Advent 1 - B 2011

Heavens Breaking Forth

Introduction

Christmas has broken out all around us. Santa is back in the malls, the carols are blaring and the preparation has begun in earnest.

What are you doing to prepare? Have your shopping all finished? Planned all the meals? Baked all the goodies? House all decorated?

Advent is the name we give to this season in the church. It is also the beginning of our yearly cycle of living along with Jesus. In four weeks we will remember the birthday and all of the Bethlehem part of the story. Then we will grow up with him, head towards Jerusalem and try to follow along like the disciples.

But we are still four weeks away from Jesus. We are still preparing for Christmas.

And I get that, I really do, I understand that it takes a lot of work to get ready for a celebration like this – but on another side of it all – what is it we are preparing for?

Jesus is born in Bethlehem. So what?

Children’s Story

Deck the Halls – Adapted from sermons4kids.com

In his book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go," Dr. Seuss talks about a place called "the waiting place." He describes it as a useless place where people are just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

I don't particularly like waiting, do you? I don't like it, but I don't know of any way to avoid it. We all have to spend some time in this "waiting place" that Dr. Seuss talks about, but I don't think it has to be a useless place. While we are waiting, life goes on, and we must make good use of our time. What can we do? Well, we could read a good book or call a friend on the cell phone. We could make a list of things we need to do today or, we could even study for our weekly spelling test. Well, maybe that's going a bit too far, but there are many things we can do besides just waiting.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means "to come." Do you know what's coming? Of course, Christmas is coming. This is an exciting time, but it may also be a difficult time of waiting -- especially for children. Waiting for the day when you can open the gifts that you see under the tree. What can we do to make this time of waiting for Christmas more than just a useless time in the waiting place? Well, we can think about the true meaning of Christmas. We can think about Jesus and his love. We can think about giving instead of receiving. We can enjoy all of beautiful music and the decorations of the season. When we do those things, we will find joy in the waiting place.

We are waiting for Christmas, but we are also waiting for something else. We are waiting for Jesus' return. He told us that he would come again and he told us to watch and be ready for him. What should we do while we are waiting? We should worship and praise him, love and serve him, and share his love with others. When we are doing those things, we will be ready for his return, and we will find joy in the waiting place.

Strengthened till the End

The Psalms and Paul’s writings are always filled with affirmations that God is here, that God is good, that God is coming… These people were seriously sure that they were waiting, and that they would probably not have to wait that long, until something happened – God rescued them, or Jesus came back, or their enemies were defeated or they were justified in front of the naysayers…

Paul sure has a high opinion of the faithful… I only wish I was thinking about the things that he is on about – instead, I am thinking about what to buy everything for Christmas. I am thinking about how great the ads are on TV and what they make me wish I was getting for Christmas.

It makes me go back to my original question – what is it all about? What does Christmas mean?

The Little Apocalypses

Charles Dickens arguably brought Christmas back to life in the Western World. He was the biggest proponent of the season and its effect on people. We all know Scrooge and the Ghosts of Past Present and Future – but there are poems and other stories of the season that Dicken’s wrote as well.

In them, he was almost speaking of the future – of the way that Christmas can change someone… he was almost talking about the Kingdom of God, coming on earth…

At the same time, he was a realist – he knew a thing or two about human nature… and dear old Mr Scrooge would never have changed without a little bit of the old fear of God.

I like to think of passages like we have before us today as the “Stick” to Jesus “Carrot.”  He knew enough to try different teaching methods, and he knew enough to be able to say that sometimes we have to hit rock bottom if we are going to be able to change… so here it is – the bad news… the world can end in a second.

In fact, for many of us, it does. A stroke, a car accident, getting fired… And you have to be ready, you have to be prepared, you have to keep awake…

But if we are awake to it, Christmas, the spirit of it… will be all around.

Conflicts? What Conflicts?

I don’t get that there is something bad about the secular Christmas. I think if anything, we should be celebrating it. I mean, ok, don’t go borrowing money for gifts… but the idea of celebrating, of sharing presents, of feasting, of visiting, of decorating…

There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, each of those things, in their own way, are a reflection of God’s love.

And perhaps that is what we are preparing for… the inbreaking of God’s love into our otherwise grey worlds. 

Pentecost 22 -A 2011

A Brand New Day

Introduction

As Children of the day we are called to walk in the light, trusting God and supporting one another. There are moments when we feel like our lives are being destroyed, as if a thief came in the middle of the night and stole it away from us.

