Christmas: God Joins Us In Our Struggles

Christmas is our feast.
The time we remember Jesus, born homeless in a shelter in Bethlehem.
The time of hope, of the birth of hope.
The time when we try, once again, to open up our hearts
our lives and let God be born in us.
It's interesting.
The Gospels begin with the Christmas story,
the birth of Jesus, the power of God in powerless little child,
and ends with the story of Emmaus,
Jesus walking on the road incognito as a stranger
among His disciples.
What both stories tell us
is that God has inserted Himself into this tired struggle of humanity,
among men and women struggling with the power of evil and despair,
it is among us struggling people who form a story
which God wants us to become of;
and into this struggle God inserts himself in Christ Jesus,
becoming a brother, a fellow traveler with us.
he walks with us, he joins us in our struggles, our hurts, our disappointments,
listens to our story,
and helps us realize that we are not walking in circles;
we are not suffering without meaning;
we are not alone in our journey;
that the God of love who gives us life
is now with us
is now within us
at all times,
and in all places;
so we need never feel lost;
we can always trust that God walks with us.

Jesus comes to listen to our stories, and give us hope;
but so many of us, including myself,
tend to hide part of our story, to cling to our aloneness;
and when we do that we are not allowing God
to touch us when we are lost in pain,
we are hiding from one another those places deepest inside ourselves,
whether we are most in pain,
where we are most confused, guilty, hurt.
So Christmas our time to commit ourselves to open up
to one another and to God,
and allow God, divinity, hope, new life be born in us.

It is night now,
and in many ways in America, it is night, it is darkness.
and was in the night when
the angel told Mary that the Messiah, the Savior, would be born
to her, a Virgin, an "impossible" thing;
and in the night when she gave birth in the shelter of a cave,
because there was no vacancy in any rooming house.
how do we get out of the night, out of this darkness?
I'd like to tell you a story from a Jewish Hassic tale:
"How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends and the day begins",
a young man asks.
"When from a distance you can distinguish a dog from a sheep?", suggested another young man.
"No", said the old rabbi.
"Is it when one can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine? asked another young man.
"No".
"It is when", said the old teacher,
It is when you can look into the face of another human being,
no matter who they are, what they are, what they've done or not done,
and you have enough light to recognize in him or her a brother or a sister.
Until then,
it is night, and darkness is still with you".

So tonight is a night to reach out
and in God let love for each other be born;
to think of any person among us we have judged,
not accepted, even rejected,
and build communion as a brother or sister;
if we have said,
look, I love you abstractly
but I don't like your ways;
To reach out with the gift of real friendship.
When Jesus looked around at his followers,
they were not very different from us:
sinners, prostitutes, poor folks sat upon and spat upon,
all of whom were turning to a new life.

Tonight, God sends his only begotten Son, the first of brothers and sisters,
because he so loved this world, he so loved us;
God's love for us must not be forgotten;
when everything is dark,
when we are surrounded by despairing forces,
when we do not see any exist out of our trouble,
Then we can find peace and salvation in
the remembered love of Jesus Christ,
which is love made vulnerable through suffering,
who teaches us that truth springs from patience, and patience from suffering.

I want now to pray,
and then I want to answer that prayer as I think Jesus does.

Tonight, Father, we are conscious of ourselves and the world we live in,
we are poor, our work is poor.
And tonight, Father, we want to make you an offering at Christmas;
we offer ourselves, we offer you our little world,
its troubles, its joys, its pain, its hopes;
We give you what we are, the poor Christmas that we are,
sometimes the poor human beings that we are.
I give you my family.
We are not always all we could be.
But we try. And with your help and your love, we will try harder.
We offer you our work for people hungry and homeless and alone,
and the good men and women we work with, whom we have not loved enough.
Let us love each other as you love us.
Heal us, Father, and make us feel free to enjoy your world
and use it as you want us to.
We offer you our country, this giant, tortured, often brutal country;
you have given us so much wealth and good news and power,
and what a mess!
We will try to love it and serve it, in your way.
So as you can see, Lord, we have little to give you;
but we offer what we have,
our failings, our frustrations, our betrayals,
the evil we do, the good we do not do.
and we know that you are glad!

And let me tell you what the Fathers answers me,
through Jesus:
Come to me, all of you who are weary and find life so hard,
And I will refresh you, I will renew you.
Take my yoke upon your shoulders, my love, my lifestyle,
And learn from me,
For I am gentle of heart;
My way is easy, my burden light.
Remember I am with you always,
I am the very core of our being,
I am your very life.
I weep your tears with you, for your tears are my tears.
But I am also your joy!
Don't be afraid to be happy.
That's what I made you for.
And every day is Christmas,
A day to be born all over again with my life.
Let no one judge you, let no one condemn you:
For every day is a day I can be born all over again,
In your life.
And one day before you go into the Kingdom
You can say,
"I really live now, not I,
But Jesus Christ lives in me".
Amen.

