Sick Sucks

I have been sick for a week and a half. It started after church on the Second Sunday after Epiphany (Jan. 20). I just couldn't keep warm so I wore my coat through the soup lunch that our Evangelical Lutheran Women served and through the annual congregational meeting that followed. After the meeting I went home and fell asleep on the couch under a blanket. I woke a couple of hours later and went up to bed. That evening I had a fever of 103 ("hot blooded, check it and see").

That week our local ministerial was having services for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and I was scheduled to preach on the Tuesday (Jan. 22). I dragged myself out of bed to preach there and then got back in bed for the rest of the week. I started feeling better by the weekend but didn't have time to write a sermon so I downloaded one from textweek.com that I thought was pretty good. I wasn't as impressed on Sunday when I read it from the pulpit. Sunday morning I was having sweats again so I didn't shake hands with anyone and asked someone else to distribute Holy Communion in my place.

This week I'm a bit better but somehow not 100%. I don't know what I had or have. It's not really a cold, not really flu either. It was a fever that came and went, I'd alternate between chills and sweats, I'd have a headachy, light-headed feeling at times that I'd take Tylenol for. This week I wake up feeling fine but as the day progresses I feel more and more crappy.

Now I'm trying to catch up on things I didn't do last week. I started a 7 week Bible Study series on Monday night. I have a council meeting tonight. I have a funeral tomorrow. I'm driving 3 kids to the Seminary Youth Day two hours away on Saturday. And next week Lent starts which isn't really a reduced workload. I hope I get some of my energy back by then.

John Calvin?

Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as John Calvin Much of what is now called Calvinism had more to do with his followers than Calvin himself, and so you may or may not be committed to TULIP, though God's sovereignty is all important. John Calvin 87% Jürgen Moltmann 80% Anselm 60% Karl Barth 53% Martin Luther 47% Paul Tillich 40% Charles Finney 33% Augustine 27% Jonathan Edwards 20% Friedrich Schleiermacher 20%

...about Nine Ladies Dancing

I wrote this for the local newspaper and it appeared this past Wednesday.


Today is the ninth day of Christmas, thus the reference to Nine Ladies Dancing. By now many of the gifts from last week’s Christmas celebrations might be put away, some forgotten, some maybe even broken. You might be tired of leftover turkey. Hopefully you’ve recovered from New Year’s Eve celebrations. Now you might have credit card statements to look forward to, more likely to dread. You think you spent a lot on Christmas gifts? Think about the bill for the gifts the “True Love” gave in the song.

• 12 Partridges in Pear Trees
  
• 22 Turtle Doves
  
• 30 French Hens
  
• 36 Calling Birds
  
• 40 Golden Rings
  
• 42 Geese a-Laying
  
• 42 Swans a-Swimming
  
• 40 Maids a-Milking
  
• 36 Ladies Dancing
  
• 30 Lords a-Leaping
  
• 22 Pipers Piping
  
• 12 Drummers Drumming

It’s not exactly a list you’d consult when you need a gift idea for your true love (except maybe the golden rings). And I think this gift giver went a little overboard.

Now I’m not one of those who constantly complains about the commercialism and materialism of Christmas. I do think that some people do go overboard, not necessarily with 42 Swans a-Swimming etc., but by spending way beyond their limit or by not setting a limit at all.

I like giving gifts at Christmas and I like getting gifts as well. I’ve been through 42 Christmases and I still like getting frivolous toys like some new video games and DVDs to mindlessly while away the hours in front of the TV. Sometimes a bit of escape can be a really good thing.

I guess you’d expect a pastor to come up with the good Sunday School answer that Christmas isn’t really about the giving and getting of presents. Or maybe the next best thing might be something about the “spirit of giving.” But this year I told my own kids that Christmas is really all about getting.

