Mother and Child

I remember Rose rising up in worship to share the story of her sister in Liberia giving birth to twins, then dying soon after. No one had expected twins, and there was little to help Worplah with the complications. She lay there for hours, then succumbed to death – leaving the newborns – Mercy and Grace – to be cared for by family.

Rose and her husband Peter, Nashville residents, eagerly started adoption proceedings for the twins and their two-year old sister Rose – her namesake. I had just graduated from Vanderbilt Divinity School and was seeking ordination. I was filled with high expectations of what was possible in the aftermath of this tragedy. Soon, we realized this would be no ordinary journey to the U.S..

The complexities of adoption proceedings and Liberia exit/U.S. entry were intense, and help was requested on countless fronts – from state senators and legislators to legal advisors, immigration officials and more. After eighteen months of waiting, Mercy contracted malaria and died.

The U.N. Department of Public Information states that “more than 350,000 women die annually from complications during pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them—99 percent—in developing countries,” and “every year, more than 1 million children are left motherless. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who have not.” (http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/act/alerts/item/index.cfm?id=305)

Situations like the one involving Worplah and her children happen every day, but seeing the situation up close turns numbers into faces, names into beloved children of God. Perhaps those shuffling the paperwork didn’t get to see that soon enough. Each number above represents someone who is loved by another and above all, by God.
Rose and Peter persevered over the last seven years, providing for the girls (in the care of their grandma), visiting them when possible, and proceeding with the myriad of adoption requirements. During the wait, Rose’s sixteen year-old daughter Wilhelmina came to the U.S., but became ill and was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She passed away not long after.

After all this time, we finally got word that the girls have been approved for entry to the U.S., and the adoption is final. I can’t wait to meet them at the airport…to hear their laughter and see their smiles. I can’t wait for them to be safe with parents who have given so much to be with them. And I pray that as they grow, so will my concern for the care of other mothers and children still in need.

An Alternative Reality

I gave up partisanship for Lent. I guess I just started feeling restless from dwelling on news that really doesn’t call us to do anything other than gripe about “the other.” I don’t want to be one of those people who goes around with shallow anger about injustice. I want to be someone who speaks the truth in such a way that justice is produced as an alternative reality – something better than what we’ve seen.

Many people claim that the U.S. is a Christian nation, while only supporting laws of “don’t” and “can’t.” You can’t do this, you can’t do that. Sure, there are things that we shouldn’t do and those things must be dealt with. But the truth is, Christianity is based on laws of can and shall and should. Ways of life that show what one must do like loving your neighbor and your enemy. Ways of supporting the poor not because it’s what anyone deserves or has worked for, but simply because we’re supposed to love one another.

If a politician tried to legislate those things that Christians are called to do, they’d be considered socialist. No politically savvy legislator would ever try to push the way that the early church lived (Acts 4:32-35) nor tout Mary’s song in public (Luke 1:46-55) much less require that a person set aside a tenth of his or her produce for others (Deuteronomy 14:22). He or she would be thrown out, even by those proudly waving the Christian banner.

Engaging one another across party lines (or any other lines that divide) is the only way of hope. God crossed the line of divinity into humanity for the sake of life. Jesus crossed all sorts of lines that were meant to divide the poor from the rich, the “righteous” from the “sinner.” If we’re serious about faith and hope, we will use all means possible to dialog in ways that bring about change, and drop the divisiveness. We’ll stop encouraging divisiveness by not forwarding hateful emails, listening, watching and retweeting commentators who make a living off of hate mongering.

This doesn’t mean that we will remain quiet about injustice. Instead, we will open a new door to address injustice in ways that can possibly bring about true change.

Think about Nathan – whose story is told in 2 Samuel of the Old Testament. David had committed adultery, then had the husband of his lover killed. Instead of blogging, tweeting, FBing about it, Nathan went to King David and spoke in such a way that David felt convicted to change – to do what was right in the aftermath of his wrongs.

