Zoe

Immanuel

Earlier this month I was sitting in a meeting and the opening question was asked, “What brings you joy?” For whatever reason that question struck me and has stayed with me all advent this year. I have not been able to shake it. Probably because, if I am honest, I don’t really take much time to savor those moments and I am not sure why I don’t take the necessary time to “go there.” It has something to do with the type A personality that is always pushing to be better. But you know what? Every once in a while we have to stop, cease, enter into work stoppage and let those kind of questions go deep. I have been trying to do that this month, with some degree of success too.

          I immediately thought about the joy, the intense, gotta love you joy, when my oldest daughter walked in the front door Thanksgiving day right after I had finished carving the turkey and we were ready to sit down and eat with 15 other friends and family. She told us she wasn’t coming home at Thanksgiving because she could not get off her high paying job as a barista at the San Diego Nordstrom’s café’ bar. Then, there she was. I stopped everything and gave her a long hug. Dawn cried. I was teary eyed too and she got uncomfortable after what seemed like a minute of hugging her and said, “Ahhh dad, I’m not dead!” That homecoming brought me JOY!

          So what brings you joy? I am mindful of the times when families come together to complete someone’s life. As difficult as they are, it is still a time of joy because people are together. What brings me Joy?  People. Coming together. Relationships. God becoming a human. The presence—of God! That is the vocabulary word for tonight, isn’t it? Immanuel. God with us. That is what brings God Joy, so why shouldn’t it bring us Joy? That is what “God with us” means. When Jesus is here, God is accessible in total and complete buoyant relationship with us. God ever and always present with us. SO maybe that is what brings all of us Joy. And in those profound moments of joy, when people come together and God is in the midst, there is no room for anything but peace-on earth-to men, women, and children everywhere. It is a testimony that the peaceable kingdom is possible, but only when Christ stands at the center. Listen to a story that highlights this perfectly…..

It is the absolutely true story of Christmas 1914. It is beautifully articulated in Stanley Weintraub’s book "Silent Night." It was Christmas Eve 1914, the War had been raging for several months and to celebrate Christmas the German high command had sent miniature Christmas trees to the men on the front lines. They set these trees up on the parapets and lit the candles. The British soldiers had been sent ‘Princess Mary’s Christmas Boxes’ filled with goodies from home. As the German, British, and French troops settled in for the night, a young German soldier began to sing the well known carol “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.”  Soon others joined in. When they had finished, the British responded in English singing “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

A ceasefire was called for Christmas day. One by one the men from both sides left their trenches and met in no-man’s land. They shook hands, exchanged gifts, and shared pictures of their families. Informal soccer games took place and a joint service was held to bury the dead of both sides.

The high ranking officers, who were not at the front, were not pleased when they heard of this. Men, who have come to know each other’s names, play together, seen pictures of each other's families and exchanged gifts with one another are much less likely to want to kill each other!

When the fighting resumed the men on both sides, who had participated in the ceasefire spent a few days simply firing aimlessly into the sky. The war didn’t start back in earnest until the frontline troops were relieved and new troops who hadn’t participated in the ceasefire where brought to the front. The war would rage until the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918.

Peace is possible; when Jesus Christ is present at the center. Relationships are established and Joy is experienced. May this peace and Joy be yours this night because of the arrival of this God! Maybe, just maybe, the presence of God in Jesus is present enough this year! Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Wise Man

      I am one of the three wise men. We are called Magi. My name is not important; in fact it would be a distraction to our presence in the story. Where we are from would be a similar distraction and would be to get lost in weapons of mass distraction. We are from the East as the story states. It means we are outsiders to the story. We come from nowhere and therefore everywhere. We come from Arabia, Iraq, Babylon and “other” places that are not central to the primary land of Jewish history. We represent God’s presence to all people everywhere. But I will speak more on that later.

          We are men of mystery, intrigue, few words. In the first Testament we were synonymous with priests. We are astrologers who interpret dreams and messages of YHWH. In the New Testament our identity broadened to include all those who practice the magic arts. That will make some of you nervous, I know!  We were the scientists of the day. From my perspective; we symbolize extraordinary and complicated people. This should be held in contrast to the shepherds who were ordinary people and good old working class folks. We were a bit more on the margins of society, with some confusion around us.

