I look a little more homeless with each passing day. The stains build up on my hooded sweatshirt. When I was in Poland I visited a friend who wore the same size clothes. I've never really shared clothes with anyone, but he wanted to go out with the same friends on different nights and I only brought (own) one dress outfit. I knew he would be a little embarrassed by my slovenly appearance so I asked to borrow some clothes. I looked good in his designer clothes. But I didn't look like me. Something about the Michael Airgood persona (please, wait in anticipation for the annual third person Christmas letter) just doesn't fit with a piece of cloth that cost $200.

There was something off.

At funerals and weddings I get all dressed up and I feel so wrong.

I tell my mother that I 'm just trying to be more like Jesus and he was homeless. Why can't I try to look like him?

David Sedaris, a humorist, writes an article about looking like a hobo or a bum. He narrows in on the fact that these words have been replaced by sterilized, yet inaccurate, words like "homeless person." A hobo is a person who chooses to be homeless. A world without a mortgage and the constraints of a 9 to 5 job.

I don't know if I'm there yet. But I know that I'm happy. And I think that's what matters most when it comes to fashion and appearance.


Okay, to be fair - some of these stains are from whitewash ... and I just hadn't noticed them yet. But, still, pretty dang homeless.

Advent 1 Sermon

[So this sermon will kick off our Advent season at L'viv UMC. Our Advent season will be 7 weeks longs - so we had to get a little creative in planning. So, the first week will be watch. The first half of the sermon will be an interactive children's sermon and will involve all of the "staff" at the church. As we present each character of the story we will mention a verse from the Bible the foretells that character. The second half will be after the children leave for Sunday School. We're really making a push to try and get a few parents involved in the Sunday morning worship service. The kids will light the first Advent candle. Watch.]

Today is a special day because we are starting something new. What’s different about our altar table today? Do you notice anything different?

We have changed to purple to celebrate “advent.” Advent means “the coming” or the arrival. We also have these new candles. What’s written on the candles?
Would you help me light this candle.

[Advent Lighting section]

We light the candle today to remind us that we are watching for Jesus. We celebrate the fact that God told us ahead of time that Jesus would be coming.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I know you learned the story in Sunday School and at home. But I want you to know that even in the beginning – even from the first time that humans sinned – God had a plan.
So today I want us to look at a few of the other hints that God gave us about Jesus coming.

I’ve asked a few of our friends to introduce a few of the characters in the story.

Erika introduces Mary

David introduces Joseph

Lyubomir introduces shepherds

Michael introduces magi

Who is missing from this scene? Who do we still need?

That’s right – Jesus.

Shannon and Jesse introduce baby Jesus.

Thank you guys for helping us get ready for the coming of the king.

[Kids leave]

But we should look at the rest of this prophecy. Yes, we have read this correctly. This is about the coming Messiah. But, this scripture goes further – it is much deeper. This prophecy has only partially been completed. We are still waiting and working for the completion of this prophecy. Our hearts and lives must work toward peace.

Our gospel lesson for today speaks about the end times. Although thousands have tried to make predictions about when Jesus will return – the scriptures are quite clear that we don’t have a clue. The Jewish scholars had combed the Bible for hints at what the Messiah’s coming would look like. They thought that they understood. They assumed that a great military leader would come. This great military leader would guide them in battle.

But, as we know now, they didn’t get the great military leader they expected. They got a baby in a manger. Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah they had waited for, was a simple carpenter and the son of God and he lived his whole life with the end pursuit of a painful death for the forgiveness of our sins. After hundreds and thousands of years of hearing and reading the prophecies of the coming Messiah – the Rabbis were quite certain they knew exactly what his coming would look like.

They were wrong. They had misunderstood.

In this season of advent we prepare for the coming Messiah. We watch the horizon for signs that Christmas is around the corner. As trees begin to pop up in store windows and decorations go on sale at Arsen, we watch for signs that God is still present in our lives. We prepare our hearts for the truth that God who was willing to come to earth in the form of a little baby is just as willing to come into our hearts. We watch the skies – knowing that we don’t know when the rest of the prophecy will be fulfilled. We watch our hearts and make sure that we are prepared for the coming of the King.

