Growing in Wisdom and Stature

And Jesus increased 

in wisdom and in stature, 

and in divine and human favor.

 (from Luke 2:41-52)

If you were searching among a massive crowd for three days and couldn't find your 12 year-old son, what would you be thinking? 

It probably wasn't a happy greeting when, after 3 days of anxious searching, Mary finds Jesus in the temple. She says, Where have you been? What are you doing here? 

Jesus replies, "Well, where did you expect to find me?"

LUKE 2:35 describes Jesus as growing in wisdom and stature. "Growing in wisdom and stature" means having the ability to perceive God's kingdom and act on those perceptions.

As the new year begins and as the tensions and divisions of our society continue, we will need to grow in wisdom and stature. 

Surely today's tribulations increase our need to be building on the foundation of our faith for spiritual strength to perceive God's kingdom. 

Perceiving God's kingdom begins with growing in our understanding of what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. 

Doesn't that mean asking questions about evil, injustice and oppression as Jesus did in the temple?

Perceiving God's realm also means what John Wesley calls "searching the Scriptures." 

Doesn't that mean regular Bible reading, study and conversation to strengthen our spiritual foundation for growing in wisdom?

Reading the Upper Room Disciplines with lectionary based scriptures, reflections by the author, and Sunday's sermon strengthens our the foundation of our spiritual base. 

I asked a 90 year-old widow with a heart condition how she was doing. The strength of her spiritual base enabled her to confidently reply, "Fine. I read my Bible every day." 

The Power in Singing

And Mary said, 

“My soul magnifies the Lord, 

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

(You can read Mary's Song here)

What I appreciate most about The Magnificat (Mary's Song) is its poetic form. Her song provides an unusual and surprising insight into the power and goodness of God. For me, Mary is a model of faith by completely accepting her part in God’s salvation plan. Her singing celebrates receiving that role in God's plan. 

I particularly like the poetic form because, biblically, it represents singing and singing is powerful.

Singing is powerful. It moves our souls.

For example, Psalms, such as laments (see Psalm 79), help cope with the difficult emotions of grief and fear while removing their crippling capacity. Songs of praise and thanksgiving (see Psalm 34) unite us to God. And canticles, such as the Canticle of Simeon (see Luke 2:29-32), describing courage, promise, and hopes as they become real.

Singing is powerful. It has transformational power.

For example, at the Berlin Wall the citizens of Leipzig gathered in peaceful protests on Monday evenings around St. Nikolai church. In a candlelight vigil, they would sing songs of hope, protest and justice. Their numbers grew constantly to hundreds of thousands of voices. Finally, their singing shook their nations' powers  and changed the world.

Singing is powerful. It voices our collective desires to God.

"Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” sings with the same confidence and hope of Mary. "Joy to the World" sings of celebrating and participating in Christ's arrival in the flesh.

Singing is powerful.  It is, as St. Augustine, is credited with saying, "Those who sing pray twice."

Singing our carols as we gather on Christmas Eve, especially in today's tensions, singing includes us in God's plan to save and redeem the world. 

Like Mary, it is our "praying twice" for God's mighty acts of salvation that includes us in the plan.

Sing, Daughters, Sing

The Singing Daughters of
Dingmans Ferry UMC

Sing, Daughter Zion;

    shout aloud, Israel!

Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,

    Daughter Jerusalem!

The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;

    never again will you fear any harm.

Zephaniah 3:14-15

When it comes right down to it, I think the most moving, significant part of a worship service is the singing. 

Singing for me is a soul-conversation between God's people and God. It's in singing that our souls express their greatest joy, deepest longing, and most hurting pain. 

For example, "O for a Thousand Tongues" sings of the greatest joy for God's redeeming Grace. While "Just as I am" is a song of longing for acceptance and the Lord's forgiveness.

Right now, it seems to me, people are craving for some joy. The pandemic and its consequences have dragged on like a dirge. School shootings by children seem to constantly repeat. 

How are we going to be glad and rejoice with all our heart? 

Why don't we have anything to fear?

Zephaniah's word from the Lord says Israel has been sinning by including beliefs from other religions (1:4-6); complacently thinking the Lord will do nothing as punishment(1:12); her officials, prophets and priests are corrupt (3:3-4); that Jerusalem is a soiled, defiled, oppressing city!

Why should daughter Zion sing? Because God is a forgiving God. Because the Lord has taken away Zion's punishment. The Lord is right there in the thick of it singing with them and they don't have to fear anymore.

Why should we sing like daughter Zion? Why don't we have anything to fear?

Because God is a forgiving God who forgives our sinning and comes among us singing and rejoicing as we are doing.

As Zephaniah says, "The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you."

The Lord sings with us as we sing our greatest joy:

"Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,

  Great David’s greater Son!

Hail, in the time appointed,

  His reign on earth begun!

He comes to break oppression,

  To set the captive free;

To take away transgression,

  And rule in equity."

UMH #203  James Montgomery

Seeing Salvation

Death Valley

  ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

    ...and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

See Luke 3:1-6

Does is sometimes feel to you like we're living in a wilderness? Not the hot, barren type like Death Valley.

More like the wilderness faced by the Delaware Valley Board of Education. 

At a recent Board Meeting a heated exchange took place between a Board member and an audience member accusing some school teachers of Gestapo-like tactics in enforcing mask-wearing. This provoked a response causing immediate adjournment of the meeting.

Or the wilderness faced by a Board member who resigned due to death threats against himself and his family.

This is a wilderness where violence seems to be the rule of the day. Here people wander in an injustice of scarcity, isolation, and hunger. 

It doesn't take much for any of us to ask, "God, are you at work in this wilderness?"

The wilderness place of vulnerability and danger is exactly where God is at work. Isaiah describes valleys filled, mountain and hills leveled, crooked roads straightened, and rough ways smoothed. 

Exodus says God guided Israel by a pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, and daily manna. The wilderness is how and where they learned to depend on God. 

When John the Baptizer says, "prepare the way of the Lord," he was reminding people to get ready because the Lord is coming. Prepare yourself. Change is going to happen. The world will be set right. 

Prepare yourself. You shall see the salvation of God.

God will break into our time, space, and history and transform this world from of scarcity, isolation, and hunger to one of abundance, community, and satisfaction.

God will transform violence into peace.

The Lord says, hold on to your hope. 

You shall see the salvation of God!!!