Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Every Time A Bell Rings An Angel Gets His Wings

John 1:1-14

This Sunday we will have our first annual Impromptu Intergenerational Interactive Christmas Pageant. Wish I could tell you for sure what will happen, but I'm not sure how it will unfold. Which, in my estimation, makes it just about as perfect as you can imagine a Nativity being.  I can't wait!

On Christmas Eve, we finish our sermon series on The Gospel According to George Bailey, the theological insights in It's A Wonderful Life. This week's sermon blog below focuses on the Christmas Eve sermon, "Every Time A Bell Rings, An Angel Gets His Wings."

What George Bailey discovers in his journey with Clarence, Angel Second Class, is that life can be wonderful even if it is not what we planned. He also discovers that every person's life affects everyone else's life... even people we will never know are touched somehow by our moving about on this planet with them.

John 1 reminds us that the Light of Christ has been with us from the beginning.  That in him was life and "the life was the light of all people."  That "the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."

Our lives are the light.  The light of Christ shines in our hearts and in our souls and it is our duty and responsibility as people of Christ to release that light from within and let it shine on a world in darkness.

Clarence tells George that he will help him see that his life is worth living and that George, in turn, will help him get his wings.  Clarence will earn his wings by helping a lost soul that has gone terribly dark return to a joyous Christmas light.  And, in the last scene, when George sees all the pieces of his wonderful life shining around him in his living room, he gets it.  He knows his soul will no longer be dark and that the light he shines on the world matters.

Bells rang out across our land on Friday in memory of the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Each of those bells represents a life lost, but also must represent a light that will continue to glow throughout the ages.  We can never get back, in physical form, those who pass on, but we can see to it that their light shines throughout the ages.

We do this by making a difference in big and small ways each day.  We do this by understanding what the Christmas Season of Peace is all about. We do this by letting the Love of Christ pour out of our souls and into the world.

... to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.


How can you shine your light not only on Christmas, but every day?  What lights have shined for you in times of darkness? Email me or comment below.  Merry Christmas.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

I Don't Care What Happens to Me.... I Wanna Live Again

Luke 1:39-55

George Bailey finally gets a chance to see, through the magic of the second-class angel Clarence, what his life would have been like if he had never lived.  And he realizes that his Place on Earth is special, beautiful, wonderful.  The money is still missing, jail time may still be ahead of him, but he doesn't want to lose another second of the life God gave him.  So he stands on that same bridge where he almost took his own life and he says, "I don't care what happens to me.... I wanna live again."

Mary has been entrusted to carrying to term the Savior, the Christ Child.  She could have run from this. She could have said, "Thanks, but no thanks." She had a choice. But she says, "My soul magnifies the Lord." She says, "My spirit rejoices..." She says, "(God) has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant." She understands that from now on, because of the choices she has made to face the road ahead, generations will call her blessed.

Knowing that something is happening in life that will forever affect your future is ominous and exciting. It is perilous and spectacular. The unknowns can paralyze you or they can make you soar.
Mary had no real knowledge of how things would turn out for her once she began the journey of becoming the mother of Jesus.  She just knew that she couldn't care what would happen, she needed to live into that reality, that promise from God that she would be blessed... regardless.

George faces an uncertain future and yet he is able to run through the streets with joy saying, "Merry Christmas" to all the parts of Bedford Falls that were, before his realization, more of a burden than a joy.

How do we move into an unknown future, an advent of expectation, with a calm reassurance that God will "look with favor" on our lives, no matter what lies ahead?  How do we begin to really LIVE again, despite not knowing what will happen to us tomorrow?

Email me or comment below.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Angel Second Class

Malachi 3:1-4

Luke 3: 1-6

One is coming who will prepare the way for you.
He will sit like a refiner and a purifier of silver.

John the Baptist says his mission is to tell people of the Coming Christ. His purpose is to make a straight path for Jesus, to refine a way for him to live into his life's purposes.

Not unlike our dear Clarence Oddbody, AS2. Angel Second Classs.  Clarence feels a bit inept that he has never earned his wings, but the Divine was waiting to send him on a mission perfect for him.  In that way, George and Clarence need each other. Clarence helps George out of his despair and into seeing that he really does have a wonderful life. George helps Clarence get his wings.

It's like that when we give of ourselves. We find that we, in turn, receive great benefits.  When we learn to give without any hope or possibility of anyone giving us anything back, it becomes a blessing.  That is what George has to discover about himself. He ends up in a set of life circumstances that, from the beginning, he never asked for or wanted.  But, he gave of himself, all the while. He gave people loans, he trusted people to pay back without signed contracts. He was a man of strong character, even if he has a secret desire to be spending his life somewhere else.

Clarence needs George to get his wings. But he also learns that his role in keeping George going is monumentally important. He learns that it isn't about getting his wings, it is about showing someone the way, being a guiding light when all the person you are with sees is darkness.

John the Baptist ends up giving his very life. He sets a stage of radical change, of something coming that people will not understand. He understands his role in this, but feels he has to do it anyway.  He understands that Jesus needs him to set such a stage. Jesus relies on John to get the ball rolling. If I may use theatrical metaphors,  Jesus needs John's 'stage managing' for his 'curtain to open.'

We all rely on each other for salvation from our current chaos, for setting the stage for the next act.  We need the people of our faith communities to hold us... and to push us into the spotlight when we are not sure we can do it anymore.

How do you see John the Baptist's role as vital in the Advent journey?  Could George have come out of his despair without his prayed for Angel Second Class to save him?

Email me or comment below.