If you really think about it that’s what Christmas is about. Not primarily about the fat man in the red suit, although that’s part of it too. Christmas is about the greatest gift ever, given to all people. That’s the message the angel had for the shepherds on the first Christmas. “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

See, Christmas is all about getting. And this “spirit of getting” lasts all year. Salvation isn’t restricted to the 12 days from December 25 to January 5. It’s a gift “for all the people” all year round and their whole lives long. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May the peace of Christ rule in your hea

Nativity of Our Lord 2007

Nativity of Our Lord — Christmas Eve
December 24, 2007
Luke 2.1-14 [15-20]
Thomas Arth

The hills are bare at Bethlehem,
No future for the world they show;
Yet here new life begins to grow,
From earth's old dust a greenwood stem.

The hills are cold at Bethlehem,
No warmth for those beneath the sky;
Yet here the radiant angels fly,
And joy burns new, a fiery gem.

The heart is tired at Bethlehem,
No human dream unbroken stands;
Yet here God comes to mortal hands,
And hope renewed cries out: "Amen!"
Royce J. Sherf

Many of you know, but some may not know,
that a couple of months ago I participated in a tour
called a Bible Lands Discovery Tour.
We were a group of 25 people from B.C., Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario and
we started our tour in Egypt, traveling on to Jordan,
and ending up in Israel.
While in Israel we visited some of the sites
where some of the events in the life of Jesus took place,
or may have taken place,
and one of those places was Bethlehem.

I was looking forward to visiting Bethlehem.
I wanted to see Christmas Town.
Not the place up at the North Pole
where Santa and his elves make preparations for tonight's deliveries.
I was looking forward to seeing the first Christmas town.
The place where Mary delivered to us a Saviour.
The place where shepherds heard the angels' hymn of praise
and a message of good news of great joy for all people.
Someone on the tour who had been to the Holy Land 10 years ago
warned me that I'd probably be disappointed,
but I didn't want to hear that so I ignored it
and continued to look forward to visiting Bethlehem.

Well, it wasn't what I expected.
Oh, I knew I wouldn't be seeing the Bethlehem
of our Christmas Greeting Cards.
I knew it wouldn't be a tiny village
that had a few inns with stables out back.
Maybe if I'd done a bit more research
I would have known what to expect.
What I found was a big city, a fairly busy city,
with lots of traffic in the streets.
It was also a somewhat poor looking place.
It was quite a contrast to the parts of Jerusalem
that we had come through on our way to Bethlehem.
The impression of Bethlehem that stays in my mind the most
is the wall.
You see, Bethlehem is in the West Bank, that portion of Israel
that had been a part of the country of Jordan from 1948 to 1967.
The population of the West Bank is mostly Palestinian
and the Israeli government
has approved the construction of a barrier.
The name of the barrier depends on who you're asking.
The Israeli government calls it a "security fence"
and Palestinians call it an "apartheid wall."
To avoid either of these political connotations the BBC, for one,
uses the terms "barrier," "separation barrier,"
or "West Bank barrier" as generic descriptions.
The total length when finished will be about 700 kilometres,
90% of which will be a network of fences and trenches
and 10 % of which will be 8 metre high concrete walls.
I'm not going to get into the pros and cons and the politics of the barrier.
The reason I'm making mention of it
is that I was rather disturbed by it when I was there.
To get into Bethlehem from Jerusalem,
our tour bus had to pass through a check-point on the way in
and again on the way out,
and the barrier in this place is the concrete wall,
a huge imposing wall, 8 metres high (that's 26 feet).
Just on the outskirts of Bethlehem we looked down into a quiet valley
that could have been the kind of place
where the shepherds might have watched their flocks
on the night of Jesus' birth,
and we were told that the barrier wall
will go down the centre of that valley.

