Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas! Yes, Christmas! Although the world has moved on, the tinsel is down and radio stations playing 24-hour carols have gone back to easy listening, as Christians, we are still celebrating Christmas: the fact that God has taken on flesh and entered into real time and history. 

This Sunday, we will celebrate the 12th day of Christmas by remembering the visit of the Wise Men or Magi from the East.

Illustration by Nia Starr

The Magi, from where we derive the word “magician,” were powerful men (essentially a cross between a scientist and a diplomat) amongst the empires of the Medes, Persians and Babylonians. The prophet Daniel was a Magi, which might explain why these men might have had the notion that a king was born in Judah. Although today they line the pantheon of Secular Christmas characters along with “8lb, 6oz newborn Jesus,” Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and a Menorah for good measure, very little is known about the Magi from the Bible.

They were actually popularized between the 3rd and 5th centuries by Gnostic Christians. The Gnostics were enchanted by secret magic and esoteric theories (sounds a lot like religion today). In some of their expanded, yet fabricated, accounts of the birth of Jesus, they added exotic stories about the Magi following a magical star across the desert sands on camels, finally arriving after a long and perilous journey to worship the infant Christ.

In the Medieval Times, although the Gnosticism had been disconnected from the Wise Men, the exotic stories were still deeply embedded. They were given names—Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar—and came from such lands as Iran, India and Ethiopia; places to a Flemish, German, or English peasant that would have seemed like the other end of the galaxy. Supposedly, today their remains are kept in a beautiful reliquary in the medieval cathedral in Cologne, Germany.

One of the truths that I love about the Wise Men visiting the newborn king of Israel is when the story is read through the Hebraic eyes of the first Christians. The last time any emissaries arrived from the East to visit a King of Israel or Judah, it was “destroy and conquer.” However, this time St. Matthew tells, there is a new king on the block. These Wise Men have come to worship and bring gifts. The Magi fulfill the prophet Isaiah’s prophecy that the nations shall come to worship the Messiah (Isaiah 42).

They also reveal the profound truth of the Gospel, that God is always revealing himself to his enemies, God is always revealing himself, to the least likely of people: not Pharisees and Scribes, but Gentile Magicians.

This becomes Good News for us as we wrap up Christmas and go into Epiphany and 2020. God is always drawing you to himself and revealing himself as your Lord and Savior in places you naturally wouldn’t assume.

We will see you this Sunday!

Pax,

The Reverend Jacob Smith

1. What do you think heaven is going to be like?

That’s a good question as we approach the final Sunday in the Church Year, a Sunday filled with themes of the end of time and the final judgment and Jesus coming back.

Do you remember Fred Astaire singing to Ginger Rogers while he’s dancing with her in the 1935 show,“Top Hat”? The song is “Dancing Cheek to Cheek”. And the opening words are: “Heaven, I’m in heaven…” Pretty cool description of heaven - being able to sing like Fred Astaire and getting to dance with Ginger Rogers.

As usual, C.S. Lewis is a great help in thinking about what heaven is going to be like. He writes in his classic book, “Mere Christianity”:

There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of “Heaven” ridiculous by saying they do not want “to spend eternity playing harps.” The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible… People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.

Here’s another question for the last Sunday in the Church Year:

2. Of all the people in the Bible, which one (not including Jesus) would you most want to hang out with when you get to heaven?

That question is a teaser for the sermon this Sunday. I’ll refer to a famous person in the history of the Christian Church, and I’ll tell you his surprising answer to that question.

Here’s one last question - and maybe it’s been lingering in the back of your mind as you’ve been reading this blog:

3. Do you think you’re going to heaven?

Now, the theological answer to that question is that the decisive factor in determining whether you’re going to heaven is not your behavior. If that were the case, heaven would be, well, empty. The theological answer is that when you are baptized, you are “sealed as Christ’s own forever.” The theological answer is that Jesus has taken the initiative to swing wide open the gates of heaven by his death on the cross, where he became “the propitiation for our sins”.

But here’s another way to answer that question. A CPA died and went to heaven. St. Peter welcomed him at the pearly gates and entered his name in the book of life. The CPA, being a CPA, examined the book with some care. Then he did a survey of the population in heaven and reported to St. Peter that there was a discrepancy. Apparently, the number of names in the book didn’t match up with the number of people in heaven.

St. Peter sent some angels to investigate. After a bit, they came back with a report. They said, “We’ve found the problem. Jesus is out back, lifting people in over the fence.”

See you on Sunday!

Jim

Dear Friends,

As we approach the end of the liturgical year (Advent is two Sundays away), you will notice the readings begin to take on an eschatological approach. That is just a big fancy word for the end of all things. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks of the end in a dramatic fashion with nations rising against nations and Christians being brought before kings to testify to the Gospel. All of this is absolutely true. However, much of the church approaches readings about the last days and the end—including this Sunday’s Gospel—with a sensational approach: the Bible in one hand and The New York Times in the other. However, the best way to understand these passages is by interpreting the Bible with other passages from the Bible.