Crossing lines doesn’t come as easy as divisiveness but nobody ever said being Christian would be easy. It takes work and faith in a strength far greater than our own. May the Easter season bring this kind of new life – an alternative reality.

Why do we go to the cross?

Reflections for Palm Sunday...on Sat night at 61st Ave UMC

Tonight is a special night. Many times we read the Scriptures…tonight we act them out – with the children parading in, waving palm branches and us shouting “hosanna” just as they did way back when. Tonight is a special night because we are nearing the end of a season in church life. Just as we have spring, fall, winter, and summer, the church has its own seasons and one of them is Lent. This 40-day period before Easter, prepares Christians to experience the depth of love that Christ shared on the cross.

At the beginning of this season, we marked ourselves with ashes – the sign of the cross on our foreheads. I thought about that night and how crossing lines on our foreheads should be a symbol of the way we live our lives as Christians. God calls us to go into new places and meet new people – to cross these artificial lines drawn to separate us instead of bringing us together. We cannot grow by staying on “our side” and there’s no Scriptural foundation for us even trying to do that. Jesus crossed all sorts of lines – eating and drinking with sinners and outcasts, visiting homes of and talking with people who were despised in their day. The ultimate hope of God is that all shall be brought in to His love and that we love one another in that way. God, who wants no stone unturned until all who are lost are found, calls us ultimately to the cross – the place where the ultimate lines were crossed – those lines between sin and redemption, love and hate, life and death.

This week – the week before Easter, which we call Holy Week, leads us to the cross, if we dare go there. We would of course rather go from the praises that we’ve just experienced directly to Easter and the resurrection. We’d rather not think about what Jesus went through in the days leading up to the cross. Oscar Wilde once said, “he who can look at the loveliness of the world and share its sorrow, and realize something of the wonder of both, is in immediate contact with divine things, and has got as near to God's secret as any one can get.” That is where we are going tonight. To look at the sorrow of the world and God’s loveliness…drawing near to the Divine and experiencing God.

Someone asked me this week why, if people were so glad to see Jesus, they would kill him. He went on to say that Jesus had to have done something in between the praises and the crucifixion to get killed. I had not thought of it that way before, but Jesus did do something. Scriptures tell us that in between the praise and the cross, Jesus upset the way that people were doing things. Jesus went to the temple and threw out the “money changers”…those who were making a profit by selling “acceptable” sacrifices and creating a barrier for those who sought to honor God but who maybe didn’t have that kind of money. Money is power – at least in this world – and Jesus did not win any friends that day among those to whom money and profit was their best love.

Jesus had a history of challenging people’s love of money. He once told a parable about workers who were paid the same as others even though they had not worked as much. Of course, this (in our world) isn’t right! We’d rather people get what’s coming to them…if you’ve worked x amount of hours, then you need to get paid for that amount of hours. Just think – if we’ve worked hard all day, and someone else shows up at 4:45 and gets paid the same, we’d probably all be trying to pass some kind of legislation to make sure it didn’t happen again. Yet Jesus said that this is the way of God. God’s economy isn’t based on getting what you’ve worked for. God’s economy is based on a concept called grace…getting something for free out of love…not what you’ve earned. In fact, we even segment a verse from the Bible to prove that point. Most of us know “The wages of sin is death.” Can anyone share the rest of that verse? “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) The gift of God…a gift is something unearned…free…undeserved.

Before the cross, Jesus was challenged by those who considered themselves to be righteous. They drilled him with questions, trying to trip him up. They couldn’t. Yet they also didn’t like his answers. Jesus’ answers threatened their complacency…the way they had come to love life.

That scares all of us. We get settled into a certain way of doing things and we don’t want somebody else coming in and shaking things up. Darkness breeds darkness. The things we do in the dark, we want kept in the dark. Think about Jesus coming in and turning a light on in a room where drugs are being done, where people are getting drunk, where there’s adultery and cheating and lying, or money exchanged in illegal, underhanded ways. Can you just imagine someone coming in and turning a light on in any of these situations…disrupting the darkness? Jesus coming into a room and shining his natural light would anger anyone who wants to be left alone.

