LENT 2 C

INTRODUCTION OF THEME

There is a line I love in the book The Colour Purple, Alice Walker has one of her characters say, “I think it makes God mad when you walk by the colour purple in a field somewhere.”

Lent is a time for purple. It is a time for looking around. It is a time to engage God, to look for God, to be open to finding God… Even if you have to look at a flower in a field, or the leaves on a tree, or the pinks and purples of a sun set.

We might even find God in the hymns we sing, or the readings we listen to – peering through the stained glass on a Sunday morning…

But I want to talk about some of the less well known ways we encounter God. We all know about the big ones, Seeing God in a Rainbow ever since the flood, or the voice of God speaking to you, even an angel at the foot of the bed… but if we are always focusing on these traditional ways – we might miss some of the smaller ones; or some of the less familiar ways.

Have you seen the commercials for Buicks lately? They play on the idea of “This isn’t your father’s Buick” but essentially it shows different people saying, I’ll be driving the Buick or some such line, and then not being able to find them because they are driving a cool looking car…. And we all know Buicks are not cool.

So this is the same sort of thing – we all have an understanding of God. We all look for God in certain ways – whether it is the answer to a prayer, a message from a sermon, or a feeling from a sunset. But what if God is out there, right there, like the colour purple… and we are walking by.

ENGAGING THE THEME

Jesus talks about God in a way we do not expect. In the story I read earlier he talks about wanting to be like a mother hen who gathers her chicks under her wing to keep them safe. God is both a mother and a chicken. Not what we are expecting.

Also the sentiment is not quite what we usually hear – God is not the warrior, God is not the teacher, God is not the creator… God is a loving parent who wishes to protect us from harm. Knowing that this is one of the ways Jesus understood God does it change your perception at all?

Or how about our story from Abraham, Where God appears in a vision as the one who will fulfill the promise of children. Do we think of God that way very often… I need kids, so God will provide? What about at a more basic level – God is the one who fulfills promises… who is faithful in all things…God is the “quality” of faithfulness… God is the “quality” of caring.

I am not the first person to say this – it comes from the Jewish practice of Kabbalah, an ancient mysticism… who first asked the question, what if God is not a noun… what if God is a verb?

Jesus said it first, God is love. But what if this is really, really true at a deeper level than we thought. What if God is not a person on a cloud, but is the actual act of loving? What if God is not an angel in the sky but is the actual verb, the action, of taking care of people? What if God is faithfulness?

So what if the reason we miss seeing God is that we miss experiencing God. When a stranger smiles at us, or a store owner says to forget about the fact you are a dime short for your coffee. What if waking up with a day that has no plans, or lying on the beach in the sunshine is experiencing God?

Does that change anything? This is our Lenten question for today… How do WE experience God, and when we do, are we letting it seep into our souls and empower us to be the people who help others to see God too?

CONCLUSION OF THEME

A few years ago my car broke down on the side of the road. I was stranded right on the edge of the city of Moncton. I managed to coast down onto the exit ramp for the major road into town… As I sat there, a lot of cars drove by. And I was thinking to myself how people in Moncton spend too much money on cars – there were BMW’s and Mercedes, Cadillacs and Audis. I kid you not, it seemed like everyone was driving a luxury car. And there I sat in an old Toyota with the four ways on while they drove right on by.

I started to have another thought about these people. One I cannot share. And I sat and sat and sat…

Finally a car pulled up behind me, a beat up old Honda civic – you know the type, a wannabe street racer. And out of it hopped two guys who looked like drug dealers. I was a little worried – but they came up and asked if I needed help, they got me to open the hood and found the problem, and fixed it… I offered them money but they would not take it…

It sure was a good lesson in humility and in judging people. And in where we might find God in our world.

And I guess this is what I am saying – during these 40 days while we are preparing ourselves, while we are looking at how we live, and how we interact with God. Let’s not just look in the places we have already searched, but let’s be open to the mysterious, the unexplained, the unexpected… after all, isn’t that where God usually shows up?

Advent 3-B 2011

A Cup of Joy

Introduction

There is nothing like seeing the world through the eyes of a child. I remember the first Christmas with each of my kids. I remember the magic they felt seeing the decorations, the excitement of Christmas morning, the joy of tearing open presents.

Luckily I still feel most of that myself. I try to enter into it with the excitement and wonder that I first felt.

Today is the Sunday of Joy, the Third week of our preparations for Christmas. The thing is, Joy is something I think we cannot limit to one day a year. I also think it is one of the things we have the most control over.

Joy is an approach to life. Joy is the ability to look at an event with wonder. It is seeing the decorations on the tree for the first time every year. It is driving around looking at the lights just like you are a kid again. And… it is taking that first sip of coffee and enjoying it like it was meant to be enjoyed.

