When we finally understand Christmas means Emmanuel – that God is with us.
We can’t help but sing.
Let us join the song that Mary sings.
How can we keep from singing?
For nearly a thousand years now, some churches have been celebrating this third Sunday of Advent as Gaudete Sunday.
Gaudete is a Latin word meaning, literally, Rejoice!
And, specifically, this is to remind us that the only appropriate response to the Christmas story is rejoicing.
Emmanuel happened.
Emmanuel happens.
Emmanuel is.
This is of primary concern for all Christians everywhere.
It is the very basis of our faith.
Our story is that Mary heard the angel Gabriel sing the Lord’s song:
The Lord your God is with you.
He will sing and be joyful over you.
He will give you life!
The time is coming!
Nothing is impossible for God!
And what did Mary do when she heard the Lord's song?
She ran right away to visit her elderly aunt
Elizabeth....
And then she couldn't help herself.
She started singing.
You see, when you hear the Lord's song, you can't help but start humming along.
Pretty soon, without even knowing it, you are tapping your foot to the beat.
Pretty soon, you open your mouth and out it comes. And that's OK!
When you hear the Lord's song, you can't help but join in.
Remembering Zephaniah's words:
Sing and shout for joy!
Rejoice with all your heart!
The Lord your God is with you,
He will sing and be joyful over you,
He will give you life!
The time is coming!
Mary started singing.
Nothing is impossible for God!
Really, that's our Christmas message today.
Nothing is impossible for God!
Today, as we go through this Advent season, as we prepare for Christmas this year,
we are aware that it is no less than Emmanuel that was being birthed through Mary.
So, knowing what we know,
How can we keep from singing?
For Mary’s song, becomes our song.
For Christ has come, Emmanuel!
To claim our years and days.
Both present now and coming still,
Accomplished fact and dream,
Let us join the song that Mary sings.
How can we keep from singing?
How appropriate it is for us, today on Gaudete Sunday, to recall that when Mary got the word from the angel Gabriel, she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, and in the course of telling her what had happened to her, she burst into song.
Because, that’s the way it is.
When we finally get it.
When we finally realize it.
When we finally understand Christmas means Emmanuel – that God is with us.
We can’t help but sing.
You may have seen the article TIME magazine did a while back about angels.
The writers concluded their 8-page article with these words:
If heaven is willing to sing to us, is it too little to ask that we be ready to listen?
Right there in Time magazine!
Friends, do it!
This Christmas season,
Listen!
Listen!
Listen!
Music is coming from on high.
Listen!
Sing and shout for joy!
Rejoice with all your heart!
The Lord your God is with you!
He will sing and be joyful over you!
He will give you new life!
The time is coming!
Nothing is impossible for God!
Listen.
The Christmas story is about God breeching the barrier that people perceive that separates us from the holy.
Luke wants us to know in no uncertain terms that the Christmas story is about God being with us.
And this is what became visible that night in Bethlehem so long ago.
Emmanuel.
God is with us, it was announced.
God was with them then.
And God is with us now.
Emmanuel came then.
Emmanuel is here now.
And so, on this particular Sunday we are reminded that no matter what your circumstance –
no matter where you’ve been,
no matter what you’ve said,
no matter what you’ve done,
God is with you.
Emmanuel! They said.
Emmanuel! We say.
And that is cause for rejoicing.
Gaudete!
Rejoice! Again I say Rejoice!
Let Christmas come.
Bring it on.
It’s about Emmanuel.
When we get that,
when we really understand the significance of what that means,
my Lord what a morning.
How can I keep from singing?
Hallelujah!
Amen.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Why We Celebrate Christmas
However much we love to hear them and to sing about them, the birth stories are not really about the baby Jesus.
Well, ready or not, Christmas is coming.
With every catalog we get in the mail,
with every card we receive,
with every Christmas song we hear in the stores and on the radio,
with every television special we see,
with every advertisement we see and hear and read,
with every invitation we receive,
we know Christmas is on the way.
And, it will come, wether we are ready or not.
And, so we begin to get somewhat anxious about it all, don’t we?
It is almost as though there are two Christmases:
one of the lights and trees and decorations and presents and reindeer and parties and snowmen –
and . . . . and . . . . and . . . .
and, the one we talk about in church.
Sometimes, it seems that the two Christmases are not even of the same wavelength.
We know the Christmas story that most of the world around us celebrates –
and we know it well –
and we participate in it willingly and knowingly –
often for very good reasons.
We like the feeling that comes with giving and thinking about others and going out of our way to make someone’s day.
But, you know, the earliest Christians did not celebrate Christmas.
It just was not important to them.
No one knows when Jesus was born . . .
No one kept a record – maybe he never told anyone – we don’t know
It just was not important to them.
There is no record of the Disciples ever singing happy birthday to Jesus.
Of course, the first Christians knew Jesus,
they lived with Jesus,
they heard Jesus talk,
they saw Jesus laugh,
they felt Jesus hurt,
they saw Jesus sleep and eat and drink and do all kinds of bodily functions –
they experienced a living breathing person just as you and I experience each other.
But, after a few hundred years, some believers began to question whether Jesus ever really lived at all.
He was being remembered and worshiped as more of a god – than remembered as a real living breathing man who lived and died during certain days and years of the Roman Empire.
So, a small faction began to think it was important not to forget that Jesus was a real person.
And if he was, when ought to remember when he was born.
Trouble was, nobody knew when Jesus was born.
The very earliest writing we have in the New Testament is a letter from The Apostle Paul, written around the year of 35 AD.
The earliest Gospel we have is attributed to Mark.
The Gospel of Mark was most probably published around the year of 50 AD.
In the past 60 years, many other documents have been discovered that date back to the very first decades after Jesus’ death.
When we read these documents looking for what they say about the birth of Jesus, we discover one thing in common.
None of them have anything to say about the birth of Jesus. Nothing.
It simply was not important to them.
A strong vocal faction of early believers thought it was just plain wrong to celebrate Jesus’ birthday – because that was too much like the world around them did when they celebrated the birthdays of the pagan gods, the Caesars and the Pharaohs.
But, there appeared a major debate in the middle of the third century.
Whether or not we would celebrate it, it would be nice to know when Jesus was born.
So the speculation began.
After a careful study of scripture, one prominent theologian of the third century calculated the birth date of Jesus must be May 20 [Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215)]
The debate began. Others calculated that it must have been April 18,
others thought it was April 19, and
still others were fairly certain it was May 28.
One of the leaders of a powerful faction thought Jesus’ birthday should be remembered as
January 2 [Hippolytus (c.170-c.236)]
Others calculated it to be November 17,
others November 20, and
some, March 25.
And, so it went.
It took over 300 years for the church leaders to agree on a date of December 25 to recognize as the birthday of Jesus.
And, even at that point, the believers were at odds with the culture around them.
Most of the world already celebrated major festivals on December 25:
the natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"),
and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers.
The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier.
There were a lot of major celebrations going on at this time of year in most of the cultures of the world – and they had nothing to do with the church.
So, many believers thought it would be most inappropriate to celebrate Christmas at all.
And, in fact throughout history, there are long periods of years when nobody celebrated Christmas at all.
But, Christians have always had an uncanny ability to find ways to celebrate.
And, in almost every culture where Christians found themselves, they appropriated local events and customs and made them their own.
And, oftentimes there were movements that would spring up to convince believers they should not participate in the cultural seasonal festivities –
sometimes by trying to convince people to remember the reason for the season,
sometimes by campaigning to put Christ back in Christmas,
sometimes by actually passing laws to ban Christmas celebrations altogether!
Imagine that, outlawing Christmas!
In the seventeen century, you may recall, Christian religious zealots took over the government of England.
Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan Party actually passed legislation that outlawed Christmas.
To them Christmas had become a time for lavish and raucous celebration and behavior and commercial exploitation – sound familiar?
So, that was it.
Plain and simple.
No more Christmas.
(Sounds like a Dr. Zeus story, doesn’t it?)
And, it gets stranger.
The people were outraged.
There was rioting in the streets.
Secret Christmas celebrations broke out all over England.
But, Oliver Cromwell retaliated.
Parliament decreed penalties of imprisonment for anyone caught celebrating Christmas.
Imagine that!
Being rounded up and being put in jail because you dared to celebrate Christmas!
Each year the “Christmas Police” would go through the streets a few days before Christmas warning people against celebrating Christmas.
Businesses were not to be closed during the day and there were to be no displays of Christmas decorations.
They went around and broke up any sign of Christmas celebration with force of arms.
And the people rose up.
And the jails filled to overflowing.
The people would not be denied.
They took to the ballot box and voted the Puritans out of power.
Christmas was back.
The very idea.
Outlawing Christmas.
Meanwhile, over here in the new country, the zealots persisted.
Christmas was outlawed and not celebrated in many colonies for years.
In fact, Christmas remained illegal in Massachusetts until sometime after 1850!
So, there is nothing new here.
It seems that ever since day one, there was some controversy between what the church thought should be remembered and celebrated
and what and how the world around them celebrated.
Recognizing this historical reality doesn’t really do much to ease the conflict today, does it?
Christmas is celebrated in public schools without singing Christmas songs or telling Christmas stories.
All kinds of merchants appropriate seasonal music and messages to sell their products.
And fa-la-las are sung in synch with cash registers.
And, as it so often happened in the past, today the Christmas of the church gets short-shrift in our celebrations.
For the church, Christmas celebrates one of the most fundamental of beliefs – what is called incarnation.
Specifically, the incarnation of God – that is, literally, God in the flesh.
What we also call Emmanuel – God is with us!
The profoundness of this message is shown in the beginning words of the Gospel of John:
this is a time to recall that God existed before time began –
and all things that are and that ever will be were brought into existence by God.
God is described as the eternal logos – the Word with a capital W.
And John reminds us that this eternal logos, this Word, this God,
came into the world with flesh and blood –
bridged the gap – came to be one of us – came to live with us.
And that is Emmanuel means.
God is with us.
– a profound statement, to be sure.
At this time of year we take time to hear that God is no longer “other”,
God is no longer “out there”,
God is no longer to be appeased with sacred rites and sacrifices,
God is no longer relegated to the realm of religion – apart from where we live and work and play.
So, I am kind of on a personal crusade to never slough over the essential message of the season – the reason we in the church have celebrated the season for so long.
Because, this is the only place that this message will be proclaimed this year –
you won’t hear it in the schoolroom,
you won’t hear it on television,
you won’t hear it on the radio,
you won’t read about it in the newspaper or magazines,
you won’t hear Rush Limbaugh talking about it,
you won’t hear Charlie Rose talking about it,
you won’t hear Oprah talking about it,
you are not likely to hear your neighbor or friend talking about it.
The bottom line is this:
however touching they are to our heartstrings,
however much we love to hear them and to sing about them,
however much we enjoy the feelings prevalent this time of year,
the birth stories are not really about the baby Jesus.
The birth stories are told and remembered because of the adult Jesus –
and what people experienced with him during his earthly ministry,
and what people experienced because of him after his death –
and what people have experienced through him through the ages,
and what people continue to experience with him day and day out.
For me, at its essence, Christmas is really about Emmanuel.
That Hebrew word that means “God With Us”.
For all those early Christians,
for all those writers of faith documents for their communities,
this word reflects what they affirmed had happened in this man from Nazareth –
what they continued to experience long after he had gone –
that Jehovah –
the great I Am –
God Almighty –
Creator of the Universe and all the worlds that are –
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob –
the One God of the faith of our fathers and mothers –
deigned to enter our world and become as we are
to let us know there is no separation now from holy and mundane,
from sacred and profane,
from work and ritual.
No.
In this man from Nazareth, we see Emmanuel!
Through this man of Nazareth, we know Emmanuel.
With this man of Nazareth, we experience Emmanuel.
God is With Us.
That’s what we hear.
God is with us.
That’s what we sing.
God is with us.
That’s what we believe.
God is with us.
That’s what we celebrate.
Each and every year at Christmas.
Each and every week in worship.
Each and every morning when we get up.
Emmanuel! This Christmas.
Emmanuel! All year long!
Emmanuel! Every minute of every hour of every day of your life!
We have a story to tell.
We need to find significant ways to celebrate the incarnation and the revelation of this one we call Emmanuel – Jesus our Christ.
Somehow, we have allowed non-Christians to take over our territory, our message, our celebration.
We should be the ones known for partying.
We should be the ones known for celebrating.
We are, really, the only ones that have anything worth celebrating, don’t you think?
This year, let us – you and me – be the ones to tell the stories, to tell the news.
Let everyone who lives shout and sing!
Our God is great and lives among his people!
Emmanuel! Amen.
Well, ready or not, Christmas is coming.
With every catalog we get in the mail,
with every card we receive,
with every Christmas song we hear in the stores and on the radio,
with every television special we see,
with every advertisement we see and hear and read,
with every invitation we receive,
we know Christmas is on the way.
And, it will come, wether we are ready or not.
And, so we begin to get somewhat anxious about it all, don’t we?
It is almost as though there are two Christmases:
one of the lights and trees and decorations and presents and reindeer and parties and snowmen –
and . . . . and . . . . and . . . .
and, the one we talk about in church.
Sometimes, it seems that the two Christmases are not even of the same wavelength.
We know the Christmas story that most of the world around us celebrates –
and we know it well –
and we participate in it willingly and knowingly –
often for very good reasons.
We like the feeling that comes with giving and thinking about others and going out of our way to make someone’s day.
But, you know, the earliest Christians did not celebrate Christmas.
It just was not important to them.
No one knows when Jesus was born . . .
No one kept a record – maybe he never told anyone – we don’t know
It just was not important to them.
There is no record of the Disciples ever singing happy birthday to Jesus.
Of course, the first Christians knew Jesus,
they lived with Jesus,
they heard Jesus talk,
they saw Jesus laugh,
they felt Jesus hurt,
they saw Jesus sleep and eat and drink and do all kinds of bodily functions –
they experienced a living breathing person just as you and I experience each other.
But, after a few hundred years, some believers began to question whether Jesus ever really lived at all.
He was being remembered and worshiped as more of a god – than remembered as a real living breathing man who lived and died during certain days and years of the Roman Empire.
So, a small faction began to think it was important not to forget that Jesus was a real person.
And if he was, when ought to remember when he was born.
Trouble was, nobody knew when Jesus was born.
The very earliest writing we have in the New Testament is a letter from The Apostle Paul, written around the year of 35 AD.
The earliest Gospel we have is attributed to Mark.
The Gospel of Mark was most probably published around the year of 50 AD.
In the past 60 years, many other documents have been discovered that date back to the very first decades after Jesus’ death.
When we read these documents looking for what they say about the birth of Jesus, we discover one thing in common.
None of them have anything to say about the birth of Jesus. Nothing.
It simply was not important to them.
A strong vocal faction of early believers thought it was just plain wrong to celebrate Jesus’ birthday – because that was too much like the world around them did when they celebrated the birthdays of the pagan gods, the Caesars and the Pharaohs.
But, there appeared a major debate in the middle of the third century.
Whether or not we would celebrate it, it would be nice to know when Jesus was born.
So the speculation began.
After a careful study of scripture, one prominent theologian of the third century calculated the birth date of Jesus must be May 20 [Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215)]
The debate began. Others calculated that it must have been April 18,
others thought it was April 19, and
still others were fairly certain it was May 28.
One of the leaders of a powerful faction thought Jesus’ birthday should be remembered as
January 2 [Hippolytus (c.170-c.236)]
Others calculated it to be November 17,
others November 20, and
some, March 25.
And, so it went.
It took over 300 years for the church leaders to agree on a date of December 25 to recognize as the birthday of Jesus.
And, even at that point, the believers were at odds with the culture around them.
Most of the world already celebrated major festivals on December 25:
the natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"),
and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers.
The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier.
There were a lot of major celebrations going on at this time of year in most of the cultures of the world – and they had nothing to do with the church.
So, many believers thought it would be most inappropriate to celebrate Christmas at all.
And, in fact throughout history, there are long periods of years when nobody celebrated Christmas at all.
But, Christians have always had an uncanny ability to find ways to celebrate.
And, in almost every culture where Christians found themselves, they appropriated local events and customs and made them their own.
And, oftentimes there were movements that would spring up to convince believers they should not participate in the cultural seasonal festivities –
sometimes by trying to convince people to remember the reason for the season,
sometimes by campaigning to put Christ back in Christmas,
sometimes by actually passing laws to ban Christmas celebrations altogether!
Imagine that, outlawing Christmas!
In the seventeen century, you may recall, Christian religious zealots took over the government of England.
Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan Party actually passed legislation that outlawed Christmas.
To them Christmas had become a time for lavish and raucous celebration and behavior and commercial exploitation – sound familiar?
So, that was it.
Plain and simple.
No more Christmas.
(Sounds like a Dr. Zeus story, doesn’t it?)
And, it gets stranger.
The people were outraged.
There was rioting in the streets.
Secret Christmas celebrations broke out all over England.
But, Oliver Cromwell retaliated.
