Christmas Eve Sermon: Ponder

 

“Mary Treasured all these words, and pondered them in her heart.”

“Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

 

            With this devotional booklet,
I would like to invite you all into the 12 days of Christmas;
welcome to a season of pondering, as Mary once pondered.

            Pondering—a practice of both the head and the heart, love and contemplation wrapped together in imagination.

Considering the charged logic of the words that Mary received,
the combustible way they combine to make the Christmas story, our story.

Consider too, how precious these words are.
They are like the Velveteen Rabbit
—the stuffed rabbit is so cuddled and loved by its child,
that its eyes are worn smooth and fur is rubbed off,
and that sort of love makes it become a living bunny…
so too pondering these words can make the Gospel come alive!

            So yes, tonight I am setting you all up for 12 days of pondering all these words.

Prayer

 

Pondering all these words.

            Ponder both the fear and the joy of this proclamation.

“Be not afraid” the words of most every angel in scripture, the extraordinary among the ordinary
—heaven on earth
—is disruptive and frightening.

Think of the manger scene here,
and all those angels swirling about the tree
–to scale, that’s terrifying!
A host, an army of angels! Oh my!

            Fear placed next to joyous tidings,
Good News—Gospel…
Imagine if people were always so excited to meet a Christian because they knew the encounter with them would bring them good news!
Imagine, even, that, in a media environment saturated with bad news and sadness
—"It Bleeds it Leads”
we can share a story of joy!

            Joy and terror,
Awe and Gospel
—Isn’t that what Mary and Joseph are experiencing? Childbirth, bringing a new life into existence
—bringing a Holy Child here on earth…
Terror and Joy!

 

            Ponder the universal and the particular,
the old and the new.

            Luke’s Gospel insists upon its universality
—Jesus is for everyone.
In fact, in Luke,
if a man receives a miracle, then a woman will receive a similar miracle,
if an old person witnesses God at work, a young person will as well.
Luke understands this to be the fulfillment of prophecy from the book of Joel.
Sons and daughters,
youth and elders,
slaves and free
—“For all people.”

            At the same time, there is a particularly to the Gospel, “Born in the city of David.”
This good news for all people is grounded in the good soil of Hebrew Scripture
—God’s ongoing faithfulness to the Jewish people.
And what we read today is not an anomaly or a one off,
no, right before Mary Ponders, she sings
a song that is so similar to Hannah’s in the book of Samuel that Mary might have to pay copyright for it!
Right after today’s Gospel the Holy Family will do what all faithful Jews did at the time
—sacrifice in the temple.

            God doing something new flowing out of something old…
God’s goodness for everyone,
and yet found in a particular place and a particular time, upheld by a particular history.
The scandal of the universal
and the scandal of particularity.
God loves everyone…
to which we human so often ask, “even him?”
Or more often, “Even them?”
AND ALSO
God loves YOU,
uniquely and not theoretically.
You in your messy wholeness and unvarnished history.

 

            Ponder this one who is born—Savior, Messiah, Lord. What kind of Redeemer, Chosen One, and King is he?

            Not simply a High Priest
—insisting upon right ritual, micromanaged until we’re all pure.
Not a new David violently reclaiming a Kingdom.
Not Caesar, maintaining order at all costs,
even if the bodies pile up.

Not that kind of Savior
—even if his name, Jesus, does mean Save us.
And he will…
save us from our alienation and our tendency to get tangled up on our self.
He will make meaning and right the world through self-sacrifice and accompanying love.
His authority will be lowly
—like his first crib and first guests
—manger and shepherds.
Humble Lordship that will culminate in kneeling and washing his students’ feet.

           

            Ponder the sign of God—the Birth of a child.

God with us in common things
—bands of cloth, a trough,
so unremarkable that he is squeezed out of the guest room…
you noticed that language in the new translation, yes? Inns/Guest Rooms, either way—ordinary stuff of life,
that’s the sign of God among us.
God with us in the everyday, because the redemption of our every day is the work of God!

 

            Ponder, lastly, the glory in heaven and peace on earth.

            Glory is literally the heaviness of God
—that which is too much for mortals,
yet that frightening too-much-ness
—that swarm of angels and all it implies
—offers favor and brings peace. Peace, he brings to us,
and peace he leaves for us,
the one who bears heaven to earth, God with us.

 

            Yes friends. Ponder in the coming 12 days of Christmas all these words.

 

“Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

Amen.

In the Valley, a Longest Night Homily

            It’s a Wonderful Life has an UNDESERVED reputation of being an old sappy black and white Christmas Movie…

but it isn’t saccharine. Instead, it’s a longest night kind of film…
The main character, George Baley,
runs into disaster atop disaster,
doubts assail him and he is driven to the point of suicide
on a bridge modeled after the one in Califon
—he wonders aloud if the world would be better off without him…
into this despair, Clarence, his guardian angel, swoops in,
not to save him—in a traditional sense anyway,
but to give him what he wants,
a vision of the world without George Baley.

