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Love.

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Old Testament Reading

            Lesson from the Prophets

Isaiah 7:10-16

Isaiah Gives Ahaz the Sign of Immanuel

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah[a] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.[b] 15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

Footnotes

  • 7.13 Heb he
  • 7.14 That is, God is with us

New Testament Reading

Gospel Lesson

Matthew 1:18-25

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[a] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “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. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 

“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
    and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son,[b] and he named him Jesus.

Footnotes

  • 1.18 Or Jesus Christ
  • 1.25 Other ancient authorities read her firstborn son

Isaiah, the prophet.  Promising that “Immanuel” would come to us.  Immanuel, the word literally means God with us.  Now, God has always been with us, always, before time and before we were formed and life breathed into.  

But, we need stories, stories with power, with agency.  So, Isaiah says that a child will be born…and with some other wild stories about this child’s life around honey and curds.  But, a promise of a physical reminder that God is with us and will come to us in the flesh.

Our Gospel lesson follows upon this prophetic story from Isaiah, from the prophets.  It gives us an intimate picture of Mary becoming pregnant by God’s actions.  Joseph wants to honor Mary and decides to divorce her quietly.  In those days, being engaged was on the same understanding of being married.  But, an angelic being, a messenger of the Divine, comes to Joseph and calms him and tells him in a dream to stay with Mary, that she will give birth to a son and he will be “Immanuel”, God with us.  

Friends, when something new is about to happen, something that brings great change.  It can be disorienting, yet God sends messages all of the time reminding us that something deeper is happening.  We may not always see it, and it may be hard and challenging.  But, we can trust that something is happening.  New life and growth springs forth.  

As Meister Eckhart reminds us from the middle ages, Christmas, the birth of the Christ child, Immanuel, not only happens in our imagination around the winter solstice, but it happens every day and every moment.  Our only “sin” if you will, is to live lives of unawareness around this reality.  May we have our ears and eyes open to God being with us…showing us how to love…and may we experience that love of God’s Presence with us, in us, and around us!  May we experience peace, hope, joy, and love as we celebrate with amazing music today…and may we celebrate in our hearts and lives everyday!

Shine.

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PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Oh God of peace, you fill our hearts with hope at every Christmastide, for we remember again that this is the world that you have loved. May that hope, peace and joy fill our hearts, this night. Amen.
― Celtic Prayer

Christmas Eve 2024.  What a year we’ve had…and now moving into a time of more change for me and for us together at Westwood First Presbyterian Church!  My goodness!  I know that for me, this year has been a time of tremendous growth, and I believe for this congregation as well.  We are experiencing deep growth coming out of a year of birth pains in our previsions years.  As we come to the end of 2024, I love that we read this passage on xmas eve.  Really, we read this same passage almost every Christmas Eve.  It’s traditional, it’s the Christmas story…and it’s the promise of new birth coming to us in the darkest of nights, the darkest of days. 

My dad would read this passage every Christmas Eve…from the King James Version no less.  He went to church every Sunday, was a church leader, but this was the only time I really ever remember him reading Scripture.  Yet, he did.  One thing about my dad, he was pretty consistent!

Luke 2:1-20 

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

    and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

This year, many of us have had to ponder on a deeper level what Christmas is about, it’s about something new being birthed…in us and in the world around us.  Childbirth isn’t easy, it’s painful…yet, what do we call babies after they’ve arrived?  “Little bundles of Joy”.  Possibility, mystery, love, struggle, suffering, growth, and presence are all wrapped up into babies.

Babies grow into adulthood through the throes of life.  Our faith does as well.  Sometimes we have to remember that things are formed in dark places, like the womb.  Faith also is birthed in darkness.  And, faith is not about certainty…it is simply trusting, deeply, that you are not alone in this world…that there is a God who resides within you and all around you that is with you…a God who entered humanity, became human, in the form of Jesus.  

December 25 was decided by the early church, really many of our Celtic ancestors, because it is close to the annual winter solstice.  It was actually a pre-Christian celebration, and our Christian ancestors borrowed a lot from those ancestors because it simply made sense with the story of the incarnation of Christ, the enfleshing of the divine in the world…which is a story that is also incarnated, birthed within us.   

The winter solstice is also known as the “longest night”.  It is the day of the year where it’s darkest the longest.  It is to remind us of the darkness of life that we all experience.  And also that there is hope, because after the longest night, when it is the most dark, the light shines forth, dawn comes…and we can see what was birthed in the night more clearly.  