          Our day was similar to yours; they were days of perilous times. There were many who tried to overthrow the Roman rule. First, there was the Maccabeas and then the Zealots. They were both guerilla groups designed to thwart, frustrate and overthrow the Roman occupation.

          As your culture knocks on the door of 2009, the times for you are as equally perilous, chaotic, confusing and complicated. There are airport screenings and frequent arrests, gang violence, military buildups, international alliances, advanced nuclear technologies, super viruses, and stock market fluctuations. In your world anxiety makes good headlines, just as in my day. If it “bleeds it leads” was just as true in my day as it is in yours. I notice that you are concerned about polar caps melting, fossil fuels running low, subprime mortgage failures and now ARM’s that are set to readjust at 2, 3 or 5 years bringing the next wave of defaults, there is the credit crunch and new waves of consumer debt leaving people frozen and frustrated, not to mention hungry, cold and homeless. In my day I was a complicated person in complicated times just like you are living in equally complicated days.

          All through human history there have been complicated people living faithfully in complicated times. One of which was Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He was a complicated wise man and in that sense a MAGI of his day. Listen to his complicated prayer,

“Father in Heaven! Thou hast loved us first, help us never to forget that Thou are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom Thou has commanded us to love as we love ourselves.”

He was a complicated and depressed person trying to live his faith with passion and thoughtfulness.

          So what is the message that I have for you this morning? My message is both incarnation and manifestation. This message of incarnation and manifestation has four movements.

First, complicated people are all called to journey forward. We were led forward toward a star shining in the night sky. This was easy for us. We were trained to follow not just the stars but to the one who transcends the stars—The Creator of heaven and earth. Our journey was always forward, always hopeful, always onward.  Complicated people journey onward, no matter what life throws at you. In my day King Herod was so threatened by this incarnation and ensuing manifestation that he ordered all first born to be murdered; complicated times for complicated people. Yet, we did not look back and neither should you. Follow the star---forward---in faith---never looking back, never in fear, until you arrive.  Yet be careful of the notion of arrival because even when you arrive, you are just beginning and never ending.

          Secondly, complicated people are invited to the scene. Notice that we are all invited to a particular place, with a particular person, for a particular series of events.  We are invited to the incarnation of God and to live into the manifestation of the works of God in Jesus Christ. The place is not pie in the sky universalism, it is not the magic of a soothsayer, nor the pantheism of magical Mother Nature; it is to a crèche where incarnation resides. It is to Immanuel---God with us! It is to the mysterious and wonderful place called incarnation. This particular place contains a particular person and his particular and complicated name is Jesus, the Messiah, the promised one who has come and will come again. He is called to a particular destiny. The name of that destiny is crucifixion. It is a complicated remedy to the deep anguish of the robust sufferings of all human kind. It is the deep seated anguish of personal sin, corporate greed, a flawed creation and systemic sin and human injustice. The love of God became incarnate to manifest the tender mercies of God for people, creation and all cosmic disorder. This was satisfied by the complex death by crucifixion. His death is symbolized by our gift offerings; we came to the scene offering gold, frankincense and myrrh. Even at the moment of his birth, Jesus is headed toward a sacrificial death, a fact foreshadowed by our gifts. These gifts are suitable for kings and priests. Myrrh is the ointment used to prepare bodies for the grave.

In our day these gifts could all be transferrable to cash. We can embrace the deep converging mysteries of these gifts or domesticate them and consume them for cash—one is way of capitalistic consumerism and the other is the way of substitutionary faith. It is the great message of the Magi. It is the message of incarnation and manifestation. The choice, well-- as it is with all complicated people, is up to you….You decide, you choose!

          Thirdly, this complicated message for a complicated people in complicated times is available to ALL people, in ALL places in ALL times! We, as Magi, are outsiders to this faith. We did not live within the salvation history of the people of Israel. It is integral to my message this morning. We represent God’ desire to meet the needs of the Jew first and then the Gentile! It is an inclusive message for ALL human beings.  This small detail literally makes all the difference in the world!

