Framing the season….PEACE….

The Birthing Stories:  Jesus’ and Yours!

“God’s Picture of Things…Framing Life Again…

And Again…And Again…..”

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24; Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11

December 14, 2008   

How do you frame the events of your life?  What’s worth framing?  Where is your focus…what’s in and out of the picture?  If someone came into your day and took a snapshot now and then, what would you see yourself doing?  Would you frame it and put it on the mantel of your desires?  Or, would it go frameless in the shoe box of left over memories or seemingly insignificant moments?  How do you frame your relationships, your choices, you health, how you communicate, what you give of yourself or to yourself?  How you are framing your life….is this what you were born for?  For whatever you were born into, new life is possible….born again and again and again.  Framed by Jesus birth and the hope and joy it brings….your birth a gateway, threshold….an opening to possibility.  For your family….you were born through it, not to it!  You are more!  You just may need a bigger frame!  And if you framed your life with joy?  ….what might you see differently? What is God thinking?  How does God frame life?  ….creation in process?  God is thinking that we don’t need to rush ahead to Christmas, there is plenty to do right here and right now in Advent.  Waiting is not about passive resting or maintaining the status quo until something definitive happens, as if something definitive has not already happened in, among other things….our birth and our baptism; this season’s frame of anticipation and waiting isn’t passive….it is about living a transformed life while we are waiting eagerly and expectantly to be transformed even further! It’s simple.  God says what God wants us to do.  God’s got the picture of how it can be!  The simple words of today’s scripture capture our call and reflect the power and confidence God has in us to do important works….and the images used assure us, while God calls us, God holds us close.  Without the comfort of being held close, I cannot find my power to do even one important thing let alone all God sets before me as possible and calls me to “do”…to release, proclaim, provide, comfort…whether those I’m called to release….well….

 ….whether “those” I’m called to release are imprisoned behind bars in Waupon or imprisoned around the table in my house, whether those oppressed live in Iraq or in the abusive family next door, whether the broken hearts are within those who live along the Gulf Coast or in India or Iraq or Afghanistan or is my own! 

 I cannot find my power to do even one important thing if I do not absolutely feel held by the One Who Loves Me….I cannot comfort those who mourn till I see what is in deep grief in me….but just seeing is freeing….framing things anew is freedom!

 This is what I am to do…God thinks I can….how?  How do I get to that place of grace and power within myself and see myself as able?  What on earth is God thinking? 

Let’s see You frame this one, Lord!  Talk about a big frame?

 But then, the passage beyond its word of doing speaks words of being.  The images also speak and frame this time.  It says…it uses these words/images:

~The Spirit is upon me…not in me….upon me.  A gift, not another thing to figure out and do.  Being spiritual is not work to do…but a way to be.

~Already anointed…the holy within me has been seen and honored by our God….already

~Around me, a garland instead of ashes….focusing on the good and not on the bad…as Paul says, God sees what is good in me and doesn’t focus on what coulda, mighta, oughta been….how I’ve made an ash out of myself, the ashes of life.  Need to do some re-framing?

~An oil of gladness instead of mourning is offered….God coats me with oil to hold the gladness in and keep it from evaporating….keeps the energy in and doesn’t let it scatter, focusing on what works in life vs. giving all my energy to what doesn’t

~We are as oaks of justice planted by God showing God’s glory….we can claim our power because we are powerful.  Frame that!

~All the devastations of all the generations before us, all that they ruined can be raised up and life built anew if we chose to do it.  The past doesn’t bind us.  Start a new roll of film, a new album that tells the story of your new life….

~Clothed in a garment of salvation…you have what it takes to save yourself from yourself.

~Covered with a robe of justice….protection from what is unjust around you, a protection, and giving you a new wardrobe for going out into the world.

~God bedecks you for life, new life, like a bridegroom and bride bedeck themselves to begin a new life.

~Justice and praise grow daily like a seed in a garden shoots up and grows…and shows what is true.  It’s a process.  What you see is not all that you get.  What you seem to be is not all of who you are.

 You are holy just the way you are and God makes you able…has already given you everything you need to live a life of well-come.  (You come well and you bring wellness to others.) 

 Even if your cup is only half full…in that half is everything you need.

Body, spirit, and soul come together.  The “who” that you are…is sound….that is, the three make you one whole.  Keep them together…stay whole.  This is how we are made able.  This is how we have lives worth framing and place the moments on the mantle of our desires!

 God is faithful. God does all this.  This is what God is thinking.  This is what God is doing in each of us.  This is God’s picture of how it can be.

 What are we doing?  How are we being?  What are we framing?

Paul gives some clues about how to embody the comfort and begin to answer our call…

Pray without ceasing….ask God to hold the prayer unbroken, see life through prayerful eyes.

Rejoice always and be thankful in all things.….see the half full cup instead of the half empty…every thing on the way to heaven is heaven…trust….some good will come….

Don’t malign the prophets among us or swallow what they say whole, think for yourself…test it out.

Hold fast to what is good….what are you holding on to?  

And see the temptations all around you to do evil….in countless little ways.

 When this is how you are being, then God’s call begins to be do-able.

 Advent is an anointing. Of what is already holy within…already in the picture of who you are.

 The only way to do what God would have you do this new year of faith, is to see the holy within, frame it, keep it, and to pray and rejoice and test and hold fast to what is good…..

 Will you give yourself a chance to see yourself in a new light?  …see life in a new light?  Not over exposed, or under exposed, will you come to fruition….and frame a new and never ending story?

This candle shines hope into the mystery of life…this one joy. 

Hope and Joy frame our lives…

the Advent of something new.

We are born again and again and again!

Emmanuel, Emmanuel,

His name is called Emmanuel.

God with us, revealed in us,

His name is called Emmanuel.