As a church we gather together each week and we celebrate the coming Messiah. We light one more candle each week to remind us that we are getting closer to Christmas. But it’s more than that. These candles help remind us that we are getting closer to the day when Christ will return for his people. We don’t know the day or the hour. But we live with these themes – we live every day to make our hearts and minds more ready for the day that Christ will come.

The Pharisees and Rabbis had studied the law and they missed the point. The prophecies about the coming Messiah were not given as a timeline or a blueprint. They were given to prepare the hearts of the Jewish people.

As we light each of these candles – as we get closer to Christmas – may these words be themes for our lives. May we seek to live in Hope, peace, joy, and Love. May we live together. May we repent of our sins.

May we watch the skies for the coming King, and may we watch our hearts that we are more ready every day.
Watch.

I think the thing that scares me most is that "Christian" and "American" have become synonyms.

If you look at the economic policies of Jesus and the lives of most Americans you will quickly find the disconnect.

In small group we are studying the passage of the rich young ruler. The story is familiar and easily brushed aside. "Jesus doesn't really mean that we have to go and sell all of our possessions and give to the poor." We rationalize these verses away. We ignore this teaching because it is too much. It is overwhelming.

I believe that perhaps we should take theses verses more literally than we do. Or, at least we should stop pretending that we take the Bible at face value if we want to ignore these passages.

You can't claim to take the Bible literally and then dump these verses into the gutter.

Your retirement account is the forbidden fruit.

When we decide that these verses can't really be true - we make the decision that the plan God has for us (and our finances) is insufficient and that we can do better.

Your lake house is sin.

I'm stopped on busy sidewalks at least once a week by a stranger. In hushed, always garbled, words he, always he, asks a question. This same cruel one-act performed in theatre after theatre in Russia. For the longest time I had no idea what the question was. My proper response was that I did not speak Russian, and I used that response long after it ceased to be true. Apparently I have a certain look about me. It seems that my look says, "I am a smoker and I have extra cigarettes/a light to lend."

Without fail I'm stopped by this question. I generally don't even listen to strangers - I just respond that I don't smoke. Perhaps the man asking for help with his income taxes is a little confused over my insistence that I simply do not smoke.

I've always felt that I look wildly out of place in this country. Certainly not in the same way as when I lived in Korea. Here in Ukraine very few men orbit their families to intercept any attack I might have planned - as was semi-common in Korea. But, people notice my presence.

At restaurants they apologetically slip me an English menu. At sporting events I clearly don't know either team. In elevator (I only use one elevator in this country) I must say "8th, please" and while I don't hear the mistake - there's apparently a doozy - everyone wheels around to stare at me. And on buses, they always finger me for a foreigner on the buses.

On buses I give exact change; still the driver wants to engage in conversation and ensure that I only want one ticket. In stores, after I fumble my way through a shopping list and stutter twice trying to remember how to say cherry before settling for peach which I can say quite fluently; the teller always expects exact change. She is often willing to fight me over this. "Oh, do you have 70 kopecks? Or one bill?"

Now - I'm the kind of person who picks his battles. If I were the teller, I certainly wouldn't fight a non-native speaker over a few coins. I don't fight for most things, really. Having to do everything in a foreign language really takes the bark out of me. When buses decide that my stop isn't good enough, I just ride to the next stop and get off there. When I don't get the meal I ordered, I just thank God that it's not squid anymore - as was always the case in Korea - and eat my meal.

Perhaps my clothes make me look less like a foreigner and more like a homeless man. Perhaps my jeans and sneaker combination doesn't say "American Pie" any more than it says "Dumpster Diver." My coat and scarf apparently announce that I am an odd breed of Ukrainian: I am the type that smokes and has enough money to carry several extra packs with him at all times.

"Brother, can you spare a cig?"

Conversation

I still feel quite strongly that Mara should write a play. She's my theatre critic friend from Riga, Latvia. She's immensely talented, and I can't help but feel that one of her plays will take the world by storm.

We had quite a long conversation once in which I encouraged her to write a play. She said that she felt it was very difficult. "Writing a play is like starting a conversation with a stranger. Except there are 150 strangers and only one conversation."