Most of you are children of modernity, the enlightenment, naturalism, materialism and progressivism. This is a bit disheartening because the tendency has been to reduce people to small and thin categories that are melting and unable to contain the fullest expression of the image of God--Imago Dei. Unfortunately, these modern inclinations have reduced people to male and female, black or white, Latino or Asian, fetus, born and unborn, right and left, moderates, fundamentalists, progressive and conservative, feminist, homosexual and heterosexual. Sadly, they are simply words used unintentionally to reduce people to categories, to judge, to make small, to explain, to make sense, to scientifically observe, yet it removes the fullness of God’s image in all people. The list goes on and on as Philosophers, historians, politicians, sociologists, scientists, journalists, anthropologists, psychologists, theologians, lay trained parishioners and whatever will be thought of next reduce what it means for a person to be a whole person created in the image of God—Imago Dei. My message, our message, this morning is that for complicated people this forward journey to a particular place, to a particular person for a particular series of God incarnate and God manifest events is for a great inclusive all!

          Finally, complicated people need to look at the person under the star, or more appropriately an angular bolt of lightning to recognize the truth of these thick events.  This journey ends as complicated people stand before God. We stood there adoring, pondering, wondering, and worshipping God incarnate and God to be manifest in this child! All of our complexities came into focus when we stood before this Holy God, in that Gods presence, in that God’s face! Kierkegaard said, “Paganism required: Know yourself. Christianity declares: No, that is provisional—know yourself—and look at yourself in the mirror of the Word in order to know yourself properly. There is no true self-knowledge without God. True knowledge of oneself stands before God in silence.” Magi come with solutions to what we ponder deep in our hearts. It is at the center of this story that complicated people find healing answers to all of life’s perplexities. These answers are always as one stands before God, Coram Deo (in the face of God) that is the star that shines, and the bolt of lightning that illuminates the darkness of a nihilistic sky. It is the angular notion of the truth of the arrow that has pierced the hearts of complicated people for centuries.

God alone speaks for God self.  John Calvin said that the “birth narratives should so affect you, so pierce your heart, so work its way into your marrow, that it manifests that there is the true divine.”  My friends and I find it lamentingly humorous how often complicated people dare to speak arrogantly for God.  If people will be quiet long enough in the journey to the crèche of this scene in the very face of a holy God---Coram Deo, they may realize that God has sent a lightning bolt in the form of a star that contains the audacity of hope to center, restore, rechampion, reposition, reconcile, and restore all humankind.

         

Five Advent Perspectives: VIRGIN

My name is Mary.  I am 14 years old. I am pregnant, with God’s child. His name will be called Jesus, Messiah, and God with us! I know it sounds crazy to you; it sounded as equally bizarre and ridiculous to me, as your younger generations would say when the angel Gabriel first appeared to me. What would people say?  What would happen to me? Would Joseph still marry me? I would be an unwed mother and so young? In my culture this is a big situation. I am shaking right now just thinking back to it. Joseph could legally break our engagement and I would at best be an outsider to my culture. So it was a pretty intense!  I was amazed at Joseph because he did not act like the law required but like the one who I was carrying in my womb would act as an adult. He acted like Jesus. He planned to marry me quietly to avoid all kinds of difficulties for both of us. Even though our marriage was arranged according to customs and culture of the day, we both loved one another. In your language he was a “Rock star!” I am a bit saddened that he is never really heard of again because he was a great husband and father. He loved me and his children; Jesus and James.

            But I am getting ahead of myself a bit. It was the “fullness of times.” The prophets had made mention of the Messiah to come, he is our hope. However, YHWH had been silent for many centuries. We had been waiting for nearly 400 years since YHWH had spoken through the prophet Malachi. Waiting is important to spiritual growth because anticipation makes us yearn, long for, wonder about, and suffer for a better tomorrow. This is very difficult in your culture today. It is very transformational and part of your liminality, you’re becoming, so to simulate waiting in lent and advent is important to the arrival. Waiting does not diminish us; any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in waiting. We are enlarged because we are made smaller. In being made smaller we become bigger. We, of course, do not see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the smaller and therefore, larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy!  It was the “fullness of times” because we had waited so long, and we were pregnant for the one, the great interruption, God incarnate!

