'Twas the beginning of Advent and all through the Church
Our hope was all dying – we'd given up on the search.
It wasn't so much that Christ wasn't invited,
But after 2,000 plus years we were no longer excited.
Oh, we knew what was coming – no doubt about that.
And that was the trouble – it was all "old hat."
November brought the first of an unending series of pains
With carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns.
There were gadgets and dolls and all sorts of toys.
Enough to seduce even the most devout girls and boys.
Unfortunately, it seemed, no one was completely exempt
From this seasonal virus that did all of us tempt.
The priests and prophets and certainly the kings
Were all so consumed with the desire for "things!"
It was rare, if at all, that you'd hear of the reason
For the origin of this whole holy-day season.
A baby, it seems, once had been born
In the mid-east somewhere on that first holy-day morn.
But what does that mean for folks like us,
Who've lost ourselves in the hoopla and fuss?
Can we re-learn the art of wondering and waiting,
Of hoping and praying, and anticipating?
Can we let go of all the things and the stuff?
Can we open our hands and our hearts long enough?
Can we open our eyes and open our ears?
Can we find him again after all of these years?
Will this year be different from all the rest?
Will we be able to offer him all of our best?
So many questions, unanswered thus far,
As wise men seeking the home of the star.
Where do we begin -- how do we start
To make for the child a place in our heart?
Perhaps we begin by letting go
Of our limits on hope, and of the stuff that we know.
Let go of the shopping, of the chaos and fuss,
Let go of the searching, let Christmas find us.
We open our hearts, our hands and our eyes,
To see the king coming in our own neighbors' cries.
We look without seeking what we think we've earned,
But rather we're looking for relationships spurned.
With him he brings wholeness and newness of life
For brother and sister, for husband and wife.
The Christ-child comes not by our skill,
But rather he comes by his own Father's will.
We can't make him come with parties and bright trees,
But only by getting down on our knees.
He'll come if we wait amidst our affliction,
Coming in spite of, not by our restriction.
His coming will happen -- of this there's no doubt.
The question is whether we'll be in or out.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
Do you have the courage to peer through the lock?
A basket on your porch, a child in your reach.
A baby to love, to feed and to teach.
He'll grow in wisdom as God's only Son.
How far will we follow this radical one?
He'll lead us to challenge the way that things are.
He'll lead us to follow a single bright star.
But that will come later if we're still around.
The question for now: Is the child to be found?
Can we block out commercials, the hype and the malls?
Can we find solitude in our holy halls?
Can we keep alert, keep hope, stay awake?
Can we receive the child for ours and God's sake?
From on high with the caroling host as he sees us,
He yearns to read on our lips the prayer:
Come Lord Jesus!
As Advent begins all these questions make plea.
The only true answer: We will see, we will see.
By J. Todd Jenkins
First Presbyterian Church
Fayetteville, Tennessee
Note: I have been sharing this poem for some 25 years, and have long touch with J. Todd Jenkins. If anyone knows his whereabouts, please get in touch with me as I want to give him full credit.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Monday, November 28, 2016
First Sunday of Advent: Preparing for Christmas When Times Are Tough
First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40:3-5,9
Luke 1-38
Today is the first Sunday of Advent –
Advent is the season set aside by the church for centuries as time to prepare ourselves for Christmas.
For the church in the Western world, Christmas happens on December 25 – and the Christmas Season continues for 12 days until what we recognize as Epiphany, January 6.
There are Christians that celebrate Christmas day at other times, but we won’t get into that today.
The season of Advent begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas.
So, this year we have 29 days to prepare for Christmas.
Many churches don’t make much out of Advent.
Presbyterians didn’t used to.
But, for the past 40 years, or so, I have placed great emphasis on this time before Christmas.
Because Advent and our celebration of Christmas is so out of synch with the rest of the world around us, we need all the help we can get to help us see the significance to our faith.
Christmas is basic to our faith.
Christmas explains a lot about what our faith is about.
In my opinion, Christmas is the very most significant celebration we have in our church.
It is that important.
But, we won’t messages about this anywhere else this year.
It is very possible to even attend church for 50 or 60 years and never hear messages like this.
But, Christmas succinctly and effectively summarizes our relation to God - and to each other.
Christmas is about Emmanuel! – God being with us.
Christmas is about God – the Creator of the universe and all the worlds that are
and all that dwell therein –
the omnipotent, the almighty, the Great Jehovah, the Great I Am –
Christmas is about God becoming one of us.
Christmas shows just how radical this faith we are a part of is.
God, the Ground of all Being, no longer is relegated to some other-worldly plane.
Our God is here, not there.
We say “Christmas is for children” –
and we do so enjoy the look on children’s faces when they get caught up in the wonder of the season;
But, really, Christmas is much much more.
Christmas is for adults.
As the world around us celebrates Christmas with the parades,
the decorations,
the commercials,
the music,
the sales,
we use this time to prepare for Christmas
amidst believers,
looking anew at the Biblical stories of Christmas to hear what Christmas really means –
to our faith,
and to us.
One contemporary theologian wrote last week:
“We in the Christian churches need to take back the message of the coming birth of Jesus.
The time leading up to Christmas is not primarily about fluffy angels, or even worse, to be confused with guys in red suits or shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
The central message about the impending birth of Jesus should be, as it is in the Bible, about how God-with-us means overturning the extremes of wealth and poverty.
The coming of Jesus is the coming of a strong prophetic message: the Kingdom of god is here and now, ‘in our midst.’”
(Susan Thistlethwaite, professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary)
Today, I want to look at how we can prepare for Christmas when times are tough.
There is no question that times are tough these days for many many people.
We have been through eight years now of the worst depression in what, 80 years?
Folks have seen their savings diminish radically,
their pensions disappear (totally in many cases),
and what we thought was a secure investment in a house became a burden instead of an asset.
Many have experienced the recent loss of a loved one – and the loss seems to be exacerbated at holiday times.
And many come to this particular season in ill health – suffering great pain just trying to do our daily do.
These are tough times for many people.
And it is hard, sometimes, to “get in the Christmas mood” when times are tough.
When we read, or hear, or tell, the Christmas stories, it is so easy to overlook the underlying backdrop in which the stories are told.
Mark, Matthew and Luke are very clear about
when these stories take place.
What to us may seem like a casual throwaway dropping of a name or two here and there,
is to the story-tellers concrete citations that these birth stories take place during tough times –
very tough times.
