Christmas Eve

 

December 24, 2022

 + Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a bit of…well…a curmudgeon regarding Christmas.

 I am kind of a Scrooge about it all.

 I am not a big fan of the commercial aspects of Christmas.

 I certainly understand the tendency we all have of getting caught up in society’s celebration of Christmas.

 It’s easy to find ourselves getting a bit hypnotized by the glitz and glamour we see about us.

 I admit I even kind of enjoy some of those sparkly Christmas displays.

 I understand how easy it is to fall to the temptations of what the world tells us is Christmas.

 But what I think happens to most of us who enjoy those light and airy aspects of Christmas is that we often get so caught up in them, we start finding ourselves led astray into a kind of frivolousness about Christmas.

 We find ourselves led off into a place where Christmas becomes fluffy and saccharine and cartoonish.

 That, I think, is what we experience in the secular understanding of Christmas time.

 The glitz and the glamour of the consumer-driven Christmas can be visually stunning.

 It can capture our imagination with its blinking lights and its bright wrapping,

 But ultimately it promises something that it can’t deliver.

 It promises a joy and a happiness it really doesn’t have.

 It has gloss.

 It has glitter.

 It has a soft, fuzzy glow.

 But it doesn’t have real joy.

 But, as much of a curmudgeon as I am about it, I do find myself joyful during this season.

 I am, after all, a church geek.

 I love church and doing churchy things.

 That’s why I’m a priest, I guess.

 And for me, the Christmas we celebrate here tonight, in this warm church, up here in northeast Fargo, is a Christmas of real joy.

 I feel real joy being with all of you tonight.

 I feel real joy celebrating the mystery of this event, this moment in which God gives us this special event in which we realize that God has reached out to us and shown us true love.

 But it is a joy of great seriousness as well.

 It is a joy that humbles us and quiets us.

 It is a joy filled with a Light that makes all the glittery, splashy images around us pale in comparison.

 The Christmas we celebrate here is not a frivolous one.

 It is not a light, airy Christmas.

 Yes, it has a baby.

 Yes, it has angels and a bright shining star.

 But these are not bubblegum images.

 A birth of a baby in that time and in that place was a scary and uncertain event.

 Angels were not chubby little cherubs rolling about in mad abandon in some cloud-filled other-place.

 They were terrifying creatures—messengers of a God of Might and Wonder.

 And stars were often seen as omens—as something that could either bring great hope or great terror to the world.

 The event we celebrate tonight is THE event in which God breaks through to us.

 And whenever God beaks through, it is not some gentle nudge.

 It is an event that jars us, provokes us and changes us.

 For people sitting in deep darkness, that glaring Light that breaks through into their lives is not the most pleasant thing in the world.

 It is blinding and painful.

 And what it exposes is sobering.

 That is what God does to us.

 That is what we are commemorating tonight.

 We are commemorating a “break through” from God—an experience with God that leaves us different people than we were before that encounter.

 What we experience is a Christmas that promises us something tangible.

 It promises us, and delivers, a real joy.

 The joy we feel today, the joy we feel at this Child’s birth, as the appearance of these angels, of that bright star, of that Light that breaks through into the darkness of our lives, is a joy that promises us something.

 What Jesus came to show us that what happens in him can happen in us too.

 Jesus, the beloved Son of God, shows us that we too are all beloved children of loving God.

 And that, in God’s eyes, each and every of our own birth stories is special to God.

 God also worked in those events.

 God also has a plan from our very beginning.

 Christmas, we need to realize, is a teaser of what awaits us.

 It is a glimpse into the life we will have one day.

 It is a perfect joy that promises a perfect life.

 But just because it is a joyful event, does not mean that it isn’t a serious event.

 What we celebrate is serious.

 It is an event that causes us to rise up in a joyful happiness, while, at the same time, driving us to our knees in adoration.

 It is an event that should cause us not just to return home to our brightly wrapped presents, but it should also send us out into the world to make it, in some small way, a reflection of this life-changing joy that has come into our lives.

