Wednesday, December 30, 2020

December 27, 2020 - First Sunday in Christmas - Four Perspectives

Juan Carlos La Puente, Bishop’s Associate for Inter-cultural and Inter-religious Mission on the Oregon Synod staff, gave today's sermon on today's Gospel from Luke. His stories about his experiences in Peru inevitably seem to open many people's hearts.

There are strong elements of liberation theology wrapped in the power of his stories with a secret sauce that is irresistible. He sees the liberation not only with the poor and marginalized but in the those who provide help. They are much more on a level playing field in liberation from roles and perspectives that trap everyone in roles that do not allow for their humanity.

This sermon showed the same power. Juan Carlos laid out his four perspectives on Luke. They were:

  1. Salvation Experiencing Light to help see reality
  2. Seeing with the Divine Light activates liberation
  3. Being seen by others with the Divine Light activates our divine dignity and liberation
  4. Exploring two practices connected to the experience of grace, experience of salvation

Juan Carlos moved back and forth between the Luke Gospel story of both Simeon & Anna and personal stories about his encounters the divine light. Those ardent readers of this blog will know this kind of description of the divine matches the way I understand the divine presence.This was written for last year's First Sunday of Christmas:

 "Faith and reason are hard to balance when exploring the nature of our relationship with God.  This understanding at present is different than described in scripture. Maybe we are different in how we perceive God than at many other times in humankind's history. Currently some might say they have a personal relationship with Jesus and that they can sense either his or God's physical presence.

I have some sympathy for, and I’m tempted to pursue, the physical relationship they describe. Maybe my personal experiences of God moments could be stretched to relate with that description but I choose not to. Yet I have never "heard" God's voice directing me to take some action. The closest I have come to feeling God's presence is a glowing, spiritual affirmation that some action I may have taken, even with some trepidation was, in fact, God working through my life."

This sermon also gave me a new idea about a song of Kelly Carlisle's we still occasionally play at worship, Nunc Dimmitus.

Kelly captured this Gospel text and a certain magic with this simple song composed of Simeon's words. it reaches a glorious crescendo with the words "A light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of Israel". I have always thought of this as an eternal light, the light that cannot be overcome. Yet in this context it may be a light that not everyone can see. Simenon saw that light in a particular baby. We can sometimes get trapped into thinking of this too generically. Every child shows us the potential light of the future, but I don't think that this helps us understand Simeon and what he truly recognized in the temple that day and how.

Juan Carlos talked about weaving our experiences with those who are vulnerable. What I find compelling in his stories is that no one is simply granting favors to anyone or, more precisely, everyone is favored and serving each other reciprocally. This takes away shame, fear and the cynicism that can creep into our actions if we measure how the world changes rather than ourselves.

Let yourself appreciate the way he tells his stories by clicking here.

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