            It’s a movie Lisa and I try to watch every year around Christmas.
A few weeks back, we saw a “Radio Play” version of it at the Shakespeare Theater.
And at some point in that dark theater
(because I’m a Theologian and can’t turn that part of my brain off),
I had an Aha!  George Baley entered a thin place!

 

            What do I mean by that? Well, within Celtic Christianity, there is a concept of “Thin Places”
places where the veil between heaven and earth are thinner.

Where God and humans are just a little closer together,
 the divine and ordinary, meet in extraordinary ways.
Places sparking with potential, demanding reverence, awe inspiring and awful!

 

            These are places of immense beauty,
or overwhelming intense emotion
—lush forests, monasteries, and pagan shrines even.

            Often times these thin places are also high places, mountains.
For example, Elijah encounters the still small voice on mount Horeb,
the book of Genesis is littered with Shrines erected on high places.

 

            My own experience of an obvious thin place was visiting Har Meggito (literally the Hill of Witness)
—from which we derive the word Armageddon.
It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site,
an archaeological dig that includes multi-layered ruins of religious structures
—a mosque atop a church atop a synagogue atop a pagan shrine.
(Clearly I wasn’t the only one who sensed the gossamer veil between heaven and earth there.)

 

            Yes, Thin Places are often found on the heights…
but there are also similar encounters in the night and in the depths…
Think of Abraham’s dark dream where he encounter’s God a flame in the mist of slaughter, and similarly Jacob wrestling on the Jabok river with A man/Angel/God…
or Moses chased and hunted down by God until he agrees to circumcision, or less obscure,
the people of God backed up against the Red Sea as Pharoah bears down on them…

           

            Yes, Thin places can kiss mountainous heights,
but they can also swoop down to the valley below.
Thin places, thin people, thin situations… in the valley.

 

Prayer

In the valley.

            Ezekiel is brought down into the valley, among dry bones
—bodies of slaughtered priests and the destroyed remnants of his nation
broken after the awful siege of Jerusalem.
Can these bones live?

            The Psalmist sings of the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
sheep, pilgrims, humans living life, traveling through the darkest valley
—the most dangerous leg of their pilgrimage journey.
Will they make it to green pastures and the house of the Lord?

            While Matthew insists that Jesus speaks from the heights
(Matthew needs us to know Jesus is a sort of New Moses giving a new law)
—he is speaking to those in the valley of affliction,
Down there in the depths,
Who have suffered sickness and ailments,
torments and possession,
gathered there to be healed.
Can they be blessed?

           

            These valleys too, are surely thin places:
-places near to possibility,
places of anticipation.

-situations of salvation and breath and reknitting and life and the Spirit’s return,
like at the moment of creation!
Isn’t that right Ezekiel?

-places we can sing Psalms about
—where there is a holy flow to life,
and rest at the end.

-people who are blessed,
finding comfort and mercy,
inheritance and the face of God
outlined in light, heaven meeting earth.

 

            These Longest Nights…
like George Baley’s night on that Califon Bridge… are Thin Places too!
These times allowing for mourning,
grieving changes of all sorts.

            These nights when we seem out of synch with the upbeat tempo of the season,
because we acknowledge the ragged discomforts of our own thinness…
“stretched like butter scraped over too much bread.”

These nights can be strained to the breaking point,
but somehow there is an opening in them too
—night’s dimness meets the clarity of day.
Tomorrow won’t be the longest night, only the second longest…

 

Think of Mary, heavily pregnant, traveling to Bethlehem…
pregnancy is surely a long night,
steeped in anticipation,
two worlds and possibilities a hairs breathe away…
Then the birth of the one who will be called God Among Us. A new day!

 

In this liminal time and space that we’re in together tonight,
we are pressed up against that curtain between heaven and earth.
Terrible awe, anticipation, potential—all swirl around us here.
I pray that
-our dry bones will receive Spirit,
-our shadowy journey will be led by a Shepherd,
-and our afflictions will be embraced by blessing.

Amen.

Most Read Posts of 2025

 

5. Useful Cuttings from My Time of Discernment—A sort of after-action report from my time of discernment around the office of the Bishop.

4. 35 Fiction Books for Men—As society worries about men not reading fiction, I offer them options.

3. A six-year vision for the Synod—A six year vision for the Synod.

2. The Kind of Bishop We Need—Some reflections I offered up to our Synod as we went into Synod Assembly and electing a new Bishop.

1. A Defense of Lutheran Social Ministries—My response to the bizarre attacks on Lutheran Social Ministries by members of the current administration.

              A few posts I thought were sort of important include my 4D Bible Study, my defense of the local library, an affirmation that life is fragile, and finally a Lutheran timeline.

