Rev. Susan M. Craig
January 7, 2007
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
Matthew 2:16-18, Luke 3:15-17
"What About Life?"

The picturesque images of Christmas are beginning to fade…the tableau we created as we sang "Once in Royal David’s City", the Centurion heralding our Christmas Eve drama, the Christmas trees which decorated our worship platform, and let’s not forget our beloved sheep. Last weekend we thought about the wisemen arriving in Bethlehem, and yesterday the world celebrated Epiphany, Three Kings Day - all of which bring us to today, the first Sunday after Epiphany, a time described by poet Howard Thurman as follows:

"When the song of the angels is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the kings and the shepherds
Have found their way home
The work of Christmas is begun."

The "work" of Christmas, what is that? Well, it is just that sort of work that David and I and Ron-long-distance would like to invite you to join in. Hopefully, the past two weeks have been times of rest – or at least renewal or recreation, for now we do have in mind the possibility of some important personal work.

Today we want to take a look at what follows the Christmas story and our reactions to it, for it is here that the story starts to get messy, even horrendous at one point. For Jesus’ birth, however you believe it happened, was a miracle and a mystery, filled with all the power and might and potential of God’s love – all aspects that could threaten those in power and lead to decisions being made based upon fear, jealousy and greed.

Do these scriptures trouble us? They should. Do we question or wonder or get upset with the fact that our God would take actions that could lead humanity to commit murder? Here we have a God who sends his Son into this world to save us and have us know we are eternally loved, and along with that intention comes the human response of persecution and the sword. What do we think of such things?

Jesus’ life and teachings changed the world of his time…and we know how much people like change. I believe it also has the same potential for our time if we would also be faithful. The disciples made difficult and dangerous decisions when they chose to follow that man from Nazareth. If we would be faithful, we may also be called to do the same.

Jesus teachings apply to many subjects. In our sermon series, which begins today, we want to take a look at these teachings and put them alongside several of the critical issues of this time…life, the environment, peace, and what we often refer to as the "ever present state of poverty". It is our hope to address these issues and more – opening them up for your consideration, offering each of you and ourselves the opportunity to struggle with the questions our faith raises. The series is entitled "Struggling with Tough Questions". We invite you to take part.- to enter into a different subject each Sunday and then, should you choose, pursue it yourself.

There most probably will be a number of different responses to the subjects raised…and that’s okay. We are a denomination that honors the right of private judgment. You will hear us share some of our own beliefs on these issues, but please understand that is not in an effort to tell you what you should think, but rather invite you to seek your own responses.

I pray that this time may be – for all of us – rather like the time when Jacob wrestled with an angel and in the midst of that struggle, asked for a blessing. If we ask God to be with us as we consider the tough questions in life, I believe there will be blessing. Or, it may be that our look at certain issues opens up places of discomfort or old wounds for you. In this case, let us remember that when wounds heal, they form scar tissue which is stronger than what was there before. So let us now take heart and take courage as we invite God to be with us.

Loving God, Mighty and Powerful God, Healing and Comforting God, God of the Weak and God of the Strong, be with us this day as we look at Jesus’ life beyond the time of Christmas. Be with us in our questioning and doubting, in our hurting and our hoping, in our becoming more whole, and becoming more your own. Amen.

Our scriptures for today are complex. They are also real. They are not a selection of verses chosen with the purpose of leaving us with warm and cozy feelings. In their own right they demand question and struggle. (And let us also remember we are a people of faith who believe God is still speaking!)

Our first reading comes from the wisdom book, Ecclesiastes, and brings us an Old Testament view of life. Here the author Koheleth poetically describes life as filled with times of loss and gain, of tears as well as laughter, and of a rich variety of experiences. He also warns that just as we accept the shining moments of life, there will also be moments of shadow. In summary, Koheleth encourages us to choose the low road in life, that of eating and drinking and enjoying simple pleasures, not depending on much more than a set of mixed and predetermined events. There is a sense of futility in these verses set up to counter the possibility of human striving, a futility which in time would be conquered by child whose birth we so recently celebrated.

Moving to the New Testament, our Gospel lesson from Matthew brutally removes us from the charm of a rude stable and confronts us with the awful truth of Herod’s jealousy and resulting decision to slaughter the innocents, every child two years of age and younger. Clearly, the coming of the child, Jesus, into the world, the coming of God breaking into our time, embodied a threat to all who clung to their thrones and relied on the submission of others for their well-being.

Luke’s telling takes us to the next step, with Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist prophesying the coming power of Jesus’ ministry with all its potential for good, and for ill in the destruction of evil. Again hard to take? We don’t usually dwell upon an image of God that includes destruction.

So what about life? What about this gift of human life we have been given? Our lives – and those of others?

My thoughts begin with my childhood, and my mother’s and father’s hopes that they could create a life that would be better for us children than theirs had been. They had fought in World War II, my mother in the O.S.S. and my father in the British Army. They had personally faced the powers of evil, as they understood it, and come home wanting to have a home and a patch of green and children to love. They also lived in a world where the environment was cleaner and healthier, and the agony of far off nations either not surely known, or at least not known so immediately.