Now put yourself on the outside side of that room – that place of darkness – at darkness’ door. Have you ever stood by while someone you loved was doing something hurtful to themselves or others? Have you ever wrestled with how to confront that kind of situation? It’s painful. We don’t want to shine a light on their darkness because we know they’ll get mad at us. We’re afraid that they might hurt us, or never talk to us again. Yet leaving the darkness alone only commits it to an environment where it will grow and affect more people and future generations.

In smaller towns and throughout tribal villages, accountability is stressed – people are accountable to one another because they know who each other is and where they are from. In our society today, people do not know one another – who you belong to. We stay out of one another’s business.

Jesus wouldn’t stay out of humankind’s business. Jesus – God – put Godself squarely in the middle of humankind’s business. And we didn’t want him there. Those who were content doing things that impoverished the poor did not want Jesus there challenging the way they handled money. Those who were oppressing the powerless certainly didn’t want change…they liked things just the way they were. Those who segregated people based on their particular sect of religion or heritage didn’t want to come together..they liked setting themselves higher than others. Still, God did not stand outside humanity’s door of darkness…God entered taking all risks because God loved us so.
 
Thank God that He put himself in the middle of our darkness! His light is the only thing that drives out pure darkness – His light overcomes it and from that light even death’s darkness evaporates. Line by line, all was crossed for the sake of love.

As we approach Holy Week and in particular, Good Friday – when we remember that day when Christ was crucified – we go there not to bear the weight of sin – Jesus did that for us. While Jesus went to the cross bearing that weight, we go to the cross to let go of our burdens. While Jesus went to the cross to experience the pain of separateness, we go to the cross to become whole again – a part of a collective whole where all is made well. While Jesus went to the cross to die – we go to the cross to live – to find life anew…not just that life that we have to die to get, but a new life to be experienced here and now.

May God lead us to the cross. Amen.

Something Special

One of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone is “The Eye of the Beholder” where a woman undergoes multiple surgeries to conform to societal pressure. She looked too different – too ugly to all the others. They could hardly bare to look at her. When the bandages are removed, it’s revealed that she is quite beautiful…just not according to their standards. Her nose is not full and snout-like. Her brows and lips are quite unlike the others’ curled and distorted ones. Eventually, she has to leave her home because her appearance is just too disturbing to others.

I thought about this episode recently after I listened to a friend. She has always looked different, and her life has been filled with hardship because of it. She’s taken the insults with courage. She’s prayed, and sought solace in God. She’s remained kind to others. Yet she finds late in her adult life that the words and snickers of others still strike at the core of her being, wounding her deeply.

Some of the most interesting people I’ve met in life are unconventional-looking people. People who aren’t perfectly groomed, whose faces wear haggard expressions of hard living, and whose clothes reflect individual style way over anybody else’s opinion. Reminds me of a homeless woman named Sue in Mississippi whose figure always reflected the lumps of the things she carried in pockets, sleeves or even her bra.

The hymn, “How Can We Name a Love” includes the words:
“Within our daily world, in every human face, Loves echoes sound and God is found hid in the common place.” (Brian Wren)

I think God must have fun hiding “in the common place.” Think about it. God became manifest in a baby who was born where animals dwelt…to parents who were not wealthy nor politically powerful. God still is found among the poor and those who society is quick to dismiss. We’ve got to look for God and not be fooled by outward appearances…I can just imagine God laughing when we discover Him…almost like a spiritual hide and go seek.

Psalm 139: 14-15 says, “I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.” (The Message)

From nothing into something. That says it and I think my friend is really something. Something beautiful. Because I see God in her time after time. In the bright gleam of her beautiful blue eyes, I’ve seen God. I think of those who hurl insults rather than experiencing her presence, and I think man. They’ve really missed something special.

What are Easter People?

