I don’t know about you, but I am feeling a little blue this Christmas season. The main reason is the lack of social interaction. I miss not being able to see my family and spend time with them, and that makes me feel a little sad and lonely. But you know, it’s funny because if this were any other year I’d probably be feeling stressed out about having to deal with out of town relatives. Normally the holidays are known for an extra added level of stress in dealing with your relatives, friends, and family members. You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about those disagreements and debates you get into with your relatives about politics, social issues, religion, money, and more.
My brest friend from college and I agreed an almost everything, so we thought. We both really liked our math classes, mountain biking, hiking, and definitely had the same sense of humor. So we decided that we would be roommates! Everything was going great until we discovered we had a big difference. It had to do with the “p” word. Peanut Butter. I was die hard Laura Scudder’s oil separates naturally, and he was die hard Skippy partially hydrogenated oil that didn’t separate. How would we get along? But seriously, it wasn’t until after college that we discovered that we did disagree quite significantly on the other “p” word: politics. But we have stayed friends despite this difference.
Religion is definitely one area where there are differences of opinion. One such difference is between prioritizing acts of service or acts of ritual. On the one hand people will say that a truly faithful life is reflected in worship. That is making time to participate in an organized religious service with prayer, music, word, tradition, rituals, and a sermon. On the other hand are people who argue that a truly religious and faithful life is shown in acts of service throughout the week, that is, in living a life that is holy and upright as God would intend.
These differences of opinion are reflected in the Gospel reading from Saint John chapter one. The temple priests and Levites have left the temple in Jerusalem and gone out to see what John is up to in the wilderness. The priests and Levites would have emphasized traditions and rituals done in the temple as a core and perhaps primary sign of what it meant to be a faithful Jew. Others were critical of worship in the temple because it had become burdensome and weighed down by unnecessary practices and costs.
The Pharisees, in fact, emphasized daily practice of following God’s laws rather than just doing religious rituals in the temple. Many of the Pharisees had a reforming spirit in which they attempted to interpret the laws of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, so that ordinary people would be able to follow them and practice their faith. But as a group they were criticized for being at times legalistic and overly worried about monitoring people’s behavior.
We have the same arguments today. Some people argue that the most important thing is worship and ritual, while others argue that the most important thing is how we live our life. However, the real problem isn’t that there are differences of opinion, it is that there is often an unwillingness today to try to listen to and understand another person’s point of view. The reason why we have such a hard time listening to and appreciating a different point of view is because we are entrapped in works righteousness.
Works righteousness is a deadly and dangerous way of thinking. It holds that a person must by their own efforts make themself into a good and righteous person. It is the illusion that a person by hard work and perseverance may secure for themself safety, stability, and salvation. It is so dangerous because the person who is seduced by works-righteousness believes that they must be right. So if we are all obsessed with having to be right, then a person who disagrees with us is a threat. If they are right, then we might be wrong. And if we are wrong, then we must really be a loser.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We actually don’t have to be obsessed with being right. Consider the example of Mary. Today we read Mary’s song, the Magnificat. Mary sang out with joy to the Lord because even though she was humble and small, God looked with favor upon her and blessed her immeasurably. Her song reflects the themes in Isaiah chapter sixty one. God will bring back to life the places that have been devastated for generations. God will give relief to the afflicted. God’s grace binds up the brokenhearted to give hope to those who are sad. God will give freedom to the captives and imprisoned who feel the walls closing in on them God will set you free. God will give food to the hungry. For those who suffer from having too much food or power God will help take that away too, and give it to those who need it. But the best part of all is that God does all of these things not to people who are right and good, but to people who are sinners and wrong. You are saved by grace through faith, and not by works.
Today is the third Sunday in Advent. We light the pink candle. We remember Mary’s song, and we share in joy, because God is gracious and loving to us; more so than we deserve. Christmas is a time of joy because we get together with friends and family who we might disagree with deeply, who might make us crazy, but somehow we also find joy in it. I know there is joy in being with people I disagree with, because this year in quarantine when we aren’t able to make each other crazy, we miss that joy, that frenzied joy of the holidays.
So what can we do? What can we do to bring joy back into our lives during a Christmas season that is right in the middle of a pandemic. I believe the answer is obvious. You need to reach out and talk to somebody who you wildly disagree with. You need to pick the phone and call someone, write a message, or somehow communicate with someone that makes you crazy. The reason you can do this, is because you don’t have to worry about being right. Let them try to prove you wrong. What do you have to lose? Nothing! Because you’re saved by God’s grace anyway! You don’t have to be right. Think of the joy you will receive by communicating with someone you disagree with. I better watch out. I’m gonna notice who calls me after this sermon and just want to talk. It’s a tip off, if you know what I mean.
So a great example of taking time to communicate with someone you disagree with is in the gospel reading. Did you catch who sent the Levites and priests out to see John? It was the Pharisees. The Pharisees who disagreed with the priests and many things took the time to reach out and say, “You have got to go out into the desert and meet this John the Baptizer guy.” So if they could do it, then we could do it. You can pick up the phone and call your crazy uncle just because.
My friend Brian and I caught up just the other day. I was feeling kind of sad and lonely during the holidays. We had a great chat. We talked about our families, our jobs, religions; and although we didn’t talk about politics too much, we enjoyed catching up. It gave me great joy. I hope you can reach out and find joy in connecting with a friend and loved one too. Amen.
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