I believe the last days are not some tragic and terrifying days in the future.

They are right now and we have been in the last days since Jesus ascended into heaven, forty days after his resurrection from the dead. As it says in Hebrews 1:1-2:

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” 

While this approach is a little less exciting because we are no longer trying to figure out who qualifies to be the next Antichrist, it is a far more pastoral and comforting approach. This is because a proper understanding of the end enables us to see and embrace the grace of God in the midst of our personal tribulations and afflictions in the here and now. A proper understanding of eschatology will allow you to see that God is sovereign and in control of the failed moments and mini-ends in our lives.

What I find most comforting about a Biblical eschatology is that it reminds us of the Gospel: that God has broken into real history to save you and that truly all things work for the good for those who love Christ and are called according to his purposes.

Join us this Sunday as we take a look at Luke 21:5-19 and find real Gospel comfort in knowing that God is in control of and at the end.

Pax,

Jacob

If in life you are ever feeling totally swamped or overwhelmed, the average condition of most New Yorkers, might I encourage you to pray “An Order For Compline” found beginning on page 127 of the Book of Common Prayer. One of the Psalms appointed for that office is Psalm 4, traditionally known as the Evening Psalm. I was praying the office with two members of the vestry and we are all amazed at how the song of King David just washed over us and became a real source of comfort.  

In this particular Psalm, David is dealing particularly with slander and injustices he is enduring as King of Israel. Now maybe you are not facing the pressures of being the King of Israel and dealing with a son who is trying to usurp your throne, however you are dealing with pressures that come from living in this city and you are feeling overwhelmed, Psalm 4 is for you.

As we see David make his plea to God, we see him transformed in the prayer from an anxious mess, because of his accusers, into an anxious mess who, for a moment, has a quite trust in God. As David states:

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.“

So often, we are trying to buck against the trend that we are not in control and, in the process, we make ourselves even more anxious.

Psalm 4 reminds us that, in the midst of life, which is so often out of our control, prayer is really, really good.

Prayer refocuses on what is actually real: we need saving and we have a God who has saved us. Prayer in this way becomes almost a form of therapy. It does the Psalmist and all of us good. As James Boice commenting on this Psalm wrote, “There are days in the lives of all human beings which require a psalm like this at their end.”  

So pray and enjoy your forgiveness. We’ll see you this Sunday.

Pax,

Jacob

Dear Friends,

Happy Halloween and tomorrow is All Saints’ Day, which we will transfer to this upcoming Sunday. All Saints’ Day is one of the oldest feast days in the Christian year. The roots of this feast day go back to the Diocletian persecution of the church in the fourth-century. So many Christians were being martyred for the faith in certain parts of the Roman Empire that it seemed right and good to combine everyone together. It became official across Western Christendom in the seventh century when the Roman Parthenon was consecrated and dedicated to All the Saints in 609 AD.

It is an important feast day because it reminds us that, for Christians, death does not have the final say and that we (the church militant) join our voices with the church triumphant and all the company of heaven in our unending hymn praising God and his salvific work on our behalf.

James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). Saint Thaddeus or Saint Jude (Saint Thadée ou Saint Jude), 1886-1894. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

One interesting saint who was commemorated on Monday is the apostle St. Jude. He is an interesting saint because Jude is short for Judas. It must be tough sharing a name with one of the most vilified men in history; the man who betrayed our Lord. Nobody lights a candle for Judas Iscariot and no church has a feast dedicated to him. It was for this reason that many believe St. Jude—the good Judas—became the patron saint of lost causes. St. Jude was petitioned when the rest of the company of heaven seemed to be silent.  

Now, today is also Reformation Day, and as a Protestant the idea of petitioning saints sort of weirds me out. However, the point of a saint day is to read the Gospel and learn about Jesus through the lens of the life of that particular saint. St. Jude reminds us that it is only through the Gospel that lost causes are transformed into divine causes, that lost causes in Christ are always given hope.

Whatever your lost cause maybe, take heart: Christ knows and in him you are always found. For Jesus is working out all things for your good and his glory.

This Sunday, we will celebrate All the Saints, including you and those saints yet to come. We will also wrap up the formal aspect of our stewardship campaign. I want to thank everyone who has turned in their pledge. For those who have not gotten their pledge in, I ask that you would do it by Sunday.

This helps us shape our budget so we can get the Gospel out and through preaching and teaching, love and care, letting New York City know that by virtue of the cross of Christ, no one is a lost cause.

In an age where it seems like there are a lot of lost causes, Calvary-St. George’s and her mission is tremendously important to help fund.  

We will see you Sunday,

The Reverend Jacob Smith