Parliament decreed penalties of imprisonment for anyone caught celebrating Christmas.
Imagine that!
Being rounded up and being put in jail because you dared to celebrate Christmas!
Each year the “Christmas Police” would go through the streets a few days before Christmas warning people against celebrating Christmas.
Businesses were not to be closed during the day and there were to be no displays of Christmas decorations.
They went around and broke up any sign of Christmas celebration with force of arms.
And the people rose up.
And the jails filled to overflowing.
The people would not be denied.
They took to the ballot box and voted the Puritans out of power.
Christmas was back.
The very idea.
Outlawing Christmas.
Meanwhile, over here in the new country, the zealots persisted.
Christmas was outlawed and not celebrated in many colonies for years.
In fact, Christmas remained illegal in Massachusetts until sometime after 1850!
So, there is nothing new here.
It seems that ever since day one, there was some controversy between what the church thought should be remembered and celebrated
and what and how the world around them celebrated.
Recognizing this historical reality doesn’t really do much to ease the conflict today, does it?
Christmas is celebrated in public schools without singing Christmas songs or telling Christmas stories.
All kinds of merchants appropriate seasonal music and messages to sell their products.
And fa-la-las are sung in synch with cash registers.
And, as it so often happened in the past, today the Christmas of the church gets short-shrift in our celebrations.
For the church, Christmas celebrates one of the most fundamental of beliefs – what is called incarnation.
Specifically, the incarnation of God – that is, literally, God in the flesh.
What we also call Emmanuel – God is with us!
The profoundness of this message is shown in the beginning words of the Gospel of John:
this is a time to recall that God existed before time began –
and all things that are and that ever will be were brought into existence by God.
God is described as the eternal logos – the Word with a capital W.
And John reminds us that this eternal logos, this Word, this God,
came into the world with flesh and blood –
bridged the gap – came to be one of us – came to live with us.
And that is Emmanuel means.
God is with us.
– a profound statement, to be sure.
At this time of year we take time to hear that God is no longer “other”,
God is no longer “out there”,
God is no longer to be appeased with sacred rites and sacrifices,
God is no longer relegated to the realm of religion – apart from where we live and work and play.
So, I am kind of on a personal crusade to never slough over the essential message of the season – the reason we in the church have celebrated the season for so long.
Because, this is the only place that this message will be proclaimed this year –
you won’t hear it in the schoolroom,
you won’t hear it on television,
you won’t hear it on the radio,
you won’t read about it in the newspaper or magazines,
you won’t hear Rush Limbaugh talking about it,
you won’t hear Charlie Rose talking about it,
you won’t hear Oprah talking about it,
you are not likely to hear your neighbor or friend talking about it.
The bottom line is this:
however touching they are to our heartstrings,
however much we love to hear them and to sing about them,
however much we enjoy the feelings prevalent this time of year,
the birth stories are not really about the baby Jesus.
The birth stories are told and remembered because of the adult Jesus –
and what people experienced with him during his earthly ministry,
and what people experienced because of him after his death –
and what people have experienced through him through the ages,
and what people continue to experience with him day and day out.
For me, at its essence, Christmas is really about Emmanuel.
That Hebrew word that means “God With Us”.
For all those early Christians,
for all those writers of faith documents for their communities,
this word reflects what they affirmed had happened in this man from Nazareth –
what they continued to experience long after he had gone –
that Jehovah –
the great I Am –
God Almighty –
Creator of the Universe and all the worlds that are –
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob –
the One God of the faith of our fathers and mothers –
deigned to enter our world and become as we are
to let us know there is no separation now from holy and mundane,
from sacred and profane,
from work and ritual.
No.
In this man from Nazareth, we see Emmanuel!
Through this man of Nazareth, we know Emmanuel.
With this man of Nazareth, we experience Emmanuel.
God is With Us.
That’s what we hear.
God is with us.
That’s what we sing.
God is with us.
That’s what we believe.
God is with us.
That’s what we celebrate.
Each and every year at Christmas.
Each and every week in worship.
Each and every morning when we get up.
Emmanuel! This Christmas.
Emmanuel! All year long!
Emmanuel! Every minute of every hour of every day of your life!
We have a story to tell.
We need to find significant ways to celebrate the incarnation and the revelation of this one we call Emmanuel – Jesus our Christ.
Somehow, we have allowed non-Christians to take over our territory, our message, our celebration.
We should be the ones known for partying.
We should be the ones known for celebrating.
We are, really, the only ones that have anything worth celebrating, don’t you think?
This year, let us – you and me – be the ones to tell the stories, to tell the news.
Let everyone who lives shout and sing!
Our God is great and lives among his people!
Emmanuel! Amen.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Advent: What We Celebrate at Christmas
All around us signs of Christmas loom at us – reminding us that there are only a few more days to get ready and so much to get done.
For most of the world around us, the Christmas season has begun.
But, our faith says “Wait a minute!”
Well, the signs are all around us.
Christmas is coming . . .
So, are you ready for Christmas yet?
We know Christmas will be here before you know it.
The signs that Christmas will soon be here are over the place:
We had the Parade.
The stores opened early.
The high school football games were played.
We had our turkey and pumpkin pie.
The decorations went up all over the public streets and shopping centers.
Christmas tree lots are filling up with fresh cut trees.
It’s a Wonderful Life was on Television last night.
The tree is up – decorated with those magnificent Chrismons.
But, the main way we can tell Christmas is near:
Peggy and Ted Matter’s Christmas card came on Friday.
Today, Christian churches all over the world begin our season of Advent – a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas.
All around us signs of Christmas loom at us – reminding us that there are only a few more days to get ready and so much to get done.
For most of the world around us, the Christmas season has begun.
But, our faith says “Wait a minute!”
This time before Christmas is a time for us to reflect on what Christmas means to our faith – our personal faith as well as our corporate faith.
I am of the belief that Christmas is so important to our faith.
It is so basic to our understanding of God and Jesus.
Without Christmas – and the stories that are told about it – the rest of our faith would be nonsense.
I really like Advent and Christmas because it gives us a chance to get down to raw basics and to hear stories that impact our faith and how it gets expressed in our lives.
There is an ancient proverb that says:
“God created man because he liked good stories . . . .”
Well, we have some mighty good stories that are passed down to us about Christmas.
And, the fact of the matter is, you will not hear these stories anywhere else.
With all the hoopla around us, with the bombardment of all of those images of stuff to buy to ensure our happiness, and assuage our guilt, and spread the joy of the season, with all its fa-la-las,
would it surprise you to know that this Christmas stuff is really very very recent?
The Puritans that first came over from England – did not celebrate Christmas at all.
In fact, that was not unusual – most Protestants did not celebrate Christmas.
In fact, laws were passed to prohibit the celebration of Christmas – it was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts until sometime after 1850!
Of all of the seasons and special days we celebrate, Advent is the most recent.
Advent is a time we consciously set out to reclaim the reason for the season – to remember the stories leading up to Christmas and attempting to find a meaning in the celebration that is so ubiquitous.
Especially in these times of global warfare,
in times of distrust and polarization within people of our country,
with signs of doom and gloom all around us, and so few signs of hope,
there needs to be somebody – or somebodies – saying “wait a minute” –
slow down –
let’s remember what’s important.
Because, our faith speaks to times like these.
You may, or may not, remember the musical Mame; but, you do remember one of the songs from the show:
We Need a Little Christmas.
In a particular distressing time, Mame gathers the kids around and tells them they are going to get ready for Christmas:
we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute, . . . .
We can relate to this, I think.
Particularly this year, particularly today,
we need a little Christmas.
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older, . . . .
For we need a little music,
Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy
"Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now.
Need a little Christmas now.
We have come to see Christmas as an essential part of our faith.
This when we in the church celebrate God with us – Emmanuel.
This is when we remember that at a particular time in history, God stopped being other and became us.
And, so we will recall the birth stories.
But, we will remember that God continues to be with us.
God continues to be birthed over and over again.
And, like most people in the world that night over 2000 years ago, we, too, are likely to miss it – even when it happens right in our midst.
You see, at Christmas the stories about the birth of John and the birth of Jesus remind us that God has become human….
All around us, people are getting ready for Christmas – but they are missing the point.
Most of our preparations for Christmas revolve around bringing out the decorations and setting up the lights, and getting the cards out, and planning the meals, and buying the presents, and buying the presents, and buying the presents (no, the merchants don’t want us to forget that part), and wrapping the presents and decorating the tree, and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .
It goes on and on and on and on...
This is the season that will make or break most merchants.
And we are called from all sides to do our part.
But, that is totally off base – totally different from what we Christians need to do in order to understand and properly celebrate Christmas.
Although for several hundred years, Christians simply did not celebrate Christmas, Christmas has for us become arguably one of the two theologically most important holy days.
It’s time to get ready, we say, but why?
And for what?
Do you remember that play, Camelot?
Maybe you saw the movie.
It’s a story by E.B. White about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
We’ve seen the play several times – the first time Richard Harris played King Arthur and young Sir Lancelot was played by Robert Gullet.
Actually, the movie has Richard Harris in role of King Arthur, also.
And the last time Camelot came around again Robert Gullet played King Arthur and some young whipper-snapper played the young Sir Lancelot.
But, that’s how it goes.
Camelot the story of peace, joy, love, prosperity that once filled the land of England.
But is it also the story of how all this was destroyed by the unfaithfulness of Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere, and of his best knight, Lancelot.
The climactic last scene of the story takes place on the eve of a mighty battle – a result of this betrayal.
Arthur's forces line up against those of Lancelot in a conflict that has been forced upon the king.
As Arthur reluctantly prepares for the battle, he discovers a boy – about thirteen years old.
Arthur questions the boy, who tells the king that his name is Tom.
And then he reveals why he is there. "I've come to fight for the Round Table”, he says.
“I intend to become a Knight of the Round Table."
The king, disillusioned about the shattered peace which his Round Table had symbolized, asks how the boy Tom knows about it.
"Was your father a knight?
Was your mother saved by one?
Was your village protected by knights?"
Tom's reply was simple, yet profound. "Oh, no, my Lord," he says.
"I only know of them -- the stories people tell."
This gives the king pause for a moment, as he considers the wisdom he has just heard.
And then he says to Tom, "From all the stories people tell, you wish to become a knight.
Tell me what you think you know about the Round Table."
Tom replies with great excitement: "I know everything.
Might for right.
Right for right.
Justice for all.
A round table where all knights would sit in unity. Everything."
Then King Arthur, as his world is crumbling around him, realizes that he has just heard this mere boy speak the words of hope that he had lost sight of.
And, instantly, Arthur knows what to do.
He forbids Tom from fighting in the coming battle and commands him rather to hide behind the lines until the battle is over.
He knights him right there as "Sir Tom" and commands him to return to England – alive – and to grow up and to grow old – and to remember the story of Camelot.
He that’s when he says to Tom,
Each evening from December to December,
before you drift to sleep upon your cot,
think back upon all the tales you remember – of Camelot.
Ask every person if he's heard the story –
and tell it strong and clear if he has not –
that once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot.
Now, the King’s aid reminds him to hurry for it is time for the battle.
Arthur moves briefly toward his army, but then pauses.
With triumph in his voice, he asserts, "I have won my battle, and here in this boy is my victory.
What we did with the Round Table will be remembered. You will see."
Arthur sends Tom off on his mission to tell far and wide the story of Camelot.
You see, this is an Advent story.
It is most interesting that the author of this play chose December to December for the period in which the boy should remember about Camelot.
We would say Advent to Advent, but it is in fact December to December, isn’t it?
Our church year provides for us a way to remember the story of Jesus from beginning to end and from end to beginning again.
God's story with us is one that began in perfection – at a time in the Garden of Eden when all was peace and joy like Camelot in the successful days of Arthur's Round Table.
Like Camelot, paradise in Eden was lost through unfaithfulness.
And like Eden and Camelot, this is the story for each of us, as it is played out in our lives over and over again.
God's love and grace is realized and accepted, only for us to turn our backs on God in unfaithfulness.
And God forgives us and takes us back and gives us his love and grace all over again.
In a cycle that continues, our story is like the story of the movie Camelot, for we, like Arthur, know that the shattered vision is not the end of God's story with us.
No, the story does not end there.
The Good News of Christ presents us with a vision of what the Kingdom of God really is, and, therefore, what the church is called to be.
Over and over again, we are called to tell the stories of the Kingdom of God –
to remind ourselves of how the church is to look in the fullness of God's time and to share this story with those who do not know it.
We are called to remember how God would have us act and how he would have us be.
In order to celebrate Christmas, we need to hear the stories.
You are not going to hear these stories anywhere but here, in this church – or in other churches like this one.
Between now and Christmas we are going to be telling the stories.
The novel on which the movie Camelot is based is called The Once and Future King.
Jesus, our lord, is also a once and future king.
Indeed, part of the story we remember is that God has entered our world of experience as flesh and blood – that’s the Christmas story: Emmanuel!
And that God continues to be with us.
And our task is to keep alert, to keep awake,
to get ready, so we don’t miss the Christ in our midst.
In Advent, we recall the expectation and waiting and watching and longing for the Coming of Christ into the midst of our humanity.
In Advent we especially remember, and we anticipate, what God promises.
Like Tom of Camelot, we know everything, because we have heard the stories about God.
And, like Tom, it is our mission not only to remember,
each December to December,
but also to tell the stories far and wide –
reminding those who have heard them,
and proclaiming them afresh to those who do not know the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Now, friends, listen up, for, an incredible part of this story is that we are the Body of Christ.
If Advent is a time of waiting, as some suggest, it is a time of waiting for us to realize that we – you and me – are at the center of the Christmas story.
This year, let us see that the story about the birth of that baby some 2,000 years ago, is a story about us.
It is a story the world needs to hear from us.
It is a story we need to hear.
In the Camelot of God's Kingdom, we will know the stories of God's power
and we will be transformed into God's likeness.
Pay attention. Listen up. These stories are our stories.
Amen.
For most of the world around us, the Christmas season has begun.
But, our faith says “Wait a minute!”
Well, the signs are all around us.
Christmas is coming . . .
So, are you ready for Christmas yet?
We know Christmas will be here before you know it.
The signs that Christmas will soon be here are over the place:
We had the Parade.
The stores opened early.
The high school football games were played.
We had our turkey and pumpkin pie.
The decorations went up all over the public streets and shopping centers.
Christmas tree lots are filling up with fresh cut trees.
It’s a Wonderful Life was on Television last night.
The tree is up – decorated with those magnificent Chrismons.
But, the main way we can tell Christmas is near:
Peggy and Ted Matter’s Christmas card came on Friday.
Today, Christian churches all over the world begin our season of Advent – a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas.
All around us signs of Christmas loom at us – reminding us that there are only a few more days to get ready and so much to get done.
For most of the world around us, the Christmas season has begun.
But, our faith says “Wait a minute!”
This time before Christmas is a time for us to reflect on what Christmas means to our faith – our personal faith as well as our corporate faith.
I am of the belief that Christmas is so important to our faith.
It is so basic to our understanding of God and Jesus.
Without Christmas – and the stories that are told about it – the rest of our faith would be nonsense.
I really like Advent and Christmas because it gives us a chance to get down to raw basics and to hear stories that impact our faith and how it gets expressed in our lives.
There is an ancient proverb that says:
“God created man because he liked good stories . . . .”
Well, we have some mighty good stories that are passed down to us about Christmas.
And, the fact of the matter is, you will not hear these stories anywhere else.
With all the hoopla around us, with the bombardment of all of those images of stuff to buy to ensure our happiness, and assuage our guilt, and spread the joy of the season, with all its fa-la-las,
would it surprise you to know that this Christmas stuff is really very very recent?
The Puritans that first came over from England – did not celebrate Christmas at all.
In fact, that was not unusual – most Protestants did not celebrate Christmas.
In fact, laws were passed to prohibit the celebration of Christmas – it was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts until sometime after 1850!
Of all of the seasons and special days we celebrate, Advent is the most recent.
Advent is a time we consciously set out to reclaim the reason for the season – to remember the stories leading up to Christmas and attempting to find a meaning in the celebration that is so ubiquitous.
Especially in these times of global warfare,
in times of distrust and polarization within people of our country,
with signs of doom and gloom all around us, and so few signs of hope,
there needs to be somebody – or somebodies – saying “wait a minute” –
slow down –
let’s remember what’s important.
Because, our faith speaks to times like these.
You may, or may not, remember the musical Mame; but, you do remember one of the songs from the show:
We Need a Little Christmas.
In a particular distressing time, Mame gathers the kids around and tells them they are going to get ready for Christmas:
we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute, . . . .
We can relate to this, I think.
Particularly this year, particularly today,
we need a little Christmas.
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older, . . . .
For we need a little music,
Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy
"Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now.
Need a little Christmas now.
We have come to see Christmas as an essential part of our faith.
This when we in the church celebrate God with us – Emmanuel.
This is when we remember that at a particular time in history, God stopped being other and became us.