I truly think approaching life with joy and wonder is a religious practice. And I want this Sunday to be a reminder for you to see beyond the stress, beyond the hustle and bustle, and enter the magic.

Isaiah and Words worth Preaching

When Jesus was first asked, as a wandering preacher, to give a sermon in church, he stood up and read from this passage in Isaiah. It was, for him, the Good News.

I just want you to think about that – what brings you joy? What is good news for you? How does it relate to the idea that the more people we can make happy, the happier we are?

To console the broken-hearted, to help those who are captive to break free, to be with those who mourn… these are the things Isaiah suggests would be Good News…

So take my attitude problem theory and put it here:  There are usually external factors that make us think we cannot be joyful – we lose the ones we love, we get sick, we cannot afford the lifestyle we think we need, 

those type of things make us see the world in a way that is clouded over…

What if our religious duty was to look deeper, to be able to see that those things are real, and true, but do not have the last word? What if we are to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour – in spite of

Life sucks, you know what, laugh and have fun anyway…

With the Kids

(adapted from sermons4kids)

John the Baptist said repent - turn around and reflect God

- Flashlight and a Mirror 

Magnifying the Lord

I remember the first time I heard Emily’s heartbeat. I mean, it was pretty obvious that Mary was pregnant, but for some reason, that little ultrasonic scanner picking up the thump thump thump brought tears to my eyes.

I imagine that for the woman carrying the child, that feeling is multiplied a hundredfold.

Now – not having any sort of medical equipment – I want you to understand that this is that moment for Mary… the child has lept in her womb… she knows it is real… I think this might be the first time she feels little Yeshua kick…

So she prays, or sings, and her soul magnifies the Lord…. God saw me, God blessed me, and she is filled with Joy!

Now, certainly this is a moment of joy that will change Mary’s life forever, but she can see something even further… she can see that if God notices her, little old Mary in her backwater village, well, maybe God really does care…

Maybe God does restore fortunes, and bless people, and care about them…

It is little wonder that down through the centuries this song has meant so much – who among us has not been in this place, alone, desperate, hoping that God notices and does something about it…

Up all Night

Do you remember waiting for Santa as a child? Ever lie in bed straining for the sound of sleigh bells, or the patter of tiny hooves on the roof. Ever try to stay up all night? How excited where you?

I remember going through the Wish Book from Sears as soon as it came, circling all the things I wanted a hundred times – or cutting them out, and sending them to Santa.

And then we grow up and realize that there might be something self-centred, something a little selfish about hoping for presents, and having it all focus on us… is that really what the season is all about.

But instead of moving from the exciting joy of childhood to a joyful anticipation of the season, many of us seem to lose the magic instead… we forget to, as Dickens said, Keep Christmas in our heart.

Alice Walker, who wrote The Colour Purple told a story about a little girl names Meridian. It seems one day Meridian was playing in the back yard and she dug up a bar of dirt encrusted heavy metal. She went to the shed and got some sandpaper – and the more she cleaned, the prettier it became. To her wonder, she had discovered a bar of gold.

Running into the kitchen she put the bar on the counter and tried to get her mother’s attention.

“Move that thing,” was all her mother said, ‘can’t you see I’m busy getting these peas ready for supper?”

“But… it’s gold!” Meridian said, “It will make us rich!”

“I’m busy!”

It was the same with her brothers, it was the same with her father… and not knowing what to do, Meridian decided to put the gold in a shoebox and bury it in the backyard under the Magnolia tree.

Each week she would go out, dig it up, look at it and dream about it, but as time went by, she dug it up less and less, forgetting about it entirely after a while.

I think this is the same story of John the Baptist – here is a guy who has struck it rich, he has found Gold, he knows God has blessed him to bring a message of hope that will change everything – the saviour is coming!

And here he is running around filled with excitement, trying to teach us how to anticipate with joy – someone is coming… who is so great… I cannot even describe it... And we know that his enthusiasm is contagious, everyone is coming out to hear him, everyone is repenting and getting baptized and preparing….

But Jesus doesn’t show up that afternoon. And there are peas to get ready. There are jobs to do. There are taxes to pay and kids to worry about… and time goes by… and the joy fades.

The joy of spending the whole day swinging on a swing set, of catching frogs, of waiting up for Santa, of a new born baby… life gets the better of us and we start to focus on the problems, on the stress, on the pain.

So here is your wake up call. Here are some stories of our faith that remind us – there is something to be joyful about… always!

Da Ro Dor Me

Anyone ever read The Grinch who Stole Christmas….

Here is the conclusion:

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! "It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"