Speaker 1: Can you picture it? Maybe you can. But I find it kind of hard to picture. I see it in my mind is a little bit fanciful and cartoonish. Until I think about what it means in this story.
The longing at the heart of the angels in the sky stories, a longing for liberation, and I get that.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1: Nice to see you all connecting a little bit, turning around in the pew and saying hello to one another. If you're still grabbing a coffee or tea, that's totally cool. Just make your way back in when you are ready. It's so good to welcome you here on this fourth Sunday of Advent. I've been doing a little bit of teaching in Inglewood in this season, so it's really great to be back up here in Kensington today.
My name is Bobby, if we have not met, and I am one of the pastors on the community here. Now, agree or disagree, Christmas is the most magical time of the year. Agree? Oh, we have some real enthusiasm in the room today. Disagree?
Which is okay. It's okay if you disagree. That's fine. I mean, we are closing in on the big day. So maybe you're like, no.
I'm just not ready. I'm ready. Not Make it stop. Just make it stop. And if that's you, I get you.
I am not ready either. I haven't sent a single Christmas package in the mail. Haven't even done it. So maybe I'll just wait till next year with those. I don't know.
It's definitely not good. But even so, could there still be a little magic for me and for you at Christmas this year? I hope so. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about the magic of Christmas in a moment, but first, let me say how glad I am to be a part of a community that goes for generosity at Christmas. If you haven't done so, be sure to check out our advent campaign at commons.church/advent.
Now I don't know how you go about deciding how much to give to others at this time of year, but honestly for me, it's a gut thing. Like, just as soon as I start thinking, yeah, I want to give real money and resource to that cause, a number kind of appears in my mind. It's a little giving magic, and it's nice to just trust my gut to guide my generosity. And there are all kinds of needs in the city and in our world, and praying about it is one thing, but we become the answer to the prayers that we pray when we give. And whatever your participation, may you trust your own instinct for generosity at this time of year.
Of course, we'd love it if you would give to the advent campaign, but if you choose to give elsewhere, that's great. The more, the merrier. The world needs all the generosity it can get. Now we are trucking along in our advent series here at Commons in both of our parishes. And this series is called advent prayers.
And we've structured sermons around the five Latin prayers in the Christmas story, and they go like this. The Fiat Mihi, the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Gloria in Excelsius, and the Nunc Dimidus. And those phrases are the prayers of Mary and Zechariah, angels and Simeon, all responding to magical moments of Jesus' arrival in their midst. Now Eugene Peterson says prayer begins when God addresses us. So God addresses Mary and invites her to play a weighty part.
And God addresses Zechariah and opens up a future that old man did not see coming. And God addresses shepherds just minding their business, tending their flock by night. And God addresses Simeon when he sees the baby Jesus in the temple and knows his work on earth is done. And every one of those prayers reveal something so special about our relationship with the divine. We get to talk back.
Advent involves us in the same story year after year. And as we wait and as we wonder, we pray for openness to the surprising ways God still arrives in our world. And today, we are talking about the angels Gloria in Excelsis prayer. Glory to God in the highest. And I am calling this sermon a little magic goes a long way.
And we will talk about plain Jane shepherds, magical moments, bright glory night sky, and empowerment as love. But before we make our way through all of that, please join me in a little stillness and some prayer. Let us pray. Loving God, for the beauty of this season, we are glad for Christmas lights, fresh snowfall, warm beverages, giving gifts and holiday greetings and family dinners. So many things that can bring joy.
But there's also a shadow in the season. There's the cold, the isolation, the triggering of past loss or trauma. There's addiction and consumption and anxiety though. They're all here too. And we thank you that you do not pull away from us in times of beauty and in times of struggle.
Jesus, as we await your arrival, will you deepen in us your compassion for one another. Spirit, you are here. You enliven us and sustain us for which we give thanks. Amen. Okay.
Christmas. So I did not grow up with typical Christmas movies. I know of the classics, but I don't really know the classics. References to It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street are lost on me. I have not seen them.
In my house growing up, our classics were more, like, made for TV than cinematic masterpiece. My family loved the 1986 movie Smoky Mountain Christmas starring the incredible Dolly Parton. And my sister could never get enough lethal weapon. And we watched and we rewatched the nineteen eighty seven's Christmas Comes to Willow Creek starring the guys from Dukes of Hazzard, which I have to tell you, I do not recommend. But of course, at Christmas, we are nostalgic, and we think of the things that we loved as kids.