And, so we will recall the birth stories.
But, we will remember that God continues to be with us.
God continues to be birthed over and over again.
And, like most people in the world that night over 2000 years ago, we, too, are likely to miss it – even when it happens right in our midst.
You see, at Christmas the stories about the birth of John and the birth of Jesus remind us that God has become human….
All around us, people are getting ready for Christmas – but they are missing the point.
Most of our preparations for Christmas revolve around bringing out the decorations and setting up the lights, and getting the cards out, and planning the meals, and buying the presents, and buying the presents, and buying the presents (no, the merchants don’t want us to forget that part), and wrapping the presents and decorating the tree, and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .
It goes on and on and on and on...
This is the season that will make or break most merchants.
And we are called from all sides to do our part.
But, that is totally off base – totally different from what we Christians need to do in order to understand and properly celebrate Christmas.
Although for several hundred years, Christians simply did not celebrate Christmas, Christmas has for us become arguably one of the two theologically most important holy days.
It’s time to get ready, we say, but why?
And for what?
Do you remember that play, Camelot?
Maybe you saw the movie.
It’s a story by E.B. White about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
We’ve seen the play several times – the first time Richard Harris played King Arthur and young Sir Lancelot was played by Robert Gullet.
Actually, the movie has Richard Harris in role of King Arthur, also.
And the last time Camelot came around again Robert Gullet played King Arthur and some young whipper-snapper played the young Sir Lancelot.
But, that’s how it goes.
Camelot the story of peace, joy, love, prosperity that once filled the land of England.
But is it also the story of how all this was destroyed by the unfaithfulness of Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere, and of his best knight, Lancelot.
The climactic last scene of the story takes place on the eve of a mighty battle – a result of this betrayal.
Arthur's forces line up against those of Lancelot in a conflict that has been forced upon the king.
As Arthur reluctantly prepares for the battle, he discovers a boy – about thirteen years old.
Arthur questions the boy, who tells the king that his name is Tom.
And then he reveals why he is there. "I've come to fight for the Round Table”, he says.
“I intend to become a Knight of the Round Table."
The king, disillusioned about the shattered peace which his Round Table had symbolized, asks how the boy Tom knows about it.
"Was your father a knight?
Was your mother saved by one?
Was your village protected by knights?"
Tom's reply was simple, yet profound. "Oh, no, my Lord," he says.
"I only know of them -- the stories people tell."
This gives the king pause for a moment, as he considers the wisdom he has just heard.
And then he says to Tom, "From all the stories people tell, you wish to become a knight.
Tell me what you think you know about the Round Table."
Tom replies with great excitement: "I know everything.
Might for right.
Right for right.
Justice for all.
A round table where all knights would sit in unity. Everything."
Then King Arthur, as his world is crumbling around him, realizes that he has just heard this mere boy speak the words of hope that he had lost sight of.
And, instantly, Arthur knows what to do.
He forbids Tom from fighting in the coming battle and commands him rather to hide behind the lines until the battle is over.
He knights him right there as "Sir Tom" and commands him to return to England – alive – and to grow up and to grow old – and to remember the story of Camelot.
He that’s when he says to Tom,
Each evening from December to December,
before you drift to sleep upon your cot,
think back upon all the tales you remember – of Camelot.
Ask every person if he's heard the story –
and tell it strong and clear if he has not –
that once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot.
Now, the King’s aid reminds him to hurry for it is time for the battle.
Arthur moves briefly toward his army, but then pauses.
With triumph in his voice, he asserts, "I have won my battle, and here in this boy is my victory.
What we did with the Round Table will be remembered. You will see."
Arthur sends Tom off on his mission to tell far and wide the story of Camelot.
You see, this is an Advent story.
It is most interesting that the author of this play chose December to December for the period in which the boy should remember about Camelot.
We would say Advent to Advent, but it is in fact December to December, isn’t it?
Our church year provides for us a way to remember the story of Jesus from beginning to end and from end to beginning again.
God's story with us is one that began in perfection – at a time in the Garden of Eden when all was peace and joy like Camelot in the successful days of Arthur's Round Table.
Like Camelot, paradise in Eden was lost through unfaithfulness.
And like Eden and Camelot, this is the story for each of us, as it is played out in our lives over and over again.
God's love and grace is realized and accepted, only for us to turn our backs on God in unfaithfulness.
And God forgives us and takes us back and gives us his love and grace all over again.
In a cycle that continues, our story is like the story of the movie Camelot, for we, like Arthur, know that the shattered vision is not the end of God's story with us.
No, the story does not end there.
The Good News of Christ presents us with a vision of what the Kingdom of God really is, and, therefore, what the church is called to be.
Over and over again, we are called to tell the stories of the Kingdom of God –
to remind ourselves of how the church is to look in the fullness of God's time and to share this story with those who do not know it.
We are called to remember how God would have us act and how he would have us be.
In order to celebrate Christmas, we need to hear the stories.
You are not going to hear these stories anywhere but here, in this church – or in other churches like this one.
Between now and Christmas we are going to be telling the stories.
The novel on which the movie Camelot is based is called The Once and Future King.
Jesus, our lord, is also a once and future king.
Indeed, part of the story we remember is that God has entered our world of experience as flesh and blood – that’s the Christmas story: Emmanuel!
And that God continues to be with us.
And our task is to keep alert, to keep awake,
to get ready, so we don’t miss the Christ in our midst.
In Advent, we recall the expectation and waiting and watching and longing for the Coming of Christ into the midst of our humanity.
In Advent we especially remember, and we anticipate, what God promises.
Like Tom of Camelot, we know everything, because we have heard the stories about God.
And, like Tom, it is our mission not only to remember,
each December to December,
but also to tell the stories far and wide –
reminding those who have heard them,
and proclaiming them afresh to those who do not know the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Now, friends, listen up, for, an incredible part of this story is that we are the Body of Christ.
If Advent is a time of waiting, as some suggest, it is a time of waiting for us to realize that we – you and me – are at the center of the Christmas story.
This year, let us see that the story about the birth of that baby some 2,000 years ago, is a story about us.
It is a story the world needs to hear from us.
It is a story we need to hear.
In the Camelot of God's Kingdom, we will know the stories of God's power
and we will be transformed into God's likeness.
Pay attention. Listen up. These stories are our stories.
Amen.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Surviving Hard Times When You No Longer Have A Job
These are hard times. Many folks despair of ever finding meaningful work again – and have given up looking.
These are extraordinary times for most people.
These are hard times.
Unemployment is up to over 10% of the available workforce.
Over 8 million of our neighbors have lost their jobs in the last year.
Many folks despair of ever finding meaningful work again – and have given up looking.
In recent weeks, I have been embarked on this quest to bring our faith’s scriptures to bear on some of the aspects of the hard times so many of us are experiencing these days.
We looked at surviving hard times when bad things happen,
when the economy sours,
when dealing with stress,
when health fails,
when you just can’t get out of bed,
and, today, I am trying to address what our faith has to say about surviving hard times when we no longer have a job.
Underlying my approach is the prevailing implicit notion that runs throughout our sacred writings in both the old and new testaments – and what is made explicit in 1 John 5:4 – it is our faith that enables us to overcome hard times.
Although few people actually ever found long-term employment in their first job, most of us took on an identity from our workplace.
We became known – and defined by – what we did.
(In September I attended the 50th reunion of my high school class.
And someone – I never found who – decided my name tag would identify me as Reverend.
Now, the odd thing was that no one else was identified that way.
No doctors or dentists or lawyers or professors were identified on their name tags.
And I felt a little odd at being the only one present that was identified by what they did.)
And, yet, that is what we all do, isn’t it?
Everyone who retires goes through feelings like this.
A retiree goes from being known according to what they did for a living to having nothing to do – therefore no identity.
Parents – women, particularly – who dedicate themselves to the task of raising children and are known for their parenting task, face new reality when the children leave home and the nest is empty. Now what? Now who am I?
A widow who for so long was defined as the spouse of . . . faces the future with new definitions of who they are.
(Much to my chagrin, we have people on our church rolls who joined our church in years past identified only as Mrs. John Smith – is this really who they were in life?)
So much of our identity –
so much of who we think we are –
so much of our self-esteem –
is tied to what we do for a living, isn’t it?
And, when that is taken from us, there is somewhat of a crisis: now what?
Now who am I?
People who study this remind us that how we see ourselves, our self image, our sense of self-worth, is shaped by forces we have little do with, really – certainly forces which we do not control.
They tell us that our self-image is really shaped by what we think the most important persons in our life think of us.
When I was growing up I remember trying out all kinds of things to be the kind of kid I thought my Dad wanted me to be.
I tried playing softball.
I went out for high school football – (yes, football!)
I went out for wrestling in high school – there I found something I could do that very few others could.
But, I remember one particularly traumatic experience early on when I came home from a neighborhood softball game.
I came home threw by glove on the floor and was on the verge of bawling my eyes out.
My mother asked, “what in the world is the matter?”
I said, “I got traded.”
She said, “well, that happens all the time doesn’t it? That’s part of the game, isn’t it? Even the very best baseball players get traded.
Why should being traded upset you so?"
And, that’s when I finally lost it.
Through the tears, I shouted out: “because I was traded for Dougie’s six year old sister.”
(It’s a wonder I ever grew up at all, isn’t it?)
So, if much of who we think we are is formed by what we perceive the most important persons in our life think, much of our identity – our self image – is shaped by our family: our mothers, our fathers, our siblings and our closest friends.
What others said "you are" when we were children, to a marked degree becomes the "I am" as we grow older and claim our identity.
The message is given by their overall personalities, their inner and outer bearing and demeanor, by the radar they send out.
You know what I’m talking about.
You know some of the "You are's" which easily become "I am's."
You've no right to feel that way.
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything.
Why do you always do things like that?
If there's a wrong way to do it, you'll find it.
What makes you so stupid? clumsy? dumb? slow? silly?
All you gotta' do is use your head once in a while.
I can't believe you did such a thing.
Do you see it?
The "you are's" become the "I am's" of persons because we accept the image imposed on us by the people who mean the most to us.
This kind of shaping another person's self-image becomes a "pain that never goes away."
However it happens, if we think we are nothing,
we will live and act as though we were nothing.
I once heard Jack Parr say a very insightful thing on a T.V. show. He said, " My life seems like one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle."
Many of feel that way sometimes – that life is an obstacle course and that we are the chief obstacle, in living life to the fullest, as God would have it, and as Christ offers it.
The Bible is right.
As we think in our hearts so we are.
Paul uses a remarkable phrase in Ephesians 1:18. "The eyes of your heart."
You see, our hearts do have eyes by which we see ourselves from the very depths of our personality. "And when we see ourselves from the perspective of destructive I am's, then our self-esteem is affected from the very center of our being."
If we think we are nothing then we will live and act as though we were nothing.
Our scripture proclaims that it is our faith that helps us get through hard times.
Many of us remember a time when to be a member of a Presbyterian church, you were required to memorize and recite a Catechism – usually, what was called the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
The catechism is a series of questions and answers which when learned gives basic answers to basic questions about Christian belief and living a Christian life.
The catechism was meant to be memorized like the multiplication table, so that at least some of life's questions might have answers as quickly as we know 2x2=4.
The first question of the Shorter Catechism –
the first question many of us memorized and still remember to this day –
is "What is the chief end of man?"
(What's the point – the main purpose – of my life.)
And the answer is:
“to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever."
Before all else in life,
what life is all about, now and forever,
for you and for me is glorifying and enjoying the God who made us.
Give Glory to God and be joyful;
that's what life is all about.
And as Saint Irenaeus put it in the 2nd century: "The Glory of God is a human being who is fully alive."
Simply put, the purpose of life is living – joyfully!
When there are no kids,
when you no longer have a job,
when you are left alone,
it is good to remember that in the end we are not defined in relation to our work or our marriage.
In the end, what is important,
Our chief end,
the main point of our life,
the purpose for our life,
is not to bring home the bacon,
is not to keep a nice home,
is not to perpetuate the species,
is not to turn out good citizens for society,
no, our main purpose,
the main point of it all,
is to glorify God and enjoy the life God gives us.
And, really, that is what we are about in this church.
Our sacred scriptures contain many examples as to how this is to be done.
There are no secret formulas.
It is there in black and white for all to see and to study and to figure out how it applies to the way we lead our lives.
The question is asked openly in Micah:
What must I do to worship the Lord, the God of all there is?
And the answer is given:
What God requires of us is this:
to do what is just,
to show constant love,
and to live in humble fellowship with our God.
This is where our true identity lies.
This is what we will be known for.
This is who we really are.
And Jesus, himself, was very clear that every one of us will be judged on how we treat others.
Feeding the hungry,
comforting the afflicted,
tending the ill,
sharing our wealth –
this is what defines us,
this is what makes us who we are.
For sure, this is what sets us apart from others –
even those who have been most important to us.
Our faith has always been about living in a way that is counter to the prevailing culture in which we live.
Our faith still is about living in a way that is counter to the prevailing culture in which we live.
To be sure it is traumatic to no longer have a job.
And there are economic realities that come to play.
And it is not my intention to downplay that at all.
But, facing the situation with the proper attitude about what is really important in life,
there are specific things that your church may help with.
A year ago, I asked the local ministerium to begin thinking about how the faith community might respond to the economic situation that was coming into being.
Today, I ask you:
are there some things you can think of that your church can do?
Is there a need for a support group for people who no longer have a job?
Or folks who are retired and are asking what now?
Or, perhaps start an employment agency.
Or, teach skills for a new workforce.
Or, provide counseling on how to maximize a person’s hunt for a new job.
Or, should we provide emergency services of some kind.
Let all of us know – let us recite it to others at every chance we get –
it is our faith that helps us get through hard times.
In our sacred text Jesus tells us to never become discouraged.
We are in the hope business.
We are in the hope business – not because we are blind idealists, but because we are realists –
there is another way to live – although it may run counter to the prevailing culture around us.
This is our faith.
This is our faith that empowers and propels us into the future.
This is our faith that we promulgate and promote here.
Let it be known.
Amen.
These are extraordinary times for most people.
These are hard times.
Unemployment is up to over 10% of the available workforce.
Over 8 million of our neighbors have lost their jobs in the last year.
Many folks despair of ever finding meaningful work again – and have given up looking.
In recent weeks, I have been embarked on this quest to bring our faith’s scriptures to bear on some of the aspects of the hard times so many of us are experiencing these days.
We looked at surviving hard times when bad things happen,
when the economy sours,
when dealing with stress,
when health fails,
when you just can’t get out of bed,
and, today, I am trying to address what our faith has to say about surviving hard times when we no longer have a job.
Underlying my approach is the prevailing implicit notion that runs throughout our sacred writings in both the old and new testaments – and what is made explicit in 1 John 5:4 – it is our faith that enables us to overcome hard times.
Although few people actually ever found long-term employment in their first job, most of us took on an identity from our workplace.
We became known – and defined by – what we did.
(In September I attended the 50th reunion of my high school class.
And someone – I never found who – decided my name tag would identify me as Reverend.
Now, the odd thing was that no one else was identified that way.
No doctors or dentists or lawyers or professors were identified on their name tags.
And I felt a little odd at being the only one present that was identified by what they did.)
And, yet, that is what we all do, isn’t it?
Everyone who retires goes through feelings like this.
A retiree goes from being known according to what they did for a living to having nothing to do – therefore no identity.
Parents – women, particularly – who dedicate themselves to the task of raising children and are known for their parenting task, face new reality when the children leave home and the nest is empty. Now what? Now who am I?
A widow who for so long was defined as the spouse of . . . faces the future with new definitions of who they are.
(Much to my chagrin, we have people on our church rolls who joined our church in years past identified only as Mrs. John Smith – is this really who they were in life?)
So much of our identity –
so much of who we think we are –
so much of our self-esteem –
is tied to what we do for a living, isn’t it?
And, when that is taken from us, there is somewhat of a crisis: now what?
Now who am I?
People who study this remind us that how we see ourselves, our self image, our sense of self-worth, is shaped by forces we have little do with, really – certainly forces which we do not control.
They tell us that our self-image is really shaped by what we think the most important persons in our life think of us.
When I was growing up I remember trying out all kinds of things to be the kind of kid I thought my Dad wanted me to be.
I tried playing softball.
I went out for high school football – (yes, football!)
I went out for wrestling in high school – there I found something I could do that very few others could.
But, I remember one particularly traumatic experience early on when I came home from a neighborhood softball game.
I came home threw by glove on the floor and was on the verge of bawling my eyes out.
My mother asked, “what in the world is the matter?”
I said, “I got traded.”
She said, “well, that happens all the time doesn’t it? That’s part of the game, isn’t it? Even the very best baseball players get traded.
Why should being traded upset you so?"
And, that’s when I finally lost it.
Through the tears, I shouted out: “because I was traded for Dougie’s six year old sister.”
(It’s a wonder I ever grew up at all, isn’t it?)
