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.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
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.
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