advent is such a treasured season because it isn’t simply an elaborate overture to Christmas with an extension of purchases, music and feasting. Advent is a meaningful and much needed season in and of itself. It is a call like a voice in the wilderness of busy holiday schedules, over-saturated to-do lists, and an increasing hamster wheel of stress-generating activity that cries out, “PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD!  Make straight paths for him.”

Prepare.

Expect.

Hope.

Re-orient your lives toward the coming Christ Child. The King. The Lord of all. Because this is an event that is happening.

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” -Matthew 24

Christ has come. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Being caught unprepared is no fun. It is, quite frankly, anxiety inducing. Lack of preparation means a rush, things or tasks that are left behind, a spirit of worry, a frenzied and unfocused reaction to unexpected events. When it comes to a life of faith, being unprepared to encounter Christ leads wide open the back gate for fear, uncertainty and anxiety to creep in. It allows our faith life to be dictated more by the mundane tasks that we have elected masters over our own life rather than the call of God.

It is not only in some apocalyptic, final tribulation moment that God is expecting us to be prepared to be faithful people.

God desires us to be prepared to receive Christ

Every

Single

Day.

And when Christ shows up in unexpected places we will have to face the reality of whether or not we have properly prepared our hearts to receive Him. When we feel the painful discomfort of God calling us to something new, something where Christ is born anew in our lives, we can either react as a people who have set aside the time and energy of preparation and expectation, or people who are caught completely unaware.

We can respond by shrinking away, fearfully running the other direction, anxiously burying our heads in the sand and pleading with God to send someone else because we just aren’t ready yet—– OR rise above our own insecurities and fears trusting that the God who has been at working preparing our hearts for this encounter will also prepare us for the work ahead.

If anything, the Christmas story shows us that God does show up. In love and sacrifice God appears. And God’s presence in this world is often in an unexpected place, at an unexpected time, amidst unlikely people. Not everyone was ready. In fact most of the world missed the arrival of God in the flesh with the birth of Jesus. But that didn’t stop Christ from coming. And for those who were prepared: who heard and responded faithfully to the message of God’s hope for the world, Christmas was a most holy night indeed.

Expect God to show up. Prepare your heart to receive Christ. Trust in the Holy Spirit to guide you.

May God catch you prepared with joyful anticipation and expectation this Advent.

 

Advent Blessings,

Pastor Nicole

[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/understanding-advent

 

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 4:26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 4:27 and do not make room for the devil. 4:28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 4:31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 4:32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 5:2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 4:25-5:2 4:25

September 11^th 2001 our nation was hit hard by devastating acts of terrorism that seemed to strike the very core of our sense of security and well being. For many, the days after were filled with uncertainty and disbelief. We were left with questions and a soul aching search for answers, an answer for a question we all shared: will life ever be the same? When certain events come crashing into our sense of well-being we are forced to acknowledge that something has changed.

Following September 11^th 2001 the common mantra became “Never Forget.” This is a call to stay vigilant, to remember not only the tragedy but also the great acts of heroism that occurred during our darkest hours. If you watched the events unfold that day it was hard to forget. I remember watching the news that morning and seeing a small plume of dark smoke against a bright blue sky rising from a tower. I remember being shocked as another plane went tearing into the building next door. As the day continued one report came in after another of more planes, a thicker plot, and no one knew what would happen next. Something like that is hard to forget. A day when not just towers fell, but also our sense of security, of invincibility. Seeds were planted eleven years ago on that tragic day: seeds of distrust, anger, and fear. While our country worked hard to combat the forces of terrorism through combative strategies and cutting off supplies to the enemy, a more insidious enemy took root in our hearts. Our hearts became a home for fear and then anger. Both fear and anger are easy to feel when we get attacked.

Do you remember how angry you were when this happened? When innocent lives were lost? Do you remember how angry you were that someone could come in and destroy not just property but our very sense of security? Do you remember how we just wanted justice, somebody to pay for the terrible acts that day. We were proud of a country where people could come and make an honest living and proud of our communities that cared for one another. But when we were hit hard that day some of the good feelings we had about the beauty of our land and community took a back seat to the red hot anger we felt about those who hurt us.   Remember some of the songs we sang? Toe-tapping, adrenaline pumping music.

Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye, Man, we lit up your world like the fourth of July. Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list, And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist. And the eagle will fly and it’s gonna be hell, When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell. And it’ll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you. Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.  

We felt good about the idea of vengeance. We wanted blood and an eye for an eye. Some of us knew people that were in those planes, some of us knew people in those buildings and some of us knew the brave women and men that risked their lives to help others. It wasn’t fair, it was evil and we were angry. We had a choice back then as we do now with what to do with that anger. As Christians, do we take revenge? Do we go on attack mode? Do we allow the violent acts of someone else’s anger infiltrate our very soul and change us into angry, violent people too?   Attacks have the potential of creeping their way into our hearts and changing the way we see people and the world around us. We can become defensive, untrusting, and angry. When that anger finds a way of making a home in our hearts, it can change us from the inside out.