See! With lines like these in ordinary speech (in her second language!) don't you just long for opening night?

I feel that Mara hit the nail on the head when it comes to all forms of writing. Whether writing a book, a play, a sermon, or a blogpost; the point is to start a conversation with strangers."

I'm genuinely terrified of this prospect. Once I had to stand outside and pass out flyers for an English club I was starting. I was by myself, and I might as well have been dressed in only my underwear. I studdered and stammered. I blushed with every word. I passed out almost one hundred flyers. I started zero conversations and zero people came to the English club.

I envy people who can sit down next to a stranger and start a conversation. My roomate seems to have a date with a different girl every night. He has always met her "on the bus." Now, generally speaking, when I ride the bus I just hold on for dear life and try not to miss my stop or die. I don't really know how he has the time or the cognitive ability to meet new people on any bus here.

I feel that writers must be the most self-absorbed people in the world. I mean, even now I'm typing up my thoughts on writing and I expect people to read it. How selfish is that? I expect people to gloss over the typing and punctuation errors and to find meaning in the words I write. I get disappointed when I realize that someone hasn't been reading my blog who I think should be! How silly is that?

Maybe writing is easier because you don't have to deal with the immediate feedback of the stranger's facial expressions. Maybe that makes it harder.

So, I hope that if we met on a bench or in a crowded city-bus that you wouldn't judge me for my words or think me selfish and vain for feeling that my interuption would be more interesting than your own thoughts.

Share.

This is the third and final sermon in a three part sermon series [They have seen a great light...] I look forward to preaching this sermon.

Sermon Acts 8:25-40

When I first began to read the Bible my usual method was to throw open the Bible to a random page and to begin reading. My first understanding of God was through the life of Esther. The first thing I learned as a nine year old Bible reader is that God calls us to do scary things to protect His people.

Today's Bible story was also one of the first few stories I read from the Bible. This is an appropriate story because it seems that the Ethiopian eunuch had also opened the Bible at random; this is a bad beginner story for a nine year old because I didn't know what a eunuch was. In fact, I read this story dozens of times before finding out what a eunuch was.

Ethiopia was ruled by a very beautiful queen. Candace was known throughout the world for her beauty, grace, and political savvy. Those who wanted Candace in power wanted to make sure that no one got frisky with the queen. The men who were appointed to her cabinet were castrated to ensure that no hanky panky could happen.

In Europe this still occured 150 years ago. Young boys with beautiful singing voices became castratos through surgery so that they could keep their beautiful child-like voices forever.

When people met the Ethiopian official it was immediately obvious that something was wrong.

Now, this government official was different than the politicians we know. I mean, he probably stole a lot of money from the people - because he was very wealthy. No, he was different because he was searching for something more. He was't happy with the tribal gods and the religion of his people. Through his economic work he had encountered Jews and liked the things they believed. He was wealthy and invested time and money in understanding their religion.

He was known as a "God fearer.". He wasn't a Jew, but he knew, and understood the Jewish religion and had a great respect for their God. So he made the long journey to Jerusalem to learn more about this God.

Well, it turns out that this was a huge mistake. After months of traveling he arrives at the Temple and is swiftly turned away.

Eunuchs aren't allowed in the temple! They're freaks!

He is humiliated and rejected, but still questioning. He buys very pricey scrolls and commits to studying the scriptures.

And on his way home he crosses paths with Phillip. This Jewish follower of Jesus is willing to sit up in the chariot with the Eunuch. The man shares his frustrations and cares with Phillip and throws open the scripture scrolls. He points to his new life verse - the verse that sums up why he isn't allowed in the temple - the place where Isaiah describes him.

But Phillip sees it differently and immediately begins sharing with him whom this verse is REALLY about.

Most of us will never have a burning bush moment. We will not be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire. We will probably not see Jesus in all of His glory, lighting up the night. No. Our lives will most likely be much more like that of the Ethiopian official. Rejected, alone, not good enough for the cool crowd - we will find God on a dusty road with only a puddle for our baptism. But don't be confused: this story is still on topic. This is a story of incredible light. The darkness of simply not being good enough is lifted when Jesus Christ enters his life. He had been refused even admittance to the temple, but Jesus wanted HIM to be the temple. God wanted to live in the broken, desecrated body of a second class citizen.