And whether I'm proud of it or not, I am not. I loved all of those movies. Now, I had to do some digging this year to remember what exactly happens in Christmas Comes to Willow Creek, and I discovered that the scene I still think about is as weird as I remember it, but also kind of magical too. Quick synopsis. Two brothers, both truck drivers don't get along.
But they are forced to drive one rig up to Alaska from California to bring Christmas to the town of Willow Creek. And the reason that their mission must succeed is that the town is depressed, industry is gone, and families can't afford the kind of Christmas that they want for their kids. So the brothers drive and drive. Along the way, they pick up an ex wife, as you do, and she happens to be very pregnant with the rebel brother's baby. Already, feel like I've been talking about this a little bit too long.
However, here's where things get weird. There's a snowstorm. The truck hits a snowbank, the engine dies, and the baby is on the way. And then there's a knock, knock, knock on the cab window, and what do you know? There stands a shepherd who says, Buenas Noches.
My name is Domingo. I am a shepherd. You need a midwife. Come with me. So they I'm gonna keep going.
They go to the shepherd's hut. The baby is safely delivered. And the next day, when they are back in the truck and rescued by the good people of Willow Creek, the brothers look around and discover a strange sight. There is no shepherd. There are no sheep.
There isn't even a hut or a dense forest to hide it. Weird Christmas magic. And from there, all things are reconciled as they should be in every made for TV movie. But, you know, whether I like it or not, this silly movie and the scene that we are in do share some likeness. The main characters, whether shepherds or truck drivers, are in need of a little magic.
Then eventually, they encounter something divine mysterious, and then the characters return to their ordinary lives, empowered to live like never before. So let's take a look at the story of these plain shepherds doing their job in the shadow of a brutal empire. And heads up in the story, Jesus has already been born, so we're a little ahead of schedule. Picking up in Luke two verse eight. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. Now, why shepherds? Well, it turns out that even a shepherd is so much more than a shepherd. And the first clue goes all the way back to the oldest shepherds in Jewish stories, the original shepherds, Moses and David. And the biblical writers were always linking us back to draw us forward.
So anyone listening to the story would think, okay, okay, shepherds were important to us in the past, so let's tune in. But who were shepherds here in the first century? A clue to shepherd identity comes from Josephus, the first century Roman Jewish historian. And Josephus writes about this social phenomenon of shepherds in Judea. And he tells us that shepherds were shunned by those of high status, but they were essential to the peasantry and more.
In desperate times, people even look to some shepherds for leadership. And there's this one shepherd, Anthranges, who with his four brothers leads a rebellion against one of Rome's Herods. And while the rebel brothers are defeated, there's this obvious desire in everyday people to rally behind a movement that pushes back against an abusive empire. But the most important thing about the shepherds isn't that they link back to David or that they represent a rebellious cause. The most important thing about the shepherds is that they are really just so plain Jane.
Without names, without details, the shepherds stand in for ordinary people, basic brothers, doing basic jobs. Another way to say it is that the shepherds stand in for the whole people. And still, When we take a look at these kind of roughneck characters, we see so much more. We see that the ordinary is linked to a sacred past. And everyday people can have real power to do something about the present.
People aren't plain when you look at them up close. This advent, I've been reading about addiction. Now I'd like to say that this reading choice was on purpose, but I didn't exactly craft an argument that states that addiction reveals the brutality of waiting and longing in the advent season. Wait. That argument can work.
But really, I am reading about addiction during Advent because my hold on a library book finally came through. You know those holds that you're waiting for for like a year? They don't always arrive when you expect, but you go with it. So the book is Gabon Mate's In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. The subtitle is Close Encounters with Addiction.
And in it, Mate draws us into this time where he worked as a physician, working with people who struggle with addiction in the Downtown East Side Of Vancouver. And I actually did a little bit of chaplaincy work in the Downtown East Side, so this book really came alive for me. And in particular, Mate tells stories of people who struggle with illicit drugs. And there's a chapter called, You Wouldn't Believe My Life Story, where Mate helps us to see the humanity in each person he treats. But then, Mate does something surprising.
He opens up about his own addiction. No, his addiction doesn't involve substances. His drug of choice is this music obsession where he spends thousands of dollars on classical music and hides the evidence of his compulsion from his family. And what's so remarkable about reading the stories Gabbarmate tells is that soon the reader can trace addiction in his or her, my own, life. It might be big and it might be kinda small, but it is no less an attempt to escape something painful deep inside.
And Mete calls this range of addiction a subtle and extensive continuum. We are all on it somewhere. Sure. Sure. People seem plain, like shepherds, and others sometimes seem problematic, like addicts.
