Just M.E.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Be not afraid...

Daily Lesson for December 24, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 20:

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."

Joseph was a just man, a righteous man, a good, good man. If somebody in the community needed something done there he was. He was the man to call on -- good with his hands and knowledgeable about all manner of things from woodworking to plumbing to agriculture. He was always willing to help -- quietly, and never asked for more than his cost in materials if that. He was salt of the earth, and as kind and generous and good-hearted of a man as you could find.

So when Mary turned up pregnant Joseph was going to do what we'd expect him to do. While he could run her name from the mud and even demand that she be stoned according to the letter of the Law prohibiting adultery; instead he decided to do what a guy like Joseph would do: dismiss her quietly, without saying a thing. He'd be heartbroken, but he'd also be quiet. It was the right thing to do he thought. And in Ratzinger's words, in deciding to do so Joseph showed that he "lived the Law as Gospel."

That is beautiful. And we love Joseph for it. But in the end, it also wasn't enough. An angel of the LORD came to him in a dream and told him to do more than simply dismiss her quietly. "Embrace her." "Accept her." "Take her as your wife," the angel said. "The child is of the Holy Spirit."

There are many people like Joseph -- kind and generous and righteous people. Churches are full of them. We live the Law and seek to follow its dictates as closely as we can. And when someone or something seems to go against the Law we seek to be at once kind and firm about where we stand. We try to live the Law; but we try to live it as if it were Gospel.

But at some point in our lives -- and this is the moment of radical spiritual transformation -- an act of the Holy Spirit comes along which requires us to go beyond the Law into the stunningly-new summons of Gospel. This is what Kierkegaard called the "leap to faith". This is the leap that includes Gentiles, gives voice to women in sanctuaries, and welcomes takes expectant mothers to be a bride.

"I have not come to do away with the Law," Jesus said, "but to complete it." By that he meant that while the Law was good, in the end it too fell short. The Law -- even if it is lived as Gospel -- always falls short.

But the leap beyond the law requires a letting go -- of certainty, of where we currently are, and of the way we thought things were to be. The leap demands great courage, and none of us I am sure would ever make it if it were not for the same angel who came to Joseph also coming to us and saying the same thing it said to him, "Be not afraid."

From 2nd Thoughts, Ryon Price, Pastor, 2nd Baptist Church, Lubbock

An Angel Named Inspiration!

I love what Danish Alex Beauchamp said about Hygge:

"The Danes see both the domestic and personal life 

as an art form 

and not drudgery to get away from. 

Hygge is about being present 

and recognizing 

and enjoying 

the moment."

(as in www.justhyggehere.blogspot.com)

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Gift

Departure and Farewell
(Dan Messe)

The summer folds the afternoon,
And pins a shadow to the lawn,
And sweeps across the empty room
Where I am gone.

The sunlight films my waving hands.
The final scene has just begun,
And pulling back the world expands,
And I am gone.

Hey, I am gone.
Along the way I'll say to you,
“So long, my love, so long...”

Another light now fills the sky.
The window searches for the sun.
Another chance to say goodbye,
But I am gone.

Hey, I am gone.
I'll find a way to say to you,
“So long, my love. so long, my love.”

So long...

I'm pulling back.

The world expands.
And I am gone.

Surprise!

Daily Lesson for December 21, 2015

Ryon Price, Pastor, 2nd Baptist

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 1:

Verse 13, But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John."

As much as we think of Christmas as a time of promise for children with all the world before them, it is also and was first a time for promise for the elderly whose best and brightest days they were sure were behind them.

That's the first story of Christmas anyway -- the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were an aged couple without children and without the prospect of ever being terrorized by either a child or a grandchild. They were barren. And it is to them in their barrenness closing of womb and sadness of aging that the first promise of Christmas comes: "You will have joy and gladness."

Now it is of course doubtful that any aged and barren couple I know is going to suddenly get pregnant in old age and have a child like Zechariah and Elizabeth had John. As one wheelchair-bound woman quipped to a pastor friend who was preaching this story at the local nursing home, "Pregnant? Now? Try telling that to Medicaid."

So maybe a baby isn't on the way. But the promise of Christmas can still come -- even into the nursing home.

Or even for those of us who cannot imagine "giving birth" to something new at our age.

Daily Lesson for December 22, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 1 verses 34 through 38:

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Yesterday I was with a friend who just recently got engaged. Five years ago his wife passed away and two years ago he had no sense or notion that he would not spend the rest of his remaining days alone. Then suddenly things changed, Cupid struck, and he's soon to be moving into a Methodist parsonage -- a pastor's spouse-to-be!

I thought of what one of my childhood pastors liked to say, "God's middle name is Surprise."

An old woman said to be barren is suddenly pregnant. Holy Saint Viagrus! And a virgin is pregnant with child! And God will be born of Mary! Surprise!

Auden wrote:
How can the Eternal do a temporal act
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible.

A rod shoots forth from the barren bough. A branch grows up from the hidden roots. The rose blossoms pink and beautiful in December chill. Nothing is impossible with God.

For God's middle name really is Surprise.

And ours is Delight.

Stay tuned...