Father David Kirk
Emmaus Harlem
Christmas 1987

Isaiah 9:2-7
Luke 2:1-20
Final: Philippians 4:4-7

Resurrection: We Can Make It

On this night, on this very different night,
as the Jews say at the time of Passover,
Jesus comes to teach us how to live and how to die,
That the grain of wheat dropped to the ground and dying,
Can then grow and produce;
And so he teaches us how to lose in order to win.
AND JESUS SEEMED TO HAVE LOST IT ALL.
Before us, on Good Friday, we had Jesus on the cross, the broken man;
Jesus, the grain of wheat stomped to the ground as so many poor people.
Jesus, crucified on wood.
He did not run from his brokenness.
But he faced his moment of truth saying in effect:
LET DEATH COME; LIFE WILL GO ON NOW AND FOREVER.
He looks the death squad in the face,
And proclaims it conquered.
So Easter, celebrating the resurrection and death of Jesus,
Is the moment in our faith;
The mystery of our faith.
IT IS THE PLEDGE OF GOD THAT WE, TOO, SHALL OVERCOME ALL THE FORCES OF DEATH,
AND WE, TOO, SHALL LIVE FOREVER.
THAT LIFE AND GROWTH ARE OURS
EVEN IN THE MIDST OF PAIN AND TROUBLE.
On this night
God gathers together all the tired stragglers and strugglers
On the road to Emmaus
To celebrate that
Christ is risen from the dead,
And we can rise, too.
To celebrate among all our troubles
That HOPE is always just around the corner from despair.
We keep dying here and being born again,
Dying and being born again;
Just when we seem to be settling down,
We have to move on down, move on down the road.
People move in, people move out;
Harry disappears,
His pride keeping him from returning to the community
After a fall.
It makes you realize we are a family when a brother is so missed.
And as I look around at his friends
Who are so down, disheartened, heads bowed, disappointed
I realize that we are not only reliving the story of Jesus
Dying and rising, again,
But we are reliving the story on the road to Emmaus,
When the risen Christ comes to us once more
And shares our sadness and
Rekindles our hope.

Is there no balm in Gilead, is there healing there, is there no physician there?
Tonight tells us that there is a balm in Gilead.
There is a physician there.
It is Jesus, suffering and risen.
Jesus comes and shares our pain,
Lifts up our pain,
Heals our pain,
Connects our pain to his, with others,
And transforms our pain.
We need to connect our own pain, our own human story, to his;
Only in this way will we realize that nothing, absolutely nothing,
No sin, no failure
Is outside God’s love and mercy.

On the road to Emmaus, risen Jesus listens to our story,
And tells us we are not walking or running in circles;
And we need to stop hiding part of our story,
We need to stop clinging to our aloneness
And really that was and is Harry’s problem, and our own
For we are not allowing God to touch us when we are lost in pain;
And we are hiding from God those places DEEPEST INSIDE ourselves
Where we are most in pain, where we are most confused, guilty, alone.

Easter tells us that we CAN MAKE IT;
We have the power to make it,
The power of God, the power of resurrection.
Because the Son of God on that first Easter
2000 years ago rose from the dead and overcame death and negativity,
WE HAVE THE POWER.
To NOT BE AFRAID OF GOING BACK ON DRUGS…We have the power.
To NOT BE AFRAID OF FALLING ON OUR FACE…We have the power.
TO SERVE EVEN WHEN WE CAN’T DO IT ANY LONGER…We have the power.
The power of God, sitting with us,
Waiting within us, waiting to be used.

In a moment, we will remember the death and resurrection of Jesus every day
With the covenant meal of bread and wine.
We will remember how on the night before he died
He broke bread and shared the cup, and through this
We will all partake of his very life.
And as we remember this:
Know that whatever God gives us
Eventually works in to the lives of others,
Like a grain of wheat that dies and becomes bread for others,
Like the sin of each of us affects the others,
Like a stone thrown in a pond, ripples into even wider circles:
SO THAT EVERY ACT SPREADS OUT AND INSPIRES AND CHALLENGES.
Let’s make a commitment today to do positive acts toward each other
So that the SOLIDARITY OF EVIL IN THIS WORLD
Is matched by a SOLIDARITY OF GOODNESS, of good people.
Let’s lift each other up,
Let’s hope with each other,
Change with each other,
Suffer with each other,
Even die a little with each other,
And rise with each other.
Amen

