Oh,Holy Night

Oh, the beauty, the joy, the peace, the mystery of Christmas Eve Candlelight Services. At the Watchung Avenue Presbyterian Church in North Plainfield, the early service included the Children's Christmas Pageant. What is it in us all that just delights so much in seeing the children we love so dearly dressed up as angels and shepherds, as Mary and Joseph and the wise men? Singing` Silent Night', as candlelight fills the dark corners of the sanctuary blesses us individually and as a congregation—that song in particularly seems to bring the Holy Spirit into our lives, especially when we have prepared room for that Spirit—for the Christ reality.

After the children's pageant, a young soprano soloist offered up the great hymn, `O Holy Night.' Her voice was pure, lilting, just extraordinary. That hymn is rarely sung in the church, except on Christmas Eve. Musically, the hymn is a challenge with some notes that few people can reach. But the text of the hymn proclaims something of the gift and threat that come from the birth of Christ. One line sings out to the world—

    Long lay the world in sin and error pining

    Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

Indeed for Christians, the Incarnation through the person of Jesus is partly about this glorious gift to us of knowing our own worth in the eyes and heart of God. We are the beloved son, the beloved daughter of God, called to transformation and discipleship. This is the good news, this is the Gospel of the Lord—thanks be to God.

But Jesus, the Christ of God, is more than the baby in the Manger. And `O Holy Night' moves on. The third verse proclaims to the world and all that dwell therein--`In His Name all oppression shall cease.' At first, we take a deep, deep breath and feel the life giving words flow into us. The power, the glory, the mystery of Jesus is dedicated to the elimination of all oppression. So that means, O thank God, that all those people and systems that oppress me are contrary to the reality of Christ and so contrary to the will of God. God's purposes are gradually being worked out so this also means that God is working to destroy those systems of oppression and to restrain and control people who are the oppressors. Our hearts are filled to overflowing with rejoicing.

Then comes the moment when we are shocked into a new realization. Jesus would have a word with us and speak to us about how we are the beneficiaries of various systems of oppression and how we consciously and unconsciously participate in those systems. The temple and Rome embodied oppression during Jesus earthly life. Speaking and living over against those systems of oppression brought Jesus to torture and to death at Golgotha. God is working to dismantle and destroy those systems of oppression and I as an educated, white, male, heterosexual, American, Christian pastor have benefited from those systems. I pray that I will have the gift of rejoicing at the destruction of those systems of oppression. `In His Name, all oppression will cease' and all God's people will sing `Joy to the world the Lord has come.'

Then Jesus shocks us again. By his mysterious life and glories eternal reality he infuses us with the understanding that God works in us and through us. So we who sing the songs of Christmas are now enrolled in the Jesus army—that army's just cause is to end oppression—our weapons are truth and courage and love and hope. The enemy forces are arrayed in frightening power against us as they were arrayed against Jesus and his disciples. The battle is painful—many will perish and part of us must perish. But finally, somewhat in this life and completely in the next life, the purpose of God will triumph. Every soul will know its worth—and all oppression shall cease.

 

Divinum Mysterium

My brother reminded me of categories we had once used to describe the origins of religion. Religion has roots in Manipulation, Morality, Mortality and Meaning. Previous blogs have addressed some of the issues around Manipulation. Mike Huckabee has unloosed these issues with a vengeance--does his candidacy have the blessings of God? Is he God's will for America? Yikes!

The great gift of religion is to challenge and bless folks in their quest to find and form meaning in their interior life and their life in community. Last Sunday we sang Of the Father's Love Begotten--the music was composed in the 11th century with a beautiful monastic feel and carries the title Divinum Mysterium. Indeed, underlying and flowing in and out of all the other sources of religion is our hunger for and fear of and joy in the Divinum Mysterium.

Why fear you might ask? Reading the gospels, hearing and saying yes to the call of Christ, bearing witness to one's faith, listening to the stories of saints, we must be afraid. When virtually all the early leaders of your faith tradition are tortured and martyred, surely one has a right to fear. Certainly we may have faith in the next reality, but we don't want to put that faith to the test prematurely.