Yes, Israel had their own “country-state” governed by Herod from the capital city, Jerusalem.
But, Israel was taken over by the Roman Empire and was subject to Roman rule.
Whatever the Caesar in Rome wanted, Caesar got.
Rome ruled in matters of taxation, laws, education, and all sorts of life matters.
These were not good times for folks who practiced a faith that demanded unqualified allegiance from the God who led them out of Egypt and gave them 10 commandments and so many purity laws that they were to follow for the faithful life.
These were not good times to be a woman –
and certainly not a young girl.
Women in general, and young girls in particular were thought of as property and had no rights at all.
Young girls were traded off in marriage at a very young age.
The stories of Christmas are set in tough times, indeed.
It seems to me that the Christmas stories come more real to us when we are going through tough times.
More real, that is, if we take time read the stories, to hear the stories, to tell the stories.
Because, what the early disciples knew to be true –
And what our fathers and mothers in the faith affirmed for thousands of years, now –
that God –
the Creator of the Universe and all the worlds that are
the Author of life itself
the Power that infuses the turbines and the nuclei of the world –
became incarnate –
became one of us –
at a particular time in history,
in a particular place,
to a particular people,
in a particular way –
through a baby being born to a young unwed immigrant couple in an unlikely place at an unlikely time –
a time when things were tough all over.
That ‘God entered our world and became incarnate’ is an essential tenet of the faith we have come to inherit and to know.
It seems to me that it is very good news –
good news that should be shouted from the roof-tops –
that in tough times God came to be part of our lives.
It was in tough times that Emmanuel was affirmed.
In the midst of persecution by Rome and Rome’s puppet, Herod, Emmanuel–God came to be a part of us.
To a frightened, underaged, unwed mother who was about to loose it all (possibly her life itself) –
Emmanuel – God was with her.
To Joseph, trying to do the right thing, and be fair, not understanding at all, Emmanuel – God came to be.
And it is particularly good news for you and me,
especially in the tough times we are living in,
Emmanuel!:
That’s the message of Christmas!
Our God is with us.
Today.
And in the days ahead.
No matter what happens around us.
No matter what personal tragedies we experience.
No matter how tough the times are for us.
Emmanuel!
God is with you.
God is with you,
comforting,
consoling,
healing,
leading,
enabling,
ensuring,
enlivening.
I encourage you to take time this year to prepare for Christmas by reading the stories,
join in the conversations,
tell others what we are doing here.
Emmanuel!
When times are tough, let us find a song to sing.
A song like:
We need a little Christmas
right this very minute . . .
I need a little angel
sitting on my shoulder,
need a little Christmas now.
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.
Emmanuel!
God is with us –
especially when times are tough.
Amen.
The congregation of The Memorial Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, heard this sermon as part of their communal worship service, Sunday, November 27, 2016.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Wishing You An Awe-Full Summer
It’s summertime in Drexel Hill.
Suzanne and I have lived all over this country.
We have lived on the West Coast, in the Deep South, in the South West and the Mid West. And we can tell you that no one treats summer time like the folks here in the Delaware Valley.
It’s like someone long ago decided that summertime was a time to do something different.
Summertime in Philadelphia offers most of us time to work on our awe-fullness.
In the play, A Search for Life in an Intelligent Universe, one of Lily Tomlin’s characters turns to the audience and speaks of a need to have more awe-robic exercises.
I picked up on that right away, because I see that as one of the tasks of the church in our society today.
A popular psychologist writes:
“One of the psychological tragedies of adult American life is the loss of the sense of awe.”
To a young child (three and younger), every experience is new. The toddler is curious and awestruck by almost everything. We can accurately say that when we are children, we viewed the experiences of being alive as "awesome."
All the world's religions recognize the value of viewing life with a "beginners mind."
Buddhist mystics seek to experience every moment of their lives as "new."
Christians call this attitude as viewing all of life as "sacred."
It is called a "sense of wonder."
The kids call it "awesome."
Others call it "joyful living."
When we grow older however, this sense of wonder or sacredness of each moment seems to diminish, doesn’t it?
We begin to think of ourselves as "cool" when we are surprised by nothing.
We take everything for granted – and sometimes go off seeking a new and more stimulating novelty.
If we recaptured our child-like sense of awe at all life experiences, we wouldn’t have to seek stimulation in the huge, the best, the dramatic, the tragic, the ecstatic.
We can remember the sacredness of our being alive and the awesomeness of Life itself.
There is evidence that we can recover our attitude of awe . . . our sense of the sacred.
We can begin by recalling moments that have been truly "awe inspiring" for us:
the birth of our baby, an unexpected healing, an event of nature, a "peak experience."
I do think of our church as an awe-robic experience.
I do think we can work at rediscovering an awe-fullness.
And perhaps the time will come when folks will refer to us as that awe-full church of all those awe-full people with that awe-full preacher.
The psychologist and I have come up with a few awe-robic exercises to help develop and cultivate this awe-fullness in your life.
1. Attend a church like Christ Church on a regular basis. Here we acknowledge the fullness and sacredness of life and work on a thankful and joyful response.
2. Before eating any food, think about how the food got to your table.
How did it get to the store?
How many people were involved in
the making of the food?...farmers, harvesters, manufacturers,
processors, distributors, clerks, deliverers, cooks and servers.
Go further back to the seed, soil and rain.
Consider it all and let your mind say "wow" to all that went into your first mouthful of food.
3. Go outside on some clear night and gaze at the moon and stars. Realize that some of the light from those stars actually left the star--surface millions and millions of years ago. And you are seeing it for the first time now.
4. Observe the beauty of a flower. How did all that color, shape and texture develop from that little seed or bulb? What is the force that resulted in such a beautiful and delicate creation?
5. Consider your body and how it works. It is truly amazing and complex in its anatomy and function.
6. Hold a common object in your hand a tool, dish, pen, and really look at it, thinking about all that went into its design, production, material and original idea in the human mind.
7. Look into the face of another human being and become aware of the marvel that is human life.
Well, you get the idea.
With such an attitude, your experience of every moment of your life can become joyful – truly awesome.
I hope you have an awe-full summer
Clyde Griffith, July 31, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
This Summer Enjoy God's Gifts
God enjoyed the world and all that was in it.
And the message is, we are to enjoy it too.
Enjoyment in what we do is God’s intention.
Well, I think we can say it is official now:
It’s summertime in Drexel Hill.
