”Catechumens will hear the word for three years.”

So says Hippolytus, Presbyter in Rome in the 3rd Century.   As time and circumstances evolved (Constantine being the major one), this training of the Catechumens was transferred to the whole of the Church in preparation for Easter (Pascha).  Lent is a time for us to diagnose the things in us that need to die.  Far from being a time of morbid preoccupation, this dying to self actually makes us more alive and more human.  If we are owned by food, or by the need for power, or the need to be the center of the world, what kind of people could we be if we laid those things aside and became what God desires in us, the attributes of Jesus–to be truly blessed.  From Matthew 5:

³ “ Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
       ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
       ⁵ Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
       ⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
       ⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
       ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
       ⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
       ¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In a world of selfishness, greed, lust, and overindulging to meet needs, maybe more than ever we need Lent.

I have always been moved by the writings of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk whose consecration name was ‘Mary Louis.’  As his autobiography the Seven Story Mountain depicts, he struggled through the death of his parents and grandparents, as well as through years of rebellion and sin before he was called by God to the the Gethsemani Trappist monastery in Kentucky.  There, he wrote many profound books on the spiritual life and found his heart’s true ‘home.’ 

Yet the struggles with desire did not end in the monastery.  At age 51, after being hospitalized with back problems, he met and fell in love with a nurse who he had a several month relationship with–ultimately physically intimate.  Certainly none of this is uncommon or even all that surprising.  Still, though he ended the relationship for the sake of his vows, did it taint his legacy?  Is there something disingenuous about not  persevering through to the end?

Part of me thinks so.  If he was so called to one thing, why did he turn to another so deeply? 

The other part of me wonders what his life and writings would have looked like had he traded the vows to monastic life for the vows of marriage.  Certainly most of us are called to the latter, though I am comforted in knowing that in our time of sexual freedom (more what I would call ‘laxity’), there are men and women out there still called to a life of celibacy.

 

As Christians we use the Old English phrase, ‘Merry Christmas,’ which means, have a ‘happy Christ’s Mass.’  It is a pleasant greeting that evokes for most of us pleasant memories.We can debate whether or not the first Christmas was pleasant at all.  Mary and Joseph travelling during her most crucial time, finding the place of birth for the King of kings in the most humble of places, fit more for a shepherd than a king.  While the first Christmas had unpleasant elements, our question tonight is, what keeps us from having a ‘Merry Christmas?’  Asked differently, what holds us back from entering into this most amazing and incredible story?  God becoming man to save us.There are many things that hold us back, but three are Distraction, Familiarity and Skepticism.First, distraction.  I need not even get too far into this one because you have just lived 30+ days of it.  There is a website called ‘Advent Conspiracy’  that has a picture of a wise man going towards the star and a person with a shopping cart full of presents going the other way.  The homepage of the website says this,The story of Christ’s birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas? What if Christmas became a world-changing event again? Welcome to Advent ConspiracyTheir advice?Worship Fully, Spend less, give more, love all.  Great advice.  Too bad we didn’t know about the website earlier!After the angels proclaim the good news to the shepherds and they come to see what the deal is, there is a simple phrase said about Mary, repeated twice in Luke’s gospel:But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.When Simeon dedicated Jesus in the Temple at 33 days old, Luke also tells us that Mary treasured these things in her heart.  Luke is a craftsman when it comes to words and it is not a coincidence that he reminds the reader of the concept of treasure and of Jesus mother when he quotes Jesus in chapter 6: For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.We can be distracted or we can do what Mary does, treasure it all in our hearts.   God became man, and we are privileged to know the story; to ruminate on it, to treasure it in our hearts and to let it change our lives.But that might lead us to the next difficulty.  There is a Spanish proverb that goes like this:A rose too often smelled loses its fragrance.That is, when we hear something so many times, we no longer can hear it with the right kind of ears.  Familiarity breeds contempt.  However, increasingly we have forgotten the story.  We have forgotten the holiness of it, the joy of it.As one writer puts it, ‘All can be filled with joy.  Jesus may be lying in an animal trough, but heaven is present at his birth.’Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem.  It originally was named Lahem, after the pagan god of war, but the Hebrews changed it to Bethlehem, the ‘house of bread.’  From a house of war to a house of bread—‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace towards men.’  How much do we need the bread of life and the peace only Christ can give?  How much do we fill our lives and our time with the pursuits that don’t fill when we need to be given bread from heaven and peace that surpasses all understanding?St. Ephrem the Syrian said, ‘At this feast of the nativity let each person wreathe the door of his heart so that the Holy Spirit may delight in that door, enter in and take residence there.’Christ came so that we could have a real relationship with the living God.  So that Jesus enter our lives and make us new.  Lastly, you might just be skeptical that any of this happened and skeptical that it is relevant to your life.Virgin birth? Angels?  God in human form?  The star of Bethlehem?  Alaistar Begg says that there is more traffic around Christmas in church because, ironically, some come to ‘affirm themselves in their unbelief.’  In other words, this kind of thing feels good and is in many ways nice, but it really is innocuous, the Christmas story is for children and the superstitious, not for the responsible, the intelligent and those who have important things to do in the world.But when the angels are announcing the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, all are forced to take notice.  ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy…’  The phrase, ‘good news’ is where we get the word ‘gospel.’  It is actually a loaded term because it was used in the emperor’s court to announce the birth or birthday of a Cesar himself.  A herald from Cesar’s throne brought the ‘gospel,’ the good news, that the world was about to change.There is something subversive in the angelic announcement.  The good news had new significance with a new kind of King.  And the world was about to change—for good.The birth of Christ is not innocuous.  It is the manifestation of heaven on earth, it is God coming among us to save us because we cannot save ourselves.Maybe we feign skepticism because the implications are just too huge if it is all true.  Maybe it is easier to keep it all in a crèche under the tree.The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem marks the traditional site of Jesus’ birth.  The entrance is a 4 foot door that is difficult to get in.  It is called what?  ‘The Door of Humility.’   You can only enter if you bow.The Incarnation, Christ coming into the world does not ask us to understand or to feel warm.  As one writer says, ‘To regain the flame, we must turn to him and honestly admit where we are and to open our cloudy eyes.’  Christmas is about bowing the knee and asking Christ in.Christmas asks us to do what the song says:Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine! 

