Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Christmas Is Not For Sissies
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Luke 1:46-55
We tend to sentimentalize the Christmas story, and understandably so. After all, babies make us smile real wide and go all soft inside. (I hold my new grandson Mateo and I'm simply mesmerized by his warmth, his sweet smell, the very heft of his little body in the crook of my arm.)
This Sunday's Gospel story was about not one, but two babies in the making. And about their awestruck mommies to be. For these are miracle babies! Mary is pregnant even though she's a virgin; her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant even though she is old beyond normal child-bearing years.
And now we get to listen in on their excited conversation about it all.
At one point, Mary breaks into singing, in praise that God has chosen her of all people to be Messiah's mother. Amazing grace! But then her song takes a surprising turn. She praises God for turning the tables on this world's proud and powerful and privileged few, in favor of the weak and lowly masses. Like herself.
And so, suddenly, in the midst of our "Away in a Manger" anticipation of the "holy infant's" birthday celebration we're face to face with some radical reorganization of the world's agenda. And the church's too, as a matter of fact.
There have been times, in the course of human events, when reading or preaching on Mary's song was considered a subversive act. Imagine that! Imagine, too, what might happen if this passage were read on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 when our new President takes the oath of office with his hand on a Bible.
This Advent reading makes it crystal clear that Christmas is not for sissies. Young Mary is one strong soul. And we had better be, too, if we're at all serious about following the man her sweet soft baby grew up to be.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:36 PM
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Prepare Christ's Way Today
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark :1-8
There's no better way to preach an Advent sermon than to deliver it right in the middle of your daughter's long hard induced labor three miles away from your pulpit.
Everybody in the sanctuary this Sunday morning was right with me from the very first word -- all of us visualizing her strenuous ordeal as we thought together about waiting, waiting, waiting for Christmas to come at last.
We somehow sensed in a whole new way what the promise of a special baby's birth could mean. The love for my family in that sacred room was absolutely palpable.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
9:06 PM
Monday, December 08, 2008
Incarnation
Last night (Sunday, December 7) at 9:44, my grandson Mateo Jackson Buckley Hernandez was born after a long hard induced labor. He weighed in at 9 pounds 11 ounces and measured 23 inches from head to toes. Lots of curly black hair, two dark brown eyes, all fingers and toes intact and accounted for.
No wonder Joanne's first words to me, after she'd witnessed the birth, were simply, "He's so beautiful!" And then she cried. Tears of joy, relief, gratitude for God's kindness as she'd seen and tasted it at Sharon's side throughout the labor-birthing process.
Sharon had been admitted Saturday morning with exceedingly high blood pressure, two days after the official due date, and the medics said "Let's go" -- or words to that effect. Her husband Victor stayed with her from start to finish. Soon they were joined by two of Sharon's closest friends, one of whom served as her doula assisting the nurses all along the way. While Joanne did her wonderful motherly thing, I found it best to be in and out of the room -- mostly out -- and felt as if I should be hunting or gathering something to make myself useful. Hello, Mars; meet Venus!
Today Joanne got to burp the baby, and then I got to hold him a while. Pure bliss. Sunny smiles. Odd little cooing sounds. Hearts brimming with thanks for this unspeakably wonderful Gift From God. Which is the exact meaning of his name -- Mateo. Our little living, breathing Gospel!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:42 PM
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Watching, Waiting, Wanting
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Mark 13:24-37
The sermon was about Advent as antidote to Christmas commercialism. For four weeks we ceremonially slow down our culture's rush into all things Christmas. We ritually relive the world's long dark wait for the dawning of God's New Day, Israel's long antsy wait for Messiah to finally appear.
The writer of Psalm 80 surprises us by scolding God a little. (Is that like being pregnant a little?) Why isn't God doing something to redeem his sorry situation? "Wake up! Get up!" he chides. Imagine that.
Jesus says in Mark 13, hundreds of years later, that faith in God must include a fair amount of watching for God to stand up and act. Of waiting more or less patiently for God's way of working things out. Of wanting more than anything else for God to make the ultimate difference.
Advent is a perfect time to ask yourself what you are wishing God would get to doing these days. Where are the gaps of grace and peace in your life? What wounds or worries, what pains or problems, could use a little godly action right now?
In the Buckley family this first week of Advent, these themes pulse with timely meaning.
My daughter Sharon is due any day to give birth to a baby boy. All signs are very promising for a safe delivery, and for a healthy newborn child. For this we rejoice, in spades. Because a year ago Sharon and Victor's hearts were broken by the death of another boy at the five month gestation point. And so we fervently watch, and we wait, and we want for each new day -- this day -- to be the happy birth day.
I know that God is not asleep. Nor unaware, unconcerned, inactive. Of course not. Even so, I understand why the Psalmist seems to think otherwise.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:31 AM
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