You have all been there – an unexpected death, a layoff from a job that you were not expecting, a sudden diagnosis of illness…

There are moments of despair, difficult devastating issues and circumstances arise that knock the wind out of us.

We all of a sudden realize we are living a dead end job, or we remember some half-forgotten moment of trauma from our childhood…

And the thing is, we can choose to respond in one of two ways, as children of the day or children of the night…

These are Paul’s words not mine, but in the end, it is about recognizing the light and hope and possibility, trusting that we will get strength from the divine.

Today we are going to hear some passages from the Bible that on the surface seem pretty harsh – but as we explore them deeper, you can see that the good news for us is about recognizing how God is already active in our lives.

Flashlight People (with kids)

Ever used a flashlight? Why? What do they help us to do?

-         Have you ever been lost? Ever been afraid in the dark?

-          Didn’t know what to do

-         A long, long time ago there was group of people who felt lost… and they were afraid and there was this big bully being mean to them... They went and talked to this wise woman, named Deborah.

-          She was a leader of all the people around – and she helped them to find their way.

-          She sent someone, like her Big Brother, who was he and strong, to talk some sense into the bully…

-          Sometimes in our lives there are people like Deborah – people who help us to see the right thing to do, or where we need to go… I like to call them Flashlight People… cause they are just like a flashlight, a light in the dark…

The Light of Day

Do you remember the story of the Chilean miners? I remember thinking when I heard how long it was going to take to dig down to them, that they would certainly be dead by the time they got there… how long was it… like 2 months trapped underground, trapped in the dark… If they had not died they would surely have gone insane… right? Imagine spending that time alone with just a few people, not able to move very far, never knowing just what was going to happen next… wondering if the rest of the mine was going to collapse and kill you.

But they made a choice. They chose to live. One of them jogged the narrow, darkened mine passages, one prayed, others thought of family to give them strength…. They could easily have chosen the other way, despair, darkness, death.

It may sound harsh, but Paul says to this bunch of Christians, in a brand new church, facing oppression from both sides, that they have that simple choice to make…

You don’t know what will happen next, none of us ever do, death waits like a thief in the night, there are going to be a lot of hurdles to overcome, but we should live in hope… we should always act in a way that brings strength not only to us, but to those around us.

Ever tried to actively make people happy around you? Smile at people you walk by, tell a joke really loud on a bus full of unhappy looking people? Compliment a person who is on their feet for their eighth hour behind the cash register… what happens? Everything changes… Not only for them, but for you…

Living in the light is not denying that life is hard, it is a choice. It is waking up and saying, a lot can happen in a day…

 Ostriches and other Cowards

I saw a movie last night, “In Time” it was a really interesting movie, sort of science fiction like, about a time in the future when everybody is given 25 years to live – and there is a clock on your arm, like a watch, ticking down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the end.

Life, in this world, becomes currency. You can trade minutes for a cup of coffee, hours for a night in a hotel, years for a brand new car.

What the movie pointed out is the huge divide between the rich and the poor. For us, not being able to pay our bills means a lot of stress and a lot of hardship – but for the people in this story, debt means death.

The rich in this world had hundreds, perhaps thousands of years on their arms. No one aged after 25 anyway, so you could technically live forever – unless you fell down a flight of stairs, or ate some bad chicken, or drowned… or died of any of what we might call “accidental” causes.

So no one drove, no one swam; no one took any risks of any type, for fear of losing their immortality.

In other words, fear kept them from living life.

Jesus parable is terribly harsh. It is not fair by any stretch of the imagination. We feel sorry for the slave who does what he thinks is the safe thing, and buries his money.

But what if Jesus is really talking about being afraid? What if he is saying that if we choose to live without taking those risks, stepping out, or living the day fully as God intends, we risk losing everything; what if we are therefore choosing to live in the darkness.

Fear closes the door tightly on God’s love, you can’t feel it, you can’t let it in, you can’t see what is possible; all hope disappears.

And fear is something we all deal with. It can be subtle, like the fear of saying the wrong thing that stops us from talking to people. Or it can be extreme, like the fear of disappointing parents that causes us to choose to be a doctor even though we hate everything about it.

It comes in all shapes and sizes, like the fear that no one loves us that causes us to be a bully or the fear of being different that causes us to dress like everyone else.

Over and over Jesus said he came that we might have life, abundant life, hope filled life… do you think you can have that if you are crippled by fear?

It is a daily choice. Perhaps it is a daily struggle, but we are given the talents, the moments of our lives, and asked what are we going to do with them – so are you going to bury them and play it safe, or risk it abundantly and live in hope?