As we ‘prepare’ for our yuletide celebration, we must remember what it is to prepare for the coming of Christ.

John the Baptist was born into a world of conflict, politics and religious turmoil.  King Herod was a puppet king for the Romans who began a great reconstruction of the Temple, but only to appease the people.  He built temples to any god or goddess that gave him favor among the people.

John’s father was a priest, his mother the daughter of a priest.  The angel Gabriel announced his birth in the Temple during John’s father Zechariah’s offering of incense.  The offering of incense was in itslef a once in a lifetime event surrounded by the holiness of God.  How much more terrifying was the appearance of Gabriel, the one created to serve directly in the presence of God.

John grew hearing about the holiness of God’s presence and witnessing his father’s frustration with the religion of the day.  John was driven to the wilderness to preach against the religion and Herods of his day.  This was how he prepared.

John’s message was universal repentence, whether you were a priest, a Pharisee, a king, a tax collector or a farmer.  His texts were the prophets and the words given him by the Spirit. 

 ”You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John prepared the way of Jesus in righteousness and holiness and in the Spirit of God. 

How will you prepare?

President Obama’s moniker for success has been his desire for ‘change.’  Whether or not he pulls it off is another matter.  I get burned out by the polarization of the political landscape.  I tire of hearing about the ‘good old days’ of the right and the lack of moral center that seems to characterize the left.

The desert fathers and mothers were faced with a society and a church that needed change.  Only their approach and strategy did not have anything to do with societial structures.  While we can ‘do something’ about who or who is not in power, we really need change of a different sort.  What if God’s people everywhere committed to something simple but difficult?  Calling on the name of the Lord? Here’s a comment about the fathers and mothers of the desert:

“It is a picture familiar enough in the Middle Ages; the three parts of society, those who fight, those who labour and those who pray, all working in their different ways for the life of the kingdom.  Prayer was a great action to be fulfilled in the body politic; the monks were like trees, purifying the atmosphere by their presence” (The Lives of the Desert Fathers, 12).

Seems as though it is now easier for Anglicans/Episcopalians to swim the Tiber to Rome:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/20/world/AP-EU-Vatican-Anglicans.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=episcopal&st=cse

Those disenfranchised Episcopalians–does this make the decision easier?  What factors would go into your decision?  Are you ready to kiss Papa’s ring?

I’ve been reading the life of George Whitefield, Anglican itinerant who helped lead (With the Wesley brothers) the Great Awakening of the 18th century.  Fascinating stuff.  Several things were curious–one was that the churches banned Whitefield from preaching mostly because he was talented and full of the Spirit. 

He was not heretical or dramatic.  He was just popular.  Therefore, he was forced to preach in the streets and hillsides.  This brought the awakening to the ‘unwashed’ and poor of among the English peoples (and later the Americans).  Many people repented and found Christ, many of whom were not welcome in the church.  They experienced the ‘new birth’ in Christ, outside of the pews, not in them.