 Tonight, is one of those moments in which true joy and gladness have come upon us.

 That’s what makes this a holy time.

 So, let us cling to this holy moment.

 Let us savor it.

 Let us hold it close.

Let us pray that it will not end.

And let this joy you feel tonight be the strength that holds you up when you need to be held.

Tonight, God has reached out to us.

God has touched us.

God has grasped our hands.

Our hands have been laid on God’s heart.

This is what Christmas is all about.

God is here, among us.

This feeling we are feeling right now is the true joy that descends upon us when we realize God has come to us in our collective darkness.

And this joy that we are feeling is because the Light that has come to us will never, ever darken.

 

 

FR. JAMIE'S CHRISTMAS LETTER

 

Christmas, 2022

My Friends at St. Stephen’s,

 

A sign of how hectic this time of the year can be is that your Rector forgot to get his Christmas cards done. I had every good intention of getting them done and mailed early. Sadly, it did not happen. So, an electronic letter without a card will have to suffice for this Christmas season.

 

As we near our yearly commemoration of the birth of Jesus, God’s special gift to us  and prepare to celebrate all that that birth means to us,  we also find ourselves looking forward toward a new year of 2023. 

 

The future is certainly looking bright for us at St. Stephen’s.  We continue to grow and to experience a great swell of new faces, new names and new opportunities. And in 2023, we look forward to some changes to our church building, namely the renovation of our sacristy which is scheduled to begin in early February. Of course, we continue to be a place in which we welcome and include everyone, no matter who they are. We continue to be a place that radically accepts and loves everyone who comes to us and we ourselves seek out. As the organized Church continues to drive people away, as the Church continues to be divided and chose to serve at the golden altar of false prophets, golden idols and teachings of exclusion and hate, St. Stephen’s continues to be a place of refuge and love for those who feel they have no other place to go. To a large extent, this joy and excitement we feel is what Advent is all about. Those of us who waited in holy expectation and worked hard for the kind of growth we are now experiencing are truly rejoicing.

 

Serving as St. Stephen’s continues to be one of the most fulfilling experiences of my priestly life. Our life together of worship, ministry, music and outreach has been a source of great personal joy for me and has helped me to see how gracious God is in showering blessings upon faithful, committed people who truly do seek after God and to live out Jesus’ commandment to love God and love others.

 

As we move forward together into this future full of hope and potential growth, I ask for your continued prayers for St. Stephen’s and your continued presence on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights and whenever else we gather together to worship and to do ministry.

 

Please know that I pray, as always, for each of you individually by name over the course of each week in my daily observance of the Daily Office (Morning and Evening Prayer). Also know that I  remember all of you at the altar during our celebration of the Mass. Above all, know that I give God thanks every day for the opportunity to serve such a wonderful, caring, radical and loving congregation of people who are committed to growth and radical hospitality.

 

My sincerest blessings to you and to all those you love during this season of joy, hope and love.

 

      PEACE always,

Fr. Jamie+ 

 

                                                         

Christmas, 2022

at St. Stephen’s

 

Saturday December 24  - Christmas Eve

7:00 pm – Holy Eucharist

Fr. Jamie, celebrant/preacher

Deacon John Anderson, assisting

James Mackay, music

 

Sunday December 25 –   Nativity of Our Lord

11:00 am Holy Eucharist

Fr. Jamie, celebrant/preacher

Deacon John Anderson, assisting

James Mackay, music

 

Monday December 26 –St. Stephen

6:00 pm – Holy Eucharist

Fr. Jamie, celebrant/preacher

Deacon John Anderson, assisting

James Mackay, music

 

Monday December 28 –Feast of the Holy Innocents

6:00 pm – Mass of the Dawn of a New Year

Fr. Jamie, celebrant/preacher

Deacon John Anderson, assisting

James Mackay, music

 

Sunday January 1 –Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus

11:00 am – Holy Eucharist

Fr. Jamie Parsley, celebrant/preacher

James Mackay, music

 