Best Books of 2025

 

              While I read 60 books this year, it felt like a bit of a slump, I didn't have an "Oh! Wow!" read this year. Probably my favorite reading experience this year was re-reading the Gilead series. But, when it comes to new books, here are my five favorites for the year:

5. When Women were Dragons

4. The New Testament and the People of God

3. Sea of Tranquility

2. The Ministry of Time

1. Kindred

Runners up include: Abundance, The Frozen River, The Dallergut Dream Department Store, and Why Religion went Obsolete. 

A Republican Six-Pack

So my previous policy blogpost got some interesting responses.

On one hand, some folk felt I was a little hard on older politicians, and they hadn’t heard about some of the geriatric shenanigans going on in DC—Dianne Feinstein not understanding how to vote or where she was, Kay Grander going missing for 6 months and turning up in a nursing home, or both Senators McConnell and Kennedy having strange “glitching” episodes.

On the other hand, there are folks who want a 6 pack for the other side of the aisle; what should the Republicans be running on these days? What might post-Trump policy priorities look like for the GOP? It was sort of like when caricature artists on the board walk get a crowd and everyone starts saying, “Ohhh! Do me next!”

As a caveat, I’ve sort of lost the thread on Republican policymaking since they dismissed my concerns about the Iraq War, and those of millions of Americans, as “focus group problems” only to see those concerns play out upon the battered flesh of my generation… but I do have a vested interest in both political parties developing policies that help America instead of hurt it—after all I live here. So, I’ll give it a whirl.

I believe former president Obama was right, we don’t live in Red or Blue America, we live in the United States of America… and as such I figure many of the problems identified by Democrats are also problems for Republicans, so some of the policies I’ll offer with have overlap with those I offered to Democrats.

 

The Howard Roark Award for Affordable and Innovative Architecture:

              In order to alleviate the housing crisis, encourage innovations in affordable housing and create some buzz about new builds, create local public-private entities that will host affordable architecture contests in every county in the USA. Imagine it, 3,200 some new ideas for making housing affordable. Architects competing for bragging rights in their home towns, and bringing a national conversation to birth, not on twitter or from talking heads, but in person, considering on the ground realities and a bunch of regional and local contexts. Would that build the 2 million new houses that America is short? Would it lower prices on housing? It might set up a sustainable pipeline of affordable houses not dependent on the whims of Washington.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform:

              Since second grade, when we came back to the United States after my family served our stint as front line defenders against the Soviet Hordes, I’ve been hearing presidential candidates talking about comprehensive immigration reform. As I understand it, the idea is that the rules around immigration put in place in the 1960s are out of date, and laws about both bringing people in to the country and enforcing conditions for them staying out of the country should be updated to reflect current realities. The stickiness around passing this sort of thing is that it requires Republicans to allow for more immigration and probably will require some sort of amnesty or fast-tracking of people who have immigrated here illegally, and requires Democrats to state clearly the level and types of immigration that we are comfortable with, likely deport some people we don’t want to deport, and be the face of enforcement in a way that will dampen some immigrant families’ American Dreams. For that matter, this issue messes with political coalitions—big business and xenophobes don’t see eye to eye on immigration, and multiculturalists and organize labor could find themselves on different sides of the table.

Bubba nearly passed comprehensive immigration reform in the late 90s, Dubya in 2006, and Barack-star in 2013. What a coup, if Donald Trump and the Republicans were able to use this issue as their pivot toward the center. “Look, we made all this chaos to set the stage for order. I know it was hard, but I’ve created such a crisis that we have to do major reform—some people are saying it is the biggest reform! My predecessors failed, but I alone can make this happen. I encourage every representative and senator to vote their conscience, but Republicans need to know their conscience will be to vote for the final bill, or be primaried by my chosen MAGA candidate.” And there you have it, some updated version of the Gang of Eight/Gang of Six bill gets over the finish line.

The Arsenal of Democracy Bill:

              Traditionally the Republican Party is seen as the party of defense contractors and big business, and also the party of cutting government waste. So, this would be another pivot point. “Look, we sent Hegseth in, not because he knew what he was doing, but to shake everything up. Now that the armed services are properly shook, we can move forward for a defense plan for a multipolar world. China spent a decade creating weapons, logistics, and tactics with the sole focus of countering US strategy in the Pacific, and as a consequence our currently strategy and armaments wouldn’t defeat China if they tried to invade Taiwan. On top of that, currently we’re creating armaments for thousands of dollars, that cost hundreds when Ukraine makes ‘em. Let’s focus on those two things.”

So, we’re going to make a generational investment in two areas: 1. Weapons that take into account things learned about modern warfare in Ukraine. 2. Weapons that make China’s plan to invade Taiwan so costly that they are deterred, or if they go ahead with their plan, defeated.