We live in a world that calls us in new ways. With instantaneous communications we know about the atrocities of war or famine within minutes. We also are much more advanced in the areas of science and medicine. How do we use these gifts? Cloning and stem cell research are part of our current dilemma. So is the prolongation of life through means of life support. There are many questions that arise. We should think about them.

For me, all of this comes down to the question of what we understand and believe about our lives and those of others, and why we were put here. I believe that all life, all life is precious in God’s sight and that our lives are given to us to live fully and fearlessly, actively and emotionally, not wrapped up in cotton or consumed by the need for security. As Germaine Greer put it, "Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you. Security is the death of life." For me, I have to start with basics in my living, loving God and loving my neighbor.

Recently we held a memorial service here in the Meetinghouse for a young man beloved by his community. Many came to express their sadness and share their love for him with his family.

This past week our nation honored past President Gerald R. Ford upon the occasion of his death – thousands upon thousands stopped what they were doing, went to Washington or Grand Rapids, prayed and offered their condolences to his family.

To change scenarios ever so slightly, this Christmas Brad and I gathered in Maine with family members and loved ones, exchanged gifts, spent time together, and put everything else on hold for a while (Thank you David.) All of these, instances expressing our love for those we knew – or knew of.

But still people were shot and killed in this state and around our nation. Still people were killed by suicide bombers in Iraq - as we continue to fight a war which we began and which we as a nation are considering further escalating. Still thousands are being killed in Darfur.

We see this. We hear this. We know it is happening. That troubles me.

Jesus taught that we should love our neighbor. Have we let there become boundaries to our understanding of who our neighbors are? Have we let there be boundaries across which our love and attention become theoretical instead of personal. Have we let race, or geography or the immensity of human suffering stop us? We need to think about this – especially if we believe each life is precious in God’s eyes.

The recent headlines about Wesley Autrey rescuing a man in the New York subways are a wonderful prod to our looking out for the stranger. So, too, are the stories about those men in the Bronx who saved a falling toddler from his death. Over Christmas week I spoke with a friend who was visiting us in Maine. She commented that she had been in conversation recently with someone who was most upset about the war in Iraq and she wished she had been more active in some sort of public response to this issue. She and I and you still can.

What if we attended lectures, wrote letters to the editor of our local newspapers, or spoke out and stood for one position or another? As Eleanor Roosevelt put it:

"I could not at any age be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."

Or as Elie Weisel has put it,

"The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference."

This thing called life is complex and can be confusing. The statistic keepers in this country confirm this. They have found that those in this country who are against abortion, against the taking of an unborn child’s life are largely in favor of the death penalty. Similarly, those who are pro-abortion or pro-choice are against the death penalty.

What about life? How do we value life?

Let me tell you where I start now as an adult. When our first child, Taylor, was born, I knew in that moment as she came into the world that life is a God given miracle and is divinely precious, no matter what else comes along. Brad and I knew that miracle once again, when our second child, Libby, was born. This past March our granddaughter ‘Neily was born. At the time I was being the helpful grandmother-to-be walking our children’s dog, Binney, while they were at the hospital. As Binney and I were walking down one of the steeper hills in Charlestown my cell phone rang, and I heard joy as I have never heard it in my son-in-law, Adam’s voice as he told me that they had a daughter whose name was Elisabeth McNeily Ware. He didn’t say how much she weighed, or how many inches long she was, or how long the labor had been, or how my daughter, Taylor had fared, but his joy at his child’s birth, in that instant, said it all and changed my life. A child, a life, born into this world can change this world and is precious beyond our understanding. Every life born into this world changes this world and is precious beyond understanding. That is where I begin when I ask myself, "What about life?"

Before Jesus’ birth, the nation of Israel followed the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill.", underscoring God’s valuing of human life. Jesus extended this valuing of life when he told people to love their enemies. As Christians, not only is life precious, it is worthy of God’s love and our own.

Frederick Buechner has addressed this teaching about enemies in his lexicon, Whistling in the Dark. Listen to his view.

"Jesus says we are to love our enemies and pray for them…It is a tall order…The South African black love the lords of apartheid? The longtime employee who is laid off just before he qualifies for retirement with a pension love the people who call him in to break the news? The mother of a molested child love the molester? (And I would add the prisoner in Abu Graib prison or in Guantanamo Bay love his guard?) But when you see who your enemies are, at least you see your enemies clearly, too.

You see the lines in their faces and the way they walk when they are tired. You see who their husbands and wives are, maybe. You see where they are vulnerable. You see where they are scared. Seeing what is hateful about them, maybe you catch a glimpse of where the hatefulness comes from. You are light years away from loving them, but maybe you can pray to God to forgive them, even if you can’t. Any prayer for them is a major breakthrough."

Buechner also has words that speak to the potential of loving our neighbors in ways that cross boundaries. "The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life. And that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt."

What about life? I say let us take the high road, and dare to live life fully, emotionally and passionately, knowing that we do so accompanied by our God of love, our God-with-us whose Son came that we might know that even the darkest places our lives may take us are not the end of the story. For this reason let us take heart, take courage, and live!

Amen.