                        When the angel, Gabriel, first appeared to me, I was a bit stunned. It was like I was on your TV show The Ghost Whisperer. I was blown away! His appearance was certainly a great interruption.  I really believed with my whole heart, mind and soul what we were waiting for but it came so quickly and I was confused.  What Joseph would say was the least of my worries.  The real question is, “Did I really believe and be-live my faith?” Could I say Yes to Gabriel? I was afraid. I hid my face. My heart raced, I mean it felt like my heart was coming out of my chest. I became dizzy. I almost fainted. The palms of my hands got clammy and even my feet were sweating which is not easy considering I was wearing cheap sandals, from Target.  The angel said, “Do not be afraid.” Immediately these words touched my heart and I felt the presence of the holy one warm me from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. Some of you have experienced this when YHWH has come upon you. It is a very common sensation, to feel warmed, when the Holy Spirit moves in.

            Gabriel said I would carry the Messiah in my womb.  I had more questions than anything else.  Was I the first one to be asked?  What if I was plan B? Did I really believe in God, the Messiah, and the promise that the Messiah was to be born of a virgin, like Isaiah had foretold? Did it matter?  The real issue is, would I say, YES? Then came the moment of my daring audacity, I almost fainted when the words came out of my mouth. I was definitely light headed I could not believe I asked him.  I asked, “How could this be, since I am a virgin?” I startled myself by saying that out loud and I really astonished the messenger. He was not ready for that one. I could see he held his breath awaiting my response.  Would I say, YES? I did not even know at that moment what I would say. Thankfully, I continued in silence, processing the thoughts, feelings and my surroundings. As I look back on my anticipated response I realize now that I needed my imagination enlarged, even as a young teenager. I did not ask God with words I just waited for God to widen my imagination, which, I would later discover, is what faith is, especially as we get older.

I wondered what an 18 year old would have said to Gabriel. They are already disappointed by people, friends, their tribe, faith communities and life; let alone a 50 year old. Faith tends to be easier for the young. I guess that is one of the reasons he came asking me. It is easier for a child untainted by the cynicisms of life’s cold and harsh realities to say, “YES.”

But I still needed an explanation; human beings are always in need of more information as if that makes faith easier. You still have to say YES.  I mean, how could this be?  I had not been with a man sexually yet. I was looking forward to it but, honestly, I was a virgin. He explained “how” it was to happen. I admit I was dizzy processing this encounter and did not hear all that much of what he had said. Time stood still, it was very surreal to me. Everything was spinning and blurry. I heard phrases like; “highly favored,”  “full of grace,” “Son of the Most High,” “The Holy Spirit,” “kingdom that will never end,” and the naming—“You shall call him Jesus.” I never heard how they were used in sentences I just heard all of these thick words, images, metaphors, hope, futures, my people’s past salvation histories and I kept asking myself is this real?  Do I believe this stuff? Are these more than words? More than concepts? More than fable and myth? More than story? More than “Once upon a time” bedtime story designed to comfort and get kids to do what you want them to do, namely, just go to sleep?  Is this for real? WHY ME?  Why not me?

I could see in his eyes he was very concerned, if not afraid. I remember thinking that was ironic since he told me not to be afraid. In fact there was a tearing in the atmosphere and I saw a whole host of heavenly beings holding their breath. Was I willing to bear God and therefore bear him to the world? I could even see past them to the ONE, who waited for my choice.

Then those words that brought everything into focus in a sheer instant, “For nothing is impossible with God!” As soon as that name and phrase was uttered by the messenger, I knew there was only one thing that I could say. I don’t know how long we were there, it could have been an instant, it could have been half of the night, I don’t really know and I don’t really care! I whispered the words at first almost naively tasting what was to come. As my sentences progressed there was a delightful strength building in the tone of my voice. By the end of my answer my cadence was strong and my resolve was unwavering. My sentences became more buoyant in strength, with grace, faith, hope, love and glory. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” In Latin this is the great Fiat mihi. This was a prayer that I spoke. It is the first of five prayers recorded in the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel. I was interrupted---by God, and I embraced it! I became a universe-disturber for good! I said yes! My heart overjoyed with emotions. I have never experienced faith become so personally intense. I could only give tiny words to the great wonders of my soul. I proclaimed in a loud voice of worship later when I went to visit my aunt:

“My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty One has done great things for me---holy - is - his - name.”