So, if much of who we think we are is formed by what we perceive the most important persons in our life think, much of our identity – our self image – is shaped by our family: our mothers, our fathers, our siblings and our closest friends.
What others said "you are" when we were children, to a marked degree becomes the "I am" as we grow older and claim our identity.
The message is given by their overall personalities, their inner and outer bearing and demeanor, by the radar they send out.
You know what I’m talking about.
You know some of the "You are's" which easily become "I am's."
You've no right to feel that way.
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything.
Why do you always do things like that?
If there's a wrong way to do it, you'll find it.
What makes you so stupid? clumsy? dumb? slow? silly?
All you gotta' do is use your head once in a while.
I can't believe you did such a thing.
Do you see it?
The "you are's" become the "I am's" of persons because we accept the image imposed on us by the people who mean the most to us.
This kind of shaping another person's self-image becomes a "pain that never goes away."
However it happens, if we think we are nothing,
we will live and act as though we were nothing.
I once heard Jack Parr say a very insightful thing on a T.V. show. He said, " My life seems like one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle."
Many of feel that way sometimes – that life is an obstacle course and that we are the chief obstacle, in living life to the fullest, as God would have it, and as Christ offers it.
The Bible is right.
As we think in our hearts so we are.
Paul uses a remarkable phrase in Ephesians 1:18. "The eyes of your heart."
You see, our hearts do have eyes by which we see ourselves from the very depths of our personality. "And when we see ourselves from the perspective of destructive I am's, then our self-esteem is affected from the very center of our being."
If we think we are nothing then we will live and act as though we were nothing.
Our scripture proclaims that it is our faith that helps us get through hard times.
Many of us remember a time when to be a member of a Presbyterian church, you were required to memorize and recite a Catechism – usually, what was called the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
The catechism is a series of questions and answers which when learned gives basic answers to basic questions about Christian belief and living a Christian life.
The catechism was meant to be memorized like the multiplication table, so that at least some of life's questions might have answers as quickly as we know 2x2=4.
The first question of the Shorter Catechism –
the first question many of us memorized and still remember to this day –
is "What is the chief end of man?"
(What's the point – the main purpose – of my life.)
And the answer is:
“to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever."
Before all else in life,
what life is all about, now and forever,
for you and for me is glorifying and enjoying the God who made us.
Give Glory to God and be joyful;
that's what life is all about.
And as Saint Irenaeus put it in the 2nd century: "The Glory of God is a human being who is fully alive."
Simply put, the purpose of life is living – joyfully!
When there are no kids,
when you no longer have a job,
when you are left alone,
it is good to remember that in the end we are not defined in relation to our work or our marriage.
In the end, what is important,
Our chief end,
the main point of our life,
the purpose for our life,
is not to bring home the bacon,
is not to keep a nice home,
is not to perpetuate the species,
is not to turn out good citizens for society,
no, our main purpose,
the main point of it all,
is to glorify God and enjoy the life God gives us.
And, really, that is what we are about in this church.
Our sacred scriptures contain many examples as to how this is to be done.
There are no secret formulas.
It is there in black and white for all to see and to study and to figure out how it applies to the way we lead our lives.
The question is asked openly in Micah:
What must I do to worship the Lord, the God of all there is?
And the answer is given:
What God requires of us is this:
to do what is just,
to show constant love,
and to live in humble fellowship with our God.
This is where our true identity lies.
This is what we will be known for.
This is who we really are.
And Jesus, himself, was very clear that every one of us will be judged on how we treat others.
Feeding the hungry,
comforting the afflicted,
tending the ill,
sharing our wealth –
this is what defines us,
this is what makes us who we are.
For sure, this is what sets us apart from others –
even those who have been most important to us.
Our faith has always been about living in a way that is counter to the prevailing culture in which we live.
Our faith still is about living in a way that is counter to the prevailing culture in which we live.
To be sure it is traumatic to no longer have a job.
And there are economic realities that come to play.
And it is not my intention to downplay that at all.
But, facing the situation with the proper attitude about what is really important in life,
there are specific things that your church may help with.
A year ago, I asked the local ministerium to begin thinking about how the faith community might respond to the economic situation that was coming into being.
Today, I ask you:
are there some things you can think of that your church can do?
Is there a need for a support group for people who no longer have a job?
Or folks who are retired and are asking what now?
Or, perhaps start an employment agency.
Or, teach skills for a new workforce.
Or, provide counseling on how to maximize a person’s hunt for a new job.
Or, should we provide emergency services of some kind.
Let all of us know – let us recite it to others at every chance we get –
it is our faith that helps us get through hard times.
In our sacred text Jesus tells us to never become discouraged.
We are in the hope business.
We are in the hope business – not because we are blind idealists, but because we are realists –
there is another way to live – although it may run counter to the prevailing culture around us.
This is our faith.
This is our faith that empowers and propels us into the future.
This is our faith that we promulgate and promote here.
Let it be known.
Amen.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Surviving Hard Times When You Can't Get Out of Bed
The Good News when your "git up and go" "got up and went":
These are hard times for many folks.
The country’s economic turmoil has affected so many different aspects of life around us:
life-time savings have been decimated,
home mortgages lost,
jobs lost,
credit much less available,
uncertainty becomes a staple of life.
Of course, that’s just one aspect of the hard times many are experiencing:
we deal with personal loss,
health issues,
and bad things that just happen.
In the midst of these hard times, your preacher looks for ways our faith speaks to our experiences.
We are reminded that the faith espoused in the Old Testament was born and bred and honed and nourished and thrived during hard times.
And, we remember that Jesus was born into hard times and the early believers spread their faith during hard times.
The gospel message speaks directly to the hard times the folks experienced some 2000 years ago, and breaks through the cultural barriers into the world in which we live and move and have our being today.
So, I am engaged in this series of sermons about Surviving Hard Times.
These sermons are grounded in the implicit message that runs through most of the New Testament, made explicit in 1 John 5:4 :
It is our faith that enables us to overcome hard times.
Today, we want to consider what the Good News is when you just can’t get out of bed –
you know, when your “git up and go” feels like it “got up and went”.
They used to refer to that feeling as melancholy – I have seen references in old books as a person described as experiencing melancholy.
These days we might call it depression – although depression is a clinical diagnosis of acute feelings, we still use the word to describe our down times, when we’re in the dumps, when we just don’t care much about what’s happening around us, when we are disillusioned.
Sometimes we might call it listlessness.
The feelings of listlessness that most of us have from time to time may or may not be severe enough for professional clinical care, they are becoming more and more common as the years go by.
We are told that we are living in “the age of melancholy”,
and that depression has become an epidemic in this country,
becoming so pervasive that is known as “the common cold of mental illness.”
It is on pace to become the world’s second most disabling disease, right after heart disease, by the year 2020.
In fact, it already is number the number one disease among women the world over according to The World Health Organization.
It is common enough to be experienced in severe terms by one in every five persons over the course of a lifetime.
Psychologists describe this as “a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that leads to intense sadness.”
And sometimes, we just can’t get out bed.
We get tired of it all.
Despair takes affect.
Cynicism becomes the prism through which we see the world.
Self-pity predominates.
We have less energy.
We are unable to concentrate.
We sit in front of the tv and after a while realize we have no idea what the score is, or who’s playing, or even what we’ve been watching .
Nothing seems to matter anymore.
It seems to me that during hard times like these, we need to know that we are not alone.
It comes as little comfort to hear that some of the most positive and most talented people the world has ever known suffered from bouts of melancholies such as these.
People like Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Beethoven, Martin Luther, Tolstoy, and so many others have written about times when they just couldn’t get themselves out of bed.
So, we have this story that John relays about Jesus meeting up with this man at the pools of Bethesda.
The story is told and we are called to remember the story because these pools were known to have apparent medicinal properties.
People would come from far and wide to dip in the pool of water as a treatment for whatever ailed them.
And, as you might expect crowds of people gathered around the pool – waiting for their turn to dip in the water.
And John tells the story that one day Jesus visits the healing pools of Bethesda.
And there were wall to wall people crowding each other for favored position to better reach the water’s edge.
And Jesus notices this one guy – just one guy out of so many there – each one with a different story about why they were there and what they wanted.
Jesus just walks up and starts talking to this guy lying on a mat – obviously unable to move much at all.
And he learns that this man has been at this pool for over 38 years!!!!
Waiting to dip into the healing waters of the pool.
38 years!!!
He had been coming to that pool for longer than Jesus himself had been alive!!
He had been there for as long as anyone could remember.
For nearly 14,000 days he had dragged himself to the pool – but never getting in to the pool.
Why did he keep coming back?
Who knows.
You might think he would have given up before now.
But, no-o-o-o, he still came day after day after day after day.
Coming to dip in the healing waters, but never doing it.
So, Jesus asks the obvious question:
“So, do you want to get well, or what?”
I see this as a faith question.
Maybe the man couldn’t get in the water because he really didn’t want to get well.
Maybe the man was reluctant to get in the water because he didn’t really believe it was going to work.
Maybe the man was too discouraged and listless and despondent – too mired in self-pity and despair – to get up off his mat and move toward the water.
“So,” Jesus said, “do you want to get well, or what?”
The man had to answer the question –
do you believe you can get well?
When the man expressed his belief that he could get well, Jesus just told him, “Well, stand up, pick up your mat and go home.”
Now, understand that no one suggests that Jesus did any magic here, no potions were give, no spells intoned, not even a touch made, no prayers said.
Just a declarative sentence in the imperative:
Get up, pickup your mat and go on home.
And, the story is, he did.
Notice, the man didn’t even ask for Jesus for healing.
He didn’t even know who Jesus was.
Indications are he never even heard of Jesus.
But, he did what Jesus said.
Was the conviction in Jesus’ voice?
The assurance?
The authority?
For whatever reason, after stating that he did have faith that he could get better, he acted on the suggestion made by this stranger whom he had never seen before at this pool.
He got up.
He picked up his mat.
He walked around the pool talking to his friends.
And totally lost track of Jesus and where he was – not even knowing who he was.
The message here seems to be for you and me that it is a matter of faith.
Overcoming hard times is a matter of faith.
A giant theologian from another era, Harry Emerson Fosdick, could write:
A vital faith in God gives a man available resources of interior power.
We never produce power.
We always appropriate it.
That is true from the harnessing of the Niagara to taking a walk in the fresh air.
We never create power – we assimilate it.
So, a [person] with a real faith in GOD senses around his [or her] spiritual life a spiritual presence as truly as the physical world is around his body.
He knows of the deep well of staying power that divine companionship can replenish."
The man at the Bethesda pool suffered from depression so great that he was unable to get off his mat to move the few feet to waters’ edge.
And, Jesus helped him tap into the power that dwelt within all the time –
first by affirming the belief that such power was there – yes, I do want to get well.
And then by acting on that belief – by getting up and picking up his mat and going home.
When Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist was asked, “What would you advise a person to do if they were experiencing deep depression and unhappiness?”
If you are listless and melancholy and feeling deep despair that effectively immobilizes you, Dr. Menninger said: “If you are really severely depressed, lock the door behind you, go across the street, find somebody in need, and do something to help them.”
You see, Karl Minninger knew what we know.
There is healing power in doing for others –
Power we can harness with little effort.
Power that has powerful effect on our health.
Do you want to get well? Jesus asked.
The question is for you and me as well as for the man at the pool.
Apparently, the greatest therapy in the world is moving off of our personal comfort mats and going to do something for another.
Some of you knew Evelyn Kimbel.
Evelyn Kimbel was a long time member of this church that fell on hard times.
By anyone’s book, Evelyn Kimbel had reason to be depressed and despondent.
Evelyn’s live outlasted her savings.
She went to live in a nursing care facility that promised to take care of her the rest of her days.
And that was fine for her – although it meant sharing a room with another person for the rest of her life.
And it was good while it lasted.
Until the nursing home closed.
Again she had to move – to another facility miles from the first. A place where she knew no one.
And, the thing is, when she first went to each place, she took a look around and asked, “So, what does God want me do here?”
And in each place she found a niche where she brought light and happiness and comfort and joy into the lives of many many others – for the rest of the days of her life.
With Evelyn Kimbell it was a faith question.
What am I to do with my life in this place,
at this time,
under these circumstances?
There is a story you may have heard:
A horseman was out riding one day and came upon a sparrow lying on its back in the middle of the road. The horseman stopped short, dismounted and asked the sparrow what in the world it was doing lying in there on its back with its feet in the air.
The sparrow explained, "I heard that the heavens are going to fall today."
"Oh," said the horseman, "And if they do fall, I suppose you think your puny little legs can hold up the heavens?"
The sparrow answered: "One does what one can," One does what one can."
The sparrow found purpose in his life.
Evelyn Kimbel found purpose in her life.
The man at the pool found purpose in his life.
There is power in living for others.
Jesus said he came in order that we might have abundant life – full life – at all times in all places.
On our website there are links to resources that bring the gospel to bear on how we can live better than we ever thought possible.
It is a matter of faith.
And that’s what we are about here at this church.
When presented with the question, like the man at the pool was,
how we answer determines whether we know abundant life –
or continue to experience a melancholy life.
In the words of the sparrow, one does what one can, one does what one can.
Amen.
These are hard times for many folks.
The country’s economic turmoil has affected so many different aspects of life around us:
life-time savings have been decimated,
home mortgages lost,
jobs lost,
credit much less available,
uncertainty becomes a staple of life.
Of course, that’s just one aspect of the hard times many are experiencing:
we deal with personal loss,
health issues,
and bad things that just happen.
In the midst of these hard times, your preacher looks for ways our faith speaks to our experiences.
We are reminded that the faith espoused in the Old Testament was born and bred and honed and nourished and thrived during hard times.
And, we remember that Jesus was born into hard times and the early believers spread their faith during hard times.
The gospel message speaks directly to the hard times the folks experienced some 2000 years ago, and breaks through the cultural barriers into the world in which we live and move and have our being today.
So, I am engaged in this series of sermons about Surviving Hard Times.
These sermons are grounded in the implicit message that runs through most of the New Testament, made explicit in 1 John 5:4 :
It is our faith that enables us to overcome hard times.
Today, we want to consider what the Good News is when you just can’t get out of bed –
you know, when your “git up and go” feels like it “got up and went”.
They used to refer to that feeling as melancholy – I have seen references in old books as a person described as experiencing melancholy.
These days we might call it depression – although depression is a clinical diagnosis of acute feelings, we still use the word to describe our down times, when we’re in the dumps, when we just don’t care much about what’s happening around us, when we are disillusioned.
Sometimes we might call it listlessness.
The feelings of listlessness that most of us have from time to time may or may not be severe enough for professional clinical care, they are becoming more and more common as the years go by.
We are told that we are living in “the age of melancholy”,
and that depression has become an epidemic in this country,
becoming so pervasive that is known as “the common cold of mental illness.”
It is on pace to become the world’s second most disabling disease, right after heart disease, by the year 2020.
In fact, it already is number the number one disease among women the world over according to The World Health Organization.
It is common enough to be experienced in severe terms by one in every five persons over the course of a lifetime.
Psychologists describe this as “a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that leads to intense sadness.”
And sometimes, we just can’t get out bed.
We get tired of it all.
Despair takes affect.
Cynicism becomes the prism through which we see the world.
Self-pity predominates.
We have less energy.
We are unable to concentrate.
We sit in front of the tv and after a while realize we have no idea what the score is, or who’s playing, or even what we’ve been watching .
Nothing seems to matter anymore.
It seems to me that during hard times like these, we need to know that we are not alone.
It comes as little comfort to hear that some of the most positive and most talented people the world has ever known suffered from bouts of melancholies such as these.
People like Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Beethoven, Martin Luther, Tolstoy, and so many others have written about times when they just couldn’t get themselves out of bed.
So, we have this story that John relays about Jesus meeting up with this man at the pools of Bethesda.
The story is told and we are called to remember the story because these pools were known to have apparent medicinal properties.
People would come from far and wide to dip in the pool of water as a treatment for whatever ailed them.
And, as you might expect crowds of people gathered around the pool – waiting for their turn to dip in the water.
And John tells the story that one day Jesus visits the healing pools of Bethesda.
And there were wall to wall people crowding each other for favored position to better reach the water’s edge.
And Jesus notices this one guy – just one guy out of so many there – each one with a different story about why they were there and what they wanted.
Jesus just walks up and starts talking to this guy lying on a mat – obviously unable to move much at all.
And he learns that this man has been at this pool for over 38 years!!!!
Waiting to dip into the healing waters of the pool.
38 years!!!
He had been coming to that pool for longer than Jesus himself had been alive!!
He had been there for as long as anyone could remember.
For nearly 14,000 days he had dragged himself to the pool – but never getting in to the pool.
Why did he keep coming back?
Who knows.
You might think he would have given up before now.
But, no-o-o-o, he still came day after day after day after day.
Coming to dip in the healing waters, but never doing it.
So, Jesus asks the obvious question:
“So, do you want to get well, or what?”
I see this as a faith question.
Maybe the man couldn’t get in the water because he really didn’t want to get well.
