Put A Little Theology of the Cross in Your Manger

I preached last Wednesday evening. Our Wednesday Sabbath service is often full of Confirmation students and their families. So, our sermon follows the question for the evening in our Reform series of Confirmation lessons. Last Wednesday, the question was....(drum roll please)...."Why did Jesus go to hell?"

What a fun question! But what an odd question in the season of Advent...as we await the cuddly baby Jesus' birth, the swaddling, the cooing, the adoring, the sweet baby smell. It's enough to give this 28 year old gal Baby Fever. Who on earth would spoil the mood by reminding us that this wittle baby Jesus will one day vanquish hell?! 
Oh, that's right, me. :)

The shadow of the cross is cast over the manger, as much as we'd like to pretend we don't see it. But this means good news for us! My Confirmation students picked up on this Good News and echoed in their sermon notes--As on 8th grade girl put it, "Even if something is a living hell on earth, that doesn't stop God from going there. He goes there more than the good places on earth. Nothing stops God in Jesus from loving you!" Amen.

Here's the sermon for your perusal:

"Nothing Stops Jesus" 
A sermon on Romans 8:35-39

My friends have a dog, and this dog loves to run. Brandy had a habit of running away. She didn’t mean to run away. She would just start running. And she would run and run and never realize how far she’d gone until she was far from home. A few times the family ended up driving around town calling the dog’s name until they would find her at a nearby park or playing with someone else’s kids in a front yard.

My friends decided that they could not risk losing Brandy for good, so they got a fence. It was an electric fence. Have you seen these before? The way the work is that you bury a wire in the ground at the border of your yard. Then your dog wears a collar that has a special sensor in it. And when the dog crosses over the boundary, a small shock reminds him to stay inside the electric fence.

It took Brandy a while to get used to the electric fence. For a few days you could watch from a window as she tested out the boundaries. At first she would run until the shock stopped her in her tracks. Then, after she caught on to what was going on, you could see her moving more slowly, trying to figure out just how far she could go.

We all have boundaries in our lives. Boundaries like Brandy’s electric fence are usually there to keep us safe. Inside the fence we are protected, if we go outside of this fence, we are open to more danger.

Can you think of boundaries that keep you safe? How about your curfew, if you are a young person who has one. It might seem like something like a curfew is just a hassle. Your parents made it up to ruin your life and keep you from having fun.
But why do you suppose your parents chose a time for you to be home at the end of the day? Your curfew exists so that you don’t get into a dangerous situation late at night. It puts a boundary around the time that is safe for a young person to be out and about.

Other boundaries that keep us safe are the age limit for driving a car or drinking alcohol. The idea behind these boundaries is that a person is able to make more clear decisions as we get older. The lock on your front door is a boundary to keep out anyone who might do your family harm. The guard rails along a bridge keep your car safely driving on the pavement instead of flying off the edge into the water below.

Human beings, all of us, need boundaries. Inside the boundaries, life can thrive and grow. Outside of the boundaries, we are at greater risk.

But, allow me to make things confusing. Follow me here, as I make this move. We’ve agreed that boundaries can be good and are typically meant for our safety and protection. BUT, boundaries can be bad too.

Are you with me? Boundaries can be good for us. But sometimes boundaries can be bad.

Here’s what I mean. Sometimes we put up walls, or even invisible fences, in our lives that keep us from loving and serving our neighbors. God has created us, forgiven our sins, and sets us free to bring God’s love to others. And we tend to create boundaries that keep us from doing this.

For example, I once visited a town called Logan in West Virginia. This was a while ago, so I don’t know if things are exactly the same there. I hope they’ve changed for the better. But when I visited, there was a train track running right through the middle of Logan. Logan used to be a busy and happy town. Coal mining was the business, and there was lots of coal to be mined. Family’s were doing well, food was on the tables, and even though coal mining was a dangerous and difficult job, things were pretty good. After a while, though, the coal started to become more difficult to get to. There was less of it available to be mined. Less coal meant less jobs. Men were out of work, and families had little money for food, clothing, bills. Times became tough. And they were still tough when I visited just ten years ago.

Remember those train tracks I mentioned? Life is especially tough on the west side of the tracks. Every house in town needs some repair, but the ones on the wrong side of the tracks were falling down. If you saw them, you would swear they were abandoned. You would think there’s no way anyone could be living in them. Then you’d see a group of kids rush out a front door, or a light turn on. It is hard to believe it, but these run-down shacks are people’s homes. Right here in our country.

