Joseph was a righteous man...

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about Joseph recently. Sure it had something to do with the fact that I was preaching at Nativity Lutheran the last Sunday of Advent and the reading was from Matthew 1: 18 - 25 which centers on Joseph, but more to the point it has to do with my name. I am Joseph Daniel Sellepack III which implies that I was named after two other Josephs who were ultimately named after other Josephs including this Joseph, the father of Jesus.

The text says that Joseph was a righteous man. Now that is something to live up to. I've always thought that righteousness was a matter of keeping rules and making a clean life the goal. Keep your nose clean - wash behind your ears - and above all don't ever get caught hanging out with the wrong people. That's kind of how it was always presented to me as a kid.

As I thought more intently about this passage, I had to go deeper than just that. This passage is so much more than just about rules.

Rules would say that Mary should have been stoned to death or at least severely shamed for her pregnancy. Women of course have a hard time hiding their pregnancies from prying eyes and the judgement of others. But Joseph could have stayed in the background. He could have chose to not be marked by this pregnancy and instead allow Mary to bear it alone - to be mocked and ridiculed. But Joseph won't hang out in the shadows. He goes right up front and does the righteous act. He takes Mary to be his wife.

And as Matthew tells the story it is Joseph who protects the child Jesus from the violence of Herod. It is Joseph who has the dreams and visions that lead them into Egypt. It is Joseph who stands up and takes responsibility for the unborn child and for Mary his mother.

It's not that Joseph came from the perfect family - he didn't, just read the geneology sometime. It's not that Joseph kept every law or dotted every i and crossed every t. That's not it - and I think it misses the point of the story. Righteous people take risks for others and do the just act even when there is pressure to just go along with the flow and hang out with the group. Righteous people deal with others using gentleness and tenderness and make kindness the point and use these attributes to fuel all their dealings with others.

They're not doormats, far from it! They're gatekeepers and they make a difference in the world. May it be so for all of us.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Peace and towels,

Joe

Unresolved Yesterdays

Ann Weems in her book Kneeling in Bethlehem writes a poem entitled"Yesterday's Pain."

Some of us walk into Advent
tethered to our unresolved yesterdays
the pain still stabbing
the hurt still throbbing
It's not that we don't know better;
it's just that we can't stand up anymore by ourselves.
On the way to Bethlehem,
will you give us a hand?

As I approach this advent season, I wonder how many of us have experienced the unresolved yesterday? Hopes dashed, dreams deferred, relationships that were meant to last a lifetime instead cut ruthlessly short. Each broken promise we've met or made yells out to us that our lives are fragile at best and at worst are hopelessly broken.

So much hurts and wounds both inflicted and endured that we can't stand up by ourselves anymore. The tragedy is that when we're honest with ourselves we cannot escape these yesterdays and these wounds really do make us who we are.

But isn't that the work of Advent - to show us that we can't, no matter how hard we try, stand up by ourselves? It's tough, but for Christians this is the ultimate good news story: stop trying to make it on your own. You need someone else, there are no self made men and women, and together we can become much more than what we could by ourselves.

And so we are rescued by a baby in a manger. Christ enters our life to help us stand up and walk. But it's not just some imagined presence that comes along side of us, or wish fulfillment, or some grand idea or positive energy that frees us from ourselves and the wounds we cause. Rather it is the living presence of Christ in the community that makes our standing possible.

In many ways this is the over-riding mission of the Broome County Council of Churches. We engage in Jail Re-entry because we know that those who come through the prison system need a helping hand in order to make it in the community. We come along side those who need a wheelchair ramp or food or a helping hand, because we know that someday we will be hungry or we will need some food or we will need some help. By working together to help those in need, we ensure our own survival when times get hard and we need someone else.

And somehow, in the midst of our lives, a child is born, and the world is never the same.

Won't you give us a hand?