Traditionally, around here, summer is seen as “break time” – a break from the ordinary activities that fill our days during the ordinary times between September and May.
As with most things, there are historical reasons for our Summer behavior.
As the days of summer crept in on the gathering of men in Philadelphia one year, John Adams wrote home to his wife in Mass:
The heat is unbearable,
the bugs overwhelming,
the humidity overbearing, we are hoping to finish our business soon so we can get out of town before the sickness season begins.
It seems that from the beginning of things around here, folks saw summertime as break time –
normal activity stopped,
normal routines changed,
folks got out of town if they could –
they may not have gone to the shore or the mountains, but they went to Willow Grove, they went to Germantown,
they went to Montgomery County,
the went to Brandywine,
and they went wherever.
The Well-to-do built summer homes in Radnor and Lower Merion.
Summertime called for change.
Even rugs and window treatments were changed.
So, its always been that way, I suppose.
And today, in addition to the heat and humidity,
a myriad of messages bombard us from all sides that make it so easy for us to exile god from our summer.
The whole world around us seems to exile God from all everyday interests anyway.
More and more we tend to consign God to “church” and the Sabbath.
As often as not, we church-folks feed into this cultural phenomenon and perpetuate the nearly universal understanding that God is interested in religion –
and our real lives and our summertime are something other than that.
Most folks seem to treat religious faith as an option – or accessory –
something to take or to leave.
And this makes it easy for us to follow the culture’s summertime dictum of “break time”.
For us, break time trumps church time, doesn’t it?:
The pastor goes on vacation,
we turn on the air-conditioning,
we encourage appropriate casual dress,
and we design the form of our service to be more informal in manner.
Precisely because of all of the messages to the contrary,
it is important for us to be reminded that our sacred writings remind us that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to gather and a time to throw away.
There is a time to work and a time to play.
That passage in Ecclesiastes concludes, “moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.”
All of our life and the world around us are God-given.
We are even told that God smiled at what was created and pronounced it all good.
God enjoyed the world and all that was in it.
And the message is, we are to enjoy it too.
Enjoyment in what we do is God’s intention.
If there’s one thing that is immediately obvious from the Ecclesiastes passage, with its sing-song contrasting statements, it is that healthy life requires a balance.
Today’s gospel reading makes a similar point in a different way.
Jesus says “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ....”
He calls his hearers to step back from the purely obligatory matters of life
and ponder God’s care for birds of the air and flowers of the field as a way to move beyond the worry that marks so much of life.
He advises against being preoccupied with the utilitarian side of life.
But more than anything else, put God's work first and then take pleasure in the day that is at hand.
Several years ago, author John Updike wrote about the game of golf, saying that there is
“a goodness in the experience of golf that may well be ... a place where something breaks into our workaday world and bothers us for evermore with the hints it gives.”
John Updike was suggesting that there is an intrinsic value to play.
Now we would not say that play is by itself sufficient for the meaning of life —
or for doing God’s will —
but in balance with other things, it is very important.
Studies have repeatedly shown that people who have done well and been happy in life usually have worked hard at their jobs,
tended their relationships diligently
and had passion for some leisure activity.
And this is no less true for Christians.
I know a pastor who has written several books.
This pastor is also a long-distance cyclist.
He has written books about Jesus,
and he has written books about bicycling.
In one of the books about bicycling, he tells of someone asking him if he had had any “spiritual” experiences while cycling.
He writes:
Bicycling, especially of the long-distance kind, gives me a natural high that is more than a physical sensation.
I’d go as far as to say it nourishes some inner part of me.
.... for spirituality — in the sense that I recognize that there is that which is greater than I am — is an integral part of my makeup.
And I am grateful to my Creator for the opportunity to pedal the byways of this good earth.
Another pastor I know hits the golf course as many mornings as possible by 5 a.m., before he goes to the church.
In his book, called Golf in the Real Kingdom, Robert Kopp says, “All I know is that something spiritual happens when I’m on the course.
I lose my polemic edge.
I become irenic.
I feel close to God.
Indeed I talk to God when I play, and not just about the last missed putt.”
He doesn’t recommend golfing as a substitute for church attendance,
but he does mean that leisure activities feed his spirit.
We tend to think of our summertime activities as “Leisure” activities.
“Leisure” comes from the Latin word licere from which we also get “license.”
The root meaning of both words is “to be permitted.”
When you are at leisure, you “permit” yourself to do things you can’t do at other times –
when you are laboring, which is compulsory activity.
You see, leisure is not idle time but free activity.
In leisure, we do what we like, but in labor we do what we must.
In labor, we meet the demands of others,
in leisure we scratch the inner itches within ourselves.
For some of us, leisure means loafing, and there is a place for that.
For others of us, leisure means hard work, but at something we want to do, you know?
Something that we enjoy doing.
And leisure has a creativity of its own.
Some of the most valuable work done in the world has been done while a person was at leisure, and often it was never paid for in cash.
Few of us would call doing dishes a leisure activity,
but for some who labor hard at their primary task,
routine chores that busy the hands and part of the mind elsewhere,
relieve the pressure of work,
let the mind run leisurely and allow the subconscious to ruminate,
often with serendipitous results.
Agatha Christie, no slouch when it came to brainstorms, said she got her best ideas for her mysteries while doing the dishes.
There is one other biblical concept that applies to all of this as well, and that is the original idea of the Sabbath.
God created the world in six days, Genesis tells us, but on the seventh day God rested.
Now, for sure, God didn’t rest on the seventh day because God doesn’t get tired.
He likely stopped working just to enjoy what had been made.
Likewise, when observing the Sabbath became one of the Ten Commandments, the idea wasn’t that the people of Israel would just spend every minute of the Sabbath in worship.
In fact, in the Old Testament, worship, which centered around sacrifices, was a daily event.
The temple operated all the time.
But, The Sabbath was first and foremost a time for rest.
In the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land, the people of Israel learned this in as simple a thing as gathering manna each day for food.
God told them to gather it daily except for on the Sabbath.
Whatever was gathered the previous day would be enough to carry them over.
On the Sabbath, they should rest — have some leisure — from their labors.
Part of the idea was that people at leisure can open their minds to God.
For sure, even in summertime much of each day evaporates into work, doesn’t it?
shopping has to be done,
meals fixed,
bills paid,
the house kept tidy,
the yard needs to be cared for,
and we need to preparing for tomorrow’s onslaught. For many of us, leisure never has a chance –
even in the summertime.