Maybe the man was reluctant to get in the water because he didn’t really believe it was going to work.
Maybe the man was too discouraged and listless and despondent – too mired in self-pity and despair – to get up off his mat and move toward the water.
“So,” Jesus said, “do you want to get well, or what?”
The man had to answer the question –
do you believe you can get well?
When the man expressed his belief that he could get well, Jesus just told him, “Well, stand up, pick up your mat and go home.”
Now, understand that no one suggests that Jesus did any magic here, no potions were give, no spells intoned, not even a touch made, no prayers said.
Just a declarative sentence in the imperative:
Get up, pickup your mat and go on home.
And, the story is, he did.
Notice, the man didn’t even ask for Jesus for healing.
He didn’t even know who Jesus was.
Indications are he never even heard of Jesus.
But, he did what Jesus said.
Was the conviction in Jesus’ voice?
The assurance?
The authority?
For whatever reason, after stating that he did have faith that he could get better, he acted on the suggestion made by this stranger whom he had never seen before at this pool.
He got up.
He picked up his mat.
He walked around the pool talking to his friends.
And totally lost track of Jesus and where he was – not even knowing who he was.
The message here seems to be for you and me that it is a matter of faith.
Overcoming hard times is a matter of faith.
A giant theologian from another era, Harry Emerson Fosdick, could write:
A vital faith in God gives a man available resources of interior power.
We never produce power.
We always appropriate it.
That is true from the harnessing of the Niagara to taking a walk in the fresh air.
We never create power – we assimilate it.
So, a [person] with a real faith in GOD senses around his [or her] spiritual life a spiritual presence as truly as the physical world is around his body.
He knows of the deep well of staying power that divine companionship can replenish."
The man at the Bethesda pool suffered from depression so great that he was unable to get off his mat to move the few feet to waters’ edge.
And, Jesus helped him tap into the power that dwelt within all the time –
first by affirming the belief that such power was there – yes, I do want to get well.
And then by acting on that belief – by getting up and picking up his mat and going home.
When Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist was asked, “What would you advise a person to do if they were experiencing deep depression and unhappiness?”
If you are listless and melancholy and feeling deep despair that effectively immobilizes you, Dr. Menninger said: “If you are really severely depressed, lock the door behind you, go across the street, find somebody in need, and do something to help them.”
You see, Karl Minninger knew what we know.
There is healing power in doing for others –
Power we can harness with little effort.
Power that has powerful effect on our health.
Do you want to get well? Jesus asked.
The question is for you and me as well as for the man at the pool.
Apparently, the greatest therapy in the world is moving off of our personal comfort mats and going to do something for another.
Some of you knew Evelyn Kimbel.
Evelyn Kimbel was a long time member of this church that fell on hard times.
By anyone’s book, Evelyn Kimbel had reason to be depressed and despondent.
Evelyn’s live outlasted her savings.
She went to live in a nursing care facility that promised to take care of her the rest of her days.
And that was fine for her – although it meant sharing a room with another person for the rest of her life.
And it was good while it lasted.
Until the nursing home closed.
Again she had to move – to another facility miles from the first. A place where she knew no one.
And, the thing is, when she first went to each place, she took a look around and asked, “So, what does God want me do here?”
And in each place she found a niche where she brought light and happiness and comfort and joy into the lives of many many others – for the rest of the days of her life.
With Evelyn Kimbell it was a faith question.
What am I to do with my life in this place,
at this time,
under these circumstances?
There is a story you may have heard:
A horseman was out riding one day and came upon a sparrow lying on its back in the middle of the road. The horseman stopped short, dismounted and asked the sparrow what in the world it was doing lying in there on its back with its feet in the air.
The sparrow explained, "I heard that the heavens are going to fall today."
"Oh," said the horseman, "And if they do fall, I suppose you think your puny little legs can hold up the heavens?"
The sparrow answered: "One does what one can," One does what one can."
The sparrow found purpose in his life.
Evelyn Kimbel found purpose in her life.
The man at the pool found purpose in his life.
There is power in living for others.
Jesus said he came in order that we might have abundant life – full life – at all times in all places.
On our website there are links to resources that bring the gospel to bear on how we can live better than we ever thought possible.
It is a matter of faith.
And that’s what we are about here at this church.
When presented with the question, like the man at the pool was,
how we answer determines whether we know abundant life –
or continue to experience a melancholy life.
In the words of the sparrow, one does what one can, one does what one can.
Amen.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Being Among the Numbered
We are called to be loving, kind, compassionate, generous, faithful people.
This is the way God created us to be,
and when we are anything less than that,
we diminish our own lives,
and we diminish the lives of those around us.
But when we live according to God's will,
we end up experiencing life to it's fullest,
and we bring joy and happiness to those around us.
And those are the kind of people that we remember!
When you are asked to think about specifically about who has influenced your faith –
who has helped you to believe what you believe today, you know who would be on that list, don’t you?
And the persons you and I think of will not likely be on any television special, are they?
But, they have helped us to be believers.
They have enabled us to be persons of faith ourselves.
They are our personal saints.
And, we all have them.
Timothy had his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, and his good friend, Paul.
It is good for us to take time to recall and to remember and to “celebrate” those who have influenced us personally in our faith.
Most of the folks that we remember will never be in any church history book.
There will never be any days of commemoration in the church calendar set aside to honor and remember them.
No, they are really, just ordinary folks like you and me, aren’t they? –
but in the course of seeking to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ,
in striving to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind,
they ended up touching our lives in ways that changed us and had a profound effect on who we are today.
I may not remember any one thing in particular that they taught me, but I do remember them.
Somehow, by their example and witness and faithfulness to the love and grace of God, they made an indelible mark on me.
And what about you?
Who are the ones you remember?
Who are the saints in your life who brought you to this place today so that here you are in church this morning to worship and praise God,
to hear God's word, and o celebrate his love?!
We have encountered lots and lots of people in our lives, haven’t we?
– relatives, friends, colleagues, teachers, neighbors –
lots of people.
Why is it that some of them stand out in our memories,
while so many others are just there?
What makes the difference in how we remember someone?
Matthew gives us a clue:
“The greatest one among you must be your servant. . . . whoever humbles himself will be made great.”
Once again, I’m afraid the church has been so works centered throughout history, that we tend to associate holiness with achievement.
But when I read in Genesis that we are created in God’s image,
and that God looked upon all God created and was very pleased,
I don’t see anything there that any of us achieved to gain such favor, do you?
It was simply God s choosing, and that is why Jesus can say so boldly in the Gospel of John: “You did not choose me, I chose you."
Likewise, we are not removed from sainthood because of anything we might have done against God.
As someone once wrote,
There are no saints without a past,
. . . . and there are no sinners without a future.
You see, sinner is NOT the opposite of Saint,
rather they go hand in hand,
and that goes for St. Peter, and St. Paul, and all the saints in Drexel Hill and every where else in the world!
We are not saints because of what we do or don’t do. . .
We are not saints because of what we believe or disbelieve. . .
We are saints because God has chosen to take us as part of God s own self.
Saints are wonderfully human, not super human.
Saints are wonderfully ordinary, not super extraordinary.
That's what this All Saint's Sunday is about –
to set aside a Sunday each year to remember and to thank God for all those saints down through the ages,
whose names may not be recorded in the church history books,
but whose names are certainly written in the Book of Life,
and whose names and faces are recorded in our hearts and our memories.
Some of them are long gone and long forgotten,
others are more recently departed whom we remember today,
and some of them are still alive and still play a part in our lives.
But the one thing that all these saints have in common is their love for the Lord,
and their willingness to allow God to use them in reaching out to and ministering to others,
allowing the grace, love, compassion, and
generosity of God to shine through them and flow out from them to us and to those around us.
Like a stained glass window depicting the saints of times past,
what makes them a saint is that the light shines through.
I continue to be fascinated by the history of this congregation.
83 years ago some 26 people met to begin a new church here in this new community of Drexel Hill.
They had no way of knowing that in two or three years the bottom would fall out of the economy.
And yet, those folks continued to come together, continued to envision a church –
teaching and practicing the faith in the community.
In the midst of the depression, they continued to dream and to plan –
and within ten years, they acted on their dream by agreeing to finance and build a new building.
What faith that took!
Again, they had no way of knowing that just as construction began the country would begin engagement in a world war that profoundly affected what would happen here over not only the next five years, but over the next twenty as well.
Those folks had to be generous people of vision, faith, commitment, obedience, and dedication to Jesus Christ to do something like that so many years ago.
They were people who were looking not only at the present, but to the future as well.
These are some of the saints that we remember today.
And some of them are still sitting right here among us!
Again I ask the question, What about you?
What kind of obituary or eulogy are you writing for yourself?
How will you be remembered?
And please don't say, "Maybe next year – when I'm older – then I'll become involved and be more generous and more compassionate."
No, it's either now or never.
The habits of a lifetime do not change overnight.
They are developed and molded every day of our lives.
How do you want to be remembered?
Do you want to be remembered in the same way that we remember those special saints in our own lives?
Well then, begin living today in a way that puts into practice what Jesus teaches, in a way that follows the example of those special people in our lives.
Let love, compassion, mercy, peace, humility, generosity, graciousness characterize your life. Take a serious look at yourself and see if you are becoming the person you want to be,
the person God made you to be.
Strive for the qualities that you admire and respect in others so that you, too,
might be numbered among the saints that we honor and thank God for today.
This is the way God created us to be,
and when we are anything less than that,
we diminish our own lives,
and we diminish the lives of those around us.
But when we live according to God's will,
we end up experiencing life to it's fullest,
and we bring joy and happiness to those around us.
And those are the kind of people that we remember!
When you are asked to think about specifically about who has influenced your faith –
who has helped you to believe what you believe today, you know who would be on that list, don’t you?
And the persons you and I think of will not likely be on any television special, are they?
But, they have helped us to be believers.
They have enabled us to be persons of faith ourselves.
They are our personal saints.
And, we all have them.
Timothy had his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, and his good friend, Paul.
It is good for us to take time to recall and to remember and to “celebrate” those who have influenced us personally in our faith.
Most of the folks that we remember will never be in any church history book.
There will never be any days of commemoration in the church calendar set aside to honor and remember them.
No, they are really, just ordinary folks like you and me, aren’t they? –
but in the course of seeking to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ,
in striving to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind,
they ended up touching our lives in ways that changed us and had a profound effect on who we are today.
I may not remember any one thing in particular that they taught me, but I do remember them.
Somehow, by their example and witness and faithfulness to the love and grace of God, they made an indelible mark on me.
And what about you?
Who are the ones you remember?
Who are the saints in your life who brought you to this place today so that here you are in church this morning to worship and praise God,
to hear God's word, and o celebrate his love?!
We have encountered lots and lots of people in our lives, haven’t we?
– relatives, friends, colleagues, teachers, neighbors –
lots of people.
Why is it that some of them stand out in our memories,
while so many others are just there?
What makes the difference in how we remember someone?
Matthew gives us a clue:
“The greatest one among you must be your servant. . . . whoever humbles himself will be made great.”
Once again, I’m afraid the church has been so works centered throughout history, that we tend to associate holiness with achievement.
But when I read in Genesis that we are created in God’s image,
and that God looked upon all God created and was very pleased,
I don’t see anything there that any of us achieved to gain such favor, do you?
It was simply God s choosing, and that is why Jesus can say so boldly in the Gospel of John: “You did not choose me, I chose you."
Likewise, we are not removed from sainthood because of anything we might have done against God.
As someone once wrote,
There are no saints without a past,
. . . . and there are no sinners without a future.
You see, sinner is NOT the opposite of Saint,
rather they go hand in hand,
and that goes for St. Peter, and St. Paul, and all the saints in Drexel Hill and every where else in the world!
We are not saints because of what we do or don’t do. . .
We are not saints because of what we believe or disbelieve. . .
We are saints because God has chosen to take us as part of God s own self.
Saints are wonderfully human, not super human.
Saints are wonderfully ordinary, not super extraordinary.
That's what this All Saint's Sunday is about –
to set aside a Sunday each year to remember and to thank God for all those saints down through the ages,
whose names may not be recorded in the church history books,
but whose names are certainly written in the Book of Life,
and whose names and faces are recorded in our hearts and our memories.
Some of them are long gone and long forgotten,
others are more recently departed whom we remember today,
and some of them are still alive and still play a part in our lives.
But the one thing that all these saints have in common is their love for the Lord,
and their willingness to allow God to use them in reaching out to and ministering to others,
allowing the grace, love, compassion, and
generosity of God to shine through them and flow out from them to us and to those around us.
Like a stained glass window depicting the saints of times past,
what makes them a saint is that the light shines through.
I continue to be fascinated by the history of this congregation.
83 years ago some 26 people met to begin a new church here in this new community of Drexel Hill.
They had no way of knowing that in two or three years the bottom would fall out of the economy.
And yet, those folks continued to come together, continued to envision a church –
teaching and practicing the faith in the community.
In the midst of the depression, they continued to dream and to plan –
and within ten years, they acted on their dream by agreeing to finance and build a new building.
What faith that took!
Again, they had no way of knowing that just as construction began the country would begin engagement in a world war that profoundly affected what would happen here over not only the next five years, but over the next twenty as well.
Those folks had to be generous people of vision, faith, commitment, obedience, and dedication to Jesus Christ to do something like that so many years ago.
They were people who were looking not only at the present, but to the future as well.
These are some of the saints that we remember today.
And some of them are still sitting right here among us!
Again I ask the question, What about you?
What kind of obituary or eulogy are you writing for yourself?
How will you be remembered?
And please don't say, "Maybe next year – when I'm older – then I'll become involved and be more generous and more compassionate."
No, it's either now or never.
The habits of a lifetime do not change overnight.
They are developed and molded every day of our lives.
How do you want to be remembered?
Do you want to be remembered in the same way that we remember those special saints in our own lives?
Well then, begin living today in a way that puts into practice what Jesus teaches, in a way that follows the example of those special people in our lives.
Let love, compassion, mercy, peace, humility, generosity, graciousness characterize your life. Take a serious look at yourself and see if you are becoming the person you want to be,
the person God made you to be.
Strive for the qualities that you admire and respect in others so that you, too,
might be numbered among the saints that we honor and thank God for today.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Reflections on All Saints Day
It seems clear that we all need time and ritual for remembering those who have gone before us.
There seems to be a common universal urge to remember.
We need to remember.
For centuries, the church has known this – and on All Saints Sunday we remember those persons who
have influenced our faith development,
whose presence is still felt in our lives even thought they now rest from their labors.
All Saints Sunday is the church's Memorial Day, a time to remember and give thanks to God for those who have died in the faith.
All Saints Day is a day on which we remember special people,
people who now dwell with God.
people whom the scriptures and the church call saints.
John Irwin begins A Prayer for Owen Meany with these words:
"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice,
or because he was the smallest person I ever knew...
but because he is the reason I believe in God;
I am a Christian because of Owen Meany."
Connect with All Saints Day by taking time to remember the Owen Meany(s) of your life.
We all believe in God because of someone.
We are all here today because of someone.
Today, think about who that is for you.
There seems to be a common universal urge to remember.
We need to remember.
For centuries, the church has known this – and on All Saints Sunday we remember those persons who
have influenced our faith development,
whose presence is still felt in our lives even thought they now rest from their labors.
All Saints Sunday is the church's Memorial Day, a time to remember and give thanks to God for those who have died in the faith.
All Saints Day is a day on which we remember special people,
people who now dwell with God.
people whom the scriptures and the church call saints.
John Irwin begins A Prayer for Owen Meany with these words:
"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice,
or because he was the smallest person I ever knew...
but because he is the reason I believe in God;
I am a Christian because of Owen Meany."
Connect with All Saints Day by taking time to remember the Owen Meany(s) of your life.
We all believe in God because of someone.
We are all here today because of someone.
Today, think about who that is for you.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Surviving Hard Times When Feeling Stressed
Jesus and those early believers seemed to know what our scientists are learning:
most of the illnesses we see are started from stress.
Clearly, these are hard times for most people.
So, I have been engaged in this series of sermons trying to address how the message of Jesus applies to helping us get through hard times such as these.
As I have mentioned before, our faith, the Gospel of Jesus, was born in hard times – in fact, it was incubated and nourished and flourished during hard times.
Believe you me, those first believers knew hard times.
What seemed to be most encouraging to those early believers was the implicit message made explicit in I John 5:4: It is our faith that empowers us to endure and overcome hard times.
Jesus and those early believers seemed to know what our scientists are learning:
most of the illnesses that strike at our frail human bodies are started from stress.
Prolonged or excessive stress — the kind that overwhelms your ability to cope — can take a severe psychological and physical toll.
They tell us that high stress levels have been linked to depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems, an impaired immune system and cancer.
These are particularly stressful times for most of us.
The current economic situation in our country and in the world,
the loss of jobs,
insufficient healthcare,
the rise of illnesses and diseases and biological agents of destruction over which we have no control,
the frightening change of climate right before our eyes,
bad things that keep happening to good people,
all work together to add stress to our lives day in and day out.
