Sunday, January 1, 2017: " A Kinder, Gentler God" Fr. Carey Stone


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Christmas 1A’16

26 December 2016

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

North Little Rock, Arkansas

The Rev. Carey Stone

 

Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised;

For these eyes of mine have seen the savior, whom you have prepared for all the

world to see, a light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Amen.                                            -  From the Nunc dimittis BCP p.120

 

One day back in seminary there were a group of us ‘budding theologians’ talking about the doctrine of the incarnation. The doctrine of the incarnation of course, has to do with Christ being born of a woman, his taking on human flesh and living among us. One of the seminarians posed the question, “If you wanted a colony of ants to know who you are and what you are about, how would you do it? He answered his own question: “By becoming an ant!”

 

In the incarnation Christ became one of us. I like the way an old verse puts, “he did not despise the virgin’s womb.” He put on feet of clay just like ours and walked among us. He came to show us who God was and what God was about. As St. John’s gospel says, “It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” Finally in the person of Jesus we see the face of God

    But what about the state of affairs before the incarnation of Christ? 

As we look back on the early history of God’s people and the unfolding story of our salvation we see that people were mostly afraid of God. Rather than having a direct experience with God they preferred a human intermediary like Moses who would go to God and intercede on their behalf. It was during this period that God gave the law, the 10 commandments through Moses. 

 

In the period of the great Prophets like Isaiah we see a gradual revealing of a gentler God who was more merciful but still wielded a fairly heavy hand of judgment. Like an easily angered father figure one didn’t want to hang around him too much lest you incur the wrath. Many great saints of God before Christ’s coming made Herculean efforts to keep God’s law but even David, the psalmist, the man after God’s own heart fell terribly short by committing acts of murder and adultery. Like the futility of the tower of Babel, not even the best of God’s children could reach God’s standard of perfection.

 

In the fullness of time God sent his Son who came to earth in the form of the most vulnerable of all - a baby. This was totally different from anything that had ever happened before. Christ came to show the true heart and face of God that of an unconditionally loving parent who would send his Son from heaven to earth so that we could go from earth to heaven.  Like the joy of a mother or father God delighted to give us the gift of his son. He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. “But to all who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” 

 

How does this gift become real to us? How do we move from seeing God as an easily angered father to that of an unconditionally loving parent? The old patterns and perceptions have to fail us in order for us to be open to something new. Like Mary and the shepherds we become tired enough of the status quo that we become willing to take a chance and say yes to God. To look with our own eyes and see the savior showing up in our own lives in the most unlikely places, in the most unlikely settings in ways we never could imagine.

 

I’d like to share a short story to illustrate this new way of seeing. My junior year in high school we got a new band director. Keep in mind, I was loyal to the previous director “Surely” I thought to myself, “no one could do things like he could.” With my preconceived notions of how a band should be led I quickly found the flaws in the new director’s approach and began to talk negatively about him. I would make fun of some of his mannerisms like the way he would yell “build- build” when he wanted us to get louder. To me he was just a mean old man of 40 that could never take the place of my former band director.  Rather than taking the time to talk to him personally I decided I would rather talk about him.

 

Then one fateful day all of this changed. He called me into his office and proceeded to tell me that he recommended me for a full-tuition scholarship to college. The scholarship was not even related to instrumental music but was through the Jr. Auxiliary. Thanks to his recommendation I got the scholarship for a full four years! In his one act of kindness he went from being a mean old man to someone that really cared about my future and me. It was a gift of pure grace that I neither earned nor deserved and it changed my whole outlook.

 

That’s what Christmas is all about when an unlikely baby is born in the most unlikely place to the most under qualified parents– but that moment became THE moment of grace when the light of the world shined in the darkness, and the dark side was not powerful enough to overcome it.

 

Jesus continues to show up today in the most unlikely people, in the most unlikely places, and in the most unlikely ways, these are the moments where we see with our own eyes the savior:

 

Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see. Amen.