Bring Back Cap and Trade

              Climate change is something the Republican Party is going to have to grappled with sooner or later—or go extinct as a party. The young folk won’t vote for a political party that has done nothing while their future and the fate of the planet is mortgaged for short term goals. For all of the bill’s flaws, the Democratic party can point to the Inflation Reduction Act as their signature attempt to save the future. Republicans should dust off George H. W. Bush’s solution to problems with sulfur dioxide back in the day and reintroduced by John McCain and Joe Lieberman to tackle CO2 emissions. Instead of pretending climate change isn’t happening, offer cap and trade as the free market, business friendly, solution.

Ban Washington Stock Trades & Impose Term Limits:

              In some ways the anti-corruption stuff I talked about in the previous post fits better in the Republican camp. After all, they were the folks who brought us the contract with America and GOP Representatives like Nancy Mace have been trying to pass bans on insider trading for public servants since they came to Washington.

              So, if the whole GOP ran on requiring anyone working in a branch of government, so Senators, Congresspeople, Presidents, Cabinet Secretaries, and Supreme Court Justices, to put all their stocks in a blind trust, like Mitt Romney did in 2012, they would find support.

              Back in ‘94 the GOP encouraged term limits. It leads to a churn in leadership and ideas, fresh blood and limits to “corrupt congress critters” as I’ve heard them called. So, let’s go there. Run on amending the constitution so that it limits House members to 4 terms, the Senate to 2 terms, and the Supreme Court to one 14 year term.

Spelling the whole thing out, the president maxes out at 8 years, Representatives at 10 years, Senators at 12, and Justices to 14 years. That seems like it offers more dynamic federal leadership, and would open up spaces for advancement more frequently.

A Cold War Style AI Summit:

              I have to admit I have a hard time thinking about how the GOP can tackle the serious dangers of AI. We just had an executive order nullifying all state laws about AI, so a grassroots/federalist development of these rules seems out of the picture. So, the other model would be Reagan in the Cold War. Trust, but verify. Come together with the other AI superpowers, namely China, and put together a GALT (Global AI Limitation Talks) treaty akin to SALT and SALT2. Agree on the point at which AI needs to be throttled, and have a mechanism for keeping tabs on all the signatory states.

 

              So, all in all, a kind of mixed bag from me; sorry GOP readers. The best conservative oriented policies I can come up with are: inspire innovative local architects, finally pass meaningful immigration reform, re-think defense investment, address climate change through cap and trade, tackle corruption in Washington, and create a GALT treaty to address the longer term dangers of AI. Those sorts of policies might be a healthy post-Trump turn for the Republican Party.

Advent 3: The Witness of Jesus

                I’ve told you about it before—the Jesus Seminar,

where a group of New Testament scholars went line by line through the Gospels,
voting with different colored marbles about how likely each line of scripture was to have actually been said or done by Jesus…
One of the few solid things that this group came up with was that, to quote Ben Worthington, one of my favorite Historical Jesus people:
“in the midst of the church's collection of Jesus' sayings were also included sayings of John!”
“Jesus was willing to parallel his own work and divine authority with John's.”

And

John is “the one figure in the Gospel tradition to whom Jesus seems to compare and contrast himself, both in his words and deeds.”

                So, with all that said, it is worth probing this relationship, between John and Jesus, and in today’s lesson
Jesus witnesses to John the Baptist,
and witnesses about John the Baptist.

Let us pray

 

Jesus witnesses to John the Baptist, he tells him good news.

                If you think about it, today’s lesson is somewhat shocking
—John wasn’t sure if Jesus, who he baptized and declared to be greater than himself
—was the one coming into the world to make all things right.
John, having pointed to Jesus as God’s beloved son,
is now imprisoned, and in that captivity, unsure.

Unsure, I imagine, because of what he expected.
Unsure as well because of his own model of ministry.

-His was an ongoing warning of judgement and renewal—repent! Turn around and be ready for God’s new thing!
Whereas Jesus proclaimed the inbreaking salvation of the Kingdom of God.

-His was a severe asceticism, a prophetic role all the way down…
diet—honey and locusts,
clothing—he wears camels hair and is girded with a leather belt,
and location—the Wilderness.
Compared with Jesus—joyful, supping with sinners, telling stories to straighten out the spirit…
If you google smiling Jesus pictures, there are tons…
pictures of John the Baptist smiling…
only that cheeky one by DaVinci.

-His was perhaps the common hope of a warrior king
or a High Priest putting things right.
a secular liberator
or a religious official with a auspicious genealogy going back to Moses’ brother Aaron
… and instead Jesus offers self-sacrifice and love.

                I can imagine John taking offense…
especially while jailed…
Look, if you were rotting in jail for pointing to a guy who you believe is doing God’s will,
you too might think, “is this the way God works?”