CONSIDER A YEAR-END, ONE-TIME PLEDGE TO ST. STEPHEN’S

St. Stephen’s, the parish I serve as Rector, is, as most of you have already discovered, a unique and amazing place. There aren’t a whole lot of congregations quite like it. We are eclectic. We are brave. We strive to be what the Church should be. We are not just a place a where people gather politely and sing hymns and pray (thought we do those things). We are not just a place that does liturgy just a bit differently than most other places (we do that too). We also stand up loudly for the underdog. We speak out boldly for those who cannot speak for themselves. We confront the powers that be and shake our fists at them at times. And we welcome and fully include those are just don’t quite fit in in any other church. Without question. Without judgement. We even bury those who have no other place to rest. For us, this is what it means to follow Jesus. For us, this is the radical message of the Gospel.  

 

As we head into the last days of the year, we are wrapping up our annual Pledge Drive. If you are considering a year-end offering someplace, please consider giving a one-time pledge to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. A one-time pledge can be as little as $10 or $25 or $50 or as much as you can give. All of it helps us be the unique place that we are.

 

If you would like to give, just take send a one time pledge (marked : One Time Pledge) through our Paypal account at Ststephensfargo.org or send a check (also marked “pledge”) to 120 20 Avenue North Fargo, or send an email to our recording secretary Laura Nylander at laura.nylander56@gmail.com and tell her that you would like to make a one time pledge.  All pledges are strictly confidential. Only Laura knows who gives what. But a year-end offering to St. Stephen’s will help us continue to be the eclectic, unique place we are.

 

 

 

A Letter from Fr. Jamie

 

December 6, 2022

The Feast of St. Nicholas

 

Dear St. Stephen’s family,

 

It doesn’t make sense. Logically, it shouldn’t be this way. St. Stephen’s is a small church building in the out-of-the-way, far-reaches of northeast Fargo. If you drove by and weren’t looking for us, you could pass us by without even noticing we’re there. But, still, this little church set back from the street is a spiritual powerhouse. It draws people from all over Fargo-Moorhead, and from far-flung places beyond the F-M area. Every week, without fail, we have new people visiting us. If you haven’t attended Sunday Mass in a while and then come back you will see people you’ve never met sitting next to you, or singing as cantor, or reading lessons, or greeting you at the door.

So, what is it about St. Stephen’s that draws people? It is the simple fact that there is no place around quite like St. Stephen’s. We are not a cathedral or a massive auditorium. We don’t have a choir of paid musicians, nor do we have fancy architecture. We don’t have screens, we don’t have a live band, we don’t have soaring ceilings or a wing of empty classrooms.

What we do have is our beautiful High Church liturgy. We do have bells and music and, at our Wednesday evening Mass, incense. We do have passion and commitment. We are rebellious and defiant and passionately trying to live out the message of the Gospel, and the revolutionary  commandment of God to love God and love others as fully and completely as we can. We have Christ in our Eucharist, in the hearing and proclaiming of the Word and in our presence with one another.

And we not only radically welcome people, we include them fully and completely. No one is ostracized here. No one here is turned away. No one here is snubbed or shunned or looked at strangely.

We are gay and straight, trans and cis, asexual or non-sexual, straight-edged or “out there.” We are normal and weird, staid and radical, old and young. And everything in-between. We are imperfect but striving to be better than we are and in doing so to make the world a better place as well—the make the Reign of God real and present in this world.

Everyone knows we are welcoming. It is not secret that we are fully-accepting. But we are definitely not push-overs. We are also very strong and committed. And when we stand up for something, we STAND UP. And we speak out loudly!

We were inclusive before inclusivity was expected of the Church. We welcomed and included people other churches discarded or turned away. And we continue to do that. And we do so unapologetically.

That is what St. Stephen’s is.  

As I write this, we have just had our annual Pledge in-Gathering. This is the one time of the year in which we ask for your help to help being the unique, eclectic parish we are. We cannot do it without your pledges. We cannot do it without your time and your talent.