And so, for most of us, even in the summertime, finding time for God is even harder than it is during ordinary time.
But, you know, we really can’t relegate God to certain “times.”
Christians really don’t find time for God.
We find God is in all our time.
If we are truly “in Christ,” then Christ’s Spirit fills us at every moment of our day.
In everything we do, we serve God.
Christians don’t take “time off” from being Christians.
We are as much in God’s time on a July day on vacation, as we are in church on Easter Sunday.
From this biblical perspective, it is clear that sometimes we do have to take care of ourselves so that we can then continue to do God’s work with renewed energy and improved vision.
But allowing our engines to idle for a while is different from completely shutting down all our systems.
If we are seeing all time as God’s time, we should be prepared to be surprised by God even when we are at rest.
Because, the main point of our faith is that God does not take break from being concerned for you – even in summertime.
You are invited,
you are encouraged,
you are urged,
to keep alert this summer –
keep open to the presence of God in the world around you – wherever you are,
wherever you go,
whatever you do.
Start the day every single day with the mantra:
This is a day the Lord has made.
Rejoice and be glad you get to experience it.
Every day is a new day.
Every day is a gift of God.
The world around you is a gift of God.
The people around you are gifts of God.
This summer, enjoy God’s gifts.
Let sunshine, and music, and springtime and gladness be in your soul –
this day and every day throughout this summer.
Amen.
The congregation of Christ Presbyerian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, experienced this sermon during a worship service in 2011.
And the message is, we are to enjoy it too.
Enjoyment in what we do is God’s intention.
Well, I think we can say it is official now:
It’s summertime in Drexel Hill.
Traditionally, around here, summer is seen as “break time” – a break from the ordinary activities that fill our days during the ordinary times between September and May.
As with most things, there are historical reasons for our Summer behavior.
As the days of summer crept in on the gathering of men in Philadelphia one year, John Adams wrote home to his wife in Mass:
The heat is unbearable,
the bugs overwhelming,
the humidity overbearing, we are hoping to finish our business soon so we can get out of town before the sickness season begins.
It seems that from the beginning of things around here, folks saw summertime as break time –
normal activity stopped,
normal routines changed,
folks got out of town if they could –
they may not have gone to the shore or the mountains, but they went to Willow Grove, they went to Germantown,
they went to Montgomery County,
the went to Brandywine,
and they went wherever.
The Well-to-do built summer homes in Radnor and Lower Merion.
Summertime called for change.
Even rugs and window treatments were changed.
So, its always been that way, I suppose.
And today, in addition to the heat and humidity,
a myriad of messages bombard us from all sides that make it so easy for us to exile god from our summer.
The whole world around us seems to exile God from all everyday interests anyway.
More and more we tend to consign God to “church” and the Sabbath.
As often as not, we church-folks feed into this cultural phenomenon and perpetuate the nearly universal understanding that God is interested in religion –
and our real lives and our summertime are something other than that.
Most folks seem to treat religious faith as an option – or accessory –
something to take or to leave.
And this makes it easy for us to follow the culture’s summertime dictum of “break time”.
For us, break time trumps church time, doesn’t it?:
The pastor goes on vacation,
we turn on the air-conditioning,
we encourage appropriate casual dress,
and we design the form of our service to be more informal in manner.
Precisely because of all of the messages to the contrary,
it is important for us to be reminded that our sacred writings remind us that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to gather and a time to throw away.
There is a time to work and a time to play.
That passage in Ecclesiastes concludes, “moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.”
All of our life and the world around us are God-given.
We are even told that God smiled at what was created and pronounced it all good.
God enjoyed the world and all that was in it.
And the message is, we are to enjoy it too.
Enjoyment in what we do is God’s intention.
If there’s one thing that is immediately obvious from the Ecclesiastes passage, with its sing-song contrasting statements, it is that healthy life requires a balance.
Today’s gospel reading makes a similar point in a different way.
Jesus says “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ....”
He calls his hearers to step back from the purely obligatory matters of life
and ponder God’s care for birds of the air and flowers of the field as a way to move beyond the worry that marks so much of life.
He advises against being preoccupied with the utilitarian side of life.
But more than anything else, put God's work first and then take pleasure in the day that is at hand.
Several years ago, author John Updike wrote about the game of golf, saying that there is
“a goodness in the experience of golf that may well be ... a place where something breaks into our workaday world and bothers us for evermore with the hints it gives.”
John Updike was suggesting that there is an intrinsic value to play.
Now we would not say that play is by itself sufficient for the meaning of life —
or for doing God’s will —
but in balance with other things, it is very important.
Studies have repeatedly shown that people who have done well and been happy in life usually have worked hard at their jobs,
tended their relationships diligently
and had passion for some leisure activity.
And this is no less true for Christians.
I know a pastor who has written several books.
This pastor is also a long-distance cyclist.
He has written books about Jesus,
and he has written books about bicycling.
In one of the books about bicycling, he tells of someone asking him if he had had any “spiritual” experiences while cycling.
He writes:
Bicycling, especially of the long-distance kind, gives me a natural high that is more than a physical sensation.
I’d go as far as to say it nourishes some inner part of me.
.... for spirituality — in the sense that I recognize that there is that which is greater than I am — is an integral part of my makeup.
And I am grateful to my Creator for the opportunity to pedal the byways of this good earth.
Another pastor I know hits the golf course as many mornings as possible by 5 a.m., before he goes to the church.
In his book, called Golf in the Real Kingdom, Robert Kopp says, “All I know is that something spiritual happens when I’m on the course.
I lose my polemic edge.
I become irenic.
I feel close to God.
Indeed I talk to God when I play, and not just about the last missed putt.”
He doesn’t recommend golfing as a substitute for church attendance,
but he does mean that leisure activities feed his spirit.
We tend to think of our summertime activities as “Leisure” activities.
“Leisure” comes from the Latin word licere from which we also get “license.”
The root meaning of both words is “to be permitted.”
When you are at leisure, you “permit” yourself to do things you can’t do at other times –
when you are laboring, which is compulsory activity.
You see, leisure is not idle time but free activity.
In leisure, we do what we like, but in labor we do what we must.
In labor, we meet the demands of others,
in leisure we scratch the inner itches within ourselves.
For some of us, leisure means loafing, and there is a place for that.
For others of us, leisure means hard work, but at something we want to do, you know?
Something that we enjoy doing.
And leisure has a creativity of its own.
