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Contents
"Full Body Experience" by C. David McKirachan
"Turn on the Lights" by Paul E. Flesner


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Full Body Experience
by C. David McKirachan
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

I was ordained a long time ago. You'd think the details of the worship service would have faded or been blended with all the others I've been part of since then. But that day is clear and sharp, each detail etched in my memory. Part of the event was planning it. Isaiah 61 was my only choice for the Old Testament. If Jesus chose it for his beginning, I figured it might work for me.

I remember kneeling on the chancel, feeling the laying on of hands. It was like a power surge with no circuit breakers to shut it down. I thought for sure the pile of elders and ministers touching me and each other would start smoldering at any moment. It was so far from understanding or logic or definition that it made such categories laughable. It was frightening, exciting, exhilarating, exhausting, amazing, and just plain nuts. It proved to be a template for much of my spiritual journey afterward. I don't know if I would have considered this a reasonable career path, if I had known such moments were part of the job description, or maybe benefits, or... You get the picture.

Presbyterians tend to be very cerebral. We always consider the "real," the proven, the understood. Research is one of our favorite tools. We fit in well with the more intellectual end of the culture. Geeks, one and all, we prefer our ministers to be scholars rather than mystics. Church people want someone who can run an organization and entertain the troops and make them comfortable. People who have experiences that transcend reason best keep that part of their life journey to themselves.

Isaiah would have understood. The suffering servant stuff sounds a little co-dependant, but this chapter is a job description. Managers understand that. When it morphs into vision and from there to glory, it gets a bit uncomfortable for the "frozen chosen." But this is the bread and butter of prophets. When we encounter the edges of our dimensional limits, experiences that have very little to do with comfort or agenda shake the basis of what we are. Things stop being cute and start being life changing. No wonder Charlton Heston's hair went white after he spent all that time on top of the mountain with God.

This season is an environment for visions. Bah-humbug is all you want, it invites moments of stunning clarity that reveal intersections of transcendence with the mundane. This isn't sweet, it's a whole body experience that allows us to see with eyes stripped of filters constructed of practicality and myopic cynicism. It is almost possible to "hear the angels sing."

I was ordained on December 7th, in the midst of Advent. There on my knees I knew that God was real and that reality, far beyond my understanding had chosen me. "... my whole being shall exult in my God." As John said to the crowd, "I prepare the way for one who will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire." He knew. Isaiah knew. Mary knew. That fire leaves its mark.

C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).


Turn on the Lights by Paul E. Flesner
John 1:6-8, 19-28

Many people don't realize the extent of the preparations involved when the President of the United States makes a visit to a local community. A raft of Secret Service personnel check out every building along the route he will travel and near the place he will be appearing. They go over each building with a fine tooth comb from roof to basement in their efforts to prepare for his safety. We often refer to them as "advance persons." They work invisibly behind the scenes to make sure that everything is ready for the big event that is about to take place.

In today's gospel we encounter such an "advance man." However, he's not a member of the Secret Service. He's not preparing for a visit from a head of state. He's not checking out parade routes to assure their safety. He is telling us to get ready for a visit from the most important person in human history. His name is John the Baptist, who was introduced to us last week in Mark's gospel, and we are told today that "he came as a witness to testify to the light."

That statement may not seem to mean as much 2,000 years later as it did back then. That's because we already know the ending to the story, which they didn't. Our world has already been visited by the Holy One from God. We don't need an "advance person" to prepare his way like they did. Or do we still need to listen to John the Baptist? Perhaps there is something in his message that we are taking for granted. That is a problem with the familiar -- we fall into a sense of complacency. As a result, Christmas can become simply a "festival of the familiar" rather than an "encounter with the Holy One."

Two words in the passage stand out: "witness" and "light." Last week we heard John call for repentance and change. Today we hear him calling us to prepare for Christmas by building a straight road in the desert for God to travel on. You'd think John had been watching them rebuild Elmhurst Road rather than quoting the prophet Isaiah. "Fill up the low spots. Knock the tops off of the high spots. Level it out. Make it straight and smooth."

What does Isaiah say is the purpose of all this construction? "So that the glory of the Lord may be revealed for all the world to see!" John's message about Christmas is that God wants every person in the entire world to know the power and glory of God. In his oratorio, Messiah, George Frederic Handel majestically captures these words of Isaiah in music. "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

Getting ready for Christmas is not about decorated trees -- or office parties -- or even family gatherings. It is about a mission that God has placed upon every one of us: to open up a path to God for others who are in need of God's love and grace. If we really "hear" that, it will have an effect on our preparation for and celebration of Christmas. John is telling us that God expects us to do something as a result of what God did at Christmas.

While that may seem like a trite statement, I have observed that there are any number of folks in our pews who have what I call an "armchair faith." To be sure, they come to church. But they seem to want to be spoon fed, and after they leave this building, it's the end of it until the next time they come.

Our relationship to God is not a "consumer faith" in which everything is neatly packaged for us and all we have to do is pick it off the shelf when we need it. Nor is faith a "let George do it" affair in which we allow a dedicated few to burn themselves out doing the tasks that belong to all of us. John is saying that Christmas road building requires the active involvement of every one of us year around. He is saying we are to build these roads everywhere -- into our jobs, our schools, our communities, our neighborhoods -- anywhere and everywhere we go!

The second word that stands out is "light." A couple weeks ago I read about an experimental generator that runs on natural gas and that can be set up in a home to provide for almost all of its electrical needs. It made me realize that we have come a long way technologically in providing light to see by. However, as I read the same newspapers and hear about shootings in schools and messy divorces and people dying of drug overdoses, I also realized that technology cannot generate light for our hearts and souls.

If actions do speak louder than words (and they do), then at Christmas God has virtually shouted to the world that God cares enough to enter the place we live and bring light to the dark spots in our lives that we cannot seem to light on our own. Christmas light is about an end to isolation and despair that even our best efforts can't seem to fix. Christmas is about hope when the stage of life is the darkest. Christmas is about a future that God has provided for eternity when death appears to be the final word in life.

We need to hear this message again and again. Somehow the passage of time takes a subtle toll on our spirits. Because it happens little by little, even to the most dedicated people, we usually don't notice it. Then, one day it suddenly gets dark and we wonder what happened.

This morning we have heard from the "advance man." He reminds us that God has turned on the brightest light in the universe -- brighter than any sun or star or gas powered electric generator. He also reminds us that we are the advance people of this generation. We are to tell everyone who will listen that the light has already come. Once again I want to paraphrase John's Advent message, "Prepare the way of the Lord," for our times: "Turn on the lights."

from Sermons On The Gospel Readings, Series I, Cycle B (0-7880-1900-7 -- CSS Publishing, Co., Inc., Lima, Ohio: 2002), pp. 25-27.


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StoryShare, December 11, 2011, issue.

Copyright 2011 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

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