Making Room for Sorrow (Blue Christmas Sermon 17 December 2023)

“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 for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

 

There was no place for them. No room.

 

This year I find myself wondering a bit more about that particular detail of Luke’s Christmas story. Of course, it sets up one of our most cherished, enduring images of Christmas, depicted in art, in song, in countless home nativity sets: the stable with the holy family tucked inside, with animals looking on in wonder, and shepherds humbly kneeling, and the baby sweetly sleeping in his manger bed.

 

But that all takes place after what happens at the inn. After the tired, footsore man comes to the door, asking for lodging. After the innkeeper looks past him to the laboring young woman standing next to their donkey, bracing herself against its flank, breathing through another contraction. After the innkeeper tells them she has no room.

 

The innkeeper is, I imagine, a woman of the world. She has provided shelter for scores of travelers. Some have been delightful and easy guests, who appreciated her hospitality and paid on time; while others have, as Rumi, the poet, would say, “violently swept her house”,[i] leaving chaos in their wake. Over the years she has learned to size people up pretty quickly. And this couple – well, she can just tell. There is trouble ahead for them. She can see that they are marked for sorrow.

And because she has had plenty of her own – sorrow, that is – because she herself has suffered and lost precious things, because she knows how hard that can be on the heart, she’d just as soon they don’t stay with her. Easier to not let them in. She doesn’t have space for that...(read more)

 

The Good News Begins With... (Sermon preached 10 December 2023)

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.

 That first line we heard in this morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 1:1. It’s the very first verse of his account of Jesus’ story. And then, after just a quick nod to the prophet Isaiah, at verse 4 we are up to John the Baptist. As my Biblical Studies professor used to say, Mark hits the ground running.

 

No genealogy, no angels appearing to virgins, no cousins getting together to swap pregnancy stories. No star, no shepherds in the field, no heavenly host, no nothing. If it had been up to Mark, there would be, God forbid, no creche to set on Christmas eve. No, for Mark, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins elsewhere.

 

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. This first verse of Mark’s Gospel is believed by many to actually be its title. But notice Mark doesn’t call it “the good news”. He calls it “the beginning of the good news”. That is important, and we’ll come back to it later.

 

For now, though, Mark is grabbing us by the hand, taking us up to a spot overlooking the Jordan River, and pointing to the crowd gathered on the shore and the masses still streaming down. “People from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem” were going to see John, he says. It’s the 1st century Palestinian version of the 10 West at rush hour...(read more)

Those Who Love Us Into Being (Sermon preached 5 November 2023)

This All Saints’ Day service is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful things we do here at St. Matthew’s.

 

It’s beautiful because of the music…thank you, Choir, Orchestra, Dwayne. It’s beautiful because of the remembering, and naming, of those who have passed into the nearer presence of God, when we read the Necrology in a few minutes.

 

And it is beautiful, especially today, as our world is being torn apart by human violence, and there’s so much heartbreak and grief out there, because we are taking this time out, to come together, and just be here. Be here and remember these ones who have shown, in their lives, the goodness and wholeness that’s possible for human beings; the love, grace, generosity, compassion and courage, that are the imago dei – that of God, in each of us.

 

The Church has been commemorating the Feast of All Saints since the fourth century. Initially it was to honor the “capital S” Saints - apostles and heroes and martyrs. More recently, though, Anglican observance has been expanded to include the “lower case s” saints - those we love and see no longer, who have been especially important to us in our lives. Today we honor them, too.

 

In 1997, Fred Rogers, “Mr. Rogers” of children’s TV fame, received an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement. In his acceptance speech, which you can find on YouTube, Mr. Rogers reminded that audience, filled with beautiful, creative, incredibly successful people, how important it is to remember those “small s” saints – who have been there for us along the way. The ones who have seen us, and supported us, and encouraged us.

He said to them, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being...(read more)