When was the last time you felt really angry? Can you remember that feeling? Racing heart, clenched fist, feel almost like your whole body was tensing up. Ready for a fight! When we were kids and someone hurt you or made you angry you might just settle things then and there huh? A little scuffle on the playground and you’re done. But as we get older we learn to be more careful with what we do and what we say.   So how do you deal with anger? One of the worst things to do is nothing at all. Just let it sit. Tuck that anger away deep in your heart and let it simmer. Before long you start obsessing over the issue or person. Things get personal. You might start holding a grudge against a person who has wronged you and even if that person has long forgotten anything ever happened every time you see that person it is all you can think about. When anger is left to brew on its own we can become bitter, self righteous, and closed off to those around us.

When I was a little kid we used to have sleepovers and I remember one of our favorite activities was sneaking upstairs and getting snacks from the kitchen. We thought we were being all stealth as we did our little recon mission and then retreated back to my room with our snacks. My parents of course knew and would let us do that on special occasions. But on a usual day we were not to have food stashed in our room.   As kids we might leave stuff out. A chip bag here, an open carton there, maybe some old fruit peelings in the corner. What’s the problem with leaving food out? It has a way of attracting unwanted guests right? All sorts of little critters like to come in and take up residence in a place with a free buffet. We were told time and again keep your room clean, don’t leave crumbs out or you will have critters. Mice, roaches, ants, whatever. They were little creatures I certainly didn’t want in my bed at night!

When we bring anger home to rest in our hearts and leave crumbs of self-righteousness, bitterness, thoughts of vengeance, or even passive aggressiveness in our lives, it’s just asking for trouble. It’s like leaving piles of trash and half eaten food around your room and just seeing what happens. Before you know it your heart and life will become a place for an uninvited guest. In our passage today the author said, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” That is one uninvited house guest you do not want making a permanent home in your heart. So in order that your heart doesn’t become a place for darkness and rottenness to take over, don’t let anger sit there for long. Let it go! Easier said than done though right? When we have been stung, cut deep, struck to the core, it’s hard to just get over it. But for the very sake of our souls we cannot allow such anger to open the door to sin. Sin that destroys our relationship with God and one another. That is why we are so desperately in need of the cleansing power of Christ in our lives, to come in and sweep out all malice, anger and wrath that stubbornly clings to our hearts. Jesus not only has the power to flush out the darkness in our hearts, but by the power of the Holy Spirit our lives can become places of love, life and renewal. When we ask God’s Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts we can be daily renewed. We have someone who will remind us to not let trash sit around our hearts but to let things go and stay focused on the important things, loving God and loving our neighbors. Our whole lives can become like a home that is hospitable and welcoming to all who need a safe place.

Think about our church. When our church is a Spirit-filled community we become a way for Christ’s light to shine in this world. We offer an alternative to death, destruction, anger and distrust. In a broken and fallen world people are desperate for signs of hope. There was a missionary named Leslie Newbigin who once said, “Every faithful act of service, every honest labor to make the world a better place, which seemed to have been forever lost and forgotten in the rubble of history, will be seen on that day to have contributed to the perfect fellowship of God’s Kingdom.” His book was called “Signs Amid the Rubble”.

Rather than getting caught up in the tide of anger and violence that sweeps through this world, our lives and our church must point to signs amid the rubble. Ways that God continues to show us that there is life beyond death, renewal after destruction. When I visited the 9/11 site in the Spring we saw this one pear tree on the grounds that had beautiful blooms. It was called the survivor tree. The Survivor tree was the last living thing pulled from the smoking ruins of the world trade center site. When people found it, the tree was nothing more than a charred and splintered stump. Despite the collapse of several buildings all around it, the little tree survived. It has now grown back from that injured stump they found amidst the rubble to a 30 ft healthy tree. When people come to the site and see the tree all are reminded of hope and life that continues on despite the odds. Anger destroys, faith brings new life.

 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

When something like anger stays in your life long enough you forget that it’s there and it becomes a part of you. But the truth is there is no place in a Christian heart for anger, rage, malice, insults, and destructive language. Because we have been gracefully redeemed by the mighty acts of Jesus Christ. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit so that we can truly love God and each other in ways that were never possible before we allowed God to work in our lives. As we remember the tragic events of 9/11 we are asked to never forget. Never forget how destructive and tragic the forces of anger and hate can be. But also never forget that God’s hope and promise of redemption extend beyond the grave and like that tree will spring up as life from the ruins. Never forget whose you are, sons and daughters of the most High God, servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Never forget you are God’s children claimed in the waters of baptism. Never forget that you don’t have to fall into despair or be consumed with anger because you are renewed each day through the love of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Never forget that you are first and foremost, Christian, a tree planted by the healing and saving waters of Jesus Christ.