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"Christmas Pageant Of The Heart" |
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Sermon Preached By The Rev. Bruce Sanguin |
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Is there anything sweeter than our children solemnly enacting the ancient story of the birth of the Christ? It’s always a highlight of this season. The Christmas story that we experience as a pageant is pieced together from two of the gospel accounts, Matthew and Luke. Mark and John don’t have a birth story as such. I did a little research and discovered that the Matthew and Luke agree on a mere four facts: Mary conceives by the Holy Spirit, she’s married to a man named Joseph, the name Jesus is given by an angel, and the birth takes place in Bethlehem. The manger and the shepherds come from Matthew, the Magi from Luke. In Luke, the angel appears to Mary and never to Joseph. In Matthew, the angel appears to Joseph and never to Mary. But the truth of the Christmas story doesn’t lie in historical facts. It lives in our hearts, in the interior depths of our being. The language is appropriately mythological and therefore was never intended to be historical truth. The way to read this kind of spiritual literature is to understand that all of the characters and images, indeed the very plot, is alive within each one of us. In other words, this is a pageant of the heart, in which all the characters are archetypal figures that live inside each of us. The drama of Christmas is an internal one that is going on today in our very beings. So, let’s bring a few of the Christmas characters alive within our very souls. Shepherds “In that region, there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2: 8). In the Bible, shepherd is an esteemed metaphor. Shepherds were considered to be leaders. King David worked as a shepherd, and then utilized those skills to lead his nation. Jesus is the good shepherd, willing to lay down his life for his flock. He tells the parable of the shepherd who loves each sheep uniquely and is willing to leave the 99 to go and find the one that is lost. Can you locate your inner shepherd? Who are your sheep, given into your care? How are you doing with your vocation of shepherding? Are you defending them from harm? Any distraction for a shepherd could mean the loss of one of the sheep. It’s love for their flock that opens the shepherd’s hearts to angelic visitations, Are you as open to good news of great joy? Are you open to angelic visitations, unexpected visions of hope for humanity? Or have you given up and shut down. Have you settled into a comfortable cynicism that neither God nor God’s messengers can crack? Perhaps, you need to access your shepherd. We need leaders who are filled with love for humanity, and for the earth and all her creatures in the 21st century. Wise Ones “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem, asking: Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and we have come to pay him homage” (Matthew 2:1-2). The Magi, or wise men, are those who understand that the whole universe is filled with meaning and purpose. The stars, for those with eyes to see and open hearts, tell a sacred tale of a divine conspiracy to bring the world to love. Modernism and scientific rationalism voided the cosmos of meaning and purpose, leaving human beings isolated in an impossibly huge and ever-expanding universe. It is all a tale told by an idiot according to this flatland version of reality, the random collision of atoms and molecules, assembled by the blind forces of fate. But your inner Magi knows different. She never lost the sense of the magic at the heart of the universe. You know the stars to be your ancestors, the ones who gave birth to the elements that make up your body; you have a place of inner wisdom that can trace patterns of meaning in their glimmering. That a star should conspire in lighting up the story of a sacred birth does not surprise. You enjoy a primal wisdom that understands that the universe in its entirety is the face of the Holy One. Your archetypal Magi is willing to travel across religious and cultural boundaries to pay homage to what is sacred in other traditions. The Magi in the story of Christ’s birth were not Jewish. They were Persian. They didn’t travel to Bethlehem to be converted to Judaism or Christianity. They traveled to pay homage to the sacred wherever they found it. Contrast this with the Southern Baptist’s journey to Iraq after the invasion, not to pay homage to their ancient gods and goddesses, but to complete the cultural plundering that their President had begun with their religious plundering. They went, not with gifts of frankincense and myrrh, but with hateful religious tracts. Your Magi, your inner wisdom, leads you on a journey to the place wherever the sacred is being born. Your inner Magi looks out at the world and sees an enchanted universe. She practices the spiritual discipline of awe. As with the story of Christ’s birth, she refuses to cooperate with the forces of death and destruction. Are you connected to your inner Magi? King Herod “When King Herod heard (about the one who was to be born King of the Jews), he was frightened and all Jerusalem with him”(Luke 2:3). It is imperative that we be able to identify the Herod energy within. This is the part of us that is frightened by all that is sacred and holy, because it threatens our egoic control on our life. Security and status reign for this archetype. King Herod is threatened by the prophesy of the birth of another king. All he hears is “competition”. His response is terrifying violence, the slaughter