When we ask God for ‘revival,’ what are we asking for?  When we ask God for revival, what do we wish to see?  Drama?  Emotion?  Full churches?

Maybe another question, is who do we want to see get revived?  The desperate are usually the ones who are open to the Spirit of God, not those who are fine with the state of their lives.  The untouchables usually have the spiritual soil for such awakenings.  Are we ready for them?

(Henri Luke Orombi of Uganda)

Tim Keller reports in his Reason for God that both secularism and religion are on the rise in the West.  However, it is not your grandma’s Christianity that is the wave of the future.  It is not the ‘Old Line’ form but a robust, orthodox, and ethnic Christianity that will be the one our children and grandchildren will experience.

With immigration on the rise and a desire among the young for a socially conscious yet vibrantly biblical and orthodox Christianity, what will the older denominations choose?  The tired, worn-out elitist religion of the West, or the colorful Christian witness of the rest of the world and increasingly urban America.

Consider:  20 million Anglicans in Nigeria and under 2 million in the US (at least in TEC); there are more Presbyterians in Ghana than the USA and Scotland together.  Keller states that in 50 year, there will be a half billion Christians in China ‘which will change the face of Christianity forever.’  So which one will you choose?

 With the continued disintegration of the mainline churches, those pastors/priests and laity out there–if you could change your denominational affiliation, would you?  Those ‘evangelicals on the Canterbury trail’–do you regret your decision to join the Episcopal Church–or Anglicanism in general?

Do you wish you were kissing Papa’s ring?  Do you wish you could grow a really long beard and chant in Greek?  Do you wish you could leave it all behind and be ‘emergent’ or whatever they’re calling it these days?  Do you want to have church in your living room?

Or do you love the innovations?