If you have already pledged, thank you!! Thank you for contributing to the unique ministry we do here.

For those of you who have not pledged or have simply forgotten, please do so.   Please consider filling out a pledge card and returning it so we can continue to do what we do. Or simply fill out our name and the amount you can pledge and send it by email to Laura Nylander at laura.nylander56@gmail.com

Your pledge is not about paying my salary. Your pledge is not only about paying the bills of St. Stephen’s. Your pledge is about contributing to a parish that makes a difference in this community, in the world and in our individual lives. It helps us be the place we are. It helps us as we continue to grow, continue to welcome new people each week in our doors, continue to be a place where God’s Spirit is alive and is shared with ALL people, no matter who they are.  But more importantly, we actually do what we say we do: when dire situations happen within the lives of our parishioners, we are there to help, to lend support, to be a supporting presence. That is what your pledge supports here.

More than anything, however, please know how grateful and humbled I am to be serving as your Rector and priest. I am truly blessed by God to be serving a parish that is excited about what it is doing, that is renewed by its energy and committed to its very radical following of Jesus. Thank you for all you have given to me.

 

-peace,

Fr. Jamie+

2 Advent

 

December 4, 2022

 Isaiah 40.1-11; Mark 1.1-8

 + One thing we often hear about if any of us have been Christians for any period of time is the big question:

 What must one do to be saved?

 Because many of us who believe really do have a fear of hell and eternal damnation, especially those of us who came from churches that preached those things on a regular basis.

 Now, in many churches, we heard that all one had to do to gain heaven and glorious eternity was make this simple statement: I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.  

 The rest of us, who didn’t make this statement in those exact words, were in deep trouble.

 Now, on some level, that makes some sense.

 It seems simple.  

 If someone doesn’t accept Christ, then Christ should turn his back on those who didn’t accept him.

 After all, we would turn our backs on those who would not accept us, right? .

 And there should be a place where we had to pay for the wrongs we did.

 We simply can’t sin and expect not to pay for it in some way, right?

 But certainly for me, in my own spiritual life, as I grew into my relationship with God, as I tried to follow Jesus as faithfully as I could, and as I started to look long and hard at everything I have believed, I realize that there is one thing those people who believe that way have  missed.

 It was one simple little word:

 Grace.

 Now, my very simplistic definition of grace is this:

 Grace is a gift we receive from God that we neither ask for nor necessarily deserve.

 In the Gospel we heard this morning, we hear the echoing words of John the Baptist.

 The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me;

 He is that lone voice calling to us in the wilderness.

 It is a voice of hope.

 It is a voice of substance.

 It is a voice of salvation.

 More importantly, John’s message is a message of Grace.

 This powerful One is coming!

 There’s no avoiding it. 

 God is coming to us.

 God is sending some one to us—someone powerful, someone appointed and chosen by God.

 This is the ultimate grace in a very real sense.

 Although we have been hoping for God to come to us and save us, it is not something that we have necessarily asked for or deserve.

 God comes to us in God’s own time.

 It is this one fact—grace—that makes all the difference in the world.

 It is what makes the difference between eternal life and eternal damnation.

 Now, there are those who believe that there is an eternal hell.  

 And if you’re not right with God, they say, that’s exactly where you’re going.

 The fault in this message is simple: none of us are right with God.  

 As long as we are on this side of the veil, so to speak, we fall short of what God wants for us.

 We have all sinned and we will all sin again.  

 That’s the fact.

 But that’s where grace comes in.   

 Grace is, excuse my language, the trump card.

 Grace sets us free.

 Grace involves one simple little fact that so many Christians seem to overlook.

 And this is the biggest realization for me as a follower of Jesus:

 Just because one doesn’t accept God or God’s anointed Christ  doesn’t mean that God of God’s Christ doesn’t accept us.

 God accepts us.  

 Plain and simple.  

 Even if we turn our backs on God.  

 Even if we do everything in our limited powers to separate ourselves from God, the fact of the matter is that nothing can separates from God and God’s love.   