Easter 1989

Now There Stood By The Cross of Jesus His Mother

Shaking on his cross,
his face covered with sweat and blood,
his eyes bulging,
Jesus happens upon the figure of his loving Mother
standing at the foot of the cross.
Everyone is shouting, making accusations,
hurling insults, harnessing the condemned man.
Only Mary, silent and powerless to help,
offers comfort and support
with her presence and probably her tears.
"Come, all you who pass this way,
Look and see whether there is any suffering
like this suffering" (Lam 1:12).
It is not enough that Jesus should suffer in body and soul.
Even the most sacred affection,
the affection we feel for our mother,
is crushed under the cross.
God demands everything from Jesus,
even his mother.
And Jesus surrenders her too.
Now there are Catholic paintings
which show the Mother of Jesus as a
kind of fainting Mother of Sorrows,
but I don't believe that;
I've seen too many mothers, far less perfect than Mary,
take leave of their own flesh and blood
as they sail for Vietnam or Lebanon,
as they go off to jail,
as they die of AIDS;
as they stand at an open grave,
and show strength and fortitude and even majesty.
This is not a woman who faints.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, watched redemption happening,
in silence.
She did not cry out.
She is not named among the women who wept for Jesus.
We read in the Gospel only these movingly restrained words:
"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother"
St. Ambrose, of the early church says:
"I read that she stood;
I read nowhere that she wept".
Yet surely there were tears, silent or not.
She suffers because
every mother suffers doubly.
She suffers her own pain
and she suffers the pain of her child.
But, says the Song of Solomon (8: 6-7)
"Stern as death is love,
its flames like a blazing fire,
deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away".
Mary's love was stronger than death.

She now faces that moment
prophesied by old Simeon:
"You yourself shall be pierced by a sword" (Luke 2: 25)
Mary has come to be with her son.
She shares the pain imposed on him unjustly.
And we must feel with Jesus:
outraged and dishonored and seemingly disgraced,
she is probably the last person in the world
he wants to see gazing up at him
and yet the sigh of her must have brought joy
even in this mystery of iniquity
which seem to have brought him to infamous ending.
Yet she was standing there, like Mother Courage,
freely shouldering it all with Jesus,
along with a few other faithful ones,
in order to let redemption enter this world.
The Kingdom of God was taking root.
In the Catholic Church we call Mary
the Queen of the Poor of God,
and I feel she was standing there,
standing in for all the victims of injustice, oppression and violence;
In Argentina, the army in the dark of night,
would take away husbands and sons and murder them
in the name of their dictator;
and the mothers would gather in the plaza
in front of the dictators palace,
and simply stand and pray silently.
They were called the "Mothers of the Plaza",
the mothers of the missing,
and they just stood there, day after day,
year after year,
until the government was toppled down.
That's what Mary did.
And she was the poor young girl who said
that the powerful the rich, and the proud
would be toppled from their throne,
and the poor and the powerless would take over.
In her song of praise we call the magnificent,
she sang about a divine revolution
in which God would confuse the proud
pull down the mighty from their throne
raise the poor to high places,
give the hungry every good thing
and send the rich away empty (Luke 1: 51-53)
But this divine revolution and its hopes had its price.
Given its sinful condition of this world,
it will be effected only through the Sacrifice of
God's Son Jesus,
and it will continue to be effect only through
our sacrifices.

Jesus whispered to Mary,
"Woman, behold your son".
To me this is more than saying
"Mother, look after my friend John,
and John, look after my mother".
Earlier, when someone told Jesus, as
he was speaking to the crowds, long before,
"Your mother and brothers and sisters are here",
Jesus made a point:
"Who is my mother and my brother and my sister?
Whoever does the will of God."
Jesus said: I'm going to turn upside down your ideas of
family and tribe and all that:
those days, they said they all belonged to
the blood of Abraham;
I belong to the blood of the Kirk family in Alabama,
people I don't have much in common with except birth;
but Jesus tells us that
we're now one new family, beyond tribe and race and class,
a new family in the blood of Jesus.
And your brother or sister is anyone
who does the will of the Father.
And now Mary is standing in for this
New Human Race Jesus is creating,
made one finally with the glue of the Holy Spirit.
Woman, behold your son.
Brother, behold your sister.
Sister, behold your brother.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man,
we praise you and we thank you
for saving and redeeming us;
we stand at your cross as your mother,
as your brother and sisters,
and we grieve for you
as you continue to be crucified day after day
and we say to you:
Here we are Lord,
here we stand with you,
do with us what you will.Amen

Emmanuel Church, Holy Friday, 1987

A Note For Lent

A preface about Lent:
People “give up” things during lent:
Pizza, beer, lobster, whatever.
But does it move us closer to God,
Closer to one another, to ourselves?
Maybe what we should work on at Lent
Is CHANGING ATTITUDES.
Leaving behind frustrations, fears,
Cultural attitudes
Which box in others.
TO GIVE UP NEGATIVE, DEFEATIST ATTITUDES
To see temporary setbacks as permanent
To escalate disappointment into catastrophe
To experience problems as insurmountable.
To try to see other possibilities
When things don’t go as we had hoped or planned.
Sometimes I set myself up to feel like a failure
Or to feel badly
About things I cannot control;
And I get out of this only by deciding
That if things can’t be one way,
Well, maybe they can be another.
It’s possible, I think, even for me,
To still make inner changes,
To move old emotional garbage out
Permanently
To see the world in a whole new way,
To come closer to God.
So I’m not sure what I’m giving up this Lent
But I think its
HOPELESSNESS.
I think I learned this attitude
At an early age,
As a lonely adolescent,
As a young man whose people die young,
Whose sister died of alcoholism.
But God keeps seeking me, the lost lamb,
And in intervening in my life
Converting all these things into HOPE.
So I put all hopelessness on the altar
As a sacrifice to faith and joy.