of male children under two. This slaughter of the sacred masculine is going on among the men of our culture. Men are turning their backs on spirituality in great numbers. The sacred threatens because it requires of us qualities that we’ve been socialized against: vulnerability, authenticity, deep feeling, intimacy, and connectedness. These have been replaced by work, Sunday afternoon football, and isolation. The love of mastery has replaced the love of mystery. But this fear of the sacred is not limited to men. Our ego’s job is to help us deal with fear. It controls, defends, protects, withdraws, inflates, rages, reasons, argues, and lashes out – all in response to a perceived threat to its survival. It wants above all to be seen as unique, sovereign, self-sufficient, and eternally so. It is at war with our soul, because our soul wants above all to be one with all that is, to serve the harmony of the Eternal Unity, and to bow in reverence before the majesty and mystery of God. This inner Herod is terrified of what it might have to give up if he submits to the sovereignty of the Holy Presence. The moment any one of us seriously considers listening to the voice of our soul, our inner Herod will emerge. We will begin to imagine all that we will be forced to give up – our security, our money, our lifestyle, and typically all the ways we have fun in life. But the Holy Presence doesn’t want anything from us that we don’t want to give – all that is asked is that we open our heart. Or using the Christmas story, get ourselves to the stable and do what come naturally when we’re face to face with the Mystery of the Universe – drop to our knees and give thanks. For the ego, the journey to our knees lasts a lifetime. But remembers, you are not your ego. Like the Magi, you can subvert the death project of Herod and choose to return home by another way. Mary “Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me, according to your word (Luke 1:38)”. Each of us is a mother of God. When we consent to be a vessel of the Spirit, we are opening to giving birth to God’s intention. Obviously, we don’t give birth to Jesus. But if we can get to Mary’s “yes” we will discover that we are centers of divine creativity. I don’t mean by this that we will all start painting or writing poetry or music – although some of us may tap into these latent powers. What I mean is that we will see ourselves as agents of God’s intentions. Like Mary, we may resist at first. Who are we, after all, to give birth to divine intentions? She was a peasant girl, a “nobody” in the eyes of the world. But her willingness helped her open to her inner worth. Joanne Hausch says “let it be to me according to your word”, and a team of people find themselves caring for youth in downtown Vancouver; Linda Gunn says “let it be to me according to your word” and she finds herself building a children’s church program; Anita Kilberg says, “let it be to me according to your word” and she finds herself organizing us to make and serve In From the Cold Meals; Russ Quinn says “yes” and we’re becoming a leader in the United Church in Vancouver around ecological issues. Mary Lou Whittaker says “yes” and a Peace Team is born. The Maple group says “yes” and before you know it they discover that they’ve been serving this congregation and this community for 50 years. Rachel Landrecht says “yes” and births her first CD into the world. Our souls magnify the Lord when we get to the place of willingness, and then we are blessed by holy creativity. Joseph But just as Joseph had resolved to do this (dismiss her quietly), an angel of the Lord appeard to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived is from the Holy Spirit…Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him (Luke 1:20-25). Joseph is asked in this story to transcend mere decency and to trust that he is playing a role in a divine plan. Religion for him becomes much more than being a good person – as important as that is. God needs him to trust that he is playing a role in a scheme to divinize creation – to draw, through Christ, all creation towards divinity. Joseph seems to be a good man. Mary is found to be pregnant and he decides to “quietly dismiss her” – meaning allow her to break their nuptial agreement without going public. But God wants him to transcend being merely a good man, and want him to be a great man – to actively, consciously participate in the divine plan. Your inner Joseph is the foil for your inner Herod. Your Herod thinks he is great, but is lacking in goodness. Joseph is already good, but he is invited to greatness. The Christ Child Last, but by no means, least, you have within you a Christ child. You are a divine offering, the Promise of God made flesh. Your life is about making good on that promise. Not through an effort of your will, but by being your deepest self – a radiant manifestation of the Holy One. Your divine child has always known that you exist to make of your life an offering to the world, that you must be about your “Father/Mother’s” business. Can you allow your divine child to shine out? Can you receive the gifts that others want to bestow upon you? If you can, it is because they only serve to deepen your love for the world and your desire to give yourself in service. This cast of characters lives within us. The Christmas pageant is playing out in your heart and will do so for your entire life. One year, a particular character may take the stage. Another year, you may be called to connect with a different character. May we all reconnect with the deep meaning of Christmas this year.
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