Sermon from 4th Sunday of Easter

Introduction

By now you’ve probably eaten most of the Easter candy laying around your house…vacuumed up the last of the strands of Easter grass…Easter seems like a distant memory, yet we are still living in the Easter season! In fact every Sunday should remind of us Easter!

Signs of resurrection are all around us…the earth is resurrecting in this season…colors coming out, flowers that not long ago lay dormant are now back in bloom, people coming outside of the “caves” of their homes back into the streets. Within sanctuary walls we hear the story of Christ not being overcome by the cross or the grave, but that He is alive…not just for a while, but forevermore.

The song “Easter People, Lift your Voices” was playing in my head the other day and it made me think about what that means. Easter people are the ones who see resurrection and tell others about it! They are the ones who see that resurrection is not a future, distant option but rather a very present one – with people living to testify to God’s goodness here and now! And Easter people are the ones who don’t shy away from the Good Fridays in other’s lives. They’re the ones who remain present – who stick things out – bearing their pain, relieving it when they can, and pointing to the hope that the other person may not be able to see.

Last Fall, a group of deacons from all over the U.S. traveled together to Africa where there were present day resurrection stories all over the place. Where people who might have been overcome by the destructive power of disease and poverty are rising up as communal witnesses to show that resurrection can be sensed and felt in the present, and that when you think all hope is lost, it’s there and more powerful than ever.

Psalm 30 – The Message

I give you all the credit, God— you got me out of that mess,
you didn't let my foes gloat.

2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.

4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.

6-7 When things were going great
I crowed, "I've got it made.
I'm God's favorite.
He made me king of the mountain."
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.

8-10 I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
"Can you sell me for a profit when I'm dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I'm 'dust to dust' my songs
and stories of you won't sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!"

11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can't thank you enough.

This psalm is particularly poignant when I think about Project Tariro – a program located at the Old Mutare Mission in Zimbabwe which began as a deacon’s initiative. Tariro in Shona means hope. When you feel as if you’ve descended to Sheol…to the abode of the dead, you need hope. And like the psalmist, those who find out that they’re HIV positive in Africa, often feel as if they have descended to the land of the dead. Because understanding and treatment is often very limited, families will turn out those who find themselves diagnosed with this disease. Can you imagine? Just when you need someone the most, you are all alone. It reminds me of Good Friday - when Christ was given a death sentence, and the ones he loved betrayed him. By God’s grace, Project Tariro others are present to help people through their betrayal and illness to help them realize that HIV/AIDS no longer has to be a death sentence for them, but that they can be resurrected in this life.

Watch video:
http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=5868469&ct=7689857

Grace, Robin, Agatha, so many others have found through Project Tariro that they can live resurrected lives. First, they’ve found acceptance…when they enter the door of Project Tariro and see Joyce or Evelyn and they hear perhaps for the first time that an HIV diagnosis does not mean death. When they hear that they’ll receive drug therapy and nutritional assistance, can you imagine how that must feel? When they receive handshakes and hugs and know that they’re in a community who will not abandon them to the land of the dead, hope – resurrection – feels possible.

Project Tariro is a partnership of The United Methodist Church of Zimbabwe, The Faculty of Health Sciences at Africa University, and Friends of Project Tariro – led by Rev. Dr. Paul Van Buren. What began as a dream is now a reality thanks to donations from so many.

As you saw in the video, Project Tariro has social workers and support groups, a nutritional garden to feed and to seed future gardens, job training, and an educational program that goes out into the field – sometimes literally – to inform others and provide HIV testing on the spot. Project Tariro is filled with Easter people…people who point to hope when it seems to be hidden…who tend to those who are hurting and who tell others what may seem to be an unbelievable story – that people can live positive lives even after they’ve been diagnosed with HIV.

And it’s not just the one diagnosed who can then live a positive life. In this great web of life, it is the family and the friends who are brought into that positive, resurrected life as well. Children, who instead of becoming known as AIDS orphans, have a living breathing parent to rely on! Grandparents, who instead of having to raise grandchildren get cared for themselves in their old age. Positive, resurrected life for everyone…and even for those like us who choose to stand in the margins with them.

