THE BIBLE IS NOT AN ANSWER BOOK

Sometimes we think it is, we think the Bible is an answer book. In fact I have seen several books that have lists of countless questions that we would like the Bible to answer and, believe it or not, those books list the correct Bible passage that will answer that specific question. Well, maybe in some instances that works. But the Bible is not an answer book in that sense.

Nor is the Bible an answer book akin to our Constitution in that those whose responsibility it is (judges) to interpret that document have to read into and decipher out of the words issues that were never in the minds of those who wrote the document. Yet, we have to do that as well with the Bible. The Bible never addresses issues such as birth control, organ transplants, stem cell issues – the list is long.

Even so the Bible is the only document we have when we search for the answers to deep moral issues. Thus, we have to read into and decipher out of those words answers to those moral issues that Moses or Jesus or Paul or anyone else never addressed. That is why we have deep disagreements about what the bible says on a subject it says nothing about but for which we still demand answers.

Thus, while we demand that the Bible be an answer book, can we ever be certain that the answers we read into or decipher out are morally correct? We certainly hope the answers we derive are such, but we may be wrong.

Rather, the Bible is not so much as an answer book as it is certainly a witnessing book. It witnesses to the mighty deeds of God throughout the Bible’s history and especially to the deeds of those who spoke for God throughout that history, Jesus especially. This witnessing, however, did not end with the Book of Revelation. It continued on throughout the centuries and continues on today.

Unfortunately that witnessing has almost become secondary as we who claim to follow the words of the Bible argue about what it says more that witness to what it calls us to do.

We are called to live out our faith, witness to our faith, every moment of every day. In Old Testament times if others wanted to know what it meant to be a follower of God, all they had to do was watch how those who believed in God lived. Today, if anyone wants to know what it means to be a Christian, all that person has to do is observe how we Christians live.

Frightening thought, isn’t it? Is it any wonder why so many who claim to have no faith but may be looking to find faith want nothing to do with Christianity given the way we Christians witness to what we say we believe? Yes, we need to read the Bible to help us discern answers to deep moral questions. But we, even more, need to understand that the Bible calls us to witness to our faith by living it as fully as we can each day.

HE DIDN’T COME TO DO IT ALL

To the minds and hopes and dreams of the Hebrew people as they waited expectantly for centuries – and are still waiting – for the Messiah to come, when the Messiah did come to live among them, he would do it all. He would make all those hope and dreams a reality almost all by himself if not all by himself. No one can do that, of course, even if that someone is God.

The Hebrew people were not simply daydreamers or even alone in having such hopes. Every four years in our country we have an election to vote for the person who will be our Messiah, the one who will make all our hopes and dreams come to fruition. The candidates all proclaim that “I am that one. Vote for me and I will make this country and your life so much better” adding implicitly “all by myself”.

When the person elected fails, and they all fail because the Kingdom has not yet come, that person is roasted over the coals as a failure. But no matter how great the ego of the candidate, no one person can do it all. No one person was ever meant to do it all. That is not the nature of the political system and that is not how God intended it to be from the very beginning.

Jesus did not come to do it all, whatever we deem “all” to be. He came to show us how to do it, how to make those hopes and dreams a reality. More often than not we overlook that truth, conveniently overlook it especially when life is not going the way we want it to go. And when it does not, we tend to look for a scapegoat, someone to blame for the mess we or the country is in.

To find the culprit all we have to do is look into the mirror. No, we are not the total blame but we are part of the blame. Whenever we fail to do what we are expected to do, even if what we are expected to do is very little, the blame for the failure is on our shoulders. That is true in politics as it is in why the world is in the mess that it is in the present day – and it is a mess.

The Jewish people believed that the Messiah would come to change the world just as we Christians believe Jesus, the Messiah, came to change the world. But the world has not changed not because Jesus failed but because we have failed. We have failed to do our part. Jesus did not come to change the world all by himself. Again, he came to show us how to do it and promised that he would give us everything we needed to do just that.

Doing “just that” means that we live out each and every day what we promise to do every time we renew our baptismal promises. In sum those promises mean that we will use whatever gifts we have been given to see and seek and serve Jesus, the Jesus, the God, who lives in everyone, for we are all children of the same God. It is only when we live the way that Jesus taught us to live that the hopes and dreams we have will be realized.

WHY DID GOD DO IT?

One has to wonder why on earth God ever decided to come to earth, live on this earth. Look at it this way: God being God, if you have heaven, why mess around with hell? Put something pure into something that is contaminated and you know who wins. Pure becomes tainted with the impure. So why did God do it? Why did God become human?

My very untheological, but I think very human, reason for the Word of God to become flesh was to experience what you and I experience every day. God, being God, never feels pain, never suffers as you and I do. God is, in a real way, above it all. But you and I are in pain, sometimes great pain – physical, mental, spiritual – every day. And from a very human point of view – and remember, I am not talking about a theological point of view – from a very human point of view it certainly was good for God to know, to experience what you and I go through every day.