 God accepts every single person—no matter what we believe, or don’t believe, no matter if God is some abstract concept to us or a close, personal friend.

 That’s right, I did say “personal.”  

 Because, yes, it’s wonderful and beautiful to have a personal relationship with God and with Jesus.  

 Our personal relationship with God and with Jesus is essential to our faith, as you have heard me say many, many times.

 But the fact is, neither God nor Jesus is the personal savior to any one of us in this place.  

 God saves all of us, equally.

 That is grace.

 That is how much God loves us.

 Now, I have preached this message my entire adult life as a Christian, and certainly as priest.

 And, as you can imagine, there have been, shall we say, a few critics of my unabashed and unapologetic universalism.  

 And some of these critics—actually quite a few of these critics—have been quite vocal.

 In fact, I once preached this very same message one evening not long after I was ordained to the priesthood in a very diverse venue of what I thought were somewhat progressive Lutherans.

 Later, I learned, I was essentially blackballed from that venue for that sermon.

 I also preached it once at another congregation, at which I was a guest.

 After I preached it, the presider at the service actually got up and “corrected” my sermon in front of everybody.

 Critics of this message say that what I am talking about is cheap grace.

 Cheap grace?

 No, I counter.

 And I still counter!

 Again and again.

 No, not cheap grace. 

 It’s actually quite expensive grace.

 It was grace bought at quite a price.

 And no, I’m not being naïve or fluffy here.   

 Trust me, I have known some truly despicable people in my life.  

 I have been hurt by some of these people and I have seen others hurt by these people.

 And I have felt angry over the pain these people have caused in my life and in those lives of others.

 The world is full of people who are awful and terrible.  

 Or people who do really dumb or foolish things that hurt others.

 And sometimes the most awful and terrible person we know is the one staring back at us in our own mirrors.

 But the fact is, that even when we can’t love them or ourselves, when we can’t do anything else but feel anger and hatred toward them, God does love them.  

 God accepts them, just as God accepts each of us.

 God doesn’t necessarily accept their actions. God doesn’t accept their sins, or their failings, or their blatant embrace of what is wrong.

 God doesn’t accept the pain they’ve inflicted on others.

 But, not even those things can separate them from Christ’s love.  

 Nothing can separate us from God’s love and from God’s promise to eternal life.  

 That is how God works in this world.

 That is why God sent this Christ, this Messiah, this Child of God, to us.

 I believe in that image we hear from our reading from the prophecies of Isaiah today:

 [God] will feed his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

 We will be gathered up by our God, and we will be carried into our God’s bosom.

 I love that image!

 Because it conveys God’s true and abiding love for us. 

 It’s a hard concept for those us who were taught otherwise.  

 But I do believe it.  

 I believe it because of the personal relationship I have with God.  

 The God I have come to know and to love and to serve is simply that full of love.

 So, do I believe we’re all going to heaven when we die?

 Well, yes.

 I really do believe that. 

 Why?

 Because, the love of God is just that big.  

 It is just that wonderful and just that all-encompassing.

 It is just that powerful.  

 If one person is in some metaphysical, eternal hell for being a despicable person, then, you know what?  the love of God has failed.  

 Something has, in fact, come between that person and God.

 I do not believe that hell or Satan or sin or the Church or anything else is big enough to separate us fully and completely from God. 

 Not even we, ourselves, can turn our backs on God because wherever we turn, God is there for us.

 So, listen.  

 In this Advent season of hope,  John’s voice is calling to us from the wilderness.  

 He is saying,

 Listen

 God’s anointed is near.

 God’s messiah, the Christ, is coming to us.

 Let us go out, in wonderful, beautiful grace, to meet him!

 Let us pray.

 Loving God, come to us. Send us your power, send us your glory. Send us your grace. And let us know that no matter how often we may turn our backs on you, you have never once turned your back on us. You have always been with us and remain with us. And that nothing in all the world can separate us from you and your incredible love. For this, we are truly thankful today. In the name of your anointed, Jesus. Amen.