One researcher commented: When you feel the demands on you are greater than the resources you have to cope with them, you feel stressed.
For sure, doctors know that stress is your body's natural reaction to any kind of demand that disrupts life as usual.
Occasional stress can temporarily speed up your heart rate and might raise your blood pressure.
And as long as you get your stress under control, there's no damage.
But, in times like these, doctors worry about long-term or chronic stress and accumulative stress.
In the last few years, researchers have come up with a way to measure the effects of stress on health, and have come up some pretty reliable predictors.
It is called the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
Occasionally something about this scale makes the news and you may have read something about it.
Over the years they have identified some 47 stressors – life events that are major causes of stress in our lives.
The number one stressor in our lives is the death of a spouse.
Other major stress events are:
Divorce or Marital separation
Death of a close family member
Personal injury or illness
Marriage
Dismissal from work
Retirement
Change in health of family member
The list goes on.
Each stress event is assigned a numerical value.
Most people are able handle one of these stressors with little difficulty, but when faced with three or four or more, you are at high risk for major illness.
Our bodies simply cannot handle many major stress factors at one time.
Would it surprise you to know that stress and anxiety was the number one topic of all of Jesus’ sayings?
Jesus spend more time talking about stress and anxiety than any other topic.
More time than getting to heaven.
More time than drinking.
More time than money.
More time than peace.
More time than repenting.
More time than praying.
More time than anything.
Jesus spend more time talking about stress and anxiety than anything else.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Stop worrying, Jesus said.
But, that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
We live in an age of anxiety, don’t we?
The image is the image of fear – not the image of faith.
It’s an image that is promulgated every time we sit down in front of the evening news,
or get on an airplane,
or – or – or.
We respond to the old Scotch litany:
"From ghoulies and ghosties
and long-leggety beasties.
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
It seems that we expect the worst, and we get it.
A popular preacher once shared a helpful insight into the structure of fear.
He observed that when an automobile breaks down it is more often the fault of the driver than the fault of the machine.
The machine is tough and made to stand a great deal.
But the driver of the car gets confused and makes a foolish judgment and the car breaks down – or is wrecked.
Occasionally the machine does break down, but not so often.
Well, the preacher declares it is the same with the human body.
It is made to stand a great deal of stress.
But frequently the "soul-mind,"
the driver of the body,
gets off beam and the body gets sick and breaks down.
Doctors and psychiatrists tell us this over and over again, stress, fear, worry, and anxiety are among the forces that attack the soul-mind and bring about the breakdown of the body.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
We are told that under the shock of a piano falling on her child it is often possible for a mother to do the impossible and lift the piano off her child.
Immediately afterwards she loses that extra strength and cannot budge the piano.
What has happened?
Under the shock of possible injury to her child, adrenalin has poured into the mother’s blood stream, and under the stimulus of this powerful drug she does "the impossible" in order to save the child. This automatic reaction of the glands of our body to extreme and sudden fear can save our lives.
But, under the influence of continued anxiety – long-drawn-out fear and dread – the adrenalin continues to seep slowly into the blood stream and poisons us.
Eventually it can bring about physical breakdown.
That is why a psychiatrist who was concerned about his patients was heard to say, "I wish that my patients could understand that the love,
the forgiveness, the care of God is available to them at all times and in all circumstances."
This kind of faith counterbalances fear and can bring healing to the physical body.
Doctors agree that emotional stress can bring actual changes in the organs, glands, and tissues of the body.
Bio-feed-back is telling us much more in this field.
It’s not so much "what I’m eating" as "what’s eating me" that’s getting me down.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
Some years ago now, long long ago in some other time, there was a song that became very popular. It was Bobby Ferron’s simple, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note.
Don't Worry – Be Happy
In Every life we have some trouble,
When you worry you make it double.
Don't worry – Be Happy.
Ain't got no place to lay your head,
Somebody came and took your bed.
Don't worry – Be Happy
The landlord says "Your rent is late,"
He may have to litigate.
Don't worry – Be Happy!
Ain't got no cash,
Ain't got no style
Ain't got no [one] to make you smile.
Don't worry – Be Happy
Cause when you worry
Your face will frown
And that will bring Everybody down,
Don't Worry – Be Happy.
Look at me. I'm Happy!
I know, that sounds pretty superficial, doesn’t it?
But, it is very close to what Jesus said:
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
You can't miss what Jesus is saying, can you? Don't worry – Be happy!
When we think about anxiety today, we think primarily in terms of relationship, or position, or security in life.
We're anxious because we're afraid we're going to be rejected by someone else.
We're anxious because we feel we're going to lose our status, our prestige, our position, our reputation in society.
We're anxious because we feel we're not secure enough financially to face the future.
But that's not the way the Bible talks about anxiety, is it?
It's a much deeper problem than that, you know?
Jesus talks about it as the basic human condition.
He says that we are anxious because we are separated from God.
That's the nature of anxiety.
It may take different forms in our life –
depression, despair, resignation,
run away ambition, idolatry,
making a god out of something that isn't God.
What is the root of all this – the cause of our worry and anxiety – Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.
It is a faith question.
What is the root of all this -- the cause of our worry and anxiety?
Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.
What good does your anxiety do?
"Can you add one minute to your lifespan by being anxious?"
No, in fact it's just the opposite.
You ask any doctor and they will tell you: stress and anxiety will decrease your life, not add to it.
So it's dumb to be anxious,
and unnecessary,
because God has already provided all that you will ever need in this life.
Everything you need God has provided.
Your anxiety is the result of not trusting God.
So if you are addicted to covetousness it's not that you love things so much, it's because you have lost God,
or at least lost sight of what it means to believe in God".
So, you see, for Jesus, and in reality, stress and anxiety is a spiritual problem.
Its root is in our relationship to God.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
You really don't have to worry Jesus says if the first priority of your life is the kingdom of God.
You see, it is a faith issue.
Seek first the Kingdom of God, then all else necessary for life and meaning and happiness will be added.
We don't have to worry if the first priority of our life is the Kingdom of God.
When we really hear what Jesus said, that song really is not as superficial as it first sounds:
"In every life we have some trouble,
when you worry you make it double.
Don't worry – Be happy!"
I don't suggest that during this week you surprise all your family and friends and companions at work by constantly singing "Don't worry – Be happy."
I do suggest that you surprise them with the amazing calm and poise that can be yours if you keep claiming the promise of Jesus: "How much more will God take care of you...oh you of little faith."
The tragedy of most of our lives is that we worry so much about tomorrow that we never claim the resources that God has provided to live today.
In light of the worries and anxieties which life in these days set before us,
let our response to them be based upon the affirmations and promises that Jesus shares with us
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
More than anything else, put God’s work first.
Don’t get worked up a about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Believe it!
Amen.
most of the illnesses we see are started from stress.
Clearly, these are hard times for most people.
So, I have been engaged in this series of sermons trying to address how the message of Jesus applies to helping us get through hard times such as these.
As I have mentioned before, our faith, the Gospel of Jesus, was born in hard times – in fact, it was incubated and nourished and flourished during hard times.
Believe you me, those first believers knew hard times.
What seemed to be most encouraging to those early believers was the implicit message made explicit in I John 5:4: It is our faith that empowers us to endure and overcome hard times.
Jesus and those early believers seemed to know what our scientists are learning:
most of the illnesses that strike at our frail human bodies are started from stress.
Prolonged or excessive stress — the kind that overwhelms your ability to cope — can take a severe psychological and physical toll.
They tell us that high stress levels have been linked to depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems, an impaired immune system and cancer.
These are particularly stressful times for most of us.
The current economic situation in our country and in the world,
the loss of jobs,
insufficient healthcare,
the rise of illnesses and diseases and biological agents of destruction over which we have no control,
the frightening change of climate right before our eyes,
bad things that keep happening to good people,
all work together to add stress to our lives day in and day out.
One researcher commented: When you feel the demands on you are greater than the resources you have to cope with them, you feel stressed.
For sure, doctors know that stress is your body's natural reaction to any kind of demand that disrupts life as usual.
Occasional stress can temporarily speed up your heart rate and might raise your blood pressure.
And as long as you get your stress under control, there's no damage.
But, in times like these, doctors worry about long-term or chronic stress and accumulative stress.
In the last few years, researchers have come up with a way to measure the effects of stress on health, and have come up some pretty reliable predictors.
It is called the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
Occasionally something about this scale makes the news and you may have read something about it.
Over the years they have identified some 47 stressors – life events that are major causes of stress in our lives.
The number one stressor in our lives is the death of a spouse.
Other major stress events are:
Divorce or Marital separation
Death of a close family member
Personal injury or illness
Marriage
Dismissal from work
Retirement
Change in health of family member
The list goes on.
Each stress event is assigned a numerical value.
Most people are able handle one of these stressors with little difficulty, but when faced with three or four or more, you are at high risk for major illness.
Our bodies simply cannot handle many major stress factors at one time.
Would it surprise you to know that stress and anxiety was the number one topic of all of Jesus’ sayings?
Jesus spend more time talking about stress and anxiety than any other topic.
More time than getting to heaven.
More time than drinking.
More time than money.
More time than peace.
More time than repenting.
More time than praying.
More time than anything.
Jesus spend more time talking about stress and anxiety than anything else.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Stop worrying, Jesus said.
But, that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
We live in an age of anxiety, don’t we?
The image is the image of fear – not the image of faith.
It’s an image that is promulgated every time we sit down in front of the evening news,
or get on an airplane,
or – or – or.
We respond to the old Scotch litany:
"From ghoulies and ghosties
and long-leggety beasties.
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
It seems that we expect the worst, and we get it.
A popular preacher once shared a helpful insight into the structure of fear.
He observed that when an automobile breaks down it is more often the fault of the driver than the fault of the machine.
The machine is tough and made to stand a great deal.
But the driver of the car gets confused and makes a foolish judgment and the car breaks down – or is wrecked.
Occasionally the machine does break down, but not so often.
Well, the preacher declares it is the same with the human body.
It is made to stand a great deal of stress.
But frequently the "soul-mind,"
the driver of the body,
gets off beam and the body gets sick and breaks down.
Doctors and psychiatrists tell us this over and over again, stress, fear, worry, and anxiety are among the forces that attack the soul-mind and bring about the breakdown of the body.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
We are told that under the shock of a piano falling on her child it is often possible for a mother to do the impossible and lift the piano off her child.
Immediately afterwards she loses that extra strength and cannot budge the piano.
What has happened?
Under the shock of possible injury to her child, adrenalin has poured into the mother’s blood stream, and under the stimulus of this powerful drug she does "the impossible" in order to save the child. This automatic reaction of the glands of our body to extreme and sudden fear can save our lives.
But, under the influence of continued anxiety – long-drawn-out fear and dread – the adrenalin continues to seep slowly into the blood stream and poisons us.
Eventually it can bring about physical breakdown.
That is why a psychiatrist who was concerned about his patients was heard to say, "I wish that my patients could understand that the love,
the forgiveness, the care of God is available to them at all times and in all circumstances."
This kind of faith counterbalances fear and can bring healing to the physical body.
Doctors agree that emotional stress can bring actual changes in the organs, glands, and tissues of the body.
Bio-feed-back is telling us much more in this field.
It’s not so much "what I’m eating" as "what’s eating me" that’s getting me down.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
Some years ago now, long long ago in some other time, there was a song that became very popular. It was Bobby Ferron’s simple, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note.
Don't Worry – Be Happy
In Every life we have some trouble,
When you worry you make it double.
Don't worry – Be Happy.
Ain't got no place to lay your head,
Somebody came and took your bed.
Don't worry – Be Happy
The landlord says "Your rent is late,"
He may have to litigate.
Don't worry – Be Happy!
Ain't got no cash,
Ain't got no style
Ain't got no [one] to make you smile.
Don't worry – Be Happy
Cause when you worry
Your face will frown
And that will bring Everybody down,
Don't Worry – Be Happy.
Look at me. I'm Happy!
I know, that sounds pretty superficial, doesn’t it?
But, it is very close to what Jesus said:
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
You can't miss what Jesus is saying, can you? Don't worry – Be happy!
When we think about anxiety today, we think primarily in terms of relationship, or position, or security in life.
We're anxious because we're afraid we're going to be rejected by someone else.
We're anxious because we feel we're going to lose our status, our prestige, our position, our reputation in society.
We're anxious because we feel we're not secure enough financially to face the future.
But that's not the way the Bible talks about anxiety, is it?
It's a much deeper problem than that, you know?
Jesus talks about it as the basic human condition.
He says that we are anxious because we are separated from God.
That's the nature of anxiety.
It may take different forms in our life –
depression, despair, resignation,
run away ambition, idolatry,
making a god out of something that isn't God.
What is the root of all this – the cause of our worry and anxiety – Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.
It is a faith question.
What is the root of all this -- the cause of our worry and anxiety?
Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.
What good does your anxiety do?
"Can you add one minute to your lifespan by being anxious?"
No, in fact it's just the opposite.
You ask any doctor and they will tell you: stress and anxiety will decrease your life, not add to it.
So it's dumb to be anxious,
and unnecessary,
because God has already provided all that you will ever need in this life.
Everything you need God has provided.
Your anxiety is the result of not trusting God.
So if you are addicted to covetousness it's not that you love things so much, it's because you have lost God,
or at least lost sight of what it means to believe in God".
So, you see, for Jesus, and in reality, stress and anxiety is a spiritual problem.
Its root is in our relationship to God.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
You really don't have to worry Jesus says if the first priority of your life is the kingdom of God.
You see, it is a faith issue.
Seek first the Kingdom of God, then all else necessary for life and meaning and happiness will be added.
We don't have to worry if the first priority of our life is the Kingdom of God.
When we really hear what Jesus said, that song really is not as superficial as it first sounds:
"In every life we have some trouble,
when you worry you make it double.
Don't worry – Be happy!"
I don't suggest that during this week you surprise all your family and friends and companions at work by constantly singing "Don't worry – Be happy."
I do suggest that you surprise them with the amazing calm and poise that can be yours if you keep claiming the promise of Jesus: "How much more will God take care of you...oh you of little faith."
The tragedy of most of our lives is that we worry so much about tomorrow that we never claim the resources that God has provided to live today.
In light of the worries and anxieties which life in these days set before us,
let our response to them be based upon the affirmations and promises that Jesus shares with us
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
More than anything else, put God’s work first.
Don’t get worked up a about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Believe it!
Amen.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Connecting With A Crowd of Witnesses
There is such a large crowd of witnesses all around us:
All the folks that ever have attended this church throughout its 81 year history – as well as all the saints from all the ages.
All assembled in the gallery cheering and rooting for you and for me and for all of us.
Not only do you and I have a race to run, but we need to make arrangements to continue the tradition for the others needing encouragement to run the race that are coming up after us –
like all those who went before us here in this church did.
Just before these words from our scripture, the 11th chapter of Hebrews gives many dynamic examples of Old Testament men and women who did great works for God by faith.
“By faith Noah . . . built an ark . . .
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going . . .”
Then the 12th chapter begins with these words that give us our text for today: “THEREFORE, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
It’s a vivid picture.
In the grandstand of our lives there are cheerleaders: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, and other Old Testament heroes,
as well as Paul, Peter, and leaders of the New Testament church.
And there are our loved ones, family and friends, who have gone before us.
The message is, the reality is, we are not alone in our faith journey.
No matter how discouraging the events of our lives are,
we can make it through with the encouragement of those who have gone before.
Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us!
Some of you know that Suzanne and I adopted a dog a couple of years ago.
This dog was about 4 and half years old when he came to our house having been rescued off the streets somewhere in New York.
The dog obviously has been abused and is very fearful of any and all people – except us.
He knows who feeds him.
He knows who keeps his warm in the winter and provides a place to sleep and offers companionship and a safe environment.
Now, he thinks it is his job to protect us from all intruders and suspected terrorists –
a list which includes any and all who have the nerve to drive down the cul-de-sac in front of our house, or walk or ride a bike near our house.
Now, the thing is, he has a very keen sense of hearing.
That dog hears things long before I do – and sometimes he hears things I don’t.
Some time ago, I happened upon a BBC show about dogs on one of the public broadcasting stations.
It had a segment there on what and how dogs see – and showed the viewers a screen that let us in on just what a dog can and cannot see.
Apparently, dogs don’t see in all the colors that we do,
and dogs don’t see all the fine detail that we do,
but dogs have a more panoramic view than we do.
They have a much wider field of vision – about two times what you and I can see without moving our eyes.
But, the real unusual part of how a dog sees, is that although they cannot see the fine detail, they can detect very slight movement – anywhere in their field of vision.
So, they see a rabbit and they are off after the rabbit.
Fact is, they don’t know it’s a rabbit.
What they see is a figure in their field of vision that moved and they can pin-point it with great accuracy.
Whether it’s instinct or faith, the dog takes off after that movement – not really knowing what he is chasing.
Likewise what and how a dog hears was of great interest to me.
