December 1, 2013
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Yes, on top of everything else -- Thanksgiving, Chanukkah, and Advent -- today is the beginning of the Church Year.
We have just survived one of the most recent forms of American commerce and consumerism, that giant hashtag known as "Black Friday." It got its name not because of anything to do with the holiday, but it is traditionally that day of the year in which businesses finally end up back in the black with their profits. But the "blackness" also denotes a bit of gloom and doom as we recall some of the horror stories we hear about people being trampled underfoot in order to get the best deal on a flatscreen at Wal-Mart.
As if that weren't enough, this is followed by Cyber Monday. I just saw a cartoon that said, "May your Black Friday injuries not be so severe as to keep you from clicking your mouse on Cyber Monday."
All in good fun -- but is it? Could it be that we might be missing something?
Please pray with me.
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Ring! Ring! Ring!!
WAKE UP!! it's the alarm clock! How many of you actually get out of bed the first time the alarm goes off?
How many press the snooze button and listen to a little more music, dozing for another 10-20 minutes before getting up?
As I was pondering this sermon, I was actually quite excited at all the possibilities to be found in today's readings. It's almost impossible, especially for me, to focus on just one. "Sleepers, Wake!" seems an obvious enough theme for the first Sunday in Advent. But how do we preach being awake when we're not really dealing with a sleeping society, but a sleep-deprived one?
How many of us actually get the recommended 7 or 8 hours of sleep?
It seems to me that one of the newer phenomena of late is not a drowsy, sleeping people, but an overstimulated. anesthetized one. We may not be awake or paying attention, but instead of being asleep, we tend to hit the cultural snooze button. Just a few more minutes before we really have to face reality. Can't we just buy a little more time to maintain our comfortable, painless, buzz? Even in Jesus' day, as in the days of Noah, before the Flood, people were anesthetizing themselves in routine and entertainment -- eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.
Today, we hear alarming statistics. Apparently 58% of smart phone users don't go ONE HOUR without checking their phones, and I, sadly, am probably among them.
I was looking for further statistics when I happened to stumble on a startling headline from just this past week: "San Francisco Train Passengers Too Distracted by Phones to Notice Shooter's Gun in Plain Sight." I am not making this up! "According to surveillance video, (the gunman) pulled out a .45-caliber pistol, raised it, pointed it across the aisle, put it down and continued to pull it out multiple times , even wiping his nose with the handgun. Absorbed in their phones, not one of the dozens of passengers reacted until he fired a bullet into the back of (one of the passengers)." Shocking. Our phones, helpful as they may be, have become a form of a cultural snooze button.
Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way, "We must accept finite disappointment but never lose sight of infinite hope."
Today we are talking about HOPE. I've shared a couple of Debbie Downer stories with me, but neglected to mention that fantastic article about Pr. Tricia, Feast of Justice, and the marvelous things God does in this place. Thanks be to God, Amen?
Todays' reading from Matthew's Gospel - Not entirely words of hope to me. I admit to having some baggage about this. As many of you know, I was baptized Lutheran but raised in a Pentecostal denomination, which I now call interesting. I will always be grateful for this upbringing because it really helped me "learn my Bible," but it was very much a certain version of the Bible with a whole lotta attitude thrown in. Back in those days verses like those from Matt. 24 scared me. Like a thief in the night. Suddenly Jesus was a thief? He was going to creep up on me in the middle of the night?
As fourth or fifth graders in summer Bible camp, we were fascinated by all the trappings of End Times theology. We read fiction books, similar to those "Left Behind" series that came out about a decade ago (which my very Lutheran Church History professor affectionately calls the "Home Alone" series). They were modern adaptations from The book of Revelation -- the Mark of the Beast, the Rapture with its ensuing chaos that included cars running off roads and airplanes falling out of the sky. There was persecution of Christians, even to the point of high-tech guillotines. Stuff perhaps fourth-graders shouldn't read, but I did. (Harry Potter?) To us at that time, it was exciting in a twisted sort of way.
BUT -- What if Jesus came back and we were at the movie theater? What if He came back and we were out dancing? Would we still be able to hear The Trumpet? What if we missed it?
And so, for several years, particularly in any given stressful moment, I would try to stop and listen for some kind of arpeggiated brass motive in D major. Nope, never happened.
But I did get nightmares. I was afraid. For a long time. I began to ask questions.
some very real questions that all of us ask ourselves at one time or another:
Is Jesus trying to scare us?
When is He coming back?
Am I ready? Are WE ready? How will we know?
Does the world have to end violently in order for Jesus to return?
The real question becomes, Will fear get us closer to God?
And the answer is ….?
Been there, done that. That's called the LAW. In today's lesson from Isaiah we read that the Law comes from Zion ("for out of Zion goeth forth instruction") -- and that's what the Law is. The Israelites needed it as they became a community, leaving Egypt and traveling to the Promised Land. Many times then, as now, the law created fear. Fear of condemnation if the laws were not adhered to.
Verse 3 continues = "For out of Zion goeth forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." I may be reading too much into this --because technically, Zion and Jerusalem can mean pretty much the same thing -- but for some reason the slight difference in these words of Isaiah jumped out at me and made me see it as another form of prophecy -- How cool that Isaiah mentions the WORD (Jesus) and his use of "Jerusalem" makes it more specific, more personal, suggesting what is to come -- the Coming of Christ, the very Word of God come to transform the very way we see and experience God. Seeing the WORD in OT context gives me HOPE.