Anyway, the tracks in Logan form a boundary. If you live on the good side of the tracks, you do not go to the other side. This is what I learned on my trip to this town. The train tracks form a physical line, but along that same line runs a boundary that is made out of fear, and pride, and ignorance...but mostly fear.

The people on both sides of those train tracks need God’s love. And God does love the people on both sides of the boundary. The people on one side have things, like food, water, shelter, a listening ear, that the people on the other side need. The people on that side have other things, a different perspective, skills for work, a story to tell, that the others need just as much. A boundary keeps them from sharing with each other. This boundary keeps them from showing God’s love.

The people on the right side might say that the wrong side is hell on earth. There are drugs, violence, disease, poverty, kids running in the streets with no parents, dirtiness, dinginess, and decay.
I would say it is hell on earth too. It seems like the last place a person would find God.

Then again, a cross seems like the last place to find God. A cross, the exact location of violence, torture, evil. A cross that gives off the scent of death and attracts flies that circle around it. The cross is hell on earth. And Jesus goes there.

Jesus ignores every boundary. Jesus ignores the bad boundaries that keep us from loving others. He goes to the wrong side of the tracks every time, touching the unclean, healing those in need, eating dinner in the run-down shacks of Logan, West Virginia and the world. He doesn’t worry about washing his hands. He doesn’t hold his nose or keep his distance. Nothing can stop Jesus from loving others. And these harmful boundaries shouldn’t stop us from loving others either.

Jesus ignores the bad boundaries, and Jesus also ignores the good boundaries too. Jesus crosses the boundaries that keep us safe, and he goes to truly dangerous places to save us. Dangerous, deadly place...like the cross. Jesus died on the cross, and as we say in the Apostle’s Creed he descended into hell, or he descended to the dead. God died and went to hell. This breaks every boundary, every single harmful and helpful boundary.

The cross proves to us that there is no place that is outside of God’s reach, there is no place that God is not present, there is no place that God will not go to show love to the world, to show love to you.

So, when you look at the world around you, when you look at your own life, and think “there is no way that God can be in the middle of this mess,” picture the cross in that place, and remember that Jesus is most certainly there. Nothing stops Jesus from loving you.  Amen.

Signs of Hope

Trey and I don't have an Advent wreath,
 but five random candles will do. I'll just need
to pick up another "real" candle before the
fourth week of Advent!

It's Advent. Time for waiting, wondering, and watching. This week I asked members of my congregation to be on the lookout for hope, to watch for signs of hope, and even to become a sign of hope. Where have you seen hope this week?

Personally, I find hope in the 50+ degree weather and still green grass we've been enjoying here in Sioux Falls, SD in December. Others, I know, will see hope as that cold, white, fluffy stuff falls from the sky this weekend and it begins to look more like Christmas as they know it.

Whatever your weather preference, may anticipating Christ's coming to dwell among us bring you hope!


“Christ Came Down that We May Have Hope”
12/2/2012, Advent 1 Sermon
on Daniel 6:6-27

There is a Cherokee legend that tells the story of an Indian youth’s rite of passage: A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. The boy is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He can’t cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he will be a Man. No boy can tell the others of the experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. With his sense of sight gone, his hearing is heightened. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blows the grass and earth, and shakes his stump, but he sits stoically, never removing the blindfold. It is the only way he can become a man! Finally, after a horrific night, the sun rays warm him and he removes his blindfold. It is then that he discovers his father sitting on the stump next to him. He has been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

Daniel entered the lion’s den alone. With no other human being to protect him and no weapon to defend himself, Daniel was thrown in to face these wild beasts. As the stone rolled to close the entrance to the den, the seriousness of Daniel’s situation sunk in...both for those outside looking on and for Daniel himself. It seemed as Daniel was sealed in, hope was sealed out, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.

The king’s edict had been passed no many  days earlier, and it stated that whoever prays to anyone, divine or human, for thirty days, except to the king, would be thrown into a den of lions. The king’s counselors suggested that he make this law, and as the readers we know that they designed it specifically to trap Daniel, whom they knew would not stop praying to Yahweh, the Lord God.

Who knows why the king agreed to the law. I guess it played on his fragile ego. Either way, the law was written and sealed, Daniel had disobeyed it by praying to God and was caught. The thing is, though, that the king really liked Daniel. Daniel was a respected member of his court, and if the king had realized this law would lead to Daniel’s death, he would not have signed it. But, as the counselors and governors remind him, the king’s law cannot be undone.