But every one of us is extraordinary up close. We are this mix of survival instinct and coping mechanism, a dose of hard work and smartphone distraction, flesh and blood, spirit and story, still, extraordinary up close. The shepherds are out doing their job. Maybe they challenge power. Maybe they just take the night off.
And wouldn't you know it, an angel shows up either way. The glory of God does not discriminate. It turns out that God can see these plain Jane shepherds as extraordinary and God is always close enough to notice how remarkable we are. The question is, can we do that for each other? Is there someone that you need to take the time to really see this Christmas?
Maybe someone in your family who honestly makes you a bit crazy. I mean, there's nothing quite like the holidays for someone to get on your nerves. Right? But what could happen if you take the time to understand this person's full story, Trace their struggles and their resiliency. Consider their desires and their attempts to fight for what matters to them.
Savor their unique and quirky and sometimes drive you bananas self. The shepherds stand in for ordinary people. And in this story, ordinary people belong, even with their smells and their struggles and their strangeness. And whether the shepherds know their unique part in the Christmas story or not, the angel has a message for ordinary people. And by choosing them, shepherds out in a field at night, the angel's message eventually reaches all of us.
And that message is pretty magical. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Here we have this speaking part in the angel tableau. And there's always something about angel appearances that scare the crap out of people. But there are real world reasons that angel sightings are so scary for shepherds.
In dictatorial regimes, it would be terrifying to have a powerful presence show up unannounced. After all, the way to get by if you are one of the many poor people in a ruthless empire is just to keep your head down and to stay quiet and just do your job. Now the angel sighting is connected to the political power these guys are so afraid of. The Roman historian Suetonius gives an account of the birth of Augustus where Augustus' father dreams that a majestic figure announces the birth of his son with a thunderbolt and a scepter in hand and more. The angel's words here are shockingly similar to the words that are held up in ancient ruler ideology.
Words like good news and savior and bringer of peace were all applied to the Roman emperor Augustus. All this to say, the angel announcement is not good news for shepherds, it means that an oppressor is near. So yeah, the shepherds, they are freaked out. And then, the lofty titles and these signs from heaven take a turn towards the good. With three titles for this newborn baby, the angel turns a scary story around.
Three names to calm fears and more to bring joy. The titles of savior, messiah, and lord are grouped together here. And nowhere else in the scriptures do we find this grouping, so let's put it all together. First, savior, born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is the city of David.
So this king is a good king, a shepherd king, a king for the people. So where there was fear of power, the savior brings peace by making himself so small. Second, Messiah. And the Greek word for Messiah is Christ, the anointed one, the one who will set the people free. And the longing for deliverance has always been at the heart of the Jewish people's hope.
So where there was this fear of abuse, the Messiah brings peace by trusting imperfect people. And third, Lord. And here's where things get fancy. The baby is not just a leader from a long line of leaders in the past. The people have been led by patriarchs and judges and kings, but this leader is the lord.
So where there was this fear of being abandoned, the lord brings peace by becoming what we are so that we can be close to who god is. These names culminate in the strangest of signs, a baby found by the shepherds not too far from the field where they work. The baby isn't on a throne. The baby isn't from a famous family. The baby isn't is one of them wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.
Angel says, get ready to see what your humanity is all about because God has dropped in. And no, this ruler is not like the ones that you have known before. This ruler calls to you. And as you come close, you find that you are safe And you can't help but see the truth about your human needs. Now, we have all kinds of needs.
We have the need for sustenance, air, shelter, safety, sleep. We have the need for autonomy, choice, independence, power, spontaneity. We have the need for connection, appreciation, companionship, sexual expression. And we get into all kinds of trouble when our needs aren't met. Not enough food, shelter, water, People get desperate.
Not enough power or order or space? People get manipulative. Not enough affection or friendship or touch. People get savage. The human experience is marked by need.
And when our needs are not being met, life is scary. But what about your need for transcendence? How often do you think about that? Are you aware of your need for beauty? Your need for communion?
Your need for hope and inspiration and deep deep peace? Because those needs are real too. Gabor Mate says we humans need art and beauty in our lives. In fact, that's what makes us human. And the good news is that I don't think it is possible to skip magical moments in life.
Whoever you are, whatever you do, a transcendent and a magical moment can find you. I know. I've been testing this. I have been asking all kinds of people this question. What has been the most magical moment in your life?
Think about it. What has been the most magical moment in your life? Some of these magical moments include a summer camp memory, a glimpse of something just so stunning in nature, the birth of a baby, First romantic connection, a sublime concert experience? All of these moments start so small, but then something shifts. A curtain is pulled back.