Because you know God…when you go into the margins, you can’t help but be changed yourself! You may even get more than the physical help you’re giving to someone else. You may get a spiritual awakening. A reordering of what is important in life. You may get the very life lessons that nobody else could teach you besides someone living in the margins.

One woman who had suffered so greatly, spoke to me with eyes that see beyond the physical. Telling me of the losses she had endured, she then said that when she gets down, she sings…Because He Lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives. All Fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future, Life is worth the living just because He lives.

People who find hope through Project Tariro – that life can be positive even with AIDS – live out the message of the Psalm…testifying that:

11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can't thank you enough.

(watch video of dancing at Project Tariro: http://www.youtube.com/user/nneelley#p/a/u/1/cJUxGDFa5yY)

Still, when we opt for the margins, we see that in the here and now, all is still not well. There are plenty of Good Fridays still being experienced even as we gather today. We still see those in Zimbabwe diagnosed with HIV/AIDS who feel lost – many times without homes, forsaken by their families, left by others to descend to their own depths of Sheol.

One woman – Nora – who found out she was HIV + - was turned out by her family into the streets. When she discovered Project Tariro – it was there that she found an even deeper meaning of family. That those who were living a positive life were ready to support not only her but also her daughter, Thandiwe. This new family supported Nora through her earthly resurrection…enjoying her presence and her spirit. But there were limits to what they could do for her…lack of transportation, lack of medicine eventually claimed Nora’s life, with her daughter Thandi at her side. Nora’s support group and Project Tariro family once again stepped up…raising money for a decent burial when the blood relatives would not come forward, and taking Thandi when no one would claim her. Nora’s dying words expressed the depth of concern that parents of young children have – who would take care of Thandi when she was gone. By then, she knew with confidence that her new family would do everything they could.

We know that Nora is resurrected with Christ – her care is now out of our hands. But what about others like Nora…who still feel the depths of hell in their lives? They wait on hope. In a country where so many are infected, many do not receive treatment and help.

As Easter people, we believe in the resurrection – that one day all shall be well. That all people’s needs will be met. That the love which we may only have seen dimly as in a mirror will be understandable and tangible for all. That there will be a place at the table for everyone. That there will be no more crying and suffering and dying. But as Dr. Martin Luther King said,

“It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee.” If Dr. King were living today, perhaps he would add to that list Africa and maybe even Old Mutare, Zimbabwe.

The second verse of Easter people says:
(Sorry, I can’t find the lyrics online!)

Will we be Easter people year-round? May God help us to stand with those who need hope as they experience “good Fridays”; may Christ’s mercy help us to do all that we can for them. And may God help us proclaim with our lives that Christ is alive! It’s in His name that I offer these words, Amen.

Note: You can learn more about Project Tariro by visiting www.projecttariro.com

Lifesaving Transportation

In Zimbabwe, this Christmas season will continue to be one of isolation for those unable to travel to Old Mutare, where Project Tariro is helping people learn to live positively with HIV/AIDS. There at the clinic, hope is being shared through healthcare, support groups, income generating projects and nutritional gardening. While many at the clinic are thriving because of available drugs and support, many more in the outlying communities are still waiting for their hope to come.

This Christmas, why not provide transportation to those who are waiting?

Project Tariro’s Community Health Workers are in need of a vehicle to transport patients for necessary treatment and prescriptions. The van (with maintenance and drivers) is expected to cost $40,000. Friends of Project Tariro is seeking to raise this amount of money by asking faithful people like you to make a contribution.

Would you want a wheelbarrow to be your ambulance?

It was for one child who needed transportation
to the hospital.

Transportation can be a matter of life and death. One single mother died recently because there was no transportation to get a hard-to-fill prescription. We want to make safe, reliable transportation a reality.

Will you help by giving at least $25?

To give online, go to https://www.support-africauniversity.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=202, choose your amount and type Project Tariro in the "other" category.