My name is Jason.  I am from the city of Ephesus. I live under the reign of Emperor Nero.  I came to find life in the person called Jesus Christ.  On the day of the Sun, that which the Christians call ‘the Lord’s day,’ during the Jewish Passover, I and my sister Juila were baptized into this faith.I’d like to explain something about my family and why this baptism was the most radical of actions that took me from death to life, from darkness to light.  I became a Christian, in part, because of two remarkable women, whom I will tell you about in a moment.My father was a fisherman.  I remember days on end walking to the sea port to see him off.  We would get up before dark while the air was still cool.  We walked to the port everyday and after my father would sail away, the sunrise would shine off my face.  Those were the fondest memories of my childhood.My parents had difficulty having children, and two of my sisters died in childbirth.  My sister Julia, however, was born some 26 years ago.  I was 9 years old.  I’ll never forget the day she was born because my mother did not survive the birth.  The priests of the Temple Artemis tried everything.  They cut themselves and covered my mother with incense and silver coin images of the great goddess, but to no avail.The Temple of Artemis has provided much income for the city of Ephesus.  We have the most advanced plumbing system in the world.  We have no poor begging in the street.  That does not mean that there are no poor people.  We were.  We found ourselves desperate when mother died.  Who would take care of us?  My father was becoming less and less able bodied, because of his many bouts with fever.  So, the priests offered us an exchange.  I was good with my hands so they put me to work for a craftsman named Demetrius, who made shrines and images for the Temple.My sister would then be dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her Temple.  She would be raised by the holy women of the Temple and when she was old enough, would offer herself as a living sacrifice.  I didn’t understand at the time what that meant, nor did I understand why that troubled my father so much, but it seemed like a fair arrangement.Later I learned what Julia’s fate would be.  When she was 11, she was initiated to Artemis by offering her body completely, thus becoming one with her.  Hence, any man who wanted to also feel this oneness, would pay for relations with Julia.When my father became too sick to provide income, 15% of Julia and my earnings went back to our home.  We were desperate, but did what we had to do.  Who was this great goddess?  She certainly did not keep my mother safe in childbirth like she was supposed to.  And it turned my stomach to see politicians and lawyers and teachers and philosophers walk into the Temple courts for visits with the holy women, knowing my sister was one of them.  But we did what we had to do.My father died when I was 26.  I became quite skilled as a craftsman, but because of our ‘arrangement’ we had a lifelong debt to the Temple.  Therefore, I could afford food for Julia and I, but little else.  She became reliant on the priest’s potions, which kept her sedated during the countless visits of patrons to the Temple.  So, Demetrius allowed us to stay with him, so long as he had occasional ‘visits’ with Julia.Demetrius was a bastard, but taught me the skill of a businessman.  He did not believe the Artemis tales anymore than I did.  We offered our pinch of incense to her and the shrine to the emperor when we had to and kissed the hand of Rome because it was expedient to business.  You were a good citizen if you paid homage to the gods and goddesses and as Demetrius said, ‘without the superstitious old ladies, we would be out of business, so make sure you can spin a tale of how this silver Artemis helped you get a girlfriend or brought you a great harvest, and that it is blessed by the high priest himself.’And so it went.  At least until Julia’s dreams got worse.  I say worse because she had them as far back as I can remember.  She would wake up screaming and say there was someone in her room.  We dismissed these dreams until ‘the someone in her room’ would leave bruises on her neck.  She would wake up choking and the bruises would appear spontaneously.  She could see the dark presence that we could not see.  She became so engulfed by this presence that not even the priests’ potions would give her solace.  Eventually, she could not move from her bed and had arguments with the unseen presence.I took her everywhere.  To doctors, to priests and priestesses of all the gods.  I even took her to a Jewish priest named Sceva, who helped a little, but insisted that I be circumcised before he continued.  His sons ran in terror when they saw Julia.  I decided to keep looking.About this time, I met a young woman named Hannah.  She would visit the market outside of our shop.  Two things drew me to her.  The first was that she carried a young girl about 3 years old who had no hands.  That was unusual to me since deformity is seen as the curse of the gods.  We simply discarded those kinds of infants when they are born.  ‘No one should be burdened by such a thing,’ so we said.The other thing that drew me to her was her face.  She had long black hair (covered of course) and dark eyes.  She was obviously Jewish but she would whisper things to the child about someone named Jesus.  Some in Ephesus called these people ‘followers of the Way,’ others called them atheists and offenders against the order of things.  Demetrius told me of some crazy man named Paul who visited a couple of years previous who started a riot and tried to put us out of business.  Whatever Hannah was, follower of the Way or not, she was beautiful.  There was a purity and serenity in her that I had never seen in a human being.Our first conversations were cordial and friendly.  And, though she never went into our shop, and though I knew she was deeply against Artemis and the gods she said little to me about it.  I came to like the little girl, Miriam, who was anything but a curse from the gods.  Miriam belonged to Hannah’s community of the Way.  She was discarded in the street at birth and the followers of Jesus took her in.  She was sweet and playful and loved oranges.After a few discussions with Hannah, I told her about my sister and if any of the Christian priests could help.  She said yes, but that Julia and I would have to walk away from everything associated with the Temple of Artemis.  This was for our safety she said. I explained to her that we were indebted to Demetrius and the priests of the Temple.  She said she would take me to see her presbyter about it.  So she took me to meet Timothy.Timothy was a quiet man, only a couple of years older than me, but he had a piercing gaze and an authority that I had never seen in any kind of priest.  He also had a gentleness of spirit that was totally disarming.  To Timothy I explained my plight.  He sat, asked a few questions and said something I could not believe and to this day still cannot believe.  He said he would ask some of the wealthy among the community of the Way to pay the price of redemption to Demetrius and purchase Julia and I.  If we were willing to walk away from Artemis, he said, we would be free, because ‘when the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’I couldn’t imagine how high that price would be to assuage Demetrius.  Twenty years of wages?  Whatever it was, said Timothy, we will pay it.Julia had become unbearable to live with.  She was at once being weaned from the potions and being harassed by the presence.  It was no surprise, then, that Demetrius agreed to 5 years wages as our price of redemption, just to get the burden away from him.So the agreement was that we were to move to a house of a man named Alexander and his wife Persis.  There were other Christians who also lived there.  I was afraid of what they would do once they saw Julia’s condition, but it never got that far.  After Demetrius told us to burn in the river Styx, we went to the ‘church,’ a house belonging to a widow named Phoebe, and met with Timothy and another visiting presbyter named Tertius.  They said they wanted to pray with Julia.Initially Julia screamed and the presence said something about the servants of the most high God, but when Timothy and Tertius put oil on her forehead, signing with a ‘tau,’ the presence vanished.  Julia’s spirit returned.  She was like she was when she was a child, before the potions and the visits.  The widow prepared a meal for her and Julia slept for at least two days.  I rejoiced because this sister of mine was dead, and then alive again, she was lost and now was found.The day of my baptism Timothy ‘sealed me with the Holy Spirit, a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance’ in Jesus.  Julia was also baptized and almost looks like Hannah now.That day we read some words from the ‘crazy man’ Paul.  And they go like this:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. 

I don’t understand all of that completely, however, now I know what it is to be bought for a price, to be redeemed, because that is what the followers of Jesus did for Julia and I.I can hardly believe that we are not the possession of any greedy craftsman or perverse priest or goddess, or even an emperor, but that we have been chosen by Christ himself to live where he is.  His Spirit fills us.  We belong to him.  He knows us by name.  He lavishes us with himself.  And we are free.