It was disturbing to me because it's so unfamiliar to me.
We live in a relatively peaceful part of the world.
We don't see soldiers standing on every street corner.
My travels didn't take me anywhere near any current conflict
but the evidence was there.
The wall, the check-points,
the metal detectors on the way into every hotel and mall.
As we drove up in the Golan Heights we passed fields that were fenced
and signs on the fences that warned of landmines in those fields.
We saw soldiers all over the place.
Military service is required there and I saw young women,
to me they were still girls,
in uniform with rifles slung over their shoulders.
Some tourist areas and hotels had soldiers stationed out front.
It was disturbing and it was sad
that there isn't peace in the birthplace of the Prince of Peace.
But then I had to think that it's nothing new.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem
the land was under occupation by Rome.
Beginning during the reign of Augustus Caesar
there was a relative peace in the Roman Empire
but it was a peace enforced by the military,
a peace filled with tension and resentment.
Israel was a place where uprisings
had to frequently be put down by force.
It would be easy to understand how someone might express
the sentiment described in the hymn I sang.
The hills are bare at Bethlehem,
No future for the world they show;
But into that place and time of unrest and seeming hopelessness
a couple of poor travelers make a journey
from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
And they know something the rest of the world hasn't yet heard.
Yet here new life begins to grow,
From earth's old dust a greenwood stem.
Mary had received the promise.
"Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour 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 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."
Joseph also received the promise.
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins."

In the Egyptian portion of our Bible Lands Tour we visited Mount Sinai,
the place where tradition says Moses brought the liberated Israelites
and received the Ten Commandments.
We were given the opportunity to climb the mountain.
We started out at 12:30 in the middle of the night
so that we would be at the top to watch the sunrise.
As we headed toward our climb
we could pick out the small fires of Bedouin guides in the cold night.
Some of them would be our guides as we climbed.
As I saw the men huddled around their fires
with their camels lying nearby
I could imagine the shepherds
on the hillsides around Bethlehem
trying to find some warmth
as they kept watch over their sheep.
The hills are cold at Bethlehem,
No warmth for those beneath the sky;
But out in those fields on the sides of those hills
they would hear God's words of promise as well.
They would hear a choir concert like no one had ever heard
or has heard since.
Those shepherds on the hills outside of Bethlehem
weren't in any position to afford expensive concert tickets.
They were the working poor.
But then an angel appeared.
"Do not be afraid;
for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
who is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign for you:
you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth
and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!"
Yet here the radiant angels fly,
And joy burns new, a fiery gem.
The shepherds went to see for themselves what the angel had told them
and returned, glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Who was that good news for?
We hear the readings for this night,
especially the Gospel reading, the familiar story of Jesus' birth.
"In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus ..."
and right away our minds go into history mode.
Emperor Augustus ... the first registration ...
while Quirinius was governor of Syria ...."
We think of quaint pastoral scenes,
the way I might have been imagining Bethlehem
before I actually went there.
But the promises that Mary, Joseph, and the Shepherds heard
were not only given to them,
and they were not only given for that time and that place.
This night when we gather here
and sing some favourite carols and hear some familiar stories
is not only about those days.
The promises are for us and for our time and place
just as much as they were for those people way back when.
And this night isn't only about those days
but for these days as well.
The heart is tired at Bethlehem,
No human dream unbroken stands;
We need to hear the words of the angels
as much as Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds,
or anyone else who heard them
and witnessed the miracles of that night did.
The promises come for a tired heart
that is disturbed by the violence, the tension, the un-peace.
The promises come for the broken human dreams
that leave us without hope.
Yet here God comes to mortal hands,
And hope renewed cries out: "Amen!"
More than taking us to Bethlehem,
the Word of this night comes to where we are.
Without these angelic words of promise
we'd be better off somewhere else doing something else tonight.
But I believe we are better off here, doing this, worshiping God
and hearing these words that are meant for us.

God came to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds so long ago and so far away.
But God comes to us tonight, right here.
In a few moments we will hear the words
"given for you ... shed for you."
Christ was born all those years ago and the promises came true
that Mary, Joseph, and the Shepherds heard.
Christ comes again to us tonight,
not in some historic words about something that happened long ago,
but in a real way in this holy moment.
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined."
"The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it."
May the light of Christ shine in your heart this night and always,
and may we bear that divine light to all the world.
Yet here God comes to mortal hands,
And hope renewed cries out: "Amen!