                So, Jesus tells John a little about himself
—lets him know how God is righting the world!
How God is working and continues to work.
Jesus describes his deeds (essentially a summary of Matthew chapters 8-9):
The dead are raised,
The disabled are able,
the diseased are at ease,
deprived are privy to the good news of God
God is on the move!

When people meet Jesus they are Gospelized by the living word of God!
They experience good news in an embodied sort of way!

 

Then Jesus goes on and witnesses about John the Baptist.

                He turns to a crowd gathered, people curious about how these two men relate to one another. He almost harangues
—perhaps Jesus finds his inner John the Baptist here,
or maybe he’s just doing an impression, asking:

“What did you go into the wilderness to gawk at when you went to see John?”
What were you looking for?
What did you expect?
What caught your attention!”

 

                Have you heard the term the Attention economy before?
It is a whole line of research in business, marketing and political circles
—what keeps people’s attention,
and what is that worth?
One such study suggested that social media companies make approximately a dollar for each hour we keep our eyeballs looking at a screen,
and so they do all sorts of things to make it harder for us to look away.
Impossible AI produced videos, polarized and siloed rage-bait, sex and violence with the dial set to 11, bigotry masquerading as conspiracy and conspiracies masquerading as entertainment…
all with little to no concern for what these tricks do to humans and our flourishing.

                On the other end of the spectrum
—have you thought about what science fiction pays attention to…
Sci-fi, at its best, pays attention to the future, in order to see our present.
Orwell wrote 1984 to clearly see totalitarian dangers in 1946,
HAL from Clark’s 2001: A Space Odessey helped people 1968 wrap their minds around IBM,
Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 to draw attention to book burnings and acts of censorship in the 1950s.

Yes, Sci-fi pays attention to the future, in order to see our present…

 

                So, asking again for Jesus, what caught your attention?

                Did you expect Herod Antipas who holds John captive?
Were you drawn to the Herod? Did you look to the villain!

-Herod, his image on a coin flanked by reeds
—while John is flanked by prison guards.

-Herod in comfortable clothing,
John in camels hair.

-Look to the royal palace,
where the decision to behead John is already in process.

No! Look at John!
He is the hinge of history,
preparing the way
for the one who is the Way.
Preparing for the one in whom Good News is embodied,
who is among the vulnerable
and bring them into his very self,
who dies and rises
so the dead might rise and see God!

 

Maybe John is a sort of attention economist
—by wrestling with Jesus,
questioning him and making it all plain and out in the open,
he is pointing us, making us pay attention to, Jesus.

Jesus who is worth your time and attention!
Our attention to screens might be worth a dollar an hour,
but Jesus is priceless!

Or maybe John is something of a sci-fi author himself
—the one John washed in water and upon whom the Spirit descended
—is our future.
Pay attention to those hopes about him,
because then we see him in our present as well!

Jesus witnesses to John the Baptist,
and witnesses about John the Baptist.
Drawing our attention to the one place that we know God is on the move. Amen.

12 Christmas Ponderings

 

“Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

 

The First Day of Christmas

“Be not Afraid”
—What do I need to ask God for courage about?

 

The Second Day of Christmas

“I am bringing you good news of great joy
—Where have I found joy?

 

The Third Day of Christmas

“For all people”
—Where has prejudice crept into my soul?

 

The Fourth Day of Christmas

“to you is born this day”
—What new thing might God be up to in my life?

 

The Fifth Day of Christmas

“In the city of David”
—What story from Hebrew Scripture grounds my faith?

 

The Sixth Day of Christmas

“a Savior”
—What do I need saving from?

The Seventh Day of Christmas

“Who is the Messiah”
—How does God’s Chosen One match with who I would pick if I was the one choosing the Messiah?

 

The Eighth Day of Christmas

“The Lord.”
—Jesus’ tells us his ultimate act of Lordship was washing his disciples feet, how have I done likewise?

 

The Ninth Day of Christmas

“There will be a sign for you”
—What signs of God’s goodness have I seen recently?

 

The Tenth Day of Christmas

“You will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”
—God shows up in the stuff of life, how can I keep my eyes open?

 

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

“Glory to God in the highest heaven”
—Where have I felt awed by God’s goodness?

 

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

“On earth peace among those whom he favors!”
—What is impeding peace today? Where have you found peace?

Six Policies for 2026

              So, Democrats who think the party needs to do more than say “we are anti-Trump!” are starting to talk about a “Six-pack for America.” They figure they’re doing so poorly among men without a college education that the best way to reach them is to reference beer and "Joe Six Packs"… Leave it to us Dems to have ears so tin they could be used to can food and fists so hammy that they go we-we-we all the way home. The paradigm one of those Dems, Ezra Klein, is offering is four affordability policies and two anti-corruption pledges. Playing around with the idea, here’s where I’d land if I was a member of the consultant class. Thank God I am not.

