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Maranatha–Come, Lord Jesus-A Christmas Prayer

On the Fourth  Sunday of Advent, this was the title of the message today.  Bruce Cook, our minister, introduced us to the origin of the term “Maranatha”.  After an exegesis and origin of the term, he described a familiar experience of how many people react when traveling by plane – displaying a variety of reactions of boredom and disinterest. But a child reacts differently.   When he enters the plane, he declares that he hopes he can see the pilot, at which point he is ushered in to the cockpit.  After meeting the pilot, he returns to the cabin and where for the rest of the trip he exclaims, “I have met the Pilot” and his face is lit up with delight.

Bruce went on to ask, when we come to worship, do we see Jesus – do we expect to see Jesus?  Do we display a glowing of the experience in our appearance and our life.  Are we busy dying or are we busy living?

For the past decade or more, we have been lamenting the decline of the church, in attendance at worship, financial support, presence of youth, and the closing of churches.  It seems to me that we have been too busy dying, instead of getting busy living.  If we could become busy with living, there would excitement, hope and activities that reveal the presence of the Kingdom that Jesus talked about.

For me, being busy with living means being active in the community, or the world, working for justice and peace, and finding community with those who are busy with living.  For the past year, being part of a network of people who are passionate about advocating for justice and peace in Palestine and Israel has given me the experience of being busy with living.

In this season when we celebrate with expectation the coming of Jesus, we might ask ourselves if we have seen the Pilot.  Maranatha is the church word for living with hope in the Kingdom, that is both present and in the future.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.  May this Christmas be a time when you can say Maranatha and welcome the Prince of Peace into your heart – and begin to be busy with living.

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Shining the Light of Non-violent Peace in God’s Kingdom

(Isa 60:1, 3 NRSV) Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

The word Light appears 236 times in the Bible, mostly in reference to the inner light – that which is the source of wisdom or vision and results in action. In the time after Epiphany, light is the metaphor for God’s presence and for our mission.

In the eastern traditions, light is a predominant theme. Eastern spirituality is experiential. In the west, we depend on rational thought more than experience and I wonder sometimes if we have lost a sense of the holy in our daily lives. The biblical references to light not only invite us to be aware of the holy in our lives but to act as light in the world.

The on-going struggle in Palestine to resist the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, as well as the peaceful protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and now Syria are strong examples of failure of empires to maintain peace by force in the face of non-violent resistance. Are these events signs of the Light overcoming the darkness?

John Dominic Crossan, in his lecture in London before Christmas, spoke of the world’s vision of peace as victory with force. Jesus taught that God’s empire is a non-violent Kingdom of peace, in opposition to the Roman empire of peace by force. Perhaps we are witnessing the power of the non-violent peace in the global movements.

In answer to the question about what we as the church and individual Christians can do to change the world’s determination to use violence to achieve peace, Crossan said the church must understand its mission is to collaborate with God in his kingdom of non-violence. Epiphany reminds us the light still shines to overcome the powers of darkness – the Empires of this world – and that our mission is to bear that light.