Some of the most valuable work done in the world has been done while a person was at leisure, and often it was never paid for in cash.
Few of us would call doing dishes a leisure activity,
but for some who labor hard at their primary task,
routine chores that busy the hands and part of the mind elsewhere,
relieve the pressure of work,
let the mind run leisurely and allow the subconscious to ruminate,
often with serendipitous results.
Agatha Christie, no slouch when it came to brainstorms, said she got her best ideas for her mysteries while doing the dishes.
There is one other biblical concept that applies to all of this as well, and that is the original idea of the Sabbath.
God created the world in six days, Genesis tells us, but on the seventh day God rested.
Now, for sure, God didn’t rest on the seventh day because God doesn’t get tired.
He likely stopped working just to enjoy what had been made.
Likewise, when observing the Sabbath became one of the Ten Commandments, the idea wasn’t that the people of Israel would just spend every minute of the Sabbath in worship.
In fact, in the Old Testament, worship, which centered around sacrifices, was a daily event.
The temple operated all the time.
But, The Sabbath was first and foremost a time for rest.
In the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land, the people of Israel learned this in as simple a thing as gathering manna each day for food.
God told them to gather it daily except for on the Sabbath.
Whatever was gathered the previous day would be enough to carry them over.
On the Sabbath, they should rest — have some leisure — from their labors.
Part of the idea was that people at leisure can open their minds to God.
For sure, even in summertime much of each day evaporates into work, doesn’t it?
shopping has to be done,
meals fixed,
bills paid,
the house kept tidy,
the yard needs to be cared for,
and we need to preparing for tomorrow’s onslaught. For many of us, leisure never has a chance –
even in the summertime.
And so, for most of us, even in the summertime, finding time for God is even harder than it is during ordinary time.
But, you know, we really can’t relegate God to certain “times.”
Christians really don’t find time for God.
We find God is in all our time.
If we are truly “in Christ,” then Christ’s Spirit fills us at every moment of our day.
In everything we do, we serve God.
Christians don’t take “time off” from being Christians.
We are as much in God’s time on a July day on vacation, as we are in church on Easter Sunday.
From this biblical perspective, it is clear that sometimes we do have to take care of ourselves so that we can then continue to do God’s work with renewed energy and improved vision.
But allowing our engines to idle for a while is different from completely shutting down all our systems.
If we are seeing all time as God’s time, we should be prepared to be surprised by God even when we are at rest.
Because, the main point of our faith is that God does not take break from being concerned for you – even in summertime.
You are invited,
you are encouraged,
you are urged,
to keep alert this summer –
keep open to the presence of God in the world around you – wherever you are,
wherever you go,
whatever you do.
Start the day every single day with the mantra:
This is a day the Lord has made.
Rejoice and be glad you get to experience it.
Every day is a new day.
Every day is a gift of God.
The world around you is a gift of God.
The people around you are gifts of God.
This summer, enjoy God’s gifts.
Let sunshine, and music, and springtime and gladness be in your soul –
this day and every day throughout this summer.
Amen.
The congregation of Christ Presbyerian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, experienced this sermon during a worship service in 2011.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Epiphany Message: Don't let life pass you by.
Our Bible is clear,
our tradition is clear,
our faith is clear,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Christmas,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Emmanuel,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Epiphany,
until we put our faith in action, we don't even know what Easter means.
Christianity has never been a spectator sport.
It requires active involvement on the part of every person who would dare to claim the matchless title of Christian.
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12
Well, today is another special day in the church.
Today we are celebrating Epiphany Sunday.
Some of these words aren't in our everyday vocabulary, but probably should be.
We learned Emanuel means "God-With-Us",
and Epiphany means "God has appeared",
God has broken through,
God has revealed a part of himself – a crack in the cosmic egg has allowed the beyond to be glimpsed – and everything is changed ever after.
Epiphany celebrates the visit of the "wise men" to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
Of course, the Bible says nothing about the timing of their visit, but tradition has long held that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem on the twelfth day after Jesus' birth.
The time in between is what is called the "twelve days of Christmas".
In many cultures around the world, the thirteenth day, Epiphany, when the wise men arrived with gifts to visit the new baby, is celebrated more like we celebrate Christmas.
Christmas, for them, is a time for going to church. And, Epiphany is the time for the gathering of the family and the exchange of gifts.
Now, curiously, what we know about these so-called "wise men" is remarkably little.
The first twelve verses of chapter two of Matthew's gospel, which we just read, are the sum total of the Bible's account of them.
They are mentioned nowhere else.
Matthew tells us only that they were "wise men" or to use an older word, "magi" who came to Bethlehem to pay homage to Jesus.
If you took the little quiz in last month’s newsletter, you know that it isn't stated how many there were. There could have been two, or three, or four, or twenty – it doesn't say.
But, we do know something more about who these guys were.
You know what would have happened if they had been wise women, don’t you?
If it had been Three Wise Women
Instead of Three Wise Men?
They would have asked directions,
Arrived on time,
Helped deliver the baby,
Cleaned the stable,
Made a casserole, and
Brought practical gifts
Actually, the term "wise men" is descriptive of the esteem in which the visitors in our story were widely held.
Magi is the plural of Magus, the root of our word magic – the best translation of the word used is probably "court astrologer".
The group of Magi in question came "from the east".
They might have been Zoroastrians, Medes, Persians, Arabs, or even Jews.
We don't really know.
They were quite knowledgeable about the stars – in fact it is quite remarkable to study some of the ancient charts that were made as they observed the phenomena of the skies.
That the stars and the sun and moon and the planets moved in the skies from night to night, was obvious.
But, they observed patterns to these movements, and could chart where all the different stars and planets, and sun and moon would be in the sky for any particular day of any year – in fact, for any particular minute and any particular second, of any particular day – going back in time to day one, and forward ad infinitum.
They knew their skies.
They served as court advisers,
making forecasts and predictions for their royal patrons based on their study of the stars.
We know that Magi often wandered from court to court, and it was not unusual for them to cover great distances in order to attend the birth of a new king, or a coronation, paying their respects and offering gifts.
It is not surprising, then, that Matthew would mention them as a sort of validation of Jesus' kingship,
or, for that matter, that Herod would regard their arrival as a very serious matter.
Matthew calls these Magi, "wise men."
These men were wise in several ways, and by remembering them every year, we can only hope that we may gain wisdom from their story.
These wise men were wise, first of all, because they eagerly sought knowledge of the natural realm in which humans live.