I said YES to humility, YES to grace, YES to God, YES to Jesus, YES to glory, YES to the great interruption, YES to Hallelujah!   My prayer is that this waiting season you too would say YES!   Say it with me—YES!  A-men!

Five Advent Perspectives: Gabriel

We are in the second week of Advent and looking at five advent perspectives. I am attempting to encourage us from the perspective of each of the main characters that typically are on the advent wreath. This week it is the angel, the messenger. You might ask are you an expert on angels? My honest response is, No. I’m not really an expert on anything. I have relied on Thomas Aquinas and Peter Kreeft for much of this morning. There are no experts on angels, except angels, and I’m no angel!

FIVE ADVENT PERSPECTIVES: MESSENGER

MATTHEW 1:18-21

Good morning my name is Gabriel. I am an archangel in heaven. The Christian Scriptures name us as Michael, a warrior, Raphael in the Catholic Apocrypha, Lucifer, who rebelled and me.  All three of the world’s major religions believe in us, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. They all have the same belief system regarding me—and, angels, that is.

There is too much sentimentality regarding our roles, which is a shame because we perform many functions on behalf of the Trinity. We are creatures of God; we are bodiless spirits; we do not have wings any more than a dog has fins, that are just the artist’s rendition of us. All a good painting can do is suggest our existence not capture it.  So don’t get too tied to the idea that an angel gets his wings when they pass a test, like Clarence in the movie, It’s a Wonderful life. I love that movie though.  I have intelligence, and we have free will, we live in God’s presence in heaven, we obey God’s will, we carry Gods messages, which is what the word angel means and it is why I am here this morning, we assume bodies as you would put on a costume, we can influence your imagination through telepathy but we cannot influence your free will—you hold the final vote on what you do, and this one is rare but fun all the same, we can move material object’s supernaturally.

            There are heavenly beings like cherubim, seraphim, and thrones and they are choirs who see God and adore God directly, like the choir that is here today. That is why they exist to praise God for who God is and not for what they can get out of it!

            There are middle management kind of who carry out God’s plan for the cosmos, like dominions and virtues and powers. Then there are those who order human affairs like principalities, archangels and angels. By the way everyone does have a guardian angel. SO you can see there are really too many of us to count. 

            I know there are some who just came for the music this morning, that is okay, but it is not ultimate. Some may be thinking give me a break angels don’t exist, you cannot prove that. This is true but you cannot disprove them either. Ask anyone who has had an out of body near death experience. They all say the same thing, I went to a bright light, that is my world, that was, well, us!

            Think about it with me like this for a moment. There is a natural ladder in the origin of species. The world is full of all sorts of species. Every rung on the cosmic ladder is filled. There are no gaps below us. Below us there are intelligent animals like apes and dogs, then less intelligent animals like fish, then barely intelligent animals like slugs, worms, and a few TV producers (sorry), then plants, then minerals and then inanimate objects like rocks and sand. A biologist can break it down further but you get my drift. The world is just full of cool stuff, more like a Victorian home than a Japanese Zen garden, although Zen gardens are cool.

            Now build the metaphor upward, above human beings. Just as humans are the most intelligent animal, they are the least intelligent spiritual being or angel, so to speak. That is why human beings were created, in the words of Scripture, a little lower than angels. If there are no angles then there would be a great gap between humans and God, even though there is no fundamental gap going down the ladder. Spiritual beings are higher than living things which are higher than nonliving things. There is more in a petal of a rose than in a grain of sand. Even if you don’t believe in a hierarchy you act that way. For example, Dogs feel and roses, something I really like, do not. We cut roses off of a rose bush but we don’t cut the finger off of the gardener. Why because people have feelings and rose bushes do not. When a human rubs their skin in a thorn they draw blood and it hurts, when the hand rubs the thorn the rose bush feels nothing.  Of course this is only a belief but is a reasonable belief. It is much more reasonable than not believing in angels. Both of which require an act of faith at a basic level…

           

            We are not like extraterrestrials, personified in the movie E.T.; rather we are more like extracosmic. This is cool; there is a huge difference between the unending Trinity place and the created cosmos of space. Created space, even as it expands, is still bordered by the infinite Trinity place. Extraterrestrials come from other planets, which also have guardian angels, I exist in Trinity place not the created cosmos of material, time and space.