This shell of a man - when filled up with the light of the risen Christ - was able to convert an entire nation! This is a story of a great light indeed!


This is a story of "ALL." The Jewish faith had many rules and regulations about who could worship and where people could worship and who was fit to know God and how that person could know God. With the death and resurrection of Jesus, we find ourselves in a situation of ALL. All may worship God, anywhere they wish. All may know God.

Because, if anyone would be excluded from anything it would be this man. He was black, and a eunuch - a foreigner in every sense of the word. The Hebrew scriptures were quite clear that he could not worship God in the temple. He wasn't welcome.

With Jesus Christ, that changed. Absolutely.

Sometimes we forget the lesson of all. I want you to look around for a second at the other Pilgrims in this room. I want you to look at yourself and then look at those around you. I want you to notice how much we all look alike. We all share a skin color, a country, and a language.

35% of people in Ukraine smoke cigarettes. When you look at people our age, the number is much higher. Ukraine is ranked third in the world for the most cigarettes sold per person. But look around this room. Do any of us smoke cigarettes? If you do, you're doing a good job hiding it from Shannon! In a country where half of the young people smoke cigarettes - half of the people in this room should be smokers or former smokers.

We are only comfortable with other people who look, act, and speak like us. And this is wrong. This is a terrible thing. We have fallen into the trap that the Jewish pharisees had built. We have forgotten the lesson of All.

Every day we see and interact with people from other countries and cultures. We have medical students from Africa - many of whom are Christians and would LOVE to join a community of other Christ followers who speak some English. We have Korean students, 60% of whom are devout Christians and most of them need to understand that Catholics and Protestants can work together.

We see people every day who have tattoos and piercings, strange hair or odd make-up. We encounter goths, and emos, and gays, and punks, and we walk beside hundreds of young people who don't know that God loves them. Every day you sit in classes with people who feel that no one loves them.

We must celebrate the lesson of all. All are welcome here. We must never be afraid to welcome the stranger, the lost, the hurting into this space. We must have the courage to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people who look nothing like us.

If you're scared, take David or Shannon or me along with you. We won't talk for you - but we will stand beside you and we will be brave with you.

With Moses we spoke of the great light of the Burning Bush. With Jesus we spoke of the transfiguration. But in this story, we don't see a flame or a flashlight. It seems to not fit the theme. But I tell you this day, dear friends, if we are willing to move beyond our circle of friends. If we are willing to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who are different than us. If we are willing to follow God's leading and share God's good news with this hurting world ; I guarantee to you that the world will see a great light.

They will see a light so great - and it will come from me and you. It will come from God living and working in our hearts and it will go out to all the nations. So that all may see.

They will see a great light.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Some thoughts on improving our political process:

1. The standard answer to election pollsters should be, "Sorry, not interested." This way polls would be considered even more inaccurate and people would pay less attention to them.

2. Election night exit polling should be outlawed. Maybe if they actually counted the votes before calling a winner people would feel more like their vote was actually counted.

3. Every embassy on foreign soil should be a polling station. You could easily count all of the votes and e-mail the figures to each state by election night.

4. For every dollar spent on a campaign, politicians should be encouraged to give a dollar to charity (and simply frowned upon for not doing so). For instance, maybe the world would be a better place if Meg Whitman had spent 70 million on her campaign and given 70 million to a charity. She could have purchased 7 million bed-nets to help end malaria. To put that into perspective, almost every person in Rwanda could be sleeping under a Malaria stifling bed-net right now and avoiding the leading cause of death in their country if just half of her personal contribution to the campaign had gone to that charity.

5. Reform campaign finance laws to only allow a small window for fundraising. Give politicians (and special interest groups) one month out of every year to make their fundraising pitches - and give the public plenty of time after that fundraising month to absorb the news of who is funding whom.

Creativity

I think that creative is the word of the day.

This period of my life seems to be filled with highly creative people.

I live with 3 Ukrainian artists. We all have permission to just create as we feel led.

