We are beginning our journey to Christmas. On Monday I walked into the sanctuary and saw Susan, Arnell, Marlene, Eleanor, James and Neil putting up our Chrismon tree. Chrismon means Christ monogram- they are special ornaments that remind us of Christ.  “Advent” means arrival, beginning or starting. The theological place where we began our journey to Christ deeply shapes our journey of faith: did we start with love or fear, is our trip one of the head or the heart, do we travel alone or in community?

Belmont’s Advent ornaments tell an expansive Biblical journey to Christ. Church members made each unique Chrismon. There are no duplicates. Each one symbolizes a different story, image, or experience. We have symbols for the burning bush, Elijah’s chariots of fire, and Mary placing the Christ child in a simple cow’s feedbox. Our tree has a shamrock representing the Trinity, a crown for the Kin-dom of Heaven, and a lily. I grew up singing a song about Jesus being “the lily of the valley” but I was not sure what that meant. So I typed “lily” into my Bible app and found a poem and prophecy from Hosea 14. it holds an Advent message:

One day God will heal our disloyalty, and love will flow freely. Grace will settle on the people like the morning’s dew, and one shall come and blossom like the lily. Their shoots will spread out with beauty like the olive tree, their fragrance will be like wine, and the people shall return and live sheltered beneath God’s shadow. We will blossom and flourish as in God’s garden.  (Adapted Hosea 14)

The uniqueness of each Chrismon seems right for Belmont. The Hebrew Bible stories remind us that from the Beginning God has longed to connect with us. The Bible holds a message of God’s reconciling and restoring grace, but in places it stumbles into what feels like less than a Word from God.  I grew up trying to fit it together, but passages like Deuteronomy 7 and Matthew 5 are not on the same page.   Deuteronomy seven literally says, “show no mercy”.  Jesus deconstructs that bad theology saying “you have heard an eye for an eye but I say to you love (even) enemies”.  Luke 6 adds “(so we) will be children of The Most High, for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as God is merciful”.  Jesus’ rebuke of the civil religion does not appear from thin air but is rooted in the prophets. In Mark 7, Jesus says “Isaiah was right about you (folks)….”  If we start our journey to Christ with images of an angry God, ready to punish our missteps, we may misunderstand Christmas, Good Friday and Easter.

Some of you, like me, may have begun your faith journey with images of an angry God that needed to be appeased.  1 John 4 says “perfect Love drives out all fear- there is no fear in Love.”  Exodus 34: 7 declares “The Lord, the Lord God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God holds steadfast love for the thousandth generation”. In John Wesley’s sermon, “The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption”, Wesley describes our deepest Christian conversation as a turning away from fear and judgment and experiencing God as the source of all love and liberty. Wesley preached “Those who are influenced only by slavish fear, cannot be termed the children of God;” they may be styled as God servants… but they have not yet seen the light of the glorious love of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. …(Christ) ends both the guilt and power of sin.  (we) no longer fear hell…. (We) come to look upon God no more as an angry Judge, but as a loving Father.”  Images of God as an angry judge feed the worst elements of Christian Theology, perhaps because they forget that God created us in God’s very image and that God deeply loves the whole world. (Genesis 1, John 3:16)   

John’s Gospel begins with a prologue instead of the nativity stories of Luke and Matthew. For me, Jesus is the deepest incarnation of God’s love for us. Jesus is the model and the fulfillment of God’s love.  God Loves humanity so much that God comes and lives with us. John describes the incarnations mystery like this: 

The Word became flesh
    and made God’s home among us.
We have seen Christ’s glory,
    glory like that of a father’s only son,
        full of grace and truth. From Jesus’ fullness we have all received grace upon grace;
    as the Law was given through Moses,
    so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s love, the end of the journey, but Jesus comes to us not to undo the work of the law and the prophets, but to help us see more clearly what Love looks like. Jesus quoted the Psalms more than any other Hebrew Bible book. As we think about our image of God, let’s pause and explore Psalm 25. 

Psalm 25 is one of David’s Love songs to God.  King David may be the Hebrew Bible’s worst sinner. King David might arm wrestle the Apostle Paul for the title Paul hung on himself as “chief most sinner”. (1 Timothy 1) Both are pretty lousy people and both wrote large swaths of the Bible. What does that tell us about God’s mercy and grace? The Bible is not a story of human goodness but God’s boundless love. David does not sing of his own goodness, but of God’s boundless mercy. 

Lord, make your ways known to me, Lord;
    Teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth—teach it to me—
    because you are the God who saves us.
        I put my hope in you all day long. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust;

I often pray, “Lord, lead me into truth- show me what to do today”. If it is a tough day, I especially try to wait on the Lord, meditating and trying to trust God not for a miracle to change an outcome, but for God’s steady presence to uphold me. David is not singing about himself, but trying to connect with God’s holiness, goodness and mercy. 

    Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
    let them be ashamed who are treacherous without excuse.

One of the struggles of all faithful people in every faith tradition is that we can think that God is on our side, but not the other side. Such particularized faith has led to terrible evil, injustice and oppression.  But, I know I sometimes long for the wantonly treacherous to feel some shame.  Perhaps there are some people who need to feel ashamed, God can deal with that part of my prayer. (Romans 12). However, when I name my desire for a vindication in my meditation, I can release my feelings to God and maybe I can move on to the actual work of justice, grace and reconciliation.   

Lord, remember your compassion and faithful love—
    God’s compassion and steadfast love are forever!
Don’t remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoing.
    Consider me only according to your faithful love
        for the sake of your goodness, Lord. The Lord is good and does the right thing;
    God teaches sinners which way they should go. God guides the weak to justice,
    teaching them his way.
All the Lord’s paths are loving and faithful.
  

If you, like me, were raised with an image of God as an angry judge, hear the Good News that God is and always was full of compassion, abounding in steadfast love, merciful, compassionate, filled with goodness, and always thinking about us through a gracious lens. (Luke 6, 1 John 4, Psalm 25) Yes, we slip up, but God’s goodness guides us back to the paths of grace, goodness and justice. If you were blessed to be raised with a core image of God as a loving parent, then help others who are in bondage to their fears “come to see the light of the glorious love of God, in the face of Jesus Christ” (John Wesley: the Spirit of Bondage and Adoption) Amen.