Peace and towels,

Joe Sellepack

Advent Musings

One of my friends is a pastor in Tellico Village in Tennessee. Marty recently won an award for a sermon he preached on the book of Ruth. It was later published in the International Council of Community Churches newsletter. You can read the sermon by following this link to the hompage of the Community Church of Tellico Village: http://www.tellicochurch.com/lectionary-sermons/Sermons/091108.html

I think this is an important sermon for me to remember as I approach the advent season. It is important because it reminds me that my story is so much bigger than the myopic lense that I use to look at my world. According to the time period where Ruth was written, Moabites were the illegitimate offspring of incest - not to be associated with by those interested in ritualistic purity. Deut. 23 makes clear that these Moabite folks were forbidden to enter the assembly of the Lord. It seems that the sign "No Mobites Allowed" was the sign posted over the lunch counter of the temple.

And yet, Ruth, a Moabite woman, finds a way. I have read this four chapter book on several different occasions and find it filled with tenderness and redemption. One of the key themes of the book is how the stranger and poor should be treated. Using the same book that prevents Moabites from entering the assembly of God, the writer of Ruth was able to present a story that shows how gleaning and kinsmen redeemer laws and just plain common sense call into question the plain meaning of Deut. 23.

I think that I need Ruth to blow apart my definitions of who is acceptible and unacceptable to God. Then I need this book to reorder my priorities of what it means to live a righteous life. Along with Boaz I need to set aside the margins of my fields to allow giving and generosity to flourish. Along with Naomi who is made bitter from her circumstances in life, I need to allow grace and generosity to move me back into my right mind. Further, as I sit and wait through Advent, I need to be reminded that the Jesus in the manger had a very human family, filled with skeletons and scandals, but that God had a way of using these aparent failures for grace-filled ends.

Thanks Marty for writing such a provocative sermon.

Peace and Towels...

Christ the King

One of the questions I routinely get relates to the signature line when I sign correspondence. Unless it's a business letter or an email, I usually put Peace and Towels as the closing remark to a letter.

In John 17 just before Jesus is crucified, he gathers his followers into the upper room for one last meal. At the beginning of the meal he gives them some instruction and tells them that he is offering them a peace that the world cannot offer them and then he puts a towel around himself and washes the disciples feet. Peace and towels then is a way of saying that there will not be any peace until we fundamentally restructure how we think about power and service. There will not be a lasting peace until we follow the example of Christ and become servants and wash feet.

This past Sunday many churches celebrated the festival of Christ the King. Most kings get servants to do their dirty work and to do as they are commanded. But not the King of the Church - instead he lays himself down, offering us a different type of king to follow. One who gets dirty and leads by example, becoming a servant.

This week I ask you to follow this kind of King who would become a servant and find in his example an upside down idea of power. Maybe as we trip along behind him, trying to out serve each other, we will make the world a more peaceful place, filled with tenderness, mercy, justice and light.

Peace and Towels,

Joe Sellepack

New Beginnings

2011 will mark the 70th anniversary of the Broome County Council of Churches. Seventy years ago we began as the United Churches of Broome County with a total membership of twenty-six churches. CHOW, FIAV, Jail Ministry, RAMP IT UP, CHOW Farm, Hospital Chaplaincy were all just faint dreams of those original members. They merely were exploring ways to work together and to make cooperative decisions that impacted the life of our community.

Today we have grown to encompasse many more congregations than those original twenty-six. We have hundreds of volunteers who make a difference in the lives of the hungry, the poor, elderly and chronically ill. We have more volunteers and partners who work with the prisoners and pray with the sick and their families. I wonder if those original members who began this work seventy years ago would have ever imagined what we have been able to accomplish?

This website, our twitter, facebook and blog accounts are all attempts of living up to their legacy of involvement. Seventy years ago no one would have dreamt that diverse congregations would be able to come together to create something as profound and meaningful as what we have in the Broome County Council of Churches.

Today we are trying to do a better job of communicating what we do in our community and we're hoping that you will find something in this web site that will spark your own dream or vision for what is possible. Then like those original folks who gathered seventy years ago to talk about how they could share ministries and do some profound things in our community, we would like to know how we might partner with you to make these dreams a living and breathing reality.

We're excited about Broome County. We love living here and doing ministry for the diverse populatins that live here. We've been here seventy years and we're not going away anytime soon.

Peace and towels,
Joe Sellepack