A lot of our guests leave a traditional gift of a bottle of vodka. Since none of us really feel like drinking hard liquor on any regular basis I began filling bottles of vodka with fruits. Vodka preserves anything forever, and will absorb the taste slowly over a couple of weeks.

I have a bottles of pear, apple, and raspberry flavored vodka sitting on the top shelf in the kitchen. While I was on vacation another addition made it's way up to the shelf. A cigarette stub flavored vodka. Soon small pebble vodka joined the others.

One of our walls is covered in newspapers. It felt like the right thing to do. In the same way that if felt right to have an impromptu photo session one night. We host about a dozen people each week. All for free. It's for the experience, the insight, the education, (and for my hopelessly romantic roommate it's also for the possibility of love) and the atmosphere. Having a dozen different voices weigh in on matters great and small creates an aroma or congeniality that can't be compared.

And tonight, after our first English Club open mic night, I sat in the main room of the Youth to Jesus student center and I was overwhelmed by the amount of creativity that surrounds me.

I don't attract the most serious students. They can pay big money and have a teacher list grammar rules at them for an hour. I attract an odd subset of Ukrainians. 25-30 students show up each week. They are artsy and fun - lively and vivacious. They want to learn English, but I think that more than that they crave some type of community.

The students played their instruments in every corner of the great room. Their almost prodigious talent was a little bit overwhelming. Fingers flew on the keys of the piano and hands strummed guitars. A boy picked up the bow of a violin for the first time and had a good number of notes under his belt in a few minutes. The flautist and the pianist began arranging duets.

I'm starting to wonder how I can capture this energy and use it for good.

I guess I need to get a little creative.

Jesse

 

Jesse and his "Uncle" Michael. He's a cow, I'm a fencer. What - your farm doesn't have fencers?

Change.

Last week we talked about seeing and understanding God. This week we are going to talk about the change that God shows in our lives.

My friend Lena grew up in a communist home. There was no mention of religion at home as her parents were party members. Her grandmother was a Christian, but she was a very strict and severe woman. Once Lena stole an egg before Easter and her grandmother told her that God would cut off her ear for her sin. Lena was terrified of this God - and she slept with her hand over her ear even until she was an adult. When she was a teenager her grandfather told her a story about a warrior.

A long time ago, a strong Ukrainian warrior was leading his people; his soldiers and their wives and children. He was leading a group of several thousand people through a very thick forest to a village where they would be safe. They had been traveling for many days and all of their food, water, and torches were gone. They had nothing left to light and it was getting dark. The warrior knew that they were very close to the new village where he was taking his people. But, after a very long journey the people were losing confidence in their leader. It grew dark in the forest. The forest grew wild with strange noises and the people became terrified.

They were in the dark. They were scared. And they didn't know if they wanted to keep following the warrior.

But this warrior loved his people very much. He knew that once they got to the new village they would be safe forever. So the warrior took one last heroic breath and dug his hand into his chest. He ripped out his heart and he lit it on fire. He held it up as a final torch for his people. He walked with his people the final steps into their new village. And as the people began to celebrate the arrival of their new home the brave warrior collapsed and died.

Lena decided that if she ever encountered such a warrior she would follow him anywhere. As an adult she began to read the Bible. As she read the story of Jesus she couldn't stop thinking about this story. She realized that she had found the great warrior. She understood that the God who cuts off the ears of thieving children wasn't real ... but that the God who is willing to die for his people - that God is real.

She had finally seen God for who he really was. She had seen the transfiguration.

[Read Matthew 17:1-8]

This is a story of change.

Jesus goes up on the mountain, just like any other day and takes a few of his disciples with him.

And on the mountain that day they saw Jesus Christ for who he really is. They saw the glory of God surround him. We typically think that on that mountain Jesus transformed from simple old Jesus of Nazareth into something much greater. But this is a wrong understanding. Jesus had always been this way. Jesus had always glowed with the glory of God. Jesus had always been the great warrior with his heart on fire. On the mountain that day, with Moses and Elijah, the disciples saw Jesus for who he really was.

The real transfiguration took place 30 years before in a simple stable in Bethlehem. Humanity was changed forever when a tiny baby was born in a manger. At the transfiguration the disciples finally see the truth - that the baby born in Bethlehem was God.