            As a human being you are all part of the human species. Angels are so unique that each one of us is our own species, that is how creative our Creator is.

I do not have a body. I can assume one. I am neither male nor female-just like God but be careful of praying to a female God because this is paganism. God has feminine qualities but God is not female, any more than God is male. God is more than both. One of the problems with a materialist and naturalist world view is that God becomes the student and not the Teacher.

            In Scriptures angels are related not to planets or the physical cosmos but to God (as God’s creatures), and to human beings (as the guardian of Humans, and to both as God’s messengers, which leads me to why I am here this morning. I am a messenger from God to you as humans. Thus, I am THE MESSENGER!

            I could go on but will not because I have to get to the primary purpose of my coming this morning which is this: I am not the center of Christianity and neither are you! Jesus is! I hope you hear that this advent season! The primary purpose of angels is to get creation and creatures back on the road to paradise. I have appeared to people for thousands of years, Abraham, Sara, Lot, Jacob, Habakkuk, old men and old women, to the blind and the poor, the rich and the not so much. I appeared to Joseph and he said yes to me.  I appeared to Mary and I shook because she could have said no, but as you already have figured out she said yes. Because of that we have Christmas, and Easter and the hope of heaven.

            In the end they all said Yes, but not always right away at the beginning. All of the current angel books seem to make it about finding or discovering the angel in you, and that my friends, is nonsense. All the current angel books seem to make us comforting. This is more non-sense. Every time we appear it is always the same. People freak out; they are frightened and fall to their knees!  This is good; your culture needs a bit more of that today. A regular and healthy dose of the awe of God, just like you eat oatmeal to keep you – well, you know what I mean. So awesome that you fall on your knees and hide your face. The fact that it sounds kind of funny, almost offensive to you is more proof of why it is much needed.

So when appear, we say the same thing “Do not be afraid!” Do not be in a perpetual state of despair, but be in faith, be in a healthy awe! Be in awe of the one who is coming, namely Jesus.  Be so in awe that you bow down and cover your face because a wholly other is in your presence. We are comforting but not comfortable. Our end result is comforting but not at first. At first it is uncomfortable. True faith never begins in good feelings, like a hallmark card, it begins in awe, humility, repentance with a healthy dose of fear!  As the wisdom writers say, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom!” That is why every classical artist depicts Joseph cowering in the corner in almost every manger scene. He gets it, he is in the presence of the one who represents the One!

            Now we are getting to the primal reason I came this morning. Are you ready? Be in a healthy awe of the one who has come and who is coming again. His name is Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. What is remarkable about this story is not that the new Joshua is born of a virgin.  This is not new. Virgin births are not surprising given that this is the God who has created us without us, as Augustine says. He is the God who will save us without us too! What the Godhead does through the Spirit to conceive Mary’s child is not something that God does through creation. God does not need to intervene in creation because God has never been absent from creation. Creation is not “back there,” but is God’s ongoing love of all God has willed and continues to will to exist, in Jesus. The message is that God never gives up on God’s people. God never abandons anyone! Ever! So, there is never a reason to be afraid, at least in the sense of despair….

Don’t be in despair of the diagnosis because Jesus saves!

Don’t be in despair of the addiction because Jesus saves!

Don’t be in despair of you marriage breaking apart for the first or fifth time because Jesus saves!

Don’t be in despair of the plummeting market because Jesus saves!

Don’t be in despair of an incurable disease that is making you dis-at-ease because Jesus saves!   And I do not mean any of this in a trite way; I think you know that by now this morning

Don’t be in despair of your learning disability because

Don’t be in despair of losing your house …

Don’t be afraid of growing old because you are one step closer to the prize…

Don’t be afraid of roadside bombs because he is coming again to set the record straight…

Don’t be afraid of terrorists taking over hotels because we were actually able to hold back a lot of the violence but you could not see it on TV…

Don’t be afraid of the new mutations of überviruses because the great healer has the best minds in the world inspired and working on the right track…

Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, and don’t be afraid, because what is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name JESUS, because he will save his people from their sins! Did you hear that? He will save!

By the way, I need to tell you that there really are no angels in the outfield, like the movie wants you to believe, although it was a cool movie! Merry Christmas!