JR. Forasteros - December 15, 2013
Shepherds
Even during the Christmas season, many of us feel far from God. Our journey toward Bethlehem looks remarkably like the shepherds. They were born and raised as God's people, but still considered second-class citizens. They were insiders who felt like outsiders. And at Jesus' birth, God left the Temple and appeared among the Shepherds to announce the king of kings could be found not on a throne, but in a manger. The good news for them - and for us - is that God is not found in Temples and Church buildings, but out among us, in our every day lives!
From Series: "Road to Bethlehem"
Shepherds with their sheep. Three kings bearing gifts. A new mother, her husband and their tiny baby, resting in a manger as a star shines brightly overhead. We've all seen the nativity scene hundreds of times. But that peaceful scene hides adventure, surprise, hurt and hope. Each of those persons gathered at that manger walked a different road to get there. Join us this Advent season as we learn their journeys to the manger. Each person's story is an invitation for us to consider our own paths. What does your Road to Bethlehem look like?
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You’ll never hear more bad theology than at a funeral.
One of the most difficult experiences in my pastoral career was in Ohio. A seventeen year old member of our church was killed in a car accident with her friends one night. The whole community was rocked, and as a result, several hundred came to her funeral. As one of the pastors, I stood with her parents in the receiving line, offering handshakes and hugs to mourners before they offered condolences to her parents.
If you’ve ever stood in those lines, you know that’s where people say some truly awful things. Things like, “God needed another angel in heaven.”
Really? God’s so needy he takes children? God can’t just make more angels?
Or, “Everything happens for a reason.” As though any reason is adequate to bring comfort in the midst of grief.
We say those things because we’re not good at grieving.
Other people’s grief makes us very uncomfortable. We feel an anxiety that makes us want to push all that away, to fix it, to do SOMETHING to make everything feel less awkward.
So we offer a cheap platitude because then we DID something and we can LEAVE and not feel like we’re abandoning someone.
Times like right now, when we’re not in the middle of the ickyness of grief, it’s obviously the wrong way to respond.
But what DO we do? How DO we respond to pain (and not just individual pain, but the pain in our culture, in our world)? What is a good, helpful, appropriate response to grief?
We’re going to talk about how to be WITH each other in our grief. To be honest about the pain, to bear witness with each other.