They sought learning in a variety of ways.
Their search for knowledge,
their search for learning,
their search for wisdom,
was an insatiable desire.
They thought nothing of taking off on journeys of long arduous distances to learn of something new and potentially important that might add to their store of knowledge,
and perhaps, affect their lives.
To them, ignorance was inhuman.
They knew the world to be full of life and knowledge to be learned.
Our Bible affirms that God gives humanity a wonderful world to live in,
to learn about,
to explore,
and to understand
as fully as our God-given minds will allow.
Truly wise men and women seek to know all they possibly can about the world God has placed in human care.
Secondly, the wise men were wise in that they sought religious knowledge.
And, it seems that their quest for religious understanding was as deep and as wide as their search for worldly knowledge.
They came from lands far removed from the territory of Israel,
but once they arrived there, they knew to go to Jerusalem in order to find the proper religious authorities –
those who could help them pinpoint the location of the birth of the new king.
Jerusalem was not the political capital of the region, nor was it the largest city.
Yet the wise men knew without asking, to journey there first.
Obviously, they had studied Hebrew Scriptures prior to their arrival, so that they were well-informed of the religious significance of Jerusalem in Judaism. There were open-minded persons who sought godly truth down many avenues –
even from those religions that were foreign to them.
It would seem that one of the largest problems people of faith have in these first days of the twenty-first century, is ignorance –
ignorance of Christian history,
ignorance of our Bible,
ignorance of what our faith is really all about.
It is the sign of wise men that seeks to know all they possibly can of God's revealed truth to humanity, and make a life-long vigorous pursuit of godly truth.
Thirdly, the wise men proved their wisdom in that took action in response to both the worldly and the religious knowledge they had obtained.
They studied the Scriptures,
they observed the world around them,
they saw the star,
and they did something about it!
They got off their plush Persian pillows,
got on their camels or horses,
and went off to find the Christ child,
Emmanuel, the manifestation of God, Epiphany.
You know, most of us are so conditioned to inaction.
If it were announced that Jesus was coming to earth tonight, and would be arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport,
I bet that most of us would opt to watch the coverage on television from the comfort of our own living rooms chairs.
But, you know, we've lost something.
Our Christian faith demands activity, not passivity. We can read the Bible religiously,
we can offer the most sincere prayers imagined,
we can pledge our love to Jesus during our favorite tele-evangelist's altar call on channel 48,
and we can gripe about how the world is falling apart because of a lack of faith.
But, our Bible is clear,
our tradition is clear,
our faith is clear,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Christmas,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Emmanuel,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Epiphany,
until we put our faith in action, we don't even know what Easter means.
Christianity has never been a spectator sport.
It requires active involvement on the part of every person who would dare to claim the matchless title of Christian.
The apostle James puts it succinctly:
"...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers." Truly wise men and wise women actively respond to the coming to Jesus Christ into the world.
The wise men proved how really wise they were in that they recognized their goal – the end – of all their seeking when they reached it.
Verse 11 of Matthew 2 says, "On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.
Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
When they found the Christ child, these wise men knew that their seeking and searching had come to an end.
Henceforth, here would be the center point for their lives.
To the babe of Bethlehem belonged all their worship,
all their honor,
and all their gifts.
They need look no further.
They had found Emmanuel.
Perhaps you remember the old Russian legend about a woman named Babushka.
Like too many of us Babushka was always busy, too busy.
She was a tidy housekeeper, always occupied with the many chores that needed her attention.
One evening as she is cleaning her house she hears a commotion out on the street.
Looking out her window she sees her neighbors pointing to a star high in the heavens.
Off in the distance she sees a caravan approaching.
Babushka is startled to hear a knock at her door. She opens it to find three richly dressed kings. They ask her if they could lodge there overnight. After all, she has the finest house in the whole village.
That night they tell Babushka that they are following a star.
They invite her to go with them in search of the
newborn king.
Babushka makes excuses.
First she tells them she doesn't have a proper gift.
Besides she has to clean up her house before she does anything.
As the three kings are leaving she promises to join them the next day after her work is complete.
And, the kings leave without her.
The next day Babushka cleans her house and finds a proper gift.
All of a sudden she has the urgent desire to catch up with these men.
But, now they are a full day's journey ahead of her but, she hopes to catch them.
Everywhere she goes, she asks if people have seen the three kings.
Finally she tracks them to the village of Bethlehem.
But she is too late.
The kings have come and gone.
And the baby they were searching for is gone too.
Babushka missed the kings and the King of Kings.
According to legend she continues her search year after year.
In fact many believe that she can still be seen
in villages at Christmas time, looking for the Christ Child.
"Is he here?" she asks the villagers, "Is he here?"
Follow the star.
That's good advice for this first Sunday of a New Year.
Carpe Diem – seize the day.
Get into action.
Don't let life pass you by.
Brothers and sisters, the example is given to each of us.
Arise and shine, we are told.
Like the wise men, seek the babe of Bethlehem. Open your eyes to Emmanuel.
Seek the signs of God breaking into our world.
Be sensitive to the clues we are given.
Search your night skies for real evidence of Epiphany.
It took wise men to see God appearing in that Christ child.
May you, and I, be so wise. Amen.
our tradition is clear,
our faith is clear,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Christmas,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Emmanuel,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Epiphany,
until we put our faith in action, we don't even know what Easter means.
Christianity has never been a spectator sport.
It requires active involvement on the part of every person who would dare to claim the matchless title of Christian.
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12
Well, today is another special day in the church.
Today we are celebrating Epiphany Sunday.
Some of these words aren't in our everyday vocabulary, but probably should be.
We learned Emanuel means "God-With-Us",
and Epiphany means "God has appeared",
God has broken through,
God has revealed a part of himself – a crack in the cosmic egg has allowed the beyond to be glimpsed – and everything is changed ever after.
Epiphany celebrates the visit of the "wise men" to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
Of course, the Bible says nothing about the timing of their visit, but tradition has long held that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem on the twelfth day after Jesus' birth.
The time in between is what is called the "twelve days of Christmas".
In many cultures around the world, the thirteenth day, Epiphany, when the wise men arrived with gifts to visit the new baby, is celebrated more like we celebrate Christmas.
Christmas, for them, is a time for going to church. And, Epiphany is the time for the gathering of the family and the exchange of gifts.
Now, curiously, what we know about these so-called "wise men" is remarkably little.