It is very difficult if not impossible to understand pain is you have never suffered real pain. I have no way of knowing what the pain of childbirth is like because I have never experienced and will never experience it. I know the pain of divorce. Those who have never experienced that pain have no idea, really, what it is all about. Experience is the best, perhaps only, teacher.

But Jesus knew pain and suffering. As an apprentice carpenter he probably gave his thumb a few whacks now and then. Then there was the cross, of course. But Jesus also knew the pain of rejection, the pain of loneliness, the pain of betrayal. He experienced the pettiness of Pilate, the greed of Herod the jealousies of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus knows now what pain and suffering, what life on this earth, is all about, truly all about.

Now a good theologian will say that Jesus always knew, being God. Maybe so. But that doesn’t help me much when I am in pain, when I have suffered from my own or another’s sinfulness or stupidity. But from a very human point of view, when I cry out in prayer and in pain to Jesus, deep in my heart I know he knows what I am talking about. He went through it. The fact that on the cross he suffered more pain – physical, mental and spiritual – than I will ever have to endure, that truth also helps me in my daily bouts with selfishness and feeling sorry for myself.

Yes, Jesus gives me through the Holy Spirit, gives all of us the strength to endure whatever pain or suffering or grief that may come our way. He promises to be there with us through it all. Sometimes he simply lessens the pain. Sometimes he removes it. All the time he is there with us. And he understands because, he, too, when he, the Son of God became flesh and pitched his tent among us, he, too, experienced sinfulness and suffering and stupidity first hand.

Jesus didn’t have to do any of that, but I am glad and thankful that he did.

THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS IS PERSONAL

The hope of every advertiser is that each and every one of us takes the message of the ad very, very personally. They spend very big bucks trying to get our personal attention so that we might respond to the pitch being made and, hopefully purchase the product that is being advertised. The bigger the venue, the more the ad costs the advertiser. The Super Bowl tops in costs because more people watch the Super Bowl than any other event on television.

Obviously enough people take advertisements so personally that, in the long run, they become cost-effective else manufacturers would have to come up with some other way to get our attention. The fact is that very few ads ever get our personal attention, get us to not only view and listen to the ad but also to go out and purchase whatever it is that is being pitched.

All of which brings me to Christmas and the message of Christmas and that that message is very, very personal and is to be taken very, very personally. The message of the angel of the Lord as recorded in Luke’s Gospel tells us that “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (2:11) That is a generic message as the “to you” means “to all of us, to every human being.”

Yet that message is more than generic. It is personal. When I read that Gospel passage, it is meant to read, “To you, Bill Pugliese, is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” Jesus was born for me, for me. Unless I hear that message, unless I realize that it is a very, very personal message addressed to me personally, the words of the Gospel will be simply words; solemn and holy and inspiring words, but just words as in an advertisement.

For it is only when the personal message hits home, that the down times in our lives can become up times, that the sad times can turn into glad times. For to each one of us there are moments when we feel lost and alone, when there is a sense of hurt and loss and anger. It is in those times that that personal message can ring loud and clear; “For to me, to me, is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Jesus was born among us for us. He was born for me, FOR ME even though I was not there when he was born and not there to hear that message. Nevertheless, it is a very, very personal message of salvation, my salvation and yours. For each one of us, when we read that message, is asked to insert our own name into it. That is how very personal the message of Christmas is. It is not an advertisement. It is real.

It is because of Jesus’ birth among us for you and for me, for each and every one of us both individually and corporately, that we can and should and must celebrate Christmas with love, gratitude and thanksgiving. May we do so.

THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM

Centuries before Edward Hicks painted his famous depiction of the peaceable kingdom that now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the prophet Isaiah describe such: a place where wolf and lamb, deadly enemies, frolic together. Joining them are cow and bear and calf and lion and in the midst sits a little child who sticks his hand into a snake pit and does not get bit.

It’s an ideal picture of reality both in word and on canvas. Most of us would also say that it is unrealistic. It won’t happen. It can’t happen. Not then. Not now. Not ever. Lambs and wolves will always be mortal enemies. So will calves and lions, cows and bears, even snakes and people. What is even more unrealistic and unbelievable is that this little child who puts his hand into a snake pit will grow up to be our leader, says Isaiah.

Paul, in his writings, paints the same word picture. He tells us that in the future we will all live in harmony one with another, servants one to another. As with Isaiah Paul insists that this picture is one that will come into being, believe it or not.

So where did it all go wrong? This peaceable kingdom has never been, has never come close to becoming a reality and, if we look around our world today, seems even further away from becoming so than even in Isaiah’s or Paul’s times. Is it all a pipedream, pie in the sky, simply words of hope that are just that: words with no chance of ever becoming a reality in this life in this world?

The realist would answer, “Of course. Human beings are too selfish to do what has to be done, make the sacrifices necessary to bring about a world where we live in peace and harmony one with another.” Even we believers have a difficult time accepting the possibility of the kingdom ever coming to reality here on earth.

Perhaps the reason for this feeling for both believers and realists is that we all spend so much time wondering why things are the way there are and not spending enough time and energy doing what needs to be done to make the peaceable kingdom a reality. Jesus, the child in Isaiah’s prophecy, came among us to show us how to bring about this kingdom in the here and now. He did not come to bring it about himself.