Friends, the reality is that the church has so often preached a message of hope, of joy, of peace, of love, of triumph…without the darkness that we see around and in us, without struggle…but that’s simply not life is it?  There’s more to the story.  We have to have both…light and dark…struggle and growth go hand it in hand.  God is saying to us on the symbolism of this night…to look into the darkness in order to see a candle, a flame, of love…of promise, of hope, of relationship, of incarnation…

Tonight, may we remember the darkness of Christmas night, there is a great stirring, a movements towards something new that brings joy, hope, peace, and love.  There are shepherds seeing and hearing miraculous news while dutifully minding their flocks.  There are wise men and women seeking knowledge and growth.  

The passage that we read tonight is full of subversive beauty!  Caesar Augustus, the Roman emperor was the head of a political cult that set him up to be divine, a savior, the lord, one who claimed to not have any failings, in his ego, Caesar was a winner at all costs…and he lived in imperial power exacting a census that was a sign of his authority and ability to collect taxes and contribute to the wealth of Rome, and especially his own wealth.  Yet, Jesus comes to us impoverished, on the run, and in a dirty stable.  His coming is announced to a group of outsiders, literally, shepherds and not some great proclamation to the entire empire, this proclamation came from the heavens to a few shepherds and wise men and women so that it can be carried to and for all of creation.  Amazing!

Into that dark night, a baby is born.  Emmanuel or “God with us”!  Jesus, Emmanuel, born to us, humanity.  God, entrusting God’s self to us, in darkness, and to a couple of teenagers who were still trying to figure things out!  God, who gives hospitality and relationship receives hospitality and relationship.  God being birthed into the world by a teenager!  

Into the night, a small light came on to the scene of history that grew to a blazing fire illuminating hope, peace, grace, friendship to ALL!

One of our Christian mystics from the 1400’s, Meister Eckhart, says this:  “The light is satisfied only in the innermost place, where no one dwells. It is within you even deeper than you are in yourself. It is the ground of simple silence that is motionless in itself. Yet from its stillness, all things move and all things receive their life, that they may live in accordance with this reason and be conformed to it within themselves.”

We have opportunity after opportunity to meet God in the deepest darkness of our lives, in the stillness of the night metaphorically, this night and every night…really every moment.  May we lean into the darkest places, the deepest innermost place of our lives, into the dark night of our souls as another mystic from the middle ages, John of the Cross would say, and grow into people of a radiance, a shining forth, as we wait for the morning light!  

But, we have to wait at times and even be still.  The shepherds, wise men and women (there is speculation is that the magi were actually all women) and even Mary and Joseph, had to wait…to let things emerge.  Friends, as Westwood First is birthing new life, as we, together, embark into a new chapter, may we too allow yourselves to wait on God’s timing that is shedding light at just the right time.  My goodness, we have some amazing stories being written and told in this season.  As we allow yourselves to embrace what the night brings, there is a light shining and leading us into a future.  A future that is emerging right before us where there are possibilities. 

So friends, into the darkest nights of our lives as Christ is born again in us and around us…may we proclaim and rejoice in this king, this savior, this lord, friend, this ever deepening Presence being born in us with the world!  And, in this looking in, may we experience the birth of Christ that is happening within us, all of the time.  

As we go into the night, hear some more words from Meister Eckhart:  

“This birth which takes place unceasingly in eternity is the very same birth which has taken place within human nature.” 

May the joy of the promise of new birth, the story of Christmas, be with you every day, every moment of your life.  Amen and Merry Christmas!

Seeds.

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Mark 4:26-34

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

The Use of Parables

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

It’s been said around here at Westwood First Presbyterian, and at other places where I’ve been in ministry, that I have a lot of ideas.  Some are even good!  It is true, I have lots of thoughts and ideas.  I also come up with lots of thoughts and ideas in conversations with folks.  

It’s also true that many of those ideas that we come up with sometimes are good, sometimes not so good.  But, I believe that God’s Spirit acts within and outside of us, sparking us to have dreams and visions…to form processes for cultivating ideas even as we take some risks.  Ideas often start out small, need some time to grow and mature.  When the time is right, it’s good to plant those ideas and see what happens.  And, it’s important to remember that seeds are planted in dark, usually moist, dirt filled with nutrients.  

That’s one of the reasons why I love the Presbyterian church.  We have processes and procedures, we have community, we have deep trust, we have all of the ingredients for imagination and to make things happen for the good of our communities and in our lives.  We have nutrients of conversation, listening, deeper trust, and connection or communion.