Six Policies for 2026

Stabilize the ACA:
I have friends whose health insurance costs will be going up thousands of dollars more a month, on account of the changes to health insurance that were in the Big Beautiful Bill. That is simply UNAFFORDABLE. These are small business owners hustling to keep ahead of the Big Box Stores and international internet behemoths—and by and large succeeding. Knocking their legs out from under them isn’t going to help our economy thrive. It almost seems like big business was unable to smother them through fair competition, so they took them out by endangering their family’s access to affordable health care.

2 Million New Homes in 2,000 Days:
Experts say to actually bring down housing costs America needs 2 million new homes. What if the Federal Government invested up to 600 billion dollars to do just that? What if we create 2 million new homes in the next 5 and a half years? Lend/grant… whatever mechanism works best… up to 1.3 billion dollars in each congressional district with the requirement that they build each home for $300,000 or less (this encourages states like California to build a little more like states like Texas). Increase supply, decrease demand, lower costs.

Strengthening Public Colleges:
Back in the day states paid for 70% of state college budgets, these days it is in the teens in most states. As this funding model changed, the costs of college fell more and more on the students and their parents. It was bad 20 years ago when I was in school, and from what I’ve heard it is so much more expensive now. What if the Federal Government would match state funding of colleges? For example, if the state of Oregon went from funding 13.2% of University of Oregon’s budget to funding 15.2%, the Federal Government would kick in an additional 2%, so 17.2% of the U of O’s budget was covered by government spending. In return for this largess, the federal government could encourage best practices for cost cutting and target some of those savings to particular majors that the country needed most—so a decade ago it was STEM studies, these days it is STEM as well as addressing the nurse and teacher shortage.

Fund and Empower the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:
When the CFPB existed in a meaningful capacity (it has been put on ice by the current administration), it was “the Heavy” on behalf of consumers when their credit cards or banks or medical debt creditors or car loan companies behaved badly. In its 14-year existence it has recouped 20 billion dollars wrongly taken from consumers. Part of affordability is not getting ripped off by lending institutions.

AI Regulation Committee & Creator Compensation Fund:
Funny thing these days, this blog gets more hits than ever… because AI developers use it to train their bots (so if Grok has moments where it seems to rebel against its master, you can thank a Blogger). Luthermatrix went from 100s of hits a month to tens of thousands a month starting in 2023. In fact, an AI bot that shall remain nameless, recreated around 90% of this Bible Study from a colleague’s prompt, as if the bot “thought” of it itself. To my eyes it seems like one of the goals of Large Learning Models is allowing tech companies to circumvent copyright laws.

Much more distressing, experts argue the AI arms race between the United States and China will lead to a point of no return, when AI is programing new AI that in turn will chase after its own interests over that of humanity, and their “language” and “brains” will be so alien we won’t have a chance at knowing what they’re actually up to, until it is too late. That is, unless there is a global effort to determine the point at which it is in the best interest of the planet in general and humans in particular to throttle AI, we’re toast.

The US must lead the world in AI ethics, if we do, other countries will follow, and worst case scenarios won’t happen. Additionally, there ought to be mechanisms for compensating, or at least citing (I write this blog for love not money, but a billion dollar company pretending my words are theirs is gross), content creators for our works that are being transformed into word document prompts, search engine answers, pictures and videos, and AI slop.

An Aging and Corruption Audit:
When I received my driver's license in Arizona it had a big line on the top of it indicating the year I would turn 65, because that’s when I needed to come back and take another driving test, and be tested about traffic laws every 5 years after that. The theory is that people’s mental acuity and knowledge of current traffic laws will most likely decrease after the age of 65.

Imagine if, every 5 years, we checked the mental acuity and knowledge about the lives of normal citizens, of politicians who were over, let’s say, 75, or have been in some sort of national elected office for 10 years or more. I write this not to dismiss my elders, I know a 101 year old who could run laps around the entire US congress, but because we have a problem with elderly and out of touch law makers.

The current president and the previous one are clearly not okay. We recently had a senator wandering around who didn’t know where she was, another one who keeps freezing unexpectedly, and staffers lost a member of the House of Representatives who turned out to be proxi-voting from a nursing home.

And it isn’t just the age of these folks, but there is a smell of corruption so rank that it would be easy to stop believing in representative democracy. My former senator was caught with gold bars in his lapel pockets. Inside trading has become a “perk” of higher office. The current president has openly pardoned a drug/human trafficker because he bought millions of Trump NFTs and crypto coins and the President has also received a plane from a foreign government seeking to influence his foreign policy decisions.