When I have had visions that I believe are of God, I am grateful and fearful.

Christmas asks us many questions. but surely one goes something like this--do you really want to experience even a little bit of the divine mystery, the divinum mysterium.

Pascal was a french philosopher and scientist. His journal from 1654 describes his encounter with the mystery. `From half past ten to half past twelve, Fire!'Not the God of the philosophers and scholars. the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Certitude.Certitude.Emoiton.Joy.Peace.'

Meiser Eckhardt says,"To serve god with fear is good, to serve god out of love is better, but to love God while fearing him is best of all."

at Christmastime,amongst all the activities and festivities, we celebrate finally one powerful expression of the explosive and blessed confrontation between humankind and the Divinum Mysterium.

Christian Resistance

In the late sixties, I participated in the draft resistance movement as part of the effort to stop the war in Vietnam. Our symbol was the Greek letter omega, which also represented resistance in physics. So as a Christian, even one loaded down with questions and skepticism, I was part of the Christian resistance.

While religion can be and has been used to control and exploit people, it has also been fuel and fire for movements of liberation and resistance and revolution.

The film Amistad tells the story of a revolt on a slave ship bound for the Caribbean coming in the 1840's. The Africans are put on trial, somewhere in New England. The leader speaks with bone chilling power and says `I want free.' The film sears our consciousness with the pain and demonic evil of slavery.

As the slave ships were leaving Africa, priests were shown blessing them on their way. We know pieces of the story of the churches complicity with the evils of slavery. Religion has been and is now used to exploit and even enslave people. As I mentioned in the last blog, that is clearly one of the purposes of religion.

How do we do battle against those systems of exploitation that live in our society and in our consciousness?

At the trial of the Africans, Christians opposed to slavery, some Quakers and some Congregationalists, protest against the slave trade and work to support the Africans. Resist evil. Resist the draft and the war. Resist those systems of exploitation that brutalize God's people and God's world.

Jesus overthrew the tables of the moneychangers in the temple saying that the temple system had become a system of exploitation, a den of robbers. Follow Jesus into the temples of today's robbers and tear the place apart. I mean, isn't that what the Bible says. Isn't that what following Jesus is about? Indeed, remember what Jesus did and then go and do likewise.

In the Watchung Avenue Presbyterian Church, we faithfully and joyfully sang the great hymn O Holy Night at the late service on Christmas Eve. The lyrics include a phrase saying that this holy night is about the soul feeling its worth. The incarnation embodies the beauty, mystery and holiness of the human body/soul. All souls are worthy, honorable, redeemable, loved ultimately by the Creator even as they are being called to radical repentance.

And the song proclaims that `in his name all oppression shall cease.'

Of course, oppresssion continues to rage through the world. Of course, religious peole and institutions use power, sometimes hocus-pocus power, to exploit and even kill people. But that is not what the Incarnation is about. That is not why Jeuss came to dwell among us full of grace and truth. He calls us oer the tumult of life's wild and restless seas to resistance. Christian resistance.

History has answers

Our question is why is there religion at all. Not many of you wanted to respond, maybe because it is one glorious and scary and dicey question to begin with.

Whether one considers oneself to be religious or non religious, it would seem to be helpful to know why this religion stuff exists to begin with. If we don't have some clear understanding of the various reasons that religion exists, of the various and even contradictory purposes that it serves, then how can we be religious with any intelligent self consciousness?

Part of one response to my previous blog, included the phrase, history has the answers.

Indeed, we can reflect on the history of the people's of the world and our own personal history and then discover one of the uses, the purposes of religion. Clearly, religion is used to control and oppress people.

Walter Brueggeman is a great biblical scholar, dynamic speaker and prolific author. He wrote a short piece about Joseph, Pharaoh and power. He reminded us, that Joseph used his powers of interpreting dreams not only to save his own skin, but to help Pharaoh. From Pharoah's dreams,Joseph had understood that there would be seven years of plenty followerd by seven years of famine. So Joseph stored up the grain in the good years and when famine struck, he brought under Pharaoh's power all the land and people of Egypt.Buy low--sell high. Genesis 47 says that "...as for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.Only the land of the priests he did not buy;for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh." Joseph who himself had been enslaved now becomes the enslaver--his actions are despicable, but he was just being a savvy businessman and a good Egyptian.