Conclusion

When was the last time you stopped to watch the sun rise?

I actually managed to do that the morning of the Pancake breakfast. It is a lot easier in the winter… but to see the pinks, then orange, blossom across the sky into light, into the pale blue dawn is kind of magical….

Sunrises are one of those experiences of nature that can move people to tears, we stand in awe as if God is standing in front of our very eyes.

But, it is not a very special event, it is not a once in a lifetime thing, we could watch it every single day of our lives…

So why do we find it so captivating and emotional? Perhaps it is because it is the beginning of a brand new day… a day filled with possibilities and hope, with new beginnings and new light.

Pentecost A 20 2011

Occupy Life

Introduction

All over the world there are “Occupy” movements starting up – they began in New York City with the Occupy Wall Street crowd – but pretty much everywhere there are people who are protesting, including downtown Moncton.

The interesting thing is that there are a lot of different things being protested, from the environment to the economy and everything in between. There are no real leaders; it is a grass root movement that is spontaneously erupting all over.

The one thing, however, that ties it all together is the idea that there is something wrong with the way the world is today – that 99% of the people in the world are in trouble, and that the 1% better start changing things or get out of the way.

It gives me hope. And on top of that, it sounds to me like a religious revolution – these are exactly the types of things that Jesus and the prophets before him tried to say.

We are not called upon to let the forces of power and market economies overcome us, we are called to occupy our lives and do something about it.

The River is Wide – Kids

-          What do you think the people were afraid of when it came to crossing the river?

-          What are you afraid of that keeps you from doing what you know is the right thing to do?

-          How do we find courage?

God’s Word at Work

When Paul wrote to the churches he was always thankful - today he says that he is thankful for God’s word being at work in the people of Thessalonica…

Of course, when we hear such a small passage of a long letter it is hard to know what exactly is going on, but we have heard a lot of Paul lately. We know some of what he said off by heart – so I think if I ask this question you will think of something:

What did Paul think happened when God’s word was at work in you? Think about it for a second – you don’t have to answer out loud, but what did Jesus, Paul, the Apostles expect of their followers?

You know, it was really always about how you live life. It was about challenging authorities that dehumanize people. It was about overcoming your fears so you would do the right thing, it was about caring for the widows and orphans, the most vulnerable people…

It is about living a life worthy of what we have been given. All of this is a gift and all of it is meant for everyone. So Paul encourages us…

Paul wants us to be humble, blameless, courageous, gracious, all those things that might echo God’s way of being that we have witnessed in Jesus.

In essence Paul is thankful that the people of Thessalonica were living their lives with integrity.

The question for us is, how do we do that?

Do Not Be Like the Pharisees

To be honest, Jesus was obsessed with this idea of living a life of integrity – he called it, living as if the Kingdom of God was already here – or in a prayer you might be familiar with, “thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven…”

For Jesus it was about living as God would live if God was walking around right here with us.

And he knew that sometimes, we get the point quicker if you talk about the negative – today Jesus starts with a “what not to do list…”

Unfortunately, he says, don’t be like the religious leaders… the Pharisees and Scribes, who instead of being good leaders who were trying to make God known in the world, they focused on their own wealth, their own prestige, their own power.

Don’t do things for show – do what is really important..

Ever watch the Keeping Up Appearances show? There is this rather ordinary woman… Hyacinthe Bucket – but whenever anyone addresses her as Mrs. Bucket she says, “no no no my dear, it is pronounced Bouquet…”

In essence this is what the Pharisees are like – they want to make themselves better than they really were…. And let me clear, they weren’t bad evil people; they were just like me and you…

Jesus was challenging the people to make radical changes in the way they were living –

Today is Reformation Sunday as well… a movement that was all about radical change.

We don’t celebrate it much in our church, but it is an important part of our faith heritage…

Disconnect

So there is a disconnect between who we realyl are and how we are living our lives

Because of this disconnect that happens naturally, every now and again we need to have our own reformation (and so does society) we need to occupy our lives and live them more authentically. We need to take control of the thigns that have got us so off kilter and we need to find a space where we can reflect on where we find ourselves and where we are going and see if this matches up to who we really need to be…

It is like nailing our own list of problems to the door and saying, we need to go back to basics.

We miss out on pivotal and wonderful moments of life because we are busy worrying about the wrong things

What if the Israelties were worried about getting their clothes wet? What if they never risked the first step? The Pharisees missed out on experiencing Jesus who was right in front of them because they were too busy upholding an image and trying to live a good life.