The first twelve verses of chapter two of Matthew's gospel, which we just read, are the sum total of the Bible's account of them.
They are mentioned nowhere else.
Matthew tells us only that they were "wise men" or to use an older word, "magi" who came to Bethlehem to pay homage to Jesus.
If you took the little quiz in last month’s newsletter, you know that it isn't stated how many there were. There could have been two, or three, or four, or twenty – it doesn't say.
But, we do know something more about who these guys were.
You know what would have happened if they had been wise women, don’t you?
If it had been Three Wise Women
Instead of Three Wise Men?
They would have asked directions,
Arrived on time,
Helped deliver the baby,
Cleaned the stable,
Made a casserole, and
Brought practical gifts
Actually, the term "wise men" is descriptive of the esteem in which the visitors in our story were widely held.
Magi is the plural of Magus, the root of our word magic – the best translation of the word used is probably "court astrologer".
The group of Magi in question came "from the east".
They might have been Zoroastrians, Medes, Persians, Arabs, or even Jews.
We don't really know.
They were quite knowledgeable about the stars – in fact it is quite remarkable to study some of the ancient charts that were made as they observed the phenomena of the skies.
That the stars and the sun and moon and the planets moved in the skies from night to night, was obvious.
But, they observed patterns to these movements, and could chart where all the different stars and planets, and sun and moon would be in the sky for any particular day of any year – in fact, for any particular minute and any particular second, of any particular day – going back in time to day one, and forward ad infinitum.
They knew their skies.
They served as court advisers,
making forecasts and predictions for their royal patrons based on their study of the stars.
We know that Magi often wandered from court to court, and it was not unusual for them to cover great distances in order to attend the birth of a new king, or a coronation, paying their respects and offering gifts.
It is not surprising, then, that Matthew would mention them as a sort of validation of Jesus' kingship,
or, for that matter, that Herod would regard their arrival as a very serious matter.
Matthew calls these Magi, "wise men."
These men were wise in several ways, and by remembering them every year, we can only hope that we may gain wisdom from their story.
These wise men were wise, first of all, because they eagerly sought knowledge of the natural realm in which humans live.
They sought learning in a variety of ways.
Their search for knowledge,
their search for learning,
their search for wisdom,
was an insatiable desire.
They thought nothing of taking off on journeys of long arduous distances to learn of something new and potentially important that might add to their store of knowledge,
and perhaps, affect their lives.
To them, ignorance was inhuman.
They knew the world to be full of life and knowledge to be learned.
Our Bible affirms that God gives humanity a wonderful world to live in,
to learn about,
to explore,
and to understand
as fully as our God-given minds will allow.
Truly wise men and women seek to know all they possibly can about the world God has placed in human care.
Secondly, the wise men were wise in that they sought religious knowledge.
And, it seems that their quest for religious understanding was as deep and as wide as their search for worldly knowledge.
They came from lands far removed from the territory of Israel,
but once they arrived there, they knew to go to Jerusalem in order to find the proper religious authorities –
those who could help them pinpoint the location of the birth of the new king.
Jerusalem was not the political capital of the region, nor was it the largest city.
Yet the wise men knew without asking, to journey there first.
Obviously, they had studied Hebrew Scriptures prior to their arrival, so that they were well-informed of the religious significance of Jerusalem in Judaism. There were open-minded persons who sought godly truth down many avenues –
even from those religions that were foreign to them.
It would seem that one of the largest problems people of faith have in these first days of the twenty-first century, is ignorance –
ignorance of Christian history,
ignorance of our Bible,
ignorance of what our faith is really all about.
It is the sign of wise men that seeks to know all they possibly can of God's revealed truth to humanity, and make a life-long vigorous pursuit of godly truth.
Thirdly, the wise men proved their wisdom in that took action in response to both the worldly and the religious knowledge they had obtained.
They studied the Scriptures,
they observed the world around them,
they saw the star,
and they did something about it!
They got off their plush Persian pillows,
got on their camels or horses,
and went off to find the Christ child,
Emmanuel, the manifestation of God, Epiphany.
You know, most of us are so conditioned to inaction.
If it were announced that Jesus was coming to earth tonight, and would be arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport,
I bet that most of us would opt to watch the coverage on television from the comfort of our own living rooms chairs.
But, you know, we've lost something.
Our Christian faith demands activity, not passivity. We can read the Bible religiously,
we can offer the most sincere prayers imagined,
we can pledge our love to Jesus during our favorite tele-evangelist's altar call on channel 48,
and we can gripe about how the world is falling apart because of a lack of faith.
But, our Bible is clear,
our tradition is clear,
our faith is clear,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Christmas,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Emmanuel,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Epiphany,
until we put our faith in action, we don't even know what Easter means.
Christianity has never been a spectator sport.
It requires active involvement on the part of every person who would dare to claim the matchless title of Christian.
The apostle James puts it succinctly:
"...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers." Truly wise men and wise women actively respond to the coming to Jesus Christ into the world.
The wise men proved how really wise they were in that they recognized their goal – the end – of all their seeking when they reached it.
Verse 11 of Matthew 2 says, "On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.
Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
When they found the Christ child, these wise men knew that their seeking and searching had come to an end.
Henceforth, here would be the center point for their lives.
To the babe of Bethlehem belonged all their worship,
all their honor,
and all their gifts.
They need look no further.
They had found Emmanuel.
Perhaps you remember the old Russian legend about a woman named Babushka.
Like too many of us Babushka was always busy, too busy.
She was a tidy housekeeper, always occupied with the many chores that needed her attention.
One evening as she is cleaning her house she hears a commotion out on the street.
Looking out her window she sees her neighbors pointing to a star high in the heavens.
Off in the distance she sees a caravan approaching.
Babushka is startled to hear a knock at her door. She opens it to find three richly dressed kings. They ask her if they could lodge there overnight. After all, she has the finest house in the whole village.
That night they tell Babushka that they are following a star.
They invite her to go with them in search of the
newborn king.
Babushka makes excuses.
First she tells them she doesn't have a proper gift.
Besides she has to clean up her house before she does anything.
As the three kings are leaving she promises to join them the next day after her work is complete.
And, the kings leave without her.
The next day Babushka cleans her house and finds a proper gift.
All of a sudden she has the urgent desire to catch up with these men.
But, now they are a full day's journey ahead of her but, she hopes to catch them.
Everywhere she goes, she asks if people have seen the three kings.