So, a long night passed as the king fasted and waited and wondered if Daniel, whose sentence he had been unable to change, would, by some miracle, survive.

The king must have had hope. Because he rushed to arrive at the lion’s den first thing the next morning and listen to his hopeful question: “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from the lions?”

What in the world made the king believe that there was a chance that this could be possible? What gave this pagan king hope?

The king was not disappointed. His hope was realized. Daniel’s voice came to him as wonderful news, echoing off the rocks of the den. “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.”

Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The king took things from here. He had the accusers who had plotted to have Daniel killed thrown into the lion’s den themselves. The hungry lions, having been prevented by an angel from enjoying a meal all last night, jumped at the opportunity to devour these guys whole.

Then the king blessed Daniel and gave a new decree. This law stated that in all the king’s royal dominion people should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth; for he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

Hope. What is it to be hopeful?

• Is it to sit faithfully on your stump, unmoved, braving whatever may come, never-knowing that all the while you are protected?
• Is it to enter the lion’s den, face real danger, trusting that God will keep you safe and guard your life?
• Is it to pray and fast feverishly all night, while someone else faces real danger, exhausting your only power to help by calling on a God who might be able to deliver?
• Is it to show up at the scene of possible tragedy expecting a miracle against all odds?
• Is it to stand by amazed as powers beyond our control shut the mouths of lions who would eat us whole?
• Is it to trust in the promise that no matter what you go through in the scary night alone, you will see the morning?

Part of hope is trusting in a promise. God had promised his people, Israel, that he would make a great nation out of them. The covenant or promise God made with Jacob was that his descendants would number as many as the stars in the sky. And with this, God would give the people a land. Now, in the time that our story about Daniel was written, much of Israel was in exile in foreign lands. They had become a scattered people without a land to call their own. The promise of a Messiah who would free the people became their hope. The anticipation grew among the people. They awaited a Savior who would free them and establish a kingdom that would never end.

Hope clung with the dust of the road to the backs of weary travelers aching for home. Hope swirled on the wind. Hope echoed in the dreams of sleeping children who had never seen the land their parents talked about, the land they dreamed about. Hope cried out in the wilderness, calling God’s people to repent and return to their Lord. Throughout the ages hope remained, and the people waited. But some lost hope altogether, and they mocked anyone who waited hopefully and still expected God to fulfill the promise. God is dead--You fools keep waiting.

It’s easy to give up and agree with them. I mean, look at the world around us. It doesn’t take more than 10 minutes of cable news to convince even the most optimistic person that this is a broken place, that we are broken people. Consider all the things in your own life that tempt you to give up hope. What does the cynical voice inside you say? That the country has lost it’s way, and a petition to secede is the only option at this point? That your kids or grandkids don’t get it and it’s a waste of time for you to keep inviting them to church or dinner? Does it say that God must not care if God would let bad things happen to good people? Or have you been considering that faith is a waste of time, only for those who can’t handle that this life is all that there is?

We are like that Cherokee boy. To us it seems we sit on a stump, exposed to danger, alone and vulnerable, unlikely to make it through the night. All the while, there is one who watches over us. We are like Daniel, we face real danger, and we don’t know what the outcome will be. Meanwhile, there is one who fends off danger. There is one who will not let harm come to us. There is a God who will keep our lives, even if we should die. Hope is found in our faith that trusts that this is the truth. Hope is found in truth that God is there loving, defending, and claiming us even when our faith doesn’t trust it.

Today marks the beginning of the season of Advent. In the tradition of the Christian church, this is the time that we experience waiting for Christ, though we know Christ has already come. In a sense we live in a constant season of Advent. For we live in the now and the not yet. Christ’s kingdom is here now among us. Jesus is born unto us. But at the same time, we wait for the kingdom to come fully, for Jesus to come again. And until Christ comes again, we will live in a broken world. Only hope can look at the world around us, at you and at me, and see the way God intends things to be. And hope can make it so too. Can you see hope?

This week, be a detective on a mission to spot signs of hope. In your Taking Faith Home insert, you’ll find under the Service section, the details of this challenge. Be watchful and expect to see hope in the world around you. Note in your mind the moments that you notice it. And if you can, capture it on camera. If you have a pen or pencil, I want you to write down my email address, and then, if you find a wonderful sign of hope this week and catch it on camera, I want you to send it to me by email. Here’s my address: jess@teatrinity.org. Don’t just be an observer of hope, create your own sign of hope for someone else. Serve your neighbor, even a stranger, through a random act of kindness. Be a bringer of hope. For Christ came down that we may have hope! Amen.