As an added incentive to watch us meet our goal, you can log on to Facebook (Friends of Project Tariro) to follow the assembly of the vehicle. You have the option to indicate which part of vehicle you want your gift to support, which will be monitored by the four, members of the recent Deacon Caravan as listed below. They have agreed to help keep the momentum going to help us “assemble” this vehicle.

Rev. Barbara Schrier’s GPS Group: The directional parts of a vehicle remind us of the goal to find nooks and crannies where people who feel most forgotten are found.

Rev. Gregory D. Gross’s Power Group: Any vehicle needs an engine, gas and power to reach its destination. May we be reminded of the energy needed by staff and volunteers to keep this mission going and keep them in prayer.

Rev. Alicia Cargill’s Image Group: As a car is known for its reliability, so is an important mission like Project Tariro. The Image Group will pray that Project Tariro will become known for its success and reliability in "helping people live positively in community."

Rev. Denita Conner’s Road Handling Group: Have you ever had a bumpy ride? We pray that Project Tariro , given the circumstances in Zimbabwe, will have a smooth journey and overcome any obstacles.

Following one of the groups will be both fun and meaningful. Take time to share this information with others! Put the brochure in a prominent place – on your desk, coffee table, refrigerator or share with another person. Go online and write about it on Facebook or Twitter. Encourage people to visit the Project Tariro website (www.projecttariro.com). You just never know the impact that your words may have.

P.S. Mark 16:18 says, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." To heal, first we must get the patient to the healers. Your generous contribution will make that a reality. Please give a gift that brings joy to your heart.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

This is my sermon from Sat night Dec 11, 2009 at 61st Avenue UMC, Nashville:

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

We all know the Christmas song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It paints such a beautiful picture, doesn’t it?! People there we love getting things ready for us…snow, mistletoe, presents under the tree. Everything we would want! You can just imagine it…surrounded by those you love. Bellies full, toes warmed by the fire. Satisfaction.

These feelings don’t come from just being in a house – they come from that feeling of home and that can come to us at different places. Maybe some of us feel home when we are with family. Maybe it’s with friends. Maybe it’s here at 61st Avenue. Home is satisfaction in the heart – being “right” with the ones we love.

That’s not always an easy thing to have though is it? The Whitney Houston version “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” begins with these words:

“I’m dreaming tonight of a place I love even more than I usually do. And although I know it’s a long road back, I promise you…I’ll be home for Christmas.”

How do we get to that place that feels like home? How do we get our relationships in order so we get that feeling? Tonight’s scripture is about repenting…that word might cause a feeling of dread in our hearts…maybe it conjures up old feelings of someone trying to beat you over the head with religion. But repentance is God’s way of making a home…sweeping out the trash to make way for the good stuff.
It may feel like a long road back to home, but God is near, and will always make a way – even when we think there is none.

Today’s scripture begins with John the Baptist getting angry at people assuming they are entitled to a place in God’s home:

Luke 3:7-18 (The Message)

7-9When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin. And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."

To make God’s household right, John is saying that we need to turn our hearts around and that it needs to show! That people around us should see us blossoming! And that this happens from the inside out – not just by washing our skin with waters of baptism but by changing our lives.

Have you ever had people say words that ring hollow? Maybe someone who says they’re sorry but they go right back to what they’ve been doing all along? That hurts doesn’t it?! That’s what John is saying here – that God expects us to turn our lives around – to express repentance with our ways, not just our words.

All of us have gotten this wrong – and sometimes we mean well, we just don’t follow through. When we do that with relationships in our lives, we feel it even more strongly because it breaks up relationships. When we do wrong to someone, we need to show that we are sorry by our new ways, not just continuing old ways with new words!

When my sister was raising her daughter Amy, Amy would sometimes say she was sorry about doing something wrong. And Susan would say, “Don’t be sorry. Be better.” That’s kind of what this scripture is saying. Don’t speak words that have no meaning to you and expect things to be better. You’ve got to participate in being the meaning of the word! You’ve got to be the dictionary that explains repentance to others!