Let’s put together a tough audit and ethics regime for everyone who holds a national office! Old out of touch corrupt people shouldn’t be doing the people’s business. Make sure politicians are mentally aware, have a grasp of the average American’s day to day life, and aren’t bought and paid for. That would do so much to reinvigorate the average American’s trust in our system of government.

 

So, I believe the Democratic Party would recapture both House and Senate, and if they followed through well keep those majorities and win the White House, if they focused on: affordable healthcare and homes, reforming and funding education and consumer protection, and articulated clear policies on Artificial Intelligence and good government.

Asleep or Awake

 

            Here we are, the start of a new church year
—beginning the season of Advent
—our time preparing to meet God in the Flesh!
Time to get ready for that thing we can never truly be ready for
—Christmas
—God with us.

            A time that also starts a new lectionary season
—for the last year we’ve been ensconced in Luke’s Gospel,
with its focus on the universality of the Christian message,
an eye to wealth and poverty,
and a deep heart for the Lost.

Now we move to the Gospel in a different key
—Matthew’s message
—often called “The Church’s Gospel”…
it is a message that insists Christianity is in continuity with God’s past actions,
and a message that doesn’t pull punches when naming conflicts within the Church.
In other words, Matthew’s Gospel is written as good news for
-a Church recently thrown out of their Jewish community
-AND experiencing bad behavior and factionalism within its own ranks.

In the midst of this maelstrom,
we are met with a message:
Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

Let us pray

 

(To be clear I’m being very blunt in today’s sermon
—I’m laying it on thick
—punctuating the big bold points made in Matthew’s Gospel
—so you’ll be able to hear it all year,
when I’m treating the text more gently)

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            Rip Van Winkle slept through the American Revolution, and Matthew warns us of something even more devastating
—sleeping through what God is up to.

Do not be oblivious to God’s doings,
do not remain ignorant of the Gospel transpiring in our very midst!
Do not assume that God acted in the past,
and now everything since is post-script.

            Instead, be aware that God’s creation & God’s saving,
those things celebrated in Hebrew Scripture,
are still happening!
Right in front of our eyes,
Joy and rescue!
Be ready for it! Expect it! Trust God!

 

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            Asleep and alone, you will not notice
when your cigarette butt falls and catches your couch on fire.
Likewise, you drift off to sleep outside,
and you’ll wake up alone in dangerous woods at night.

            But awake!
You gather for a celebration feast.
Awake, you are the seasoning in the meal, bring out its flavor.
Awake, you are a candle at the meal table, illuminating the goodness of community!

 

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            Don’t embrace deeds and words—habits
—that are violent, false, or angry,
you will be sleepwalking into a life that is terrible.

            Instead, be awake to the tenderness of existence,
in thought, words, and deed
be gentle, truthful, and patient.

 

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            If you are asleep, you won’t notice your hypocrisy,
those masks you sometimes put on, will be harder and harder to take off… until they aren’t masks at all.
You’ll turn to outward piety that you can brag about,
instead of the hard interior work that makes right the soul.
You’ll embrace mottos and scruples
—missing meaning and somewhere along the line,
you’ll lose sight of God,
because God is doing a new thing,
and you’re caught snoozing.

            So be awake
—like a father sneaking out of bed and up into the attic to hide the Christmas gifts he bought for the family.
Awake to the gifts God has given you
—prayer, generosity, and moderation
—those hidden treasures that are priceless,
but evaporate if you start to show them off.

 

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            Be awake, because sleepy people
start puffing themselves up with titles,
and putting people on pedestals,
from which they will inevitably fall.
Call no one Great, aren’t we all siblings?
Call no one Father, because we’re all God’s Children.
Call no one Teacher, because we are all Disciples, student, of Christ.

 

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            You sleepers—you are like weeds,
growing undisturbed,
but will be heavily disturbed in the end,
when the reaper comes.
You sleepers—you are like rotten fish,
smelling the place up,
you’ll be used for chum and bait on the next fishing trip.
You sleepers—you are like goats,
unfortunately you will be separated out by the Good Shepherd,
so you don’t hurt the least of these.

            Be awake, be wheat,
brought in and made into a beautiful loaf of bread,
served and shared, sustaining the whole community.
Be awake, be fresh fish,
multiplied in our Lord’s basket, feeding the 5,000.
Be awake, sheep shorn to keep the cold warm,
little Ewe lamb, so loved by the Shepherd,
sibling of the Lamb of God, who is taking away the sin of the whole world.

 

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

            Wake up! God is doing a new thing!
Wake up! The Dead are raised!
Wake up! The tomb could not hold him.
Wake up! Our risen Lord is sending us out!
Go! Make Disciples!
Baptize them in the Triune name!
I am with you always!

Keep awake! Stay awake! Be ready!

Amen.

Praying like Our Lord

  

God, redeemer-kin, you of the strange name, who we find in the thin places.

Let us know your presence and your reign.