In the midst of this human and economic crisis, the priests were allowed to keep their land. Even then, said Brueggeman, the empire needed priests to bless its power and control over others.(Are we 21st century religous types guilty of blessing modern day empires/systems of oppression?)

When I was traveling in Russia, some of this was clear. The church during the Romanov dynasty was expected to bless the Tsar's wars, just like the state churches throughout Europe were expected to support their nation's rulers. That is part of the sad history of the West.

We remember other histories. The crusaders go into battle screaming God Wills It. In the movie El Cid, the Spanish battle the Moors and the battle cry is `For God, For King,For country.' The Klan lynch and burned Negroes defending white Christian civilization. The Catholic Church massacred the Albigensian Christians. Parents over children. Men have oppressed women. The priests/pastors/charismatic leaders have exploited the followers. The Tutsis over the Hutus. The Aztecs over the local tribes. And on and on it goes. People have shaped, created, exploited religion to justify their exploitation of others.

This is one of the reasons we do have religion. Pharoah and all his friends and fellow travelers find it quite useful to appear to have God on there side. Well,at least, that is what the Bible says.

Why do we have religions at all?

Chris Gibbs holds a Ph.D.in history from the University of Missouri. During the Vietnam War, he served in the military police in Vietnam. He is a novelist and professor of history.Several years ago Chris was asked to respond to a paper given by a Princeton Seminary professor who spoke at our meeting of regional Presbyterian leaders. Chris's comments were quirky, off-the-wall,vaguely heretical. So I really liked him and what he had to say.

Chris attended a class for potential new members at the Watchung Ave.Presbyterian Church where I served for 29 years. I asked the class to share any questions they had about God, religion, the Bible, the Church, the person of Jesus. With a playful smile, Chris said he had a question. "Why do we have religion at all? Where does religion come from?"

Now I was both amused and challenged. "I will have to think about that question some Chris. Let's all think about it for the next class and then we will share our insights."

So the question, my friendly readers, is indeed why do we have religion--what are the sources of the religious impulse. Please send your comments or emails.

Father Charlie Hudson radiated joy and hope and love..

Charlie Hudson,Catholic priest, created the Center for Hope Hospice with a nurse and friend of his named Peggy Coloney. He was a man of large soul. We became friends about 25 years ago and he would preach in our Presbyterian church and led retreats for us and counsel grieving individuals.

His friendship changed my life. In times of difficulty,I would remember that he was there, cheering for me. When life was abundant, his eyes rejoiced so deeply for me. His presence throbbed with the mysterious and generous love of God.

Charlie had had a heart attack and was a little overweight. He had excellent doctors who designed a cardiac rehab program. As instructed, he was exercising on a treadmill, when another heart attack came. He did not survive. Since he had served God and the people so long and energetically and joyfully, thousands and thousands came to his funeral. Those thousands offered prayers and remembrances and donations of money and time to further memorialze him.

Like Sean Taylor, Charlie believed that when your time comes, it comes.

Since I was jogging on a treadmill when I first read Sean Taylor's comments and since I have survived cardiac arrest, I thought of Charlie. Two of his brothers and his father died when he was in his early twenties. That pain was part of what led into such deep compassion. He certainly had wrestled with all these issues of God's will and death's timing and life's meaning for many years. Yet,we saw God and death and destiny differently. We loved each other none the less. The differences in our perspectives enriched our lunchtime conversation.

Somewhere, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "But how can we find ourselves again? How can man know himself?... the youthful soul should look back on life with the question:what have you truly loved up to now, what has drawn your soul aloft, what has mastered and at the same time blessed it? Set up these things...before you and perhaps they will give you... the fundamental law of your own true self...for your real nature lies not buried deep within you but immeasurably high above you... There are other means of finding oneself...but I know of none better than to think of one's educators."

I rejoice in the Spirit's giving me Charlie Hudson as teacher of my soul, as friend of my journey.

Does the Spirit not give teachers of power and praise to all of us?