Sometimes people need to see a story of change. They need to see OUR story of change.

The transfiguration is a model for us. Sometimes people need to see that God really lives inside of us.

The world needs to see a transfiguration - and they need to see it from us.

People need to see a radical change. So how do we show people the change that God has accomplished in our lives?

I'm going to offer two ideas to show the transformation in your heart.

Forgive those who have hurt you.
Ask forgiveness of those who have hurt you.


When we forgive others, people see the radical transformation God has accomplished in our lives. When we apologize to others for the times we have hurt them people will see that our lives are changed.



One of my personal heroes is Corrie ten Boom. Corrie was a very ordinary dutch citizen. While she had been in love many times, she never married and in her forties she was considered an old maid. Her family was deeply religious and in the 1930s they had opened their house to many poor people who needed a warm meal. When Holland was captured by the Nazis, Jews began disappearing. Soon Corrie's family was wrapped up in the resistance movement. They were hiding Jews in their house and helping Jewish families escape to other countries.

One night the Nazi's caught on to their plan and showed up to search their house. Corrie in her forties, her sister Betsie, also single and in her forties, and their father - and old man in his 70s - were arrested for hiding Jews.

When the guards processed them, they looked at the father and one guard said, "You're an old man. If we let you go home, you'll behave yourself - won't you?" To which Mr. ten Boom said, "If you let me go today, I will open my home to anyone who needs it tomorrow." He died in prison a few days later.

Over the next few months Corrie and her sister endured unimaginable horror. They were shipped from one concentration camp to another. Ravensbruck was the worst of all. And one guard there was worse than any other guard. One time Betsie fell over while working in the fields. This despicable guard raised his whip and slashed a fifty year old woman across the face.

Betsie died shortly after.

Corrie survived to the end of the war. She decided that she should tell her story. She was a strong Christian and she wanted people to know that God was with her and her family - even in the darkness of the concentration camps. She preached a message of forgiveness. She showed radical love.

One day after she finished up a sermon on forgiveness a man approached her. He said, "The forgiveness of God is a truly wonderful thing." She looked into his eyes and instantly recognized the SS guard who had been feared most at Ravensbruck. She immediately knew that it was the man who had slashed Betsie's face. She shook his hand - and in her heart she forgave him - and said, "Yes. It truly is wonderful."

The world needs to see a transfiguration. They need to see that God lives within us.


Now, the point of this story is the forgiveness. Don't think for a minute that your forgiveness won't be as powerful just because you haven't faced major obstacles like Corrie ten Boom. When you forgive others and ask for their forgiveness it will be a powerful moment for you and for them.

It doesn't have to be a huge transgression for forgiveness to be powerful. It's still hard to forgive roomates who eat our food and friends who leave us out of their plans. Forgiving them is equally powerful.


A few weeks ago the students of L'viv protested in the streets. Now David and Shannon and I all agreed that if we had an opportunity that we would join you in protest. We support you and agree that some of the new policies are unfair to students. So, I found myself marching in the streets with Ukrainian University students.

We marched through the streets to protest unfair policy. We chanted "Glory to Ukraine" and "Glory to the heroes." And I was on board. Then a voice from the back shouted out "death to our enemies."

"Death to our enemies."

What if we marched through the streets chanting, "Forgiveness to our enemies."?

"Love to our enemies."

If you want to see a transformation - real change in this world - then take to the streets. Let your enemies know that they are forgiven. Ask for their forgiveness - but don't expect or demand it.

This might be the hardest thing you'll ever do. But, it will be worth more than you can ever imagine.

We take as our example Jesus - who showed taht he was fully God - and yet willingly died for our sins ... and forgave those who killed him. Look to Corrie ten Boom who forgave the cruelest man in a cruel system that killed her family. Look into your heart and search out the forgiveness that you need to share and ask for.

If you look deep within yourself - you'll find that God is there.

And God is ready to show the world a transfiguration.

And God is ready to use you to do it.

During our prayer time - if there is someone in this room who has hurt you, or whom you have hurt - I urge you to reach out to him or her and pray together. Forgive one another.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.