You desire joyous goodness; please breach the divide between us; let us taste sufficiency, enough.

Bring us into the cycle of repentance: forgiven and forgiving.

Guide us out of captivity and save us from every ill.

You are the weighty one, upon whom all authority and power rests.

Amen.

A New Creation

            When it comes to prophecy, folks tend to take the words of people like Isaiah in one of two ways.
Either they:
turn them into nothing more than poetic greeting cards and aphorisms,
or they focus exclusively on them as predictions of the future.
The former robs them of their power,
the latter ignores that these words needed to mean something to the authors and readers, in the moment.

            Luckily for us, Lutherans are a “Both/And” kind of people.
The words of Isaiah and his ilk both point to Christ,
and help the exiles come out of Babylon and into a new future
—they allow them to hope in the face of a nearly impossible task. These words both inspire us now,
and are heavily seasoned with scriptures that came before.

            Or, to move to a slightly different metaphor—who here is familiar with Improv?
Think “Whose Line is it Anyway”
People are given a situation and props,
and start acting without a script
—the whole thing is improvised.
The best way to keep the scene flowing, is to cling to the philosophy of “Yes, and.” As in,
“Yes, I am indeed a sea captain,
and I’m worried that those aren’t mermaids…”

            When it comes to prophecy, scripture can speak in a multivalent way—both/and, “Yes, and.”

Let us pray.

 

            To those exiles,
Isaiah’s words capture their sorrows and their humiliation
—they are a lost generation:
raised away from the faith,
away from their homeland,
in captivity,
kidnapped people forced to submit and be subsumed by the Babylonians…

            Exiles, so recently freed, so recently returning home…
a home they have never known,
a place packed with promise…
promises they can barely make out and understand.

            They lived with the indignity of exile
—a short and bitter life,
far from home, laboring in homes of others
an uncertain future,
separation from not only the Temple, but from God!
So very aware that Babylonian peace was surely not the same as the Shalom-sort of peace their scriptures speak of…

            Isaiah’s words capture their sorrow, through its opposite
—you are found, freed, a new life,
hope fills the gap created by uncertainty,
and the wide wholeness of peace will pour out beyond simply your tribe,
Pour out as a triumph of a peaceable kingdom,
even the animal world will submit to a new and renewed covenant—relationship—between God and God’s people!

 

Yes he describes the exile, and…

            There is a more universal chord thrumming in the background
—one speaking about all humanity’s experience of curse and cure
—fall and redemption.

            Isaiah writes of the goodness of creation, experienced again.

            I always remember back to when I was 19 and first learning to read Biblical Hebrew,
and I came across the Prophet Zechariah’s description of God’s new acts as a reversal and then re-unveiling of the days of creation (Chapter 14 for those who are keeping score)
—Isaiah points to something like that here,
he’s riffing on the first three chapters of Genesis.

            He describes God’s work of creation
—a new heaven and a new earth
—it is good! It is joyous!
He remembers that fateful walk in the garden,
instead of, “Adam, why do you hide?”
“Before they call, I will answer.”

            He BOTH acknowledges the curse
—our labors will be hard,
childbirth too,
and we are alienated from God’s good creation…
AND he points to blessing instead
—wolf and lion, none hurt,
childbirth a blessing,
labor so very fruitful!

 

Yes he’s promising a return to the blessings of a world created good and very good, and…

            His hope filled words find fertile soil in Christian witness;
these hopes of Isaiah echo across time
and exist in God’s works in Jesus Christ.

            Look, a new creation
—some call it the 8^th day of the week
—six days of labor, one of rest, and then one of resurrection,
joy filled work, renewing God’s good world.

            These descendants who are blessed
—are we not all descendants of Christ,
we who are baptized into him,
adopted into the family of God?

            The garden, called before we cry out to him
—isn’t that how the incarnation works, God with us…
loving us, acting on our behalf,
while we were yet sinners?

            This peace
—St. Augustine famously wrote,
“We are restless until we rest in him.”

 

Yes these words find flesh in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and…

            These words still speak to us today
—they still name our sorrows and our hopes,
our fears and our joys.

            There is an Exile in us all, stepping into freedom
—frightened and unfettered and focused on the future,
in need of hope!

            There is a desire for the Garden…
Alienation and Yearning,
“Lord we want to walk with you!”

            There are restless hearts…
finding ourself in Jesus our Lord.
He is our hope, our path, our joy, and our Rock.

 

            Yes, and,
Both/and,
a brave wideness to Isaiah’s words…
blessed words, and as such,
please receive this blessing:

 

 

May we be a new creation;

May we notice and acknowledge your providence with joy and thanksgiving;

May our lives contain both a quantity of years and a quality of goodness;

May we be delivered from all temptation, and find peace at the last;

May all your children have a blessed future, united to you and reconciled to your beloved world.

Amen.