And, curiosity.   Especially here at Westwood First.  We are asking ourselves questions:   What are we passionate about, what makes us get up in the morning and face a day, what gives us hope?  Why is it important for us to be here?  And, passion comes out of suffering. I know I have a passion for running, and there is suffering in that at times!  I have a deeper passion for seeing relationships happen and for energy being driven from community for growth and change.

But, I also know that in order to run well, and in order to see relationships built, I need to listen and to see.  I also need to make sure that I am able to cultivate an understanding of myself, others, and God.  God is a mystery, so am I and so are you.  That’s what makes life interesting, we have mystery, we are curious, we ask questions, and we have trust, we lead and we follow, and we grow.  It’s not stagnant.  Growth happens and moves us.

The parable of the sower has much to say to us.  Jesus spoke in parables oftentimes.  Parables are words for the audience that do not carry their meaning on the surface.  They are meant to be shared, chewed on, thought upon, and then their meaning grows within us.

Jesus had been encouraging his disciples with their being a part of his family, a part of God’s kingdom.  As we’ve said before, Kingdom of God talk is about God’s Presence in our lives and in the world.  God’s working out God’s purposes in all things, and for good.

Jesus was also sharing that the Kingdom of God is participatory.  It’s not idly watching or consuming something.  So often, we in the church have followed along with the idea that we need to create programs or services that we can consume or others can.  That’s not the idea that was planted in the church by God.  We have created a consumer based church that may give us a brief respite from the craziness of life from time to time, and maybe that’s good for a season, but God wants to plant within us a vision for church that is life-giving, energizing, and involves us in relationship with each other and with the world around us…and with a God who is very much present with us.  For example:  I love giving sermons, I love music…I like worship services.  There is a place for them, but if all we do is come and consume on Sunday morning, or produce a product, then we will all eventually come to a point of burn-out or hollowness as we become attached to that product and performance.  We then may have that famous saying creep up:  “church (or pastor, or sermon, or youth group, or choir, or bible study, or whatever) is not meeting my needs”.   Well, the church was not set up to meet needs, but a place for relationships to flourish, and that requires full participation.  All of us, together.  

We need something more, we need to be full participants in looking at ways that we can experience real life, eternal life…which, like I said last week has much more to with the quality of life that we live than the quantity.  We strive for connection over unhealthy attachments to a perceived outcome.  We are so often enslaved to a system or a way of doing things in our culture, that we miss out on the freedom that God wants us to have and to share with others.   

Jesus uses the imagery of someone laying out seed in our gospel lesson.  The seed is planted, it is cared for, and something grows.  It takes time.  I heard this past week, that it takes about 6 years into a relationship before one sees lasting fruit in that relationship.  

I believe that Jesus is saying to his listeners, and to us now, that he wants us to grow into the people we were called to be, that we have been given opportunities to understand who we are and how we relate to one another.  Opportunities such as meeting together for worship, forums, podcasts, small group bible studies.  God has given us other opportunities like the Westside Abbey, the retreat next weekend, partnerships with groups like Princess Ballet, Little Villages, Scout, Westwood Works, and the list goes on.  God has also placed this church in a physical location, surrounded by people who I think would love to get to know amazing folks like you!  These opportunities help us to grow in many ways, but the real work is in between the events, in between seeds being planted and coming to bear fruit.  The work is in cultivating an understanding of the ideas, imagination, and new creation being formed and reformed within us and in the quality of our relationships with each other and with God. 

Seeds are being planted within us and all around us, seeds that will bear fruit towards seeing the Kingdom emerge within us, God’s Presence within us, and around us.  Some of those seeds are being consumed, aren’t being given enough water, don’t have deep roots, but some are falling on good soil.  Can we hear what Jesus is whispering in our ears?  Can we see what God intends to do?

Meister Eckhart has this great quote:  “Now the seed of God is in us. The seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree; the seed of a hazel tree grows into a hazel tree. The seed of God grows into God.” 

Friends, I believe that God has given us good soil here at Westwood First!  I believe that this soil does require tending, plowing, and cultivating.  But, I think that the seeds God is planting will grow…and we are growing into the Divine, into God.  We are image bearers of God, so, of course, we are growing into that image!!!

I’m also grateful for the conversations we’ve had this past week around here and in the community that affirm that we have a lot of gardening to do, within us and in this church, but we are committed to seeing what God wants to grow through all of the many seasons that we will be walking and working together in.  

Then there’s the mustard seed.  The Kingdom of God is being planted within us, it may be the smallest seeds, yet it grows into becoming a large tree, so much so that the birds rest in them.  We may not be a large church, but we can be a seed planted in this community for much community goodness.  The smallest of seeds make the biggest difference.  Let’s love well this garden!