Nor could he. Jesus showed us the way. It is up to us to follow that way, to show others the way by the way we live our lives, and hope they will show others the way by what they have learned from us. But, then, sadly, they have and so have we. We have all learned the wrong way, gone down the wrong paths and have ended up where we are right now: in anything but a peaceable world.

We know the right way, Jesus’ way. The peaceable kingdom can only become a reality if each of us lives the way Jesus taught us. It begins with you and me.

WE’RE ALL GETTING GYPPED

Three of our daughters have “Christmas” birthdays: Christy is on the 21^st, Jessica on the 22^nd and Autumn on Christmas Day itself. Over the years they have complained, mostly silently, that they have been getting gypped when it comes to receiving birthday presents because they believe they’d have received more had their birthdays been in July. We never thought so, but we were also not the ones who had our birthdays so near Christmas.

However, if we think only those who are in the same boat as our daughters are getting gypped, think about the one whose birthday we celebrate on December 25: Jesus. If it is true that Jesus is the reason for the season, and it is, and if it is also true that we should be preparing to present Jesus with the proper present in celebration of his birth, then I think Jesus has a right to complain about being gypped.

Let’s face it and let’s be honest: when we decide to present someone we love with a birthday present, we think long and hard about just what gift we are going to give and even how much we want to spend on that gift. It is important for us to give what we deem to be a proper gift and so we take as much time as possible to make that happen – all of which is why Jesus is getting gypped.

What’s the proper gift to give to Jesus in celebration of his birthday? Why, ourselves, of course! That is the only gift we can give and the only gift we need to give and the only gift Jesus wants from us. If you are like me, and I hope you are not, more often than not my gift of myself tends to be like a gift I hurriedly grabbed on the way out of store and satisfied myself that it would suffice. It was not chosen or given with a whole lot of thought and, sadly, meaning.

That’s not to say that Jesus wants all of me rather than that he wants more of me than I am willing to give. Our gifts to our daughters never were and still are not toss-ins or throwaways. They always come from the heart, which is why it often takes us so long to decide what to give. The same is true for any gift that is given for any occasion: it has to come from the heart to truly be a gift. If it does not, that person is being gypped.

So how do we make sure that the gift of ourselves to Jesus on Christmas is truly a gift? In the same way our other true gifts are gifts: by taking the time to prepare ourselves for the celebration: taking time to think and pray and give thanks rather than coming to the celebration out of breath and exhausted. Sadly, so often that has been my personal modus operandi. This year, I hope, will be different.

When we gyp someone, we gyp ourselves as well. It is difficult to enter into the joy of the celebration if we don’t take the time to prepare for the celebration. But if we take the time to prepare our hearts and minds, we and the one we honor will be blessed. We know all that because we’ve all been there. Will we, will Jesus be gypped this Christmas?

REPENTANCE DOESN’T COME EASILY

If it is true, as I believe it is, that to forgive another is perhaps the most powerful action we can perform; and if believing that God not only forgives whatever sins we have committed but also forgets them, erases them from his memory – if that is, in fact, truly unbelievable even as it is true, then the only way to truly forgive another and accept God’s forgiveness and forgetfulness for our own sinfulness is to repent.

Why is this so? It is impossible to forgive someone who has hurt us if we cannot forgive ourselves. We hurt others and we are hurt by others. In order to come to terms with our own willingness to deliberately hurt someone we love and then ask to be forgiven – and vice versa – we have to stand back and examine why we did what we did, realize that we had no reason to be so selfish and then repent of our actions. If there is no repentance, there is no forgiveness, real forgiveness.

It is also impossible for us to accept God’s forgiveness and truly believe that God forgets as well if we do not repent of that for which we desire forgiveness. We can’t say we are sorry if we are not willing to admit that we should not have done in the first place that for which we are asking to be forgiven. Without repentance words of sorrow and regret are merely words that have no meaning in truth or fact.

Even more it is impossible for us to grow as a person without repentance. For repentance demands that we take seriously our deliberate failings and shortcomings and not only be willing to do something to correct them but actually do something. Repentance is not only a noun, it is also a verb, an action. We not only learn from our mistakes. We also and more importantly grow from our mistakes.

So what does all this mean? Forgiveness means that we come to our senses about our sinfulness and do something (repent) to change our ways. Forgetting the past means that we realize that we cannot undo what we have done, the sins we have committed, but can only repent of them, ask forgiveness and move on with our lives. Doing that and only doing that brings growth as a person. Otherwise we simply stagnate.

Repentance doesn’t come easily. Why? Because true repentance demands that we change the way we live and move and have our being. If we are unwilling to change, then we will keep doing the same things, commit the same sins, over and over again. Unless we are willing to learn from the past and not allow it to control our present, which is what forgetting is all about, we cannot move on and, thus, cannot grow.

No one can force us to forgive, forget, repent and change. It is up to us. But we know we can because of God’s love for us and our love for God and one another. That gives us the strength to forgive and forget. And with God’s grace, that is always offered and only needs to be accepted, change and growth are not only possible but will be a reality.