Are We Beginning To Value People and Place Through The Eyes Of A Love Worth Waiting For?

 
 

Good Morning Friends,

 
 

As we contemplate during this season of giving the many blessing we have received and the amazing stories of how God has touched so many, we also meditate on our gift in how we see community through the lens of Christ’s faith…through the lens of the called-out assembly of God and the fruit of the spirit joining freely in what God wants us to do for those in need. Here we begin to see Christmas through the eyes of Love and perhaps our own homes and communities too. Here we begin to have hope of having a vision worthy of our Seeing God. Here we humbly and hopefully, even in the waiting and preparing, begin to perceive and emotionally experience the excitement of miracles in action.
So, in this pregnant season of promise, I wonder. Are We Beginning To Value People and Place Through The Eyes Of A Love Worth Waiting For?

 

 
 

Scripture: And Mary said, I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. God took one good look at me, and look what happened— I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done for me will never be forgotten, the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. He bared his arm and showed his strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts. He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. He embraced his chosen child, Israel; he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It’s exactly what he promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

 
 

Luke 1:46-55 (Message)

 
 

No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.  

 
 

1 John 4:12 (NRSV)

 
 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to 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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

 
 

Luke 1:26-47 (NRSV)

 
 

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

 

Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11 (NRSV)

 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,'” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

 

John 1:6-8, 19-28 (NRSV)

 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 (NRSV)

 

Message: Yesterday, for Catholics, was the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and in places like Immokalee, Florida, with large Mexican populations, people typically gather together to go from home to home (twelve in all) reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay for the birth of Jesus. But not this year. The experience will have to wait until next year. Many in Immokalee also remember the story of Juan Diego, a Mexican peasant who became the first indigenous Catholic Saint from the Americas. He is said to have been granted an apparition of the Virgin Mary on four separate occasions in December 1531 at a hill outside but now well within metropolitan Mexico City. But people did not initially believe him. What is relevant is the story line. As in today’s text, Mary is assured and, in a way, we too are given assurance as she does to Juan in the storyline. And that proof of the advent is available to each of us in different ways to pass on. For Juan Diego it comes in an image of the Virgin Mary that is said to have been impressed by a miracle as a pledge of the authenticity of the apparitions on Juan Diego’s cloak. Today replicas of that image are ubiquitous in places like Immokalee. To understand the people in this place it is important to be aware of the perspective knowing that some believe, and some do not. But God loves them all regardless. So today we look at the religious joy of a person who has a share in divinely given salvation. And this is the key to understanding Mary’s blessedness and how we might become blessings as well. Certainly, our roles are not so significant. The part of Mary is a vital and indispensable role in God’s plan for the history of the world as an example for us. Our roles are less dramatic and yet also resonate in the challenge to love. It is about our hearts united with patience and struggle and joy that joins our lives to eternity. Here heaven and earth come close, allowing us to experience the gift of community and the body of believers as an instrument of transformation. For me, this morning the message is that we can learn from Mary, John the Baptism and Jesus in dealing with mind numbing experiences in life by learning to see through the eyes of love. Interestingly, today’s passage from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians explores how God sanctifies us as we respond to this condition of waiting in the midst of a crisis. We are to persevere by believing in love. The most instructive part of today’s scripture from Isaiah likewise helps us to understand the purpose of waiting in dealing with the real time emotional conditions we must have in order to grow. The reality is that the oppressed are waiting for good news, the broken-hearted are waiting for love, the captives are waiting for liberty, the prisoners are waiting for release, there are those with desires waiting for God’s favor and justice, and there are mourners waiting for comfort. That these states of emptiness, despair, desire, agony, and loss… that these inner states become an open door for God to act and to substitute gladness, a pregnant bliss, the miracle of life, and His light is worth the wait. And we see it in the story of Jesus in our story. Indeed, Jesus is the way out of the emotional afflictions associated with waiting. So, the next time you come to a frustrating red light in your life, think of Christ’s light, of Jesus’ Christmas star, of God acting in your life so you too can use the time you wait to discover new ways of building the kingdom, of sharing the light of His enlightenment, of helping others clean up their messes in preparation for His coming. Our time of waiting can be a time for God to prepare us for His baptism of the Holy Spirit in our life, of our actions in Holy history. Our time of waiting is a time of preparation for His return but also a preparation to love.

 
 

And So, know the purpose for waiting. Know that the waiting culminates in the belief that prompts an answer in a call to love. Know that God loved us enough to send Jesus Christ into the world to let us know what Joy is. Know that although it took centuries for it to happen, God waited until the time was right, and God took on flesh to intersect the life of a poor young girl by the name of Mary. An angel had come to Mary to let her know that she had been chosen to give birth to a child who would become the savior of the world. The child would be the Son of God who would take away the sins of the world. This was the child of promise. This was the child of pain. This would be the child of joy. And in the story, we realize that a prerequisite of anything good requires trusting enough to love. It is in the foundation of today’s scriptures and has a message for everyone and every place. In the words today we experience a message of hope in the future for places of poverty being lifted up in a reality of community that honors God and bound together over time in love…. made whole. Here the charge of love, the creator of love, and the crown of love is experienced in community. Here we see God’s love proclaimed in the Word, proven in a child’s birth and a man’s death now perfected in those who believe and abide in God as a living body and witness of the Risen Christ at work in the world through his Spirit. Friends the Spirit of love, the person of love, the compelling author of love is at work connecting, changing lives, and transforming communities around the world and calls you as Mary was called, as John was called, as Jesus was called, to be part of something very special.

 

Pray we realize that God can use our time of waiting to fill us with joy and thanksgiving.
Pray
our hope of God is real. Pray we hope with confidence when we face adversity and fear. Pray our hope be a powerful thing that is the very help of God in our lives. Pray we have the hope of becoming new creatures in Christ. Pray we give hope to others. Pray we have a hope forged with gladness. Pray the substance of things for which we hope…is the love of God. Pray we have hope of a future with God. Pray we have a commitment to people and place. Pray we rejoice in the vision of the first born of all creation. Pray we realize that it is not so important that we see God but that He is willing to see us with the eyes of forgiveness. Pray we learn the power of vision through the eyes of love. Pray we love others as God has loved us.

 
 

Blessings,

 
 

John Lawson