Messiah - or Menace??

Sermon for the people of God at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Shelton, Connecticut on Sunday, December 18th (Advent IV)

PRAYER: And now to God, who is able to strengthen you according to the gospel proclamation of Jesus Christ – to the only God of heaven and earth – to him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
INVOCATION: I speak to you in the name of the living God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Didn’t the kids do a lovely job again this year sharing the Christmas story with us?

We have this tradition here of having the pageant on the fourth Sunday of Advent, a tradition which I like because it gives us more time to steep ourselves in the most important thing about this season – which is our encounter with Jesus.

We need this time because Jesus broke into history to change things, in powerful yet not always obvious ways, and it takes us time to understand what he’s up to and – to allow him to do what he came to do, which is to save us.

The pageant itself is a gift from our children to us, to help us understand what this season is all about, and at the end our kids actually pray for us. Did you catch that??? The pageant closes with these words, “We pray that God will make the mystery come alive for you, so that you may truly rejoice and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.”

When I heard that just now, a chill went up my spine. If, as Scripture promises, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective, then the prayers of our children are likely to really blow the roof off of things, don’t you think???

Our children live into the story they tell, this Christmas story, for several weeks. They choose their parts and get their scripts. The adults prepare their costumes and help the musicians prepare. Then everyone comes to rehearsal and after a couple of run-throughs the show goes on. I always look forward to the happy mayhem of it all . . . because I know that somewhere, somehow along the way, the mystery will come alive.

It happened again yesterday. I was working with the members of the Confirmation class, who serve as Narrators for the pageant tableau created by the younger children. The Archangel read the classic lines: “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing to you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the MENACE, the Lord.”

The kids were so intent in their practice, that they just went right on, reading the next lines, as I sputtered and brought them to a halt. I didn’t want the Archangel to be embarrassed, but I thought I should just . . . clarify.
Menace: pesky threat
Messiah: promised Savior

As the rehearsal of lines got back underway, though, my imagination was running wild with thoughts of Jesus as a menace . . . There was at least one person who definitely saw him that way: Herod. Herod didn’t want things to change. He liked things the way they were. He wasn’t the biggest king in the land. He was only a governor, but he had aspirations. Because the King of the Empire was so far away, for all practical purposes he was in charge, in control, and he liked it that way. This “important” child could potentially be a problem, but he wasn’t about to let that happen. He quickly formed a plan. He schemed to use the wise men to get reports back on the child, and if he started to be a threat . . . well, Herod wouldn’t let that happen.

In this season of light breaking through darkness, love breaking through fear, we are drawn again to peer into the manger, to ask the question: who is this child Jesus – for us?

Messiah – or menace?

Do we come to him to offer to a Savior our hearts, our very lives? Or do we see him as a threat, potential troublemaker in our lives, to be controlled, contained?

There really is very little middle ground here. Jesus’ powerful presence and purpose requires response. All the characters in the story – from Mary to the shepherds to Herod – are convinced of this. They can’t sit idly by. They have a choice to make.

Messiah – or menace?

We seem to forget, in the rush of our busyness, in our efforts to manage and control, that change has come. Change is actually not an option we can choose or not choose. Jesus incarncation – God putting flesh on – means that transformation is always happening. Change for the better is promised and is here, for us. The question is how we will live in relationship to that change.

Though the change Jesus came to bring – hope and justice, joy and peace – is GOOD, in our human frame, we greet it always with some fear and trepidation. That’s OK. God doesn’t despise us for our fear. Instead, he offers an invitation . . . the invitation of the angels – to Mary, to the shepherds, . . . to have courage, to “Fear not!” and instead, to focus on the promise.

What is that promise? Nothing more or less than this: an inbreaking of love that will bring us to freedom and delight.
Maya Angelou paints a picture of this promise in her poem, Love’s Exquisite Freedom . . . and I leave you this morning with her words . . .

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free

AMEN.