Finally she tracks them to the village of Bethlehem.
But she is too late.
The kings have come and gone.
And the baby they were searching for is gone too.
Babushka missed the kings and the King of Kings.
According to legend she continues her search year after year.
In fact many believe that she can still be seen
in villages at Christmas time, looking for the Christ Child.
"Is he here?" she asks the villagers, "Is he here?"
Follow the star.
That's good advice for this first Sunday of a New Year.
Carpe Diem – seize the day.
Get into action.
Don't let life pass you by.
Brothers and sisters, the example is given to each of us.
Arise and shine, we are told.
Like the wise men, seek the babe of Bethlehem. Open your eyes to Emmanuel.
Seek the signs of God breaking into our world.
Be sensitive to the clues we are given.
Search your night skies for real evidence of Epiphany.
It took wise men to see God appearing in that Christ child.
May you, and I, be so wise. Amen.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Remember When the New Year Began March 25?
It is good that we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?
As strange as it might seem, the new year did not always begin on January 1!
To be sure, there almost always has been a celebration of the beginning of the new year, but it used to begin March 25.
Yep, going back to the ancient Babylonians, some 4000 years ago, and for long periods of time since then, folks celebrated the new year in conjunction with Spring – marking the end of winter and the beginning of new growth.
In fact, it wasn’t until 1752 that England decreed that January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year there and in the colonies.
But, still, the fact is that most people in the world do not mark the beginning of the new year on January 1.
Jews the world over mark the beginning of the new year in September or October.
Hindus in different parts of India celebrate the new year on various dates.
Muslims use a calendar that has 354 days in most years so their new year falls on different dates as well.
The Chinese New Year begins between January 21 and February 19.
The Thai New Year is celebrated in April 13 to April 15.
The Vietnamese New Year is the Têt Nguyen Dan and is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year.
But, we take time just after the darkest time of the year, just as the days get longer, as things change, as more and more light illumines our lives,
to remember where we’ve been,
to remember what we’ve done,
to remember what has happened,
perhaps to evaluate our experiences,
perhaps to celebrate the moments of epiphany,
perhaps to grieve at what has been lost,
and then to look ahead to the days to come.
It is in the looking ahead that our faith gets expressed.
One study has concluded that on average each American makes 1.8 New Year’s resolutions each year.
Well, I know some don’t make any resolutions, because they don’t need the guilt attached to failed expectations.
But, resolutions can be powerful tools for behavior and attitudinal change.
I have seen it work time and time again.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you write them down.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you display them prominently on the refrigerator door or the bedroom mirror.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you refer to them daily,
if you say them out loud,
if you include them in your prayers.
New Year’s Day may be the most active-minded holiday, because it is the one where people evaluate their lives and plan and resolve to take some kind of action.
It is no accident that the ancient Romans named this month January – after Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings.
Janus is always depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward.
And, that’s what we do, isn’t it?
We look back on the days past.
And we look forward to the days to come.
As we look forward to the days to come, let us remember that the Psalmist reminds us that each of our days are God-given. What we do with them is up to us. How we spend them is up to us. How we get through them is up to us.
Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with unhealthiness. Let’s rid ourselves of them. Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, unpleasantness and, ultimately, an unfulfilled life.
Let us follow the clue left by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Because, that’s what we believe, isn’t it?
That’s what we hear and say each Sunday in church.
He or she is rich who owns the day,
and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
Some blunders and absurdities
no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can;
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Yes! Yes! Yes! With its hopes and invitations, the new day is too dear to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
This is a call to each of us.
This is a call to our church.
Resolve to pray for your church each day in 2016.
Resolve to pray for all who worship there in 2016.
Resolve to pray for those who need to hear the message we proclaim in 2016.
As strange as it might seem, the new year did not always begin on January 1!
To be sure, there almost always has been a celebration of the beginning of the new year, but it used to begin March 25.
Yep, going back to the ancient Babylonians, some 4000 years ago, and for long periods of time since then, folks celebrated the new year in conjunction with Spring – marking the end of winter and the beginning of new growth.
In fact, it wasn’t until 1752 that England decreed that January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year there and in the colonies.
But, still, the fact is that most people in the world do not mark the beginning of the new year on January 1.
Jews the world over mark the beginning of the new year in September or October.
Hindus in different parts of India celebrate the new year on various dates.
Muslims use a calendar that has 354 days in most years so their new year falls on different dates as well.
The Chinese New Year begins between January 21 and February 19.
The Thai New Year is celebrated in April 13 to April 15.
The Vietnamese New Year is the Têt Nguyen Dan and is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year.
But, we take time just after the darkest time of the year, just as the days get longer, as things change, as more and more light illumines our lives,
to remember where we’ve been,
to remember what we’ve done,
to remember what has happened,
perhaps to evaluate our experiences,
perhaps to celebrate the moments of epiphany,
perhaps to grieve at what has been lost,
and then to look ahead to the days to come.
It is in the looking ahead that our faith gets expressed.
One study has concluded that on average each American makes 1.8 New Year’s resolutions each year.
Well, I know some don’t make any resolutions, because they don’t need the guilt attached to failed expectations.
But, resolutions can be powerful tools for behavior and attitudinal change.
I have seen it work time and time again.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you write them down.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you display them prominently on the refrigerator door or the bedroom mirror.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you refer to them daily,
if you say them out loud,
if you include them in your prayers.
New Year’s Day may be the most active-minded holiday, because it is the one where people evaluate their lives and plan and resolve to take some kind of action.
It is no accident that the ancient Romans named this month January – after Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings.
Janus is always depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward.
And, that’s what we do, isn’t it?
We look back on the days past.
And we look forward to the days to come.
As we look forward to the days to come, let us remember that the Psalmist reminds us that each of our days are God-given. What we do with them is up to us. How we spend them is up to us. How we get through them is up to us.
Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with unhealthiness. Let’s rid ourselves of them. Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, unpleasantness and, ultimately, an unfulfilled life.
Let us follow the clue left by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Because, that’s what we believe, isn’t it?
That’s what we hear and say each Sunday in church.
He or she is rich who owns the day,
and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
Some blunders and absurdities
no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can;
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Yes! Yes! Yes! With its hopes and invitations, the new day is too dear to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
This is a call to each of us.
This is a call to our church.
Resolve to pray for your church each day in 2016.
Resolve to pray for all who worship there in 2016.
Resolve to pray for those who need to hear the message we proclaim in 2016.
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