No matter how we interpret the story of the Second Coming, we can all agree that no one knows that day or the hour -- that it will be a SURPRISE. And Surprises bring HOPE.
Just a little over 2000 years ago, the coming of God's Son in human form was a surprise. We all love surprises, and this is reflected in the way we celebrate Christmas, by giving gifts.
There are few things more exciting than receiving a gift. (Amen?) And a gift implies so many different things for many people. It could be waiting for the birth of a child, it could be knitting, crocheting a scarf or afghan, or making a quilt… As we get older, PROCESS of making a gift for someone else is often as or more fulfilling than receiving it.
Usually, in Advent, we focus on the process leading up to the celebration of the greatest free gift of all. We begin in the gloomy, solemn darkness and gradually move into the light by Week 4. We have to do this all the time when we buy gifts. Once we grow toward adulthood, we realize all too soon that they don't all magically appear. Just as Isaiah in this morning's reading envisions the weapons of war transformed into instruments of peace, we need to be able to envision where we are going, and do what we need to do in order to make them a reality. Isaiah had a few other visions, among them, in Chapter 6, which we will be singing about during Communion,in which he saw the Holy One on the throne surrounded by angels. Or the vision in Chapter 11 about the lion lying down with the lamb.
This morning I'd like for us to challenge each other, close our eyes, take a deep, long, breath, and envision Christmas Morning 2014. What do you see?
What have you accomplished in those four weeks? What would you like to see?
Will we finally see Jesus? Where and how? What does He look like?
Now, open your eyes. (WAKE UP!) Go back. We are at the beginning of the road. What will it take for you to get where you want to go? We now have a vision! With a vision, there is HOPE.
All signs seem to point to HOPE. Yet I am sure there are quite a few of you who are struggling with this. The holidays are not your favorite time of year, for any number of reasons. There may be struggles with finances, family, grief, illness or loneliness. But try not to stay alone in those struggles. You have a community in this House of the Lord, and each and every one of us here is called in the name of Christ to BE THERE for you, just for that purpose. "Bear Ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" - Galatians 6:2.
I just want to put this out there, and although I can only speak for myself, I have heard similar versions of this from many of you as well.
I can be goofy. I am awkward. I am messy. I am late. But I am here, and I want to be used by God. I want to be here for YOU and with you. I am ready to help you bear your burdens, not as your Music Director or Seminarian, but as your sister in Christ. I come to you, and this is what was on my heart this morning before I opened my eyes. I didn't even need an alarm clock -- but I DID need my cell phone so that I could quickly type it out and save it somewhere:
**Our true Hope is in our Lord, Jesus Christ. Not because of anything we have done, but because of His amazing, un-humanly-explainable love for us.
We sin because there is a void within us, created by the sin before us which separates us from God. At one time or another, we end up doing wrong and destructive things (sin) in order to fill the gaping void we feel when that love is not returned.
We are forgiven because the love God has for us is greater than any of our sin. He longs to fill that void within us and is the only One who can.
Our surrender cones when we realize we cannot prove or create our own goodness by our own strength, or by anything we do. The spirit of criticism abounds in this WORLD, making us think we are the wrong ones. But we are declared righteous not IF, but WHEN the Spirit leads us to repentance and we accept that free gift if salvation through Jesus Christ."
Gifts are fun. And gifts are FREE. They don't depend on an "If-Then" contingency, such as "You better watch out, you better not cry, or else…" What are we really teaching our children? One of our seminary professors, wrote a poem about Elf on a Shelf that really made me think:
I do not like that smirking elf,
the one that sits upon a shelf.
He spies on children every day
reporting all they do and say.
Of course, you know it's all a scam,
disguised as Santa's "Naughty Cam,
It's meant to keep the kids in line
eliminating Christmas whine.
And yet I think it's more than cruel
and shows that Santa's just a tool.
This season should be filled with joys
instead of frightened girls and boys.
who come to think that love is earned
and you've been bad, , if you get spurned.
I'd rather have my children see
that love's a gift we give for free
And working together we are able to keep that hope in sight.
HOW DO WE GET THERE? Romans 13 shows us how. Paul even says, "You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers, the night is far gone, the day is here, let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light."
LIGHT. Today is the 5th day of Chanukkah - (unique story)
THE GOOD NEWS
My earlier story at the beginning - Law (fear)
Walking in the light, with a vision = Gospel (hope)
Christ came down to us
Just as the first time Christ came down to earth, He comes to us again -- as a surprise…A Surprise that is every bit as exciting and pleasant as your favorite present on Christmas Day -- only a million times more. Hope. With no fear attached.
God lives among us, in Community. (House of the Lord, Isaiah)
God's Voice is heard in our own voices as we sing and worship Him
God's Spirit is on the face of the little baby being dunked in the waters of Holy Baptism. ("This is My Beloved Son…"
God comes down to us every time we come to the table and celebrate the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion. ("Ye do show the Lord's death until He come…"
God comes to us in the form of the stranger, in people we might often overlook or pass by.
God comes down by grace, every second of every day, reminding us of His life-giving work on the cross, FOR YOU.
Jesus is our wakeup call!! But don't stay on your phone -- don't hit the snooze button, but LIVE in the light and love of the Savior who on the cross has triumphed over fear, sin, and death, giving HOPE -- for you and for me. AMEN.