You and I hear a whoosh of car going by.
A dog can discern individual sounds that make up that whoosh sound you and I hear.
They can hear that the car is missing on cylinders 2 and 4,
has a loose wheel cover on the right front tire,
and a slight rattle of the radio antenna slipping in the wind,
and a hundred other individual sounds that make up the whoosh you and I hear as the car goes by.
Not only do they hear these individual sounds, they can discern which sounds are associated with their owners car – the sounds of the neighbor’s cars, and the UPS truck, and all kinds of other vehicles that pass by.
My dog hears sounds I simply do not hear.
Just because we cannot hear a sound does not mean that it does not exist.
The fact that we cannot hear it says more about our limitations than it does about the sound.
So it is with things of the spirit.
There are realities that are perceived only by those in tune with God’s Spirit.
One of these is that great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, providing us with encouragement and strength.
Sometime back, the magazine RUNNER’S WORLD, mentioned a unique phenomenon which they called, “The Bislett Effect.”
The Bislett Effect is named for Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway.
More than 50 track and field records have been broken over the years at Bislett.
Apparently, no other stadium can boast of this kind of record setting.
And it’s not because of the frigid weather in Norway.
Runners do not run faster just to keep warm, though that might make sense to some of us.
And it’s not the altitude.
Wind resistance is no different in Oslo than in most other cities.
The secret seems to be the track itself.
It is a narrow, six lane track, and the stands that surround it are very steep.
According to RUNNER’S WORLD, when 21,000 fans all scream, “Go, go!” in this kind of up close and personal setting, you run faster.
The crowd forces you to keep your rhythm and push harder for one more stretch, for one more turn.
It’s like being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.
Such faith helps us be all that we can be.
Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us cheering for us.
We can make it, whether it is a crisis with our health,
a crisis within our family,
a crisis in our economy,
a failure on the job – whatever it might be.
This is the Gospel.
We can go on.
We follow in a long line of people who have persevered and been victorious.
Faith helps us be all we can be.
Faith helps us endure all we must endure.
And faith reminds us that we do not live our lives alone.
There is One who is with us.
And there is such a large crowd of witnesses all around us!
That’s what this church is about.
That’s what our faith is about.
That’s what we have here –
a connecting place, really:
where we can connect with others,
where we can connect with the world around us,
where we can connect with God,
where we can connect with the large crowd of witnesses that have gone before us.
All the folks that ever have attended this church throughout its 81 year history – as well as all the saints from all the ages.
All assembled in the gallery cheering and rooting for you and for me and for all of us.
Not only do you and I have a race to run, but we need to make arrangements to continue the tradition for the others needing encouragement to run the race that are coming up after us –
like all those who went before us here in this church did.
Just before these words from our scripture, the 11th chapter of Hebrews gives many dynamic examples of Old Testament men and women who did great works for God by faith.
“By faith Noah . . . built an ark . . .
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going . . .”
Then the 12th chapter begins with these words that give us our text for today: “THEREFORE, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
It’s a vivid picture.
In the grandstand of our lives there are cheerleaders: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, and other Old Testament heroes,
as well as Paul, Peter, and leaders of the New Testament church.
And there are our loved ones, family and friends, who have gone before us.
The message is, the reality is, we are not alone in our faith journey.
No matter how discouraging the events of our lives are,
we can make it through with the encouragement of those who have gone before.
Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us!
Some of you know that Suzanne and I adopted a dog a couple of years ago.
This dog was about 4 and half years old when he came to our house having been rescued off the streets somewhere in New York.
The dog obviously has been abused and is very fearful of any and all people – except us.
He knows who feeds him.
He knows who keeps his warm in the winter and provides a place to sleep and offers companionship and a safe environment.
Now, he thinks it is his job to protect us from all intruders and suspected terrorists –
a list which includes any and all who have the nerve to drive down the cul-de-sac in front of our house, or walk or ride a bike near our house.
Now, the thing is, he has a very keen sense of hearing.
That dog hears things long before I do – and sometimes he hears things I don’t.
Some time ago, I happened upon a BBC show about dogs on one of the public broadcasting stations.
It had a segment there on what and how dogs see – and showed the viewers a screen that let us in on just what a dog can and cannot see.
Apparently, dogs don’t see in all the colors that we do,
and dogs don’t see all the fine detail that we do,
but dogs have a more panoramic view than we do.
They have a much wider field of vision – about two times what you and I can see without moving our eyes.
But, the real unusual part of how a dog sees, is that although they cannot see the fine detail, they can detect very slight movement – anywhere in their field of vision.
So, they see a rabbit and they are off after the rabbit.
Fact is, they don’t know it’s a rabbit.
What they see is a figure in their field of vision that moved and they can pin-point it with great accuracy.
Whether it’s instinct or faith, the dog takes off after that movement – not really knowing what he is chasing.
Likewise what and how a dog hears was of great interest to me.
You and I hear a whoosh of car going by.
A dog can discern individual sounds that make up that whoosh sound you and I hear.
They can hear that the car is missing on cylinders 2 and 4,
has a loose wheel cover on the right front tire,
and a slight rattle of the radio antenna slipping in the wind,
and a hundred other individual sounds that make up the whoosh you and I hear as the car goes by.
Not only do they hear these individual sounds, they can discern which sounds are associated with their owners car – the sounds of the neighbor’s cars, and the UPS truck, and all kinds of other vehicles that pass by.
My dog hears sounds I simply do not hear.
Just because we cannot hear a sound does not mean that it does not exist.
The fact that we cannot hear it says more about our limitations than it does about the sound.
So it is with things of the spirit.
There are realities that are perceived only by those in tune with God’s Spirit.
One of these is that great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, providing us with encouragement and strength.
Sometime back, the magazine RUNNER’S WORLD, mentioned a unique phenomenon which they called, “The Bislett Effect.”
The Bislett Effect is named for Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway.
More than 50 track and field records have been broken over the years at Bislett.
Apparently, no other stadium can boast of this kind of record setting.
And it’s not because of the frigid weather in Norway.
Runners do not run faster just to keep warm, though that might make sense to some of us.
And it’s not the altitude.
Wind resistance is no different in Oslo than in most other cities.
The secret seems to be the track itself.
It is a narrow, six lane track, and the stands that surround it are very steep.
According to RUNNER’S WORLD, when 21,000 fans all scream, “Go, go!” in this kind of up close and personal setting, you run faster.
The crowd forces you to keep your rhythm and push harder for one more stretch, for one more turn.
It’s like being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.
Such faith helps us be all that we can be.
Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us cheering for us.
We can make it, whether it is a crisis with our health,
a crisis within our family,
a crisis in our economy,
a failure on the job – whatever it might be.
This is the Gospel.
We can go on.
We follow in a long line of people who have persevered and been victorious.
Faith helps us be all we can be.
Faith helps us endure all we must endure.
And faith reminds us that we do not live our lives alone.
There is One who is with us.
And there is such a large crowd of witnesses all around us!
That’s what this church is about.
That’s what our faith is about.
That’s what we have here –
a connecting place, really:
where we can connect with others,
where we can connect with the world around us,
where we can connect with God,
where we can connect with the large crowd of witnesses that have gone before us.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Surviving Hard Times When Health Changes
We have been taught that “as long as I have my health, I have everything.”
Right?
This is a pretty pervasive feeling, I would say.
But . . .
I dare say there is not a person reading this who has not had their life affected by changing health – yours or a loved one.
Many of us are caring – or have been caring – for loved ones who are struggling with frailty of the body or demons of the mind.
And some of us are facing potentially devastating issues with our own health – cancers, pulmonary disease, arthritis, macular degeneration, and the list goes on.
These are hard times for most folks.
It is in the midst of hard times that Jesus came and preached his gospel of God’s Kingdom – rather than Rome’s Kingdom or Persia’s Kingdom, or any other Kingdom of man.
The Christian gospel – and the Jewish faith – was birthed in hard times.
The gospel of Jesus survives – and even thrives – during hard times.
Our faith survives and even thrives during hard times.
Our faith needs to be proclaimed during hard times.
Our faith speaks to us during hard times.
And so, I am preaching this series on Surviving Hard Times.
Our theme for this series of sermons comes from I John 5:4: It is our faith that enables to get through hard times.
Pity those who have no faith.
So far we have looked at Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen,
and Surviving Hard Times when the Economy Sours,
and today the topic is Surviving Hard Times When Health Changes.
I dare say there is not a person in this room who has not had their life affected by changing health – yours or a loved one.
We all know the truth of this – this is a common experience.
We each can attest that things happen:
a loved one gets sick – or we get sick –
whether it’s a cancer,
or stroke,
or heart,
or disease,
or infection,
or parts wearing out;
Accidents happen –
car and/or motorcycle accidents,
gunfire,
lightening strikes,
golf course,
you just never know;
Even in church –
you never used to hear about things like this, but in recent months I am aware of at least four incidents –
including one where a guy pulled a gun and shot the preacher (he didn’t like what the preacher said!),
And another one where the preacher got shot because he got in the way of a man trying to shoot an usher!!!
Things happen, don’t they?
And, more often than not, when health changes we experience hard times.
There is a lesson we all have learned well.
We have been taught that “as long as I have my health, I have everything.”
Right?
This is a pretty pervasive feeling, I would say.
We’ve all heard it said.
We have felt it ourselves, if we haven’t actually said it out loud.
I have said it in the past, and I am sure nearly everyone here uses it often.
If we don’t actually say it, it permeates what we believe.
More often than not, we tend to use the phrase as a way of saying that nothing else really matters much.
I don’t need wealth or things or . . . .
As long as I have my health, I have everything.
But, since Suzanne became ill – since her health changed – I became aware that that phrase, that belief, is insidious , and actually negatively affects what we all need to know and need to know when health changes.
I think I initially became aware of this insidious belief several years ago when my uncle faced a situation where the doctors needed to amputate his arm.
And, although it would save his life, and add significant years to his life, he adamantly refused to let them amputate.
Why? Because he felt that on rapture day, only those with whole bodies would get to go.
So, without an arm, he would be a nobody – something less than a real person.
You see, what we learned is, what we bought in to was: as long as I have my health, I have everything.
And when health changes – when you no longer have your health – what are you?
What do you have?
What then?
No one in this room is confined to a wheel chair.
We have pretty much excluded those folks from ever being welcome here.
Again, life with Suzanne after her health changed, changed me and changed the way I see certain things.
When you are not confined to a wheel chair –
when you have your health, therefore everything – you don’t appreciate what the world looks like from the perspective of the one in the chair.
What do you do when you come upon a person in wheel chair in the store?
Or on the street?
Usually, in the first place, we avoid making eye contact at all, don’t we?
Perhaps we feel that we don’t want to ogle or stare, and by avoiding eye contact we let the person in the chair know that they are no different than anyone else we might meet up with.
But, that is not what is perceived by the person in the chair.
When I am pushing Suzanne in the chair and we come upon a mutual friend, that person may acknowledge and even converse with Suzanne, but soon the phenomenon shifts and the person is no longer making eye contact with Suzanne but is now conversing with me – because I am at their level.
Suzanne says she gets tired looking at belt buckles all the time.
And when you come upon a counter that has been placed to separate a clerk from all of us who are on the other side, the person in chair most often gets no recognition at all.
Very quickly when you are dependent upon medicines, and/or physical assistance, just to carry on the basics of living, something happens to the psyche.
Through my experience, I can understand why many people cannot stand it after so long and just stop taking their life-saving medicines –
because it stands in the face of our common belief system that good health is everything – so when my health changes and I no longer have good health
I am less than what I should be,
I am nothing in the eyes in the world around me.
Of course, that’s not the way Jesus views things, is it?
Almost all of the stories in our Bible – in the Old Testament and in the New – share a common theme or understanding or belief: that is that God is with you.
The Old Testament reading we shared a while ago is just a fragment of a larger story about God assuring his people that he is with them while they are living in a land with alien rulers.
The message was delivered to those who needed to hear it then,
and it still rings true for us today.
You are going to face hard times, God says.
Hard times are ahead.
And when you find yourself wading through rising waters,
when you feel like you are walking through fire,
I’ll be with you.
Don’t be afraid.
I love you dearly and I am with you – always – through thick and through thin.
You know, this is the message I would hope to remember if I were ever in situation like those folks caught in the twin towers in New York City on September 11, 2001 –
or those folks on the airplanes destined to crash into the buildings or the ground –
or any situation wherein they say your life passes by your eyes –
in those situations, I would hope I could remember God’s promise: I love your dearly and I am with you – even now – especially now – in this situation. You don’t need to be afraid.
This theme is carried over in almost every event in our New Testament don’t you think?
The early believers actually did believe it.
In nearly every story that has been passed on about Jesus, this theme is expressed and underlies the message.
So significant was this to many of them that they chose these words to be the very last in Matthew’s gospel:
I am with you always – forever and forever – no matter what.
Even when your health changes – especially when your health changes –
you are no less of person,
no less of a being who is loved and valued by the Creator of the Universe and all there is,
the great Jehovah,
the great I Am,
the spirit that pervades the universe,
love personified.
When the health of a loved one changes, nothing changes about the value or worth of that person to you.
And, so often the most valuable actions any of us can take is to let that person know in no uncertain terms that although they may be incapacitated, although they may have physical limitations,
they are no less than who they were before –
no less than a child of the universe
of no less importance than kings and queens and princes and princesses.
The breath they share – even if from a nearby tank of oxygen –
is a breath shared by you –
and a breath shared with God –
the source of the breath of life itself.
It is our faith that helps us get through hard times.
It is our faith that affirms that the health of our physical body or mind is not the most important thing.
The most important thing is the assurance that our God is with us – no matter what.
Jesus is with us – forever and ever.
Amen.
Right?
This is a pretty pervasive feeling, I would say.
But . . .
I dare say there is not a person reading this who has not had their life affected by changing health – yours or a loved one.
Many of us are caring – or have been caring – for loved ones who are struggling with frailty of the body or demons of the mind.
And some of us are facing potentially devastating issues with our own health – cancers, pulmonary disease, arthritis, macular degeneration, and the list goes on.
These are hard times for most folks.
It is in the midst of hard times that Jesus came and preached his gospel of God’s Kingdom – rather than Rome’s Kingdom or Persia’s Kingdom, or any other Kingdom of man.
The Christian gospel – and the Jewish faith – was birthed in hard times.
The gospel of Jesus survives – and even thrives – during hard times.
Our faith survives and even thrives during hard times.
Our faith needs to be proclaimed during hard times.
Our faith speaks to us during hard times.
And so, I am preaching this series on Surviving Hard Times.
Our theme for this series of sermons comes from I John 5:4: It is our faith that enables to get through hard times.
Pity those who have no faith.
So far we have looked at Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen,
and Surviving Hard Times when the Economy Sours,
and today the topic is Surviving Hard Times When Health Changes.
I dare say there is not a person in this room who has not had their life affected by changing health – yours or a loved one.
We all know the truth of this – this is a common experience.
We each can attest that things happen:
a loved one gets sick – or we get sick –
whether it’s a cancer,
or stroke,
or heart,
or disease,
or infection,
or parts wearing out;
Accidents happen –
car and/or motorcycle accidents,
gunfire,
lightening strikes,
golf course,
you just never know;
Even in church –
you never used to hear about things like this, but in recent months I am aware of at least four incidents –
including one where a guy pulled a gun and shot the preacher (he didn’t like what the preacher said!),
And another one where the preacher got shot because he got in the way of a man trying to shoot an usher!!!
Things happen, don’t they?
And, more often than not, when health changes we experience hard times.
There is a lesson we all have learned well.
We have been taught that “as long as I have my health, I have everything.”
Right?
This is a pretty pervasive feeling, I would say.
We’ve all heard it said.
We have felt it ourselves, if we haven’t actually said it out loud.
I have said it in the past, and I am sure nearly everyone here uses it often.
If we don’t actually say it, it permeates what we believe.
More often than not, we tend to use the phrase as a way of saying that nothing else really matters much.
I don’t need wealth or things or . . . .
As long as I have my health, I have everything.
But, since Suzanne became ill – since her health changed – I became aware that that phrase, that belief, is insidious , and actually negatively affects what we all need to know and need to know when health changes.
I think I initially became aware of this insidious belief several years ago when my uncle faced a situation where the doctors needed to amputate his arm.
And, although it would save his life, and add significant years to his life, he adamantly refused to let them amputate.
Why? Because he felt that on rapture day, only those with whole bodies would get to go.
So, without an arm, he would be a nobody – something less than a real person.
You see, what we learned is, what we bought in to was: as long as I have my health, I have everything.
And when health changes – when you no longer have your health – what are you?
What do you have?
What then?
No one in this room is confined to a wheel chair.
We have pretty much excluded those folks from ever being welcome here.
Again, life with Suzanne after her health changed, changed me and changed the way I see certain things.
When you are not confined to a wheel chair –
when you have your health, therefore everything – you don’t appreciate what the world looks like from the perspective of the one in the chair.
What do you do when you come upon a person in wheel chair in the store?