Sometimes home feels far away because of something beyond our own doing – something that has happened to us like divorce or death, prison, maybe mental illness, addiction, the list goes on. When a situation is in our hands, we have control over what we can do, right? When the other person in the relationship is not honoring the relationship, sometimes we do what we can and we move on. This can be really painful, but even then, having a good relationship with God – the head of our heart’s household, can provide us with what we need to find that contentment even in the face of sorrow.

I have seen this illustrated in many places, where people who are hurt by others move into Christian community and find a true home among others who know what it’s like to be hurt and excluded. Sometimes the home we find in Christian community may feel more like home than any place we grew up in. I see this lived out in many places, but one place especially touched my heart this October when I traveled to Zimbabwe. It’s Project Tariro – Tariro means hope in the local language – and Tariro provides a community of love especially to those whose blood relatives have turned their backs.

Play Video: http://umtv.org/archives/adult_aids_health_care.htm

While I was there, I met a young girl named Thandi – a twelve year old girl. Her mother, Nora, had been diagnosed with AIDS and her family threw her out. Nora was faced then with raising her daughter amidst unbelievable poverty – the kind of poverty where most people around you have nothing and there’s nobody even to beg from. But Thandi and her mom came to Project Tariro and found that there were others like them who had also been turned out by their families who were finding a way by having a nutritional garden, counselors, health support and more . In March of this year, Thandi’s mother died when the medicines she needed were not available. Once again, her own family would not or could not help. But the Christian community that surrounded them did not let them down. Thandi is living with the pastor there and is able to continue schooling and is getting what she needs to survive. She is not alone.

When we realize what it means to be “home for Christmas” we are able to help others who are without. The scriptures that I read before continue with the crowd’s continued interaction with John the Baptist:

10The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"

11"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."

12Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"

13He told them, "No more extortion—collect only what is required by law."

14Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"

He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations."

When we really repent, we see an outward change that helps those around us.

I’ve seen this at 61st Avenue, in other places in Nashville and again in Africa. I feel uncomfortable when people look at me like I’m good for going there to Africa to help others. I’m no better than anyone. And really, when I go there, I am the one who comes back full. I am the one who has been home for Christmas. Because when I’m there, I see glimpses of heaven in the way that people love one another and love God. The first time I went to Zimbabwe, a child who had an old pair of shoes received a new pair, only to run and happily give the other pair to a child without shoes. I have met elderly people who barely have what it takes them to survive for a day stand and sing with joy that God has shown favor upon them. I have listened as a woman who lost three siblings last year to political violence sing to me her profession of faith – Because He Lives. Because He Lives – I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future, life is worth the living just because he lives.

I’m always amazed at how people whose faith is strong can get through tough times. But it’s because I have witnessed this that I can share with you that it is possible! Even when times are unimagineably tough, people who have a strong faith in God persevere and overcome in time. Things are different. Home can be found in the midst of a desert where others find only desolation. This is what happens when we are changed from the inside out.

The final portion of this scripture shows people questioning John who has been saying these things.

15The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"

16-17But John intervened: "I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."

Are we ready for Christ? December 24 is just around the corner…the time that we recognize Jesus’ birth and spiritually prepare for receiving him in our hearts. What trash do we have to be swept out?

Another song sung this time of year is “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The difference between Santa and the messiah – Jesus Christ – is that Santa comes to those who are nice, not naughty. God sent Jesus especially to the “naughty” as the gift to end all gifts! All God asks us to do is to prepare him room. May we prepare for His coming – making space knowing that maybe this year, we will find the true meaning of being home for Christmas. Amen.

Worship Response: If you would like to come forward as a sign of sweeping out a new place for Christ in your life, you may do so by taking a rock from the manger. Take it as a symbol of things that get in the way of your relationship with God and your relationship with others. Let God know that you want help in making way. And He who goes before us with grace and mercy will help.