We behold beauty. We experience intense connection. We glimpse something of God. Magical moments open you up to the glory of God that is already around you. Like the moment that comes next for the shepherds.
Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom God's favor rests. So what is the deal with the great company of the heavenly hosts? Mean, who talks like this? The heavenly host is linked to the angel Gabriel from earlier in the Luke story. And Gabriel is the warrior, angel of heaven.
So to be surrounded by a great company signals a heavenly army, warrior upon warrior upon warrior of angelic beings lighting up the night sky. Can you picture it? Maybe you can. But I find it kind of hard to picture. I see it in my mind as a little bit fanciful and cartoonish.
Until I think about what it means in this story. The longing at the heart of the angels in the sky stories, a longing for liberation. And I get that. There are all kinds of things in my life that I want to be liberated from. Like fear, worry, insecurity, unbelief, loneliness, hate.
So if an angel warrior shows up and along with the warrior there is a sky full of warriors, then that must mean that liberation has come only here's the deal. To believe that these angels will fight for you is to believe that they are here to fight for the one who hurts you. Any war of heaven is, of course, on your side. You're gods, after all. But so is the person who causes you pain or attacks you on Twitter.
The angel army fights for them too, for their liberation, for their faith and freedom, for the healing of everything that harms them. I know it seems impossible, but so does peace on earth. Maybe it is otherworldly to expect love like that. The biblical scholar Luke Timothy Johnson calls the angel glory the transcendental dimension. And the Greek word for glory is doxa.
And in the New Testament, glory is never out to get you. Glory is honor and splendor and praise. It's the unspoken manifestation of God. It's eminence. Here's the thing with glory.
Glory involves you. When you experience divine glory, you experience the intensity of God's presence here on earth. Sure. Sure. God is everywhere.
But also sometimes God is especially near. At least that's what it can feel like. I mean, do you ever get caught up in a moment that to anyone else wouldn't mean much, but to you, it means everything. Like a simple thing happens and your mind like takes one of those pictures and you know inside of yourself, oh my gosh, this is so important to me. Or you live through an experience that completely changes your perspective and now you have this new purpose going forward.
Or you see something that just stops you in your tracks and you take in that truth, and it transforms you so deeply. You're still trying to find the words for that. It's a simple moment, but to you, it is so much more. It's bright glory in the night sky. And whether you have a 100 magical moments or whether you have just one, glory goes with you.
In fact, it has a tendency to change something inside of you. Animating your flesh and your bones and giving you a moment of peace and then, well, what do you know? It turns out that peace has legs. Peace starts to run and speak and share so that other people can know peace too. Peace is actually so generous and so lovely like that.
At least that's how the shepherds experience peace on earth. After the angels depart, the shepherds turn to one another and say, okay, let's go. Let's go see about this baby in Bethlehem. So they hurry and they find Mary and Joseph and the baby in a manger just like the angel said. Now we don't know what conversation went down there.
We don't know how it made everyone feel. We just know that the shepherds leave the manger and they cannot shut up about this baby. They tell everyone. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Luke two eighteen.
The best a little magic can do is actually return you to your ordinary life, empowered to live like never before. The poet and farmer Wendell Berry says, we can't care about things generically. We have to care about the planet's millions of human and natural neighborhoods specifically. How else are we going to fix the mess that we are in? Only love can empower us like that.
And love speaks first. Prayer is our response. Love has been born to us. Heaven in human flesh, a little magic to go a long way. Think about it.
Out of the planet's four point five four billion years, the fact that you were here, that you belong in this moment with your flawed family and your imperfect friendships and your sometimes twisted heart. The fact that you are here in this moment is magic. It is wonder. It is delight. And Christmas is a time to remember that this is not a made for TV movie.
Sometimes things don't go the way we think they will, but it is your life. It is your very real life. And real life is pretty magical too. So turn and see something glorious in each other's stories and know that in an ordinary night, glory comes to you. And in longing for liberation from any force that oppresses, glory comes to you.
And in wondering about what to do about just being human and sometimes feeling lost, glory comes to you. So love the people and love the pastures and encounter the divine and then give what you can give away. That's what this baby came to show us about life. You don't need a lot of magic to make a go of it. The magic is already here.
Please join me in prayer. Loving God. Sometimes our prayers really do sound like glory to God prayers. Beautiful, expansive. Other times, our prayers are just more plain than that.
Prayers for help, prayers for peace, prayers for stillness. And Jesus, as we wait for you to meet us, may we know that there's good in the waiting too. May it deepen our compassion, our reflection, and may it increase our patience for your care. So spirit of the living God, present with us now. Enter the places of need in our lives and heal us of all that harms us.
Amen.