Or on the street?
Usually, in the first place, we avoid making eye contact at all, don’t we?
Perhaps we feel that we don’t want to ogle or stare, and by avoiding eye contact we let the person in the chair know that they are no different than anyone else we might meet up with.
But, that is not what is perceived by the person in the chair.
When I am pushing Suzanne in the chair and we come upon a mutual friend, that person may acknowledge and even converse with Suzanne, but soon the phenomenon shifts and the person is no longer making eye contact with Suzanne but is now conversing with me – because I am at their level.
Suzanne says she gets tired looking at belt buckles all the time.
And when you come upon a counter that has been placed to separate a clerk from all of us who are on the other side, the person in chair most often gets no recognition at all.
Very quickly when you are dependent upon medicines, and/or physical assistance, just to carry on the basics of living, something happens to the psyche.
Through my experience, I can understand why many people cannot stand it after so long and just stop taking their life-saving medicines –
because it stands in the face of our common belief system that good health is everything – so when my health changes and I no longer have good health
I am less than what I should be,
I am nothing in the eyes in the world around me.
Of course, that’s not the way Jesus views things, is it?
Almost all of the stories in our Bible – in the Old Testament and in the New – share a common theme or understanding or belief: that is that God is with you.
The Old Testament reading we shared a while ago is just a fragment of a larger story about God assuring his people that he is with them while they are living in a land with alien rulers.
The message was delivered to those who needed to hear it then,
and it still rings true for us today.
You are going to face hard times, God says.
Hard times are ahead.
And when you find yourself wading through rising waters,
when you feel like you are walking through fire,
I’ll be with you.
Don’t be afraid.
I love you dearly and I am with you – always – through thick and through thin.
You know, this is the message I would hope to remember if I were ever in situation like those folks caught in the twin towers in New York City on September 11, 2001 –
or those folks on the airplanes destined to crash into the buildings or the ground –
or any situation wherein they say your life passes by your eyes –
in those situations, I would hope I could remember God’s promise: I love your dearly and I am with you – even now – especially now – in this situation. You don’t need to be afraid.
This theme is carried over in almost every event in our New Testament don’t you think?
The early believers actually did believe it.
In nearly every story that has been passed on about Jesus, this theme is expressed and underlies the message.
So significant was this to many of them that they chose these words to be the very last in Matthew’s gospel:
I am with you always – forever and forever – no matter what.
Even when your health changes – especially when your health changes –
you are no less of person,
no less of a being who is loved and valued by the Creator of the Universe and all there is,
the great Jehovah,
the great I Am,
the spirit that pervades the universe,
love personified.
When the health of a loved one changes, nothing changes about the value or worth of that person to you.
And, so often the most valuable actions any of us can take is to let that person know in no uncertain terms that although they may be incapacitated, although they may have physical limitations,
they are no less than who they were before –
no less than a child of the universe
of no less importance than kings and queens and princes and princesses.
The breath they share – even if from a nearby tank of oxygen –
is a breath shared by you –
and a breath shared with God –
the source of the breath of life itself.
It is our faith that helps us get through hard times.
It is our faith that affirms that the health of our physical body or mind is not the most important thing.
The most important thing is the assurance that our God is with us – no matter what.
Jesus is with us – forever and ever.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Surviving Hard Times when the Economy Sours
These are hard times for most of us.
Some saw the nest egg they had set aside for the retirement years severely decimated – if not wiped out altogether.
Some have lost their jobs – and/or access to health care.
Some have lost their homes.
Credit card bills pile up while doctors and hospitals threaten.
Banks failed and readjusted,
wall street firms and automobile manufacturers collapsed,
and people all over the world experienced the economic difficulties.
These are hard times for most of us.
It is in the midst of hard times that Jesus came and preached his gospel of God’s Kingdom rather than Rome’s Kingdom or Persia’s Kingdom, or any other Kingdom of man.
The Christian gospel – and the Jewish faith – was birthed in hard times.
The gospel of Jesus survives – and even thrives – during hard times.
Our faith survives and even thrives during hard times.
Our faith needs to be proclaimed during hard times.
Our faith speaks to us during hard times.
And so, I am preaching this series on Surviving Hard Times.
Our theme for this series of sermons comes from I John 5:4: It is our faith that enables us to get through hard times.
Pity those who have no faith.
Two weeks ago we looked at Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen,
Today we are looking Surviving Hard Times when the Economy Sours.
Perhaps we were spoiled. For decades the overall message of the world around us that nothing like what happened in 1929 could ever happen again.
And, we have experienced a time of unequaled prosperity in our land –
but recent events have been troubling, haven’t they?
Massive lay-offs.
Plunging stocks.
Loss of consumer confidence.
Thousands of our fellow citizens are in the midst of their own private economic downturn – the poor, of course, and those who have found themselves downsized out of a well-paying job in the middle years of their lives.
In the midst of our personal prosperity it is easy to ignore the fact that people have lost jobs and are unable to find new ones –
that personal bankruptcies are at an all-time high –
that state governments are scrounging around trying to find funds to keep schools open.
If you are among those in the throes of your own private economic slowdown, there is not much comfort in knowing that other people are doing pretty well.
Our Old Testament lesson today is about a lady who knew about hard times of economic hardship.
A stranger approached this woman out gathering sticks one day by the town gate and asked her for a drink of water.
Wanting to be hospitable , she went to fetch the water.
As she was leaving, the stranger called out, "And while you’re at it, bring me a piece of bread."
And the story is that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, this was more than she could handle.
"As surely as the Lord your God lives, she said,
"I don't have any bread!!!!
I have only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.
I am out here gathering a few sticks to take home that I may make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die."
She was in a desperate situation.
It is difficult to believe, but hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people in our world today are just as desperate.
They do not know for certain where their next meal is coming from.
This widow's situation appeared hopeless in her eyes, but not in the eyes of the stranger.
For the stranger was the prophet Elijah.
He knew that God is a bountiful, giving God.
Elijah said to this despondent woman, "Now, now, Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small piece of bread . . . and bring it to me . . .
Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: "The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.'"
The widow did as Elijah said.
And "there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.
For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, as the Lord had said" (NIV).
Clearly, this woman was caught in the midst of her own hard times of economic hardship.
On this Sunday in September, 2009, more than twenty-six million Americans are trying to live below the poverty level.
One sociologist recently estimated that one of every three young families in America today is only one paycheck away from bankruptcy.
It's tough!
As one wag said, "I used to live in the lap of luxury – then luxury stood up."
So, what do you do when the economy sours and hard times come to your house?
What do you do when your needs are great and your resources are meager?
Those needs may not be only financial, of course.
Some of the same principles that apply to our financial woes also apply to such things as marital heartaches and concerns about our family,
our health,
or our job.
What are these timeless principles?
For one thing, don't give up.
That's what the widow was ready to do, right?
Before Elijah got hold of her she was going to go home and make preparations for both herself and her son to die.
That is about as desperate as a person can become.
Some of you may have been nearly that desperate at some point in your life.
Life can look so bleak at times.
What do you do when you're that low?
One thing you don't do is give up.
The second thing we do is trust God.
As much as we talk about faith, trusting God is hard for us to do, isn’t it?
The great philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described a familiar boyhood experience.
He was being taught to swim by his father. Splashing wildly with both arms and kicking with one leg, he called to his father, "Look at me, look at me. I'm swimming!"
But, says Kierkegaard, all the time he was standing on the bottom of the swimming pool on his big toe.
Many of us are like that in our faith, aren't we?
"I have faith!" we declare, but it is an untested faith.
It is a tentative faith, wouldn’t you say?
One toe remains on the bottom!
It is an enormous step for some of us to abandon our fears and trust God.
Such faith may get harder for us the older we get.
Somewhere along the way we lose that child-like ability to trust – to rest our concerns on God.
The widow had quit trusting God.
Elijah came to her and gave her hope.
He told her to trust God.
I John is right. It is about faith.
Survival in hard times depends upon faith.
How irenic that we put on our money, In God We Trust.
And yet, we don’t really.
So often, in so many ways, we put our trust in the coin of the realm, don’t we?
And, when the economy sours, we are devastated.
Most of Jesus’ teaching challenges conventional wisdom, the sort of common sense everyone accepts, whose lessons we have learned so well –
which means that to be his follower requires a great deal of un-teaching and un-learning and re-programming.
Life as a companion and understudy of Jesus is most often upside-down, inside-out, and bottom-side-up from the way the world operates under current management.
Our first impulse is to domesticate the teaching and take away the edge.
Think how crazy it sounds to be invited to make deposits in an invisible bank:
“Do not make a habit of laying up for yourself treasures on earth, where moths eat holes in the fabrics and where mold rots the grain, and where thieves break in and steal your jewelry;
[no] lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where none of that happens because everything stays new and forever uncorrupted.
Make a more secure investment!
Adopt a kingdom of God investment policy!”
In the company of Jesus we learn the joy of kingdom generosity and the truth of his teaching.
Not that we don’t work or own or manage wisely, only that we don’t trust in stuff for security,
and everything we own is available should it be requisitioned.
We hold possessions loosely and refuse to let their presence or absence define who we are.
God is our source, and what God does not supply, we do not need.
After all, there are limits to what money can actually do.
You know this:
Money can buy you a house, but not a home.
It can buy you a bed, but not sleep.
It can buy you a clock, but not time.
It can buy you a book, but not knowledge.
It can buy you a position, but not respect.
It can buy you sex, but not love.
It can buy you medicine, but not health.
It can buy you blood, but not life.”
The secret to surviving hard times when the economy sours is faith.
In Vienna, Austria, people swim down the Danube River.
Now there are infamous whirlpools in the Danube River that can pull the strongest swimmer under. Wise swimmers learn that when caught in a whirlpool the secret is to just be still.
If they remain completely still the mighty force of the whirlpool will push you back to the surface and to safety.
Swimming the Danube offers a lesson for those of us who have been caught in our own private whirlpools – whatever that whirlpool may mean for you.
That’s what we’re about here at Christ Church.
We come here to exercise and to strengthen our faith.
May you find hope in what goes on here.
And, maybe tell somebody what is going on here –
and invite them to come next week for the next installment in messages for surviving hard times.
Amen.
Some saw the nest egg they had set aside for the retirement years severely decimated – if not wiped out altogether.
Some have lost their jobs – and/or access to health care.
Some have lost their homes.
Credit card bills pile up while doctors and hospitals threaten.
Banks failed and readjusted,
wall street firms and automobile manufacturers collapsed,
and people all over the world experienced the economic difficulties.
These are hard times for most of us.
It is in the midst of hard times that Jesus came and preached his gospel of God’s Kingdom rather than Rome’s Kingdom or Persia’s Kingdom, or any other Kingdom of man.
The Christian gospel – and the Jewish faith – was birthed in hard times.
The gospel of Jesus survives – and even thrives – during hard times.
Our faith survives and even thrives during hard times.
Our faith needs to be proclaimed during hard times.
Our faith speaks to us during hard times.
And so, I am preaching this series on Surviving Hard Times.
Our theme for this series of sermons comes from I John 5:4: It is our faith that enables us to get through hard times.
Pity those who have no faith.
Two weeks ago we looked at Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen,
Today we are looking Surviving Hard Times when the Economy Sours.
Perhaps we were spoiled. For decades the overall message of the world around us that nothing like what happened in 1929 could ever happen again.
And, we have experienced a time of unequaled prosperity in our land –
but recent events have been troubling, haven’t they?
Massive lay-offs.
Plunging stocks.
Loss of consumer confidence.
Thousands of our fellow citizens are in the midst of their own private economic downturn – the poor, of course, and those who have found themselves downsized out of a well-paying job in the middle years of their lives.
In the midst of our personal prosperity it is easy to ignore the fact that people have lost jobs and are unable to find new ones –
that personal bankruptcies are at an all-time high –
that state governments are scrounging around trying to find funds to keep schools open.
If you are among those in the throes of your own private economic slowdown, there is not much comfort in knowing that other people are doing pretty well.
Our Old Testament lesson today is about a lady who knew about hard times of economic hardship.
A stranger approached this woman out gathering sticks one day by the town gate and asked her for a drink of water.
Wanting to be hospitable , she went to fetch the water.
As she was leaving, the stranger called out, "And while you’re at it, bring me a piece of bread."
And the story is that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, this was more than she could handle.
"As surely as the Lord your God lives, she said,
"I don't have any bread!!!!
I have only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.
I am out here gathering a few sticks to take home that I may make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die."
She was in a desperate situation.
It is difficult to believe, but hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people in our world today are just as desperate.
They do not know for certain where their next meal is coming from.
This widow's situation appeared hopeless in her eyes, but not in the eyes of the stranger.
For the stranger was the prophet Elijah.
He knew that God is a bountiful, giving God.
Elijah said to this despondent woman, "Now, now, Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small piece of bread . . . and bring it to me . . .
Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: "The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.'"
The widow did as Elijah said.
And "there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.
For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, as the Lord had said" (NIV).
Clearly, this woman was caught in the midst of her own hard times of economic hardship.
On this Sunday in September, 2009, more than twenty-six million Americans are trying to live below the poverty level.
One sociologist recently estimated that one of every three young families in America today is only one paycheck away from bankruptcy.
It's tough!
As one wag said, "I used to live in the lap of luxury – then luxury stood up."
So, what do you do when the economy sours and hard times come to your house?
What do you do when your needs are great and your resources are meager?
Those needs may not be only financial, of course.
Some of the same principles that apply to our financial woes also apply to such things as marital heartaches and concerns about our family,
our health,
or our job.
What are these timeless principles?
For one thing, don't give up.
That's what the widow was ready to do, right?
Before Elijah got hold of her she was going to go home and make preparations for both herself and her son to die.
That is about as desperate as a person can become.
Some of you may have been nearly that desperate at some point in your life.
Life can look so bleak at times.
What do you do when you're that low?
One thing you don't do is give up.
The second thing we do is trust God.
As much as we talk about faith, trusting God is hard for us to do, isn’t it?
The great philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described a familiar boyhood experience.
He was being taught to swim by his father. Splashing wildly with both arms and kicking with one leg, he called to his father, "Look at me, look at me. I'm swimming!"
But, says Kierkegaard, all the time he was standing on the bottom of the swimming pool on his big toe.
Many of us are like that in our faith, aren't we?
"I have faith!" we declare, but it is an untested faith.
It is a tentative faith, wouldn’t you say?
One toe remains on the bottom!
It is an enormous step for some of us to abandon our fears and trust God.
Such faith may get harder for us the older we get.
Somewhere along the way we lose that child-like ability to trust – to rest our concerns on God.
The widow had quit trusting God.
Elijah came to her and gave her hope.
He told her to trust God.
I John is right. It is about faith.
Survival in hard times depends upon faith.
How irenic that we put on our money, In God We Trust.
And yet, we don’t really.
So often, in so many ways, we put our trust in the coin of the realm, don’t we?
And, when the economy sours, we are devastated.
Most of Jesus’ teaching challenges conventional wisdom, the sort of common sense everyone accepts, whose lessons we have learned so well –
which means that to be his follower requires a great deal of un-teaching and un-learning and re-programming.
Life as a companion and understudy of Jesus is most often upside-down, inside-out, and bottom-side-up from the way the world operates under current management.
Our first impulse is to domesticate the teaching and take away the edge.
Think how crazy it sounds to be invited to make deposits in an invisible bank:
“Do not make a habit of laying up for yourself treasures on earth, where moths eat holes in the fabrics and where mold rots the grain, and where thieves break in and steal your jewelry;
[no] lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where none of that happens because everything stays new and forever uncorrupted.
Make a more secure investment!
Adopt a kingdom of God investment policy!”
In the company of Jesus we learn the joy of kingdom generosity and the truth of his teaching.
Not that we don’t work or own or manage wisely, only that we don’t trust in stuff for security,
and everything we own is available should it be requisitioned.
We hold possessions loosely and refuse to let their presence or absence define who we are.
God is our source, and what God does not supply, we do not need.
After all, there are limits to what money can actually do.
You know this:
Money can buy you a house, but not a home.
It can buy you a bed, but not sleep.
It can buy you a clock, but not time.
It can buy you a book, but not knowledge.
It can buy you a position, but not respect.
It can buy you sex, but not love.
It can buy you medicine, but not health.
It can buy you blood, but not life.”
The secret to surviving hard times when the economy sours is faith.
In Vienna, Austria, people swim down the Danube River.
Now there are infamous whirlpools in the Danube River that can pull the strongest swimmer under. Wise swimmers learn that when caught in a whirlpool the secret is to just be still.
If they remain completely still the mighty force of the whirlpool will push you back to the surface and to safety.
Swimming the Danube offers a lesson for those of us who have been caught in our own private whirlpools – whatever that whirlpool may mean for you.
That’s what we’re about here at Christ Church.
We come here to exercise and to strengthen our faith.
May you find hope in what goes on here.
And, maybe tell somebody what is going on here –
and invite them to come next week for the next installment in messages for surviving hard times.
Amen.
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