Seeing Through the Camels

       









       





       I had a really unique view on Sunday morning at the service in town.  

       Knowing that we were going to be celebrating Epiphany day and reading about the magi, I had asked if we could please use the camels from the Christmas program.  They are the best hand-made camels I have seen and have a great deal of personality.  I thought it would be good atmosphere and add some fun and imagination to the celebration.  What I didn't count on was the placement of the camels.

       I was running a little later than normal so I didn't have time to check the sanctuary before worship and was glad to see the manger and the gifts and those wonderful camels under the star.  I didn't think about it until it came time for me to sit in my chair when I realized it was back behind the camels.

       During different parts of the service, when it came time for me to sit, I had to look out from behind and around the camels to see the manger and to see the congregation.  It was a totally different perspective. 

       Usually as I preside over worship, I see everyone and everything; but Sunday was different.  Unless I moved away from the manger and stood in front, I could only get a partial glimpse of the manger and what was happening in front of me.  As I looked, I realized that I have only looked at manger scenes from the front, like watching a performance but Sunday, I saw a view I've never seen before.

       I have had that same kind of feeling sometimes when I am studying scripture and I come across a very familiar story that I think I know so well.  I think I know the story and the characters and often even the meaning but as I study them, I come across details and ideas that I have not seen before.  The story of the Magi is a good example of a story we think we know so well until we really read it.  Then we find out that Matthew never tells us how many magi there were or whether or not there were camels.  In fact, many of the details we think we know aren't in the Bible!

       Both of the experiences are reminders that we need to allow ourselves to be open see and hear the Gospel from a new point of view not only on the page, but also in the people around us.  When we think we already know what is coming and what it means, we rob ourselves of new insights, new gifts, and renewed relationships.  
       In the ninth chapter of John, Jesus heals a man who had been born blind.  There are a lot of people that do not understand and question what Jesus has done.  At one point, they do not believe that he is the same man until they confront his parents.  They are not able to see or believe the truth of Jesus. Finally, they drive out the man whom Jesus healed.  
       He comes to Jesus and Jesus talks to him and reveals his identity.  The man confesses his faith and worships Jesus.  He is able to see and believe in Jesus but the Pharisees are not.  Jesus warns them (and us) of the peril of refusing to see the truth of Jesus.  
       Jesus opens our eyes to see with the eyes of faith.  Try seeing things in new ways, opening your heart and eyes to the new possibilities of God's love and grace.
        "Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he had found  him, he said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?'  He answered, 'And who is he, sir?  Tell me, so that I may believe in him.'  Jesus said to him, 'You have sen him, and the one speaking with you is he.'  He said, 'Lord, I believe.'  And he worshiped him.  Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment so that whose who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.'"  John 9:35-40

Freed Love

       A sign on a restaurant caught my attention yesterday: "Now hiring Dec. 21 survivors".  
       We've survived the rollover of the Mayan calendar.  Congress finally got us over the "fiscal cliff".  And the new year has begun.  And soon the twelve days of Christmas will be over.
      Many of us will try to start the new year out with resolutions to make a "fresh start" trying to kick old habits, and vowing to live healthier lives.  Media has picked up on this and enlarged this very common need to want to make ourselves and our lives better.   I notice that more and more, it gets harder to separate the commercials from "media stories" (I don't really want to call it news) about what to buy or use to get thinner, stronger, buffer, more organized, etc...  And it's all focused on doing it right now as we begin a new year - as if this is the only or the best time to make changes in our selves and our lives.
       Until it's time to get ready for "swimsuit season".   
       But that is exactly the problem with all of these resolutions.  First of all, they assume that it is in our power to change ourselves and that if we don't then it is our fault.  And because it is centered around the new year, we have both the excuse and the catch of waiting until next year to try again.  Cartoonists are great at skewering us in our foibles.  One I saw recently had the character saying that he was just going to use last year's list of resolutions for this year.  He didn't need to change it because he still needed to do them all!
       Sometimes, we are able to keep new year's resolutions and make some real changes but more often than not, what most people seem get from the experience is a sense of failure.  One more time, one more thing not completed or not fixed.
       Wouldn't it be nice if there was an alternative?
       And there is.  It's called grace.  God makes things different.  
       First of all, God's love comes first, just as we are with all our faults, our bad habits, our past, and our inability to fix ourselves.
      There is forgiveness.  When we fail,fall, or mess up once again, God comes with forgiveness.  There is no such thing as only one chance or second chances.  Jesus talks about 70 times 70 (or more depending on how you translate the Greek).
       Change does not happen on our own.  As it says in the Small Catechism, "I believe that by my own understanding or strength..." but it is the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Church.  Jesus promises to always be with us.
       We get a new chance every day.  We do not have to wait for the new year to begin again to have a new chance.  Even though you are only baptized once, we are invited to remember that baptism everyday and know that every day even many times in the day, we can come to God and be washed again from our sin, our doubts, our failures, our pain, and whatever we need to bring to God.  Day by day or minute by minute, God is with us, giving us new life and freeing us.
       We are set free from the measuring rulers and chains of "shoulds" to love others and to love ourselves, which we can only do with God's help and yet are the very things that mark us as people of faith.  For just as we cannot come to faith or change without God, the Holy Spirit calls us into community for our survival.  It is together that we have new life.
       "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Galatians 5:13-14